Cool and clear but raining later, if the liars aren’t lying. Yesterday was very nice and I’d like a bit more spring, if you please. It was mid 80s by afternoon, even a bit hot when the breeze wasn’t blowing. Sunny and clear too.
So I looked at the weekly forecast and decided to do my pickups and drop off yesterday, and see my client today. I needed the clear weather for the pickup truck load, but I’ll be using the Expy for my site visit. I figured I’d better make-a hay while the sun, she is a-shining. That way, my stuff doesn’t get wet.
Worked out.
Today I am headed to my client’s house to do some troubleshooting and swapping of gear. Hopefully it will either resolve the issue, or point to the problem. Some things you can’t do remotely. Poking around in the rack and wiggling cables is one of those things.
In the afternoon, I should be headed over to my buddy’s shop to see what I can do to help him get ready to move.
Those are the plans, but what really happens is subject to change. Always.
Kinda like prepping and disasters. You can plan, but you need flexibility too. Sometimes your plan needs to be discarded and a new plan developed. Sometimes things change or your needs change. It’s worth looking at your assumptions and plans to see if they are still appropriate and serving you well.
You might have to adjust what you’re stacking, where it’s stacked, or who you are stacking for. Grandbabies are a lot different than adult children. Having aging parents, or aging self calls for different approaches than when you were a young buck and could just power through. Besides, you’re smarter now, right?
So stack. Reconsider. And stack some more.
nick
Minor mystery. I rarely use the telephone as a telephone, but today in the car I needed to call my wife. There is (crappy) voice recognition. So I told the car to call her. It confirmed: “Calling Dieter Müller”.
Huh?
I don’t know a Dieter Müller. There is no such person in my contacts list. As far as I can find, the car doesn’t have any separate list of contacts. So where the heck did it get that name, and whatever number it was about to call?
A mystery, Brad. You ought to have let it call to find out…
Voice recognition and voice synthesis still have a long way to go, especially in languages other than English. I was travelling in a relative’s Ford, and the GPS voice recognition completely mangled recognising our German destination, giving us “Marty Arseholestrasse” and causing much hillarity. Ever since, that has been our favourite destination.
From yesterday…
PaultheManc, I sincerely hope for you that works out the way you intended it to, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Also from yesterday…
Far better soap poisoning than projectile lead poisoning, which is what tends to happen to those who got insufficient soap poisoning as children.
My favourite soap is liquid lavender from a French brand, Le Petit Marseillais. The lavender seems to be the real thing, not an artificial perfume, and smells nice on the hands and in the house. I am very sensitive to artificial scents, and I hate most scented soaps, candles, air “fresheners” and other things as a result, but this stuff is good. Not cheap, but good.
The same manufacturer also does a soap for the kitchen, which is excellent at getting rid of cooking smells from the hands; fish, garlic and so on; and an orange-blossom soap which simply smells like marmalade! I also use their shower products.
Antiperspirant / Derodent*: I like HidroFugal. They used to sell one without perfume that I liked – it was good for hunting, but now they have a “decent scent” one instead, which really does have very little perfume of its own.
* Derodent – when I was a child, a family member misread “deodorant”, and the name stuck because it seemed appropriate.
Paul, glad to her you’re keeping busy, and that you got the funeral home bit behind you for the moment. That is one of the hardest parts, I found.
“A total of 79 people were booked into the Travis County Jail in association with the April 29 pro-Palestine protest on the UT campus, the sheriff’s office said. A UT Austin source said 45 of those arrested were not affiliated with the university; 34 were students.”
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/university-of-texas-at-austin-palestine-rally-travis-county-attorney-makes-statement-on-arrests
Other footage last night on the local Faux News showed stashes of rocks hidden around the area of campus, which were too heavy to have been carried in on a lark by students.
Their camera guy continues to face charges, but not on a felony level anymore. Something was up with him, and, as Prog as the DA’s office is in Austin/Travis, they know letting him slide could lead to more problems from “press” later.
Austin is home to the “newspaper” calling itself the Texas Tribune among other weird media outlets.
Something was very wrong with Walgreens in and around New Orleans on this trip. We stopped in a couple looking for things.
