Cool, possibly cold, and rain in the forecast. Yesterday sure got nice once the sun heated up the day. I was in shirtsleeves for most of the day.
We are supposed to get really cold, maybe freezing and possibly get rain later today. Didn’t look like it was coming when I went to bed. We’ll see later, I guess.
Spent the day doing stuff. And stopping because of failures.
First challenge o the day was my wife working from here. Cell as hotspot, VPN, applications running on back end servers in the office, and a lot of latency. Not a good combination. Lazy programmers, assuming everyone is on a fast connection, erroring out if something takes too long…. not a pleasant day. The real problem was laptop battery life though.
It’s good. So good she doesn’t think about it most of the time. So when she got the low battery alert and went to connect the power brick… and didn’t have the AC cord, it was suddenly an issue. I’ve got cords up here. I’ve got cords in my other truck. I’ve got BOXES of cords at home. I didn’t have the one that looks like mickey mouse here though. She ended up going into town to try to find a cord. Walmart SAID yes, but was wrong. Dollar Store, everywhere else, no dice. Last chance, and why not, the pawn shop had one. She paid $15 but didn’t have to drive a couple hours round trip to get one. It is DIFFERENT up here in the country.
My day was similar. I decided that knee high weeds instead of lawn wouldn’t do, so I got the mower charged up and started cutting. I didn’t do my annual maintenance first, thinking I would bang the snot out of it one last time, then start my season with new stuff. Well…. While I was waiting for the battery to charge, I got out my string trimmer and started clearing edges and flower beds. Ran out of string. Since I didn’t have a gas string trimmer here, I took the string home to use with the trimmer there…. and brought that trimmer up but didn’t bring any string. GAHHH.
However, I have a trimmer here, new in the box, not even assembled yet. It probably came with string… so I took the time to set that up. Called my wife and had her get some string while she was at Walmart. Used the new trimmer until it’s string ran out. Started the mower up and SLOWLY began cutting grass like plants. Tall and tough plants. I ended up cutting only a 1/4 of the width of the deck on each pass. More would bog the mower down. It took a long time to make progress but I was about 85% done when the drive belt for the mower deck failed.
No more mowing for me. A belt was not one of the maintenance items I bought for the annual. (It will be next year.) Wife came home with some line, and I went back to work. It only fit the old trimmer head. Which was fine until I dropped the trimmer and broke the gas tank… OK, switch the head to the new trimmer motor and get back to work. At least until I ran out of string again, because my wife bought a whole lot less than I hoped and asked for.
So switch gears again. Put the blower attachment on the new trimmer engine and cleaned up where I could. Until I ran out of 40:1 premix fuel…
That’s a whole lotta gum flappin’, but it shows the value of having two (the trimmers) and the pain of only having one (the drive belt.) And the value of a simple cord when you need it but don’t have it…
Hopefully, either my fisherman buddy or one of the stores in town will have a belt to get me back up and mowing. I’ll probably end up going in to town in any case to get fuel and string for the trimmer. If they have the belt, I’ll buy it and return my buddy’s (assuming his spare will fit my mower.)
None of this stuff is critical, but it could have been. Have spares. Have maintenance items BEFORE you need them. Have duplicates of critical equipment. Barring that, have good contacts and local help. There might be someone up here that has the power cord my wife needed, but I didn’t even think to ask until afterwards. One of the neighbors who is a full timer has a sign business, and probably has computers and a junk box of cords. Next time, I’ll ask him if we need something similar…
Stacks. You need them, even if you don’t think you do.
n
ps. Wife was able to D/L and use a phone app for access to the database for work, without the latency of the pc connected to the hotspot connected to the nearest cell site…not ideal, but she can work with it.
Sounds like Nick had one of *those* days :-/
Whether the film was widely seen at the time, LBJ used the spectre of nuclear holocaust to scare the h*ll out of the country and bury Goldwater with that infamous TV commercial in 1964. “Strangelove” is arguably the more appropriate choice.
“Star Wars” was 1977. People went to see that film repeatedly, and the merchandise didn’t even hit in a big way until 1978.
The next time you see John Lassiter interviewed in his office, look for the R2D2 cooke jar in the background. That was pretty much it for merch in 1977 beyond t-shirts and posters.
I have the same cookie jar in a very safe place in my house, purchased new in 1977 for $35 IIRC.
“Saturday Night Fever” was a rated ‘R’ flick. Home video has not been kind, but the big lines haven’t aged well.
