On this date in 2018, Robert Bruce Thompson left this earth. His memory and spirit live on in his writing, and this place, and in the lives of those he helped or influenced.
Consider how your life is better having met RBT here or in his other writing, and raise a glass to absent friends.
nick
Thank you in your absence, RBT, for founding one of the best spots on the internet. I still often hear what I think of as his “voice” in the discussions here. Maybe he (like JEP at Chaos Manor) just taught me ways of thinking about and understanding complex issues.
Thanks, also, to Barbara for allowing us to continue to play here, and to Nick and RickH for keeping the doors open and the fires lit.
About 6F here, and rather breezy. Most of the chickens came right out when I opened the coop and headed straight for the food. They have a heated coop to retreat to if they get chilly but only one of them routinely goes inside to sit rather than crouch down outside. All but one still run away in a panic if I reach to pick them up so I can check their wattles and maybe put vaselline on them. Well, if they get frostbite or die of cold when they could have gone into the coop or used the heated roosting rail, then they deserve it. The heated water tank is keeping the water liquid, a nominal 40F in the tank and somewhat less in the drinking tray; it’s a sad state of affairs when the air is cold enough that water just a little above freezing feels warm.
While I cleaned the coop yesterday and refilled with clean straw, I let the birds run around a bit. They didn’t want to walk on snow, understandably, but there was a clear section of patio and the stairs going up, and the side sidewalk, and the driveway, and the path to the front door, and the porch. When I was done cleaning, five birds were milling around on the front porch, unsure of what to do next, while the last hen went into the coop to lay. I tried to chivvy the five back to the run but they simply weren’t cooperating, so I had to catch them and carry them one at a time to the stairs while the others ran around the cars and then back onto the porch. Were they seeking warmth, as the front of the house faces south and there was a bit of sun? Frustrated because snow covered the mulch and dirt around the front bushes and they weren’t able to scratch for grubs so they went onto the porch because they didn’t know what else to do? As may be, it turned a ten-minute chore into about 30, when I really had better things to be doing.
The handrail that I put up for Grandma is still there, still doing its job. I put it up by the front steps because Grandma fell down about 15 months ago. She wasn’t hurt but I think that was just dumb luck. Because of the time of year, no proper outdoor handrail sets were available in the hardware store so I got what I could, borrowed my dad’s post hole digger, and kludged something together. It was a bit wobbly but better than nothing. Last Spring I talked to wife and m-i-l about replacing it, but they liked it as is, so I just put on a brace to make it steadier. Recently I saw Grandma stumble on the front steps but catch herself using the handrail, so I guess it’s good enough. Not bad for a kludge. Until she gets more worse, at which point we’ll probably need to put in either a ramp or a longer series of shallow stairs. Deal with that when we get there.
The Child is going through a phase where she’s basically not doing what she’s supposed to unless I watch her every minute and keep her on task. Not only things like “forgetting” to do homework but not brushing her teeth unless I remind her every time and then stick around to make sure she does it. I’ve taken the phone away, but the problem is that she actually needs both phone and computer for her schoolwork, the former for calls for the team assignments and the latter for doing all of the assignments except for math. I’ve required her to sit on the futon next to my desk so I can watch and make sure she’s working, but babysitting her makes it impossible for me to work. I’m hoping that she soon gets over whatever her problem is; otherwise I’ll probably have to abandon her deep in the woods, replace her with a stunt double, and hope no one notices.
Also, the best way to honor RBT is that if you suspect something is wrong, get it checked out ASAP.
Not all GPs are PLTs … yet. Many are simply indentured servants beholden to the system.
Atlanta.
Again, Atlanta.
Plus: Trump. I’m jus’ sayin’.
A lot of Black women seem to have Stage 4 TDS. It is much worse than the Suburban Dem female hangup about Bad Daddy which gave us the current White House occupant.
Joe and Kamala understand. *We* worked hard for this.
I’ve long believed that Oprah avoids direct involvement in politics because the Roger Ebert’s widow has the pictures from back in the day.
The Widow Ebert hails from one of most influential families in Chicago’s Dem political machine.
I’ve been there five times. When The Twins started ignoring math homework, I got a hand-held, but pretty big, white board and had them do problems along with me.
Now, when they want to throw a poo-ball at me, it’s: “Dad, quick! Get the white board!” Little jerks.
I’m actually more surprised that the Daily Mail requested credentials to be at an event in person than just covering the action from wire reports.
Part of Nimarata’s appeal is that men want to get their strange on with her. It serves as a distraction from Republican males thinking too hard about the sanity of putting a former member of the Boeing board into One Observatory Circle or even the White House.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12984447/nikki-haley-bans-daily-mail-campaign-events-husband-affair-allegations.html
@Nick: Good news on the visual orb.
