Cool and damp. A tiny respite from the heat of summer. It was actually a tiny bit of cool out in the country at my client’s house yesterday. Still warm in the sun, and boiling in the attic, but under the overcast or in the shade there was a hint of coolness. Today should be similar with a bit more sun.
I didn’t get finished at my client’s. What should have been a slam dunk turned into a dumpster fire when the new NVR turns out to be riddled with bugs and issues. Brand new firmware too. Tech support was no help. I got an RMA number. Lots of issues, including me making a mistake setting the master password. Because you are doing it blind, with a remote control and an onscreen keyboard, and they don’t show it to you or make you type it twice, I got it messed up. It’s not what I wrote down or intended. Only the first bit of bad software and gui design.
Long story short, I stayed with the same manufacturer because I didn’t want to replace cameras. But the new NVR doesn’t open and display the cameras. It works with the two oldest, but none of the others. That’s despite identifying them, assigning IP addresses, and that they are all supposed to be standards compliant. A standard this company championed btw… And it is supposed to be ‘pro level’ gear, only sold through distributors for install by integrators and other pros, but there is no manual override or even a way to see what the automagic is trying to do. I’m p!ssed, and disappointed in the company. I should be done and invoicing, instead of trying to find a new solution and continuing this project into next week.
Now I have to decide. Do I just get new cams that are on the tested and approved list? Do I go with another manufacturer’s NVR and cams, or do I look at the ubiquiti cams and storage since we’ve moved almost all the networking to ubiquiti? Gah, I could have done all that BEFORE if I knew I would have to do it, and I could have prepped my client. Now it’s last minute,and extra cost. Yeah, I’m grumpy. Standards. You’d think they might in fact be standard.
Today I’ll be doing some more clean up and organizing. Also some pickups. I got a bookcase for D2, who seems to have ‘rescued’ every discarded library book at the school. I got a high security exterior door that should work at the BOL on the garage or one of the outbuildings, and if not now, later when I build my shop. And I need to start staging stuff for the trip to the BOL this weekend.
Other than that, I also need to address the cams/nvr issue for my client (including applying the unlock code that MIGHT come today and for which I had to submit a photo ID and request- there’s no ‘reset to factory defaults’ if you don’t know the master password), and get some shipping out the door.
Meanwhile, haven’t heard from some people in a while, so here’s a ping. DadCooks, Miles_Teg, Jenny– welfare check!
Stack it up folks, things are going pear shaped.
nick
Enter your car VIN and find out what personal data it collects:
https://vehicleprivacyreport.com/
They offer an app to delete the data. Might be useful for rental cars.
Up, starting the coffee drip. Starting the ‘wake the sleepy bears’ protocol…
Looks like it might be a nice day.
n
They will have the pictures. The hard part is to avoid getting billed multiple times.
Keep every bill and track every payment.
Looks like it might be a nice day.
– or maybe not. Wind is mixed and variable, hint of chill. Sun is only breaking thru in the distance otherwise overcast…
I guess … say it with me…. “we’ll see.”
n
I thought about that since there were no images on the invoice I was sent. Make their life miserable for the want of a few dollars. I suspect they would retaliate and charge me late fees, perhaps even court costs when they issue a warrant for my arrest. Pissing off an agency that can make your life miserable is not a good idea. I could beat their shenanigans with a lawyer which would cost more than the toll charges.
Sometimes mud wrestling with a pig you both get dirty, but the pig enjoys it.
What I don’t like, and should be challenged, is that only Texas veterans and Texas disabled veterans get a break on the tolls. I get it that a state should look out for their own inhabitants, but the exclusion of non-Texas veterans is a real sore spot. Especially since Texas enjoys a lot of federal money from the multiple military bases in the state. I can think of eight military bases in Texas just off the top of my head. The intertubes says there are 15 military installations.
Some of the bases I never heard about. Camp Swift in Bastrop County. Martindale Army Airfield Army Base in San Antonio, TX. Never heard of that base even though I lived in SA for 15 years. Camp Stanley Storage Activity Army in San Antonio, TX. Never heard of it. Camp Mabry Army Base in Austin, TX. Never heard of it. In fairness these are army bases and my focus was Air Force during my tenure.
