Hot and humid. Slightly cooler to start but plenty hot later. The national forecast has Houston near the edge of the possible T-storm and rain area, and that usually means we won’t get anything, but with the storm in the Gulf, who knows…
If you are in the path of Idalia, take precautions and be sensible. Most readers here should be well prepared and only need a few last minute tweaks and refinements… right? Let us know how it goes for you, and of course, how you make out. It looks like you’ve got time if you need to do something more.
Spent yesterday morning doing computer and auction stuff. Spent the afternoon and evening going through my big storage unit. I needed to put the stuff from my show away, and pull a bunch of stuff for the local auction. It was hot in the sun and there isn’t any shade at the U Store It. It was actually cooler inside the unit compared to the sun, but not as cool as the shade with a breeze. Late in the afternoon there was a 3 foot strip of shade from the building that made all the difference. I kept at it until dark because it got cooler every minute after dusk. I figured that I was already hip deep in it, and tomorrow would just be hotter anyway….
I’ve got 4 big black bins, and several flip top bins ready for the auctioneer today. I’ll get out of the house, pick those up, and drop them off later. If I could be 100% sure we wouldn’t get any rain, I would have loaded the pickup truck last night, but even with a tarp, stuff will get wet if it rains. Seems like it always rains when I have stuff in the back of the truck.
One of the things I decided to send to the auction is a copy of the Big Berkey water filter. Robert didn’t care for them, and I never saw the point, so the one I picked up some time ago at the goodwill will find a new home. It’s almost a Berkey but there are small differences. Since it’s not something I plan to use, might as well have someone that wants it, get it. I’ve got sawyer minis and other backpack style water filtration, chemical treatment, and other filters for improving taste. It’s tough to let go of stuff like this though, the temptation is to keep it ‘just in case.’
That temptation can lead to hoarding though. It’s a constant danger when prepping. I figure that as long as I’m not saving my urine in jars, I’m ok, but there is always the question of how much is enough, and what is not worth keeping.
Take a good look at your preps. Have your needs changed? Has your situation changed? Would you be better served by getting rid of something and making room for something else? Or does it make sense to free up some cash to make more useful or more appropriate purchases? It’s easy to coast. OH how easy. But it’s necessary to stay engaged and actively work to improve.
Stack some things, but look for other things that you might not need, or might be better off getting rid of. If it improves your position, that’s a good thing.
nick
drwilliams, see if a local makerspace wants the resistors.
So, breaking house to move halfway across the country is a less than amusing exercise. I’ve spent the last month boxing and boxing and boxing. The wire, hard deadline, is a week away and I haven’t even started on the kitchen or dining area. Fortunately, in an apartment, the kitchen is rather a cooking closet, but even so….
In the meantime, boxes are stacked every which where making home navigation difficult. Stacking it high has a price. Now, I’ve been planning casually for a move since I moved in, 19 years ago. Kept the shipping cartons for the flat screens, kept a small supply of U-Haul boxes, etc. I’m still getting Amazon deliveries for plastic storage containers and banker boxes today thru Friday.
The U-Store-it locker at the new place is going to receive rather more from the miscellany that has accumulated in the hidden corners and forgotten shelves of this place. And I keep finding books when I thought I’d boxed the last. 😛
Just a thank you to the ‘hive’.
I have struggled with McDonald’s touch screens; with a VERY high failure rate of my touch actioning anything. I was out and about the weekend just gone, and breathed on my fingers before using the touch screen. Probably got about 90% success rate, which is way above historical use. So again, thanks for the discussion and options.
Current Apple interfaces, particularly the iPad, are directly influenced by the work of Mike Okuda, who isn’t an engineer by training.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewF5hbJXMtE
Spoilers for the third season of “Picard”. The “Red Barchetta” set is one of the production design triumphs of the year.
It was a bit cooler this am, but no actual coolness on the breeze. Clouds and lavender sky made for a pretty start to the day.
Made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I’m trying to find anything that the kids will even eat for breakfast. They’ve never really had much interest, and I have a feeling the ‘teen’ thing is kicking in too. So different from my own childhood. ‘course we ate a LOT of sugary cereal.
n
Local companies submit wishlists of projects they would like our students to tackle. Students have to do practical projects in the course of their degree. For companies, it’s a gamble: time invested plus a fairly cheap fee, and they get whatever students produce. Which is sometimes amazing and sometimes…not.
This time, nearly half of the projects have something to do with ChatGPT. For example, specializing it with company documentation, to provide a knowledge source inside the company. The successor to an internal Wiki? All internal uses of various types. I suppose they want to try it out and see how often it hallucinates, before turning it loose on customers.
Yes, the hardware would be expensive. But you can just pay a monthly fee for someone else to run the LLM for you. Like shared web-servers – they can share the same hardware over many different customers.
@drwilliams – re: electronic components
You might contact one of the QRP radio clubs, like 4 States or the St. Louis QRP Society ( a great bunch of guys). They make kits of parts available to hams who want to build their own radios.
I know SLQS has a guy who curates their “junk box” collection. If you can’t find contact info, I can dig it up.
Before Houston, I lived in the St. Louis area.
The requisite GPU hardware is in extremely short supply so AWS, Azure, et al are going to charge accordingly for sharing.
Every GPU vendor who isn’t already in the game is exploring their options, even fringe players who serve mostly overseas markets.
All aboard the bandwagon!
Or maybe, as Greg often says, Hot Skillz!
A thought for the day:
When liberal people make anything, they show a lot of themselves in it. A novel or a movie will show their angst and their problems finding their place in the world. Even if they design a kitchen appliance or a web app, they’ll make sure to express themselves in it.
When conservative people make anything, it also shows a lot of who they are. It just works.
– ISIS linked trafficker. WHO THEY KNOW ABOUT and yet is able to infiltrate people into the country.
This is one of those stories I expect to see once, then disappear, like the aliens with the big stainless steel tank.
n
Hah. Concisely put.