I had an incident on a Friday evening, billions of spots suddenly appeared in my eye. I did not think much about it but contacted my eye doctor on Monday. I got a royal ass-chewing because I waited. I was immediately referred to a retina doctor, as in from the eye doctor to the retina doctor with no waiting.
What happened to me was a blood vessel had burst in my eye and the spots were teeny-tiny drops of blood. Within three days I was scheduled for a vitrectomy with the following day having the retina lasered. The other eye was done about a month later. That caused cataracts six months later and I had to have that procedure.
@NIck: You may want to talk with your doctor about a vitrectomy. It was explained to me that the vitreous fluid gets more like a jell and will pull on the retina. Removing the vitreous fluid and replacing it with saline stops the issue. The saline is eventually absorbed and replaced with new vitreous fluid. This is especially important for people that are significantly near-sighted.
Yes, cataracts are a significant side effect. Cataract surgery is remarkable and can correct near, or far, vision, maybe even both. Glasses are eliminated except for reading glasses.
WRT RBT: The only paper paged book that I have retained from 20 years ago is PC Hardware In A Nutshell.
Oh, the poor dears. “Illegals are now complaining that American winters are too cold.”
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1747287112209006881Go home.
Thanks RBT and all the people maintaining this running (Rick, Nick , all the people who writes here), he and JEP (and I arrived thru JEP) were one of the best sites, and now here only.
Thanks RBT and all the people maintaining this running (Rick, Nick , all the people who writes here), he and JEP (and I arrived thru JEP) were one of the best sites, and now here only.
Amen!
Agreed.
I arrived here from Chaos Manor, and had found that site from being a regular Byte reader. I didn’t discover the comments until a great while later.
The old daynotes writers are almost all gone. I used to frequent many of them, but in particular Brian Bilbrey (still posts occasionally but not the same tone), Tom Syroid (one of the first to drop out, if I recall), John Dominik (vanished, without a trace), and Dave Farguhar (still active, but I only visit occasionally now).
Change is natural, I guess.
A day I won’t forget.
I had just bought this place, and since it was uninhabitable, living in a derelict motorhome nearby,
I was standing in line in the local market buying a hamburger.
Bored I checked my phone, and was so shocked that I actually did the ‘sucking in your breath‘ thing (I didn’t realize that it wasn’t simply a literary fantasy until that moment).
Rest in Peace.
Yes. But Jeff Duntemann is still around, still writing, still posting.
Sounds like a good scope & mount.
You should be aware that included Barlows and eyepieces are sometimes not very good.
it sounds as if it is a Bird – Jones style optical train, with a built-in Barlow in the focuser. The advantage is that it should make the field flatter looking, and eyepieces should perform better, the disadvantage is the long focal ratio will probably reduce field of view.
RBT appointed me to Super Administrator in this forum and the technical forum about 20 some years ago. My participation here then was minimal but quite a lot in the technical forum back then, Then I drifted out of the technical and didn’t come back here for quite a while.
BTW:
The new apple voice to text & AutoCorrect is horrible, putting in random stuff, changing correct words to incorrect words and putting commas everywhere. The grammar correction function is also terrible, if you want to fix something next to a word that it thinks is grammatically incorrect then you have to delete both words and type them both in again.
I think it is slower than actually typing stuff out now, if you include the editing time.
It took me a while to figure out that there were comments here, and that they were worth reading. I’d been coming for a long time before that happened.
Once it did, it felt like coming home. JEP didn’t have public comments, and while I was a subscriber, I only occasionally took advantage of that to send him a comment or thought.
Here I felt like I could comment, and felt compelled to make it worth peoples’ time to read, since their comments were so good.
Eventually RBT asked me to upgrade some long comments to posts, gave me and two others posting privileges, and things progressed from there. When he got sick we all thought he would return, so I “unlocked the door and turned the lights on” because I had the keys… but had a strong sense of ‘stewardship’, which I still do. After he’d passed and Barbara agreed that we should keep the place open, I did what I could to continue the traditions, look, and feel.
I’m enormously grateful for the opportunity, and that not only have you stuck around, but continue to contribute, and that new people have joined us as well.
My sincere and heartfelt thanks to Barbara, Rick, and all who visit and comment (and to the others with the power to keep order). This has become an important piece of my life and my identity and I will continue sharing in it as long as I can.
nick
Please do continue for a long, long time, Nick!
I returned from the winter holiday break to learn that a dear colleague, who had been very kind to me early in my career, had died suddenly.
