Hot and humid. Might get weird as there was a lot of wind and from all the points of the compass later in the day yesterday. As long as I was in the shade, and the wind was howling, it wasn’t bad. When either of those two things weren’t present, it was miserable.
Spent yesterday catching up on auctions, then booking heavy equipment for the BOL. That was painful. The 90s still rule at United Rentals online office apparently. Despite knowing which store was closest to my job, and despite having computerized rental records, and knowing the dates I needed the equipment, they STILL showed me stuff that wasn’t available, and errorred out when I tried to book it. Called the number they insisted I should call. Got halfway done with booking over the phone and got disconnected. Called back and got a different agent who was not able to see either my online order, or anything from the first guy.
So we did the dance, I repeated myself for the third time, he called the store, and finally I got some gear I hope will work reserved. It was all upsized from the machines I actually wanted, and cost more too. I just hope it’s not too big for access or too heavy for the soil. Then the system, which found my account when I logged in, and when I called in, couldn’t process my order because my account was either inactive or on hold. No telling which, and too late in the day to find out. So the rep made me a new account faster than even just calling support would have been, and a credit card number later, I was booked to have a skid steer (bobcat) and mini-excavator delivered to the site. I’m committed to a schedule now…
I’m also committed to learning to use the dang things. It’s been a couple decades since I ran a skid steer or excavator. I’m sure I’ll catch on. Pretty sure.
Now to get some fuel cans, so I can keep the diesel fueled beasts running with no more than one trip a day to the gas station…
Stacking up skills, and experiences!
For today, I’ve got to find a debris service to drop off a roll off dumpster for the broken concrete and get that delivered. Then I’ve got to head out to my client’s house, and do the things he needs. I’ll do one pickup on the way. That should fill my day, but if it doesn’t, I’ll do some other stuff around the house.
Tomorrow should be just as busy too.
It’s a great life if you don’t falter.
DON’T FALTER. Stack it up.
nick
First post!
@nick:
Here in UK, we say “weaken”.
G.
According to the local Faux News, the forecast is 106 for Austin on Friday. 107 next Monday.
Of course, being Austin, the nutters are going to wear the masks outside. This story was one of the leads last night.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/austin-resident-believes-austin-code-citation-is-unfair-contradictory
Weeds. Nutter.
Austin has plenty of Good Germans too, but she isn’t one of those.
Who has never taught a class their entire life.
Not first post. But about 14:22 (02:22 PM). Arrived in Regensberg for the night.
My first attempt at using my German rail pass did not work, not the correct train operator. I had already written the date as 11. We are traveling on the 14th, so I made the 11 a 14. Ticket was not punched so it should be good.
You’re only about 200km away, as the crow flies. I’ll wave as you go by…
There is still a dead tree encyclopedia available, the World Book Encyclopedia 2023, one mans review:
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/06/rejoice-its-2023-and-you-can-still-buy-a-22-volume-paper-encyclopedia/
84F in the shade already today.
D1 is off on some summer ‘enrichment’ program, where she is a “councilor” or “facilitator” for the younger kids to learn about STEM by building junk out of garbage. It’s in town and a ‘day’ camp, ie. program is 830-300pm daily at one of the elementary schools. Both kids did it when they were younger and loved it so there is that.
I have a slight headache which is very unusual for me. I’m hoping ‘sinus pressure’ and an improvement after breakfast.
n
You have two daughters. The “slight” is the unusual part, right?
Are you properly hydrated? I rarely get headaches, but when I do, they will usually go away fairly quickly if I drink a few litres of water. I find the headache is often there before I feel thirsty, or notice colour or quantity changes in my urine.
Sinuses. I am a martyr to them. Had to have surgery a few years back to help them drain, after an episode of sinus inflammation so acute that the GP suspected I had suffered a stroke.
What really helps is frequent irrigation. Dissolve 24-28g of NaCl table salt in about a litre of boiling water. Cover, and allow to cool to room temperature. Get a big syringe (50 to 100ml is ideal), without a needle, and use it to irrigate your nostrils and sinuses, tipping your head to the left to do the right nostril, and vice-versa. Do it as often as you like, but at least mornings and evenings.
