Just a touch of cool? Then more hot, with a double helping of humid? I hope not but that’s what I’m expecting. We had a nice cool morning yesterday, and then buckets of rain in the afternoon, but only locally. I don’t think my house got wet, but where I was driving was biblical. It didn’t last long, and I don’t think it was enough, but it did get stuff wet.
I did my pickup. Chatted with the auction staff. He volunteered that he’s changing his product mix because “people are out of money and will only be spending on essentials.” That makes him my fourth auctioneer that thinks buyers are out of money. Even my wife thinks that might be true, because she tried to sell D2’s American Girl ™ stuff through the farcebook trading group, and got no takers. Even after dropping the price, no one bought it. One thinks it might be a hangover from ‘back to school’ spending, but that’s a minority view. I have a feeling they’re right, and people are tapped out.
Did my grocery shopping in the evening. Cream was limited to three items. Most other stuff seemed to be in stock. They had pork loin on sale, like Costco did, and some pork ribs. Beef chuck roast was only $3.50/pound so I got the limit for that, and the ribs. I’m ok with the pork loin I already bought. Prices are still way up for other stuff. Canned veg is almost double pre-wuflu prices and pasta hasn’t been onsale this year. Everyone is talking about how expensive food is.
———-
I’ll be spending this morning getting a CT scan of abdomen and guts, with and without contrast. I’ve had that before and it’s pretty unpleasant. Nothing wrong with me so far, but the exams continue.
After that, I’ve got two pickups that are about a third of the way to the BOL, so I’m just going to head up there after my appointment. My buddy says it’s been raining, so the grass probably needs cutting, and there are always other things to do if it’s still raining. Who knows? Might even get a chance to practice fishing.
Stacking some crappie would be nice.
Stack something my friends, while it’s here and you have the means.
nick
SSNs weren’t intended to be an identification number as they are currently used. The US lacks a national identification card/number system which is both good and bad.
Who does the traditional “back to school” spending anymore?
Interest started accruing again on $1.7 trillion in student loan debt at the beginning of the month. That’s $85 billion out of the economy annually on a typical interest rate of 5%, and a big chunk of that disappears into the Feds’ coffers to pay for Obamacare. Payments begin again in October, and that’s on top of the interest which continued on the $1 trillion of credit card debt and $1.3 trillion in auto loans.
People don’t have money for “wants”. I noticed that PS5 and OLED Switch consoles were suddenly everywhere in stores after the weekend of the 4th of July, following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Biden’s loan repayment fiasco.
Are they doing the calcium scoring of the heart too?
Double check with your insurance company about coverage if you get those periodically. Some carriers are iffy on paying for that test.
That’s one problem: they should be used for ID, because literally anyone can find out your SSN. But the other problem is the shortness. Just string 9 random digits together, and chances aren’t bad that it is a valid SSN for an actual person. Given the number of illegals with fake identities, I imagine lots of people have had their social security and tax records screwed up. What, you mean you didn’t work for Jose’s Roofing and Antonio’s Tree Removal and Carlos’ Concrete last year? Make the numbers longer and it’s a lot harder to just make one up and have it be valid.
The tech contracting cabal serving the Federal Government based around DC would screw up any new system at this point. SSN combined with the state-issued ID numbers – essentially the drivers license number — will probably be it in the US moving forward.
The mathematics really haven’t changed since the 30s so I have to suspect that the Feds had a reason for implementing the numbering scheme the way they did, as a method of forcing a later policy change. It may have been deliberately designed to fail and be replaced – Obamacare … cough – but there was only so much Roosevelt could get away with at the time and still be regarded as “Saint Franklin”.
It has only been since the WWII generation started dying off in large numbers the US within the last decade that criticism of Saint Franklin and what he did to the country in the 30s has been accepted as appropriate for mainstream debate.
