Warm and damp. Spring in Houston. Definitely feels like time for gardening… never did get much warmer or sunnier yesterday, just a grey, blah day. Today should be clearer according to the weather liars, but we know how that goes.
Didn’t actually do much yesterday. Slept in my chair more than I’d like to admit to. Had some issues going on that took up a lot of mental energy, and didn’t leave much for work or play. Everything resolved itself, but the day was a write off.
Today I’m going to start pulling together my stuff for the hamfest swapmeet. I’ve got stuff at home, in storage, in the attic, out back, in the driveway and garage, at my secondary location- basically everywhere I’ve ever stashed anything. I hope to just pile all of it, take it to the swapmeet, and hopefully turn a bunch of it back into cash. Even with stacking and multiple vehicles and residences, I don’t need all the stuff I’ve got. Plus I’ve got a bunch of parts, salvage, and industrial stuff that I hope to sell. There should be a lot of pent up demand, if people have cash.
Of course if people don’t have any money, it won’t matter how motivated a seller I am, and I’ll end up dragging a lot of stuff back and forth for no gain. I have no idea how it will go, but I am hopeful there is still money out there looking for bargains.
Take a look at your stacks. See if what is there still meets your needs and goals. Adjust accordingly. Stack more of the good stuff…
nick
Make up a sign saying “BARTER / Want something but you’re short on cash? Tell me what you have. I’m motivated to swap!” There may be other
hoardersstackers who are overstocked on -shrug- small engine repair tools and parts or something else that you’ve been wanting.Quite a lot of very good fiction, in all genres, has been published in the past ten years. The trick is to avoid the big publishers. Small press, self-pub on Smashwords or Amazon, and the web are where it’s at. But of course, that’s a lot more work than going through a complementary book dump that the big publishers sent to your employer, so third-rate list writers aren’t going to bother.
On an individual basis, Sturgeon’s Law applies, as it does everywhere. (Ref the analysis by my daughter which I published a year ago and mentioned here. I can pull up links if desired.) Rely on recommendations if you’re disinclined to wade through the dross yourself.
A recommendation of a web-published fantasy “novel”, almost a million words: Pact.
Author recommendation: PS Power. He’s not the most polished author in the world, especially in his earlier work, but he’s wildly imaginative and very prolific.
@Nick
Exactically.
Good time to take a hard look at the medium ticket items and put them out there while some people have the money.
Nick mentioned a GW score with $300 antiquarian book. Exactly the market that will dry up if the economy does.
@SteveF
If you can pull up the links it would probably save me time. Or give me a keyword or phrase to search.
The Gecko released his annual Shareholder Letter today. As always, reading between the lines of the Simple Homespun Wisdom Formerly Ghostwritten by Carol Loomis of Fortune is important.
https://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2022ltr.pdf
Kinda thin this year. Carol Loomis retired a while ago. However, Warren does squeeze in a few jabs at critics of his share buybacks and philanthropic efforts of the shareholders.
Cough … Billg … cough.
If you want to know where the company is at with the Flying-J/Pilot scheme, that is buried in the drier language of the full report.
My daughter’s review of one fanfiction site: Sturgeon was an optimist
I thought that I had also posted it at Daily Pundit but couldn’t find it. That was back when Mike, Cold Fury’s owner and operator, was in the hospital, so I guess that I pushed up a post to give the site some content and forgot to put it on DP. Come to think of it, I was also changing jobs then and taking care of two teens on break and had a son and his wife visiting, so my attention was definitely scattered.
A “bombshell” indeed if true:
BOMBSHELL: Expert Witness Reveals Installed AZ Governor Katie Hobbs Laundered Cartel Money Through Fake Deeds and Mortgages to Rig Elections . . . Including Her Own
Gotta wait for the “where’s the beef” to backup the accusatio.
Speaking of “where’s the beef”, the sandwich I had at Buc-ees last month was the XXL brisket. But, it was in the $7-8 range at the time. $13 is way too much. It was deliciou.