Five finger arbitrage isn’t the whole problem, but it is obviously a big part.
If you bought the car used that might be in the contacts from the prior owner. My vehicles download the contact list and phone numbers from the phone when it is first connected to the vehicle. That also occurred on the rental that I had in Washington state. I found five other phones in the system that had full contacts. I deleted all the others that I found and left mine for the trip. When I turned the car in, I deleted my phone information.
Go into the settings for the phone and see if there are any additional phones listed. If there are, delete them.
re yesterday’s discussion of deodorant, why do you use it? Shouldn’t you be using odorant, to persuade people to keep their distance? I mean, have you ever met people?
Hmmm:
Here are the top American cities Joe Biden is sending hundreds of thousands of paroled migrants – so is YOUR home town on the list?
4 of the 10 are in FL. Houston is number 4 on the list. Number 1 and 2 are in FL. 91K and 61K. I don’t know how those cities can survive that. plugs is using crimmigrant warfare against FL and TX.
Game over, man, game over.
72F and light overcast. Supposed to rain, and my joints are achy, so I guess it will…
——————–
guess we’ve reached the “mandatory” stage, or at least the beginning of it.
Five West Virginia Middle School Students Banned from Future Competitions for Refusing to Compete Against Transgender Athlete in Track Event
n
Gas is also effective.
– suddenly! They “researched”! Fricken google search isn’t research. And repeating common knowledge isn’t news.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13367113/new-cars-trucks-improve-brakes-safety.html
Automatic breaking systems will be required. They are trying to dictate something into existence.
– more decisions made by faceless people a dozen times removed from you… both for requiring the systems, and the ones implementing the systems. I can’t believe any corporate legal department would accept the potential liability of one of these systems failing to work.
n
Now climate change is keeping people from drinking enough water…
Quacks.
n
The Amiga Forever crowd believed they would be covered by the manufacturers‘ warranties. Heck, I know several EV owners who counted on it to keep their Tonymobiles rolling for 10-15 years even with the lifespan issues of the cells.
Most of the EVs in my neighborhood are owned by Show Yas, Indians, or the type who lease cars and get rid of them every three years,
Gotta keep the video processing patent royalty checks flowing to Los Gatos:Los Altos PO Box addresses
Various May 1st demonstrations here, as happens every year. A couple turned violent. As usual, the violence was by the peace-loving lefties.
The countries that ought to step up are the surrounding Arab countries. They don’t want to, which says a lot. Egypt, for example, keeps their physical border to Gaza very closed – they don’t want a bunch of militant extremists.
Once I ran across a giant list of all the things global warming, er, climate change is supposed to cause, hundreds, maybe thousands of (often contradictory) claims.
Just one more.
Faceless bureaucrats are writing laws. I believe the Rainbow Alphabet people are going to get a swift kick in the nuts in the very near future (yes, most transwomen have nuts, those that cut them off are close to suicide). Florida has already told plugs to shove it. I hope Tejas is close behind. Women’s sports are dead until the nameless bureaucrats are cashiered.
I am more inclined to prefer braking systems rather than breaking systems.
Shame! Obviously you aren’t a lefty.
Ain’t it the truth:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxn4DN9C_2oRpQCTOtCqj1_2im5KG4Gimc5mb3JSftSu1SYd99-6EbauONYq9gGFliycI_R36xu4EUJeLgJShyphenhyphen7SnHBsRdkrUlxNx20sFqMWqTDw1GMkS5hZu66BmnkHnnWZvmntirHYrEA3UE5Tul46FuCIbvgKCe6Dw6Q3F6nnuud6vFB27eSiWPJwey/s960/412.jpeg
>> I don’t know a Dieter Müller. There is no such person in my contacts list. As far as I can find, the car doesn’t have any separate list of contacts. So where the heck did it get that name, and whatever number it was about to call?
What, you think only the US has backdoors into the cell networks?
Freudian slip on Nick’s part? 😉
It is too late to stop the emergence of AI. Instead, we need to think about what we want next, how to design and nurture spaces of knowledge creation and communication for a human-centric world. Search engines need to act as publishers instead of usurpers, and recognize the importance of connecting creators and audiences. Google is testing AI-generated content summaries that appear directly in its search results, encouraging users to stay on its page rather than to visit the source. Long term, this will be destructive.