After Kelly Preston passed, in one remembrance clip I saw, Fran Drescher told a story about dropping her money line on Travolta and Preston at an event a couple of decades later and being horrified that the actor and his wife didn’t remember it being a reference to “Saturday Night Fever”.
SSL VPN. TCP tunneled within TCP presents a huge latency issue on a noisy link.
I told them what would happen 22 years ago when the big blue customer insisted on having SSL-based VPN based on coversations between execs on a golf course, but, even when I gave them exactly what they wanted, the end result was me being passed over for promotion in favor of my partner.
I got even in a very big way when the opportunity presented itself about a decade ago by passing on repeating the monkey trick on Mac OS X, but it wasn’t good for my career, the Death Star, or the big blue customer. I only hear about the interview in *the* room at *the* table in Bandley 3 (look it up) about once a year.
BTW, I’m amazed that the Death Star still hasn’t pulled it off. The secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.
As for the wall wart for the laptop, the next time they reup leases, the company should pass on any laptop which doesn’t have USB-C docking capability, 65W max charging. Yes, I understand that telling an exec in the C-suite that he doesn’t *need* the i9 to sort his mail can be a challenge, but that is the emerging standard.
I’ll bet that, within a year, WalMart will have knockoffs of the teeny Anker USB-C wall warts with that charging capacity, if not Anker itself if Chyyyyna is hungry enough.
My new work laptop has USB-C docking. Multiple monitors, network, USB and power (or any subset thereof) all over a tiny connector. Amazing stuff…
Sounds like you had a trying day, Nick.
I had the same experience in miniature yesterday while repairing the charging station of our robot lawnmower (a device in the same must-have category as washing machines, btw). The robot docks with two copper strips against two spring-loaded charging shoes, and the crimped eyelet connecting one of the shoes to the power source had failed, incidentally explaining why the robot failed to mow a few times towards the end of the last season. No problem, thought I: crimping pliers and connectors are on the shelf one up from bottom – at the BOL, because I had been installing lighting there. Aargh. Off to the hardware store. Does anyone know what a crimping tool and crimp-on connectors are called in French? Now I do: pince à sertir des cosses. I got the last cheap and nasty one in the shop for an exorbitant amount, so now I probably have four. Lesson: divide tools and supplies correctly between home and BOL…
Brad: my work laptop has the same, amazing that everything passes through that little USB-C connector. I am doubtful how long the cables and sockets will hold up, though. The socket side is a very dainty object. My wife’s cable failed yesterday.
It is a beautiful sunny spring day here. I have all the doors and windows open to air the house, enjoying the smell of grass being mown by the robot and the birdsong. I am even contemplating some light spring cleaning while I enjoy my porridge with blueberries. I think it must be the sunshine allowing me to see the dust bunnies!
My current employer makes a 43″ monitor/dock which offers the capability to show up to four virtual displays served across the USB-C connection and/or sourced from physical DP or HDMI ports. It also has the usual charging and standard USB ports for accessories.
The crazy thing is that the monitor is an accessory best suited to a high end Apple laptop even though Apple is verboten beyond phones inside the campus.
It isn’t just standard corporate rivalry either, but a grudge between founders that goes back almost 30 years.
I wonder that too. I am very gentle, when plugging in or removing the connector… That said, at least the laptop has two USB-C connectors, so if one dies there will be a reserve.
Unfortunately, the display has recently started glitching. Every few minutes, it looks like it loses sync (do LCD displays still “sync”)? This doesn’t affect any external monitors, only the laptop’s own display. It’s bearable right now, but if it gets worse…
Interesting. The MacBook Pro laptop will drive four displays natively via USB-C and HDMI. The machines are actually very capable machines. To spite one’s face by cutting off the nose seems illogical.
It is also possible to use Parallels to run Windows 11. I don’t know if BootCamp works with the current crop of M1 and M2 chips.
Apple, specifically MacOS, works OK. Some of the stuff seems strange, as is it was a snub to Microsoft. Of particular annoyance is the lack of CTL-C, X, Z, and V. I also miss the right mouse button although I know I can get a two button mouse for the Mac the ones that are available are butt-ugly.
Some of the stuff Apple hides making it difficult to find. W11 is getting that way which annoys me more as I knew where the stuff was located in W11.
I cannot tolerate Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on the Mac. They were developed to compete with MSOffice and are significantly different in the way the applications operate. I have installed MSOffice on the Mac to avoid that learning battle.