The last time we went to a serious BBQ place about a year ago, brisket was over $20/lb, and Rudy’s is currently $24/lb for chain quality similar to Buc-ee’s, possibly a little better.
Mysterious are the ways of The Beaver, however. That is a very sophisticated operation.
Nothing says “I’m supporting my spouse” like driving to Canada while he’s in the loony bin:
Gisele Fetterman shares pics/video from Canadian zipline vacay with just the kids
I bet she is tapping into that Senator pay Uncle Festerman gets.
Festerman is from a wealthy family. His Senate pay and personal net worth is irrelevant compared to the Daddy Cash which he’s sponged from his entire life.
It is quite the storm here in California.
I received notice this morning that my shipment of kerosene from Walmart has been delayed.
Looking at Google Maps I can see that the I5, the I14, the CA58 and the 395 are all closed. The only way to get here is from the east, via the I15 and Victorville area.
No big deal, I just use the kero to keep the shop and garage warmish, re-ordering when the stash drops below 10 gallons.
We had snow in Sonoma County / Northern California periodically in the 1970’s. Infrequent enough to be exciting, frequent enough to lose some charm. Nothing like this though. The Press Democrat has dozens of photos of the vineyards in snow, worth a few minutes of gazing in wonder.
Glorious week with my sister and niece, fantastic having them here with New Zealand aunt. Many stories I’d never heard. Aunt heads home a week from today. The month went by too too fast and I’m very sad. It’s unlikely we will see each other again given the distance, expense, her age, and Covid travel stuff in NZ. I don’t believe I’d be permitted entry.
So we are treasuring up the memories in our hearts.
And rabbit report – three does kindled. 11, 7, 5. 5 to my most experienced doe, who squished four in the first 36 hours beneath her ample hiney. My fault – a nest box / warming pad proved too tempting to her. She sought the comfort of the warm nest box, with its plush, though oddly lumpy / squirmy / squeaky mattress. I pulled the doe from the cage, rearranged the kits so all does had about the same number, adjusted the nest box. A couple days later and doe is back with her kits and has ceased using them as cushions.
Not great losing four like that. Glad the other does compensated.
——
Rabbits don’t stay in the nest box. They hop in twice a day for 3-5 minutes to nurse and otherwise ignore their kits. In the wild staying with the nest attracts predators to the nest. So they’ll be in the vicinity but not close enough to be an “X marks the spot” to predators.
Oh yes. I remember it snowing – and sticking – in the East Bay in the early 70s. Brrrr.
Yesterday my brother sent me a nice picture of Mt. Diablo covered in snow.
Yes, but I doubt Daddy lets her tap into his cash. She comes across as a gold-digger. Maybe a trust for the kids.
Daddy is a wealthy conservative Republican who made a bunch of money in insurance.
I’m sure protections are in place, but what do you do when you’ve enabled a child to be a sponge for nearly 50 years?
During the dustup with Dr. Oz over who owned how many houses and where the money came from, it was revealed that the sister actually set up the sweetheat deal for the “loft” where Fetterman and his former illegal alien wife lived prior to his becoming Deputy Governor in PA.
NZ doesn’t have vaccination requirements to enter anymore. Someone dropped a dime on the Prime Minister, and she resigned in January.
To be fair, it looks like the Covid rules were lifted in October. However, the fine print indicates that the airlines can set requirements of their own.
@SteveF
Thanks for the link. Good article, well written. Convinced me not to go anywhere near Wattpad.
Had another Win10 freeze this morning. Win10 shares a lot of quality attributes with Wattpad. So does Office, for that matter. MS has been irrelevant for at least 10 years and more like 15. If they didn’t write buggy software and quit supporting it 99% of people spending their own dime would not upgrade.
LOL to infinity:
Biden explains ‘degrees of irresponsibility’ to show why Trump’s classified doc problem is worse
And beyond! Mush mouth sponge brain “the buck doesn’t stop here” plugs The Last. Least transparent President evah.
