Same ol, same ol…. warm and humid, chance of rain, although we are on the edge of it, and it’s supposed to be clear for Friday and the weekend, so maybe it’ll blow out early. Otherwise, high in the 80s low in the 70s.
Spent yesterday afternoon at my client’s house putting in a cell booster. The tricky part is the cable run. The house has a second floor but only in the middle and there isn’t a clear path from one end to the other. I didn’t want the external antenna visible on the front of the house, and the room that needs the boost is near the front. The equipment closet is near the back. I am going to try using the coax that was installed originally for satellite tv to get the antenna signal to the room. If I don’t have to figure out how to pull new cable all the way, I will save a bunch of time and work. If you are building or doing a gut remodel, pull at least one coax and two cat 6 cables to every room that will get a tv. If you have weird tray ceilings, or some other thing that won’t allow access to the walls from the attic, put a piece of conduit in. Almost any signal can be carried over cat cable now, but pure RF still needs coax.
There is only one room with unusable cell signal, and that is the office… so we’re finally fixing it. (We have a pico cell that uses the internet, but until att finally got the fiber in, there was no way to make that work. A straight up repeater is simpler, and doesn’t use third party paths…)
Today I’ll head back out there to do the rest of the install and then I’ll go home and pull more hamfest stuff. That’s the plan anyway.
I did stop at the grocery store last night on my way home. Beef was crazy high, and the only beef on sale was ‘value’ grade. Chicken was cheap, maybe they’re all slaughtering before the birds get sick and flooding the market. In any case, we are still only paying $4/ dozen large eggs. Gas is around $3/gal at “normal” stations. It is cheaper if you go to costco or go looking for bargains. Big name stations might be 10c higher.
Stack-a while you can, monkey boy…
n
So, I’m busily learning Kotlin. Which looks to be a really nice language. Google has some really good training material out there: coding exercises intermingled with videos.
I’m passing on any more videos, and just sticking to the coding exercises. The videos are presented by people with a rich diversity of thick accents: you spend too much time trying to understand the words, and wind up missing whatever they are trying to communicate.
It’s fine if they want to show different ethnic backgrounds, I couldn’t care less. However, they really need to use speakers with a neutral, clearly understandable dialect. If necessary, they should just hire professional speakers, and do voice-overs without showing a person at all.
The French solution?
On podcasts and informative videos, I just nope right out if I have to work to understand the words. Rarely the information is valuable enough and unique enough to be worth the effort. Very rarely.
74F and 99%RH this fine day. There is a brightness in the sky already too, so maybe not so much rain?? I will find out eventually.
Coffee time.
n
Congress hasn’t really exercised “the power of the purse” in decades. Americans flip as soon as the video appears on the news channels of the “Closed” signs going up at the outdoor monuments on The Mall in Washington, DC.
Compounding the problem is that the Supreme Court isn’t currently exercising its authority as the third branch of US Government under a Chief Justice whose philosophy is to let people stew in their “foolish” political mistakes.
Though, based on what happened during arguments over the student loan forgiveness this week, it appears that $500 Billion may be too far for even the Old School Marm/Chief Justice to accept so he seems willing to force Congress to deal with the issue.
The question of student loan forgiveness may hinge on what I often call here the “Payola” seat on The Court, a chair which has seen appointments as political favors to some individual or group going back almost a century.
The brightness in the sky was just a head fake. Pretty uniform overcast now that I’m out in it. Bus was 14 minutes late. Seems like forever when you’re standing on the corner.
Bacon will make it better though.
n
Yep. I usually only order from Amazon if they are the seller and shipper. I’ll make a rare exception for a a well-known third party provider. Unknown company? Sorry, it’s not worth the risk or aggravation anymore.
Also, as bad as Amazon is, Walmart’s online store is just a cesspool of third party vendors. For now, at least the in store sort option still works – kind of.
“I was thinking of doing a recognition code though… have to think about it.”