Brooks City AFB is really no longer and can be eliminated from the list. When I was in the USAF I spent a lot of time at their computer facility, during the night, doing testing on the new base personnel system. Since we worked at night we did not wear uniforms, nor wore regulation hair. We would eat at the midnight mess hall. Apparently that pissed off some senior NCO as we were in the mess hall at night without uniforms. One of the obscure requirements for midnight mess hall was uniforms. The NCO was one of the lower IQ individuals on the base, that worked guard duty, and we got reported to some commander. The fertilizer hit the fan.
https://militarybases.com/texas/
Camp Mabry is HQ for the Texas National Guard and Air National Guard.
There is a more obscure new command in Downtown Austin which does technology buying and monitors R&D activities. My wife’s nephew keeps talking up getting a transfer there so he can complete a UT MBA and become a tech manager at a contractor, apparently a common vocational path for the junior officers stationed there.
I’m not sure of the actual military value of the Downtown command, but I’m sure there is some nebulous justification.
My guess is that you haven’t seen the VA complex/pork spending project semi-hidden in Temple.
To see it requires leaving I-35 and driving to the other side of Downtown. Eventually, “I-14” will go right by the complex.
Consumer reports tested an electric F-150 for its towing capacity. The results were not good. The route chosen was mostly flat. The normal range of the F-150 is stated as 320 miles. Towing the 10K pounds trailer the range dropped to 91 miles. That would barely cover the commute from my house to downtown Knoxville. There are small hills involved.
Driving to Crossville, towing my travel trailer, a change in altitude of almost 1,000 feet, I suspect I would not even make the 56 miles distance to Crossville.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/how-well-can-an-electric-pickup-truck-tow-a1149286680/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_FB&fbclid=IwAR2jUlG_Lp75r-TywHgrFzalvyNaUHbeFZZc-34yFFGKDm1DmT_bRRETGp4
Well, I priced out the cams needed to replace existing, and work with the new NVR, and it’s a couple grand cheaper than swapping out everything for ubiquiti. Plus, the ubiquiti cams are very limited and you are beholden to ubiquiti to see your stored data, even though it’s in your server, because you have to use their cloud service for access. One of the other costs is adding a PoE switch for the cams, when the NVR has one built in.
I’ll present it to my client and see what he wants to do. All depends on getting the NVR unlocked with a good password though.
n
Go read the background on the first customer to take delivery of a Lightning. The truck was designed for that guy to commute to his Deep State revolving door “CTO” job, not you.
(I use quotes because God only knows what he really does. My neighbor in Florida allegedly tortured prisoners at Gitmo on the payroll of one of the oldest and most storied consulting names in the industry.)
The new Toyota Tundra is probably the future of practical half ton truck drivetrains. 9500 lb towing capacity from a V6, no turbo. Hybrid drivetrain with the RAV4 Prime design philosophy.
Ford could duplicate the design easily, but Tommy Boy is sticking to the agenda.
Plus, Tommy Boy is having problems building anything without recalls, EVs or traditional vehicles.
You can stick your head inside an undercarriage to get a good look at a Bronco transmission manufacturing problem, but wouldn’t you rather take the assembly line foreman’s word for it?
An SSH port wasn’t available on the NVR box once the IP address got set up?
“GOP unites in brinkmanship over default, rejecting Biden compromises”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-unites-in-brinkmanship-over-default-rejecting-biden-compromises/ar-AA1bCyDq
“After refusing to negotiate for months, President Biden’s aides last week offered the GOP substantial concessions on the federal budget — including a freeze on spending for two years — that nonpartisan estimates have projected could cut deficits by as much as $1 trillion over the next decade.”
Haven’t we been down this road before ?
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Also some pickups. I got a bookcase for D2, who seems to have ‘rescued’ every discarded library book at the school.
A fellow bookworm !
Bah. Humbug. Beatings will continue…
Christmas in July is more than a month away …
Sequestration, which didn’t mean anything with the Jesus President and Speaker Baynor.
Corn Pop isn’t Jesus, but the Republicans may yet prove to be just as spineless.
