Wet and cool, then damp and warmer… or pouring rain with flooding streets. IDK who to believe. It would be nice if it wasn’t pouring down. We started yesterday with some misty drizzle, and ended with threatening skies, but in between we even saw some blue sky and sun. The streets even dried off for a while. Seems a shame to get wet again…
I hit the Costco for a replacement TV and then headed to my client’s house. Got the physical change done expeditiously. Then I started chasing issues. Turns out there was a lot of damage from the nearby lightning strike. The main switcher lost an output channel. That’s a new card for the cardframe. Lost the video output from a Denon home theater receiver. That makes about 4 times we’ve had that particular failure following lightning. Lost a PoE switch in the attic. Again. I’ll be replacing that today and then seeing if we lost the attached WAPs … He also lost a control board for the pool filter system, and the keypad system for the driveway gate.
Lightning is hard on gear. We’ll have more failures over the next couple of months.
I was able to fumble my way through the IDE and make the control programming changes to integrate the new tv and to work around the blown output channel. Imagine my surprise when I finally figured out that the new sony/googletv doesn’t have any IR input for the remote control… it’s bluetooth linked. Most of our control system is still based around IR emitters for each piece of gear. I had to get TCP control set up, turned on, and configured both in our control software, and on the TV. Got it working but it was a pain in the azz. Some was my fault (assigning a fixed IP that was already in use, and getting the gateway wrong) but some was a bug in the IDE that saved a random IP instead of the one I entered.
Brief digression… programmers. Oy. I’m entering the target IP and the form is error checking me so 192.168.10. errors and turns the whole entry red. 192.168.010.040 is ok. Which I guess is fine, except that from then on, every place the IP is displayed, it’s 192.168.10.40 and not the full dotted quad… that was in the IDE. The sony guys suck too. When I got the gateway wrong on the TV, it filled up the whole network trying to connect and phone home, kicking all the other devices off line.
Ok, back to now. I’m headed to D2’s school in the morning to do some more sound work, then the store to buy a new switch, and then to my client’s house to install the switch. I can do that in minutes and I’ll see if we need to replace any of the WAPs. The gate technician will need internet at the gate to do his repairs and testing, so it’s important to get that back up before he gets there. The WAPs can be replaced next week if needed. Then it will be a pickup or two, and home.
I think I’ll head to the BOL on Saturday as the weather is supposed to clear by then. I don’t think I’ll be able to mow while I’m there, but I gotta make the effort if I can. I’m taking the giant 460w solar panels up there. I think I’ll try to install a system on the dockhouse, so that airconditioner won’t cost me money all summer… (yeah, apparently there are TWO panels in the lot I bought. 940W total for a couple hundred bux. Sometimes you get a great deal in the auctions.) I probably won’t head up Friday after doing the pickups because the kid has something Friday night.
Busy day today. But hopefully I’ll move a couple of projects forward. And maybe I’ll find time to stack something.
nick
Is there any branding on those panels or even a sticky note?
First! Slackers.
Aw, not first….
65F and the ground is mostly dry. No overnight rain. Dunno if that means we get clobbered during the day, or if the weather moved past us. Open weather map says… we will 100% get rain this early morning, and again later in the morning, and then what looks like misty drizzle after that. And they say rain on Saturday as well. Radar map looks like stuff is blowing almost due north out of the Gulf of America, in patches.
Someone is going to get rain. Might be us.
—-
coffee, then food and shower. Then it’s a race to fit every thing into the day.
n
By the markings on the box, these are the panels.
https://www.amazon.com/SUNGOLDPOWER-Bifacial-Monocrystalline-Efficiency-Household/dp/B0CTQ8TH43?tag=ttgnet-20
About this item
n
It appears that gravatars have returned
I went online to 23andme and deleted my account data. At least I think I have. With no oversight they could be lying. Since they are going bankrupt and closing who knows what will happen with the data. I suspect health insurance companies would really want that data so the insurance companies could deny coverage or charge higher rates if some health issues are found in the DNA. The realist part of me says the insurance companies already have acquired the data through underhanded deals.
Man up and down weather only 55F, overcast, and chance of rain. So we’re going to the coast for a three day weekend.
and the ghost gravatar reappears
Ditto for Billy Jack. Lately all I get from 23 is an upsell.
Bifacial solar panels!
Heck of a deal. Consider using them as a north/south privacy fence in a vertical orientation. They run cooler, will last longer, be less exposed to hail damage. And you don’t have to climb on a roof toinstall them.
Gravatars, eh?
How do you get one?
