Cold or maybe just chilly in the morning, warming gradually, with clear skies. Ever wonder why we use the plural there? It’s only one sky. Anyway, that is what yesterday was like and the national forecast is calling for the same today.
I did my auction stuff in the morning, then headed out to do pickups. I only had a couple of small items this week, but I also dug a small table saw out of storage for my buddy, which took about an hour or more, and dropped off a chest freezer for my auction friend. Meatspace.
Dinner was some of the on sale sirloins from last year. Yummy.
Today I’ve got one pickup appointment which is for the butcher saw and a couple of other small things. I’ll be doing domestic bliss for the rest of the day starting with a haircut. 4 years I’ve been doing that myself, and I’m still just OK at it. Can’t see the back, always hope it’s good. I like the results ok, and it doesn’t scare passersby, so I’ll rate it as a success. The main thing for me now is that it’s quick and convenient. I do miss the check in with my barber, but he’s charging $20 for a clipper cut now, which adds up when you get a cut every 3 weeks, and he’s in a part of town I don’t get to as often as I used to. Add that to the time it takes to get there and get the cut, and it’s a lot easier to just keep doing it myself.
There are a lot of things people currently pay for that they might consider doing for themselves if the economy, or their circumstances, continue to worsen. That has knock on effects of its own.
One thing I did yesterday was hit a couple of hispanic markets looking for mexican vanilla. 3 places, no one spoke english. One, the proprietor was middle eastern or persian, and all the workers spoke spanish, but he spoke broken english. The others? Yeah, no english at all. This is a few blocks from my rent house, which used to be our residence. Wasn’t like that 10 years ago. Yes hispanic market, but clearly their customers are only spanish speakers now. No pretense of serving everyone. FWIW, the mexican brands I found aren’t pure natural vanilla (in alcohol) anymore, they all had additional vanillin added. Even the one with the name “Pura”… sad state of affairs.
I could have used more of my spanish, but I have to think about it to put sentences together. I got by with mostly english and some spanish words and phrases. Interestingly, afterwards, I tried “Hey google, como se dice “vanilla” en espanol?” The reply was “In spanish, you say “vain-ee-ya”.” So google can do simple translation from voice commands and understands mixed english and spanish. That’s pretty slick and a long way from their starting point of free directory assistance- a service that barely exists anymore.
Time marches on, and incremental changes add up.
Make some small improvements in your life. Always be working and over time, the small effort will pay big dividends. Stacking works that way too. Build your food security one can at a time.
nick
That’s going to be the second major conflict within the US, I think, after blacks exceed the patience of Whites and are beaten down, driven out, or killed in large numbers. It’s possible that the mohammedans will have to be dealt with before the “nuevo atzlan”ers.
Both of Musk’s companies have cult-like followings among the customer base. Plus, the Pizza Box Dream dies hard, especially among my generation.
The Pizza Box and $20 Reeboks.
If you don’t need a license for the base station, then Starlink has complete control over the box, just like the cell phone carriers. I would assume it is constantly “phoning home” via 5G at a minimum if powered and able to reach a base station.
Software updates and restarts via remote are easy with embedded Linux.
Too early.
Just assume the thing is always connected to Stark Industries HQ if the box has power.
Chilly and clear this morning. Dunno why but D1 and W were early out the door. D2 had a big box of cookies to sell to her teachers and classmates.
———
@brad Also: the US needs to kick some NATO butt, and demand that European countries invest their 2% (also retroactively) in their own defense.
– yet when trump makes that point in his usual over the top and bombastic way, it is THE WORST THING EVAH!!! eleventy!!11!!!! I believe he made the demand when he was in office and got some traction. Nothing like having a belligerent and acquisitive russia on your border to focus the mind though….