I do like the interaction between Apple devices in the Apple ecosystem. I enter a WiFi password on one device and the rest of the devices have the password. Text messages show on all devices and can be sent from any device. The interoperability is very nice. W11 on the other hand has no other devices in which to interoperate. Apple having the hardware and the OS allows Apple to do things that Microsoft cannot.
Regardless of the platform, they are tools. Pick what you like and move on. RBT thought Linux was the cat’s meow, I thought it was the cat’s hairball. He made it work, I never really could.
I think the socket will hold up longer than most of us would think. The socket has been around for many years and if there was an inherit problem it would have surfaced by now.
There is actually a chip in the USB-C plug on the cable that defines its capabilities along with some other information. I have seen one cut open (well, it was an Apple cable) and there were three electronic components in the cable end.
I have never had a cable fail and I have been using USB-C on my iPad for over a year without issue. I only use the cable to charge the iPad with the occasional connection to the PC to download the music library.
I think cables are the weak point, not the socket. The flexing and tugging on the socket end is what will damage the cable.
Cool but not even as cold as yesterday morning. Grey overcast though, and heavy dew.
– it was ‘one of those days’ but I kept moving. Today my back is KILLING me. String trimmer puts a lot of weight out in front of your body and uses some muscles you might not be used to using…
–USB C would have shown issues by now.. yes, but. I see them with the outer insulation failed all the time. The cheap ones just crumble and peel.
–chip in the cable — all the better to hide the keystroke logger.
–all the devices have the password… and if you are arrested (or grabbed by a goon squad), they’ll use face ID or a fingerprint to unlock your phone, and then they own it all.
Coffee and a hearty breakfast are down the hatch, need to do some stretching, serious stretching, and then head out on a forage…
n
(saw a giant Blue Heron eating last night while I was on the dock with the fire. 6ft wingspan is pretty dang impressive when all you see is a big swoopy black movement, with pointy edges….didn’t know they were nocturnal feeders.)
You can turn off biometrics. A good idea if you travel anywhere shady, like Tennessee.
Uh, OK:
Houston ISD TEA takeover: Board of managers to govern Texas’ largest district
The goobermint answer to goobermint mismanagement is more goobermint. This will be a disaster if actually implemented. There will be more rules and regulations than the IRS. “Our schools suck, but the law says you have to go. And no vouchers, dirt people!”
Yes, I agree. Due to his advice, I installed and tried to make Kubuntu workable. I had three negative issues that I could not resolve; consequently, after tree updates, I gave up with it.
Forget it, Jake. It’s Harris County.
(Which, incidentally, contains Chinatown.)
I only use the 6 digit pin to unlock my iphone.
Both companies make high end laptops so, beyond founder grudges, they’re competitors.
Once IBM shed all of its PC manufacturing and distribution to Lenovo, they very nearly went all Intel Mac about a decade ago.
Break out a tooth and headlight and the LEO’s will think you are local and will not stop you.
Whelp. Had an interesting week.
We evacuated our home Monday. The abbreviated version compressing timeline of actual events – There was a loud CRACK sound and a series of cracks / ceiling pulling away across the ceiling. The cracks ran in line and under the peak of our roof.
We have a shallow pitch roof. I was up on it in December and January shoveling, clearing the peak so it could vent, mitigating ice damming. If you recall Anchorage suffered three major snow storms one after another in December and the snow load was unusually high. Several commercial buildings have collapsed in the last two weeks.
We got out of the house with essentials PDQ and stayed with a nearby friend overnight.
Filed an insurance claim that night. Talked to a desk auditor the Tuesday who “well little lady’d” me over me wanting a structural engineer and him wanting drywall repair. Asked him where he lived and when he last shoveled 4’ snow. Told him we weren’t going back in the house without a structural engineer.
Hired our own structural engineer. Through connections and local meatspace the engineer was willing to sacrifice his lunch and come immediately (we gave him a dozen eggs from our hens when he left). Original was 1-2 weeks out, meatspace for the win. Engineer surveys the damage, sticks his head in the attic space and bursts out laughing followed by “I know exactly what happened” and “d*mn plumbers”.
Says we can return to the house, it’s safe if we keep the snow clear, and that we have a very expensive repair in our future but can wait for spring / summer. Structural engineer is producing a report describing problem, solution, and list of contractors who won’t make it worse. It’s going to be a disruptive fix.
60 years ago when the house was built, the plumber who installed the stuff for the fireplace and furnace exhaust CUT THRU A TRUSS in multiple places to do his work. The house has effectively a 4’ gap between two healthy trusses. It wasn’t a problem until the snow was so extreme and the ice damming started.