I’ll relay that to my daughter. Note that she was 14 when she did the research and wrote that little report. Other than pointing her at a format for a simple research report and suggesting a couple wording changes for better precision, I didn’t help her. Well, there was the occasional “Hey, lazybutt, get back to reading the crappy fanfiction. You’ve fallen behind and aren’t going to finish by the end of break if you keep screwing around.” but I think that every parent and almost every supervisor views that as a normal part of the job.
MSNBC historian suggests Georgia grand juror’s media tour was conspiracy to help Trump
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/02/forewoman-in-trump-grand-jury-is-so-strange-some-liberals-think-she-is-a-plant/
Average run-of-the-mill freakshow ProgLibTurd.
Like everyone else, Redmond makes their real money from Linux/Unix and software running on Posix APIs now.
@SteveF
From your comments I was figuring more like 16-17.
Exceptional for a 14-year-old. If she’s never read The King of Elfland’s Daughter I would highly recommend it as a gateway into earlier works of fantasy.
I’m OK with that now. I know that they will be open this summer when we will be going to Kennedy Meadows, Jake’s Saloon in Lone Pine, and picking up a carton at the Indian Wells Brewery on the way back to OC. Have been on all those roads going to those places in the past.
I need to get another chair I could sleep in. The last one I had, elder son wanted for his apartment. Sometimes, especially with a cold or the flu, it’s nice to sleep semi-upright.
Unfortunately, it has become much more difficult to find. In the “good old days” you could expect bookstores to have interesting new stuff. That stopped at least 20 years ago, when they started only carrying old classics and new blockbusters. Purchaser reviews are always 4.5 stars or better, and often fake anyway. Articles on websites are too often paid. The Hugo and Nebula awards have become equity prizes, handed out to authors based on their race and sexuality. So what’s left?
Honestly, the only useful source I’ve found has been Lynn’s 6-star list. Apparently my tastes run in much the same direction as his. Of course, he can’t help the general public, because he cannot actually give 6-stars on Amazon…
I’ll have a look at the links from SteveF, of course.
Sunny day with a light breeze. 85F in the sun. Lawn guys have been here, so the front of t he house looks good.
Even getting several hours of sleep in the chair triggered by too much sugar doesn’t add up to real sleep in the bed apparently. Either that or whatever bug my wife is fighting has triggered a “sleep while you can, monkey boy” response in me… but I feel pretty rested for a change.
Too much to do, and too much distraction……
n
I used to be able to count on the in person recommendations of the staff at Mysterious Galaxy book store in San Diego. They read everything they stock and they stock only three genres…
But they went all woke when all the books went all woke. I don’t even read their monthly email anymore.
n
BookPeople here in Austin went hard left during the pandemic.
The last time I went in, they had a prominent display of the coffee table book of pictures put together by one of The Go-go’s to celebrate the band’s Hall of Fame induction, but Kathy Valentine’s book was AWOL in the store.
Valentine lives locally and owned a prominent club for a while. Plus, the Go-go’s without Valentine are not the Go-go’s.
Some book recommendations:
Some lessons for preppers here. Especially the ‘you can’t eat gold’ variety.
doubtful that he could have escaped with a truck load of vietnamese dong, currently worth 42c per THOUSAND dong, and even more doubtful that he’s have found someone to take it off his hands. 1978 apparently also being the year the dong was replaced with the dong. That sort of thing usually means that all your bills need to come out from the mattress and be accounted for, or you lose whatever value they had.
Gold is not a food, it’s a way to GET food. Gold is a way to preserve and move wealth, especially when someone would rather you didn’t.
n
Google has gotten so cheap, employees now have to share desks
Kinda hard to get information on David Tran beyond his background as a Major in the South Vietnamese Army. The Chinese merchant class who exploited the Vietnamese and arguably contributed to the conditions which led to the Civil War had all kinds of tricks they employed to sneak their wealth out of the country after Saigon fell. I’ll bet Tran was either part of that class or had connections.