Cherish every day, and cherish the ones you love every day too.
It is well below freezing here at the BOL, but we had blue skies and sunshine in the afternoon. W1 and I went for a walk in the woods, and had some fun figuring out the animal tracks in the snow.
Raclette (grilled cheese with potatoes and bacon) for dinner, along with a chilly Pinot gris. Now sitting in front of a log fire, drinking fine Schnapps and listening to a live transmission of Mozart’s Don Giovanni on the radio. If you have internet radio, look for Bayern Klassik from Germany, an exceptionally fine music channel.
Violates major engineering truism! Good, Fast, Cheap dinner:
https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/ground-beef-entrees-cheap-fast-good/
Many thanks for keeping this place open. Chaos Manor led here back in the day, the first blogs I ever read when the word hadn’t quite been invented.
ADDED: And raise a glass or something for those gone but not forgotten.
I just bought 7 ribeyes at HEB. Ugh, I need to find a local source of beef, buy a chest freezer, and get half a cow.
ITGuy1998 says:
“Agreed.
I arrived here from Chaos Manor, and had found that site from being a regular Byte reader”
My path, also. I’ll add another heartfelt thanks to Rick, Nick, CowboyStu, and all the regular posters. I’d also encourage those who post occasionally to share more with us, those who don’t post to try sharing with us, and everyone to give a thought about who they know that they can encourage to drop in.
I went to vac-seal the mac and cheese I bought. Four boxes per bag makes a nice uniform package size. Get it all bagged and a bay leaf tossed in and what the heck. The bags are not sealing very well. I really doubt the machine broke since last used a couple of weeks ago. It sucks as hard as ever.
All I have is, is that it’s 69f in the house according to one thermometer. My fingers and toes are almost numb. I guess the heat strip isn’t strong enough. Shrug. I’ll know more in a week if the weather forecast is to be trusted.
I think I found Daynotes via The Pompous Git. Jonathan Sturm. How I found him is unknown. He built the House of Steel.
And OMG, Jerry freaking Pournelle has a web site?!?!?!?
I liked Tom Syroid too. I think he went sort of crazy up there in Canada as his marriage fell apart.
Ah, the good old days when Win95se and Win98 were “good stuff” and a 56.6 modem was smoking fast.
Thanks for all the nice words, but Nick does the most work around here. I just apply updates and keep the site secure.
I also came here via the “Daynotes Gang”. I was honored when they added me to that group, although I don’t blog daily now (and haven’t for many years).
I did enjoy reading the Daynotes gang. Sadly, many have disappeared. The ‘daynotes’ domains have gone to landing pages.
I particularly enjoyed Tom Syroid (although I often didn’t understand his geeky stuff at the time), and John Dominik. Don’t know where John went. His last post according to the Wayback Machine is from 2011. His domain has gone away, and the googles are no help. It’s been many years since he’s posted anything. Anyone got any ideas?
Dominik, Sturm, Syriod … boy, haven’t thought of them in years. Wow.
Was Sturm the one who mentioned he wasn’t allowed to do his own electrical or plumbing in NZ or wherever? As someone who has more or less memorized the layout of Home Depot and Lowe’s it sounded incredible to me.
Strum was in Tasmania IIRC
last I found of him and what he wrote he was having serious health issues a couple of years back
and looking just now
https://www.themercury.com.au/tributes/notice/death-notices/strum-jonathan-philip/6024374/
and I keep using Strum and I know it’s Sturm
https://www.google.com/search?q=jonathan+strum+tasmania+house+of+steel&sca_esv=600132350&sxsrf=ACQVn09yxWQ6Ww1eQ7uLS-kUBmFBYiYZhQ%3A1705794832522&ei=EF2sZaK_H93JkPIP1PemwA4&ved=0ahUKEwiih7X4lO2DAxXdJEQIHdS7CegQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=jonathan+strum+tasmania+house+of+steel&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiJmpvbmF0aGFuIHN0cnVtIHRhc21hbmlhIGhvdXNlIG9mIHN0ZWVsMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABSK9NUNsNWNYxcAF4AJABAJgBhQGgAZoLqgEEMTEuNLgBA8gBAPgBAcICBhAAGBYYHsICBRAhGKsC4gMEGAEgQYgGAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#ip=1
aye carumba.
Picked up a stanley 64oz growler at goodwill. It’s covered with stickers.
Defund the Police, Fund Education.
AOC “Justice” in the style of a Tarot card
Support BLM “All power to the people”
Believe women, believe survivors.