We had the house inspected when we bought it. I have been up in the attic space multiple times. None of us spotted it.
We are fine. The house will be fine. We will deal with insurance and get it repaired. And shoveling lots of shoveling.
It was a bit more involved however that’s the gist.
D@mn plumbers
But what if I’m not driving with a thirteen-year-old girl who looks like my sister-wife?
Just hang your meth bottle out the window.
Sympathies, Jennie, all the moreso because I’ve had to deal with similar dumbassery by professionals.
Our family house (a now 150-year-old farmhouse which has been piecemeal expanded and modernized over the centuries) had the main beam cut in order to fit in its first forced-hot-air gas furnace. Who thought that was a good idea is a mystery. Why they couldn’t just move the furnace a couple feet to the side is a mystery. So the house has had a line of jacks along the main beam since my dad found the problem 50-some years ago.
The first house I bought had an intact main beam but several of the joists between the first and second floors had been cut for plumbing or for heat ducts. Because of course they were. It’s obviously easier to drill or cut through a 2×6 than it is to run a cold water pipe an inch to the side.
Yep. A plumber we used cut 2″ holes in three studs behind the kitchen sink to run a drain line when we remodeled. We found the problem when we replaced the counter. He could have run the drain straight down into the basement ceiling and then over to the pre-existing drain. But that drain would need to be adjusted to provide a slope for the relocated drain. He was just too d@mned lazy.
When we replaced our bay window we found an electrical splice in the rafters above the window where there was no electrical box. Just wire nuts on the three wires. Two problems. No box and not accessible. At least he provided a ground. I put in a box but the junction is still not accessible.
Sometimes tradesmen do stupid stuff outside their area of expertise.
Scott Adams is now saying stay away from woke and pronoun people. He is not wrong.
https://scottadams.locals.com/upost/3685740/coffee-with-scott-adams-march-16-2023
I went ahead and paid the $70 to get through his paywall for a year. Today’s Dilbert is hilarious. Dogbert has a UFO spaceship and is pranking the Air Force pilots.
60 years ago when the house was built, the plumber who installed the stuff for the fireplace and furnace exhaust CUT THRU A TRUSS in multiple places to do his work. The house has effectively a 4’ gap between two healthy trusses. It wasn’t a problem until the snow was so extreme and the ice damming started.
Wow ! Yes, plumbers are idiots. I have stood there and watched as they drilled a two inch hole through a 2×4 one day. I then asked, are you going to sister that ? He produced a metal plate after going through his bag for a while. I am sure had I not been there, there would have been no plate.
Hopefully the contractor can sister your trusses. Boards on both sides should be adequate, maybe.
First challenge o the day was my wife working from here. Cell as hotspot, VPN, applications running on back end servers in the office, and a lot of latency. Not a good combination. Lazy programmers, assuming everyone is on a fast connection, erroring out if something takes too long…. not a pleasant day. The real problem was laptop battery life though.
Mr. Mom is doing double duty as Mr. IT, I love it.
The answer to your latency problem might be Starlink. Might be, you should be far enough away from Houston and Dallas to have plenty of satellite coverage. The antenna is $600, the monthly should be $100/month as you should not get the extra $30/month congestion charge starting April 1. Just be sure to get the Starlink antenna to ethernet box for another $60 or so to use more than one device with it should you decide to try it out.
I use the Starlink ethernet box to connect into my Peplink 30 WAN multiplexer for my third WAN device. My office now has three WANs: two AT&T 12/1 mbps DSL lines and the Starlink. I am going to cancel one of the AT&T DSL lines any day now, I have to be sure as I cannot get it back as I played a trick to get the second DSL line to a commercial building. Actually, we have five DSL systems going to the office complex now as one of my tenants has a DSL line and VOIP line, we have the two DSL lines plus a VOIP line. Lots of little special boxes in my equipment room that never had the old T1 line removed.
@jenny, Yikes! Glad it’s fixable and no one was hurt.
Got a belt and the rest of my supplies. Rain has held off for now, but it was misty in town. We’ve seen a few fat drops, but nothing more than that.
Now I get to do the maintenance.
n
One of the air handler units, the south one of course, is down in my large office building. The 18 year old Trane air handler blower motor failed its run windings and could not get started. The startup windings are shot too so my a/c guy has ordered a new $700 motor. He said if I had a newer unit, the blower motors have a computer in them and cost $1700, he replaced a six year motor in a five ton system two weeks ago. The warranty is five years so the homeowner is pissed.
