Cool and wet. It was drizzling from evening on yesterday, and was still coming down at 1am. I am hoping it stops so I can take a truckload of stuff to the BOL, but if it doesn’t I’m might take what I can and go anyway.
Or I might stay home today and put up the tree. It’s a pretty skinny “Charlie Brown” tree this year. Kids picked it out so I guess it’s fine. At least it has short needles.
Did a couple of pickups yesterday. Stuff to flip, some Christmas decor, and some stuff to take to the BOL. I have been cutting back on auction purchases dramatically. My average ticket total is a third of what it was a year ago. That’s partly due to not needing to buy as many things, partly due to more self control about need vs want, but mainly because prices for the stuff I am buying are dramatically lower than they were. As a buyer, that’s great. As a reseller, that sucks. As an observer of the economy, it’s very worrying.
These are not quite yet the times that try mens’ souls, but they can be seen approaching.
Get yourself squared away.
Stack what you need, deep and high.
nick
The name is already taken. Apache. The dominant web server software for many years and still popular
A similar thought process about point revisions is how the server got its name according to legend.
I got in trouble with a major vendor this week when they found out that I implemented a patch to my production line process to accomplish something they thought impossible and then wouldn’t share.
Of course the pressed shirt engineers, Fancy Lads, wanted to pass it along to their other customers.
Right now, the name of the game in this particular product category is to ship first.
Presented without comment beyond: NBC/Universal, the lifeboat for Vanguard/State Street/Blackrock woke media ambitions now that their Disney subsidiary has failed, Paramount is for sale, and Warner Bros. has a 60% shot at bankruptcy per the CEO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gizIbhk5Eu4
Comcast stock is down, but Super Mario is coming and the hotels at the new Universal park in Orlando are taking reservations for 2025.
Things that make you say “Hmmm…”: Netflix has the “Super Mario” movie.
What? Licensed? Now where did they get the crazy idea THAT would work.
The first individual name in the credits is Shigeru Miyamoto’s. The Japanese don’t forget.
“I got in trouble with a major vendor this week when they found out that I implemented a patch to my production line process to accomplish something they thought impossible and then wouldn’t share.
Of course the pressed shirt engineers, Fancy Lads, wanted to pass it along to their other customers.”
LOLCAT says GF.
Any of your upline management vulnerable to expensive addictions?
Not that I’m aware of.
The money at stake is larger than anything the management has ever seen in their careers. Problems get dealt with swiftly.
Plus, Apple has zip if this turns out to be something. That is, unless Tim wants to eat some crow dinner with the big vendor. Even then, they will be behind.
I hope he likes seafood. I would not build a “survivalist” estate on Kauai. He’d have to buy the entire island and farm it to survive. Good luck with that. Maybe he has a Mr. Fusion in the basement.
Zuckerberg may be counting on the Chinese or other major maritime power taking Hawaii in the event of a US collapse.
Or he may just be trying to outdo what Gates built 30 years ago. Who knows.
I used to think Gates’ house wouldn’t open for tours in my lifetime, but now I’m not so sure.
People still flock to Fallingwater. Gates’ house would be a bigger draw, especially if he goes down with proven ties to Pedo Island antics.
Hmm. Jeweler’s Rouge might be an alternative, cheap and available in small quantities. But you have to be careful with abrasives, that they were seived appropriately (both ways), though extra fine’s probably wouldn’t hurt there.
Sunny and mild this am, so I am headed to the BOL, just have to do the 10,000 things first.
… care to share the name of the buffing compound?
– it’s what was in the auction, so no particular choices were made, but it’s called Menzerna FG-400. The FG is “fast gloss” and the 400 is probably grit size, although it feels more like 4000, and I can’t imagine using 400 on a finish. It leaves the DVD shiny, no haze, after polishing with paper towel. I did rinse the dvd after with Plaskolite Plastic Cleaner. Used to use the Plaskolite by the gallon on big acrylic projection screens.
n
Jeweler’s Rouge might be an alternative
– that is the traditional material, in red, green, white, and black grades… but it works best with a buffing wheel, and I don’t have my buffer set up.
To put stems on the last lot of stummels I bought, I should really set up the buffer to save time. It would be nice to have it for other things as well, including some of my non-prepping hobby. I’ve got a lot of other stuff in the queue before that though.
‘n
I can’t even imagine hand-polishing all of the rhinestones on the jumpsuit for Elvis impersonation weekends.