Secret handshake.
walmart’s online is terrible. Their search tool is really horrible, and it’s ALL third party drop shippers.
n
The end is near. This is news? Who cares if they ordered the same thing. The comments are lovely, as usual. My wife and I have occasionally ordered the same thing, when something sounds extremely good, is the restaurant’s specialty, or nothing else sounds particularly good. Are we now social lepers? Also, from the comments, do people actually just chow down on other dishes in one’s party? I sometimes try a bite of my wife’s food, but that’s the limit.
“For both companies, I do have to wonder: Curating their sellers would take effort, but surely it would be worth the payoff in terms of reputation?”
eBay used to have true mutual feedback. Now it’s meaningless, and there’s no incentive for buyers to leave feedback at all.
Amazon is bot hell. I’ve had multiple listings taken down for totally bogus reasons: two for “suspected” trademark violations (accurately quoting the manufacturer’s own package, and I didn’t even write the listing page), and a string of non-fiction books in one series that they flagged as “excessive high price” at $20-35.
Links to appeals forms that won’t submit, and then no response if you do.
Absolutely brutal:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/03/02/the-hershey-highway-to-hell-n534325
and spot on.
No, France is an exception. More like the UK, or the Netherlands, or Spain. France does it like the US.
The head of government is the executive. The head of state is the ceremonial representative to other countries. If you roll both of these into the same person, it’s a lot of concentrated power.
Taking the UK as an example: The head of state is King Charles, who represents the country as a whole. He gets invited to galas, does all the ceremonial stuff, gets lots of publicity, but his actual power is pretty limited. The head of government is the prime minister, who leads the executive branch, and is tasked with getting stuff done.
Congress has abdicated a lot of their responsibilities to the executive branch, which puts even more concentrated power in the President. Presumably because individual Congresscritters don’t ever want to do anything unpopular, for fear of not being re-elected.
I do recall something about France separating the head of their King from the body of their Government in the 18th century.
I received new hearing aids. I am using ear mold rather than the domes. Different hearing for certain. The devices seem to work well. Paired them with the phone app without issue. I also got a TV streaming device which works much better than Resound. The hearing aids connect automatically rather than Resound method of having to use the App on the phone.
The hearing aids are rechargeable rather than batteries. Is that a good decision? I don’t know. The charging case is larger than I thought. I am waiting for the battery that attaches to the bottom that will allow up to three recharges before itself needing recharged. USB connection for the charging case so that is good. That is being shipped today from Denver. I hope to have the battery before I leave for Texas in a week.
I have until the 22nd of August to decide if I would like the rechargeable or would rather have batteries. I can also change from earmold to domes during that time.
I’m really thankful that the VA, well taxpayers, are paying for my expensive hearing aids. $4,500.00 retail.
Yes, but they will ship me kerosene at $10/gal, which no one else on at Amazon will do, and its cheaper than buying locally.
The local hay & feed wants $17.
Brad, I had to downvote your comment because you missed the obvious.
LOL, me too.
For those who suffered book “floods”, I recommend getting Caliber and start building a digital library of everything you love. I just added Glory Road.
@Ray – re: hearing aids
One thing I find if the hearing aid blocks external sound (no bypass – eg mold or sealed domes) is a loss of low end frequency. For voice this is not a big problem, possibly a benefit; when listening to music it is a big negative, much of the depth comes from the low end. For listening to music I find Nuheara Iqbuds+ much better (bluetooth connection) which includes assisted audio (hearing aid like compensation). The Nuheara can also be used with your phone (bluetooth) and again works well.
Nuheara are regularly offering deals now, with a price about half what I paid – and I am happy with my purchase. I have details of a deal right now – may be UK only – if you are interested.
>> Secret handshake.
Or Cap’n Crunch Decoder Rings
Oh, how will I survive…
Get some of these, and put them on the pen/pencil in your pocket. Subtle, yet recognizable.
Thanks for the info. The molds I have are ported and let external sound through. So far it seems I can hear better. The wife sounds louder, make of that what you will. TV is much better. The drivers in the receivers are larger which helps. I like the TV streaming device as I don’t need my cell phone to activate the streaming. What I don‘t like is the volume cannot be controlled by the TV. Muting the TV speaker and I can still hear.