Get the rest of the world to start paying for the UN while we’re at it, or disband the band of thieves.
n
after blacks exceed the patience of Whites and are beaten down, driven out, or killed in large numbers
– it would take huge and numerous atrocities to trigger that. MUCH more likely that after the US turns into a majority hispanic nation, they’ll finally get tired of the 13% yap dogs. From what I see and hear daily, they’ve got no patience for it, no white guilt, and only refrain because they are diffident by conditioning, since they know in their hearts they are here on sufferance. Once that changes, american blacks are going to get a rude awakening.
n
I had to laugh at the black woman from Puerto Rico (can’t find the article just now), who was on the bandwagon demanding reparations. Then she discovered that her family emigrated to Puerto Rico from Spain, when slavery was outlawed there, so that they could keep their slaves. So far from being former slaves, her family (even though black ) were slave owners. Didn’t bother her much. She says she still deserves reparations :-/
It’s sad, what the well-meaning leftists have done to blacks and black culture. They were making solid progress in the 1950s and 1960s. Not overnight, but steady. Along comes the “Great Society”, government is here to help, that addicts them to welfare and subsidized broken families. Two or three generations of that, and the desire for education and gainful employment has largely been destroyed. The road to hell…
The Amish and Hispanic communities have no love lost between them. I think urban violence between the AmiSpanic community is going to escalate. Let them go at it. Move out of the urban environment. NOW!
I have spoken.
“Let’s you and him fight” is a winning strategy.
You’d almost think that Democrats hate and contemn blacks and (mostly hispanic) “migrants”, the way they’re reducing policing in black and hispanic neighborhoods, giving government money to (mostly hispanic) “migrants” at the expense of blacks, and so on. But that can’t be true, can it? Democrats have loooooved blacks for centuries, going so far as to buy them and then doing everything to keep them on the plantation.
You act like the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society had good intentions.
That’s only true if you think the Democrats/Socialists/Racists worming their way to power by buying votes is a good intention.
They were warned of the outcome in the mid 1960’s by Barry Godwater, among others.
One SF author posited that we overestimate the effect of a given change in the short term, but underestimate it in the long term.
The previous job’s 401(k) plan sent me a notice that they were shutting down and transferring the assets from Fidelity to an IRA at Principal unless directed to do otherwise.
Having the account closed and the money moved to Vanguard … sigh, yes … was this week’s evening project.
The tolling company had their 401(k) at Principal, and the fund selection was awful.
From what I understand, in addition to a switch to “unlimited” vacation, the tolling company ended their 401(k) match even though it was beyond stingy when I worked there, with a four year staggered vesting and 6% matching maximum.
When I was working for the bigcorp, our fidelity 401 funds were all dogs. ALL of them underperformed their benchmarks. The sales dude must have seen our Dunning–Kruger HR staff coming from a mile away and dumped all their crap on her.
“Hey Jeremy, I finally found someone I could con into putting their entire staff into those horrible funds you bet me no one would choose! Time to pay up dude!”
n
One of the best routine DIY activities is changing oil. It can be so easy once there is a routine, plus I get to choose my own oil and filters. Lately, improved filters seem worthwhile if we want an engine to last a long time. Good oil has always been important.
The tools needed are simple and inexpensive. A clean sheltered spot is a plus.
I don’t trust a shop to do this essential job. They often put their lowest grade employees on this, and mistakes are made.
Another plus is the inspection while underneath. I look for damage and leaks, and have caught a few over the years. Inspections should be performed more often, of course, especially if something doesn’t seem right.
I’ll keep doing my own oil changes until my back won’t let me anymore. I just changed the oil in my ATS and checked the brakes while I was at it. The car just rolled over 70k, and the brakes are original. The fronts are Brembo, and the car brakes as good as a 911. Seriously good brakes. Anyways, the pads, front and rear, probably have another 30K left in them, at least. Incredible.
HR at the tolling company I dealt with consisted of diversity hires from Walmart (head of HR) and Chipotle (Austin) store management.