I suspect that the two 18 year old Trane systems will have to be replaced some day, hopefully not soon. They are commercial 3.5 ton units with 10 kw heating strips in them. They have 4 inch by 20 inch by 25 inch air filters in the inlets at the air handlers as they both have multiple air returns. They work very well for my 5,344 ft2 two story building, the south system is zoned for both the upstairs and downstairs.
New chatbot lies to pass security screen
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/03/gpt-4-ais-newest-chatbot-version-pretends-to-be-blind-person-to-cheat-captcha-security/
It’s almost ready to file my 400 million applications for CA reparations
Rural connectivity; Check with your electric utility. Here are several electrical utilities in Texas that offer gigabit fiber to the home; when we were looking for a house here in Texas three years ago, I started looking for places that would provide internet connectivity to rural homes. We had originally been looking a bit west of San Antonio, and discovered that the Bandera Electrical Cooperative also ran gigabit fiber to the house. We ended up just past the west edge of San Antonio, in the Spectrum service area, so we have that. And Starlink….
This is the 21st century, right?
JFC, can’t people at least use some form of communication other than voice calls? The telephone was invented in the 19th century. I’ve been using email since 1974. Worldwide email since 1987. We have texts now.
But a merchant whose billing service screwed up and billed my monthly charges 3 times more than they should have over the last year can’t communicate except by voice call. And can’t get their billing service to fix it. So I finally went to the bank to dispute the credit card charges.
Guess what? The website is no help. So I had to call in and speak with someone who sort-of speaks English. Who may or may not actually be any help. And who specifically told me they can’t do email. I’ll receive updates in letters (18th century!) or voice calls. At least she gave me investigation numbers for the 3 disputes.
In my more negative days, I think I should study Spanish or Hindi (or Telugu), so I can deal with the people who are replacing Western Civilization with… something less.
If only to be able to insult their mother ….. I learned the TexMex phrase in high school to call someone a bastard. But with several words. One of the guys told me to tell that guy over there who promptly got pissed and once he realized I hadn’t a clue, well, lots of laughing.
Good times other than about 30 seconds of “I’m a gonna have my ass beat” fear.
It isn’t just standard corporate rivalry either, but a grudge between founders that goes back almost 30 years.
Hey, I remember the clone wars between Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Northgate, and the many others. Didn’t Dell try to build a Mac clone too ?
I only use the 6 digit pin to unlock my iphone.
So, will they break six of your fingers before you give up the six digit code ?
You saw the goon squad in Atlanta. Those guys are serious.
Tell me this is not “babbling noise just to close a trouble ticket”.
I asked Frost via their contact form “Why is the page suddenly constantly refreshing? It is a distraction while trying to see my activity. And I cant use punctuation like an apostrophe here? Why?”
You can’t even use alt-xxx. Some super genius has decreed the customers should look illiterate. I guess.
After a couple of days I get “If you are experiencing technical issues regarding your online banking, please contact customer service at the number provided below to speak with an Internet Banking Specialist. They may take you through trouble shooting steps to hopefully resolve the issue you are having. ”
Which is just passing the buck.
What trouble shooting steps? To install a new web browser? I’m not going to do that. Not going to call either.
It didn’t do this a few weeks ago. I haven’t changed anything. Grumble.
Today is the 5th anniversary of my Google fiber install. I got the 100mbit plan for 50/month. I was forcefully upgraded to a 500mbit plan for 55/month a couple years later. I get weekly emails almost pleading to upgrade to 1 or 2 gig. Nope, 500 is fast enough. I expect them to force another upgrade sometime in the future.
We have a spell of cool weather coming up. Mid-30’s to mid 50’s and then a high of 70 something on Wednesday.
I’m calling this this year’s Easter Freeze.
Even the hackberry trees are leafing. The potted plants are going outside on Thursday.
To be fair, the same applies the ” gubs that fell in the lake“, the 200 cans of food that the grocery store records say you bought, the gold Eagles that our records say you have.
If a state actor or the mob (and/or really, these days) want it you will give it up. Particularly if you have “hostages to fortune“ like some posters here.
Win11 did an update today. I don’t know what the update was.
Have you noticed you can Restart or Restart and Install Updates? Win7 didn’t give you the option. All I see different is the Search icon on the task bar can let you have just the icon again. And it decided to mess with the clock tray icons.
>> Ally Bank is offering 3.90% on savings. A local credit union is offering 4.65% on an 18 month certificate.
Synchrony Bank is currently offering 4.00% and Marcus (GS) is at 3.75%. IIRC both have no minimum balance requirement.