Social Security and the mechanics of the program were part of that thought bubble. However, 30 years ago, attempting to derail the rise of Jeb! in Florida and, potentially, nationally, the Dems scared the h*ll out of the oldsters by using the previously obscure Helvering v. Davis and Fleming v. Nestor Supreme Court decision – “The Bush family wants to take away your Social Security. Here’s how …” – so the genie has been out of the bottle on the debate about the program as a invulnerable “trust fund” established by Saint Franklin for some time.
I was issued the last serial number used by the military, June 30, 1969. The following day the SSN was used as identification. It was on the dog tags, the last four on the laundry stamp to identify laundry, everything in the military had the SSN. A really bad idea. The military has since changed to another number system.
Why restrict the identifier to just numbers? Why not allow letters in the identification. That would seem to allow for a few more combinations, making the guessing much more difficult.
It would probably take the IRS and Social Security Administration 38 years to convert from numbers to alpha-numeric system, cost a trillion dollars, and in the process shaft 30 or 40 million taxpayers.
To paraphrase Obama talking about Corn Pop – Never underestimate the ability of CGI or Lockheed Martin – my guess about who would get the work — to f*ck things up.
I was never really worried about vaccine passports in the US. The contractor cabal is incapable of delivering a system within the time frame which would have worked.
Are they doing the calcium scoring of the heart too?
Double check with your insurance company about coverage if you get those periodically. Some carriers are iffy on paying for that test.
– yes but different appointment. There needs to be time between the procedures according to the scheduler. Doc said they wouldn’t pay, but it’s only $140. We might get past our deductible and out of pocket limit with all these visits, but I doubt it. We’re mostly pretty healthy and don’t use our insurance.
n
In act of divine retribution, equestrian statue of Angela Merkel collapses spontaneously under its own weight
Cooler with a bit of overcast burning away. Can’t have coffee. Can’t eat. Don’t want to be up, but shouldn’t go back to bed.
Ay carumba. At least when I open the cabinet, only cookies, marshmallows, and instant oatmeal packets fall out on me….
n
Medicaid switched away from SSN, now using a eleven character number & alphabet combination a few years ago. I think using it and the state Drivers license number would be fairly secure.
They wanted $1200 copay! Gotta be a mistake. Had same thing 3 years ago and don’t remember that.
N
Maybe not. When I had commercial insurance, my wife needed a procedure done. Since our maximum out of pocket was $5,000.00 per year, the deductible was $2,500.00 per year, I had to come up with almost $2K for the procedure. Insurance didn’t pay anything. The only good news was that without insurance and the negotiated rates, the procedure would have cost me $8,000.00, paid up front, before the procedure would even be scheduled.
$1200 was probably what you would have paid cash.
Does your wife’s plan not offer a HSA to cover the co-pays and deductibles pre-tax?
My current employer is into the agenda so getting an HSA is difficult. Usually my insurance is all about the HSA.
Note that what I’m talking about is different from an FSA, where you lose the unspent balance at the end of the year.
State drivers license number confidentiality depends on the state. Florida’s number generation is based on a formula which hashes full legal name and birthday, which are often more widely available than SSN.
There was an article on Zero Hedge about people being tapped out a couple of weeks ago. Even taking into account the fact that ZH has never met a an economic doom & gloom story they didn’t like things seem to be degenerating.
Apparently, NASA is the federal agency now tasked to debunk UFOs. They can’t even get a rocket off the ground these days. Sure, Islamo outreach, climate change, and now UFO debunking are what keep them employed. I want my money back.
HFS, Batman:
People can’t help but wonder if the Biden WH wrote this ABC News spin on Joe & Hunter
Engage maximum spin!!! Activate the “Beaux” trope.
Bitwarden is down. Has been for 5+ hours. I cannot get to any of my passwords. Time to rethink how I store my passwords. Maybe export to an Excel spreadsheet for backup.
Bill Nelson’s cognitive abilities aren’t that much different than Corn Pop’s, to the point that voters in Florida kicked him out of the US Senate seat and replaced him with the poster child for the term “unindicted co-conspirator”, Rick Scott (RINO-FL).