I find the Bose noice cancelling headphones or the Apple AirPods work nicely for listening to music.
I do recall something about France separating the head of their King from the body of their Government in the 18th century.
France separated a lot of heads that day.
“Get some of these, and put them on the pen/pencil in your pocket. Subtle, yet recognizable.”
I’ll pass. If I show up you can recognize me by mu plastic pocket protector and matching Dilbert pen and pencil set.
A few follow-ups from yesterday…
>> Larger businesses need to have more complete plan, and more complete defenses. There is guidance out there to help with that – see the SANS Institute and Internet Storm Center. There are tons of ‘white papers’ there with guidance to secure small and large businesses.
Any large corp (Fortune 50, 100?) CIO should get tossed out the door, with last year’s bonus clawed back, if they cannot swiftly recover from a ransomware attack.
>> Anything plugging into the OBD port on a semi permanent basis is going to be a problem. The port wasn’t designed for that kind of use … as Flo is learning the hard way with the Progressive dongle.
My wife asked if one of these plans would save us money. Luckily the Gecko doesn’t have such a plan and I was spared discussing her… cough … spirited … cough … driving style.
>> Humidity is not your books’ friend.
Getting them into a more controlled environment would protect your investment.
Check out the series “You” on Netflix and see where they keep the bookstore’s rare books for one approach.
>> Speaking of stains. There are so many scams and crappy sellers on eBay that I haven’t used it for years, and probably never will again. There’s just no need to wade through a swamp like that.
I increasingly feel the same about Amazon, and only use them when I have no other possible source.
For both companies, I do have to wonder: Curating their sellers would take effort, but surely it would be worth the payoff in terms of reputation?
A few reasons I still use eBay on occasion … some level of anonymity/protection vs. CL and FB; still can find used/one of a kind items vs. Amazon; workable search using minus sign to exclude items. I also almost always skip sellers with less than 100% positive feedback.
Amazon could care less about curating their sellers, AWS is really their prime (ha ha) profit center. I’m guessing that eBay doesn’t care either as long as they get their (ever larger) cut if every transaction.
I took a quick look recently at Temu and everything seems to be really cheap cr@p.
You may notice a difference in WiFi performance if the pico cell supports 5G.
5G is allowed to dip into the “unlicencensed” 2.4 and 5 GHz bandwidths to supplement the usual wireless carrier frequencies, and devices accessing the service in the spectrum may not be limited to phones, tablets and modems explicitly sold supporting 5G.
“The Best Science Fiction Books for Beginners” by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/best-science-fiction-for-beginners/
Out of the thirty books, I have read 15 of them:
29: The Martian
28: Leviathan Wakes
27: Ender’s Game
26: Dark Matter
24: Rendezvous With Rama
23: Slaughterhouse Five
21: Lord Of Light
20: Ancillary Justice
18: Left Hand Of Darkness
17: The Girl With All The Gifts
10: Ready Player One
8: A Wrinkle In Time
6: The Kaiju Preservation Society
2: Flowers For Algernon
1: Dune
Oh no, I have thrown “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” at the wall. Twice.
How about “Mutineer’s Moon” by David Weber ?
How about “The Hobbit” by Tolkien ?
How about “The Once And Future King” by T. H. White ?
>> Yep. I usually only order from Amazon if they are the seller and shipper. I’ll make a rare exception for a a well-known third party provider. Unknown company? Sorry, it’s not worth the risk or aggravation anymore.
I don’t mind a third-party seller if it’s shipped by Amazon as Prime given the liberal 30 day return policy. My wife was trying to decide between two Logitech bluetooth keyboards, I told her just order both and send* one back. (*”Send” being dropping it off at Kohl’s in the open shipping box, or with no box, and showing the QR code on your phone.)
“College ‘Weed-out’ Classes are Bad News for Women and People of Color”
https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/college-weed-out-classes-are-bad-news-for-women-and-people-of-color
We have courses for those who fail the weed out courses. It is the technical courses.
And if the weed out courses are removed then the junior and senior level courses will take them out.
