Warm and damp. Sun came out and it got hot yesterday and I see no reason that can’t happen again today. National forecast has us on the edge of some bad stuff, but that’s just par for the course.
Yesterday ended up nice. Overcast to start, but sunny in the afternoon. I spent the morning working on auction stuff, mainly vintage audio gear, then went to do my pickup. Hit the goodwill bins, since I was right there. Got two pairs of expensive vintage cowboy boots as the main score. Got a campstove toast rack too! Now I can burn bread over a Coleman stove. Lots of DVDs too. It’s hard to believe that there are still DVDs I want but don’t have.
Stopped by my storage unit and got some stuff for my non-prepping hobby club meeting today. I hope some stuff sells. It would be nice to not bring it all home. There are days when it feels like the joke about the two antique dealers alone on a deserted island. One is having a ‘going out of business’ sale, the other is buying up ‘inventory’… It’s always fun to spend time with people who enjoy the same stuff you do, even if they aren’t buying.
So that’s how I’m spending the morning, amongst fellow enthusiasts. I’ll spend the afternoon doing house stuff, or auction stuff. There’s always more to do.
Hopefully I’ll be stacking up a little money today. Nothing else is likely to be added to the piles. YOU should stack something though. Water treatment or food, your choice this week 😉
nick
Tennis tournament today. It was supposed to be cloudy and drizzle, but it’s lovely Spring sunshine. In a little town of 200 up in the mountains. Why a town this small has two clay courts? Dunno, but it a nice place to be on a Saturday…
As an experiment, with my new desktop, I imaged the drive in the old system to a new hard disk and booted the replacement PC from that disk. Other than having to enter a new activation code for Windows, I haven’t seen any weirdness so far.
Linux is super easy. Just move the drive.
The Windows 10 partition works. I’m not going to try the Windows 7 partition on the new PC, however, since I do not want to leave the drive in a weird state which would prevent Linux from mounting it. Windows 7 has 13 years of school and other personal work which I’ve yet to archive properly from the Documents folder and other locations.
@nick
There were real advantages to component stereo making you have some knowledge and work a bit to have good music. Taught how to take care of systems and troubleshoot something other than a car engine. It was a small step for most of us to apply similar principles to computers in the 80’s and 90’s.
There’s a conceptual loss in going from vinyl to cd’s to a massive bit-bucket. There’s also a dilution: two sides of an LP at 23 minutes or so requires a lot of planning and choices by the artists and engineers. One cd at up to 75 minutes is a different cat, and the amorphous bit-bag without physical form has no definition at all. No constraint in size means no check on the quality.
There’s probably an essay there somewhere, more than just an ineffable nagging sense that we’ve lost yet another “something”.
On the upside, not having to deal with fragile vinyl, dust, static electricity and clumsy guests is a big plus*. I still have a couple boxes of LP’s that got tracked once to transfer to Maxell UDXL or TDK SA cassettes. Most of it is too mainstream rock to be collectable, but I did buy a bunch of Windham Hill on closeout that never got played.
And I’ll always remember the garage sale thrill of scoring Traffic On the Road for a quarter. Sometimes it’s the small victories.
Own your music so the sweaty billionaires don’t own so much of you.
*And so was not having to change the record twice an hour or let it loop.
@drwilliams, I hadn’t thought of the systems aspect, although as I was spinning a few discs yesterday I was thinking of all the things I’d have to explain to D2 and wondering if one of the new vinyl/blutooth all in one players wasn’t a better choice.
I think I will proceed with the system approach. Of course D1 saw all the gear laid out and wanted it. I’m hesitant to provide a teen with a system I can’t drown out…
n
Warm and a bit windy, with light overcast so far today. Coffee is on, shower is next, then I’m out the door.
n
Static, dust, and scratches. I have to dig out the discwasher, zerostat, and fluid. I can use a big mouse pad as a mat…
I might have to buy a tracking force and downforce gauge…
n
From the mid-80s on, a lot of artists and engineers shifted the focus to the CD from the vinyl albums.
It kills me to see any Sting solo albums on vinyl in Best Buy or Barnes & Noble. That’s not the format the artist intended, but it is currently “hip” to collect the analog media.
Yeah the stuff that was engineered for the format sounds better in the format, especially if the physical incarnation was done well. Thick vinyl, or high quality CDs…
Vinyl can sound great, even fantastic. But it can sound cr@p too, and it wears out faster than bits.
n
The biggest difference is the lack of low end in the older stuff.