NASA is, as Dr. Pournelle was fond of saying, a full employment act for space geeks. SLS was all about building the tooling in the VAB and launch towers over the last decade – three towers either completed or in progress – launching once, and then dismantling everything after Congress pulled the plug over costs.
I don’t think even the NASA brass figured that SLS would still be headed towards a manned launch at this point, but Bill Nelson is in the pocket of the traditional contractor pool at the agency.
@ray:
I use Password Safe, which keeps its password file locally. In the Window$ implementation, it has Bruce Schneier’s imprimatur, although I mostly use the Android port, with a YubiKey Neo for 2FA, and the password file kept on a USB key for portability and security. Admittedly, the USB key (with USB-A and USB-C plugs) is Chinesium, but I have a backup.
G.
I use 1Password which keeps your passwords encrypted on your device. I forget if they still have a free version. I pay for a family account, so everybody has there own local “private vault” and there is a “shared vault” which all can access.
@greg:
It’s also a plenteous supply of pork, which is why NASA has facilities all over the US – every congresscritter ansd Senator (do I repeat mself?) can point to the facility in his state, and say, “I voted for that.”
G.
MrAtoZ:
The free tier does not allow use of Yubikeys, or it didn’t when I was researching this. You needed to pay $hekels for that, which is why I avoided it.
G.
I originally used Lastpass but they jacked their prices up and were acquired by a foreign company. The last straw was when their servers got compromised. I looked at other password managers, 1password being one of them along with Bitwarden. 1password was too expensive and closed source. Bitwarden, open source, is $10.00 a year and works on all my devices. 1password required paying $60.00 a year to work on all my devices at the time I was looking.
I chose Bitwarden and have had good service, until today. I will explore alternatives as a backup. A password protected Excel spreadsheet, maybe a notes app if I can password protect the document.
I switched to keepass (.info) a couple of months ago and just deleted my BitWarden account a couple of weeks ago. I really hope they actually deleted my data.
I keep my passwords in a text file. I don’t even encrypt the file. Instead, rather than the actual password I use a mental algorithm which combines mnemonic hints so I can tell what I set it to. This would be challenging to use with “line noise” passwords but works for my “several words with interspersed digits and special characters” passwords.
It seems to me if you switch password managers, you should also create new passwords for everything that the old password manager managed.
But I don’t use them, so I might be guessing. All of my passwords are in the browser; most are browser-generated. Occasionally forget one, so the browser screen that shows me the password for a site is useful for those sites that I don’t often visit.
I haven’t found the need for any other external password manager. YMMV.
LockMart is out of the government software business. They sold that off a few years ago, right after a big success. They upgraded AFIS, the FBI’s fingerprint ID system, to include biometric data and to run faster. The system was delivered early, under budget, and ran faster than required. (And it doesn’t work the way you see it on NCIS and other TV shows. The fastest turnaround, for things like national security, take up to a day. High priority items, like murders, take several days. Lower priority, like robbery, etc. take up to a few weeks.
Rick, what happens if your computer’s hard drive dies? If the browser’s datastore gets corrupted? That’s a technical question, not a “neener neener, you made a n00b mistake” question.
Maybe, maybe not. The lowest price has to be the Medicare/Medicaid price or you have committed a felony. In most cases, cash price is higher than in-network prices negotiated with insurance.
But if they forget their passwords to get into the system, they can type “OVERRIDE PASSWORD”, right? TV isn’t completely lying to us, is it?
The paid 1P also has a builtin authenticator. Any site that use that 2FA, I enter the seed into 1P. 1P is pricey, but the family plan is worth it because I can help the wimmins set it up and werk it, biatch.
Say it ain’t so!
You mean they can’t search internationally, using a desktop system, through a 100 mbit connection, display what they are searching, and get a match in 17 seconds? I am shocked!
Which means they probably cannot read the license plate, in a dark alley, reflected off the hubcap of a ’57 DeSoto, taken with a 1 megapixel camera.
Texas AG Ken Paxton has been acquitted on all counts.
