Cold and damp, still. We had misty drizzle off and on all day yesterday, but we are supposed to be dry today. I hope so. I’ve got stuff to do. The cold and damp hurts in many places…
Despite the drizzle I did a series of pickups yesterday. Made a big loop and returned in time to get D1 from school, only about 40 minutes late. She says she’s fine waiting at school, just does her homework.
One of the pickups was a new seller, and when I went in I was surprised to see one of the old sellers… he’d sold his auction company to a guy who is continuing to run the business, and now he’s consulting for this new seller. The new seller has capital and an interesting idea to expand, it will be something to watch for the next few months. There’s a bunch of change in the online reseller marketplace at the moment and I expect more. I think the next logical step will be for the big money to start buying up mom and pop businesses and expanding to take advantage of economies of scale. It happens in most industries, so why not reselling? I’ll be looking for it, not looking forward to it.
Today I’ve got one pickup I’d like to make and one I should make as long as I’m out. The first has some stuff I’d like to use in my display. The second has some stuff for the stacks…
Then if it isn’t raining, I’ll be doing a blitz to get my main display ready. It’s always a bit of a rush but that’s part of the fun. If it continues raining, I’ll just add some more traditional stuff and save my idea/art project for next year. We usually have about 120-150 kids come by, and I have a great time doing it. Meatspace! Plus, CANDY!!
Connect with some people, preferably local. Chat with your neighbors. Take a walk around and see who has decorated… Call it local area intel…
And stack, if you DARE !11!!! /vincent price voice
nick
Oh, no! Friday the 13th falls on the 31st this month! And it’s a Tuesday! Who knows what deviltry we’ll see tonight???
drwilliams, thanks for the notes on the “scales lab”. I never learned that in high school chemistry and I’d guess that the college chemistry prof thought that we already knew.
I’ll run through that lab with The Child and optional other kids sometime… sometime after I get my scales back. And assuming that they weren’t trashed after having been used by high schoolers for a month or two.
My high school chemistry (and biology) gear was old, worn out, and insufficient. Students had to triple-up for most labs and sometimes there was only one of something like distillation apparatus so the teacher did the lab and the students filed past to look at the flask or whatever and write down the measurements, then do whatever computations. The triple-beam balance scales in particular were very bad, lacking in both accuracy and precision. We could put an item on the pan and get the weight, then run the sliders to 0 and do it again and get vastly different results. The teacher said he understood the problem but all he could tell us was to weigh three or five times, throw out outliers, and take the average.
But the football and basketball teams got good equipment and new uniforms at least once a year, so there’s that.
Congratulations @Jenny.
We just celebrated a 26th wedding anniversary.
Tonight’s retro cultural event is “Rocky Horror” at the local Alamo Drafthouse.
Earlier in the evening, we have a neighborhood Halloween party where we will be straight in order to avoid frightening people. Roof replacement will probably dominate the conversation, however.
Everyone on the street is getting a new roof after a hail storm at the beginning of October.
Some of the houses around here are moving on 100% financing deals with trusts involved. Has anyone else heard of this?
Despite the interest rates, people are still really house horny in Austin, particularly for rental property.
It is a place to live, people, not an investment.
Yeah, they can run on the margin, but all it takes here is about 10 minutes of hail to undo a lot of schemes. My insurance company put a check on the table for about a third of what we are going to have to pay to get our storm problems resolved.
Ah, I was thinking explosion, flames and parts everywhere.
44F this morning with wet ground… Heavy overcast but no rain is falling at the moment. That bodes well for doing more decor.
Got my full bill for the CT scan I had, chest and pelvis, with and without contrast media. Fake inflated number = $11,300 Fake discount to insurance = ~$9000. Insurance company payment $1200. My amount due $1200.
Keep in mind that getting the “calcium study” which is a chest CT scan looking for arterial plaque only costs $150, which is paid entirely by the patient. IE the “cash price” for a scan which includes the radiologist reading.
10%, 20%, 10% with some rounding… My guess, the actual cost plus profit is $120 per scan. Insurance pays 10x, and I pay 10x, ( or think of it as they paid for the chest, I paid for the pelvis) and everyone but me drives home in a $70K Mercedes.
