Hot and humid. Likely to be sunny and no rain. Unlike yesterday! The hurricane Beryl winds and rain hit us in the early morning and were gone by late morning. That left us cool and wet, which helped immensely with cleanup.
Details of my day are in yesterday’s comments, very late in the day. AT&T had and is having a lot of cellular network issues. They sent a text that all of Houston would get “unlimited” data and texts, but the network was failing with DNS errors and a variety of issues all day. My wife’s verizon phone mostly worked like a champ but eventually their network got flaky too.
I don’t know if the AT&T fiber stayed up, but it was there when I finally got around to standing my network back up. Still not booting the computers though. The cams have SD cards so will record about 3 days internally, and I don’t want the linux and windows boxen booting and crashing all day… nor do I want them running off the dirty power from the generac. It’s HARD on boards and PSUs.
Today is “make sure W can keep the gennies running” while I head to the BOL to get power restored up there. Also more cleanup in both places. Something with automatic failover is going to be critical if infrastructure continues to be fragile. Considering the aging condition, terror attacks, weather events, etc, it seems pretty likely that infrastructure will continue to degrade. Driving to the BOL and splitting the party whenever we have a long outage is getting a bit old.
Never split the party. It’s a good rule.
Time to get more serious about some of the “just in case” stuff I’ve been stacking.
Stacks give you choices. Choices are good.
nick
It is a shame that Apple never followed through on the promise of making the NeXT “Yellow Box” technology available for general developer use on Windows as NeXT Step evolved into OS X.
With “Yellow Box”, a NeXT Step binary with Cocoa GUI could run unaltered on Windows.
Objective C and Swift binaries on various Apple platforms have a performance penalty from too much run time linking which I suspect Apple solves in their own applications with generous use of C++ in the “Model” part of their MVC.
Apple supported C++11 very early. Closures and shared/unique pointers were huge improvements over C++03.
Of course, they don’t want *your* Model piece being portable between platforms and allowing easy movement of business logic. That’s the whole purpose of Swift.
Texas also invented swimming naked and the utilities infrastructure in the core of Houston is ancient, with the suburbs not much better.
As we drove in from the coast, I saw a steady stream of line trucks going in the opposite direction down I-37 on Sunday, heading to Corpus Christi. They may have been staged too far west.
People will use the wireless networks to keep the kids entertained.
The copper network has certain performance and uptime guarantees, but all bets are off with regard to the whiz bang services from the Co-Dominium, with AT&T Fiber being the most compromised since Texas sold its soul to get that technology out of the Death Star.
Oh, and this is a strike year. I forgot about that.
The Death Star broke the union in 2009, but fifteen years is a long time in telecom.
Josuttis has another book about C++ templates if you really want to go down that rabbit hole, but I think a lot of developers get too cute with templates too early because Hot Skillz and, as a result, a lot of unmaintainable code lurks out there … waiting.
Work out the core algorithm and then debug the heck out of the code before attempting to make a library template.
Book Review: ‘Domestic Enemies’ by Daniel Greenfield
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/07/book-review-domestic-enemies-by-daniel-greenfield/
History of leftist grabs for power in the early days of The Republic. Seems we’ve been here before.
My friend Vince observed:
”It seems a bit of Monday has spilled over into Tuesday”
Do I really need a checklist to follow after a power outage? Would other people know to reach around the left side of this box and cycle the switch? Would a video be easier?
Peter’s July 8 entry is worth a read:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/07/keep-your-guard-up-because-if-you-let.html?m=1
And as the election approaches the advice is worth heeding by conservatives here in the U.S.
liberals bought a seat on the WI Supreme Court, which reversed itself and made ballot drop box fraud a sure thing. The response should be to flood each one with observers and cameras. Probably not necessary to actively put them out of commission. Maybe.
Bottle swap and refuel this morning. Honda did not start with a turn of the key the battery was too weak. Two pulls got it going. Guess I’ll have to replace that battery. Bottle was as empty as I can feel without being empty.
Generac had fuel in the tank when I changed the honda’s bottle but died minutes later. Add fuel and it started up with a couple of pulls. I guess it’s not completely level or there is something in the tank.
Last time I got 12 hours per bottle, last night was 10+. Ditto for the generac, should be 13 hrs, but got 10+. Loads must be heavier.
Coffee in the moka pot (makes a mediocre coffee bean taste much better, btw) on an isopro (cans) back pack stove. Scrambled eggs with bacon crumbles and cheese on the table top butane stove (like you see in restaurants.) I like to have options and layers of fallback when it comes to cooking.