The pharmacy sells the same stuff, only billed as “sea water”, in a pressurised spray can with a nice nasal nozzle. I buy one plus a couple of big syringes, and mate the fancy nozzle to a syringe once I have used up the pressurised version… The syringes work just as well, last for ages, and cost buttons.
I am a fan of printed reference material.
– the author is a technically savvy person who follows and reports on AI and online issues. He couches it in gentle and apologetic language, but he’s concerned about the stability, availability, and accuracy of online information… all concerns I share.
When concepts like “gaslighting” and “retconning” are common in our society, it think it’s not just a few of us who have noticed that electronically stored and distributed info is changeable. Amazon sends out “updates” to kindle content. Movies are edited for content, POV, and for continuity. Han shot first. Cigarette smoking existed and exists. Epstein didn’t kill himself.
I have previously mentioned my search for (and purchase of) the 1968 Encyclopedia Brittanica. Sure the science and pop culture is out of date, but it also wasn’t infected with global warming, one world nonsense, new math, multi-culturalism, and a host of other editorial and cultural slants. It assumes the reader is capable of understanding complex issues. It was produced at what must be very near to the peak of modern Western culture.
I’ve got a ton of other reference material in print form too. 30+ shelf feet in my office alone on a wide variety of topics. Sometimes I even use it. Sometimes I just browse a volume, marveling at the drawings and how clear and concise they are. Sometimes I read one front to back. Some I haven’t cracked open.
They are a contingency plan. Very low likelihood, but low cost too, and potentially very high payoff. That risk matrix led me to go ahead and start building the library. I’m still adding to it when I find a good book…
n
added – I AM an information prepper.
LOL, it’s the Redumblicans fault:
‘It’s a disgrace’: Gavin Newsom admits California’s homeless situation is out of control but blames Republicans despite being in power for four years – during which time vagrancy has risen 13 percent
It’s tRump! Get him. GET HIM!
And no one considers that Section 8 and free housing for illegals both sets a floor to rental costs, and fills up the low end of the rental market, making it harder for people that were marginal to remain housed….
I am seeing more people living in their cars, and in nicer places, than I used to.
n
If World Book sold its full print version yearly in digital media, I’d buy it. They could charge ¼ of the print price and it would still sell.
When the OED was first available on CD-ROM (4 disks, IIRC), the digital version was more expensive than the two-volume Compact OED (tiny print; came with a magnifying glass) and not much less than the full 12(?) volume OED. Sales were poor.
They and others may have learned from that and come up with a reasonable price. Judging by the price of Kindle books from major publishers, I suspect that this learning did not take place.
The Lowe’s near my house has a bunch of people living in cars in the parking lot around the perimiter of the property. Technically, the store is within the city limits.
I’ve also noticed the city has quietly given up on actively enforcing the camping ban in public spaces, notably under the freeway overpass not far from the store.
They could charge ¼ of the print price and it would still sell.
Or it would end up on a torrent.
n
Oh, isn’t she clever. Grand Wizard.
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/gov-ron-desantis-dubbed-current-grand-wizard-of-florida-on-tony-awards-broadcast-34397609
Disney lost. Get over it.
“The Gilded Age”.
A stunt like that could be dangerous to a career when working for Julian Fellows and David Zaslav.
Fired, but not right now. Too obvious.
When they do black ball her it will have been “because I’m a strong woman of color”… “speaking truth to power”…
n
The article below that one, about the “nazzi” flags outside WDW manages to sneak in a couple of truths. “how do you know they are nazzis?” and actually uses the name of the bill and not just don’t say ghey… although it manages to downplay that it applies to freaking KIDS and is about curriculum and official school policies.
n
Surprisingly hard to just book a dumpster for the BOL.
n
The Orlando Weekly is a lib paper that wants to be The Village Voice. I link to them sometimes because they don’t bury things behind a paywall.