The moment the “closed” signs go up at Yosemite and The Smithsonian will be when the real test begins. School will be out everywhere in less than a month, and people are weird about the Federal tourist traps.
xkcd: Exoplanet High-5
https://xkcd.com/2779/
I really, really, really hope that our first contact goes better than this. Unfortunately, most first contact books tend to lean in this direction. The best books are “Footfall” by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
https://www.amazon.com/Footfall-Larry-Niven/dp/0345323440?tag=ttgnet-20/
and “Live Free Or Die” by John Ringo
https://www.amazon.com/Live-Free-Die-Troy-Rising/dp/1439133972?tag=ttgnet-20/
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2779:_Exoplanet_High-5
I just remembered that the first time I walked out of a professional job without notice happened this week in 2013, ten years ago, in Seattle.
Management used Sequestration as an excuse to stiff me on money and title before pulling a bait-n-switch making me a tester. Then they hired a younger employee for more money. I found the paperwork on the new hire left on the office printer by the HR droid.
After I quit, the recruiter was fired within a few weeks. The board fired the CEO not long afterwards.
I disagree. The real test will begin when the Social Security checks, the military retirement checks, the military paychecks, the VA compensation checks, fail to appear in the bank accounts. Welfare is from the state so those leaches will continue to thrive.
I personally think that all three branches of the government should have their pay stopped immediately if an agreement is not reached. Congress, Senate, Executive, and Judicial should have their pay withheld, without back pay when an agreement is reached. Layoff all the staff at the White House, but they get back pay. Let Sponge Brain fix his own breakfast, change his own diapers, pick his own nose.
If the process still drags on, shut down the FAA, the FCC, the FBI, the IRS, and most other three letter agencies. Send all the people home. Make the hoards of peons, the common man, the serf as viewed by the government angry as a cockroach in cup full of ants.
Looks like it might be a nice day.
– or maybe not. Wind is mixed and variable, hint of chill. Sun is only breaking thru in the distance otherwise overcast…
Our 10% chance of rain just turned into 100%.
Military paychecks, VA, and retirements have priority right behind debt service. Enough tax revenue will be available to cover those.
Social Security is “general welfare” per Davis v. Helvering but Fleming v. Nestor established that payouts are at Congress’ discretion. That will be where things get interesting.
On my upcoming trip to Europe I am taking several of these little items.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K7FRJDP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&tag=ttgnet-20
I will give one to flight attendants, gate agents, ticket counter agents, etc. While I do have 1st class in the domestic portions of the trip, Delta Premium Select on the really long legs, dropping one of those may get me a little extra. Or not. But at less than a $1 each I don’t have much to lose.
I am certain the people will be appreciative. If no upgrades, perhaps a little more attention from the flight attendants. Maybe even use the 1st class restroom on the long haul flights.
When I was in the USAF, had to be early ‘70s, I remember paychecks being delayed because of thuggery and trickery of congressional cretins. I did not get paid for three weeks which was really tough on my meager salary. I did have food in the mess hall. Others living off base were really struggling. I did get back pay. I don’t remember, or if I even knew, the real reasons for the delay.
Military paychecks, VA, and retirements have priority right behind debt service. Enough tax revenue will be available to cover those.
Social Security is “general welfare” per Davis v. Helvering but Fleming v. Nestor established that payouts are at Congress’ discretion. That will be where things get interesting.
I am fairly sure that Social Security will be means tested in the not too distant future. Medicare, I am not sure about since most of those people will simply slide into Medicaid.
Maybe even use the 1st class restroom on the long haul flights.
I flew on Delta in first class to Salt Lake City and Helena, Montana and back. The first class bathroom was no bigger or fancier than the prole class bathroom. And, the pilots use the first class bathroom so when they come out, the first class stewperson uses the trolley cart to block the bathroom from the rest of us. I guess that they are worried that we will assault one of the pilots while they are outside the cockpit.
Do not get the french toast breakfast in first class no matter what you do. The french toast was not even identifiable, much less tasty. The ham and cheese quiche was ok but very salty.
Bare Medicare is already pretty bad, as my wife’s “boss” uncle (Big Acoo – I’m not making up the title) and his wife are learning the hard way, after selling the uncle’s WA State supplement retirement benefit about a dozen years ago and spreading the money between their kids to pay for nonsense.