My father-in-law’s friends stuffed balloons filled with diamonds into their rectums before boarding the charter which Chase arranged to get their employees out of the mess as the NVA approached the city. One of the sisters worked for Chase, and the family ran a jewelry store in Saigon.
Yeah, the Vietnamese had legitimate gripes. We never should have been there. It is kinda spooky to go out to the LBJ Ranch and see “Strange” McNamera and the Generals, including Curtis LeMay, huddled around a table in one picture.
Every now and then, hanging with my father-in-law’s friends, I would get the vibe from them, “I could have you killed for your insolence, Skippy … oh, wait … never mind.”
I’ve discussed before how one sister married the defendant in one of Orlando’s most notorious child molestation cases. Ends justify means, and the guy had a ton of AT&T stock from decades as an exec pre-divestiture. Eventually, the family cashed out speculating on eminent domain for the toll road closing the loop around Orlando.
The problem with gold in the US is that it may still be subject to confiscation by EO depending on how you parse the law Ford signed rescinding the ban on private ownership, and Eagles from the US Mint are considered a manufactured product for customs purposes in many countries which makes them subject to tariffs.
The upside of Eagles is that the provenance is impeccable and there are probably electro-mechanical characteristics of the coin which are closely held by the Mint similar to what Bell Labs designed for the current quarter in the 60s.
If you are going to stash gold, take it fishing and swear afterwards it fell off the boat. DON’T put it in a safe deposit box and think you will get it out after the EO gets issued and the bank holiday declared.
@brad
@Nick
Bookstores and science fiction conventions didn’t have far to go to be woke. At an sf convention where James Hogan was GOH a [stereotype] feminazi pitched him a putdown question about the objectification of women–after reading a mere twelve pages of one of his books. That was about 1985. Have we hit bottom yet?
I can suggest two ways of finding new authors:
Go to fantasticfiction.com and find the page for an author you like. Scroll to the bottom and find “Author recommends” and “Visitors also looked at these authors”.
We’ve discussed the lack of editing and the perversion of awards, but there is one area where selection is still pretty rigorous: audio books. Audio is a big investment and books don’t get selected to become audio books without some serious vetting and selection. The really good reading talent can be very selective about what they do.
As a footnote, I’ve been a fan of the Terry Pratchet audiobooks for years. having bought many of the early ones on CD. Nigel Planer and Steven Briggs* did an outstanding job. They’ve been re-recorded over the last couple years and in looking at some of the publicity it seems likely that the audio production actors were selected, perhaps primarily, for their wokeness. They may be fine, but buyer beware.
*Free audio interview here:
https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Briggs-Sessions-Exclusive-Interview/dp/B07F46WDBJ?tag=ttgnet-20
I’ll throw in my book recommendation; the Seafort Saga by David Feintuch. There are 7 books written by the author, with one completed but not appearing to be available after his death.
My recommendation is partly because I enjoyed the books and partly because I briefly corresponded with the author about one particularly emotional scene, which I found profoundly moving and which he acknowledged was both difficult and painful to write. I appreciated that he was willing to discuss that with me, more or less a random fan.
Nigel Planer also appeared in “Hogfather” and “The Colour of Magic” TV adaptations.
He is best known for “The Young Ones”, however.
@nick, from yesterday, CMIIW but doesn’t your 21:51 comment not refer to the 21:51 quoted text? Possibly to the 18:07 quoted text?
Nick Flandrey says:
24 February 2023 at 21:51
17 is more than old enough to be tried as an adult, if the offence is serious. Given his alleged threats to kill the woman before he attacked her, attempted murder seems serious enough…
And from a law of self defence- this is a classic disparity of force case. She would be justified in using lethal force to stop him.
n
————————————-
Nick Flandrey says:
24 February 2023 at 18:07
The amount of delusion in this quote is astounding.