Internet platforms need to recognize that creative human communities are highly valuable resources to cultivate, not merely sources of exploitable raw material for LLMs. Ways to nurture them include supporting (and paying) human moderators and enforcing copyrights that protect, for a reasonable time, creative content from being devoured by AIs.
Finally, AI developers need to recognize that maintaining the web is in their self-interest. LLMs make generating tremendous quantities of text trivially easy. We’ve already noticed a huge increase in online pollution: garbage content featuring AI-generated pages of regurgitated word salad, with just enough semblance of coherence to mislead and waste readers’ time. There has also been a disturbing rise in AI-generated misinformation. Not only is this annoying for human readers; it is self-destructive as LLM training data. Protecting the web, and nourishing human creativity and knowledge production, is essential for both human and artificial minds.
The Rise of Large-Language-Model Optimization
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
“UCLA Riot: “Ooooh, Look at That . . . Somebody Just Took a Pallet to the Head””
https://rumble.com/v4snf3l-ucla-riot-ooooh-look-at-that-.-.-.-somebody-just-took-a-pallet-to-the-head.html
Reminds me of the summer of 1968. It got really spicy at the Democrat national convention in Chicongo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_National_Convention_protests
re yesterday’s discussion of deodorant, why do you use it? Shouldn’t you be using odorant, to persuade people to keep their distance? I mean, have you ever met people?
I use deodorant for one person, my wife. After we got married, she got me some speed stick and said use it. I did not ask what the implied “or else” was, I starting using it.
Do not piss off the person that you sleep with.
guess we’ve reached the “mandatory” stage, or at least the beginning of it.
Five West Virginia Middle School Students Banned from Future Competitions for Refusing to Compete Against Transgender Athlete in Track Event
Doesn’t West Virginia have more guns per resident than any other state ? Just saying.
And DC is real close by there.
Hey, @Lynn – need a new computer for your programming? Or maybe set up your own AI system? This one might compile your program faster:
Link here. Note: some minor repairs might be required to get it running, and you have to pay for shipping.
“Gov. Kristi Noem was (and is) right”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/05/gov-kristi-noem-was-and-is-right.html
“There’s been an enormous, emotional reaction to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s revelation that she shot an errant dog after it had killed a flock of chickens and then appeared to turn on her. If you’ve missed the story, you can read about it here.”
“My first point is, if the incident is as she described it, she did exactly the right thing. One of her dogs had inflicted death and destruction on another person’s animals. There’s no “miracle cure” for that; once an animal starts down that path, it’ll continue unless and until it’s stopped the hard way. I’ve seen it many times before, and twice have assisted a friend to shoot packs of dogs that had “graduated” to chasing cattle, biting at their legs and throats, trying to bring one down to kill and eat it.”
“My second point is that far too many people today have lost sight of the basic facts of life. They’re living in a cocoon, an emotional fuzzy ball of fluff that’s insulated them from reality. As “Ragin Dave” put it at Liberty’s Torch:”
Now that I know the entire story, I am totally for her to be Trump’s VP. I’ve seen her talk on a video, she gives a good story, very practical lady.
Hey, @Lynn – need a new computer for your programming? Or maybe set up your own AI system? This one might compile your program faster:
No link.
And I am done with any computers requiring 230 volt connections or larger. We had several minis back in the 1970s and 1980s. Very high maintenance and electric bills.
– suddenly! They “researched”! Fricken google search isn’t research. And repeating common knowledge isn’t news.
You and I know EV cars are not reliable because we understand machinery. But the populace does not know. But the populace is starting to get an inkling that something is wrong here.
If somebody ever figures out how to make solid state batteries with lithium at a couple of thousand tons per day, those batteries will probably be good for many thousands of charging cycles, maybe 10,000 cycles. Their temperature range will probably be -20 F or -50 F to 200+ F. No heating or cooling required like today’s liquid batteries from 59 F to 85 F.