@nick
The lower you go the wider the track in the vinyl and the shorter the playing time. There’s a reason classical records were short.
The biggest difference is us old farts can’t hear the highs at all. It makes no sense to spend big bucks for a three-way system with crystalline tweeters with flat response up to 20k when you’re not hearing above 10k.
One U.S. A. fluid manufacturer:
“formulated and manufactured in USA, not in a China industrial complex”
Zerostat is great for turntable use. I have a Simco Aerostat that I used the last time I was cleaning records (7-8 years ago?) with good results.
@Greg Norton
Yup. And produced a lot of crap. Not that it wasn’t common practice to do so with vinyl. Professor of Rock has an interview with Sib Hashian of Boston where he mentions the last push for Stolz to complete his own studio when they were renting studio time and Stolz pulled out a wow and flutter meter and the audio engineer was basically clueless.
Good:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2023/05/Screenshot-2023-05-09-at-6.28.43-PM.png
Good thing I wan’t drinking coffee:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2023/05/IMG_2930.jpg
OK, pick your own*, I’m off to do useful work:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/05/the-week-in-pictures-trump-returns-edition.php
Shatner with non-standard rifle is next to last. I have a brand-new unknown origin custom 30″ SS pneumatic piston assembly with gauges and actuators from a long-ago surplus pallet buy. Totally unmarked as to purpose, it probably cost $5k to put together. I wanted to make it into a Halloween space gun prop until I realized picked it up and realized that at 60 pounds it was more a tow-behind than a toteable.
That is ntpd in a nutshell.
Chrony is preferred with the Hot Skillz crowd, but it leaves a lot to be desired in real world applications.
The scenario happens all the time in tech. Again, I think we are the only vendor shipping a complete ChatGPT capable system, just plug in the six (!) 2200 W (!!) power supplies, BMC power, and go.
That might leave me as the only person outside of a key supplier who has managed to write a tool to do X on that platform, part of the debugging process for my wider responsibilities.
Of course management got a call from higher ups wanting to satisfy a customer this week. “Can we do X with the new boxes?”
“The entire world is on fire.”
Setting Gaza on fire and letting it burn until it was flat to the border fences would be a good start.
You do realize that there are several million people crowded into the Gaza strip. The Israelies are literally between a rock and a hard place.
The Iron Dome has impressively worked seeing as it fought off over 800 rockets and only letting a few get through. Sucks to be the people whose homes got bombed.
If this nonsense was going on here in the USA, we would bomb them until not two bricks were standing together.
Linux is super easy. Just move the drive.
No, I want a new WD Black 1 TB M.2 drive. I can get links of my 13 MB DLL in 10 seconds with it. The old Intel SSD takes 30 seconds to link my 5,000 subroutines. It used to take 30 minutes on our old Prime 450 back in 1978 with every one screaming at me to wait until 6 pm.
They are bombing us with people, and in the long run, that is more destructive.
n
I have not tried imaging a partition from a traditional hard drive to an SSD and booting. I assume that it would work the same as if I imaged to a spinning metal drive.
It will be a while before I put an SSD in my main desktop. I have a Crucial M.2 for the other build which will get a clean copy of Windows 11, but I spent the last two weekends on work stuff and shampooing cat urine out of our living/dining room carpet.
An unbelievable amount of money might come down to my libcurl experience, which I acquired at the tolling company on one of my last side projects before being fired.
The Adderall and/or T-Therapy addict boss, Shakes the Clown, told co-workers that I was “wasting” time with libcurl, trying to improve plate camera download times, among other reasons cited when they were trying to rationalize the firing beyond the personality conflict it truly was in the end.
Waste. I’m sure my new employer disagrees right now.
I have done that on three machines. One is a desktop, the other two were laptops. I used the software from Acorns, linked to the specific vendor of the SSD, and everything moved without issue. The machines booted, trundled for a minute or two, then produced the desktop. In none of the cases was the entering of a new activation key.
I had to enter a new activation key because I moved a copy of the old machine’s hard drive to a new motherboard/CPU.
Some things trigger the need for a new activation key. Change too much in a machine, such as increasing the memory, replace the video card and replacing a hard drive at the same time may trigger a need to reactivate. Replace those same items over the course of six months and there is no need to reactivate.