His attorneys made his accusers admit that they didn’t have proof of anything, only hurtie feelings. (And their behind the scenes b.s. will probably end their political careers) Hard evidence eviscerated the accusations and made the Texas House look like incompetent monkeys (hard to be bribed with new granite kitchen countertops when your kitchen doesn’t have them) . Cue to Clara: “Where’s the beef?”
But the real red meat was Paxton’s attorney’s revealing the puppeteers:
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/09/15/tx-ag-impeachment-wrap-up-ken-paxtons-lawyers-are-tigers-n578355
Oh, that has to smart all the Georges–or it would if any of them had any smarts.
And there’s a lawyer that isn’t quite so “high-powered” any more.
Karl Rove, now, he be hurting:
The End Is Near for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
By Karl Rove Aug. 16, 2023 6:20 pm ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-end-is-near-for-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-impeachment-gop-mistress-charges-6d756be1
Someone should publish Karl’s address so we can all send him a package of Tucks products. Textbook reaching out past the trap in the crapper to pull the flush handle a couple more times.
It is true that a browser will store your passwords in a local file (encrypted). And you can export your settings (including passwords) if you wish.
So a major hard disk death will cause issues. I would have to go through the password reset function on each website to reset the password. A hassle, sure, but unlikely.
If it happens, so be it. It would be the same worry if my laptop was stolen (my data files are backed up to external drives). Or if my wallet and credit cards were stolen. Or my car was wrecked.
“In most cases, cash price is higher than in-network prices negotiated with insurance.”
That should be illegal.
“Which means they probably cannot read the license plate, in a dark alley, reflected off the hubcap of a ’57 DeSoto, taken with a 1 megapixel camera.”
Only if the hubcap is clean and it’s the right 1 MP.
In Firefox you can export your passwords. I thought it would do .txt but it now does .csv which can be cleaned up.
Best way is to back-up your Firefox profile once in a while. That saves everything including add-ons.
Newsflash! TV and movies are fictional! Things happen within 30/60/xx minutes that don’t happen in real time!
There are things in books that won’t happen like they are written. It’s fiction. All those space books that you like? Fiction! Old Westerns? Fiction! WW1 movies? There’s fiction in there! Hallmark movies? More fiction.
Complaining that fictional scenarios can’t happen in the real world? Not fiction. But doesn’t matter. Fiction is there to entertain us (for the most part).
If fiction was real, it wouldn’t be fiction.
(And, get off my lawn!)
Another vote for Keepass. It is purely local. If you want sync across devices, you gave to do it yourself. I do that with Owncloud.
Paxton defeated a primary challenge from George P. (Diddly) Bush last year, potentially derailing the plans of the cabal behind the family to continue the dynasty for at least another generation and another shot at the White House. There was going to be payback.
No one should ever view Paxton as a saint, however.
Texas is no longer a Republican state. These are the death throes of the party as currently structured.
I’ve paid cash via HSA for two MRIs and a CT scan in the last five years. All came in at half of what the procedures would have cost if insurance had picked up the bill.
In one case, I was billed full rate for the MRI but once the facility realized that insurance wasn’t getting involved, they refunded down to the cash rate.
https://hotair.com/headlines/2023/09/16/gutfeld-is-right-on-murderous-teens-disturbing-video-warning-n578456
words fail
“Newsflash! TV and movies are fictional! ”
And chances are so is most of what you see and hear on the news, read in the newspaper, get from the CDC, NIH, FBI, CIA, and EPA (Including and most particularly anything they say under oath in court).
And when these two young men come to trial, all the excuses offered and claims that this was not premeditated murder are simply lies.
Life is cheap, as shown.
Not exactly 100% true. It’s very close, though.
You can price the service at whatever you want, call it MSRP. Say I price my scan at $2000.
My negotiated contract with BCBS says it’s a $2000 service, but BCBS pays $800 for it. That’s a contract discount. They don’t care what the MSRP is because they’ve agreed to pay a much smaller amount.
