Chilly willy. It was 35F and falling when I went to bed. I expect it to be COLD this morning. Forecast calls for freezing again. It was chilly and clear yesterday. Really a nice day for working outdoors. I had a very light second layer on and that was enough.
I spent the morning with family. Spent the afternoon doing small tasks outdoors. I ran the string trimmer, and the blower. Cleaned up the leaves, and weed whacked the weeds in the wildflower garden, the vegetable garden, and the bulb garden. Blew leaves and raked twigs out of the dirt areas between the retaining walls. It’s the perfect time to do it, cool enough to do hard work, wet enough to not have dust, but dry enough that the blower moves a lot of it.
Met with the tree guy too. He’s finally got time to remove the remaining problem trees. Not the cheap guy, but the expert guy. He’s going to try to get them down this week.
Family is headed home later today. I’m staying another day. I’ve got pickups in Conroe that I can grab on my way home Tuesday, which saves an hour and a half round trip. It’ll give me time to get a few more jobs done too.
If you can’t stack, always be working to improve your situation…
nick
First post. That is all. I will let myself out.
Saw this over the weekend, but lost the source:
Finnish Breakfast
Coffee with Vodka, One Cigarette
JD Vance rightly warns Europeans against the dark cloud of censorship — and critics freak out
“the most embarrassing question ever asked by a network anchor”
https://nypost.com/2025/02/16/opinion/j-d-vance-rightly-warns-europeans-against-the-dark-cloud-of-censorship-and-critics-freak-out/
add: stupid, ignorant, clueless, and…
Insane: Margaret Brennan Says Free Speech Caused Holocaust
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/02/17/insane-margaret-brennan-said-nazis-weaponized-free-speech-n3799885
Lobotomized does not exclude stupid, and certainly does not excuse it.
This sorry excuse for a warm bag of impure water is the best that a once-respected news network can put up. If organ harvesting is out of the question, surely a real lobotomy could be arranged? She could find a new happy place productively shoveling real manure, and with an extra twist of the wire we’d be spared of her vote polluting the democracy.
Not Many Americans Are Going to Tolerate What These Federal Workers Had to Say Last Night
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/02/17/cbs-drops-a-most-tone-deaf-segment-about-government-workers-n2652320
Let me guess: The overwhelming majority of the people who got fired were fully supportive of Biden canceling the Keystone XL.
Notice in the video that it looks like a warehouse full of bags of food? ?Wonder why they didn’t find some footage of a condom warehouse?”
And another guess: The word “skilled” doesn’t apply to the overwhelming majority of the people who got fired, hence they have no prospects at a new job with the same level of compensation.
I further expect we’ll be seeing more interviews, which will include the “how am I going to pay my student loans” whining, as the cold reality that they got scammed for a worthless degree sinks in.
I have a question for all of the PLT’s that were busy shoveling U.S. taxpayer dollars to other countries: “How many average U.S. taxpayers does it take to generate $1 million in taxes?”
Biden did not resume enforcement of student loan payments in November and left the mess for Trump to resolve. Wait until the wage garnishment starts.
Interest continues to accrue since November of 2023.
I’m reading articles stating Amazon will stop letting you download Kindle books to your PC at the end of February. That is a dumb move by Amazon if they let it happen. You will only be able to rent books and view them only on Kindle devices. What happens if you “cancel” Amazon? Do you lose all of your books? Kobo and Apple Books are going to get a boost. Bozo’s is probably trying to pressure authors and digital book sellers to agree to this. It’s not like Amazon has taken back books and stealth edited books in the past. Oh, wait, yes they have.
How long before Amazon switches to digital media only? Then you will only be able to rent books, just like beer. No more physical media or POD books.
I like to read on my big screen at the computer some times. I’ve got a comfy chair, and the kids are elsewhere.
—–
It was 37F at 9am, but bright and sunny. Currently 51F.
Low back is pinched and killing me. I did some stretching and it’s better. The string trimmer is really hard on my low back.
——
guest have departed for their next stop
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I think I’ll do a bit of tree trimming. That shouldn’t be too taxing.
n
DSLReports, a self acclaimed “technical” site, is on its death bed. It has been for a while so the demise is not entirely unexpected. Another liberal site of non-functioning, zit-faced, self-pleasuring, humanoid life forms that needs to follow the same path is ARSTechnica.
From what I understand, Amazon is only ending the practice of downloading files for later transfer to a Kindle using a USB connection in favor of WiFi transfer only. The intent is to finally kill off Ye Olde Kindle devices like my second generation reader which is still going strong after more than a decade.