I think they assumed my wife could fill in the gap when we moved up there, but, urban legends aside, there isn’t such a thing as a motel bathtub kidney transplant, which the aunt now requires.
If you are on bare Medicare and go into renal failure, you’re pretty much screwed. They’re paying out of pocket for dialysis from what I understand.
>> They will have the pictures.
I’ve been getting ‘bill by plate’ notices from Cali for the CA license plates that were on the car I bought remotely when I took delivery on it here (not Cali.) Either some “industrious” clerk at the DMV reissued the same plate number or it might be confusion with the plate being billed having the letter “E” slightly blocked by a license plate frame and thus being interpreted as the letter “F”. The pictures are so grainy it’s hard to definitively read the plate number, much less make out the car’s make/model.
According to the last response I got, they’re “still looking into the issue.” Grr…
Bare Medicare is already pretty bad, as my wife’s “boss” uncle (Big Acoo – I’m not making up the title) and his wife are learning the hard way, after selling the uncle’s WA State supplement retirement benefit about a dozen years ago and spreading the money between their kids to pay for nonsense.
My wife is paying about $200/month for Medicare Part B and Supplement G (that includes supplement D). It is confusing and too many options. Plus she was told by MD Anderson Cancer Center (she is in long term care and a clinical trial still after 18 years) that they will not accept any of the Advantage programs.
In the mid-to-late 1980s Congress reduced the deficit by one year by changing military monthly pay date from the last day of the month to the first day of the following month, the change being timed to shift a month of military payroll to the next fiscal year. Caused trouble for a number of soldiers living off-base because their rent was due and they didn’t have it in hand.
Didn’t impact me because I was a bachelor with no bills and living in a BOQ room that I saw maybe a week per month. (I was gone so much that I had trouble keeping my car battery charged. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that I could have disconnected the battery before leaving each time, duh.) I’d have been willing to make a short-term loan to help out some of the troops around me but I was out of town for either my primary or my secondary job.
Yes, but there are fewer people using that facility. The Premium Select seats are supposed to use coach bathrooms. And that is way back in the middle of the plane. Firstclass is closer.
Those really suck and are a big cash cow for the insurance companies. They get paid by Medicare, then limit the number of facilities available. Many of the doctors are people who six months ago could not spell Anesthesia. I was strongly advised by an independent insurance agent to avoid the Advantage at all costs.
I am paying $247.00 a month for the two of us. I do not have part D as the VA fills that gap, wife does. I could abandon Medicare altogether and just use the VA. Based on experience with the VA paying bills, not a good idea. An emergency room visit must be reported to the VA within 72 hours. Even then paying is a crap shoot.
I also chose supplement G, the highest level. I am with Mutual of Omaha and have had no difficulties with them paying. Once I pass my Medicare deductible, then the insurance deductible, about $800.00 for both, everything is covered 100%.
The biggest issue I have is with the wife’s medication and the insurance. Humana does not cover much of the cost. Last year my out of pocket was almost $7K for prescriptions. I can see where people without resources choose medicine, food, or death. But never more than one at a time.
When I was in the service, I got paid twice a month. Once on the 15th of the month, the other on the last day of the month (or was it the first day of the month?). Regardless, it was still twice a month. I got out December 1979 so missed that foolishness.
Just when I’m getting settled into the new build as primary desktop, Newegg cut the price of the CPU almost in half along with a third off the next step up in the AMD CPU family in terms of core count.
Times have really changed. My wife’s nephew is working the off base allowance system to build a rental house empire for himself, and he’s not alone where he is stationed.
To paraphrase “Supertroopers”, “They get that off base housing allowance in ’em and they get all antsy in their pantsy.”
V6? For towing? I could see that, from Toyota. My son advised a V8 for towing, but although he’s an ASE Master Mechanic, he’s set in his ways. Not that I’m planning on towing too often or too far, but I’d like the option.
I’m skeptical of turbos and 10-speed trannys.