Someone on HackerNews wrote that, nowadays, it was nearly rude to not include your pronouns in your email signature. I commented that I have never, ever seen anyone do that – not even my college students. The replies from US techies (HackerNews is mostly US) said that about half the people in tech companies now include their pronouns in their email signatures. Apparently, it’s pretty accepted practice.
I think doing something like that is unprofessional. It is either a political statement, or they are airing their personal issues. Neither has anything to do with their jobs.
What are y’alls experiences – especially @Greg who is/has worked in tech companies? Is this weirdness now normal in the US?
5400/2920
average of twice a day.
The National Archives won’t give them up without a court fight.
When we get them it is inevitable that there will be people other than FJB sending to and copying to the pseudonyms. Good chance there will be indications that some of those people had direct access to those. Accounts. Also good indications that they had communications among themse lves .
Take that short list and squeeze them hard. Nuts on the anvil pounde d flat and revoked federal pension after felony conviction looming over them.
First one that turns and delivers the good gets immunity.
No I never see it. What’s really rude is some woke a-hole scolding everyone else.
btw – y’all would would be a great pronoun
My employer’s HR department – staffed 100% by woketard women, and overstaffed by at least 100% so they’re always looking for a way to look busy – encourages us to put pronouns in our email sig blocks, Slack names (not even the profile page, but the displayed name), and so on.
Amusingly, even though they can’t provide a list of acceptable pronouns because it’s ever-evolving, “Pure/Blood” was not acceptable because it was intended to make people feel bad, or whatever the stupid child who called me was whining about. She never did manage to make a definitive statement or explicitly ask me to change it.
Where I currently work, pronouns in emails are not common, even among HR people. I think I’ve seen it once.
Large US tech companies, in general, however, are woke thanks to pressure from the large institutional investors, but I believe the US has reached “peak woke”.
A Disney Bankruptcy Court filing – not impossible before the end of the year BTW – combined with losses in either their Federal (plaintiff) and State (defendant) court cases against the Florida Governor – again not impossible – would be a huge wake up call to the C-suites to at least cut the rectal-cranial insertion antics involved in p*ssing off half of the potential customers.
Dontcallmelatetodinner
Spent the last hour polishing and touching up some cowboy boots for the auction. I cleaned and conditioned them a couple of nights ago.
It’s worth it to spend a little time on some boots that might bring $75 -$150 a pair. Oh, and some ladies Ferragamo pumps. They don’t take much, and most of the time I just hit them with some conditioner in clear, but I had a couple of pairs that would benefit from a brown polish, and the ladies shoes needed a couple of black areas polished to improve the scuffs.
Sometimes with the cowboy boots, I’ll touch up the leather paint on the “leg” part of the boot if it’s worn in places. I have the same leather paints the shops use. I picked up a shoebox full at a sale. I usually have to mix the color, but I did a pair of kids that were an exact match for a stock color- really bright red for the last auction.
This auction, two pairs of nice Tony Lamas and a Rios of Mercedes vintage handmade pair. One of the Lamas is ele phant, which always does well. The full quill ostrich Luccesse’s do well too, and I didn’t have to touch those.
I took the opportunity to touch up a couple of my pairs too, while I had the stuff out.
Now I need to get out of the house and make the delivery. They aren’t open any earlier anyway.
n
I work for a fortune 500 company. Our company has fully embraced wokeness and the required email signature template includes the use of preferred pronouns. I’ve only seen one or two people who actually do it though.
In other news, my son (college sophomore) let me know he has been accepted into the co-op program. Interviews will be in October.
“may issue” if you have a “good reason”
And even “I carry lots of cash and work alone at night, and don’t want to be killed” isn’t good enough. Neither is “I testified against some gang bangers and now they want to kill me.”
Get out of Cali.
n
(something isn’t quite right here, because most licensed security can get permits as armed security, although I haven’t looked at it in Cali.)
– Hollywood has been a shitehole for decades. I used to say that the three lies everyone believes are that Hollywood and LA have – blue skies, a beach, famous people walking the streets.
The powerful and authoritarian South Coast Air Quality Management District has actually gone a long way toward regaining a blue sky, but the others remain lies. And even the “normal” person in LA or Hollywood is far from normal. The weirdest kid from every town in America moves there, finds out that in comparison they aren’t that weird, and has to get even weirder and more extreme to even get noticed.
I worked right there, just off Hollywood and Vine, and one of our guys witnessed someone chasing a boy prostitute down the street, shooting at him repeatedly in the early hours of the morning. It wasn’t somewhere you’d want to be after dark.
We shot dystopian commercials in downtown LA because of how filthy it was, and decayed. We had a homeless guy sell us back one of our production radios for a couple of cigarettes… and the rats were as big as cats. There were blocks and blocks of tents even back then in the early 90s.
n
Well, someone put it online, https://vimeo.com/21610158
There is a lot of what I worked on that made the cut and is clearly visible in the ad… Maybe I’ll show the kids.
n
added – and the date of the distant future? August 28, 2021!
n
another link for my benefit
https://thefincheranalyst.com/commercials/1993-coca-cola-blade-roller/
You got a problem with “yusen’s”? I am offended. I will now go to my corner and color my feelings, no black or white crayons allowed.
Ah the rich vibrancy…
Man, nothing says “Britain” like a carribean festival complete with gangs of “youths” hacking at each other with machetes… and it’s a community that loves the popo…
From the photos I guess the event organizers don’t have to provide trash pickup or receptacles…
n
Getting back to computing interfaces, I want to mention two.
My all-time favorite is Alt+Tab, AKA the Task Switcher. This originated in Windows 2, and has lived on with only minor modifications through at least Windows 10. It is a piece of simple brilliance, and has been copied successfully and unsuccessfully in other user interfaces. This article is pretty comprehensive, but I think will confuse new users:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-Tab
This article is much better:
https://www.howtogeek.com/429223/master-windows-10s-alttab-switcher-with-these-tricks/
I first learned Alt+Tab when I got Windows 2.1. It was necessary to switch back from a full screen app that didn’t recognize the mouse. I immediately started using it to do all my task switching, and have continued to today. Some Linux distros I wanted to try didn’t support this, so I would not even bother to try them.