@Lynn
My new rule of thumb for Livingston’s lists is to just stop reading when I see LeGuin or Butler.
Somebody mentioned savings account interest rates (0.25% iirc) vs. other bank interest rates (credit cards, etc.)
There are better deals out there if you check some of the online banks. Last I looked, Marcus (GS) is paying 3.75% and AmEx 3.50%.
Yes, the gap is still wider than it should be, but still, no reason to leave any money on the table.
“And if the weed out courses are removed then the junior and senior level courses will take them out.”
They’ll still be able to transfer to pre-med or pre-law.
>> The head of government is the executive. The head of state is the ceremonial representative to other countries. If you roll both of these into the same person, it’s a lot of concentrated power.
Taking the UK as an example: The head of state is King Charles, who represents the country as a whole. He gets invited to galas, does all the ceremonial stuff, gets lots of publicity, but his actual power is pretty limited. The head of government is the prime minister, who leads the executive branch, and is tasked with getting stuff done.
@brad, if the head of state’s actual power is limited, what’s the real impact of the head of government also being the head of state?
“Perry Rhodan # 64: The Ambassadors From Aurigel” by Kurt Mahr, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Perry-Rhodan-64-Ambassadors-Aurigel/dp/B002CCIQX2?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number sixty-four 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 72 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_Gesandten_von_Aurigel
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.
The Earth penal colony on Grautier has been attacked by the Whisperers from another planet in the Myrtha system. The colonists repel the Whisperers and repair a Gazelle space ship from the wreck of the colony ship. They travel to the Whisperers home planet and misrepresent themselves as the leading edge of a huge empire. They are received as heroes by the starving planet until the truth comes out.
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: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 0 out of 5 stars (0 reviews)
‘Who’s Zoomin’ Who?’ Joe Biden stays away from East Palestine
Maybe now we know the real reason he’s avoiding visiting…
Union rep: Employees reporting illness after working on cleanup for East Palestine derailment
Sending Mayor Pete though, no concerns there.
“Bill Gates was so addicted to Minesweeper that his coworker had a robot set an unbreakable record”
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/bill-gates-was-so-addicted-to-minesweeper-that-his-coworker-had-a-robot-set-an-unbreakable-record
“Gates would go into other people’s offices to play Minesweeper, since the game had been removed from his PC.”
Oh yeah, that is addiction.
“Intel and Microsoft seem to be hinting at Windows 12”
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/1/23618276/microsoft-windows-12-intel-hints
Of course they are !
“US Senators Reintroduce Bill To Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent”
https://dnyuz.com/2023/03/02/us-senators-reintroduce-bill-to-make-daylight-saving-time-permanent/
Just stop the pain !
“Naming Dilbert 2.0”
https://scottadams.locals.com/post/3610118/naming-dilbert-2-0#comments
“What should I call the upcoming Locals-only version of Dilbert?”
“Dilbert Unleashed?”
“Dilbert Unchained?”
“Dilbert Raw?”
“Canceled Dilbert?”
“Ideas?”
Dilbert gotta pay to play !
Happens every spring and fall. Just headline and campaign fodder to grab eyeballs. Nothing ever happens. Never will.
Standard or Daylight doesn’t matter. Just stop changing the time.
Split the difference and call it good.
As for “my chilrun are waiting for the bus in the dark”, whatever. I had -years- of getting on the stupid bus at 6AM.
“A THIRD of Americans agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘national divorce’ call: 47% of Republicans back bid for red states to split, according to shocking poll”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11812977/A-Americans-agree-Marjorie-Taylor-Greenes-national-divorce-call.html
I don’t think that this will solve the problem as the major cities in the red states are all woke. Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, etc.
Breaking up the US on a state-by-state basis is retarded. A breakup is needed, but it can be accomplished by building walls around every city of more than 100,000 people or every metro area of 500,000 or more. Cut the bridges, cut the power lines, and let each side get on with their lives.
At my alma matter, the degree for those who washed out of the normal Engineering coursework was called “Engineering Technology” or “ETK”.
I personally know a girl who is a Director at Chase with that paper.