Still, not complaining much, as I got all the imaging and care within a couple of weeks, and the delays were mostly due to 3-5 days before an appointment stacking up across multiple offices. It’s the lying that bothers me.
n
all it takes here is about 10 minutes of hail to undo a lot of schemes
– insert hazard of your choice and that is true almost everywhere. Tornado, hurricane, flood, heavy snow… train derailment, low income housing development…
n
At $120 the guy making $15 an hour without insurance can pay the tab. Add a zero and he can’t.
If a gas station owner puts the price up a buck after a hurricane, he’s accused of gouging. Actually, he’s just an amateur.
Pretty sure this said “creepily whispers” yesterday…
Joe’s fright night! Biden whispers in the ear of a young boy and Jill dresses as Willow the First Cat for a VERY rainy White House Halloween
n
@SteveF
I was very fortunate. My chemistry teacher had his doctorate and knew how to teach.
The calcium study is still unconventional and the validity of the results the subject of much debate among cardiologists.
Give it five years and the scan will be a $2000 test billed to insurance.
In Florida, pre anti-gouging laws (thank you Charlie Crist), the “gouging” price reflected the cost of getting a truck of gasoline into the area from the closest available refinery barge port or the pipeline depot running through Georgia and Alabama.
The end effect of the laws is that only two gas stations in Central Florida now reliably have fuel after a storm, and those outlets are the sole exemptions to the “gouging” laws, tested by court decisions interpreting statue very narrowly.
I call a house a bad savings account. You have to live somewhere. If it makes sense for someone, owning at least gets you some money back versus rent. In theory, I’m up over 200k in equity since we purchased (with 20% down). Of course, that’s money I can’t access unless I sell. And no, I don’t do home equity loans, especially in this environment.
Rentals are a different story, but the circumstances have to be right to make money. I would bet most who do it, don’t.
LOL, Apple. They had their “Spooky” M3 chip event yesterday.
After all the “best chip, laptop, company, EVAH!” schlock, they made the stunning announcement that will make your buy a MacBook Pro M3 faster than gas out of Mr. Ray’s colon:
It comes in SPACE BLACK! That’s right, it comes in black. LOL!
Back to you, Tim.
PS “One more thing…” there was none.
No MacBook Pro 13″ with the old touch bar and a fan. They know that would cannibalize the sales of the 14″ and 16″ inch, regardless of color.
Much more than $1200 for an “Apple Silicon” laptop is p*ssing away money unless you really need that specific platform for a reason. The machines are now designed for a lifetime of 7-8 years before being thrown away.
I have shop towels that are older than that.
Me too. Computers too.
If I ever get truly fast Internet, I might want a faster computer. My old refurb HP Xeon “workstation” does everything fine, and only cost $350 delivered.
For comparison, my wife’s new-ish i5 Dell notebook, purchased new from Microsoft on a black Friday half price sale, is a bit slower, especially on heavy disk operations. She thinks it is adequate. This is where I am obligated to say I hate notebooks, with their small screens and crappy keyboards.
I watched the Apple event. Very underwhelming. The machines may be fast, but very few people need that kind of speed. People creating 4K movies with lots of CGI such as studios need a lot of power. I doubt they are using laptops. They might now as the M3 Pro Max supports 4 monitors, three at 6K and one at 4K.
For us mere mortals the ability to calculate that spreadsheet in 3.999999 seconds rather 4.000001 seconds is not going to be a big change in our lives.
What is amazing about the maximum configured M3 Pro Max ($7,200) is that it has more memory and storage than all four computers systems at the bank I worked for in 1981 to 1988. I doubt that the Mac can drive 56 disk drives, 24 tape drives, three 24 pocket reader sorters, five high speed line printers, two card readers, 26 ATM’s, and a couple hundred teller terminals. Several of the units all operating at the same time. Most of the programs involved all ran in less than 40K of memory. There would be 15 or so programs running at the same time, some swapped out to disk if memory got short.