Head of HR at Big Blue in the 00s was Randy McDonald, who was the hatchet man at GTE in the 90s and one of the co-conspirators in the “merger of equals” with Bell Atlantic which hosed the employees, customers, and stock holders of GTE in 2000.
The problem with Fidelity is that they are often a front for State Street managing the 401(k) plans for large companies.
If you don’t think your Fidelity plan is actually held by State Street, you probably haven’t been paying attention.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/02/over-2-billion-metric-tons-of-rare-earth-minerals-discovered-in-wyoming/
China has 44million tons of rate earth minerals and has embargoed exports.
2.34 million tons was just discovered in Wyoming.
Fast-track development.
Embargo export to China, including re-export.
Put green weinies commie stooges on reservations with bicycle driven electric generators for their comfort.
2.34 billion.
Oddly, I remember seeing Goldwater on TV, during the presidential campaign. I can still sort of see a still image of him, on our B&W television. That’s “odd”, because I was probably just barely 4 years old. Why would that image stick in my brain all these years? Human brains are weird.
Back in the early 90s, I did serious AI research. I worked on the symbolic side, but was aware of what was going on with neural networks. The good ones could do things like transcribe an image of bad handwriting, i.e., figure out that a squiggle is probably the letter P, or the digit 7. Research was at the very beginning of recognizing (not generating!) images.
Incremental changes over 30 years, plus increases in computing power, and we get ChatGPT & Co.. Absolutely amazing stuff.
Better yet, embargo export of the ore and the oxides, requiring manufacturing to be in the U. S.
Lease half the mines to the Bureau of Prisons, and make 10-years at hard labor (mineral extraction) the minimum sentence for alien invaders. Add supplemental years for the distance of the country of origin and the number of “safe” countries in-between.
And next Jan, start counting all illegal entry across the southern border against Mexico’s statutory quota.
Ok, here’s a weird one for the IT sleuths out there.
I need access a particular website at our school. It contains videos. If I access these with my usual browser, the videos do not display. The problem exists both on my PC and on my laptop (identical OS, similar software installed), so it is not system specific.
– All other websites work fine.
– The critical website in other browsers → works fine.
– Take a video out and put it in a simple HTML page → works fine.
– Fresh install of the browser on the PC → does not work.
– Fresh install of the browser in a virtual machine (fresh install of the OS) → works
So: there is something about my systems (plural), that makes this one (very important) website not work for me, under one particular browser.
Now, I could just change to using a different browser, but now I’m mad. I want to know what is going on. Only…I am completely out of things to check.
Ideas?
IE6? It is really deprecated these days.
Try various compatibility modes?
n
How many Mata Haris are there in the Capitol?
Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law and Bank of China executive Angela Chao dies in car wreck at age 50
n
Are both machines owned my you personally or are they the property of the school?
@Greg: one of each, but the school machine came bare metal. Both are running Linux, installed by me.
Bang Bang!
The Asian girl kink isn’t uncommon with those guys.
– It used to be range anxiety that was quoted as the reason EVs didn’t sell.
n
– “equity hires” ie. a sop to the race extortionists.
– if they are hiding their “true” thoughts, those thoughts must be decidedly un-PC… please let this be peak woke…
n
2%/80 month car loans are no more. The market for $50k+ vehicles disappeared with the loans.
Ford Credit was offering 1.9% at 72 months but the deal was on 2023 F150s which have been rotting at dealer lots since September.
Wed. Feb. 14, 2024 – my Ranger mileage was 144,444 yesterday…
Congratulations on breaking in your Ranger. Is it the 4 banger or the V6 ?
D1 will need a vehicle soon …
Have you tried turning off the GPU acceleration setting in the browser?
Otherwise, it smells like a JavaScript engine optimization issue. The JIT probably compiles to a different target in the virtual machine than on bare metal systems.