He could always claim to be doing important CS research now that “Minesweeper” has been proven to be NP Complete.
Invent a way to play perfect “Minesweeper” in Expert mode, and you will prove NP = P. There is a $1 million prize involved.
There is also a good chance you would disappear.
“Minesweeper” is my personal favorite example to cite to support my belief that NP != P.
But not in inner city Chicago.
Ain’t never been as far north as Chicago.
But the whining about the chilrun standing in the dark waiting for the bus…. ok, lazy way is to give the brats FLASHLIGHTS. Or, oh hey, get a street light. The better way would be for school to start at 9, not 8 am. And still release the inmates at 3 pm. Six hours of school bullcrap a day is enough.
The whole industry thinks AI will save their bottom lines.
They need something. I’m typing on a 16 year old CPU design which I would not be in a big hurry to replace if the hardware the had the features required to run WSL-based Docker Desktop.
Time Zone Insanity: I’d rather see a single unchanging time zone for the United States. Then every organization – every business, every school district, every governmental entity, gets to set their own working hours. If the Sun is just rising when the clock says 3:00, then the working hours probably ought to start at 4:30 or 5:00.
The island of Bermuda used to do something like that; they didn’t do “daylight savings time”. Businesses would post “Summer Working Hours” and “Winter Working Hours”, adjusted to have a similar effect. “Summer hours” for most businesses were to open at 7, and close at 14, so they had plenty of leisure time in the afternoons and evenings.
WRT physical storage of paper non-text books, I don’t. A number of years ago, I accepted RBT’s advice and downloaded a bunch via one of those torrent methods. I installed the Calibre converter and an ebook reading app and enjoyed the process.
Later, I purchased a Kindle unit and read a bunch for 99¢ each and then signed up a trial period of KindleUnlimited and read for free. Lastly, I joined the Huntington Beach Public Library for free as a resident and then downloaded and installed the cloudlibrary app to download and read the library ebooks.
Very straightforward, no cost and easy to select, download, read and then return; but nothing to store.
Those are fantasy, not sf.
I’d put at least one of Heinlein’s juveniles on the list, probably Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. Also The Mote in God’s Eye should be on the list.
A tweet thread about death certificate data from 2021 and causes of death.
https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1631019188532723712?t=OYdOauw1XnIzTQ5_qbn-7A&s=19
You may notice a difference in WiFi performance if the pico cell supports 5G.
– not going to install the pico cell. Main issue, other than using other people’s infrastructure and IDK if there are HIPPA implications, is that it needs a gps signal and getting that in the middle of the house is as hard as getting the antenna signal for the repeater.
The house has 2×6 walls, plaster and metal lath, is out in the country away from the cell sites anyway, brick veneer, foil lined plywood roofing, and metalized low e glass, with really big roof overhangs… and there are a couple of poured concrete walls in between the office and the cell site.
I had to put a ubiquiti WAP directly above the office to even get reliable wifi in there. I have 6 ubiquiti waps, 2 Nanostation M2s, an engenius wide coverage wap, a trendnet wifi repeater, and there are STILL places in the house where the wifi disconnects as you move thru them. The repeater and the M2s provide outdoor coverage in specific areas, and the engenius provides access in the guest house. I’ll probably end up replacing it with ubiquiti, but it was laying around, left over from a previous upgrade cycle. The guest house ceiling plane is 20ft above the rest of my waps, so I needed to get something up high…
The site has challenges. But at least we have att fiber there now…
n
I still collect physical books, and both kids borrow and read physical books. They have kindles and phone readers, which they use, and their school chromebooks for graphic novels, and for ebooks.
I’ve had a kindle since the first one, and I think I have 11 active at the moment. SHOULD reduce that by 2 or three now that the whispernet ones have finally been shut off. I might use them purely for prepping pdfs…
I like kindle unlimited for cheap “popcorn” books, but have a few “real” authors I’ve read thru KU too. I’ve spent over $100 on the Laundry Files series in the last month or so. IDK what the re-readability will be like, I’m thinking limited, but my wife will like them and we share our kindle libraries.