Toyota is claiming to release solid state batteries real soon now. We will see. I would not hold my breath.
https://electrek.co/2024/01/11/toyota-solid-state-ev-battery-plans-750-mi-range/
“Musk disbands Tesla EV charging team, leaving customers in the dark”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/musk-disbands-tesla-ev-charging-202301433.html
Musk definitely manages by terror and fear. There is something to say about that management style.
Here is another thing, I am seeing companies batten the hatches and get ready for tough times. If there are any extraneous expenses in your business, stay away from them as they might be slotted for “disbanding”.
Tesla is seen as a leader in business. Other people will follow them.
This. ‘nuf said.
@Lynn – here’s the link to the ‘supercomputer on sale’ – https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/supercomputers/for-sale-cheyenne-supercomputer-with-8064-xeon-cpus-306tb-of-ddr4-memory-some-assembly-and-maintenance-required
@Lynn – here’s the link to the ‘supercomputer on sale’ – https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/supercomputers/for-sale-cheyenne-supercomputer-with-8064-xeon-cpus-306tb-of-ddr4-memory-some-assembly-and-maintenance-required
“Also of interest is that the supercomputer uses around 1.727 MW of power when fully assembled. Which means that if you want to power it up and run complex simulations on it, the power requirements could cost over $4,000 per day (depending on the price of electricity, naturally).”
Eek !
“Each E-Cell weighs in at 1,500 pounds, and shipping is not included in the winning bid. The purchaser will need to hire a professional moving company to transport the supercomputer from the facility to its new home. The auction notes also state that the supercomputer will be sold as-is, and that it “is currently experiencing maintenance limitations due to faulty quick disconnects causing water spray.” Not exactly the pinnacle of supercomputing achievements, then.”
Double Eek ! Water in the computer is a bad deal, I know this from personal experience.
“More war debris in Gaza than Ukraine: UN”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ar-AA1nYKgJ
Dem Israelis be pissed off. They ain’t gonna stop until they are finished.
“Chaos Erupts At UCLA After Pro-Gaza Activists Refuse Entry To Non-Allied Students”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/chaos-erupts-ucla-after-pro-gaza-activists-refuse-entry-non-allied-students
“It’s like the Seattle CHAZ encampment all over again. Far-left activists have declared the UCLA campus a “liberated zone” and are refusing entry for many students not affiliated with the pro-Gaza protests. They have erected barriers and placed guards, creating makeshift checkpoints which require a special wrist band in order to gain passage.”
“The barricades and the selective barring of certain students has led to predictable anger. Various groups are now engaging protesters and have triggered what can only be described as an all out brawl. The use of weapons has been common and firecrackers have even been fired at activist tents. Whether or not the fighting is between pro-Gaza and pro-Israel groups is not yet clear, and the conflict may simply be a matter of students enraged by the general blockade. No substantial police presence is visible so far.”
Guns will be used soon.
“FCC fines America’s largest wireless carriers $200 million for selling customer location data”
https://www.engadget.com/fcc-fines-americas-largest-wireless-carriers-200-million-for-selling-customer-location-data-121246900.html
“The agency discovered years ago that the carriers were selling location information to aggregators.”
I don’t remember being asked if they could sell my location data.
My granddaughter will be at her USC graduation ceremony next week. Should I get her a bulletbroof vest?
I am more inclined to prefer braking systems rather than breaking systems.
Solid state Li batteries, yeah and we’ll charge ’em with fusion power… or zero point energy. IOW, I”ll believe it when I see it.
Did some cleaning and t-shooting at my client’s. Found a loose cable that was most likely causing his primary complaint.
My buddy waved me off this afternoon so I hit goodwill. Nothing of note, just the usual smalls for the auction.
D1 says there were three fights at her school today. Seemingly unrelated, and two were female on female. One involved a spiked bracelet used as brass knuckles. Someone is likely going to court for that…
n
I’m sure it’s on page 47 of the contract that if printed would be in 6 point type.
Nothing today. There was a very light sprinkle while walking the dogs this morning. Then enough of an actual sprinkle to make water run in the roof gutters. So forget the mower and mowing anything.
I did get the laundry sorted as much as I ever bother. I sort by fabrics more than colors. My clothes are old enough to not bleed colors. Taking it to the washing machine? Tomorrow. That’s the plan.