Replacing a motherboard, even same brand, will almost always trigger a new activation requirement. Replacing a hard drive generally won’t as that is not enough of a change.
I am not certain what happens when there is a Microsoft account associated with the machine. I know for my Surface laptop there is no activation key, just the association with a Microsoft account. What information MS keeps about the machine to make certain it is the same machine, or close, no one except MS knows.
Stacksocial.com is a good resource to get a cheap key for W11. Prior versions are not so easy. I have used them twice with success. I think RickH has also used them with success.
I got away with a motherboard swap using the same CPU once. Different manufacturer, but identical AMD AM4 chipset.
“Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin has stopped providing transition-related care to transgender teenagers, according to several parents who were told they would need to find new providers. Dell Children’s said in a statement Saturday that while its adolescent medicine clinic remains open, “the physicians who previously staffed the clinic will be departing.””
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/13/austin-dell-childrens-gender-affirming/
“Parents said they were told about the doctors’ departures just hours after Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into “potentially illegal” activity at Dell Children’s. The investigation seems to be in response to a video report from the conservative Project Veritas, a far-right activist group that engages in deceptive practices to do hidden camera-style investigations. The video allegedly shows a Dell Children’s social worker saying the Austin-based hospital provides certain gender-affirming treatment for patients “as young as eight, nine” and sometimes after only one consultation.”
Children as young as eight getting puberty blockers, are you kidding me ? So did they wait for the kids to become ten before they cut their genitals off ? This is what I expect out of the Nazis in WWII, not modern day society.
Over The Hedge: Solar Powered Toaster
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2023/05/13
This is for you Mr. AtoZ.
Dell Children’s and Texas Children’s (Baylor teaching hospital) both have new facilities opening soon near my house. The spotlight is on both institutions in a huge way right now.
Project Veritas and The Texas Tribune … human sacrifice … dogs and cats living together … mass hysteria.
Yeah, Project Veritas is done.
Wait until the toaster has ChatGPT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRq_SAuQDec
So that’s how I’m spending the morning, amongst fellow enthusiasts. I’ll spend the afternoon doing house stuff, or auction stuff. There’s always more to do.
It has been monsooning lightly out here in the sticks. Maybe another inch or two of rain today. We really need to save this stuff for August.
It’s been raining here, off and on, since noon. No outdoor work for me.
I’ve been slowly going thru stuff, and doing domestic bliss, like laundry. I’m about to do some dishes…
I did sell some stuff at my meeting today. Nothing major but there was one large piece I’m not unhappy to see go. And I didn’t buy or take home anything new. D2 and I did hit an estate sale in the neighborhood on the way home. Saw the sign and had to stop. I bought a big A/C adapter for an RV or welding machine or gennie for $3. Bought some LP vinyl for a dollar.
Been home since.
D2 is playing Skyrim. Game is over 10 years old and still looks great. Lots of people still playing it.
n
There is a release date for the second book in this series, hooray! Unfortunately it’s Nov. 7
https://www.amazon.com/Through-Storm-TransDimensional-Hunter-Book-ebook/dp/B0C32QLYKW?ref_=ast_author_mpb&tag=ttgnet-20
I really enjoyed the first one, and have been looking forward to the continuation.
n
Regaining cubic is always good.
–joy
n
>> Static, dust, and scratches. I have to dig out the discwasher, zerostat, and fluid. I can use a big mouse pad as a mat…
I might have to buy a tracking force and downforce gauge…
“He who dies with the most tools wins.”
>> If this nonsense was going on here in the USA, we would bomb them until not two bricks were standing together.
Bricks? Nah, it was, I believe, RBT who was oft to say we bomb them until all that’s left is sand.
@Lynn
Not until we clean out the commies.
I was in the grocery store today specifically to buy something that I purchased on sale earlier in the week. Sale was over. I wandered around a bit, seemed like every price started with $3. or $4. I left empty-handed. Supper was out of the freezer. Going to be a lot of canning going on when farmer’s market starts up serious.
The local Goodwills put the price of paperbacks up to hardcover price a few months ago. This week hardcovers, children’s books, CD’s and DVD’s went up 33-50%. They no longer have a tag price on anything in the store for less than $1.49. Yeah, that includes odd drinking glasses and such. For several years all donations have been sorted, with media in particular scanned and anything that beeps goes into a bin and gets routed to their online sales operation. Discount day on particular tags is 25-50% off where it used to be 50-75%. They raise money for a worthwhile cause and employ people who are marginally employable as part of the training, but they are also paying lots of people top dollar with very good benefit packages, so their overhead looks pretty high.