Pro-Tip: If you’re watching a streaming service in your browser (Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Disney+, Paramount+, etc.) and you want to take a screenshot of some scene from a TV show or movie (to make a meme or to reference in a discussion or to use as a wallpaper) and you keep getting just an all black screenshot. That’s the DRM ruining your day. Much of that is actually embedded in the hardware. Turn off hardware acceleration in your browser, close and reopen your browser, and then try that screenshot again. It will work just fine. 🙂
I believe the kids call it “yellow fever.”
Two lessons of what to stay away from in this sad article.
n
Two? From this list:
Camaros
Women
California
Walmart
Apologies
Beef Jerky with soda?
@Greg: good suggestions – I’ll have a look…
Watch the other hand. This smells of politicians looking for a way to sneak something through…
Well, that’s a conflict in terms.
Schwab finally made tax info available today, so I downloaded the pdf. I fired up TurboTax to import, and it’s not available electronically until the 16th. It’s not like I’m in a rush, I’ll have to pay a couple hundred. I like to have them done early though, and then e-file a week before the deadline.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/02/over-2-billion-metric-tons-of-rare-earth-minerals-discovered-in-wyoming/
China has 44million tons of rate earth minerals and has embargoed exports.
2.34 million tons was just discovered in Wyoming.
Fast-track development.
Embargo export to China, including re-export.
Put green weinies commie stooges on reservations with bicycle driven electric generators for their comfort.
Processing for rare earth metals is even dirtier than processing bauxite, aluminum ore. Good luck in getting the EPA to approve a new processing plant. The amount of tailings is much more than the resulting rare earths. And the processing plant uses huge amounts of water and very nasty acids. The old “dilution is the solution” rule does not work in this case.
Multiple people were shot at Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/multiple-people-were-shot-at-chiefs-super-bowl-parade/ar-BB1ihL6O
Television reports are claiming children among the ten people shot.
I file as early as possible. That minimizes the possibility of someone filing a return for me and getting a big refund. If I owe I send in the 1040V on the 10th of April. I also usually write some snarky comment in the memo line on the check.
What’s wrong with using Barstow? Seems like it would be an improvement.
The entire length of I-80 in Wyoming is an environmental weenie’s nightmare, but rare earth processing is an order of magnitude worse than anything I saw making that drive twice.
Plus, I don’t remember seeing a lot of water.
Watch the other hand. This smells of politicians looking for a way to sneak something through…
It is Wag The Dog time.
I think it was technically after the parade at a separate (but still Chiefs-related) event, but that’s just splitting hairs.
Google up the homicide rate in Kansas City. It’s like the 7th or 8th worst city in the US.
https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1757401451977162991
“Trump is favored by voters who think our top priorities are crime, border security, economy, and unnecessary foreign spending.”
“Biden is favored by people who still think the news is real.”
“That’s your whole story.”
Musk double tapped two replies.
“Pretty Much”
and
“Amazing that some people still think the news is real”
We used to have several active Minds that were processing rare earth metals because they’re not actually that rare but it does take a lot of work and it results in a giant open pit. Us producers could not compete with the Chinese Chief Imports so it destroyed the US mining industry for a rare earth metals and then China had a monopoly. Now they’ve restricted sale after destroying our indigenous industry which is straight out of the playbook. If they’re building Fabs in this country again and I know they are, then they’ll approve the rare Earth mines.
Someone asked what gearing up for global conflict would look like, this is it. Build up your industrial capacity, open new chip fabs, secure the natural resources you need, and do it all as fast as you can. In fact, you’ll know if that mind gets fast track approval, that we are seriously headed towards the global conflict.
N
Wow the Samsung voice to text app really does not like the word mines.
Scott Adams advice stay away from black people. Old remus’s Vice stay away from crowds. I forget Whose advice but maybe Colonel Cooper’s stay away from stupid people and avoid places that are known for trouble.
N
@Lynn
“Good luck in getting the EPA to approve a new processing plant.”