You want quick to cook, and low fuel use when thinking about food in a disaster.
—————————
Currently 85F in the shade, sunny and blue sky with fluffy clouds.
I better do some work.
Don’t have to head to the BOL, power did come on yesterday, but I’ve got to Find fuel and check the rent house.
n
To Nick and others in the storm area, it looks as if Beryl broke up rather quickly once over land. While that is good, there seems to be a lot more damage than anticipated. Storms are hard to predict. I just hope for the least amount of damage, and a rapid recovery for all.
Buhler ????
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/07/09/scientist-claims-to-have-anti-gravity-device-working-n3791546
Biden and Democrats putting illegal alien invaders on SSI to destry the Social Security system
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/07/illegals_are_indeed_getting_immediate_social_security_contrary_to_democrat_claims.html
C/C++/whatever. I have used those, and something like 15-20 other languages over the years. It’s just impossible to stays really fluent in more than 1 or 2 languages.
I’ve been using/teaching Java for a long time, but when I retire I think I’m going to move fully over to Kotlin.
User interfaces? Honestly, I hate writing them. It’s just tedious, especially if you want to prevent or catch user errors. However, if you have to write them, JavaFX is about as good as it gets. Kotlin can use Java libraries.
Hey, it’s finally summer here. First day of the year with a high over 25C (78F). Which makes the current Swiss news article hilarious: “warmest June in history”. Literally every comment is making fun of them. What idiots – April, May and June were all fricking cold.
Details of my day are in yesterday’s comments, very late in the day. AT&T had and is having a lot of cellular network issues. They sent a text that all of Houston would get “unlimited” data and texts, but the network was failing with DNS errors and a variety of issues all day. My wife’s verizon phone mostly worked like a champ but eventually their network got flaky too.
Space City Weather says all of cell towers without power are operating in reduced power mode. Instead of 1 to 5 watts on their radio, they are using 0.1 watts. If you are close to a tower, you have signal. The tower maintenance trucks are running around recharging the tower batteries. And then they leave and the tower drops back into low power mode.
Nick, didn’t you say you installed some new A/C units and you’re running them off the gennies?
That’s quite a load difference. No wonder you’re using more fuel.
Interesting. I’ve observed the signal power drop off here with the Verizon network during outages of more than a couple of hours.
An old DirectTV dish with your phone at the focus should solve that problem if you are far from a tower. Tho I am not sure of the legality.
In the Glowbull Warmening news: 2 million year old DNA from northern Greenland suggests that it was 10-12 degrees C warmer then than it is now.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/07/09/discovery-of-2-million-year-old-dna-in-greenland-reveals-new-details-about-ancient-life/
Finished reading RickH’s “The Hiker’s Redemption (The RV Vigilante Book 3)”. I have now read all 4 of that series and rate them all as 5 out of 5. Next I will be reading other of his books.
Java has been quietly off limits at a lot of US companies for internal use applications since Oracle bought Sun.
You would be surprised at how much VB 6 Is still in use in Corporate America, which makes any attempt to sunset Windows 10 a difficult decision in a lot of C suites.
Yeah, I’m not only running more load, I’m running overnight. Comfort. And I expect to be able to resupply so I’m not in full on conservation mode. Really, only about a quarter less run time is pretty good.
The A/C units really make a difference, just taking the edge off the heat and humidity makes all the difference in the world down here in the swamp.
——————-
I stretched, twisted, massaged, and got my spine and hips to align so no nerve pinching to devil me– which means it’s time to get to work. Loading up the saws, fuel, and empty tanks to head across town and see what the rent house looks like. I’ll fill empties if I get a chance.
I’ve got enough standby for a couple more days so it’s not pressing but it always feels better to be stacked.
n
Thanks for the kind words – and your reviews. I suggest a slice of berry pie to celebrate. (Only those that read the series will understand why.) You may substitute your favorite kind of pie, if you wish.
I note that the very beginning of Book 4 (“The Red Rock Redemption”) was suggested by a comment here.
Might I suggest “The Forgotten Winchester” as your next read? Classic Western, so a different genre. It might start out a bit slow, but I enjoyed writing it. The beginning is related to the ending, so was necessary.
Thanks again!
The boxed sets of movies I’m watching through, well, I found six more sets. Is it a series or just “unified packaging”? No matter, they are on the way. About $148 with shipping and taxes. It works out to $2.46 per movie. I used up his Big River balance and some of his CC Rewards Point to pay the rest.
We watched “The Incredibles” on DVD last night since our Rokus are down. My wife is now binging the “Sisters” tv show DVD that I gave her last Christmas.