Regarding my potential TV upgrade purchase: current choices are the LG – 65″ Class C3 Series OLED 4K UHD Smart webOS TV (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-65-class-c3-series-oled-4k-uhd-smart-webos-tv/6535929.p?skuId=6535929 )
and the Sony – 65″ Class BRAVIA XR A95K 4K HDR OLED Google TV ( https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-65-class-bravia-xr-a95k-4k-hdr-oled-google-tv/6500891.p?skuId=6500891 )
Both have good reviews from Tom’s Hardware and other places. Will be doing a side-by-side comparison on a trip to Best Buy on Friday. Not paranoid about either OS, or any purported ‘tracking’. I’ve already got the googles tracking my other devices.
I’ll need to upgrade the DirecTV receiver to a 4K model, but that is free under my plan. Possibly will need to upgrade to the Amazon Fire 4K Stick. I don’t watch anything via Over The Air – that is handled by the DirecTV, so no antenna issues. And I have no issues with staying with DirecTV – been happy with it for over 20 years.
The wireless routers are 35 feet from the TV location, so that connection should be sufficient. I have a Juplink WiFi 6 wireless router for that connection. No need to run a hard CAT5.
@Lynn
First contact:
All the Colors of Darkness by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
and four more in the Jan Darzek series.
“I am fairly sure that Social Security will be means tested in the not too distant future.”
If we’re not already into the revolution, that would tip it.
The hybrid design is similar to the RAV4 Prime in that both the gas engine and electric motors are used to drive the vehicle.
The RAV4 Prime doesn’t have the same towing capacity, but it is the fastest Toyota vehicle the company produces in its own factories. The Supra is a BMW, and the 86 is a Subaru.
“The Best Lesser-known Golden Age Science Fiction Books” by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/the-best-lesser-known-golden-age-science-fiction-books/
“Depending who you ask, the Golden Age of science fiction lasted from the 1930s to the 1950s, and marked when science fiction rose out of its pulpy beginnings and began to resemble actual literature. The biggest names—Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, and such—are not on this list in order to give some room for the lesser-known but still worthy denizens of the Golden Age.”
I have read:
23: “The Long Tomorrow” by Leigh Brackett
15. “City” by Clifford D. Simak
9. “The Space Merchants” by by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth
7. “Triplanetary” by E.E. “Doc” Smith
4. “The Demolished Man” by Alfred Bester
1. “On The Beach” by Nevil Shute – Sad, sad, sad story
I do it all the time in my F-150. Probably over 4,000 miles towing. Trailer towing system says 3.2K miles and before that I towed the boat. Truck is rated for about 10K in towing capacity.
Towed a 20′ Airstream, heavily loaded, all over CA including the Grapevine and Tehachipi passes with both a 1992 and 2002 Explorer V-6. Slowed some on the passes but no problems.
I knew a few people living off-base and using the house allowance to mostly pay the mortgage. Heard of a few career NCOs who got a house everywhere that they were stationed and rented them out when they got orders elsewhere. Wasn’t an option for me because I wasn’t there enough of the time and then I was separated from the Army when Congress cut the budget for junior officers. (I don’t think that the reduction in force was the reason I never made it to Special Forces Selection. I think it was paperwork screwups of the type to be expected from people who will never suffer consequences for their mistakes. I’ll note in passing that it takes months to straighten out screwups when you’re on post for eight days, three of which are weekends, and then away for another three weeks. By the time I got that series of screwups straightened out, I had received the separation orders from a different office of ARPERCEN.)
An SSH port wasn’t available on the NVR box once the IP address got set up?
– no idea. The password reset uses some sort of keygen based on mac address and time. They needed me to read them the system time which was displayed to 1000 of a second. He read me back a code that I put in, and it asked for a new password. THIS time I turned on ‘show password’ and used the second input to verify the first. I’d already reduced the password strength to “Three out of 4” caps, smalls, numbers, symbols. Onscreen keyboard took 4 clicks to get a symbol and then back to querty, so I dropped the symbol requirement.
I was able to verify that the on screen keyboard would produce a highlighted key and a click noise, without registering the keypress in the entry field, so it’s not entirely my fault.