If Trump listens to my advice, the EPA will still exist after January 2025, but the Washington headquarters will be closed and 100% of the administrators and staff will be dispersed to field offices co-located with the biggest Superfund sites, where they will make those their top priority and make regular field trips to smaller sites using the required US-made electric or hybrid automobile.
My father-in-law had it bad.
That reminds me – we’re coming up on 20 years since he died under mysterious circumstances in the “care” of the nursing staff in the heart transplant program at UT Southwestern, one of whom later cashed checks for the bulk of his life insurance money.
I always figured one of the dragon ladies would do him in for the insurance but I never figured a nurse with a license and reputation to protect might be involved. Of course, she was Thai with big breast implants, one of 4-6 active sex partners he had going at the time, all Asian.
Yes, it is legal in Texas for his nurse to collect the insurance … or was at the time.
A curse must be in place at UT Southwestern. That hospital complex includes Parkland, the facility where JFK died after being shot.
“More than a quarter of energy storage systems have fire detection and suppression defects: report”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/battery-energy-storage-fire-safety-report/707330/
“Defects such as faulty smoke and temperature sensors may be more common than some expect, according to clean energy advisory firm Clean Energy Associates.”
Shocking.
Mike Turner is Lockheed Martin’s b*tch.
The “something” is probably more money for the F-35, which Turner pushes in Congress shamelessly.
If only.
Last month US just sold off a big chunk of it’s Helium reserve to a German company:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/us-just-sold-helium-stockpile-s-medical-world-worried-rcna134785
This is not the act of a responsible, worried, government.
Last month US just sold off a big chunk of it’s Helium reserve to a German company:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/us-just-sold-helium-stockpile-s-medical-world-worried-rcna134785
This is not the act of a responsible, worried, government.
They are probably planning to mine helium from the Sun.
“100 Years Ago, IBM Was Born”
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ibm-history
“The renaming of C-T-R signified the company’s high-tech global ambitions”
“It’s true that the businesses that formed IBM began in the late 1800s. But it’s also true that a birth occurred in February 1924, with the renaming of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. as the International Business Machines Corp. And a hundred years after that event, it serves as an important reminder that the world of computing and IT that IBM played a pivotal role in building has a longer history than we are likely to think. “Data processing” was coined over a century ago, while “office appliance” was in use in the 1880s. From the 19th century, through the 20th, and into the 21st, IBM was there, making HP, Microsoft, and Apple appear more like children or grandchildren of the IT world; Facebook, Google, and Twitter/X more like great-grandchildren.”
I have a new icon for Microsoft Copilot Preview in the far right side of my Windows 11 Pro taskbar. Assholes. You did not ask for permission ! I have now killed it off.
The priorities and goals of the string-pullers are not the same as your priorities and goals.
“California Democrats have more delusional minimum wage proposals”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2857386/california-democrats-have-more-delusional-minimum-wage-proposals/
“Both pale in comparison to another House Democrat running for the Senate. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) wants a $50-per-hour federal minimum wage, telling people to “just do that math” and that this would solve California’s affordability problems. Of course, when every fast food restaurant and small business either goes bankrupt or fires every single employee and replaces them with machines because they can’t afford to pay workers, it isn’t clear for whom anything will be more affordable. But shooting California residents in the foot and telling them it’s for their own benefit is the California way.”
Why not $100/hour ???
“SpaceX to Deorbit 100 Starlink Satellites Due to Potential Flaw”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-to-deorbit-100-starlink-satellites-due-to-potential-flaw
“The deorbiting will have no impact on Starlink customers, SpaceX says. Even though the network is losing 100 satellites, the network overall has more than 5,400 working satellites.”
“SpaceX adds that it’s already deorbited 406 satellites. “Of those, 17 are currently non-maneuverable, passively decaying, but well-tracked to help mitigate collision risk with other active satellites,” the company said. “The other 95% of satellites the Starlink team initiated controlled descent for have already de-orbited.””