They probably picked up the Denee Benton story because she grew up in Orlando and attended a Fancy Lad prep school in Winter Park.
Nah. Married a white man whom she met as an undergrad at CMU.
Honey Maid graham crackers. Used to be 16 oz. , now 14.4. Same size box. Used to be three tightly wrapped packs if ten. Now three loosely wrapped packs of nine.
Nabisco on the box, but Modelez Global LLC. On the side. Hecho in Mexico.
“Surprisingly hard to just book a dumpster for the BOL.”
No neighbors filling a ravine?
…and the individual crackers are smaller than they used to be. Another example of ‘shrinkflation’. You can find many food items similarly downsized.
I guess it’s better for my diet, though. I usually eat a full package of graham crackers with a glass of milk (dipped). Still do – had one last night. Less crackers, less calories, I guess.
A neighbor priced a roll-off dumpster a while ago, and thought it too expensive, so he asked a friend who owns a trucking company. The friend delivered a larger gondola dump semi-trailer and left it for a couple of weeks, then hauled it away and disposed of the trash, all for quite a bit less than the dumpster. This was during our off season, but I don’t think that mattered much other than availability. You might want to check less conventional sources.
You would still have to haul to that ravine. 🙂
I’ll fart as I go by. But 200 clicks by train is a long distance. Spent 4.5 hours on the train today in preparation for the long journey tomorrow.
Had dinner in Regensberg down by the Danube River. Good food. Really nice German city. Town square naturally with a lot of shops. I wonder how some of the shops stay in business. A big tourist area and we saw several tour groups. I don’t classify myself as a tourist, but a visitor.
People in German, Austria and Norway love to get out in the sun when the weather is nice. Hundreds of people were outside on the Danube, sitting on the shore, blanket spread out in the grassy areas. We ate in an outdoor restaurant which is fairly common. Lot of little shops with tables and chairs on the sidewalks. People with a beer, coffee or some other beverage just enjoying being outdoors.
I think this springs from people in the cities living in apartments with no yard and physically cramped spaces. The desire to get out is much stronger for these people, especially when it is warm, sunny and slight breeze.
Mondelez is old Kraft. IIRC, Accenture helped them develop the new name after they shed the legacy grocery business.
The name could have been worse. My IBM lifer friend now works for something called Kyndryl, the rebranded failed Global Technology Services division shoved out the door with the (then) CFO they wanted to lose without firing.
Regarding that trucking company, I needed 25 tons of 0.75-1.5” smooth gravel many years ago. The company sent a driver 100 miles out of town for this stuff, delivered it, and billed me for less than I estimated the fuel cost and driver’s wages. I asked him why so cheap, and he said he liked to keep as many of his good drivers and trucks busy during the off season. That was the first time I learned there was an off season here. One of the benefits of living in a small, close-knit community.
When we were building our house, the only local supplier of brick and block made me some great deals because his main and steady source of business was commercial construction. He sometimes made three out of town runs for loads on Mondays, when his store was closed. All this while holding down a “day” job. Most locals really liked him. I wondered when he slept. When he died, I bought some land from his estate. Small. Local. Close-knit. Community. I can’t imagine leaving here, yet it is in the dreaded California. Not the PLT coastal areas. I hope we remain hidden.
I’m also committed to learning to use the dang things. It’s been a couple decades since I ran a skid steer or excavator. I’m sure I’ll catch on. Pretty sure.
Learn well so you can teach me. I need to rent an excavator and clean out about 800 linear feet of ditches on my office property. Plus another 600 linear feet of ditches on my neighbors properties that they refuse to maintain.
Pearls Before Swine: A Grand Idea To Improve The World
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/06/13
Yes, Rat is going to be a rat.
I have read 53 of the 100 science fiction books. As he said, this is just science fiction, no fantasy.
I screwed this up by reading the wrong graph. We only used 68,000 MW on Monday.