How does that happen unless someone is messing with stuff? I can’t think of a cable ever coming loose for me. I’ve had some cable TV coax connections get weird but that was almost always a bad crimp.
About the only thing I separate out is anything new that’s black, navy, or red. That way I don’t end up with blue or pink whites. Aside from that, it all goes in the same load. I wash most everything using cold water with a double rinse. Every great once in awhile I get motivated and separate out some bleach whites and do a bleach load.
It was an RJ45 connected behind the tv to the receiver for an HDMI extender. It’s possible it was never completely “clicked” into the socket, or there might have been some kind of thermal cycling involved. It’s an outdoor (but covered) tv. I DeOxIT sprayed it and made sure I heard the click this time.
Vibration and thermal cycling can loosen other types of connections too, but it’s not the most common or likely scenario. Usually it’s corrosion.
n
Dr. Pournelle’s rule is still in effect.
I did get pink underwear once. A very pastel shade. I wash on Warm and I usually double rinse. I’m on a well with the pump about 180 feet down. That water is cold. I have a water softener.
I add a scoop of TSP to the laundry detergent. It seems to make a big difference. No fabric softener.
Dish towels get Hot water. Double wash with a splash of Lysol in the second wash. Double rinse. They smell like I remember the sheets smelling when I had my busted leg.
I like warm water and the fullest possible water setting… and everything goes in the same load. Anything that can’t take it gets donated.
I don’t mix kitchen towels in with anything else as I believe t hat leads to oil spotting from the cooking oil.
I do usually do separate loads for bath towels or floor mats if I’m doing the household ones. Everyone in our house does their own clothes washing, drying, and folding.
n
When I was doing the broadcast for the church I had a mysterious problem. One weekend the video feed was horrible. The feed on the Cable where we sent a RF signal from a modulator directly to the cable system. Everything looked fine on the internal monitors which is before the modulator.
Futzing around on Monday, with some time allocated by the owner of the channel to do some testing, I discovered the problem. There are three jumper cables, RF connections tightened with a wrench, on the back of the modulator. Out of an act of desperation and no other ideas, I made three new jumper cables. The cables were all of four inches long. That solved the problem.
How does a cable, tightened with a wrench, in the back of the equipment rack, where anyone rarely goes, and certainly not within the last month, decide to go wonky? The cables tested good for continuity. I have no way to simulate the actual signal which in the case of the modulator, who knows what kind of signal on the cable.
Someone else has done that. I’ll stay away from mirrors to not see the culprit. Man, did I feel like an idiot when I found that little goof. 🙂
Law. It’s a law. Check connections before replacing parts. Exceptions for when you can smell the magic smoke.
The ‘81 Imperial with that Hydraulic Support Plate creature that was part of the air cleaner had crummy connectors on the underside. No gaskets like you see now. Car runs like crud? It’s not the spark plugs. Un-plug and re-plug the connections. Fixed for a couple of months.
I’m on a well with the pump about 180 feet down. That water is cold. I have a water softener.
My water well with the pump about 160 feet down at the office is fairly constant 65 F. The tank has water condensing on it starting about now. No water softener at the office or the house. I am thinking about a filtration system at the house but am concerned about blowing through $100 of filters per month.
Yep. Bath towels and bed sheets are separate loads. Hot water, too.
And the moment a pretty blonde co-ed gets shot by a cop, the negotiations for a settlement with the protestors will begin. The univerity administrations will surrender as a group.
Kill. Convert. Extract tribute. Pick one, Infidel.
I saw a story within the last week that USC or UCLA were planning to cancel the graduation ceremony.
The article talked about how the class of 2024 is reliving their high school graduation fiascos from 2020.
I have a filter before the water softener and I change it about once a year if I think about it. I didn’t get sediment in faucet aerators without the filter. The filter is to protect the water softener “just in case”.
The filters are about $18 for a twin pack at Lowes. From Big River, here’s an example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZZMWWCS?tag=ttgnet-20
A much better price and they look the same.
From the Dept of No Shite Sherlock…
They mistyped Crowds In Abundance.