BTW, for mouse fans, there is a similar function using the taskbar, IF you have put links to apps on it. It is kinda interesting, but I hate to reach for the mouse. Try it and see if you like it.
My second favorite is the CUA (Common User Access) standard developed by IBM. It has been implemented by a variety of computer interfaces, including Windows. This is a high level description:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access
There are probably better articles, but I can’t seem to find one just now. I have used CUA for so long that it is second nature.
I think as much as possible in a UI should be user configurable, but it should also come with reasonable defaults. More work for UI designers and programmers.
As Nick pointed out, the most popular UIs have not changed for a long time. Maybe that is good, especially for long time users. There should also be experimental designs that could someday revolutionize how we work. I don’t see those much.
Some guy in Seattle being culturally enriched…
– Organized violence with a racial component. Oh, right, nothing to see here, move along.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12457059/masked-men-Seattle-taze-rob-daylight.html
Just to be clear to y’all and y’usens, I identify as a heterofocal bisexually aware natal-masculine individual. You are forbidden to refer to me as ‘cis’ anything, and my pronouns are bro and bruh.
We need a study on how white supremacy led to this.
In Spanish, my pronoun is “Vaquero”, por cierto.
Last night Nick mentioned Android and its differences from other operating systems:
Most users will never have to think of a ‘file’ on their phone, or use the file manager.
I think this is a bad idea, and possibly @brad agreed with me in one of his posts about new programming students a few months ago. I do manage files on my Android phone. I have used a few file managers, but the one that came with my latest phone is mostly good enough. I use it particularly to access files on computers on my LAN. It is a bit primitive, but I have been too lazy to find something better. I will admit that I have never figured out the Gallery and some of the other virtual (?) utilities.
I also still get very confused by music players that require their source material to be present in some sort of special place. Give me control over that.
I also hate the idea of special folders, such as the Windows “Documents” folder and many others. I have done my own file organization, and can move the whole tree to another computer easily. I want to be free of those special folders, and don’t even mention “Library” folders. A file or folder should just be a file or folder. If some “designer” wants this for some perceived need, PLEASE provide a way to get rid of it easily.
I swear I remember a bit in the old Fake Steve Jobs blog about “Steve” doing something similar to get permits for Moishe and the Commandos, his personal security detail.
I guess if anyone asks, I should make up some really offensive pronouns. How about Exalted and Sir?
From the “Things that make you say Hmmm…” department:
The local HEB has been stripped clean of most Coke products in 2L sizes for three days.
We have the Fancy Lad Griddy Customer neighborhood directly behind the store that probably skews the sales numbers in favor of Curbside, but that doesn’t explain completely stripped for this long, regardless of the time of day when we’ve stopped.
I know Labor Day on the rivers is coming which turns the big lakes and various waterways between Austin and San Antonio into giant floating cocktail parties, but this is a bit early for stocking up on “mixin’s”.
Why? Because anal orifice is already taken?
My father used to use “Meathead”, on everyone. My uncle used “Numbnuts” on everyone.
Did all of the Mentos also disappear?
Fixed it for you. Having done so myself in Canyon Lake and The Comal River.
That would only explain Diet Coke or any other product with aspartame.
About 10 years ago, I saw half a dozen variations on that experiment at the “Science Fair” in Vantucky trying to maximize the height of the resulting geyser. I think “Mythbusters” ended the experiments by publishing a definitive way of maximizing the height by powdering the Mentos using a medical grade crusher.
Well there is this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6OrlRjKMA
Back in the 70s my wife worked with a gal from Tejas. Heavy accent ( I called her Dallas Alice – thanks Lowell George). Most of the time people out here would give her a bad time by mocking her with y’all back but never one to take much crap she’d come back with “well y’all out here always say you guys”. She was of course right. Odd too but we had that twang all around us, it just wasn’t that unusual. The okie migration came as much from Texas as anywhere.
It was about 1988 or 1989 on a business trip I coerced my coworkers to take me to Hollywood so I could visit a store selling Magic and Juggling equipment. I think it was near Hollywood & Vine. I bought my first (and so far only) set of juggling clubs that day.
I was surprised when the local contingent at JPL told me under no circumstances to remain in the area after dark. Less surprised once I actually showed up. Dirt, filth, and prostitutes everywhere.
Same business trip we visited Rodeo Drive. I would have bought a souvenir, but I couldn’t even afford a knickknack, let alone any of the clothing.
Speaking of LA, and of the Hydrogen power discussion the other day…
On our way back to LAX at the beginning of the month, we drove by a hydrogen station a couple blocks from LAX. Lots of local delivery vehicles filling up. Not a great area, even during the day.
LOL. “Oh, myyyy”:
George Takei revels in the Left’s cancellation of Alice Cooper for DARING to stand up for kids
Nobody cares what a dried-up, old fag, has to say.
Alice Cooper still rocks.
Tell me the gays aren’t groomers.
Heh. I use numbnuts all the time.
“Tucker Carlson: Biden Committed ‘Biggest Act of Industrial Sabotage in History’”
https://slaynews.com/news/tucker-carlson-accuses-joe-biden-of-committing-the-biggest-act-of-industrial-sabotage-in-history/
“Tucker Carlson has called out the hypocrisy of the green agenda being pushed by Democrat President Joe Biden and his administration.
Speaking during an interview with Hungarian leader Balázs Orbán in Budapest, Carlson warned that the Biden admin does not actually care about the environment.
According to Carlson, this was proved because the same “global warming cultists” were behind the “biggest act of industrial sabotage in history” by blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline.
“The Biden administration blew up Nord Stream,” Carlson said.
“First, it was the biggest act of industrial sabotage in history,” Tucker added.
“Second, it was the largest manmade CO2 emission in history.”
Well, maybe, but
That does not lend him much credibility. The pipeline was not carrying CO2.
– – – – –
Regarding Android and files: I haven’t looked into it in any detail, but there are some odd security measures. Things I access via apps don’t always stay around.
I mentioned the other day that my 2019 Ram 1500 was best described as a “rolling iPhone”.
