Cool and clear, but supposed to be warmer than the last couple of days later on. It was another beautiful day. Sun was warm, and there was a nice breeze.
I mostly worked on getting the dockhouse back together. More insulation and wainscotting was installed. More electrical was replaced. I did change a couple of things, and added an outlet to the wall that didn’t have one. We’re not quite code compliant, but we’re closer than we were. One more day and I should be done with the work I can do until I get the base board and chair rail molding.
If I finish, I’ll switch to networking, or the vent fans for the baths, and kitchen. Wife is working from home, and Starlink is mostly adequate. The latency messes with her VPN and the servers/databases at her office. Plus it’s not as fast as the fiber at home, so her expectation needs a bit of calibration…
Dinner was bambi burgers courtesy of my fishing buddy. He got a nice buck this week so there might be more coming my way soon. Kids love it. He mixes beef brisket into the ground venison for burgers and chili. It’s very tasty.
I’m making progress on my list, but the pace is still slow. Hopefully I have enough time.
And enough stacked.
nick
Read your terms of service before contacting Starlink regarding the VPN If the latency really becomes an issue. You may be prohibited from using the service for that kind of connection.
Read your terms of service before contacting Starlink regarding the VPN If the latency really becomes an issue. You may be prohibited from using the service for that kind of connection.
Does Starlink have a “business” plan, or is it all the same? I remember the old days when cable companies started offering internet service. You couldn’t run a server, router, etc. Unless you paid for “business” class service and static IPs. I imagine most providers still have those rules on the books, but just look the other way to keep the moola coming in.
VPN traffic cannot be compressed since it is encrypted. In the days before SSL became the defacto transport protocol for web traffic, compressible packets were given priority on satellite links.
IPSec also required a special exception in the router if a carrier used NAT prior to ~ 2003-4, when Cisco and Microsoft stopped playing games and accepted the brilliant NAT-T solution from the creator of SSH.
@brad, canada’s main export, and largest trading partner, is oil to the US. Low quality oil, so using less should make egowienies happy.
Could be just for leverage, Canada has tarrifs on US goods.
———
59F now, and cooler before that. The thermometer I’ve been looking at is a few degrees warmer. The sensor got moved up against the brick wall, so it’s reading that thermal mass…. in other words it was colder on the water last night.
Chilly, sunny, and clear. Great day to be working outdoors.
————
@greg, I think the latency is an issue because of back end stuff in the office being poorly implemented. There are still some basically home brew things going on there.
Musk has said they are trying to cut the latency in half. That would be a feat, but I wouldn’t rule out anything with him.
————
Had an egg, hash brown, bacon, and coffee. Time to get moving.
n
No hotspots unless you bought from Verizon for example.
It turns out that was illegal.
AI is already picking the low-hanging jobs…
https://slashdot.org/story/24/11/26/131222/ai-helps-indian-ecommerce-firm-cut-customer-call-costs-by-75
I hear about restrictions like that, but it’s just weird. I buy a connection with a certain amount of data. It is not the company’s business, how I use that data. I use my hotspot frequently. Perhaps more to the point: if I have a phone that isn’t controlled by the phone company, how are they going to stop me turning on the hotspot?
Given the IQ of some of the customers who call support lines, letting AI handle the really stupid calls is probably a win for everyone. The customer has an agent with endless patience. The company no longer has to hire agents to deal with dimwits. Ok, not sure about the former call center agents, but – assuming they can find other jobs – they are probably also relieved, not having to deal with dimwits.
I was idly thinking about hooking up an AI to deal with incoming spam mail. It would be funny to waste the spammers’ time. OTOH, it might just be bots talking with bots, plus I don’t want to confirm my address as one that answers spam. So…maybe not…
If they could get away with it they would, their business or not: modern corporations would like to charge you for breathing.
I had to use a 3rd party app (blue linen?) around 2010 when Verizon and AT&T were still arguing with the FCC over it. It was an outright violation of the TOS but the only way I could use my iPad on the road was by tethering. I seem to recall that the Verizon hospot utility was extra ten dollars a month or so.