I wanted more of the boneless chicken thighs. They were good, No bones or kneecaps. I wanted to try doing a Chicken Fried Steak thing.
But no, just thighs with bones. Ten thighs in the package. Tomorrow’s project is to vac seal two packages of four thighs, toss the the last two into a stock pot, add that vac sealed pack of three thighs dated Sept 16 that has been staring at me for way too long and then make a big pot of chicken and dumplings.
I have plans.
Microsoft is bringing back classic Taskbar features on Windows 11 — but not because it screwed up
>>The real problem was laptop battery life though.
It’s good. So good she doesn’t think about it most of the time. So when she got the low battery alert and went to connect the power brick… and didn’t have the AC cord, it was suddenly
an@nick’s issue.F I F Y W *
* your wife
>> First challenge o the day was my wife working from here.
Sorry @nick, tomorrow is ‘speak like an Irishman day.’
>> “Strangelove” is arguably the more appropriate choice.
One of the movies that I’ll watch more than once if I come across it on cable.
Ray:
Sometimes tradesmen do stupid stuff
outsideinside their area of expertise.Fixed it for you.
My Electric Co-op is installing fiber to the house very soon (the “wiring” on the poles has passed the testing). Depending on cost I may have fiber to my shop also.
Spectrum will soon be an unpleasant memory.
No. Michael Dell and other PC manufacturer CEOs openly expressed interest in building Mac clones in the early 90s, which led to the Star Trek effort from Apple and Novell porting Mac OS 7 to Intel running on top of DR DOS, but Apple canned that project under pressure from Microsoft sometime in 1993.
Only one company ever made Mac clones in significant volume, and that was Power Computing. The company made very good PowerPC-based clones which led Steve Jobs to simply buy them out when he returned to Apple and ended the licensing.
Power Computing had a lot of Leading Edge people involved. I’m sure Dell and the other clone makers were tapped by recruiters for their manufacturing expertise as well.
BTW, yes, “Star Trek”. “To boldly go where no Mac OS has gone before …”
I’m sure Dell sold servers with the NeXT “Yellow Box” technology, which allowed programs compiled for Intel NeXTStep to run on Windows with a comparability layer. NeXTStep was huge on Wall Street in the 90s, and Apple almost released that technology with Mac OS X, but, again, Microsoft.
The “Yellow Box” never really went away, though, and you can see the requisite libraries in the Program Files directory for Windows iTunes. When a new version of iTunes rolls out, Apple just runs a cross compile for the Windows EXE which has enough code to bootstrap what I’m sure is a Cocoa binary for x86_64.
That means you are getting a “smart” meter and they are providing Internet to sink the costs.
Fiber from the power company; The biggest cost for most fiber deployments is permission to hang another wire on the power company’s poles. With the power company, that’s not an issue.
The advantage is low-cost, high-speed internet service. Most of the electrical co-ops don’t provide cable TV, so you’d need to subscribe to those services separately. But with gigabit fiber, you really won’t be limited much.
It really holds up well, possibly better now after 20 years of “wars” run by the freak show commands in Tampa than it did in the 80s and 90s.
As I noted before, I lived in a neighborhood in the Tampa suburbs filled with Colonel Bat Guano (if that is his real name) types who went through the active duty/contracting rotating door at the old Grow Financial building just outside the gates of MacDill.
Googling for one neighbor’s name, I found her connected to Admiral Poindexter and Able Danger. Holy Jack D. Ripper!
We have a spell of cool weather coming up. Mid-30’s to mid 50’s and then a high of 70 something on Wednesday.
I’m calling this this year’s Easter Freeze.
Even the hackberry trees are leafing. The potted plants are going outside on Thursday.
The meterologists are arguing around here if the sleet on Saturday and/or Sunday is going below I-10. Sleet in south Texas in March is rare, very rare. I thought globul warming was suppose to kill all this stuff off !
All of the farmers around here planted their fields last week. This is going to torque them off having to buy and plant more seed.
Ok, the conspiracy of the week is that the rest of the FTX connected banks are going to get taken by the FDIC Friday night. SVB and Signature Bank were big in to FTX and had heavy losses related to FTX.
On DSL here.
Verizon is rolling out a 5G home internet plan, and someone is putting up a tower about a mile from here, so I figured with any luck I may actually get Internet that doesn’t suck.
Spent an hour trying to figure out whose tower it is, and failed.
Apparently the towers are considered secret by the phone companies and no real info is available.
There are companies that purport to show you, but turned out to be useless (ookla and others), phone number and email harvesting..