We are forecast to hit 69,000 MW of demand today. And, 76,000 MW of demand on Wednesday. And 80,000 MW of demand on Friday. ERCOT is claiming that they have 95,000 MW available to serve the demand. But, I do not know how much wind they are claiming as the there is only 3,000 MW of wind generation right now out of the 38,695 MW installed of wind power.
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
“Donald Trump arrested: Special counsel Jack Smith confronts former president in courtroom”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/donald-trump-arrested-jack-smith-confronts-former-president-miami-courtroom
We are now a banana republic. I weep for the old republic.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
If they will do this to Trump, imagine what they are willing to do to you and me.
“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” had a very good BBC miniseries adaptation which fell through the cracks more than a decade ago.
The BBC America attempted reboot, made recently, not even a decade later, was not as good.
Regardless, the book is worth the time and, possibly, more relevant today, in the era of ChatGPT, than it was in the late 80s thanks to the supplementary background material Adams added to the “lost” “Doctor Who” script at the core of the story.
At times, Adams was remarkably prescient about the direction of technology. Unfortunately, just as many of the things he predicted seem to start becoming reality, he seemed to crawl into a bottle and stay there, dying way too young.
Jerry Pournelle used to sing the praises of the Grosnan Hydropulse sinus irrigator, and at his recommendation, I bought one. Sort of an electric powered Neti pot adapted from a water pick. My sinuses were CONSTANTLY aching, and clogged. I used it a couple of times a week for a year or so, and gradually stopped using it, because my sinuses were mostly clear. I haven’t had a problem in quite a while.
That particular model is no longer available, but the new model is available on Amazon and on a site called Smoke Home and Garden.
https://www.amazon.com/Grossan-Hydro-Irrigation-System-Original/dp/B000H84D2G/ref=sr_1_5?tag=ttgnet-20
https://www.smokehomegarden.com/cgi-bin/shop.cgi?i=B000H84D2G&msclkid=5fe06fa1b8091158ed470b29707d397a
“Literary icon Cormac McCarthy, the author of No Country for Old Men, dies of natural causes at age 89 at his home in Sante Fe”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12191325/Literary-icon-Cormac-McCarthy-dies-natural-causes-age-89-home-Sante-Fe.html
I have read one of his books and seen two of his movies.
Lynn said
The Handmaid’s Tale is neither SF nor fantasy, but some sort of illogical dystopian feminazi screed. It’s utter dreck, and was about 3 hours of my life that were utterly wasted. Atwood owes ME reparations for that garbage.
Of the others, I’ve read about half, and it is (except for the Handmaids garbage) a good list.
I know I’ve read 25 of the list and then maybe another 15 or so that I’ve heard of but don’t remember.
One of my favorite books.
Hated the BBC America series, gave up on it after two or three episodes.
If I ever run across the other BBC series, I will give it a try.
The Handmaid’s Tale is neither SF nor fantasy, but some sort of illogical dystopian feminazi screed. It’s utter dreck, and was about 3 hours of my life that were utterly wasted. Atwood owes ME reparations for that garbage.
Of the others, I’ve read about half, and it is (except for the Handmaids garbage) a good list.
Then read the Maddaddam trilogy where biology has gone mad. The human genes spliced into the pigs totally freaked me out yet I can see somebody doing this.
https://www.amazon.com/MADDADDAM-TRILOGY-BOX-Crake-Maddaddam/dp/0804172315?tag=ttgnet-20/
Fun with UPS software.
This machine says it has 29 watts of UPS load. Sometimes is says 35 watts for a minute or so. This is the UPS that I replaced the batteries in a couple of years ago and the software says 66 minutes runtime.
Hey, maybe the $12 batteries from the feed store are better suited for deer feeders. But…. $24 vs about $100 for a new UPS, what can I say? Mr. Buffalo Nickle approves.
Out in the EDC where new Moa is, the year old, same brand updated model UPS says 45 watts and it drops to and stays at 39 watts load with 168 minutes of runtime. With the monitor on. I’m too lazy to run another power cord to the monitor.