I wonder how much of the internet that Starlink is now carrying ?
Well, that’s wierd:
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-invent-new-hybrid-food-by-growing-beef-inside-grains-of-rice
@Lynn
“Facebook, Google and Twitter/X more like great-grandchildren.”
More like the clap, syph, and crabs.
Where is Harry Harrison when you need him?
This could have been the basis for Mr. Harrison’s third iconic sci-fi food.
Stuffed buns, sized for mice.
Jeno’s Pizza Rice
Every $1 dollar increase in the minimum wage equals 15.30 cents more going into the Social Security ponzi.
run toward the fire…
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2024/02/14/watch-brave-chiefs-fans-tackle-suspected-shooter-in-wild-video-hold-him-till-cops-arrive-n2170134
https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2024/02/14/new-revelation-about-hurs-and-bidens-discussion-of-beau-biden-blows-lid-off-white-house-spin-n2170131
What a rich fantasy life FJB leads in his head full of manure-laced pudding.
oh, Oh!, OH!!!
but Trump, Tho!
“Every $1 dollar increase in the minimum wage equals 15.30 cents more going into the Social Security ponzi.”
So! Ve vhips out the TI calcumentation engine, engages ze zolve mode, and ze intersectionz of ze two linez reveals the point where Cacafornia funds ze whole zhebang!
Sources Say U.S. Intelligence Agencies Tasked Foreign Partners With Spying On Trump’s 2016 Campaign
https://thefederalist.com/2024/02/14/sources-say-u-s-intelligence-agencies-tasked-foreign-partners-with-spying-on-trumps-2016-campaign/
Please. HP Prime during working hours.
Working hours being just about anytime I’m not sleeping right now.
And remember, collection is mandatory by law but distributions are strictly at the whim of Congress. They could decide to give you nothing.
I don’t have a need for an HP Prime calculator, either as a work tool or a cool tool.
The newest HP calculator I have is more than 30 years old, and I’m fairly confident that any of them, from the HP-35 on, would power on given the right electron feed.
How’s the build quality on the HP Prime?
I still mourn losing my ca. 1992 HP Laserjet 4M, with a mere 60,000 copies printed, knowing that its brothers and sisters routinely exceeded three times that number. At some point HP printer quality went in the crapper, and I have to wonder about their “newer” calculators.
If civilization got leveled Dark Ages flat, a time capsule with the right books and a good calculator with documentation on how to use it starting with a wordless cartoon manual, would de-bottleneck the return of technology by at least 200 years. Throw in the Coke formula and you’d shave off another 100.
And remember, collection is mandatory by law but distributions are strictly at the whim of Congress. They could decide to give you nothing.
When the musical chairs stop in 2029, Social Security may be means tested. The real wild card is Medicare, how do they cut Medicare’s cost back ?
>> When I was working for the bigcorp, our fidelity 401 funds were all dogs. ALL of them underperformed their benchmarks. The sales dude must have seen our Dunning–Kruger HR staff coming from a mile away and dumped all their crap on her.
One advantage I found working for a Fortune 50 company is that they took management of the 401(k) plans (somewhat) more seriously. Smart investing of that money keeps us from eating raman.
My little IT mystery must remain unresolved. Ultimately, I recreated my entire environment on a new partition: same OS, same basic apps. Everything works absolutely fine.
I would just ascribe this to some random disk error, but the problem occurs both on my PC and my laptop. So more likely I have installed some application, or tweaked some setting, on both. With the result that one particular website doesn’t work right in one particular browser.
Totally weird, and as far as I can see, completely impossible to diagnose.
Ah, well. Summer is coming and with it a new LTS release of Ubuntu. So I would be creating a fresh work partition anyway, and that will almost certainly resolve the issue…
And if it doesn’t, you’ll know the Universe hates you.
n
Fell asleep in the chair. I’m off to a real bed.
n