Tuesday I installed the Eufy base station and the inside camera that has pan and tilt. The camera will tilt and pan to follow a person. A little weird. It took me a little while to get the schedule correct so that the camera is only activated during certain hours. The app and system is quite flexible and with that comes the tediousness of getting all the settings correct.
It took me two tries as I first just did the camera with local storage, not what I wanted. I had to delete the camera from the app and add the camera back into the system but this time connected to the base station. This camera is wall powered as it is indoors.
Today I installed the camera over the driveway and the garage. The video is really high quality, supposedly 4K and it does look that way. This camera is battery powered with solar recharging of the battery. The camera is mounted high enough that it takes a ladder to reach it. There is also an anti-theft option which I guess disables the camera if it is moved too far from its current location.
Next, I have to decide on the location for camera placement over the patio and the pool. I may install two cameras to cover that area. The initial installation will be just one camera. I have to figure out some way to mount the camera without drilling into the new metal pergola that we installed. Maybe a block of wood, painted white, and cable ties to fasten the block of wood to the topmost rail.
That will leave one camera that I will mount to monitor the basement apartment entrance. I need to find a good location.
Then I will be done. The video images are stored on the base station on a SSD drive. The quality is better than I was getting from Arlo or Wyze. The solar recharging is a plus.
So far the system is working well and the initial impression is that I would recommend the system. No paying monthly fees for storage like many of the other systems. The other systems may be cheaper but they get the money back in monthly fees. I paid a little over $700.00 for the system which included the base station, four outdoor battery cameras with solar recharging, and an additional indoor camera.
Gravatar.com
I did the vampire thingy today and donated blood. I have been donating blood three times a year on average since I was 18 and in the USAF. I started with one of the blood drives on Langley AFB. I think I am up to approximately 21+ gallons donated over my life span. It is amazing watching that bag fill up that the human body can lose that much blood and still function.
Very unique 2/2.5/15 (estimated) house for sale three miles south of my house:
https://www.har.com/homedetail/9702-surrey-ln-richmond-tx-77469/2527183
No HOA, no city, probably take the sheriff an hour to get there.
I love it. The garage / shop is bigger than the house (1,800 ft2 out of 4,000 ft2).
I may buy this place to move WinSim to. I am checking on deed restrictions right now. My wife is freaked out.
There are only five of us in the office and my wife, the office manager, is mostly remote since she takes care of our daughter. I can slam up a couple of more offices in the 4,000 shop with another air conditioner, add more gravel or asphalt to the driveway, and Bob’s yer uncle.
Gravatars? An interesting concept!
And there I am!
Home from my travails…
I started at kid’s school, did my thing there. Stopped at the electronics store on the way to my client’s house. Grabbed a new switch and poe injector. Needed both in the attic. Once I’d replaced both I had blinken lights again.
Then it was off to do a very time limited pickup, and a little bit of backtracking for the second stop. But I got a dust collector that will work with the special bags I bought in another auction to suck up and remove the old insulation in my attic. I’d pay someone to do it, but there is too much to work around and I don’t want to spend time moving it. This way I can piecemeal the job, shifting stuff around as needed.
Soon I’ll be getting the other kid from school, but I need some caffeine first.
n
We’ll try the gravatars again, and see if we have comment form issues… lot of moving pieces in the comment mechanism here, with several plug ins doing their thing.
n
Haven’t had much rain. I got a few drops in various places around town, but no evidence of the openweathermap.org forecast here at the house.
Still threatening outside, but no downpour.
n
added– just looked at the radar… all day cells have been passing us to the east, but now some small cells are headed right for us. should arrive any minute in fact… just touching Sugar Land.
n
And the rain came, and went. Sun is peeking out of a partly cloudy sky. That might be it for bad weather and Houston.
n
Really quiet today, is there an issue with comments or the site?
n
Windows 11 updated a few things. Now I can see this machine in Explorer from Moa but can’t connect. I can see Moa from here but it wants a username and password.
I don’t have usernames or passwords on my PCs. So until I figure this nonsense out…. hopefully I can still sneaker-net via USB sticks.
On the bright side I now have Co-Pilot in Notepad. And I turned that off.
Even brighter, my HEB credit card has increased my limit. I thought $4000 was more than enough but they bumped me to $8000.
It’s just quiet today.
That’s because of the Gravatars.
An 8.2 quake in Burma, wow.
I doubt if my garvatar will show, I didn’t get a successsfull build.
Not what I expected.