Stuff in common is the switches and a Nanobeam on each. Oh yeah, same PCs too. The difference is I have a Unifi for wifi in the house and a Pi running Pi-Hole. and the EDC has the router and the radio for internet. Different monitors, too.
Ten watts… that’s like an old night light.
Shrug. Swapping out Moas is going from 95 to 100 watts load to 45 and a bit less. Less juice and less heat and a faster PC. What’s there to not like?
I’m not expecting a huge drop on the electric bill. But you ever touch a 60 watt light bulb? There’s that much heat 24/7 that has gone away for the a/c to remove.
Easy Bake Ovens used a 100 watt bulb. So. …… Or maybe I’m crazy.
Hey, maybe the $12 batteries from the feed store are better suited for deer feeders. But…. $24 vs about $100 for a new UPS, what can I say? Mr. Buffalo Nickle approves.
I just bought two new UPSs for $160 each plus tax. Dadgum expensive.
https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500AVRLCD3-Intelligent-System-Outlets/dp/B000QZ3UG0?tag=ttgnet-20/
I think the basic problem with the Stephen Mangan adaptation of “Dirk Gently’s” is that “Sherlock” followed not long afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToGEn86u93g
The creative people definitely understood and loved the source material, unlike the BBCA reboot.
After cancellation, Darren Boyd popped up within a year in the Pegg-Wright-Frost “The World’s End” playing a very McDuff-like character.
If you like “Dirk Gently’s”, “The World’s End” is worth the time as well. “Spaced” meets “Doctor Who”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Go73Cyi3o
Last US post – unless @lynn is still on-line rather than reading!
Yup, was reading a new book called “Saving Proxima” by a rocket scientist, Travis Taylor. Proxima is Proxima Centauri b, 4.2 light years away from Earth.
https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Proxima-Travis-S-Taylor/dp/1982192054/
Be sure to check on local “tipping fees”, and schedules for different materials.
Clean earth vs concrete vs asphalt vs ???
Things can get expensive fast if you get it wrong. I remember hearing a water channel cleaning contractor screaming at a couple of his guys because they’d scooped up probably a few hundred pounds of (illegally dumped) asphalt with the usual dirt and muck – and the local dump charged for the whole 20,000lbs or so as “mixed”, at probably 5x the fee.
Broken concrete dumping ? Maybe a local sand/rock/gravel place? Some of those places grind up concrete and resell it.
Would the president of an annoying HOA (aren’t they all?) need a few yards of broken concrete and other debris on his front lawn?
Things that make me say hmmm…
Another thing that sets us apart from more lamestream areas is the lack of HOAs. We do have one small planned community that has an HOA, and everybody knows about it, so no surprises before choosing to live there. I have a few friends who live there, and the HOA rules are considered reasonable by most. I would not live there because of the density, but it is nice. Built by a local developer, who did a lot of good for our community,
My recently deceased aunt lived in a gated community in SoCal. Interestingly, the HOA didn’t allow any kind of solar installations. The design committee apparently considers them unsightly. I have wondered how they could get away with that, since solar is now almost forced on people in California. All new construction must have sufficient roof strength to support solar panels. Where I live, this is actually a trivial requirement, since most roofs are designed for snow loads.
I have heard that all new construction in California must have an outlet for an electric car if there is a garage. This will be interesting if a rule is adopted to require cars to be charged a safe distance from any structure. I have a relative in Arizona who has an electric car that he charges inside his garage. When I asked if he was worried about the hazard, he was oblivious to any risk. Another example of propaganda.
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/06/13/auto-draft-153-n557807
Have to be named Biden to get out of that one.
“How Ukraine’s dam collapse could become the country’s ‘Chernobyl’”
Time Magazine. Both hands, a map, and TWO FLASHLIGHTS and they couldn’t find their bleached backsides.
WATCH: Daniel Penny Speaks out in Stunning Detail, Describes Harrowing Confrontation With Jordan Neely
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/06/12/watch-daniel-penny-speaks-out-in-stunning-detail-describes-harrowing-confrontation-with-jordan-neely-n759878
Escape from New York before we wall it in.