I am actually quite pleased with my M2 Air (16 Gig, 1 TB) as it performs very for all my tasks. I have not found anything that makes me want for a bigger and faster machine. Such machine now considered to be on the very low end of the Mac lineup.
I am also pleased with my Surface Laptop 3. It has 8 gig of memory and only a 256 Gig SSD. It runs very well and runs all the programs that I need. I took the Mac on the trip rather than the Surface because of the integration between the Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Based on the Apple dog and pony show, I feel no compelling reason to upgrade. I would rather see better screen resolution and brightness along with longer battery life. I don’t need more speed, more memory, or more storage.
With the Apple it is really easy through on USB-C connection to provide power to the laptop, drive two external displays, full size wireless keyboard, wireless trackpad and wireless mouse. One cable to rule them all. The laptop never needs to be opened.
Leaving for somewhere, unplug one cable. Get home, plug in one cable. My friend in Atlanta does that and it is a nice setup. He will probably be ordering th 16″ M3 Pro, base level as his current MacBook Pro is getting long in the teeth. And he just wants a new machine.
No name Magtech 9mm Luger 115gr Full Metal Jacket Ammunition – 50 Round Box
10 × $ 14.59
You can buy it, which is a nice change, but it still isn’t cheap.
n
Apple has to distract from the fact that AI caught them off guard and they do not have a solution for the high end applications. One PCI-E GPU slot is not going to cut it, and Nvidia won’t work with them after the public spat over the faulty GPUs going back to the late 00s.
No one is selling meaningful amounts of hardware beyond AI-capable servers right now, and any servers sold are going to be Intel CPUs and PCI-E chipsets. Go look at the stock price of INTC since the beginning of the year.
Ironically, the docks and USB-C monitors made by my current employer really support Apple Lightning/Thunderbolt well, better than a lot of third party Chinesium vendors. My kids stole my work-supplied dock for their iPad Pro tablets.
(I have a Plugable USB-CAD on my desk which is excellent for my M1 MacBook Pro and my work machine. The only caveat with the work computer is that I need a separate power supply or the laptop complains about charging speed.)
Other than iPhones, which are unavoidable since they are almost ubiquitous, Apple is a four letter word on campus. The health plan will pay for FitBit type gear but not an Apple Watch.
I should also mention that my Surface laptop has one connection to the Microsoft docking station. I get an external monitor, network, power, audio, USB-C, USB-A all through one cable. Wireless mouse and keyboard. Works really well. Except proprietary connection. But it is magnetic like MagSafe so it will disconnect easily. USB-C requires unplugging.
Ray, I could do something similar with my USB-C Android phone, but I am satisfied with its compactness carried alone.
I have a Bluetooth keyboard that I bought at a museum “yard sale.” It is like new, but I don’t like its layout, which is similar to a notebook keyboard. My wife thinks it is too much trouble to carry with her phone.
We don’t have a need to carry a computer, and my wife doesn’t take her notebook on trips anymore. The novelty has worn off. We also don’t travel much now that my aunt passed. Wife will probably go back to a desktop form factor next time. I think she realizes the folly of a notebook for fixed use, but she reads the decorating magazines, and that is what they show.
I worked briefly on mainframe hardware design in the late 1960s, and remember their flexibility. In our lab, prototypes were connected to lots of stuff. Wasn’t cheap, though. I also remember managed minicomputer setups using DEC VAX hardware. Those systems were fast and reliable. They weren’t cheap, however, but for a while in big operations they were much better than the personal computers that replaced them. PCs just seemed cheap, but were not, considering the loss of productivity until everyone learned how to be their own administrators.
I have a slide rule older than that.
I only took a 8″ Galaxy Tab to Nashville when I made a quick trip to get the Jetta. The tablet and cached map data saved me when the iPhone’s GPS and cellular data went Tango Uniform after I went looking for a Publix with guava pastries in Bellevue.
Probably NIMBY issues with the cell towers, but the GPS is usually solid with Apple.
I do the same. I found a T4 dock (pricey). One cable charges the MBP and drives a 40″ monitor. I keep the original charger and cable in my backpack. Unplug one cable and I’m out the door.
When traveling with the MBP, I’ll take my iPad Pro to use as a second screen.