“shakin’ like a leaf ona fuzzy tree”…
On sale https://www.spartanarmorsystems.com/hercules-level-iv-ceramic-body-armor-set-of-two/
not an endorsement, just FYI.
n
Reacher, season 2 has started on Big River. Sounds like one new episode a week.
Watched first three episodes of ‘Reacher’ season 2 Thurs night. Good stuff.
Two bits: the airbag and the car window punch.
Reacher is quite effective in his techniques. And you don’t want a recipient of his ‘effectiveness’
For plastic try:
https://novuspolish.com/
Brand new homes in the sticks have dropped below $300K. This home would have been priced $350K back in the summer. We have entered deflationary times. Will there be precipitous drops in value now or just hit a new wall ?
https://www.har.com/homedetail/3403-spanish-oak-ln-rosenberg-tx-77471/16492500?lid=8352804
These are not quite yet the times that try mens’ souls, but they can be seen approaching.
These are still The Good Old Days. You can walk into an HEB and buy anything you want. This will change if everything goes South. You will know when.
The name is already taken. Apache. The dominant web server software for many years and still popular
A similar thought process about point revisions is how the server got its name according to legend.
Yup, that is where I stole the concept. It was a joke about the name, not the patches. I am at release 16.18c after one of my guys fixed a run long problem from 27 hours to 2 minutes. I fixed a infinite run problem by limiting a loop to 100,000 tries (I stopped it at 574,000+ tries). We run 674 benchmarks for many reasons. That number increases by 10 to 20 new benchmarks every year, making my life hell performing regression differentials.
I got in trouble with a major vendor this week when they found out that I implemented a patch to my production line process to accomplish something they thought impossible and then wouldn’t share.
Of course the pressed shirt engineers, Fancy Lads, wanted to pass it along to their other customers.
Right now, the name of the game in this particular product category is to ship first.
I published an Excel OLE C++ open source library back around 2001 or so. The first thing that happened was Google contacted me and offered me a job. Then a bunch of people contacted me for programming help. Never again.
That is a teeny house for $275k. Subcontinent wouldn’t touch it so the list of potential buyer demographics is pretty limited.
The wall is currently $240k for anything passing inspection with three or more bedrooms within an hour of a major metro. That number is thanks to the first time home buyer credit from 15 years ago. I doubt there will be another credit, but, should it happen, they’ll try to make everyone millionares heading into the election. $20k should do it.
If you see those houses sell for less than $240k, look out below.
Plus, Apple has zip if this turns out to be something. That is, unless Tim wants to eat some crow dinner with the big vendor. Even then, they will be behind.
That big vendor may not be so friendly to bring back an old client to ship MOORE cpus then they probably have on hand.
HEB in my neighborhood is stripped clean by Curbside people working the aisles to fill the German Grocery Getters pulling up to the side of the store all day.
Coke products in 2L bottles are particularly hard to get if you go to the store in the evening.
Truck is loaded and I’m off soon.
Got Nicki Heat cued up on the CD player, and it’s a beautiful clear day.
I bet it’s cold on the water tonight….
But maybe the sky will be clear and the tail end of the meteor shower will still make a good show.
n
Girlfriend got the sack yesterday. Not a surprise, there were plenty of clues, and her two predecessors in the position also got terminated in similar ways.
But home adjustments will need to be made. Since I retired (unvoluntarily) two years ago, I’ve established habits and my patterns may need some changes. At least until she finds a new position. She’s younger, and still needs to work.
“Merry Christmas!” from her employer.
Intel/CPUs aren’t the problem. Only one vendor has GPUs right now, and Apple stiffed them about a decade ago.
Tim would have to eat a smaller crow dinner with Intel if he wanted to catch up in a hurry, however.
Other than AI gear, tech is really hurting right now.
Not tech. Office worker in a trades/construction company that is reasonably stable.
Just a dysfunctional office environment with a couple of long-term women who aren’t competent to manage, and were put in charge. They like to blame subordinates for their issues, and seem to get away with it.
VP above them is a former Marine. He’s the first one I know who I wouldn’t trust, and I’ve met a lot of them. Not crooked or evil, just poor judgment.
Nvidia rushes to deliver modified AI GPU chips to China customers, allegedly places ‘Super Hot Run’ priority order with TSMC
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-alleged-super-hot-run-chinese-tsmc-ai-gpu-chips
The Absurdity of Measuring Breath for Climate Change
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/12/16/the-absurdity-of-measuring-breath-for-climate-change/
Now do Greenfield, CA, München and Mexico City…
and keep Mr. Ray out of that lab.
Oh, wait…
was that breath only or total emissions?