I have winnowed my physical collection a couple of times, pulling most of the woke crap I got during the 90s, but keeping all the stuff I have read more than once.
And I’m still adding books, both fiction and reference. Picked up an audebon field guide to mushrooms today, for example.
n
Get rid of the bottom 50% of developers, by ability or productivity. Possibly the bottom 75%. Get rid of almost all middle managers, scrum masters, product advocates, and similar positions; there is some slight need for them, but they exist mainly to control the chaos involved in dealing with hordes of lumpens.
Dilbert Gone Wild
Yah, “Engineering Technology”, “STEM Journalism”, some business degree which involved several “exposure” classes with the stated goal of making the student ready to run a STEM business and manage engineers, and the all-time winner, “STEM Education”.
Ah another book list. Written by a young man. A couple of classics, but most from the last 10 to 20 years. Awful lot of woke puppy kicking Tor authors too.
and for beginners? Nope. Ancillary Justice with its weird and forced pronouns? Handmaids Tale? More likely included because of the listmaker’s biases revealed in several editorial asides throughout the list? Vonegut? NFW. Arthur C Clark is an acquired taste.
How about —
Star Wars novelizations, particularly Alan Dean Foster, and especially before the second trilogy…
Hunger Games. There’s a reason she sleeps on piles of money, even if the science makes no sense.
Anything with a movie deal.
I’d bet 90% of Hunger Games readers wouldn’t ever admit to having read SF, and don’t recognize it in the book. Show them that they ALREADY read and like SF, then expand their universe.
n
These days, like other places, the school has “professional development” Masters in various disciplines which are basically a company purchasing the degree for someone headed to the C-suite without the right paper credentials.
The last time I looked, an MSEE was $68,000. That was several years ago.
Dilbert Gone Wild
ROFLMAO. I may pay the $7/month so I can steal that and submit it as my entry.
I have winnowed my physical collection a couple of times, pulling most of the woke crap I got during the 90s, but keeping all the stuff I have read more than once.
I need to do that also. Toss anything that I do not want to ever read again. I’ll bet that disposes of 3/4s of my books. Shoot, I have changed my mind on half of my SBR.
Incitatus and now Feinstein.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64831779
Star Wars novelizations, particularly Alan Dean Foster, and especially before the second trilogy…
Hunger Games. There’s a reason she sleeps on piles of money, even if the science makes no sense.
Anything with a movie deal.
Alan Dean Foster’s Tar-Aiym Krang needs to be on that list. Wow, it is back in print:
https://www.amazon.com/Tar-Aiym-Krang-Alan-Dean-Foster/dp/034530280X?tag=ttgnet-20/
Anything that actually had a movie released for it (or before it) like “Dark Star” or “The Martian”. A bunch of books have had movie deals that were never filmed and released.
The Daily Dilburito.
Google for the history of that fiasco.
Never forget that Adams is a Lib, but one who will admit when he’s wrong.
Feinstein getting shingles isn’t as good as her having severe burns over 10% or more of her body, but it’s better than nothing.
(People keep telling me that I’m a nice guy because I’ll help people who are in need through no fault of their own. They’re wrong. I’m not nice.)
I’d put at least one of Heinlein’s juveniles on the list, probably Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. Also The Mote in God’s Eye should be on the list.
I would prefer “Citizen Of The Galaxy” or “The Star Beast” but both are out of print.
So many good books released prior to 2010 are now out of print. I guess that means that the fans were not that many.
Other books like “Replay”, “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress”, and “The Ophiuchi Hotline (Eight Worlds)” are still in print.
https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X?tag=ttgnet-20/
https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0440001358?tag=ttgnet-20/
https://www.amazon.com/Ophiuchi-Hotline-Eight-Worlds/dp/0441634842?tag=ttgnet-20/
I would prefer “Citizen Of The Galaxy” or “The Star Beast” but both are out of print.
Huh, “The Star Beast” is back in print again. Amazing.
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Beast-Robert-Heinlein/dp/1451638914?tag=ttgnet-20/
I know a smart young man who got an “Engineering Technology” degree in Aerospace.