Medicare doesn’t care what I charge; they’ll pay $600 and I’ll like it. (Oddly enough, in most cases that likely covers cost plus a tolerable margin. The real money is made from commercial insurance and cash patients.)
If I negotiate a price with BCBS at $599, I’ve committed a felony, and CMS will assume there’s Medicare fraud in progress. Same goes if I negotiate a price upfront with a patient for a cash deal.
The rub is, the default cash price you’re quoted doesn’t have to be the amount you end up paying. If you have the time, and the knowledge, you can deal with the back-office staff at your provider and negotiate a lower price. It’s easier to do beforehand, but who actually is in a position to do that? If you have an expensive elective procedure coming up like cataracts, that’s the time to do your negotiation up front. You might even get close to the Medicare rate.
For things like this scan, now that it’s done and presumably paid, there still a chance to get a discount back from the office, recognizing that you paid for it up front or are about to pay in cash.
If you have bad credit or some other reasons, the provider can structure payment plans and even discount below the $600 Medicare price. This is not done as a price reduction, since that’s illegal.
It’s an allowance for charity or risk reduction, which is an entirely different thing.
Most people will just pay the co-pay and forget about it.
I took another route, and refused to pay it, and just let it age off my credit report. But I had my reasons, too long to go into here.
When I was working rocket launches for space missions, VAFB was used for North South orbits and CCSFS was for East West orbits.
Safari on Apple devices stores passwords in the keychain. That keychain is available on all the devices and is stored in the Apple iCloud servers. I don’t know if there is local storage, but loss of a computer will not affect the passwords or require password recovery.
Where is that sarcasm tag when I need it.
“I Only Treat Real Women”: French Gynaecologist Refuses to Treat Transsexual, Angers Trans Activists
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/09/i-only-treat-real-women-french-gynaecologist-refuses-to-treat-transsexual-angers-trans-activists/
More kabuki.
What person in his right mind would force a doctor who is not a specialist to treat them for a specialized medical condition?
Okay, okay: invite him back.
Doctor: “Just hop up here and put your feet in the stirrups. Yes, hmmm. It appears that there is an odd growth blocking the examination. Well, we can fix that. Couple shots of anesthetic and we’ll just clip that off. Nurse, hand me the syringe with the #00 needle. Nothing to worry about–I’ve never failed to do a pelvic exam yet.”
“Where is that sarcasm tag when I need it.”
Just use the standard S1798 and write in “sarcasm tag” where it says “machine gun”.
So far I’ve had almost an inch of rain. Plus a generous half inch of rain. Then today ¾ of an inch. It might rain some more tonight to add to the 2.25 total.
Sure smells different outside.
The heatpump’s outside temp sensor says it’s 74f. Other temp sensors say 79f. The wind is from the North and feels cool. The a/c has run once today. Low speed and low blower for half an hour to lower the humidity and dry the house.
I suppose Summer is done. I need to get it in gear and prep the pellet stove.
FINALLY: Senator Blutarsky Is Vindicated!
Forget it. He’s rolling.
Senator?
You haven’t seen the latest “Where are they now” short, included as an extra on the 40th anniversary DVD.
Maybe 35th anniversary.
Yes, Summer is coming to a close. I spent most of today (and the late afternoon or evening of the past several days) taking care of any number of chores which could have been done pretty much any time but I didn’t get around to until temperatures started coming down enough to threaten that I wouldn’t be able to do the painting and such if I waited any longer.
A little under a year ago I put up a handrail for the front steps. It’s only one step and plus the step up to the porch, so no one had thought a handrail was needed … until Grandma got awfully wobbly. Unfortunately, no hardware or lumber stores had big, solid posts and heavy rails in stock, what with Winter being in sight, so I got some pipe and an indoor handrail and kludged up what I could. It’s plenty strong when pushing straight down but wobbly side-to-side. The intent was for it to last until Spring, when I’d put in a better one. Except that wife and M-i-L are pretty happy with what I did. -shrug- Today I made a brace to go between the rail and the porch wall and it’s acceptably solid.