I Bern for You (block cartoon of a man looking at Bernie in the chair with mittens)
Masked, Fully Vaccinated. Texas State Employees Union (in the style of Rosie the riveter)
Abort Abbott
Humans Against Ted Cruz
a unicorn with a rainbow
——
nature puts fangs and claws on predators to help you stay away. Grrrlfriend puts stickers on her beer jug…
n
>> We have contaminated the entire planet and will continue to do so. The number of ships on the ocean bottoms from WWI and WWII is amazing. Lots of heavy metals leaching into the oceans from those.
In a few million years our Sun will burn out and none of the contamination will matter. SteveF hopes to be around til the end.
Nah, it’s more like crapping all over the place as identification and to claim territory.
Nonsense. Well before Sol burns out, I’ll have shipped off to another system.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Get busy Steve…
n
Where there is an opportunity for karma there is a small chance that it will happen:
https://www.humanevents.com/2024/01/20/journalist-who-tried-to-cancel-novak-djokovic-over-not-taking-covid-vaccine-collapses-and-dies-while-covering-australian-open?utm_campaign=64483
It’s likely that almost every mention of his death will include something like the title of the above link:
“Journalist who tried to cancel Novak Djokovic over not taking COVID vaccine collapses and dies while covering Australian Open”
Note that the header does not include his name, as he is better known generically as “Journalist who tried to cancel…”
yeah, I know, he was a judgemental poopyhead but still had a family that loved him. RIP.
“In a few million years our Sun will burn out and none of the contamination will matter.”
Bill-yunzTM
5 of them until the red giant phase engulf Terra and we have global warming for real.
Darn, but RIP Mr. Strum.
With all those stickers, I would be sanitising that right hard, and distrustful of it even then. Maybe for water for the dog?
I have had terrible luck with Stanley flasks, finding that they quickly make hot contents cold.* I switched to emsa, which keep hot hot, and cold cold. Recommended. https://www.emsa.com/en/
For stews, Grunwerg (Pioneer brand) make wide-mouthed vacuum-insulated flasks and serving vessels (“airpots”). https://grunwerg.co.uk/collections/airpots Big River carries a few “unbreakable” ones not listed on the Grunwerg website. Highly recommended. https://www.amazon.com/Grunwerg-Pioneer-Stainless-Steel-Unbreakable/dp/B003EDK17C?tag=ttgnet-20/
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* A famous English footballer was doing some shopping one day when he wandered into a kitchenware shop and saw a shiny cylindrical metal object.
“What’s this?” he asks the assistant.
“It’s a Thermos flask,” she replies.
“What does it do?” he asks, still unsure.
“It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold,” the assistant replies.
He thought that was quite marvellous, so he buys one and takes it to training with him the next day.
“Look what I’ve got,” he tells the lads of the team proudly. “It’s a Thermos flask.”
His teammates are impressed. “But what does it do?” they ask.
“It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold,” he replies.
“And what have you got in it?” they ask.
“Two cups of coffee and a chocolate ice cream.”
That “We Can Do This” meme (Rosie the Riveter) was co-opted by the government to push the jabs, turning the vaccine into a man-woman issue.
Maybe the growler was at Goodwill because the previous owner had an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Agenda comes first.
I don’t know him, since I got to this site late, but I can sympathize.
It was 15 years (and 2 weeks) ago I discovered my 35 year marriage was over. I ended up in therapy and on heart medicine, antidepressants, antianxiety meds, and hospitalized due to interactions. I’m much better now. Badly bent but not broken.
I’m happy to have this place to hang out, and thankful for the founders and maintainers, which includes te commenters.
“30TB hard drives are nearly here — Seagate’s Mozaic 3+ HAMR platform to provide the next jump in HDD capacities”
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/seagates-mozaic-3-hamr-platform-targets-30tb-hdds-and-beyond
“Seagate plans to ship HAMR HDDs for cloud customers in Q1 2024.”
I’m hoping that she soon gets over whatever her problem is; otherwise I’ll probably have to abandon her deep in the woods, replace her with a stunt double, and hope no one notices.
Make sure that you give her a sharp knife and a canteen of water. It is the least that you can do.
>> Next phone will probably be the Z Fold line. I really want a BIIIG screen, because I use my phone as a small tablet. Wife does, too. My issue is that I really like my Note 20 Ultra 5G. It does everything without fuss. Battery life is exceptional. Screen is great, but needs to be bigger.
A bit sceptical as to the durability of the current generation of these folding phone screens. YMMV.
The engineering still needs a lo of work, but I think Larry Niven has the physics mostly figured out for how to tow the Earth into a higher orbit, or perhaps around Jupiter when the Sun starts to really heat up. “World Out of Time”.