A while back Duck Duck Go had a plug in for Firefox that could tell you where “an annoying thing” on a website came from and then block it. A manual ad blocker. Then if you wanted, you could add it to your HOSTS file to block it. Block the stuff in e-mail, too. Block the stuff before Adblock Plus is involved.
I stumbled across how to make your own adlist for Pihole. Ok. I’ll use my HOSTS file and have that stuff blocked across the entire LAN. Then clear my local HOSTS file.
The directions said to place your file in /home/user on the Pihole. I can’t figure how to do that. Then update Gravity to import your list Duh. I cheated.
I put my adlist, myhosts.txt, at https://remsset.com/files . That works. Come to think of it, using Filezilla to put the file on the Pihole should work.
I have Adblock Plus turned off on almost all sites I visit. I use it to block elements on Zero Hedge and make the site legible.
Yeah, zerohedge is horrible without an ad blocker. DM too.
n
Those gravatars really change the look of a page.
n
I’m living the long shadow of Elon this week. I think I had three hours of sleep last night.
Is the Pihole system running the GUI system or command line Linux?
This one slipped by me when it happened. Another victim of the pandemic circus in California.
That sucks because Felix was the real deal when it came to Cuban food, something which is very rare outside of Tampa and South Florida.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/orange-cuban-restaurant-closure/3498367/
I did the vampire thingy today and donated blood. I have been donating blood three times a year on average since I was 18 and in the USAF. I started with one of the blood drives on Langley AFB. I think I am up to approximately 21+ gallons donated over my life span. It is amazing watching that bag fill up that the human body can lose that much blood and still function.
We are just machines like air conditioners with refrigerant. Except we self replicate.
And congrats on the blood donations. They won’t take my blood since I was about 48 or so.
Those gravatars really change the look of a page.
Yeah, they are very distracting to me.
I had a three hour meeting with a commercial real estate agent and broker today. The agent dude is a friend from church and does both residential and commercial. The commercial broker dude was kind and gave me his honest opinion, that I was so high over the market with my price targets that he would not be willing to list my two commercial properties at this time. He has expenses too, his cost to list a commercial property is about $5,000 with about $400 a month of recurring charges. So he said either get real or wait a couple of years and see how the market goes.
I asked why are so many properties are listed for what I thought are market prices. He said that none of them were selling.
He also said that there is a big difference between residential and commercial. The residential agents are mostly weekend workers. The commercial agents are sharks and all are looking for good deals for themselves first.
He also said that the Fort Bend County Tax appraisal office is changing all of the farms around here from residential to commercial and has the farmers hopping mad so they are selling their properties and retiring. This is what happens when one elects a crooked county judge like we have.
My son wants me to put FSBO sign out front with “14 acres For Sale” and my cell phone number. I may do it.
“Why xAI Acquired X (According to Grok)”
https://discernreport.com/why-xai-acquired-x-according-to-grok/
“On March 28, 2025, Elon Musk announced that xAI, his artificial intelligence company, had acquired X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction. The deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, accounting for $12 billion in debt carried over from Musk’s 2022 purchase of Twitter for $44 billion.”
“This acquisition marks a significant step in Musk’s vision to intertwine his ventures, leveraging X’s vast user base and data to accelerate xAI’s mission of advancing human scientific discovery and understanding the universe. But what drove this bold move? Below, we explore the key reasons behind xAI’s acquisition of X.”
“1. Access to a Massive Data Trove for AI Development”
Interesting. Musk just made it legal for Grok to read the entire contents of X.
“President Trump Doubles Down: “We MUST HAVE Greenland, It’s Not a Question of Can We Do Without It, We Can’t””
https://100percentfedup.com/president-trump-doubles-down-we-must-have-greenland/
WW III is coming and we need another unsinkable island aircraft carrier.
Hmm. Google Street Views wants to do a 360 degree inside view of my main office building. Is this for real ?
“Federal Law Prevents Alaska from Shipping Their Own Natural Gas”
https://www.independentsentinel.com/federal-law-prevents-alaska-from-shipping-their-own-natural-gas/
“Alaska faces an impending energy crisis as natural gas supplies from the Cook Inlet, which powers over 70% of the state’s largest electrical grid, are dwindling. Experts predict shortfalls as early as 2027, with recoverable gas potentially running out by the mid-2030s.”
“The Jones Act prevents Alaskans from shipping their own natural gas within the state. Federal law requires it to be shipped on US-made LNG tankers, which they don’t have.”
“LNG tankers haven’t been made in the US since before the ’80s. They can be made for millions less in Europe.”
“Meanwhile, they are running out of natural gas in a state filled with natural gas.”