‘This is NOT this child’s fault. He is NOT a threat’: Mental health advocate launches defense of 6’6″ thug, 17, who had to be dragged off unconscious female teaching aide who he knocked out for confiscating his Nintendo Switch
He IS IN ACTUAL FACT A THREAT. He made threats and tried to carry them out. The aide with the TBI will be dealing with the fallout for months if not years.
Palm Coast. Thug.
Wikipedia lists Governor DeSantis as being one of the notable people from the city, but DeSantis family moved to Dunedin, FL when he was young.
How about “murderous thug”? That sounds more like the truth.
@alan, troll reply. Snarky straw man comment.
The 17yo thug in question, the “special needs” student, is not a child. Someone made a snarky reply that our definition of child varies with belief in global warmening and gun confiscation or something….
So I quoted from another article on the same day that has 13 and 14yo being tried as adults, the unfortunate victim in their case also being 17 is probably where the confusion comes in. Along with my replying to a comment that I’d already deleted….
the 14yo in the other case is white btw, and looking at the death penalty. Wonder if our “child” in this case will be treated just the same way.
n
“child” not even “teen” or “youth” or “young man” or even “adolescent” FFS.
n
added- and his own words reveal that he CAN understand consequences and cause and effect “If you take my game, I’ll kill you.”
Attempted murder.
n
ESE [Exceptional Student Education]
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/exceptional
https://www.fldoe.org/academics/exceptional-student-edu/
https://www.fldoe.org/academics/exceptional-student-edu/ese-eligibility/
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/3/urlt/hist_letter.pdf
A cursory examination revealed what I suspected: That the use of “exceptional” in this context is inverted, and means precisely the opposite: “not exceptional”, i.e., disabled, the other end of the distribution curve.
This is typical word-whoring by educational bureaucracy.
The purported “Legislative History” in the last link is notable in that the early years use the completely accurate terms that the educational bureaucracy has replaced with word-whored versions, making the accurate versions not only unfashionable but actively portrayed as somehow discriminatory. It is also notable that the first use of “exceptional” occurs in the entry for 1947 as “Exceptional Child Program”. I find it possible but unlikely that such word-whoring was accomplished that early, but Orwell, after all, did have actual examples.
I did not proof-read the document, but it did not surprise me to note in skimming it that there was at least one typo.
There is no more succinct proof that our educational system is run by those who intend to destroy our society than the disparity in expenditures between the not and marginally educable and the truly exceptional students that would most benefit from such expenditures. Putting the former under the same designation and calling it education when someone profoundly retarded is taught to return a ball rolled across the floor, only to have to re-learn the next day, is a measure of societal sabotage.
life imitates…
https://hotair.com/headlines/2023/02/25/sci-fi-mag-cuts-contest-submissions-after-finding-500-written-by-ai-n533161
So, an “exceptional student” is one of the ones we used to call “special”, as in “special ed”. The short bus people.
Huh. I always thought “exceptional” would be oh, like Honors aka College Track. You know, the extra smart kids.
Then again, applying “exceptional” to the retards, well, they are the exception.
It does mess it up for normally bright and kids that have to use crutches or a wheelchair because of a car wreck or a bout of polio to be lumped in with the crack babies.
I believe John Vigor when escaping South Africa to the United States in the 80s (Small Boat to Freedom) turned what wealth he could into Krugerrand’s and stashed them in the bilges of his sailboat.
It has been years since I read the book, but as I recall he didn’t “hide” the gold, so deniably not smuggling, but didn’t declare it either (on either end).
from a sidebar on AoSHQ:
(sorry no timestamp)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6ZvdtQzUg4
“…starts making Star Trek for the actual Star Trek audience again, does that audience owe them a swift return?”
I watched STNG in it’s original run. For a show with a budget near the top of all television, it had some very good writing, but far too much bad writing. Picard, in particular, was too much of a prig.
I haven’t watched “Picard” and have no intention of doing so. (I didn’t watch “After M*A*S*H” either.) The Season 3 still used in the above streaming video is strong reinforcement.