Read your terms of service before contacting Starlink regarding the VPN If the latency really becomes an issue. You may be prohibited from using the service for that kind of connection.
Does Starlink have a “business” plan, or is it all the same? I remember the old days when cable companies started offering internet service. You couldn’t run a server, router, etc. Unless you paid for “business” class service and static IPs. I imagine most providers still have those rules on the books, but just look the other way to keep the moola coming in.
Yes. The Starlink business plan requires a special (huge) antenna and $500/month.
https://www.starlink.com/business
Well, that page says that the business plan starts at $140/month.
“About that “Government Efficiency””
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/about-that-government-efficiency-151824/
“Reagan was a small government libertarian at heart, and he knew that excess government spending was a major reason for so much turmoil. Reagan actually coined the term “drain the swamp”, and he turned to his friend, businessman J. Peter Grace, to form a group that would study government waste.”
“The so-called Grace Commission made over 2,400 recommendations to Reagan. But in the end, the swamp fought back with a vengeance. And won. Very few proposals ever saw the light of day, and ultimately the commission was a failure.”
The RINOs will make DOGE fail.
Currently in Atlanta for Thanksgiving with friends.
The traffic through I-24 to I-75 through Chattanooga was horrible. More trucks than cars. Supposedly no trucks in the left lane but the truckers apparently can’t read. After getting through Chattanooga with an hour delay, about 30 miles north of the I-285 interchange, more slow traffic. No trucks are supposed to be in the left two lanes but that is apparently ignored.
Through trucks are not allowed on I-75 through Atlanta. Trucks are supposed to take I-285. That exit is on the right and the trucks trying to get over four lanes, basically stopping until someone lets them over, makes for a real mess at the I-75 and I-285 north of the city.
Overall the trip had an additional 1.5 hours added due to traffic. I could not live in this area because of the traffic.
How do you make a three lane interstate into a one lane interstate? Simple. Put two trucks on the road.
I went to the local HEB this morning. The parking lot was almost full, I parked out by the gas station. Inside the store was not crowded. Strange.
One head of garlic was 68¢. Holiday pricing?
I have a two plus pound chunk of pork loin thawing. I’m going to stab it with a paring knife and shove garlic cloves into the slits. Salt and pepper and into the oven on a rack. I might add a can of potatoes to roast, too.
I was thinking some pear halves would be nice. “Pears, water, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup…..” and back on the shelf. I bought a jar of applesauce instead.
I thought about getting a turkey. The jury is still out. I vac-sealed some turkey last year and I need to eat that and see if frozen turkey is good before buying a 15# turkey for one person.
Big River is playing games with the price of the Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker. But that’s ok. I have a toaster. I have plenty of stuff aka clutter already. I can semi-scramble an egg and let it cook flat. It will fold to fit on a muffin.
I found the frozen sausage patties today. The are heat and eat.
I picked up some Canadian Bacon, too. “Land o’ Lakes” or whatever the brand is, says “formed with pork loin”. For an extra 50¢ the Armour Black Label says slices of pork loin. The Armour had a $1 off coupon stuck on the package, too. Duh, what do I buy?
“Hybrids: The New Frontiers Series, Book Eight” by Jack L Knapp
https://www.amazon.com/Hybrids-New-Frontiers-Book-Eight/dp/B0CMK4KP75?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number eight of a eight book science fiction space opera series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2023. I have all eight books in the series and am rereading them now with the number seven and eight books that I just bought from Big River. The author has noted on Facebook that this will probably be last book in this series, probably due to his age of 82.
Wow, great story with lots of character development and action. An older engineer buys a bunch of Nikola Tesla’s journals in an old chest and spots a design for an “electric turbine” that was never built. He builds a working version of the electric impeller (a device that converts electricity into motion) after many restarts and has an anti-gravity device. The rest of the story concerns project funding and building various containers for the electric impeller and various peoples trying to steal the design. And aliens. Lots of space aliens.