NB: Bragg ain’t getting out.
Time Magazine is now the personal mouthpiece of Marc Beinoff, founder of Salesforce.com, another tool used in his efforts to advance the agenda.
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/06/13/zimbabwe-and-namibia-are-taking-control-of-their-rare-earth-minerals-n557817
Nah. The tribes are going to have to cut the pie and get their Swiss accounts set up, lest the populace start thinking it’s for their benefit.
Meanwhile in the States, CO2-spewing brainwashed children bring suit to lower CO2 levels an insignificant amount in 2100, passing up the opportunity to lower them an insignificant amount now: “Here kids, gather round! Everyone gets to make a necklace! Here’s a yard of 100-test line, and pay attention while I show you how to tie the special slipknot!”
No neighbors filling a ravine?
–actually, one of the things about living out in the country is that some stuff has value that you might not expect. Pretty much anything that is already there has value just because it doesn’t have to make the trip…
I gave away a bunch of broken concrete to neighbors already, but they mostly need clean chunks. They don’t want broken rebar sticking out to puncture a boat trailer tire, or a truck tire. The 3ft square slabs from the sidewalk disappeared quickly. Most of the fist to head sized pieces are gone. The problem is the rebar, and the VOLUME I’m going to create next week.
The dumpster guys actually suggested asking around before getting a dumpster, and I stumped them by asking if it was going to be ok, and requesting the special ‘low boy’ dumpster so it wouldn’t be overfilled and too heavy. The dumpster company that covers 20 counties had never had anyone ask them to haul away broken concrete before… They had to call the landfill to be sure they would take it, especially with rebar in it. Landfill was like, sure, of course, no problem, why do you ask???
Here in Houston, there are several places that will pay you for concrete or haul it away free. They recycle it. Southern Crushed Concrete springs to mind. Huh, they are owned by Martin Marietta…
—————–
Got a bunch of stuff done at my client’s place. Getting one of the sony smart tvs online was a challenge. It saw the wifi. Claimed it couldn’t connect, but had IP etc. Claimed no internet available, but local net was ok. Looked at it from the Ubiquiti network management tool, it saw the tv, didn’t show any issues. So I did what I do, which is poke at it. Poke at every setting in every menu… until I noticed the time was wrong. Ok, set the time… and the date. It was over a year out of date. Once I fixed the time and date it connected fine, and saw the internet. WTF?
You have to have and use a google account to add apps like Youtube TV to the sony tv… again, wtf? It came with netflix, disney plus, regular youtube, a media player, and Airplay. Everything else needed to be added. This particular tv was never part of the control and video distribution system, it had its own DirecTV box, so it’s the only one we’re using the “smart” features. All the others are dumb displays, and the Crestron control system talks to sources and switching in a rack that routes the video to the tv. The two apple TV 4k players replace the dirctv tuners. There is another aTV 4K in the guest house to drive the living room tv there.
And I’ll be adding another ubiquiti access point to the guest house. The enGenius WAP I repurposed for there died at some point this year. There is still some wifi coverage from the courtyard and house so while they noticed, it wasn’t critical. It is now that we’re doing upgrades and maintenance. There is a lot of tech in the house…
And a lot of lightning in the area. And heat. Heat kills electronics.
n
“[Academia] is the epicenter for just about everything bad that you’re seeing going on right now.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/13/gas-stove-ban-and-the-nitrogen-dioxide%e2%88%92childhood-asthma-causal-claim-part-ii/
Has been for a long time. If Professor Wood attempted to debunk N-rays today he would probably be deplatformed, doxed, forced to recant, charged with federal crimes and imprisoned.
“September 1904: Robert Wood debunks N-rays”
https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200708/history.cfm
“Shortly after the discovery of X-rays in 1895, there was a flurry of research activity in the area, with many scientists expecting more similar discoveries. So when another new type of radiation was reported in 1903, it generated a lot of excitement before it was proved false in September 1904.”