Other than that, which took longer than an easy project should have because of one-damned-thing-after-another-itis, I painted a number of things and used a gallon of waterproofing on a number of wooden things which are kept outside. I could have used another half gallon to finish the framework supporting the grape vines, but I’d need to get the stupid vines out of the way so I could get to the wood. This was oil-based waterproofing, which I haven’t used before and hadn’t noticed what I was buying at the time on account of being very tired. As may be, I’m pleased with how it soaked into the wood. We’ll see how well it works.
Did some power washing because I needed to clean the crud off of one wooden thing before I waterproofed it. Then, as long as the machine was out, I did a line on the back of the house where the gutter either leaked or overflowed; need to look into that. Then, because that made the adjacent siding look bad, I washed a bit more of the north side of the house. Then, because that made the entire rest of the north side look bad, I washed the moss and dirt and what-not off. That’s why you should never start cleaning: once you start, there’s always more that comes to hand which needs to be cleaned and the next thing you know you’ve wasted three hours which could have been put to more productive purposes.
Plus the usual shuttling The Child as needed, taking her to talk to someone about a part-time job, keeping an eye on the M-i-L whenever the wife is out of the house, buying groceries, dealing with the chickens (who are almost as stupid as the typical teenager but much harder to swat), and I don’t know what else. Good thing I barely sleep or I wouldn’t have time to get it all done.
So, if Jerry Nadler made a date with the one on the left, and the one on the right walked into the coffee shop, would she be disappointed if the online-Jerry looked a bit different from the realtime Jerry?
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/09/my-right-as-a-candidate.php
Or is the point moot because they’d never find each other without a rolled up newspaper and a yellow rose?
Why restrict the identifier to just numbers? Why not allow letters in the identification. That would seem to allow for a few more combinations, making the guessing much more difficult.
It would probably take the IRS and Social Security Administration 38 years to convert from numbers to alpha-numeric system, cost a trillion dollars, and in the process shaft 30 or 40 million taxpayers.
People have trouble with letters. Numbers are much better, especially if we go to a 16 digit system like credit cards. And of course, there is zero and the letter o, lower case i and the number 1, etc, etc, etc.
The FAA is still working on on replacing the USA’s aircraft management system. Reputedly $12 billion and counting. Most of the airports still use the old ray traced oscilloscope systems and are patched together with chewing gum and duct tape.
https://info.burnsmcd.com/2022/aviation-special-report/article/nextgen-is-about-to-transform-aviation
Let’s write a simple Right To Privacy Amendment, then pass supporting legislation to make penalties for the fraudulent use, misuse or unauthorized possession of private information commensurate with the scope of the offense and the aggregate damage in stolen time.
Misuse to include mishandling by commercial institutions, with penalties to include not just fines but prison time for those responsible and anyone above them in the hierarchy.
Rick, what happens if your computer’s hard drive dies? If the browser’s datastore gets corrupted? That’s a technical question, not a “neener neener, you made a n00b mistake” question.
This is why I have three immediate daily backups on our office LAN with seven offsite weekly backups.
At home I run a weekly backup to an internal hard drive with a quarterly backup to one of four USB hard drives.
“The rise of surge pricing: ‘It will eventually be everywhere’”
https://twitter.com/FT/status/1702747102994972994
“Powered by algorithms and AI, a growing number of consumer industries are adjusting prices in response to supply and demand”
I dread the day that surge pricing comes to ERCOT for electricity rates. I suspect that it will happen in the next 3 to 5 years.
If it takes that long. You’ll see rolling blackouts next Summer, and the Legislature will reconvene in 2025 under pressure to “do something”.
Both of my AC units running simultaneously are roughly equivalent to the power consumption of one Tonymobile on the charging system.
@Lynn
Answered above.
I do backups (but probably not as often as I should). Laptop currently has SSDs.
But if I lose all passwords to various websites, I’ll just go through the ‘lost password’ thing. After I replace the laptop (and use the Chromebook in the meantime to access the sites).
Answered above.
Sorry, I forgot to italicize the question that I copied for reference. Now done.