Now that the Mars humans have self healing and self cloning Flicker FTL space ships, they have been exploring various parts of the Milky Way. The Eldest Flicker, many tens of thousands of years old, has been seeding several Goldilocks planets with Terran plants and animals and is now ready for settlers so that is moving forward with a thousand settlers at a time. But, the Mars humans have noted that there are several dead Flicker space ships in Orion’s belt and are investigating them.
The writing of the story is a little bit rough, a little more editing would have been good. But for me, the story is always the most important thing.
BTW, this is not the first time that a story has been written similar to this. Several stories have “magical” engines for space drives. A very similar book is John Varley’s most excellent “Red Thunder” which uses the squeezer drive.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Thunder-Lightning-Novel/dp/0441011624?tag=ttgnet-20/
The reason why I like these stories so much is that it is not just the new drive device, it is also the design and work to build the container around the new device. And the resulting societal changes from the revolutionary technological changes.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (22 reviews)
Lynn
I rummaged around in the stacks of DVDs my Mom insisted we bring when she moved here. There is a lot.
94 movies on single discs. Then there are the sets.
Like 50 Action Classic Movies on 12 discs. Ditto the same for Westerns. I expect there are some duds in both sets.
Then another 22 movies packed in various sets with a movie per side. Three sets of 3 Benny Hill discs. A set of Laurel and Hardy, 5 discs, 7 movies. A boxed set of eight Horatio Hornblower movies.
Then another 15 movies with 2 or 3 discs per set.
Don’t forget 16 episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies on 2 discs.
I’m sure I missed some stuff. Call it about 250 movies.
Plus, all going away to the Library Thrift Shop stack, is (are?) 5 variants of Lord of the Rings and 8 of the 11 Harry Potter series.
I’ll watch the first Potter movie. I have Lord of the Rings in a fancy Blu-ray set. Two discs per movie plus three DVD for each move of interviews and footnotes. The receipt says I bought it in 2011. I’ll get to it eventually.
How many movies can a Sony Blu-ray player play? I just might find out. In addition to the above I have another almost 200 more DVDs that have yet to be watched.
I have the time.
@paul
At this point you might want to see if there are any turkey sales on Friday, and shop for a turkey breast rather than a whole turkey. Or maybe a couple legs if you just like the dark meat.
I like all of the turkey. I make stock with the special package of stuff and the bones.
Warner started production on a new miniseries which will cover all seven books.
You’ll eventually get to watch them all over again.
The original movie set is still entertaining. Alan Rickman rules those films as Snape.
Got the insulation in, and the beadboard. Got the electrical in.
Neighbor installed some solar on his shack, so I”ll go see that later in the week. He got an Ecoflow battery/charge controller/inverter. He’d like to run the dehumidifier on solar when he’s not here. That would save about $140 a month according to him. That’s worth doing.
Time to get some dinner going.
And then eat the cake and cookies the neighbor brought out.
n
This flick shot most of the driving scenes around Midtown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XMuUVw7TOM
The original movie set is still entertaining. Alan Rickman rules those films as Snape.
Truth.
“Mexican President Sheinbaum fires back at Trump in a statement: “Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs.”
https://x.com/ishaantharoor/status/1861447614568239551
Trump should offer a deal: Mexico can extradite Eric Holder and the others in the Obama administration–including Barry–responsible for thousands of guns being funneled to Mexico. if we can extradite the known drug lords and put them on trial with the death penalty on the table.
Based on the success of Mexican law enforcement dealing with illegal weapons, that means they seized 10 guns and 7 were from the U.S. The other thousands of weapons in the hands of the cartels came from who knows where.
Bits and pieces of Snape come from Rickman’s character in “Bob Roberts”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMWa2EJGhFA
Lots of early 90s material which would have been on British TV when Rowling wrote the book influenced “Harry Potter”.