Oh well, not a big deal.
ohhhhh! shinyyyy!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11865349/El-Salvador-mega-prison-takes-intake-gang-members.html
U.S. version should be run on 100% wind energy, constructed of recycled PET bottles, located in ND 20 miles south of the U.S/Canada border, with a 50-ft wall on the south side manned by volunteers. Each morning they should give requesting prisoners a bag lunch, a liter of water, a dime store compass, and open the doors to the road heading north. No readmission.
Then we build some really big ones for foreign invaders.
Nah. Not necessary. They’re part of an undeclared, non-uniformed invading army. They have no rights. If they’re dumped into an open-pen prison at two inmates per square meter, neither they nor anyone else has any right to complain. They have no rights.
@SteveF
I want to see how Wee Pierre feels about Canada the Sanctuary after 500,000 of Central Americas Finest arrive and demand their guest rights in Canada.
Ah. Two birds with one stone plus a finger in the eye. I approve!
Thanks gentlemen
Received the report back from the engineer. Need to read it a couple more times with a clear brain and need to go back into the attic space.
My husband is fielding the insurance calls. Their rep is coming out Saturday. Stated he will not be able to tell the condition of the roof from the outside due to snow and ice. That he will not evaluate from the attic space because he states he’s large and won’t fit. When asked how he intended to evaluate in that case stated he’d look at the ceiling from the living room. Ummm…. Yeah. Then he volunteered we were unlikely to get the requested structural engineer because one would have to be flown up from Seattle as there are none in Alaska. Ummm…
When further pressed on what good was going to come of this he said we would request a second evaluation after the snow melts in a month, and he will return with someone who can enter the attic space.
Yeah.
I think we are going to be on our own with this one.
I don’t think we have ever made a homeowners claim before. This company provides all our insurance needs. With other claims they have been superb. This time, not so much. I believe we would be prudent to take our home insurance elsewhere based off the expected timelines and lack of urgency.
Wasn’t Wells Fargo involved with FTX?
The parents, Bankman and Fried, are bigtime professors at Stanford.
How do you guys read those dailymail links without turning off your adblocker?
Turning off Javascript didn’t help.
Changed the blade drive belt on the mower deck. Blades and bearings were still good. Neighbor’s belts were too small so I hit up Tractor Supply. Chicks are in season, minimum sale of 4… I bought dewberry and blueberry bushes instead, and seed potatoes.
Got 10$ off my bill because I joined the TS marketing club, and my birthday is this month… Hooray me!
That premix fuel is very convenient, but if I go thru it like I have been up here, I might mix my own. $24 gallon is a bit steep for convenience.
Rain started as soon as I got the mower running again. It’s been drizzle and occasional squalls all afternoon. I think it’s clearing out though. May even get a fire tonight.
Wife has been cleaning and moving stuff since we will have guests tomorrow. I can’t find anything.
Dinner is ready…. time to eat!
n
Lots of lightning in the skies over College Station.
Definitely shop around before the next renewal. We had our insurance cancelled this year due to a snafu between the agency, carrier, and mortgage company, and while we had a couple of anxious weeks until we managed to get new coverage, we actually ended up saving money.
Still, due to work being a raging fire since October, I had to buy the insurance at 1 AM, following the nightly status call with management in both Austin and India.
@Nick
My first trimmer was electric, and at one point I misplaced it and had to buy a second. (The first was eventually found behind a pile of building materials stacked in the garage after the project was delayed for three months. I’ve kept one electric because it never runs out of fuel, and have bought a succession of battery and gas models. My battery is 20v and sufficient for light use, but for extended hacking I have a Stihl equipped with:
https://www.stihlusa.com/products/trimmers-and-brushcutters/trimmer-heads-and-blades/polycut/
No string to change, and the blades last about a season.
How do you guys read those dailymail links without turning off your adblocker?
Turning off Javascript didn’t help.
I use uBlock Origin 1.47.4 on the latest version of Firefox to peruse https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ .
Wasn’t Wells Fargo involved with FTX?
The parents, Bankman and Fried, are bigtime professors at Stanford.
“Kroll publishes FTX list of banks, counterparties, relationships”
https://www.ledgerinsights.com/kroll-ftx-list-banks-counterparties/
“Banks are groups with lenders, but most are likely to just be used for payments. The list includes numerous major banks such as Bank of America, JP Morgan, Silicon Valley Bank and Wells Fargo. Signature and Silvergate banks are both on the list and have both issued public statements on the topic. There are several major names in foreign countries as well. One of the interesting ones is Deltec, which is notorious as stablecoin Tether’s bank.”