Sigh.
Copy “ Google Street Views wants to do a 360 degree inside view of my main office building. Is this for real ?” into the Duck search bar and you get some relevant links.
May be legit–check the link carefully. But unless you’re looking to have customers visit it’s probably a waste of time.
Great burglary tool, though.
Copy “ Google Street Views wants to do a 360 degree inside view of my main office building. Is this for real ?” into the Duck search bar and you get some relevant links.
May be legit–check the link carefully. But unless you’re looking to have customers visit it’s probably a waste of time.
Great burglary tool, though.
Wow, that sucks !
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9532887,-1.2213785,3a,75y,92.4h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMCKyfdWRmjC9lhU6gD3uHyiPGhqt8pkquVU3sH!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMCKyfdWRmjC9lhU6gD3uHyiPGhqt8pkquVU3sH%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya95.34091-ro0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656?authuser=0&entry=ttu
“Europe Braces for War as the E.U. Urges Citizens to Stockpile Food in Latest Provocations With Russia”
https://thelibertydaily.com/europe-braces-war-as-e-u-urges-citizens/
“The EU warns 450 million citizens to stockpile 72-hour emergency supplies, citing war, cyberattacks, and climate threats.”
How about 72 days ??? 72 hours is a joke.
Yeah, like a war would only disrupt food supply for a couple of days.
Another step on the path – start to prepare the citizen mindset. Extreme nationalism should be starting up too.
Then a casus belli and we’re off to the races…
n
Yeah, climate threats really suck.
“Hey, nice hickory tree you have there. Shame if it got 25°C for a week followed by a week of freezing rain. ”
If you think you get low ball offers from commercial real estate agents now, just wait until the general public sees the FSBO sign.
I speak from experience having first posted our lot in Florida as FSBO on Zillow. I eventually settled for a conventional real estate listing/agent.
Not all of the phone calls/emails were freak shows. I went around a price with a spec builder for about half an hour once the potential buyer realized that I understood all of the numbers involved with putting anything on the property as well as his need to still see “meat on the bone”.
Columbia Prez Buh-Bye
https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2025/03/28/columbia-president-steps-down-n2410637
What’s next for Katrina as rumors of recruitment by public tv swirl…
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2025/03/28/this-is-war-trump-takes-an-axe-to-government-unions-n3801273
“Yeah, we upgraded computers to Etch-a-Sketch and 57% of those working from home didn’t notice for a week.”
Passed in 1920. Over a hundred years ago.
This is a complete failure of Alaskan politicians – and the people that voted them into office – to prepare for the foreseeable.
Maybe just a one percent smaller check from the Permanent Fund Dividend for the citizens, and a tanker built before it became an emergency?
This is a complete failure of Alaskan politicians – and the people that voted them into office – to prepare for the foreseeable.
Maybe just a one percent smaller check from the Permanent Fund Dividend for the citizens, and a tanker built before it became an emergency?
They also need a LNG Liquefaction plant on the North Slope (currently cost of $12 billion).
And a LNG Vaporization plant at Anchorage (only $2 or $3 billion).
I suspect that it is cheaper to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Anchorage. But that would disturb the caribou.
At some point, people say “F the caribou, I’m freezing and my kids need to eat.”
If the politicians don’t do a Ghandi and get out in front of that, they’ll get steamrollered.
n
>>He has expenses too, his cost to list a commercial property is about $5,000 with about $400 a month of recurring charges.
@lynn, what are those, MLS fees?
>>He has expenses too, his cost to list a commercial property is about $5,000 with about $400 a month of recurring charges.
@lynn, what are those, MLS fees?
Pictures, brochure writing, etc. The commercial websites charge $200/month per listing.
https://www.loopnet.com/
https://commgate.com/
https://www.cbre.com/properties
https://www.har.com/ charges a flat fee per year for all listings. He said $200/year but I may have heard him wrong.
>>“Federal Law Prevents Alaska from Shipping Their Own Natural Gas”
https://www.independentsentinel.com/federal-law-prevents-alaska-from-shipping-their-own-natural-gas/
“Alaska faces an impending energy crisis as natural gas supplies from the Cook Inlet, which powers over 70% of the state’s largest electrical grid, are dwindling. Experts predict shortfalls as early as 2027, with recoverable gas potentially running out by the mid-2030s.”
“The Jones Act prevents Alaskans from shipping their own natural gas within the state. Federal law requires it to be shipped on US-made LNG tankers, which they don’t have.”