My electric meter was replaced 5+ years ago with a smart meter. All meters for my utility company were replaced. The meter currently is used for remote reading and nothing else at the moment. I suspect the meter has the capability to record the amount of usage during various times of the day. At some point I expect that feature to be implemented.
Thus in the hottest part of the day, when A/C is needed the most, the rates will spike. Except for government offices which will be kept at a cool 71f.
I also have an Ecobee thermostat that is connected to web so I can monitor usage, have schedules for heating and cooling. At some point I expect the utility to want access to that thermostat. Of course the information of who has such thermostats will be provided to the utility by the thermostat companies based on a simple letter requesting access.
Armed with that information the utility will conveniently raise my thermostat in the heat of the day to to 80f or higher while their offices remain at 71f. Any attempts to change the settings will be severely punished by remotely turning off the system for hours.
“When Cars Don’t Stop For Protesters”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH9AAbE1bzw
These protesters are dangerously close to getting themselves seriously hurt. They are putting everyone in danger.
I like the lady just grabbing the protester by the hair and dragging them off the street.
Hat tip to:
https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2023/09/your-feel-good-video-of-day.html
“Warmonger Mike Pence Says U.S. Military May Have to Fight if Ukraine Loses War to Russia”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/warmonger-mike-pence-says-u-s-military-may/
““I’m convinced that if the Ukrainian military doesn’t stop and repel that Russian invasion, it’s not going to be too long before that Russian army crosses a border that our men and women in uniform are going to have to go and fight (for) under our NATO Treaty. I truly believe it,” Pence said.”
Yup, time to leave NATO.
The old Mother Earth News version of a setback thermostat put a 7-watt nightlight on the wall below the thermostat. Connected to a timer to come on at night and experimentally adjusted up or down it would put a bit of additional heat into the sensor and effectively move the set-point temperature lower at night. Reverse the on-off cycles and the set-point temperature is effectively lower during the day.
Air in an area not well-mixed by fans or vents stratifies according to temperature. Moving the thermostat vertically will also effectively change the setpoint.
“Yup, time to leave NATO.”
Time to make sure Pence isn’t making that decision.
No technical reason you need a thermostat. Just hardwire a switch and monitor the temps yourself… If companies start playing silly buggers with your t-stat, someone will build an arduino or raspi to spoof it and do what YOU want instead.
—————-
Beautiful here at the BOL. Went thru some very light rain in a couple of places getting here, but it was clear when I arrived. It’s been raining for the last few days, off and on, so things are starting to green up again.
It was 82F when I arrived and is 72F at the moment. I’m headed down to the dock for a little time with either the radio or an audiobook. It was actually a bit chilly this evening, as I sat talking and fishing with my neighbor. That’s mostly because of the damp… but I switched to some long pants and I’ll bring a jacket down with me. Sitting still it can be chilly over the water.
n
(didn’t get a single bite, tried 5 different baits.)
No technical reason you need a thermostat. Just hardwire a switch and monitor the temps yourself… If companies start playing silly buggers with your t-stat, someone will build an arduino or raspi to spoof it and do what YOU want instead.
The new thermostat on the new 4 ton Ruud heatpump system at the office uses a digital communication system between the $400 thermostat, the outside compressor, and the inside air handler. Analog is on the way out.
And there is no way that I am giving that thermostat the wifi password.
Nice night, damp and chilly. Mostly black sky. Little bit of Milky Way, and one bright shooting star.
Now for some shut eye…
n
@ray:
Even with current systems, they can do that now. Just increase the polling rate from (say) once a day to once every 15 minutes. My supplier here in UK does that.
At least one brand of smart meter in UK has a cutoff relay, as Big Clive has found and documented on YouTube. It is theoretically possible that that relay could be used for load-shedding at need (their need, of course). I would be surprised if your meter doesn’t have something similar.
G.
Any variable speed system will have a proprietary thermostat protocol.
The upside is increased efficiency heating/cooling. The downside is cost and being tied to one manufacturer for replacement.