I think they really do not want to pay me. I asked the HEB 401k folks to start sending me $1000 a month. They sent a packet that arrived yesterday. Ok, Do I get $1000 a month before or after they withhold 20% for taxes? I’ll find out in a few weeks. I assume I’ll get the grand a month less 20% held for taxes. That’s fine. $800 works. If I keep other income down a bit, I’ll get all of that 20% back when I file taxes.
Then there are another 14 pages, thankfully duplexed, just for the paper that is going into the trash, of text in a 10 point font with 8 point “notes” about rolling it over into some other retirement fund to avoid the 10% penalty. Said penalty only applies if you are not yet 59½. I don’t want to roll my money over, I want to spend it. Spend it ALL before I die or get shoved into a nursing home.
Yeah. Give me my money. Put in my grubby paws and at least I have it. It might not make as much in a savings account or in t-bills. But I don’t have to watch my 401k bounce up and down ten grand a year…. just to have an extra $400 bucks across three years.
I can use the money to buy stuff. Canned goods. Gubs. Gub food. A couple of cows. Some chickens. Fuel for the tractors. The cows and chickens are safe from being eaten. I want the cow’s grass mowing skills and some eggs from the chooks. Like I say, I have a plan.
drwilliams, I had planned to do the penny weighing lab with my daughter this weekend but ran into a snag: I can’t procure a roll of pennies. Or dimes or nickels. The credit unions I have accounts at don’t carry them. They normally have quarters but were all out when I went in.
It’s not a major issue. I can get steel washers or similar. Didn’t have time last week or today but can get it done soonish. Just another nuisance obstacle; most days it seems that every task I try to complete is impossible because of one stupid thing or another.
Anyway, we’ll probably instead put in a dishwasher and maybe hang a window blind tomorrow, with “we” meaning “my daughter doing as much as possible while I hold and give instructions”.
I guess teh geys consider this normal:
Fired Democrat senator’s aide, 24, who made gay sex tape in Senate could face CRIMINAL charges after X-rated clip swept the internet: Is slammed for implying that HE’S the victim
I wonder who the “catcher” is?
NASA already did this study decades ago, pre-Apollo, correctly.
This is a thing you have to know before you can decide on how much recycling to do in a spacecraft or space station; and yes it turns out that people do indeed emit various hydrocarbons, and you either need to allow some leakage direct to the vacuum or do a lot more expensive scrubbing in your air plant.
[Note: as I recall from a class in spacecraft design circa 1982….]
Go ask the local grocery store for rolls of change.
Other than AI gear, tech is really hurting right now.
It ain’t just tech. Oil and Natural Gas have dropped between a ¼ and a ⅓ in employment since 2008. Number one employer in 2008 was Oil and Gas at 15 million people. It may be 10 or 11 million now.
The one I stopped at didn’t have any to spare. They have half a dozen self-check, credit-only registers and only one staffed register which takes cash. They get just a few rolls of each coin in each day.
The cashier at Walmart told me, “strip down facing me,” and by the time I realized she meant the strip on my debit card, it was to late.
They should have tested me. I could tip the scales very easily. I might be able to break some instruments.
That is the pre-tax amount. After the 20% mandatory withholding you will be left with $800.00.
“Rising peak demand, 83 GW of planned retirements create blackout risks for most of US: NERC”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/generator-retirements-threaten-grid-reliability-NERC/702504/
“NERC’s 10-year reliability assessment warns environmental regulations and energy policies “that are overly rigid” can jeopardize “the orderly transition of the resource mix.””
“Rising peak demand and the planned retirement of 83 GW of fossil fuel and nuclear generation over the next 10 years creates blackout risks for most of the United States, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said Wednesday in its annual Long-Term Reliability Assessment.”
So, we will have to replace this with 830 GW of windmills and solar panels.
Every 100,000 F150 Lightnings need ~ 2 GW for eight hours nightly.
I assume the Jesus Truck is similar.
Cars are about a third less but for the same amount of time.
Next Summer in Texas will be interesting.
Made it to the BOL. 45F. And damp. Clear sky so I”m going to have a fire on the dock and listen to the radio for a bit.
n
“Should Houston secede from Texas? Ken Hoffman imagines the great state of H-Town”
https://houston.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/texas-secede-houston-ken-hoffman/
“Saw an interesting headline recently, “Texas secessionists feel more emboldened than ever.” Seems there was a meeting — in Waco of course — where members of the Texas Nationalist Movement fantasized about Texas saying bye-bye to America and going it alone as a whole other country.”