I was borrowing a post driver from a neighbor this morning and he happened to be working on his early 60’s MG, and he showed me the fuse box.
Four fuses. Two of these are spares…
“Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s brutal message to remote workers refusing to come back to the office: ‘It’s probably not going to work out for you’”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-brutal-110229474.html
“Amazon CEO Andy Jassy seems to have run out of patience with remote workers refusing to come back to the office.
The return to office issue has been a problem plaguing some of the biggest businesses in America, with companies from Meta to Disney and Starbucks all wrestling with workers who want to hold onto their pandemic-era flexibility.
Unfortunately for Amazon’s executives, summoning staff back to the office has been particularly controversial.
And after being hit with everything from criticism to staff petitions, it seems the Amazon boss has reached the end of his tether.”
Wow.
I mentioned the other day that my 2019 Ram 1500 was best described as a “rolling iPhone”.
I was borrowing a post driver from a neighbor this morning and he happened to be working on his early 60’s MG, and he showed me the fuse box.
Four fuses. Two of these are spares…
Lucas electrical system. A rolling ready to happen fire.
Someone on HackerNews wrote that, nowadays, it was nearly rude to not include your pronouns in your email signature. I commented that I have never, ever seen anyone do that – not even my college students. The replies from US techies (HackerNews is mostly US) said that about half the people in tech companies now include their pronouns in their email signatures. Apparently, it’s pretty accepted practice.
I think doing something like that is unprofessional. It is either a political statement, or they are airing their personal issues. Neither has anything to do with their jobs.
What are y’alls experiences – especially @Greg who is/has worked in tech companies? Is this weirdness now normal in the US?
Very unprofessional and I rarely see it in my customer base.
However, a lawyer that I temporarily engaged a couple of months ago told me that I am way too conservative for current society. And she was in Florida, another red state.
If you sit wrong in a chair for too long and don’t pay attention how your underwear binds you can actually have numbnuts. And numbfeet. 🙂
At a business meeting on Long Island I heard a local say “youse guys” like one of the Dead End Kids would say.
I belive it was The Shat who let it slip recently that George Takei only made $60k total for three seasons of “Star Trek”, essentially a glorified extra.
I clearly remember Takei doing the Asian Stepen Fetchit routine on “Black Sheep Squadron”, and he gets dubbing credit doing the same schtick in various Japanese monster movies in the 60s .
What’s not being said by the C-suites is that they want to see the White and Asian men back at the office full time while giving everyone else a pass. Of course, that would be illegal even here in Austin.
Corporate America has known the truth about “work” from home for nearly 20 years. I don’t have a job at the Death Star anymore in part because the big companies stopped paying for VPN development.
Well, he was an extra. Back then 60 grand was decent money.
I always liked Chekhov. He seemed smarter than Sulu.
Corporate policy at GTE was for us to not stop within 45 minutes of LAX for anything. It was the one airport where we were allowed to return a rental car running on fumes even if we omitted the advance charge for the gas.
And this was 30 years ago, after the Contel buyout and before the Verizon takeover.
“What’s not being said by the C-suites is that they want to see the White and Asian men back at the office full time ”
Oh, you mean the folks that actually do the work?
Season Three of “Picard” establishes canon as Chekov’s son becoming President of the Federation circa 2401 – a bit of a stretch in time/lifespan, but I’m sure Terry Matalas wanted that Easter Egg.
You’ll also see the last resting place of James T. Kirk if you pay attention and watch on an HiDef TV.
Review of a book I will not finish. It was 99 cents on Amazon. I used a promotional credit, so free. No spoilers, since I didn’t make it far enough to have any to reveal.
“To Sail the Purest Sea: Revised Edition” by Mark Mitchell. This is Book one of a series, with no other books yet available. I purchased the Kindle edition. I do not know if others are available. Publication date was June of this year.
Blurb: An English warship and captain from 1813, and a U.S. destroyer and captain from 2036, find themselves on what is apparently a barren planet. They face a severe survival dilemma, but that will prove to the least of their challenges.
Sounds like a setup with some promise, like maybe a different take on the Dahak stuff by Weber crossed with Riverworld by Farmer.
I made it through 4 chapters before giving up. There are limits to my willing suspension of disbelief, which is required for science fiction. I couild take the mystery of how they got there, I could take the premise that neither group of sailors could figure out what was going on, I could take the stilted dialog between the two ship captains, on the basis that there was much to cover in the 200 year technology gap.
I could not accept the open-mindedness of the early 19th century Royal Navy captain, his acceptance of the huge changes in societal norms, his willingness to accept competent women in leadership roles, OK, I had trouble with the stilted dialog, too. And even with the extended explanations the modern captain gave, the gaps were tremendous, and the RN captain kept up without fail. Consider using “torpedo”, “guided missile”, and “submarine” without explaining them.
But eventually I figured out what bothered me the most. The author, I assume, meant to offer homage with a hat tip to Heinlein by naming the modern warship after one of Heinlein’s.
But even Google knows better than calling it the “Roger Young”. It took me about an hour after first reading it before I realized he misspelled it. If you’re going to reference someone awarded a Medal of Honor, spell his name right.
I won’t post this review on Amazon in hopes this is a first novel and the author will be encouraged to improve. But I also am pretty sure I won’t revisit this book, not even to skip to the last chapter to see how it all worked out.
“I will never vote for Biden because he persecutes pro-lifers” by Timothy P. Carney
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/i-will-never-vote-for-biden-because-he-persecutes-pro-lifers
“I won’t vote for Trump if he’s the Republican nominee. I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020.”
“But I also will not vote for Biden. I didn’t vote for Biden in 2020, and after his first 31 months in office, I’m even less likely to vote for him.”
“I’m pro-life, and I don’t think any pro-lifer, if acting in sound mind and clear conscience, can vote for Biden. Biden has made it clear that he thinks pro-lifers are outside the bounds of acceptability and worthy of prosecution.”