I would not put Java on anything now with the crazy Oracle people suing everyone in sight with Java apps. Internal or external apps.
plugs did say during the debate “We finally beat Medicare…” so the cat is out of the bag thanks to a senile old man. No wonder the Dumbo’s want to get rid of him.
Fill your bathtubs! The diesels in the fresh potable water systems may start running out of fuel soon.
It looks like Centerpoint is getting the 10,000 linemen in and they are working today in addition to their 1,500 linemen. They announced a little while ago that they have fixed 500,000 meters and only have 1.7 million to go.
Half a dozen of those, plus three trucks, are coming from Knoxville. Of course the local news had to brag how Knoxville was saving Houston and without Knoxville’s help recovery would not be possible. Followed by a story asking about how well Knoxville is prepared for a hurricane. The local mayor was interviewed and was bragging about what her administration has done to prepare in case of such an event. Next up is tsunami preparedness. With volcano possibility next.
Okay, I’ll do that next.
The thing is: Java is absolutely free. Just download any open source distribution, and not the Oracle version.
The problems with Java are mainly a result of it being 30 years old, with all sorts of stuff bolted onto it that was never anticipated. Kotlin feels like Java with a thorough house cleaning.
US companies are wary of the API lawsuit potential. No one trusts Larry Ellison, even Java “partners” like IBM.
For those housebound right now, Tyler Cowen has an article suggesting the the best documentaries ever made, and there are a lot of good suggestions in the comments:
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/07/fernand-pajots-list-of-best-documentaries-ever.html
“I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main road“🎶
>>People will use the wireless networks to keep the kids entertained.
Kids will have a different concept of “entertained” after TEOTWAWKI. Stack a bunch of decks of cards and duplicates of their favorite board games. Of course, no play until chores are done.
I was in HS in Detroit in 1961 when the remnants of hurricane Carla went over the city. Some of us went outside to see the sight. We could see a curved array of moving clouds, which must have been the remnants of the eye. We did get winds and a few inches of rain. Here is a story of hurricanes over Michigan:
https://www.weather.gov/dtx/dtxcane
Carla devastated several southern states, including Texas.
Lake Huron also has spawned storms similar to tropical storms, although this is rare.
Ze Kampfs will have WiFi.
I used to add “and Baby Yoda streaming 24/7”, but I think the Baby is just about done.
>>Peter’s July 8 entry is worth a read:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/07/keep-your-guard-up-because-if-you-let.html?m=1
Also give a read to this linked story… https://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=251622WIW
@brad
The calculation is done on the average of the daily high and low temperatures. The trend in high temperatures is typically flat, whereas the trend in low temperatures is increasing. Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects are heat retention at night by building and paved areas and increased water vapor entering the atmosphere as the population increases. Water vapor is not only the dominant greenhouse gas, but higher humidity raises the potential low temperature, as temps cannot fall below the dew point.
I’m not familiar with stations in Switzerland. In the U.S. stations are often located where they are subject to biases and do not meet the requirements for highest quality data. Those that do not report are infilled with a calculated temperature that is often questionable if not outright dodgy. To top it off the electronic maximum–minimum temperature system (MMTS) have a number of biases and all seem to be upward deviations from thermometers.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/07/hail-to-the-queen.php
When she leaves she should have the option of buying it.
Otherwise I’m going to suggest to President Trump that he hold a raffle for renaming rights.
My first entry would be “Old Hooker Blues”
And BTW, Trump should request the National Archives okay the removal of any documents by the ex-president, and produce an inventory and check it for any missing documents. Then when they fail to do so he can transfer the lot of them to a basement suite in excess federal space in downtown Baltimore so they can finish the job.
Joe Biden Is Not A Decent Man
https://thefederalist.com/2024/07/08/joe-biden-is-not-a-decent-man/
Nice bit of background.
Well, I’m working on Project Euler problem 11, and I made a transition.
I’m back to writing software instead of programs.
For the first few problems, I just wrote code. Gradually, I’ve been incorporating more comments.
For this one, I’m writing about 1.5 lines of comments for each line of code, and describing the process of what’s going on, not just parroting pseudocode.
It’s been a while.
The Whataburger locations map is an acceptable proxy for the Houston power outage map.
https://x.com/polishprincessh/status/1810811167415099840
We’ve been offline with the Spectrum outage since a little before 1 PM. I can hit the web SLOWLY on my T-Mobile phone, but it’s painful. Also, no TV and no home phone, Starlink is complaining that the trees have grown to shade the antenna; I may have to break down and move that antenna tomorrow.
Home and fed.