[Kirk was the first Enterprise Captain to say “Engage”–neener, neener, neener]
Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_v._Oklahoma
Hail the evolving consensus, at least when the liberals find it convenient.
The budget on “ST:TNG” was actually lower than the concurrent seasons of “Cheers”, filmed in the studio next door on the Paramount lot.
O’Connor sat in what is now the Old School Marm’s seat and drifted to being a swing vote after her husband’s dementia advanced in the late 90s.
Technically Alito succeeded O’Connor due to the nomination musical chairs after Rhenquist died, but, philosophically, Roberts, the original nominee to succeed O’Connor, was a 1:1 replacement.
Only the Payola seat has really changed philosophically in recent history, but Ginsberg would vote with the conservatives on business matters while Amy Comey-Barrett is not as hardcore on some issues as Barbara Legoa would have been.
And Legoa may yet sit on the Court.
“The Last Days of Atlantis (Perry Rhodan, No. 62)” by K. H. Scheer, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Days-Atlantis-Perry-Rhodan/dp/4141660450?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number sixty-two of a series of one hundred and thirty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book translated by Wendayne Ackerman and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. And then they transition back to two stories in book #109/110. The Ace publisher dropped out at #118, so Forrest and Wendayne Ackerman published books #119 to #136 in pamphlets before stopping in 1978. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted again. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1975 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #106, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 70 of the German pamphlets written in 1963. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on the Perrypedia German website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Die_letzten_Tage_von_Atlantis
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over sixty-nine years since then and the Solar Empire has flourished with tens of millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania. Perry Rhodan has been elected by the people of Earth to be the World Administrator and keep them from being taken over by the robot administrator of Arkon.
Reginald Bull’s cell regeneration did not work since it was started while Wanderer was still in the semi space between the Earth time plain and the Druuf’s time plain. So Perry grabs all the regeneration equipment, It’s humaniform robot, and stuffs everything into his 1,500 meter spherical flagship, the “Drusus”, and went back into the semi space. They finish the cell regeneration, fight off the Druufs, and return to Wanderer. Then Atlan’s internal positronic brain takes over and Atlan tells Perry and the rest of the crew the story of the terrible last days of Atlantis on Earth, 10,000 years ago.
Two observations:
1. Forrest Ackerman should have put two or three of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856?tag=ttgnet-20/
My rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars (1 reviews)
Scott Adams may have finally done his Dilbert comic strip in. “Cleveland Plain Dealer/Advance Drop Dilbert, More = Gannett, Hearst, WaPo, AJC”
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2023/02/24/cleveland-plain-dealer-and-all-of-advance-local-drops-dilbert-over-racist-rant/
“Fallout from Scott Adams’ podcast a couple days ago begins.”
“From Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Chris Quinn:”
In a place where children are raped because men believe that sex with a virgin will cure them of AIDS…
A recommendation of a web-published fantasy “novel”, almost a million words: Pact.
There is also the Worm serial, apparently by the same author. At 1.7 million words, I have yet to finish.
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
“An introverted teenage girl with an unconventional superpower, Taylor goes out in costume to find escape from a deeply unhappy and frustrated civilian life. Her first attempt at taking down a supervillain sees her mistaken for one, thrusting her into the midst of the local ‘cape’ scene’s politics, unwritten rules, and ambiguous morals. As she risks life and limb, Taylor faces the dilemma of having to do the wrong things for the right reasons.”
I shot the troll but I did not shoot the deputy.
Thanks for stamping out the toddler tantrums.
Good to know I have capable deputies.
n
The Hammers of Bob are awesome! The troll thinks it can read years old posts and be righteous.
Had another Win10 freeze this morning. Win10 shares a lot of quality attributes with Wattpad. So does Office, for that matter. MS has been irrelevant for at least 10 years and more like 15. If they didn’t write buggy software and quit supporting it 99% of people spending their own dime would not upgrade.