“Look at the ridiculous failed prosecution of Mark Houck. Houck was a pro-life protester who was harassed by an abortion volunteer for protesting outside an abortion clinic. After the Planned Parenthood volunteer chased Houck and his son down the sidewalk and shouted, “Why don’t you go home and masturbate? Go be with your pedophile priests,” Houck shoved him.
“This man, Bruce Love, was notorious for taunting and fighting with pro-lifers, which violates Planned Parenthood policies.”
“Love brought charges against Houck, but local prosecutors refused to press the case, probably because it was obvious that Love was the instigator and Houck’s shove was not a crime.”
“Biden’s DOJ, however, made a decision that it would try to hunt down and charge every pro-lifer it could plausibly charge with violations of the Fair Access to Clinic Entrances Act.”
A vote for anyone but Trump is a vote for Biden.
Right now, there isn’t any such thing as an “idle” Nvidia H100 or A100 GPU system, the hardware of choice for AI. Every single one on a production floor is committed to a customer, and even pre-production samples are getting hauled out of labs and put into service.
“Credit cards are flashing danger signs for the economy”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/08/credit-cards-are-flashing-danger-signs.html
“A couple of weeks ago we had to spend an unexpectedly large amount on repairs to one of our vehicles. Not a problem, financially speaking: we had a reserve fund adequate to meet the need. However, I dislike carrying around large sums of cash, so when I went to collect the car, I paid by credit card. So far, so good: I’ve done that before any number of times. However, things have changed. When I pulled out the card, the nice lady at the counter informed me that there would be a 3% surcharge if I used a credit card. When I protested that there had never been such a charge before, she pointed me to a small, unobtrusive sign on the door stating that the dealership was using a new credit card processing firm, and that they, not the dealership, would charge the 3% fee. Since I had no alternative if I wanted to drive myself home, I paid, grumbling loudly.”
I typically pay 4.5% on credit card transactions several times a month. People typically use reward cards now so the credit card fees are approaching 5%.
Several of my foreign customers use credit cards to get around the capital controls in their countries. Otherwise, they have to go to their bank, buy US Dollars, and send those to me via the SWIFT system. Which, is a high cost and moribund system that the USA uses to punish people with.
If you are only have to pay 3%, that means that the vendor is probably eating 1 to 2% of those charges.
Pro-life. Pro-choice. Whatever. The language is getting so twisted and it’s by design.
Ok, in my pointy head, if you want to have an abortion, fine. Your body, your choice. You’re adult enough to get with child. It’s your call to have the baby. For real. If there is something wrong with the baby, like ultrasound showing the baby is too defective to survive birth, terminate.
Just don’t act like I’m the bad guy because I think of you as a murderer for using abortion as birth control.
If someone happens to kill someone else, that’s murder. Yes? But if the someone is pregnant that’s a double murder. However, having an abortion is ok. It’s not logical to me.
A charge by a consumer at an auto shop will generate more useful data for transaction mining than a customer sending money to buy your software. Even if the dollar amount is smaller, the information value is much more. Sad but true.
Maybe the blogger stopped for gas afterwards. Got something to eat. Maybe bought a shirt …
Beer and diapers was a landmark correlation at Walmart.
Or, as I saw the first night of liquor deregulation at Fred Meyer, the Kroger nameplate in WA State, Jack Daniels and kitty litter.
Yeah, I’m still scratching my head about that one. I wish I had thought of taking a picture.
The local feed store adds 3% if you use plastic. Any plastic, Discover with 1% cashback or running the Frost debit card where I need to enter my PIN. Writing a check is fine. Takes about a week to show up on my account versus using debit and it shows in about 15 minutes.
I don’t have a problem with the feed store adding the merchant fee. A convenience fee….. hey, $6 on $200 of feed is almost enough for lunch at What-A-Burger. I can scrawl out a check.
If the Redumblican Pary had a brain and a spine, they would be laser-focused on a Jesus candidate. But, the Redumblican Party is completely fractured. It will take a miracle to come up with someone better than tRump. That’s not saying much. As far as I can tell, only tRump has a chance against plugs. Kennedy is helping by primarying plugs, but K is a wannabe tRump.
To me, there doesn’t seem to be a Redumblican Party. Maybe it is best to burn it down and start over. The debates are a joke. I can only hope plugs assumes room temperate, The Kamel is in, and nothing gets done. A complete roadblock in Congress is better than four more years of plugs’ puppet masters.
Both my adult grandchildren have used their copies of my credit card in Europe and I have seen the fees added on. But that has been very few, so I am not upset about it I haven’t seen any around here yet.
If the Republicans were smart, McCarthy wouldn’t schedule a floor vote for a replacement VP should Biden die before January 20th, 2025.
Forget tradition.
“Federal revenue falls $416 billion from this time last year despite passage of IRA”
https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/revenue-down-416billion-compared-time-last-year-despite-passage
“Budget experts say the revenue raising portions of the IRA still haven’t taken full effect and when they do, the cost of the law’s energy tax credits will likely drown them out. The projections for interest rates – already at a 16-year high – may further doom the IRA’s success.”
Sigh. Every time the feddies add new taxes, the amount of tax income goes down. This is a known fact.
And all the taxes added by the IRA were excise taxes. New taxes on fossil energy, etc. And then you factor in that all of the tax credits in the IRA were for wealthy people buying very expensive EVs or building useless wind turbines, the IRA cost way more than it brought in. The latest estimates are $1.2 trillion cost for the IRA.
Hey! Pattern recognition is a crime in Weimar America!
I suggest posting a milder form of what you wrote as a review, with a 3-star rating – 1-, 4-, and 5-star ratings are the most common, with the 2- and 3-star reviews often getting more attention because you neither loved nor hated the product.
As well to be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb. He should have given Love a serious injury, like a broken jaw, if he was going to do anything. As it was, he committed an offense which could be criminally charged and civilly tried by either the government or the supposed victim. Better would be to spray him with pepper spray for his threatening words and actions, or even to stop suddenly and let Love bump into him and then “defend himself”.
I mentioned the other day that my 2019 Ram 1500 was best described as a “rolling iPhone”.