Eliminating the Kindle app on the PC would be a huge problem for students renting digital textbooks on the platform depending on the highlighting feature to seamlessly transfer between reader and PC for inclusion in papers.
I have first hand experience with that from a Digital Forensics class I took which had a text focused on precedent and case law requiring lots of citations for weekly writing assignments.
I was going to hit the trees that I trimmed last week with a weak cayenne pepper solution to keep the birds from eating the buds, but it is already too windy at 10am local. I need to be ready to go just after sunrise.
I only have a hundred or so other projects I can line up instead of this one.
POD books leave a lot to be desired for any publishing purpose other than replacing mass market paperbacks.
Hollywood tried to switch to digital media only, but they’re learning a hard lesson about how many successful franchises were based on physical media sales.
“Musk Claims To Have Found The “Biggest Fraud In History””
https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/musk-claims-to-have-found-the-biggest-fraud-in-history
“A cursory review of Social Security records by Musk’s department has revealed that the social security safety net program is paying benefits to 150-year-olds. The businessman noted that many of those entries listed for Social Security recipients had no identifying information.”
““This might be the biggest fraud in history,” Musk stated, according to a report by RT. ”
“In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, the United States-based billionaire noted that “there are far more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA.” Musk also shared a post by an X user suggesting that 394,943,364 people are currently receiving social security payments. That is more than the total U.S. population, which amounts to 334 million.”
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
POD books leave a lot to be desired for any publishing purpose other than replacing mass market paperbacks.
I bought a POD (print on demand) 8.5 inch by 11 inch by three inches thick technical book from Amazon a couple of months ago for $170.
Drye never worked for USAID; she was employed by consultants XLA and Jefferson Partners as a speechwriter for Samantha Powers . I’m sure XLA has lost the USAID contract, but presumably if they could find another gullible agency, Drye could be reassigned to THAT project.
When things got tight for us in Vantucky, I made the mistake of selling off my copy of Mike Okuda’s “Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual” with the beautiful, crisp four color printing done in the early 90s. I never imagined that I wouldn’t eventually be able to get a replacement.
The current copies available new from the publisher are black and white only and manufactured using POD. The end result is terrible, with many pages blurred/smeared.
It may seem trivial, but Okuda is a huge influence on modern computing with his LCARS principles presented in the book, effectively a repackaging of his bootleg writers manual for the series.
BREAKING
Delta Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Toronto flips onto its roof during landing. Authorities reporting no casualties, plane successfully evacuated.
… Body of the plane is substantially intact, one engine appears detached, rear engine jet with 76 passenger capacity, pilot reported flaps issue during landing, 18F temp, 18mph winds with 35mph gusts, some snow on the ground.
>>“In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday,
“…formerly…”
Is there really anyone left that doesn’t know?
I think both engines are still attached. It appears as if the starboard wing is missing. That was probably one wild ride. Getting out of the plane would be interesting.
I have heard that birds are not bothered by cayenne and other peppers. They don’t have the taste buds. But cayenne works as a squirrel repellent. I could be full o’ it too.
As far as SS, I’m not counting on it being around. If it is, great. Best plan for us is live on our investments and pension, and not draw SS until 67.
I love my work. There was a time I couldn’t imagine retiring. Now I can imagine it pretty well. I’m ready to throw myself into hobbies and volunteer work and getting 8 hours of sleep sometimes.
Me too and me too. We have several million in investments that we plan on living on for the next 10 to 30 years. Shoot, we have already been withdrawing from our IRAs for living expenses a couple of years now since our jobs are not able to pay us very much anymore. Having a severely disabled person in your household is incredibly expensive. I do not trust anyone in the federal and state governments, they seem to be all thieves to me and wanting to give my tax dollars away to some goat herder in Somalia.
I LOVE MY JOB. Ok, just the programmer side. I love writing code. I used to say I would write code for food.
I dislike having to deal with whiny employees and whiny customers. And whiny prospects, “if you just add this one feature, we will buy”, “Done !”, “Oh, we don’t have the budget money this year, can you give us a year long test drive of your software with the new feature that we needed”. ARRRGHHHHH!
I am heading up to Norman, OK for an engineering conference on Sunday. Norman is suppose to be 3 F on Wednesday morning but 61 F by Sunday afternoon. No ice and snow !
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/ok/norman
I like to read on my big screen at the computer some times. I’ve got a comfy chair, and the kids are elsewhere.
I dislike reading books on the computer. I belong to a group that is translating old German books to English and producing PDF or DOCX files. I do not mind reading short stories on the PC though.