I reboot my office Win10 Pro x64 PC every Monday. I had to do the same with all prior Windows x64 and x86 versions. The 16 bit versions (Windows 3.x, 95, 98) all required rebooting daily if not hourly. Debugging software is tough on a operating system since the two hardware debugging registers have to be used to get any kind of response.
I let my win8.2 desktop run until the video playback starts to stutter. Dunno why, but every so often, streams will ‘burrrrrrrrrrd’ for half a second. Restarting usually fixes that. Can go for months without rebooting.
Just one of the reasons I do not wish to update, this version is very stable for me.
n
I didn’t recommend Worm because the beginning is so rough, not only grimdark but not well written. Worm is one of those “love it or hate it” stories. I suspect that most of the hate-ers didn’t make it past the first arc.
Also, I’d already recommended two superhero series.
So I’ve started the 7th of the Stross “Laundry Files” books. In the sixth he switched viewpoint characters, and he’s done it again in the 7 th. It does keep it interesting, and since there is some temporal overlap, you get an alternative view of the same events which is kinda cool.
The prog lib woke agenda came to the fore in 5 and 6 in a big way. At first it seemed like he was giving it the same treatment he gives government, management, civil service, etc. but it quickly turned into something serious and took on some heavy duty religious belief bashing that seemed to be far more than the character or the story demanded. I was frankly glad to just get thru 6 and be done with it.
7 is a lot lighter somehow, and headed back toward some of the fun, but it’s missing a lot of the wizzy exposition and skewering satire. People change, and he is writing about the end of the world, so the subject is a bit heavy, and it’s probably natural for his viewpoint to change with the viewpoint characters and the plots. So far, I’ve been buying and d/l ing the next book as soon as I finish the current one, so that’s a pretty good review.
He also doesn’t pretend that there isn’t any other media that has covered the same topic as some authors do. He does geek and fandom shoutouts and easter eggs all the time. He even did a bit on Pournelle’s Law, and followed that with a description of something as “evolution in action” (a rallying cry in Oath of Fealty).
Thanks to whoever recommended it here, I’m neglecting other things to read it, which is a pretty solid indicator that I like it….
n
Some book recommendations:
A very good superhero book: “Soon I Will be Invincible” by Austin Grossman
https://www.amazon.com/Soon-I-Will-be-Invincible/dp/0307279863?tag=ttgnet-20/
Saturday night is drinking night for our troll.
Benders like that sometimes end badly. I imagine that aspiration on my living room couch after getting an all night drink on would be a terrible way to die.
I don’t drink so that won’t happen.
Adams has been pushing his luck on YouTube for a while.
My primary desktop running Windows 10 will lock up and go unresponsive during the weekly drive optimization if I leave large video files on the hard drive without running defrag.
When you are so full of self loathing and insecurity that getting kicked around is validating, drinking is just slow motion suicide.
n
My primary desktop running Windows 10 will lock up and go unresponsive during the weekly drive optimization if I leave large video files on the hard drive without running defrag.
Get an SSD, or even better an M.2 drive. Those drives do not need to be optimized.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZYQ84CM/
The system is 14 years old. I’m working on a complete replacement build.
I logged into my MacBook Pro Windows 8 partition tonight and got the nastygram that the OS had gone EOL.
Windows 8 lets me dual boot the partition either via BootCamp or VMware Fusion session with a single license.
Windows 10 requires a separate paid license for each.
Adams has been pushing his luck on YouTube for a while.
Adams has an agenda. I suspect that he is trying to get canceled. I don’t know what his next move is.
I don’t much like podcasts to begin with, and Scott’s just seem like random ramblings, so I’ve never listened to more than a few minutes. I wonder if he plans what he’s going to say, or if they really are the “stream of consciousness” they seem? In other words, did he plan this little faux pas, or was it more of an accident? It’s certainly hard to see what he gains from it.
Ever.
>> Adams has an agenda. I suspect that he is trying to get canceled. I don’t know what his next move is
“The Dilbert Movie”