Northrop basically paid him to do it, as they needed someone between the techs who ONLY wanted to turn wrenches, and the four year (six,really) BS guys who wouldn’t KNOW which end of a wrench to turn.
Amusingly they had a hiring freeze just as he graduated, so Global Atomics picked him up for a lot more than either of his two older liberal arts brothers made.
@SteveF
Would these fine upstanding people of sterling judgement be interested in investing in collectible paperback science fiction? Near mint for their age.
Watching “It’s Ryan Hall y’all” youtube weather guy, and the BOL had the front go right over. 50-60mph winds…
I was not thinking about that.
n
As in “I should have labeled my garbage can lids for just such an occasion”?
The domed top of my patio heater blew away last weekend. I hope the other two down on the dock don’t blow away…
n
5 Questions To A Deadman Scene – DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ4n3_m-wCc
I wish “Di Fi” a speedy recovery. She’s the last pol standing with People’s Temple ties, and no one should ever forget the Flavor Aid party down in the jungles of Guyana which began with the assassination of a Republican Congressman.
Gotta wonder if something more is going on than shingles, however.
My alma matter started the degree with good intentions, to help people with ITT Tech and similar backgrounds in Tampa get four year degrees without a lot of nonsense. It worked for a while, but then, in the mid-80s, things changed and the program turned into a diversity initiative.
The local Faux News weather was projecting severe weather possibilities for the region Tuesday night.
Austin proper got pounded again, but we didn’t see much beyond a lot of wind.
The domed top of my patio heater blew away last weekend. I hope the other two down on the dock don’t blow away…
Spring in Texas every freaking year …
It is raining horiontally outside again. At least there is no hail.
We had a bit of light rain, but nothing at the moment. Street is shiny.
I need tomorrow and Sat to be dry so I can load the truck and trailer.
n
>> “The Best Science Fiction Books for Beginners”
How about “The Best SF Books for People that Don’t Like SF?”
“Miss a Car Payment and Ford’s Patent Could Shut Off Your A/C”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/miss-a-car-payment-and-ford-s-patent-could-shut-off-your-ac/ar-AA189iNK
“Ford Motor Co. has filed for a patent on technology that could remotely shut down your radio or air conditioning, lock you out of your vehicle, or prompt it to ceaselessly beep if you miss car payments. Ford said it has no plans to use the technology, contained in just one of the many patents filed by the auto-making giant.”
Uh, that might not go well for Ford, based on the movie “Repo Men”.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053424/
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
>> The domed top of my patio heater blew away last weekend. I hope the other two down on the dock don’t blow away…
I guess “Install Outdoor Cameras at BOL” moves up @nick’s to-do list.
How about “The Best SF Books by People that Don’t Like SF?”
I guess “Install Outdoor Cameras at BOL” moves up @nick’s to-do list.
– it’s on the list. I prepped an NVR last week. I need to find at least a couple of cameras that will work with the NVR (hopefully while pulling the stuff for the Hamfest) and I need to install the networking and stuff at the BOL. It’s all down list as there is no internet available there anyway, so I’ve been doing other things.
So many things.
Now I’m off to bed, hopefully not to dream but to sleep deeply and awake refreshed…
n
>> Incitatus and now Feinstein.
Before I saw this, my wife mentioned she had heard on the news that “Feinstein has shingles.” To which I replied “Gee, you’d think by now she could afford a house with a tile roof.” Luckily I ducked to avoid the thrown shoe.
Funny, last I heard, college students were mostly female – and have been for quite some time. Of course, it wouldn’t be PC to notice that, because women are just *so* disadvantaged. As for PoC, that’s such a stupid term, we know they mean black folk. Blacks in the US have a problem, but the problem is black culture. and that’s not a problem that colleges can fix.
Teachers and colleges should pay zero attention to the gender, skin color, eye color or whatever. Anything else would be wrong. Why should a woman get extra support? Why should someone get extra support because of their skin color? They are all individuals, and they individually deserve to be treated equally.
That’s exactly the kind of hate speech I’d expect to hear from a straight White man.