I have liberal and conservative friends who don’t understand my fondness for “Bob Roberts”. The British, however, appreciate real satire so it probably played well over there.
BTW, I ran through most of this flick in the early morning before we headed to the scene of the crime two weeks ago.
The film is decent and suprisingly hard on Kennedy.
Ed Helms is phenomenal in a role which a young dramatic actor couldn’t touch without being blacklisted, but a comedian can get a pass.
Jim Gaffigan appearing as the other Kennedy “fixer” on the scene after the accident is kinda surreal considering that he showed up on “Saturday Night Live” this season as Tim Walz.
https://tubitv.com/movies/100026551/chappaquiddick
Go to visit the site, and you’ll never look at the official narrative the same way again.
“More than 96% of all new jobs in California in the last two years have been government work (for real) “
https://notthebee.com/article/more-than-96-of-all-new-jobs-in-california-in-the-last-two-years-have-been-government-work/
“Between January 2022 and June 2024, employment in US private businesses increased by about 7.32 million jobs. Of these 7.32 million jobs, about 5,400 were jobs created in California businesses — representing about .07 percent of the US figure.”
“Businesses like Elon Musk’s companies are fleeing California due to insane taxes, political lawfare, and over-the-top regulation.”
Nuisance and his friends are making things worse and worse in Cacafornia.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Watching a Forged in Fire marathon with D2. Had cake and cookies for dinner. I’m not going down to the dock tonight. I”m going to bed.
n
“Heckler Calls Me Racist | Troy Bond Stand Up”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY812zZj_Kc
This came up in my youtube feed again. It is still funnier than all get out.
“That was the most racist joke ever” “No I got like 4 more in the chamber”.
“You’re the first name going in my suicide note TONIGHT.”
Warning: he is as crude as you can get.
Watching a Forged in Fire marathon with D2.
“Forged in Fire: THE NINJA’S SWORD (S9, E3) | Full Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXt8z3djUak
Wow, this is awesome. Feels like my materials course at TAMU where the instructor gave each of us a 12 inch long piece of metal steel stock and we had to machine it into a bolt. He had a nut and at the end of class his nut had to go onto our threaded steel stock without being too loose. I succeeded. Next class, we had to cut off the thread and machine a reverse thread on the stock. And he had a another nut with a reverse thread. I succeeded again.
“1 in 4 people still carrying weight from holidays last year!”
https://studyfinds.org/still-carrying-holiday-weight/
“The survey of 2,000 Americans revealed that 24% are still carrying the weight they gained at the end of 2023. On average, that’s almost 10 pounds!”
“They’re also expecting to gain even more weight as we approach the end of 2024: respondents think they’ll gain another six pounds before changing their calendars to January 2025.”
Um, I am planning on not gaining any weight this holiday season. I’ve been losing a few pounds lately but I am not back down to 250, but I am back to 257 from 261. I can tell that my metabolism has dropped significantly since I turned 60 a few years ago. I really need to cut my daily calories down to 2,000 permanently from my normal 3,000.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
“Nefarious Japanese Shoe Thief Caught on Camera – Authorities Astounded”
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2024/11/26/nefarious-japanese-shoe-thief-caught-on-camera-authorities-astounded-n2182512
Thievery is increasing everywhere !
I talked to a blacksmith about Forged in Fire. I asked if they really make the blades in 3-4 hours. He said no, they actually take several days to do the filming. The actual time used in the making of the blades may be 3-4 hours total but that is spread over several days.
When I was a youngster working on the farm. I was consuming 6,000 calories a day, especially in the summer. I weighed 140 pounds when I joined the USAF after leaving the farm. I still like to eat.
The doctor said to lose 50 pounds or I will take 5 years off my life. I pointed out that based on the hereditary dementia that those last 5 years I will just be sitting around slobbering on myself, wearing diapers, someone wiping my ass, and thinking reruns of Gilligan’s Island is brand new TV. The doctor did not see the humor in my comment.
Doesn’t anyone remember Ross Perot and “The giant sucking sound”?