Professional Agitator Lisa Fithian Caught on Tape at Columbia With Pro-Hamas Mob
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/05/professional-agitator-lisa-fithian-caught-on-tape-at-columbia-with-pro-hamas-mob/
ID more of those and put out the word that they’re taking money from the Feebies to narc on Hamasholes.
prettyugly blondeco-edagitator gets shot by acopa PLTworks for me
I have a filter before the water softener and I change it about once a year if I think about it. I didn’t get sediment in faucet aerators without the filter. The filter is to protect the water softener “just in case”.
The filters are about $18 for a twin pack at Lowes. From Big River, here’s an example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZZMWWCS?tag=ttgnet-20
A much better price and they look the same.
My plumber buddy told me to get this three stage filter system (iron, sediment, chlorine):
https://www.expresswater.com/pages/whole-house-systems
Byron Donalds Dunks Pro-Hamas Agitator During GWU Visit, Raises Larger Point in the Process
https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2024/05/01/byron-donalds-zings-pro-hamas-agitator-during-gwu-visit-raises-larger-point-in-the-process-n2173618
Democrats Beginning to Realize How Bad November Could Be for Them As Pro-Hamas Protests Not Going Away
https://redstate.com/beckynoble/2024/05/01/democrats-beginning-to-realize-how-bad-november-could-be-as-pro-hamas-protests-not-going-away-n2173595
“Kind of holding back” is a euphemism for “being too cowardly to speak up”. It’s already too late for them to say anything, and if they do they will just look like the cowards they are.
Rep Omar (“Admitted to U.S. by fraud”, Little Mogadishu, MN) is running her Jew-hating mouth again and will be up again for censure soon. Not one of the Democrats in congress will vote for it, including the 25 who claim to be Jewish.
So here’s today’s question:
If you turn a corner downtown and chance upon an obviously Jewish person being pulled from a Prius with a Biden/Harris sticker by some Hamasholes, do you draw your CCW or go back around the corner?
The other day I wanted to see if the LaserDisc player still worked. Someone’s ears were, ah, I don’t know but running the surround sound with RumbleRama made it where he couldn’t hear much at all. Everything was an echo. The hearing aids helped a lot but were not a cure.
Then there’s the rut of “watch the last half of the news for weather and sports and then Wheel of Fortune and then ain’t nothing else to watch but Mayberry and the Hillbillies”. Nascar or college football whenever that was on.
So the LaserDisc hasn’t been powered up for three pushing hard to five years. Ditto for the Bluray player. Heck, ditto for the entire stereo system. I’ve yet to test the Blueray, it’s stupid and it does power on when I turn the receiver on. Because its power cord is plugged into the receiver. Ditto the LaserDisc. Hey, receiver off, everything is off. Shave the Whales or electricity. Something like that.
Back to the LaserDisc. I picked up the first disc I saw. Pink Floyd The Wall. A deluxe wide screen edition. Yeah… whatever. A 16 inch high picture on a 55 inch TV is sort of hard to watch. But it was wide screen for sure! Anyway. The player didn’t want to open the tray. Prying on the door did nothing. So I tapped on the top of the player. Not hard at all. You knock on someone’s front door much much harder. And it opened. Sweet. The machine still runs like new. That’s very good.
Pink Floyd The Wall is a seriously messed up movie. I like the LP album, I wore the first one out and had to buy another. My Dad liked The Wall. The same man that would yell “turn that fu####g nI##er music off!” Trippy. But the movie? Yeah…. parts are good but the rest? No. Just no. I don’t want those visuals in my head.
Next for the the LD is Matinee. I’ll be sure to watch the extra “Mant”.
Somewhere I have Secondhand Lions. And Fried Green Tomatoes. And boxed sets of Bette Davis movies. Plus I have a huge pile of DVD “movies to watch”. Who needs Sling or DirecTV?
Let’s end with a song. We laughed a lot about it, so, yep.
http://remsset.com/files/Do-Ya.mp3
@Lynn
Does your water softener soften all your water?
I don’t have an iron problem and don’t use filters. I soften the hot water and the cold water to the bathroom sinks and showers. I don’t soften the water to the toilets or the kitchen sink, or the outside faucets.
I have aerators on the bathroom and kitchen faucets. If I don’t have water in the Britta pitcher I run the cold tap hard and the chlorine mostly sparges out.