I was borrowing a post driver from a neighbor this morning and he happened to be working on his early 60’s MG, and he showed me the fuse box.
Four fuses. Two of these are spares…
I would agree with you about Lucas, but A has gone through and replaced almost all of it. I think it is all negative ground now as well.
Today’s job was an aftermarket radiator fan shroud btw. MG’s in the Ca. desert run warm in traffic…
The people whose jobs are not protected by hiring quotas and tax incentives, whether or not they do any work.
When I worked at CGI, the only reason the office remained opened was that the tax breaks provided by several layers of government covered the shortfall of any revenue generated there from the “work” activities in the building. The tradeoff, however, was that virtually no one was allowed to telecommute because the city and county tax breaks were tied to people actually being on site at least four out of five business days, going to lunch and running errands locally.
Dropped of my bins-o-stuff at the auctioneer. Found an extra pair of boots to include, Larry Mahan, vintage lizard… I’m hoping 4 pairs of boots brings in $300-400, but since I don’t have any Lucchese in this bunch, it’ll probably be less. Even Tony Lama exotics don’t do as well as Lucchese…
Which is funny because I can’t get my foot in Lucchese, even if it’s the right size. The last doesn’t fit my foot.
n
@Nick
When you have to work to “figure it out” it’s a good indication that the user interface is shiite.
eBay just revised the way their seller page displays on some phones, making is flocking worthless in that it only displays the LH column, so you can’t see what’s been sold which is on the right. Take the programmers and every one in the approval chain, throw them in the former programmer pit, and ventilate thoroughly. Highest use is compost.
When MS came out with Excel a lot of things were different from Lotus 1-2-3, and a lot of people didn’t like it. It got improved and probably peaked 20 years ago, and they’ve been headed downhill ever since. Excel and Word are on the “alternate release” program aka New Diet Coke for Apps–odd releases screw things up, and even releases make them better. Not as good as they used to be, but enough to give people some relief.
Reflecting on you sun problem at storage, I’d suggest you look into a sunshade tarp. I rigged one years ago by fitting two attachment points inside the rollup door and two masts for my truck. The rear one attaches to the ladder rack on the topper. The front one is a 1’x2′ piece of ¾” plywood with an 8′ 2×4 screweded to the corner and braced with two triangles. I have a mark on the pavement in just the right place to position it correctly. I lay it down parallel to the direction of travel, pull the truck up so the front left wheel is “right there”, stand it up, and roll the truck forward so the tire is on the plywood. Beats the heck out of working in the sun.
“When I pulled out the card, the nice lady at the counter informed me that there would be a 3% surcharge if I used a credit card. When I protested that there had never been such a charge before, she pointed me to a small, unobtrusive sign on the door stating that the dealership was using a new credit card processing firm, and that they, not the dealership, would charge the 3% fee. ”
My first question would have been “And how does the credit card company feel about that?”
Then I would have told them that they didn’t inform me when I brought the vehicle in, and I’d be interested in seeing the size of the sign at the drop-off desk.
Finally, I would have said I’d be happy to pay with a credit card and eat the fee, as soon as they brough me the box with the replaced parts.
Kumquats.
Excel on Windows 2.0 was terrible in terms of performance compared to the DOS-mode competition, particularly Borland’s Quattro. When I worked at the Egghead Discount Ponzi, the one copy at each of the stores went out about once a week, and, when ours came back, I had to re-shrink the box, which required a lot of creativity to make it look “new”.
One time, the copy came back into the store with the shrink apparently intact, cash purchase/refund. The next time the box went out, the customer was back in the store within an hour, showing us how the previous buyer had replaced the contents with Tampa phone books cut to fit the box.
“Your body, your choice.”
Fine with me, up to X weeks and we can debate the X.
But where does the “then I have a right to get taxpayers to support me and my baby” come in?
Who’s the father? Don’t know? Give us the list of possibles and we’ll interview them all and swab for DNA–yeah, they all get to see the list. Sudden memory improvement ? Yeah, happens a lot.
So, Mr. Big Stuff, about making those support payments. No job? We have a program for that. Sign here that you understand. You don’t make payments you go on the list. Second baby and no payments, we give you a 3″ plastic tube and your junk goes in the freezer to make sure there’s no Number 3*. Why, yes, we do take credit cards.
*This is a variation of the “Stay out of trouble in prison” program, where thid time violent offenders get to watch their prize part get removed from the N2 and dropped on the concrete floor.
Ah, the eunuch treatment.
I suggest posting a milder form of what you wrote as a review, with a 3-star rating – 1-, 4-, and 5-star ratings are the most common, with the 2- and 3-star reviews often getting more attention because you neither loved nor hated the product.
I have only been able to DNF (did not finish) one book in the last 30 years, I usually finish incredible dreck. It was the 5th or 6th book in a series by Lisanne Norman. I gave her two stars.
Beer and diapers was a landmark correlation at Walmart.
So that is why the beer and diapers are next to each at Walmart. I have wondered about that correlation.
If the Redumblican Pary had a brain and a spine, they would be laser-focused on a Jesus candidate. But, the Redumblican Party is completely fractured. It will take a miracle to come up with someone better than tRump. That’s not saying much. As far as I can tell, only tRump has a chance against plugs. Kennedy is helping by primarying plugs, but K is a wannabe tRump.
To me, there doesn’t seem to be a Redumblican Party. Maybe it is best to burn it down and start over. The debates are a joke. I can only hope plugs assumes room temperate, The Kamel is in, and nothing gets done. A complete roadblock in Congress is better than four more years of plugs’ puppet masters.
If the repuglicans had their choice, they would run Romney again. The current head of the GOP, some woman who I never heard of before, hates Trump with a passion. That will go over well in the primaries.
I will vote for Trump again and again. All I wanted was a conservative SCOTUS justice. I got three of them. He kept his word on that campaign promise.
I work for a financial institution in San Antonio that keeps the wokeness under control. A few co-workers have pronouns on the LinkedIn but I’ve never seen one in an email.
They did do a pride post though. That surprised me as there was nothing internal related to it.