>> “Though not admitting wrong-doing, diesel engine maker Cummins has agreed to pay a record $1.675 billion civil penalty in a vehicle test cheating settlement. In addition, it has agreed to spend more than $325 million to remedy the violations, which included the use of software “defeat devices” that circumvented emissions testing and certification requirements.”
So yeah, we obviously haven’t done anything the least bit wrong, but anyway, please take $1.6B pile of extra cash that we have just laying around, no, no, we don’t need it…
Maybe the growler was at Goodwill because the previous owner had an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Agenda comes first.
Thought crossed my mind. It was probably there because the lid was broken. And oddly, it’s a model you can’t get a replacement lid from anyone.
Stanley is normally repairable
n
The engineering still needs a lo of work, but I think Larry Niven has the physics mostly figured out for how to tow the Earth into a higher orbit, or perhaps around Jupiter when the Sun starts to really heat up. “World Out of Time”.
Actually, Sol will be cooling down and expanding as more of the hydrogen is reacted into helium, dropping the temperature of the plasma. I think that we are at 40% helium now (IIRC). There may be some problems as the density of Sol rapidly drops and the gravitational attraction also drops. A planet or few might spin off into the void.
I’m hoping that she soon gets over whatever her problem is; otherwise I’ll probably have to abandon her deep in the woods, replace her with a stunt double, and hope no one notices.
Make sure that you give her a sharp knife and a canteen of water. It is the least that you can do.
In my Kate Daniels books, Kate finds out that she was not the only stepchild who was given a sharp knife and a canteen and dropped off in the woods or the desert until she walked home weeks or months later. She fondly reminisces that those months in the wild starting at age 11 made her fairly tough.
You are late, you should have started at 11. I should have done it too.
>> “Though not admitting wrong-doing, diesel engine maker Cummins has agreed to pay a record $1.675 billion civil penalty in a vehicle test cheating settlement. In addition, it has agreed to spend more than $325 million to remedy the violations, which included the use of software “defeat devices” that circumvented emissions testing and certification requirements.”
So yeah, we obviously haven’t done anything the least bit wrong, but anyway, please take $1.6B pile of extra cash that we have just laying around, no, no, we don’t need it…
The real question is, how many owners of the Cummins diesel trucks will permit their trucks to be modified and derated for a 10% ? 20% ? 30% ? drop in horsepower, torque, and fuel efficiency ? I can just see truck owners lining up for that procedure. Not.
“In a few million years our Sun will burn out and none of the contamination will matter.”
Bill-yunzTM
5 of them until the red giant phase engulf Terra and we have global warming for real.
I read a YA SF book (trilogy actually) recently where Sol started expanding in the year 2213 or so. Turned out that aliens had dropped something into Sol and messed it up.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Mars-Chronicle-Dark-Star/dp/0062306723?tag=ttgnet-20/
>> Also, the best way to honor RBT is that if you suspect something is wrong, get it checked out ASAP.
Whatever the impetus, glad that mr nick got his ‘clean bill of health’ recently.
And W2 has been good at nicely nagging me to keep up with my medical needs.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to remember Bob and thank nick, RickH, Barbara and all the contributors that make this place special.
BTW, I just check and found my first comment here was 24 years ago – wow!
Off to bed.
Wow, 24 years!
That is crazy.
n
BTW, I just check and found my first comment here was 24 years ago – wow!
Wow! Indeed. How did you check? Now I am curious to know when I de-cloaked.
@denis:
Search is your friend. Look up your nym and find the earliest instance. Hint: it’ll be at the bottom of the list.
G.
I just did, and my first posts here are in early 2017, earlier than I thought. I had thought that I decloaked after RBT left us, but not so, apparently.
I was a lurker for years, read the site religiously, but never posted. Now up to 123+ posting days, often with multiple posts.
G.
Let’s demand reparations…
say $6 million from each illegal that has entered our country, a 50% surtax on any income, indebtedness for every dollar of aid they have received–with annual interest set at the same rate paid on credit cards by most Americans–and a one-time charge of $1 million for each child born, father, or cloned.
I support reparations. We need to find the average annual income of Ghanaians and Senegalese and such, then find the average annual income of American blacks, and pay the American blacks 200X the difference. Important note: If American blacks make more than the Senegalese, then they need to pay us.
We also need to assess a fee to the black community for disparate costs they impose on society. This mostly means crime, but there’s also special education costs, drug rehab, loss of workplace productivity because of underqualified blacks being put in positions, loss of educational opportunity for Whites and Asians because underqualified blacks were admitted to college, and so on.