@paul
Roger Waters is seriously messed up.
With regard to DVD’s the price for good used complete TV series on eBay gets pretty low for most that have been out for a few years. I’ve bought several, watched them, and resold them, so the effective cost was about 20% of used.
Next on my list is Stargate SG-1. Let me know if you want it after I am done.
We have a saying, “Happy people don’t make art.”
They might make beautiful things, and be exquisite craftsmen, but by and large it’s held true across time and different fields…
n
Looks nice. But do you have iron or chlorine in the water from your 160 foot deep well?
I have a sediment filter and then this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/142684195867
Yeah. The price is up a little from when I bought it. But it simply works. The GE thing I had, I still had to scrub the lime at the water line in the potties. When it crapped out, a replacement from Lowe’s was more than the Fleck.
This Fleck unit is great. For me. And the sellers are easy to talk to.
But I don’t know what the water is like where you are. Here, it’s lots of limestone.
My water softener feeds only the house. The EDC and critter water supplies are unfiltered.
retconning at its finest… just drop that bolded phrase in there as if it’s something everyone just knows… when people were DESTROYED publicly for claiming that.
n
And Daszak was one of those directing the destroying.
That would be awesome. 🙂
Celebrating mental illness won’t make you happy.
n
\https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13372023/Nearly-50-LGBT-teens-considered-suicide-year-nearly-one-fifth-transgender-men-attempting-end-lives-shocking-survey-finds.html
@Nick
Would you please send @paul my email address, so he can send me his address?
A Man Killed Four Cops And Broke ‘Gun Control’ Laws, But Media Aren’t Invested In The Story For Some Reason
https://thefederalist.com/2024/05/01/a-man-killed-four-cops-and-broke-gun-control-laws-but-media-arent-invested-in-the-story-for-some-reason/
The reason is not a mystery.
All the Good Kennedy’s on my side:
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/05/01/sen-kennedy-says-what-n2173624
@DrWilliams, done.
n
Joe and Kamala understand. We worked hard for this.
Does your water softener soften all your water?
I do not have water softener or a filter at the house or at the office. In both cases I have terrible amounts of iron, about 200 ppm. Total impurities in both cases run about 550 ppm. I have chlorine at the house too because our well water had something nasty in it.
I got a call from the in-laws recently: “the printer’s not working”. OK, do without it for a few days until we visit, and I will check it out then.
The printer was indeed not working. The device itself was operating fine, but nothing on the network could see it. Reboot everything, including the router. No joy. Remember Pournelle’s law of dodgy cables, so check the Ethernet cable from the router to the printer. RJ45 connectors – you know the little locking tab? AWOL at both ends. Did anybody move the printer or disconnect the cable? Of course not. Just like no-one turned off the power to the charging station of the robot lawnmower that “stopped working”.
Corollary to Pournelle’s law of dodgy cables: it probably is the cable, and likely because someone messed with it.
Sparge. I learned a new word today. Thank you! I knew the phenomenon (we have a heavily chlorinated municipal water supply), but didn’t know it had a name. Cool.
In other news, it’s too hot here. We went from grey, dull, wet and wintry cold November weather to sunshine and mid-to-high 20s C (mid 70’s F) literally overnight. The sun is nice for one’s mood and vitamin D production, but the sudden heat hit me like a hammer. I had to take a siesta. Good job it was May Day.
Now, awake before dawn, I have all the windows open to let in the coolth, as there is not a cloud in the sky, and it looks like being a scorcher of a day. The stars were spectacular before dawn started creeping into the East.
Dershowitz offers pro bono lawsuit against pro-Hamas protesters and ‘everybody involved in hurting Jews’
https://www.campusreform.org/article/dershowitz-offers-pro-bono-lawsuit-against-pro-hamas-protesters-and-everybody-involved-in-hurting-jews/25371
But… Who did you vote for, Alan?
Did you vote for Biden? Did you vote for the DA that’s going to drop the charges? Why do I suspect that you are getting just what you voted for good and and hard?
@Nick
Thanks.
“Joe and Kamala understand. We worked hard for this.”