Try reading the 6 point type for numbers in a PDF technical book. Very difficult.
“Delta Flight From Minneapolis Crash Lands in Toronto, Flips Over”
https://rumble.com/v6m0bd4-delta-flight-from-minneapolis-crash-lands-in-toronto-flips-over.html?e9s=src_v1_upp
Uh, that girl has made her last flight. I cannot tell what she was.
Ah, a CRJ-900.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_CRJ700_series#CRJ900
Cayenne pepper doped spray shouldn`t work on birds. No receptors for Capsaicin in the peppers. Spray will work on squirrels. Cinnamon and peppermint oil might work with birds. Netting works but is a hassle.
I would also add that girl made her last landing. Or first crash. Perspective.
When things got tight for us in Vantucky, I made the mistake of selling off my copy of Mike Okuda’s “Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual” with the beautiful, crisp four color printing done in the early 90s. I never imagined that I wouldn’t eventually be able to get a replacement.
The current copies available new from the publisher are black and white only and manufactured using POD. The end result is terrible, with many pages blurred/smeared.
It may seem trivial, but Okuda is a huge influence on modern computing with his LCARS principles presented in the book, effectively a repackaging of his bootleg writers manual for the series.
My wife likes to read biographies of interesting people. I have learned to buy her the hardback instead of paperbacks as the picture prints are much higher quality in the hardbacks. I will even buy her a used hardback over a new trade paperback to get the better quality pictures. She is reading about the Bee Gees right now and really enjoying it.
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Bee-Gees-Children-World/dp/1639365532?tag=ttgnet-20
Sadly, only Barry Gibb is still alive at 78 years of age. The twin brothers passed away early at 53 and 62 years of age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_Gees
“Texas governor warns residents ahead of ‘coldest weather event of the year'”
https://www.chron.com/weather/article/texas-freeze-cold-front-20172026.php
“”If people are not paying attention to [the cold front] they’re going to be shocked by what’s going to happen over the next few hours, in the next few days.””
Meh, Christmas Eve 1989 was much colder at 6 F in Sugar Land, Texas and -4 F in Dallas, Texas. I remember it well. I had just left TXU on October 31, 1989 and I called up to my boss to find our how bad things were. He said that they were barely hanging on and burning 330,000 barrels (14 million gallons) of fuel and and diesel per day between the 125 power generating units. They were even running the 60+ black start diesels (mostly locomotive engines) across the system. They had zero natural gas across North Texas for power plants, what natural gas there was was being burned by the four million homes.
People think that air conditioning uses a lot of power. Air conditioning is nothing compared to heating in the USA. Lots of people will turn off their a/c units in the middle of the night and live by fans. People will not turn off their heating units in the middle of the night when it is below 20 F.
Rick Harrison’s book is really interesting if she hasn’t seen that autobiography yet.
The book isn’t very long, but the chapter on Harrison’s Asian regulars and insights into portable wealth alone is worth the time.
Garfield: 7 am
https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2025/02/14
Yeah, 7 am sucks. I prefer noon.
The media need to stop scaring the h*ll out of people by reporting single digit wind chills as the actual lows. The masses are running out and stripping the grocery stores bare here right now over a pending stretch of four days where the daytime high will be upper 30s/low 40s.
“Western Digital to unveil 44TB HAMR HDDs in 2026, 100TB in 2030”
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/western-digital-to-unveil-44tb-hamr-hdds-in-2026-100tb-in-2030
“Western Digital this week outlined its future hard disk drive technology roadmap and revealed plans to adopt heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) for its HDDs beginning in late 2026. HAMR will enable the company to build 80TB–100TB HDDs by 2030.”
“Western Digital’s first HAMR-based HDDs will be introduced sometime in 2026, with a 36TB capacity for conventional magnetic recording (CMR) and a 44TB capacity for shingled UltraSMR recording. The company expects these drives to be qualified by its customers among cloud data center providers by late 2026, which is when Western Digital will begin its volume production. The company plans to commence volume shipments of its HAMR drives in the first half of 2027.”
Hard drive technology keeps on marching on.
“DOGE dishes biggest scandal in human history”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/02/doge-dishes-biggest-scandal-in-human.html
“That’s how Jeff Childers headlines this morning’s article at Coffee & Covid. Looking at the numbers he provides, I’d say he’s not wrong!”
Something is really, really, really wrong here.
If Social Security is sending checks to 19,445,086 people over the age of 100, then there is sheer incompetence here.
It‘s what the media does to drive ratings. Also, a scared population is easier to control.