>> Even here, I wonder if there are readers who never see comments because it isn’t clear that you need to click on the daily post headline to go to another page, that looks just like the one you left (if my post is long enough that it fills your screen) and then scroll down for comments. Divemedic’s got the same issue at his place. He’s also got the added issue that his ‘# of people that read this’ counter only counts people that click thru to the second page, with the comments.
@RickH – any thoughts on an easy fix?
We need more people to send SteveF a dollar
>> Lynn; That’s literally twice the house that mine is, so it’s obviously worth twice as much as I paid for mine. Nice place! I’d say I was jealous, but …. I’m not.
I like the mother-in-law house man cave / workshop by the pool, that is nice.
FIFY
>> My other thought was to advertise on the local Freecycle for a group to donate to, but getting 100 “I’ll take ’em” emails from bottom-fishers who resell free items and have never given anything away…
Things of little value to me, but of ‘some’ value to someone go to the curb with a “Free” sign with indication of what’s of value, e.g. “Shower stool – Aluminum frame” or “Half inch plywood – 6 ft x 1 ft.” Usually gone in one or two days.
Things of some value, but not good eBay items, get listed on NextDoor, with a note that any non-profit org has first dibs, and if one shows up they get the item for free. Anyone else pays a few bucks.
Anything else goes on eBay.
On my laptop, the comments are right under the latest post. On a smaller screen (I looked at the iPhone 12/13 simulator in Firefox), the comments are right under the posts, just after the blue box that tells you the number of comments.
If you go to the ‘home’ page, you see the last 10 (-ish) posts. No indicator of comments (hadn’t noticed that). I usually go to the day’s post – or find the latest comment I haven’t clicked on, and go from there. Then use the ‘next day’ link at the end of all comments to read the next day’s post, which includes comments afterwards.
So I suppose that there might be a need for a button or link under each post to get people to the comments if they start at the main page (which lists only the last xx posts). Will cogitate on that.
Rick, on the main page how about
(37 comments)
as a link at the end of each daily post’s text?
>> I’m still getting Amazon deliveries for plastic storage containers and banker boxes today thru Friday.
Did the banker boxes come in a box?
For our last move, my wife used most of my collection of ‘saved for eBay shipping boxes’ for the move 🙁
That’s where I am headed. Need to figure out a filter to easily add that. I’m sure there is one.
If you are referring to Ronna McDaniel, she is Ronna Romney McDaniel. Of course she hates Trump. She is Mittens’ niece.
I am going to vote against Trump in favor of DeSantis in the primary unless some Kenny Boys emerge in the next six months.
DeSantis will put Barbara Lagoa on The Court.
I always start at the main page, and I suspect others do too, at least once a day. On my phone, the comments are down NEAR the bottom but not AT the bottom so scrolling to get there involves some hit or miss, and sometimes a LOT of scrolling.
Page load stats should show if people are entering on the current post or the main page…
Is there a url for the current post, that isn’t the URL for the page wordpress assigns? Like an alias?
n
>> Made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I’m trying to find anything that the kids will even eat for breakfast. They’ve never really had much interest, and I have a feeling the ‘teen’ thing is kicking in too. So different from my own childhood.
Soon enough she will discover Starbucks.
>> ‘course we ate a LOT of sugary cereal.
Ahh, the good old days, when they still had what it takes to call Corn Pops as Sugar Pops.
>> Even if they design a kitchen appliance or a web app, they’ll make sure to express themselves in it.
Worked once with a talented UI/UX designer who wore all black to the office every day, down to his socks. Never asked if his undergarments followed suit.
Ask ChatGPT! It’ll find you a plugin or write one for you. Of course, it may end up specifying a couple of dependent plugins which don’t exist, but as George Washington said, that’s the price you pay.
>> What are y’alls experiences – especially @Greg who is/has worked in tech companies? Is this weirdness now normal in the US?
I “retired” before this became a thing, but if I was still working I was thinking Quisp and Quake would have irritated the HR woke-sters.
Regarding comment count shown on the main page after each daily post:
I actually tried Bard first asking for WP code to get me started. It came up with a non-working version, so I asked it for corrections, and the third try didn’t work either. It was syntactically correct, but was not handling the post ‘object’ correctly.
So I asked ChatGPT (3.5) and it came up with the correct working code the first time. I adjusted the question to ask for a link to be included, and that worked also. I slightly modified the code, and just installed it on the site. You’ll see the results on the ‘home’ page of this place.
I could have come up with the same answer – eventually – asking the googles/bings/ducks. But I sometimes find a more thorough answer on the first answer that the Bard/ChatGPT comes up with. And the AI answers are faster than slogging through ‘old-fashioned’ search results.
Of course, I make sure the code works on a test site. Usually does, although I add tweaks to get it to work how I want. But the answer is usually good enough to get me started on a solution.
I’ve found the AI’s to be helpful when researching topics for my writing projects, such as explaining something that I am not quite familiar with. That also usually works well. Gives me answers faster than the normal search engine results.
I don’t use the AI’s to do the actual writing, though. But it is sometimes helpful for plot ideas.
Speaking of writing projects: I’ve been working on a new series in the ‘thriller’ genre. Have three books done and in the final editing process. Working on covers, blurbs, and starting the marketing plan. Along with updating my author web site and preparing it for the release of the book.
Still have not finalized the covers. But am getting close. Plus, I have an idea for book number 4. I plan on releasing one book a 30-45 days apart initially. That gives me three months to finish book 4.
My pronouns are none. Do not refer to me.
My pronouns are LGB/FJB.
My pronouns are I/me. As in, “I spoke to Steven this morning. I said that I would have the work done ten minutes after you give the numbers to me.” I came up with this a few years ago, when the nonsense first got started. A few people attempted to follow my stated preference but I think that they were doing it mostly as a joke, not treating me with the serious and respect I deserve and demand.
Nice!
Yep, it’s there and it works.
I had three classes based on Sipser’s “Theory of Computation” across two grad programs. Every time I saw the lower case epsilon in a state machine diagram in the book, I thought of this cartoon:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Then-a-Miracle-Occurs-modified-from-4_fig1_322096243
Epsilon is “Step Two”.