And if Karma is a thing, they will turn a corner and walk into a crowd, and the last words they hear will be: “You look Jewish”
I’m frequently visiting garage and estate sales in summer and picking up tools. I got a bag of network installation tools a couple of years ago and was looking for a crimper and found I had a Holland Electronics F Connector Installation & Removal Tool in the misc. Kind of like a small funnel with a slit down the side and a flare nut wrench for f-connectors at the narrow end. Slips over the cable, seats on the hex, and has a 2″ diameter handle to turn with. I don’t do much with coax anymore, but I wish I’d had one for the last forty years.
@Nick has probably had one for decades, but it was new to me.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/01/plant-vogtle-unit-4-begins-commercial-operation/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/01/build-it-and-the-wind-wont-come/
That’s a drop of 9 TWh, or nearly twice the capacity of Vogtle.
Nuclear is 92% capacity factor.
One cloudy windless winter and my design for a small green weinie devolatilization gas generator is going to be very popular.
@Denis: NB another vocabulary-builder.
Fell asleep in the chair. Time for bed.
@drwilliams, indeed, I had a version of that tool for BNC connectors, as well as the F connector. Most of what I did was BNC until video went digital. Funny thing is they are back to BNC in the pro world for Serial Digital over coax. Looks just like analog cabling…
n
“Plant Vogtle Unit 4 begins commercial operation”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/01/plant-vogtle-unit-4-begins-commercial-operation/
“Georgia Power announced this week that the 1,114-megawatt (MW) Unit 4 nuclear power reactor at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia, entered into commercial operation after connecting to the power grid in March 2024. The commercial start of Unit 4 completes the 11-year expansion project at Plant Vogtle. No nuclear reactors are under construction now in the United States.”
“Vogtle Unit 3 began commercial operation in July 2023. The plant’s first two reactors, with a combined 2,430 MW of nameplate capacity, began operations in 1987 and 1989. The two new reactors bring Plant Vogtle’s total generating capacity to nearly 5 gigawatts (GW), surpassing the 4,210-MW Palo Verde plant in Arizona and making Vogtle’s four units the largest nuclear power plant in the United States.”
“Construction at the two new reactor sites began in 2009. Originally expected to cost $14 billion and begin commercial operation in 2016 (Vogtle 3) and in 2017 (Vogtle 4), the project ran into significant construction delays and cost overruns. Georgia Power now estimates the total cost of the project to be more than $30 billion.”
More Nukes ! More Nukes ! More Nukes !
Wow, that is expensive.
https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/1674528157549068289
Cynical Publius is billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, a former Democrat. He hates Democrats with a passion now. He calls Obama a racist fascist.
@CynicalPublius
“My wife of 30+ years is a physician. She is a board-certified specialist in a very demanding specialty. She is the smartest person I know. She graduated with high honors at every step of her education (all in “elite” schools), she sits on the accreditation board of her specialty, she is extraordinarily competent, she has always worked tirelessly, she is devoid of ego and always put her patients before herself. She is also black. Not a work day goes by without somebody assuming she is incompetent and only got to where she is because of affirmative action.”
“To all of you out there decrying today’s SCOTUS decision as being “racist,” or a victory for “white supremacy,” I say this: F U, racist bigot Democrat.”
It is. Nuclear is crazy expensive. Mostly due to all the schedule slips – that reactor was supposed to be online in 2017. Without looking into the details, there’s a fair bet that it’s due to a combination of changing regulations and anti-nuclear actions.
This is the true cost of affirmative action. Push people through who do not deserve it, and everyone in the group is assumed to be incompetent. I would not want to go to a black doctor in the US, because you have no idea whether they are actually qualified.
On an issue closer to home: women in tech suffer the same problem. “We need more women!” So they push women through the system, and hire any woman who knows how to turn a computer on. The women who are actually qualified? Assumed to be incompetent, and have to prove themselves over and over again.
I’m just now seeing this with a female student. She is dropping her bachelor thesis because she cannot do even a fraction of the technical work required. Starting point: merge two branches in a Git repository, where the merge would produce no conflicts at all. I sent her tutorial links. She couldn’t do it. Her mentor has promised to find her an easier topic. Why? She needs to go do something else with her life.