I’m nearly to the point where I pass the media section entirely. A couple times a year I hit an estate sale with a good collection of CD’s and DVD’s and buy a hundred or so that are less expensive and in better condition than the thrift store, with the added bonus that I don’t have to see multiple copies of Fresh Aire Christmas on every freaking shelf.
When I stopped earlier in the week I was looking for coolers and found a 50-qt Coleman Xtreme for $5. Kismet. That was the only purchase of the day, though, and YTD my thrift store stops are down by about half and my expenditures about 75%. Makes more sense to bottom-fish the auctions.
Saturday’s Dilbert just arrived, May 13, 2023. Wally is asking PHB for time off. PHB says why ? Wally says that TikTok has convinced him to remove his testicles and live as a woman. PHB says TikTok isn’t that powerful. Wally says that is what he thought too. Then Wally says he has to go shopping for hedge trimmers and summer dresses.
Yup, too edgy for the funny pages. Adams is living large now.
Well, I have been told that this no edgier than this Dilbert from 1993:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/5p4hah/dilbert_accurately_representing_manager_knowledge/
Even the goodwill outlet, the “bins” have raised their prices. Clothes and textiles went from $2.19/lb to $2.69 and Misc went from $1.19/lb to $1.69, iirc. Still pretty cheap for media.
Books went from 50c each or 3 for $1 to 69c each or 2 for a dollar.
There are things it doesn’t make sense to buy at the bins, like ordinary cast iron pans. Some other heavy but inexpensive things don’t make the cut either.
I rarely even go into the normal thrift stores anymore, they are full of resellers, and the shelves are empty. I do always look at books and media to see if there is something I need but never see. Rarely do I buy something.
The Mormon thrift, Deseret Industries, has good stuff and good prices. It’s worth a bit of a drive occasionally.
n
At last Ivanka is getting her due. Years of pretending she was a hag, while Moochelle was a runway model…
n
Did anyone else realize that Jane Goodall was Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall when she wrote her book?
Seems to have distanced herself from the title (unless there is some customary thing going on?) Took a bunch of search results before I looked at the wikipedia entry. Other than wiki nothing on the first page of results for “is jane goodall a baroness”. Funny, huh?
n
Ok class, how do we know that “Patriot Front” is in fact a complete lefty lie??
Well- to start with “drumming.” Favored by the left, not the right.
Then, “escorted” instead of arrested or ignored so the left can commit violence against them…
Add the “small group” of counter-protesters… we know that real right wing protests attract LARGE groups of screaming counters…
And wtf was Satancon?? Anyone remember that being reported at the time?
Did I sleep thru SatanCon? Seems like the kind of thing I’d remember, or post about, or at least link to but a search here turns up nothing.
Anyone else find it weird how the article described their manifesto, modus operandi, and history? The whole thing is very strange.
n
Just tried to purchase MS Office from StackSocial
Went in with the link provided by @RickH yesterday.
Paid through PayPal
Followed the StackSocial “Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows” Redeem Link, entered the product key, downloaded the installer, installed…
and I have Microsoft Office 365.
WTF?
Yes, I filled out a help request.
Email from MS says “Office Professional Plus 2021”
When installer is activated, it says “Please stay online while Microsoft 365 and Office downloads”
What appears in my apps is “Microsoft 365 (Office)”
“EPA’s CCS requirement is illegal; The agency blocked its Science Advisory Board from saying so 10 years ago”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/13/epas-ccs-requirement-is-illegal-the-agency-blocked-its-science-advisory-board-from-saying-so-10-years-ago/
“EPA proposed today that utilities stop burning coal and natural gas by 2040 unless power plants can be outfitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The agency tried mandating CCS 10 years ago, but its Science Advisory Board got in the way. So EPA killed SAB review of CCS.”
The law authorizing the EPA explicitly says BACT (best AVAILABLE control technology). It is my understanding that no one can get a carbon capture system to work for more than a few months. And, the CCS systems require 40 to 50% of the electricity produced in order to work.
“Displaced by illegals”
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/05/displaced-by-illegals.php
“The New York Post reports that homeless vets have been displaced from their lodging to make room for illegal aliens (a/k/a “migrants”) shipped north of the city by Mayor Eric Adams:”