Spent some time, far too much, trying to get some legacy cams configured, including the ones I’m using. Couldn’t get it to work. Maybe if I was sniffing the traffic and saw what command line is actually being sent I could figure it out. Not worth my time or effort though. It would make a difference if I could get the PTZ cam to work, as that would save $1000. I’m going to head out there tomorrow and try. It’s not MY $1000 and scrapping this vendor would mean spending the same or more with another anyway. This vendor is cheapest of the 3.
n
@Lynn
Livingston never fails to ground out or fly to short right with his lists.
“The Best Lesser-known Golden Age Science Fiction Books” is a turgid mess of a title
“The Best Golden Age Science Fiction Books by Lesser-known Authors” would be much clearer, but the problem is calling Sturgeon or Simak or Smith such is ridiculous–if you grew up reading science fiction of the golden age, you knew them all.
I could pick this apart but I’ll just end with one question*:
How TAF could you make such a list and leave Hal Clement and Andre Norton off?
If you’re looking to round out your Golden Age reading, this list:
http://www.hilobrow.com/golden-age-sci-fi/
is much better. There are also links to the earlier “Radium Age” dominated by Hugo Gernsback.
Heinlein’s juveniles were Golden Age, and the above list includes titles by Beatty and L’Engle. What about Paul French?
With those included should the door have been open for other juvenile authors such as Eleanor Cameron, Walter Brooks, Louis Slobodkin, or are they children’s book and not juveniles? How about the series by Victor Applegate (Tom Swift Jr.) and John Blaine (Rick Brandt), and Carey Rockwell (Tom Corbett)?
*George R. Stewart might be a better question in some respects, as he is remembered exclusively for his masterpiece “Earth Abides”. But go get a copy of his earlier novel, “Storm”–you’ll thank me later.
This is what western civ looks like, and what we’ll lose before we get it…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12118925/Paralysed-man-walks-time-12-YEARS-fitted-electronic-implant.html
n
>> I’m skeptical of turbos and 10-speed trannys.
Uhh, you’re talking about cars, right?
Towing…10000lbs? Jeezum, what is that, an aircraft carrier? I’m not surprised that destroyed the range of an EV. What kind of impact does it have on the mileage of a IC-engine?
I feel adventurous when I’m towing a cubic meter of gravel – with the trailer that’s probably a bit less than 2 tons. Haven’t tried that with the new car yet, just towed light stuff. FWIW, the backup camera is incredibly well placed: you can see exactly when you are aligned with the trailer hitch. Makes life so much easier.
Wouldn’t surprise me a bit. I’m still kinda surprised that I am supposed to get SS, despite having handed in my passport. For our kids sake, it sure would be nice if the US would repeal all that FATCA nonsense.
@Nick: Sorry for your adventures. All to often one runs head-on into interfaces implemented by some engineering guy who has zero clue about decent interface design. Someone like me, only I *know* no one should ever have to use an interface I put together.
For our house, I have one such device I just cannot get to work. It’s supposed to provide an API to our skylights (which can be remotely controlled). First, you have to go through some contortions to hook it up: pressing magic buttons for arbitrary numbers of seconds, with no feedback. Then you get a web interface which is…just completely incomprehensible. Never got much past that.
>> Regarding my potential TV upgrade purchase: current choices are the LG – 65″ Class C3 Series OLED 4K UHD Smart webOS TV (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-65-class-c3-series-oled-4k-uhd-smart-webos-tv/6535929.p?skuId=6535929 )
and the Sony – 65″ Class BRAVIA XR A95K 4K HDR OLED Google TV ( https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-65-class-bravia-xr-a95k-4k-hdr-oled-google-tv/6500891.p?skuId=6500891 )
$2400 for an LG? Wow! What source provides content that has recognizable differences?
Oh wait, it has AI…
Sees what you’re watching and reports back to HQ.
Regarding TVs, I still recommend our solution: We have an Epson home-theater projector, which is very quiet. You can attach whatever source you want to the inputs. In our case, it’s essentially a cable-box that comes from our ISP, plus a home media center.
The disadvantage: you have to mount the projector and the screen.
The advantages: (1) None of the smart-TV nonsense like ads, and (2) You don’t have a wall occupied by a huge TV (the screen rolls up and disappears).