Yup, there is some connection apparently between FTX and Wells Fargo.
“Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo are among Wall Street giants named as possible FTX creditors”
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/goldman-sachs-jpmorgan-wells-fargo-wall-street-ftx-bankrupcy-creditors-2023-1
Looks like FTX owes Wells Fargo some money.
@lpdbw , I use uBlock origin, and DM is fine for me. They’ve snuck in a few more ads than previously but still mostly obnoxious stuff free…. (on firefox)
wrt starlink, neighbor has been on the waiting list for a year. We will split it with him if he ever gets it. We (meaning someone else, like the VFD Chief) are exploring grant options to get fiber to the fire house. If it’s there, ATT should be able to serve the rest of us for a small additional cost, or we could do wireless. The fiber needs to be extended about 6 miles to get to our subdivision. The goal is to get someone else to pay for that.
We are too far down the road from the DSLAM to get dsl…
It looked like it was clearing up, but the rain is back and heavy downpour would be a good description… with lightning. Joy.
No fire and radio tonight. At least it’s not 40F.
n
>> I think cables are the weak point, not the socket. The flexing and tugging on the socket end is what will damage the cable.
I was able to educate my kids to pull any cable/cord out of its socket by the connector and not the cord. SWSRN* not so much.
* She Who Shall Remain Nameless
>> Today my back is KILLING me. String trimmer puts a lot of weight out in front of your body and uses some muscles you might not be used to using…
@nick, have you tried the shoulder strap that comes with/is available separately for most commercial-type gas trimmers. Back in FL when we had grass, I often saw the
landscape professionalsillegals picked up at the HD parking lot using them.>> (saw a giant Blue Heron eating last night while I was on the dock with the fire. 6ft wingspan is pretty dang impressive when all you see is a big swoopy black movement, with pointy edges….didn’t know they were nocturnal feeders.)
All good, as long as it doesn’t think you’re dessert.
@nick, seriously though, IIRC you have a smallish dog…good to then check into what the general swoopy bird population is at the BOL in case you need to keep a closer eye on the dog when it’s outside, especially if off-leash.
>> You can turn off biometrics. A good idea if you travel anywhere shady, like Tennessee any of the Blue states.
F I F Y
>> Yes, I agree. Due to his advice, I installed and tried to make Kubuntu workable. I had three negative issues that I could not resolve; consequently, after tree updates, I gave up with it.
Kubuntu?? Don’t they make riding lawn mowers and lawn tractors>
>> I think we are going to be on our own with this one.
I don’t think we have ever made a homeowners claim before. This company provides all our insurance needs. With other claims they have been superb. This time, not so much. I believe we would be prudent to take our home insurance elsewhere based off the expected timelines and lack of urgency.
@Jenny, if you can find one with honest recommendations, and one who is not also a GC, consider a Public Adjuster.
With regard to changing HO providers, your current company may force the issue by not renewing you. Your current renewal date will help decide your level of urgency.
It seems Nick is sleeping late (good for him!) So here’s today’s good wishes yesterday…
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you all. May the glorious man bestow his blessings on everyone.
>> Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you all. May the glorious man bestow his blessings and free beer on everyone.
F I F Y
(N/A as well.)
Of course Goldman Sachs (You) would be involved. And JP Morgan Chase.
All Omega House’s next generation. Thank you sir! May I have another!?
What about moonshine distillery t-shirts on the 2nd graders? Is that a tourist thing, local, or both?
@lpdbw:
Brave, and before it, Chrome, with latest uBlock Origin. No ads.
G.
@Jenny:
I have my house buildings insurance through what was my mortgage provider (Mortgage paid off 6 years ago) and what few claims I’ve made have been dealt with satisfactoriliy. Slow, but dealt with – except for a roof leak in the kitchen extension (caused by workmen walking incautiously on the tiled roof).
My insurers objected to my instructing a local, trusted by me, builder to fix it, and then making a claim for the bill, without their inspection first. It was only £couple of hundred, so I gave up, and just ate the cost. Their bureaucracy would have made the bill a lot bigger.
Of course, this is in UK, so not germane to your case, but insurance bureaucracy is universal, I think.
G.
@Geoff, here in the States, in most areas HO insurance is ‘pick your poison’ from various private providers. If you do nothing, your mortgage provider will place you and you won’t be happy with the cost. Things are different in most of our hurricane zones, especially Florida. Not too familiar with the norms up Jenny’s way in AK.