Uhh, Pete’s kinda in the doghouse right now…certainly he can be “persuaded” to sign a wavier?
>>Pictures, brochure writing, etc.
$5K to shoot some pix and write a blurb? Sounds like a racket to me.
Hmm, hey @Ray, want another side gig??
>>$5K to shoot some pix and write a blurb?
And the AI monkeys should be able to do a write-up if you feed it the photos…
>>Copy “ Google Street Views wants to do a 360 degree inside view of my main office building. Is this for real ?” into the Duck search bar and you get some relevant links.
Looks like you can also DIY. Big Brother is everywhere…
https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7012050?hl=en
It won’t be long before code enforcement uses the inside pix to F with people. Or they’ll outsource it to Karens.
n
One thing the realtor will do is meet with people and talk to them on the phone. If you are doing anything at all with your life, outsourcing that part of the selling process is worth the fees. People sux…
n
>>$5K to shoot some pix and write a blurb?
And the AI monkeys should be able to do a write-up if you feed it the photos…
Here is a typical brochure with pictures, blurbs, marketing data, etc:
https://resolutre.com/flyer/069Ns00000KJ3I1IAL/1233_Crabb_River_Road.pdf
Saw a really nice original condition Ford Galaxy 500 today. No side marker lights, so pre-1967 iirc. Very little rust, and looked like original paint.
Mom had one when I was little, with the ragtop. Those headlights and those taillights are epic.
n
@Nick, what the heck is your gravatar ?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1BNWpZ
She should be wearing one of these…
https://gettrumpwatches.com/
Typical “soccer mom” job. Mostly an excuse to socialize. Actually selling properties is more of an accident. FWIW, it’s no different here, except that you get guys doing it too, thinking it’s easy money. There are good ones, but they’re rare…
Meanwhile, here, we can’t even get Google Maps to put our street on the map. I’ve submitted the correction a couple of times, and the street is at least 10 years old. It’s like they surveyed the area (rural Switzerland) once, and figured that was good forever.
It’s tiresome having delivery drivers get lost.
Three days of food, they want people to have. I’m not a prepper, at least not in Nick’s sense, but I cannot imagine I have ever not had three days of food on hand. Who doesn’t have some cans in the pantry, some pasta, some stuff in the freezer and fridge?
That said, Van der Leyen is a total fruitcake – it’s like she *wants* a war. Maybe she does, since it’s a great way to distract from all the EU’s internal problems. Of course, in an interview, she laughed off the idea that her sons would ever be on the front. It’s one of the things I like about Israel’s tactics: they go after the enemy’s leadership. Leaders would be a lot more reluctant to promote war, if they knew they would be the first targets. Putin, for example, needs a few cruise missiles through the Kremlin’s windows.
Good. Unions for government workers make zero sense.
>>@Nick, what the heck is your gravatar ?
Umm, @nick after winning an auction lot for a gross of fluorescent markers??
W T F’in F is going on??
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14549559/Delta-near-miss-Air-Force-jet-Reagan-National.html
This is the best season of “Succession” yet!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14543333/leaked-yemen-war-plans-hegseth-trump-waltz-kennedy.html
My gravatar is me. Halloween from 2021, under a blacklight.
It is garish. I asked my wife if she could recognize me based on the pic, and she said no, then wondered why I wanted a pic of real life me when I could use anything… IDK, feels right to me.
n
I will admit, it’s extra special garish.
I should have been in bed hours ago. I’ll make up for that oversight now…
n
“Xfinity: You’ve used all of your Internet data included in your plan”
“You’ve used all of the 1.2 TB (1229 GB) of data included in your plan for March 2025.”
“You can continue to surf and stream, but please be aware that you’ll now be charged $10, plus tax, for each 50 GB of data you use this month, up to a maximum of $100.”
And my home internet just maxed out for March 2025.
Three TVs. Two computers. One computer running remote to the office.
Now I have to decide if I want to go to INFINITY AND BEYOND for another $30 per month. I am paying $80 + tax per month for 300/100 mpbs at the house right now.
That’s 1200 two hour movies at 1080p. The three of you aren’t watching 40 movies a day … right?
I’d start with the bandwidth monitor on the home router and do some analysis of the traffic.
If you have the cable company’s default router/modem combo with the usual cr*p statistic gathering options, I’d suggest buying your own modem and running a separate router offering detailed analysis tools like an Asus model I use.
Keep the sales receipt for the modem someplace safe. Comcast gets grabby with hardware connected to their system unless you can prove it is yours.
Some particularly chatty IOT household member? Neighbors kids hacked in?