(sad) Hah. We aren’t in California any more, are we Toto?
The TV probably doesn’t “see” the Internet unless it can check in with Sony via HTTPS.
Thank/blame “SSL Everywhere”. Time and date need to be set properly for the digital certificate presented by the mothership to be accepted as valid.
@EdH , got that right. In Cali you can’t put any dirt, stone, concrete, etc in a normal rolloff. They’ll b!tch and moan, and threaten not to pick up. I had the same problem in AZ too.
I think anyone out there by the BOL would just find a hole and fill it, or make a pile off to one side.
n
“The TV probably doesn’t “see” the Internet unless it can check in with Sony via HTTPS.”
The systems are not robust. The wrong country/city goes down and suddenly things quit working. Internet, power plants, wind generators, solar power controllers, water plants, …
It’s not that you can’t drive your car–you don’t know because you can’t unlock the doors.
Or the wrong country decides it’s time…
How many devices have Chinese tech phoning somewhere?
“Starlink Speed: How Much Faster Is Elon’s Satellite Internet in 2023 vs. 2022?”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-speed-tests-2023-vs-2022
“Living with Starlink: Our tester in Idaho crunches the speed test numbers to show how his satellite service has changed over the last 6 months. (Spoiler: It’s become much better.)”
Time and date need to be set properly for the digital certificate presented by the mothership to be accepted as valid.
– that makes sense. I’m sure they ping someone to see if they have internet connectivity, and pinging themselves is two birds with one stone.
There was an interesting privacy option, that goes back to things Greg and others have said here… I had the option under Location status, to turn on “Scanning always available” “Let google’s location service and other apps scan for networks, even when WiFi is off.”
emph. added. So turning wifi off really doesn’t mean it’s really off. They could do the scanning without asking and badly behaved apps probably can too. Keep in mind, it’s a 65″ tv, it’s not flying around the country, once you put a zip code in or get an IP address, it’s not moving much. No need that I can see for location at all, let alone based on nearby radios.
n
More discussion of Milloy’s expose on LNT’s efforts to shoot the messenger:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/06/the_nuclear_theory_you_never_knew_was_nonsense.html
Good luck to Garth Brooks and his inclusive marketing plan for his new bar in Nashville:
“If you’re an a**hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.”
https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/13/garth-brook-slamming-bud-light-boycotters-aholes/
Be inclusive, Garth. Put a big photo of Mulvaney up on the wall so the fans can take your picture with it.
Sci-Fi list: I’ve read 36, but can only recommend about 20 of those. I recognize a few more but have not been interested if them. I’ll look up the others in case I’ve missed something I want to read.
Niven’s (Pournelles) Mote In Gods Eye should be on lists like this one.
Thanks
https://edition.cnn.com/style/lupita-nyongo-breastplate-tonys-lotw/index.html
These people, and the fashion designers, are lunatics. Idiots, worthless to society. A waste of oxygen. Unfortunately, they get noticed and that is their goal. Probably can’t even tie their own shoes.
The list is heavy on modern woke warriors from Tor publishing, particularly from when they were gaming the Hugos and involved in the Sad Puppies battle with Larry Correia et al…
It does have some good choices. Pretty much all the pre-2010 ones looked good.
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Funny thing, that. People get weird about knots. One of the few that everyone seems to know is the shoelace knot, because it’s so darn useful, but it’s actually fairly complicated.
In the last few years, I learned the actual name of it, and I’ve managed to slip it into some contexts.
Like, “how should I tie this trussed chicken?” I reply: “Use a double slippery reef knot.”
Last post. (Maybe)
On the train to Essen, then Bielfield, then Hövelhof. Long day. At least we are traveling in 1st class. More room, better seats, and better bathrooms. The price difference between coach on the German Rail Pass for 7 days versus 1st Class is only $100.00. for both of us. A no-brainer.
Train is running about 20 minutes due to signal malfunction and repairs. We will get to Essen 10 minutes late but our arrival train and departure train are on the same platform with 20 minutes between trains.