Super Sugar Crisp! FTW!!!
@rick, the comment count displayed and the link took me to the beginning of the day’s comments. Score!
n
S&W M&P 5.7 SERIES
https://www.smith-wesson.com/products/mp-5-7
OK, I am a little tempted. I am wondering if this 5.7×28 mm has an easy rack ?
22 in the mag is very interesting.
I have never seen the ammo but I will look the next time I am in Academy.
I have acquired most of my guns via “private transactions” over the years. I get the feeling that this gun is so new that nobody will be trunking it yet.
Da cone of Hurricane Idalia.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT10/refresh/AL102023_5day_cone_no_line_and_wind+png/234234_5day_cone_no_line_and_wind.png
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Ol’ Drudgie, he likes his cones.
I had three classes based on Sipser’s “Theory of Computation” across two grad programs. Every time I saw the lower case epsilon in a state machine diagram in the book, I thought of this cartoon:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Then-a-Miracle-Occurs-modified-from-4_fig1_322096243
Epsilon is “Step Two”.
I love that cartoon.
@Lynn
“I have only been able to DNF (did not finish) one book in the last 30 years, I usually finish incredible dreck.”
I reformed a long time ago. With self-pub without editing, it makes no sense to continue if you’re not engaged in the first twenty pages, or perhaps 50 if you have a strong recommendation.
When a new series comes out from an established author I often wait for the third book before taking it up. This worked for Black Tide Rising (thankfully a short wait) and kept me from completing The Aeronaut’s Windlass and having to wait eight freaking years for the sequel. The last time I got irretrievably hooked on the first book and anxiously awaited each installment was The Imager Portfolio.
The Safehold series lasted four volumes for me. Your point about it being a long-winded rehash is spot on.
I had to read a lot of things in high school and college that were not dreck but effing tedious. I would reread Salinger if someone paid me, but otherwise not. I was thinking the other day that I should try Intruder in the Dust just to see what the separation point would be now. I don’t see any point in rereading Shakespeare, or Chaucer, or W.E.B. DuBois or Kafka, but that would be better time spent than a lot of modern dreck that is supposed to be arty or meaningful. I haven’t read Dick Gregory’s autobio since hs, but enjoyed it at the time and would read it again.
No way I’m going to read modern racial excusivism in any flavor. My reviews would be consistent: Once again an author has attempted to justify crapping in their pants as an important revelation that must be imposed on everyone and worshiped. Nope.
>> (something isn’t quite right here, because most licensed security can get permits as armed security, although I haven’t looked at it in Cali.)
You seem to be correct:
@RickH
Thanks again for the mod, and continuing thanks for keeping the place running.
Anyone start a pool on how long it takes for someone to post something like: I never knew this part was here!
But… but… The title was a Bad Word ™!
I am going to vote against Trump in favor of DeSantis in the primary unless some Kenny Boys emerge in the next six months.
Kenny Boys ???
@SteveF
Just a meme about having a round in the chamber.
You know they did! 🙂 And I filled it too. The “Sterilite” gasketed storage boxen are shipped in cardboard too. Filled ‘em. Emptied drawers and ⅔ of the base cabinets in the kitchen. That will give me a stack it here spot which is sorely needed. I’m pirouetting too much.
Had my next to last ½ day at work, cleared more items from the off site storage and dragged the box deliveries inside. Somehow, my phone went missing. Looked around where I’d been at home without success. Retraced my steps somewhat by returning to the work site where there is a phone to call mine. Called the off site storage place. No joy. Found the blessed thing under the box delivery at home after all. Pheew.
As in Ken Lay, “Kenny Boy” to Shrub.
I’m sure DeSantis has a few benefactors he owes for getting this far, but the question is how much he owes them.
Bush 43 was the nominee by January 1999 without much vetting. That can’t happen again.
DeSantis came out of nowhere to upset the Bush’s family chore boy, Adam “Opie” Putnum, who was supposed to get the FL Governor’s Mansion as his reward for being the point man on the immigration bill in the 2000s.
Opie was our Congresscritter when we lived in Florida. I always voted Libertarian.
@SteveF
“But… but… The title was a Bad Word ™!”
True Story:
About 15 years ago a bookseller acquaintance of mine offered for sale on eBay a very nice first/first of the book.
eBay removed the auction and gave him a bad boy strike, despite other lesser copies being listed at the time. This was probably due to a report from a rival wanting to mess with him, but rather than seek a reversal he simply took the book, packaged it with a copy of the eBay letter and the backstory , and sold it elsewhere at a nice price, getting satisfaction and denying eBay a cut.
In the intervening years the mindless bots on eBay, Amazon and elsewhere have become totally insane.
Ha!
The Road to Serendip runs past my back door.
Found a home for the resistors.
I did exactly that, if you’re referring to the comments. I’d read all of Rob’s posts (years worth, not sure how many) and then found comments… I lost about 3 weeks re-reading the posts and then the comments.
I’ll admit I read his posts without reading comments for years too. I’d decided that online comments were so full of stupidity and ill will that I avoided them everywhere. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the comments here WERE the content and the ongoing conversation was interesting and educational.
There are very few places out there that still have open comments that haven’t degenerated into a swampy mess.
I’ve very glad we are what we are.
And if you are a long term reader, I encourage you to join in and contribute when you can!
n
On the prepping front, I completed repairs to the backup vehicle. I don’t like depending on just one, and a head gasket will not heal spontaneously.
There are very few places out there that still have open comments that haven’t degenerated into a swampy mess.
I’ve very glad we are what we are.
Amen and Amen.
Tuesday’s gifs
https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2023/08/tuesdays-gifs_01181269541.html
#2 with the left out mouse is hilarious !
That has got to be a joke / hat-tip by someone at S&W. The FN 5.7 cartridge is basically a souped-up .22WMR: 22 .22mags in the mag.
The 5.7 is also prohibited to us plebes in the country where it was invented….
RickH, thanks for de-obfuscating the comment area. Hopefully it won’t attract (more) riffraff.