Gennies refueled. I got propane from my guy, $12 per bottle, just like any other day. This time he has a gennie (running on propane, natch) jumpered into his power so he can run the propane pumps and meters. He had a second guy and they were both filling bottles as fast as they could with a line 6-10 people long.
I joked that Christmas came early for him.
And I told him how smart it was to set up the gennie. He recognizes me on sight and we usually chat.
2-3 fender benders per half hour of driving on surface streets, witnessed, not caused 🙂
Long lines for gasoline, so I skipped filling my cans. I’ve got 20 more gallons here, so I don’t need it today.
Cleaned up my rent house. There were quite a few fairly large branches lying around. I hate the cottonwoods, I’m allergic to even the sawdust.
Both saws quit running. I think the carb on the pole saw is clogged, the tank has sandy looking debris in it. Dunno about the chainsaw, I’ll have to do some exploration. I manhandled the remaining branches onto the pile. I can’t believe how stiff and sore I am today.
Still no power for us, although one block away they have lights.
———-
Your comments about programming languages sound like woodworkers arguing about using hand tools vs machines and power tools. The pros use and have always used any and every labor saver that came along. Hobbyists and amateurs can take their time with hand tools for the sake of using hand tools.
————
speaking of amateurs, all the local ham repeaters are quiet. Emergency power must have run out…. didn’t take long.
n
146.940 was working for the Noon “Stir Crazy Net” today.
And I just checked, it’s busy right now.
All of the modern programming languages are syntactic sugar on top of C.
Software development has been in this cul-de-sac for about 30 years, since Linux came along and popularized the open source model while implementing a clean sheet Posix environment from the spec on commodity hardware.
Well…
There is a great deal of disagreement about that whole “pro” thing in the world of IT. For instance, see the derogatory comments on this very blog about “Hot Skillz”.
How you select languages and toolsets for IT is complicated for any problem, and even more complicated when your requirements include large teams and large projects. A single developer, working alone, may choose tools that he’s comfortable with. When you need to hire a team off the street, your tool selection may be dictated by what the available affordable talent knows – and, yes, Hot Skillz.
Other complications may be business agreements with vendors, like Microsoft or Oracle. Or back when I did DOD work, sometimes we were told what tools to use. The Ada debacle was part of that one. Or the need to support specific (or multiple) user interface devices. Or anal-retentive management that says you must have a fully documented MVC charted out in conjunction with a Six-Sigma Black Belt.
I’ve got no beef with hobbyist woodworkers who go all Norm Abrams with all the leading edge power tools. Nor do I have a problem with the guys who won’t even buy a power saw or drill. I think they’re weird, but to each his own.
Both groups are hobbyists. The power tool guy might have aspirations of large scale production, and maybe even turning pro. The latter guy is just enjoying himself and building skill.
As a student of actual Computer Science, I turn a jaded eye on language and tool wars. All of them are equivalent, within certain parameters. Like Turing Completeness, for instance. Which is why I explained my criteria earlier, although it was not really expressed clearly. I want portabililty (code, not binary) between Windows and Linux, a wealth of example code to
rip offstudy. Common enough to have a lot of people to answer questions. Easy to learn, or I’ve already paid a lot of the learning curve time.As an experienced developer and system intgrator, I know that all your choices are comopromises. There are pros and cons, and once you choose your path, you must deal with the cons. The hope is that there aren’t too many cons you discover late in the process.
San Antonio, internet, phone and TV all restored about 7PM, so a six-hour outage. We also had a 90-second power outage; I walked out to check on the generator just in time to hear it stop. Also, a 90-second rainstorm. I saw that the ground was wet, but there’s nothing in the rain gauge.
All in all, a weird day.
D4 said no power loss at the SA house. Google Fiber full speed ahead. Wind was wicked during the downpour.
I’ve got lights in section one and our monument is lit up. We ain’t got lights yet in section two.
Pro-Gun Control Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Bodyguard Shoots Man Trying to Steal Car
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/07/pro-gun-control-justice-sonia-sotomayors-bodyguard-shoots-man-trying-to-steal-car/
The Framers certainly did not write the Second Amendment to arm special security for PLT’s that are responsible for the freaking chaos in our cities. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that authorizes armed Federal agents.
Special privileges for the rich and well-connected, and the rest can just go suck it.
“Karine Jean-Pierre inaccurately said”
If only there was a single word to describe when someone says something that person knows is not true.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/07/09/biden-white-houses-narrative-surrounding-neurologist-visit-just-blew-up-in-their-faces-n2641639
When events reveal a deficiency in language, it is up to the users to propose a correction.