“They call it “Texit.” They say they have 60,000 signatures on a petition they hope will get secession on the Texas Republican primary ballot.”
“But for fun, let’s play the beloved Sesame Street game: “One one of these things is different from the others?” And since we’re already just pretendin’ the only seceding that makes any sense around here would be: Houston seceding from Texas.”
Oh my.
One shooting star, but it was a good one. Crossed most of the sky. Cold and clear, would have been good observing, especially after the sliver of moon set, but it was too cold.
Oddly the lake still isn’t at normal levels. Pretty sure it was back at this time last year.
I think I’ll read for a bit, then get to bed early. I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow.
n
Brevard County School Board stops parents from reading explicit books, sexual material discontinued
https://flvoicenews.com/brevard-school-board-stops-parents-from-reading-explicit-books-sexual-material-discontinued/
Sounds like the school board got some much-needed assistance, and provided great video for their opponents during the next election:
“Hello, my name is Mr. Booksoap, and I’m running for school board with some other concerned parents. The current board doesn’t understand the law, they oppose parental involvement, and don’t see anything wrong with having filth on the shelves, like this one:
[video from board meeting, parent reads book title, the rest is bleeped]
“The school board didn’t like the public reading from the book and stopped it. The tv station wouldn’t even let us play what the school board heard. But the school board thinks that:
“I know the legislature put it in there, but I don’t like that, and run around, because we were doing a good job,” Campbell said. “So I am going to reiterate again. It’s been said several times by board members, we have a good policy, we need to follow it.”
“If you’re a parent who likes filth, you can put it on your shelves at home. If you think it doesn’t belong on the school shelves and shouldn’t take years to review, vote for us. We’ll get it done in thirty days, and go on to bigger things, like finding a better attorney.”
[I hereby place the above post in the public domain. If anyone wants to use the above draft to run for school board in Brevard County or elsewhere, no royalties or credit is due.]
Top 100 Live Albums
In the end, the Top 100 Live Albums are oftentimes more than just supplements to the artists’ careers: They are the definitive statements by the artist (see the MC5, who never topped Kick Out the Jams in the studio, or even Cheap Trick, whose career was made and will always be compared to by their Budokan success). In essence, these artists come truly alive on these 100 classic live albums.
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/live-albums-100/
I could kick ten titles off based on personal taste (Hawkwind, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell, for examples) but overall can’t fault the list. I didn’t do a close count, but probably have 60 of these on my shelf.
Omissions:
Neil Diamond, Hot August Night
Traffic, On the Road
Stevie Ray Vaughn, Live at Carnegie Hall
Fleetwood Mac, Live
There are several difficulties in putting such a list together.
The “live” album concept was a child of the late 60’s, so a lot of great bands didn’t issue such an album. Is there a Beatles concert recording in the vaults that could be “definitive”? Doubtful–just too much material for a band whose two double LP compilations plus the white album (six discs total) would make an impossibly long set and not even cover their last three albums. A better option for Beatles fans are the 2-CD “Anthology” 1-3 series, which includes outtakes and variations in the studio)
Note: There are live Beatles albums, all released years after the band broke up, and they are snapshots, not definitive.
The Stones are on the list with a great concert album, but it’s not “definitive” by any stretch.
There are some bands that simply didn’t tour. Steely Dan did not for most of their existence, due to the stage fright experienced by Donald Fagen, and their early tours were fronted by David Palmer. (Palmer was summarily fired when they quit touring, so he went and wrote hit songs with Carole King)
Many that did issue a live album as a single LP (about 45 minutes) left it a bit short of a concert, whereas a double LP (2 X a generally somewhat shorter 40 minutes) was more like a concert but a huge risk for all but the biggest bands. Then along came CD’s, albums expanded to 50-60 minutes, and a live album could fill the entire 71 minutes (later stretched to 78). Hard to compare.
I included Fleetwood Mac, Live, on the omissions list above. It certainly covers the most important songs of a band that dominated the late 1970’s, but if you don’t have it how much are you missing? Complicated by the fragility of Stevie Nicks’ voice, which was not a reliable concert instrument.
There’s a lot of good stuff still trickling out of the vaults. Since physical media is no longer a requirement, there is literally more than a lifetime worth, which severely limits the value for most of it.
Video footage has taken over from audio-only. Fact is you can spend every evening watching for free on YouTube (Bert Sugarman’s Midnight Special is a good place to start) and then expand your options hugely for about twenty bucks a month. If you have the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m__wmsIn99E