“Trolling Level: Expert”
https://areaocho.com/trolling-level-expert/
“Trump has his mugshot hanging in a frame on the wall just outside the Oval Office, in case anyone has any doubts as to why they are getting the version of him that they are getting.”
Bold, yet reasonable.
The Dumbo’s are hating the African-American immigrant sticking his finger in their honey-pots.
Who would have thunk The Kamel Humper would go down in flames (by opening her yap) giving us another tRump term. I found it hard to get tRump over 50%. After The K-H flamed out it became obvious her water was being carried by the LSM. Then tRump gives us DOGE. Musk is going to be the most influential citizen in our history since George Washington. I hope Musk has 100 ex-Mossad agents around him 24/7.
“Holding Their Own V: The Alpha Chronicles” by Joe Nobody
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1939473721?tag=ttgnet-20
The fifth book in a series of nineteen alternate history books about the economic collapse of the USA in 2015. I reread the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2013 that I bought new on Amazon in 2014. I own the first eleven books in the series and am rereading the first ten before my first read of the eleventh book.
Um, this series was published in 2011 just as the shale oil and gas boom was really getting cranked up. The book has crude oil at $350/barrel and gasoline at $6/gallon in 2015. Not gonna happen due to oil well fracking in the USA so the major driver of economic collapse in the USA is invalid for the book. That said, the book is a good story about the collapse and failure of the federal government in the USA. The book is centered in Texas which makes it very interesting to me since I am a Texas resident.
The $6 gasoline was just the start. The unemployment rises to 40% over a couple of years and then there is a terrorist chemical attack in Chicago that kills 50,000 people. The current President of the USA nukes Iran with EMP airbursts as the sponsor of the terrorist attack. And the President of the USA also declares martial law and shuts down the interstates to stop the terrorists from moving about. That shuts down food and fuel movement causing starvation and lack of energy across the nation.
The accumulations of these serious problems cause widespread panics and shutdowns of basic services like electricity and water for large cities. The electricity grids fail due to employees not showing up to work at the plants. Then the refineries shutdown due to the lack of electricity.
After the fall of the USA government in the financial disaster of 2015, Bishop and Terri try to restart their lives in the zero electricity and almost zero energy world of 2016. The civil war has started and is temporarily under a cease fire since nothing says “I love my neighbor” like two Abrams tanks firing at each other.
Getting the electricity partially back on for west Texas raises the living level for many of the survivors of the economic collapse. Rebuilding civilization one town at a time is slow but very rewarding. But there are storm clouds on the horizon as the ineffective federal government wants to get control back.
The author has a website at:
https://www.joenobodybooks.com/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (518 reviews)
Lynn
https://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=413704
Get a gofundme started, buy up some bargain real estate coincidentally located near or (heart flutters at thought) next to some choice Dems, lefty judges, and NeverTrumpers, and put in some much needed
crackhousesdrug rehab group homes.Canadian jet can’t handle snow?
What’s disturbing is that Bombardier developed the A220 prior to the Airbus acquisition of the line.
We flew an A220 both ways on our trip to Boston in the Fall. The plane was a little noisy, but the plane was comfortable. My wife liked the 2 and 3 single aisle seating configuration.
A220s are everywhere now that the Airbus assembly facility in Mobile is running at full speed. A lot of carriers are substituting those for 737s.
Currently 49F. Was shirtsleeves warm in the sun all day, but once the sun went down…
————
Elon is no stranger to death threats. I think that’s probably part of his “no fixed address” lifestyle… a moving target is harder to hit- although it may have something to do with keeping the baby mommas from fighting. However, he’s now playing in a completely different league. It’s probably easier to go after the wiz kids, and make an example of a couple.
———–
I got a bunch of things that have been on the list for a while finished today. They were mostly smaller tasks, but they needed to be done. It felt very productive.
———-
I’m debating about a fire tonight. I could just stay in and read, but I haven’t had a nice fire on the dock this trip. Temp has fallen another degree, so maybe I should head down now instead of waiting. I like it later because the radio is better, but if it’s 10 degrees cooler, I probably won’t want to go down.
I feel like rewarding myself with the peaceful time after the bustle of today. Maybe I’ll take a decaf coffee with me instead of the normal ginger ale.
n
“It’s probably easier to go after the wiz kids, and make an example of a couple.”
If I were in charge of security, a successful “example” would result in a Biblically horrible counter-example visited on anyone involved. I doubt that Musk would do any less, and I suspect that his security has already let the word out in the professional community.
The amateurs will try. The difference now is that Trump runs the DOJ, and any “accidental” lapse in security will result in the fastest application of the federal death penalty that can be arranged.