Let’s call that single-word “to describe when someone says something that person knows is not true” a
“BIDEN”
“I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main road“
“Searching for another overload”
My aunt moved out of my grandparents house in Lake Jackson, TX and I got her room. She left behind a 45 rpm windup record player and one 45 rpm record. “Galveston / Lineman For The County”. I played that record hundreds of times.
I was in HS in Detroit in 1961 when the remnants of hurricane Carla went over the city. Some of us went outside to see the sight. We could see a curved array of moving clouds, which must have been the remnants of the eye. We did get winds and a few inches of rain.
I have a picture somewhere of my grandfather standing on third street in Freeport, TX in water up to his waist after Carla in 1961.
Took a nap. The heat and lifting have really kicked my @ss.
I’m not a lumberjack.
————
The honda running on propane, like all generators, has to be de-rated because propane isn’t as good a fuel as gasoline. So I don’t actually have all of the 30A I’m supposed to. Which means the fans and the two little A/C units will run, but add the networking rack, with its big UPS and it will go into overload and shut down.
The rack and big UPS are on the honda (ideally and actually) because it’s an inverter type gennie, which produces clean electricity that is very friendly to electronics. The UPSs will not charge when powered by the generac.
This is a big fat drag and somewhat worrisome as there are a lot of things in the house that are electronic, and probably don’t like the generac power either, like fridge control boards, and TVs.*
Of course I can plug the rack into the house, and the dirty power sans UPS, but I lose the protection of the filtering and active conversion. Or I can plug the ATT network fiber terminal and broadband router/wifi directly into an extension cord to the honda, with it’s clean power, and leave the rest of the rack off… which is probably what I will do. The load will be very small, and the stuff that we’re not really using (other than cams) will be offline and not exposed to the dirty power.**
There are compromises to any arrangement. Not running the A/C units would be a compromise, but it is really hot and muggy tonight, so that isn’t happening. Not having the internet connection is a choice too, but right now we are all using it…
Upgrades to the gennie situation – also a choice, but not happening this week.
Things you might not consider until you learn about the unknown unknowns. It’s why we drill, and why we use our preps.
n
*we see an uptick in equipment failures after running on gennie for a while.
** during IKE I put a FLUKE scopemeter on the gennie output and it was dirty as a muck jumper’s backside. (SNL skit, not actual scuba diving) The waveform was spikes and dropouts all the way thru… don’t use a bench meter plugged into the power outlet to do this. Use a handheld or understand how to isolate your ‘scope, or you’ll let the magic smoke out.
And now it’s pissing down rain. Street is flooding. Generators are plugging away though. And I’m going to bed.
N
@Nick, too bad it is so humid and hot at night. When we had our 6.4 and 7.1 earthquakes five years ago, we never lost power, but we decided to put our important cars outside the garage for one night. There were many aftershocks, and some were pretty intense. Since the 7.1 could have been a foreshock to a bigger one (the 6.4 was), we thought it wise to sleep in one of the cars for the first night after the 7.1. Even in July, our warmest month, it cools off enough at night that we needed light blankets inside the car.
Another thing I have been forgetting to mention is that refrigeration AC does not usually condense water here, because the atmospheric dew point is usually below the temperature of the evaporator coil. That temperature is usually regulated by the expansion device, and is about 40F. The atmospheric dew point is not usually that high. It is sometimes below zero Fahrenheit. Most of the time, automobile AC doesn’t drip condensate.
When we lived in Fort Lauderdale, our AC unit ran a steady stream of condensate when it was running. Yours must produce even more, because your temperature and humidity are higher than Florida’s. When I knew I would be going to Florida, I figured it wouldn’t be that bad. The Detroit area is usually about 85F and 85% RH in the summer. Fort Lauderdale is about 91F and 90% RH. Sounds slight, but a really noticeable difference. Miserable. The good side is that in the winter it only rains once a day. 😉
Too bad about the rain. I hope conditions improve and the power is restored soon.
** during IKE I put a FLUKE scopemeter on the gennie output and it was dirty as a muck jumper’s backside. (SNL skit, not actual scuba diving) The waveform was spikes and dropouts all the way thru… don’t use a bench meter plugged into the power outlet to do this. Use a handheld or understand how to isolate your ‘scope, or you’ll let the magic smoke out.
About every ten minutes or so, my 38 kW genny is kinda making a weird noise and all the lights flicker. I want to shut it down for 30 minutes but am afraid that it may not restart. So, we are continuing to run on the genny. The lighted houses are just two houses away from us now.
But the dark office is about a mile away from the lighted houses. Bummer.