“In a town with only one industry, reducing government is a sacrilegious act.”
https://jonathanturley.org/2025/02/16/taking-away-everything-we-have-democrats-and-unions-launch-an-existential-fight-over-buyouts/
“Another USCCA Member Defended: $500,000 in Legal Fees Covered”
https://www.deltadefense.com/offers/67a519577e5e3/join-the-uscca-today
I know that this is advertising but story is horrendous. And then they tried to put Millie Mills in jail for shooting one of the guys in one of the three cars that ran her off the road. Compton and California !
“In a town with only one industry, reducing government is a sacrilegious act.”
I meant to comment above: As I’ve said many times before, to paraphrase the 1950’s smokestack motto: Part of the solution is dilution. Most of the headquarters of pieces of federal government should not be in Washington, DC. Many of them should functionally be elsewhere, and most of the rest should be scattered, and not in the largest cities in the most populous states. Cincinati, Boise, Des Moines–“flyover country”–nothing in the Sun Belt and nothing on the coast. Cities with average housing and costs of living. Members of Congress commute to their districts–heads of bureaucracies can commute to DC when Congress needs to talk to them, or to other cities when they need to talk to some other head honcho.
Drop a cowpie in a sewer and no one notices. Drop a cowpie in a small town and everyone knows
Austin has a payroll office covering most of the Executive Branch, including the Defense Dept. Plus the city has a very large IRS office and the Army’s “Futures” Command boondoggle.
I don’t categorize this place as “flyover country”. It seems like this is the destination of choice for the Locust Class plus a good percentage of the Subcontinent right now.
Fortunately, the Locust Class is already eyeing Nashville to descend upon and drain next. However, Subcontinent is here to stay. Colonists.
Who is the Locust Class ?
930 and I’m done with my fire… crazy. Temps actually came up a couple of degrees back to 50F .
Sky is dark and reasonably clear. Didn’t drag out the telescope though, I was enjoying just sitting there.
Bands were open. Activity on 80M, 40M and even 30M (shortwave) was crowded. 20M had less activity, but for the first time ever I heard someone calling CQ on 17M. They even got a contact. They were in Alberta, booming in to Texas, with 1200W and a three element yagi pointed at south america.
Some guys in Florida were running 1400W and were crazy loud on 40M.
—-
Started a load of laundry so as soon as I can move it to the dryer, I’m hitting the hay.
I’m going to have a piece of coffee cake with my decaf coffee from my fire time…
That should put me in a sleepy mood.
n
Run away! Run away!
– social security numbers can be re-used iirc, so there might be some instances where it’s a second person and not the original person still receiving bennies… but probably not 100K of them…
n
@Nick
You are incorrect on reuse of SSN.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14403575/hermes-ceo-walmart-birkin-bag-earnings-call-axel-dumas.html
You only get to buy a $14,000 handbag if you have already spent $200,000?
I wouldn’t know a Birkin from a merkin, and the latter is probably more useful.
https://www.ssa.gov/history/hfaq.html
Q20: Are Social Security numbers reused after a person dies?
A: No. We do not reassign a Social Security number (SSN) after the number holder’s death. Even though we have issued over 453 million SSNs so far, and we assign about 5 and one-half million new numbers a year, the current numbering system will provide us with enough new numbers for several generations into the future with no changes in the numbering system.
I thought that SSNs were reused also.
Sadly, only Barry Gibb is still alive at 78 years of age. The twin brothers passed away early at 53 and 62 years of age.
Ha.. Ha.. Stayin’ Alive, Stayin’ Alive.
er.. I will also let myself out..
They have already used nearly half of the available (9 digits, so 1 billion). If they respect the region coding, they will never be able to use all of the numbers.
The SSN numbers are so small that you can just make up a number, and have a good chance of it being valid. Which is what lots of illegals (and other criminals) do. Which messes up the lives of random citizens. The numbers need to be replaced.
A decade or two ago, Switzerland fixed similar problems. Our SSNs used to have region and (iirc) birth year coded in. Now, they no longer have any tie to personal data and are now much longer, making guessing basically impossible. Also, they are never used for identity, only for things that actually have to do with your retirement (work contracts, etc.).
One obvious reason for many of the ancient SSN recipients is data entry errors. It just takes one clerk typing in a birthday of 1865 instead of 1965 to give us a 160-year old SSN recipient who’s still alive. This type of thing will probably account for the majority of the recipients who are well over 100 years old. There will also be fraud – people whose death wasn’t reported to the SSA. It will take a thorough investigation to separate the errors from the frauds, but it’s just about time we did that.