This is why I’m using my iPad Mini as my primary e-reader. I use Calibre to convert anything I buy into the epub format and just drop into Apple Books. Everything syncs to the devices, but only downloads what you click on. I also drop a ton of pdf manuals into Books so I have them handy. Same as ebooks, they only download onto the device if you click on the title.
I do keep a Kindle sync’d up with books as a backup.
Prices in the US are nuts. I read recently that a colonoscopy is over $3k. I paid under $1k here, and Switzerland us expensive by European standards.
I’ve been using an ipad as my primary surfing device for years. I have no desire to go back to a laptop for that task.
I will note that my latest ipad, a 10th gen, is kind of pokey on many sites. I’ve had enough issues lately with freezes and slow loading times that I’ve had to go to my desktop more often. I know Apple wants me to get an air or a pro, but this one is less than 2 years old. I might venture out of the Apple ecosystem for the next tablet.
>> But the football and basketball teams got good equipment and new uniforms at least once a year, so there’s that.
And no real science involved in, say, improving those football helmets, right?
>> I have shop towels that are older than that.
I have paper towels older than that. Just wash them on Delicates.
actual cost of EV’s equates to $17.33 per gallon after all costs are considered
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/10/30/electric-vehicles-unveiling-the-hidden-costs/
>> My insurance company put a check on the table for about a third of what we are going to have to pay to get our storm problems resolved.
Was that just their ‘opening offer’ or take it or leave it? Does it coincide with the adjuster’s number?
Invaders is a comin’:
U.S. migrant crisis: 5,000 march toward the border in the BIGGEST caravan of undocumented immigrants in more than a year amid delays at immigration centers in Mexico
When they get to the border, start the Warthog patrols.
$3k. The total billed to insurance for a colonoscopy I had two years ago was $30k. I believe this was negotiated down to $12k.
Costs are a very complex problem which the last reform in the US didn’t adequately address since Congress ran out of time on Obamacare heading into an election year in 2010 and wanted to give the Jesus President a “win”. Once Ted Kennedy assumed room temperature, passage on Reconciliation became necessary and the legislation was further mangled/contorted.
As Pelosi said, we had to pass the bill to find out what was in it.
Precocious little thug just got his Darwin award…
–most likely because he got away with it the first time he was caught.
13 yo with a gun will shoot you just as dead as a 30 yo. And might have even less hesitation or remorse.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/10/dc-hell-smart-talented-13-year-old-child/
n
I’ll bet a little research into HCSO arrest records would show that the 14 year-old killed in Ybor the other night had quite a rap sheet, but I’m not going to bother.
All of the stories out of Tampa were the same since no honest media is left in the region. Sometimes the Faux-owned station will get things right, but even they’re more likely to support the agenda anymore.
Politifact? Yeah, you aren’t following the money trail on that one if you are suggesting it.
I have had three Samsung Galaxy Note series phones. Their GPS radios work fine for navigation with cached Google Maps and no cellular connection. I did this when going to Europe, where data was expensive at the time. Haven’t been out of the country since 2013. I sometimes cache maps when I am going to unfamiliar places in the US. This seems to work seamlessly, and I have never had a problem with Google Maps not working for navigation, even when I go outside the cached map area. Google really has its act together.
Google Maps is one of the greatest benefits of carrying a phone. Its integration with web data is so good that I am sometimes pleasantly surprised, and I can’t say that about much else.
I also have a friend who uses Back Country Navigator with his Android phone. This gives him topo maps where there is no cell service. His GPS also works fine.
I do wonder if it is possible to turn off the cell data my Note 20 to avoid charges while still using the GPS. I know my original Note could do that. These newer phones have too much integration.
You keep using that word, “camp”. I don’t think you know what it means…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12693827/More-50-killed-Israeli-strike-Gazas-Jabalia-refugee-camp-Palestinian-health-officials-claim.html
Don’t start nothin’ won’t be nothin’. FAFO.
n
“Judge Chutkan Blocks DOJ Request to Jail Trump Over Gag Order Violation”
https://conservativebrief.com/judge-jail-trump-77749/
“Newsweek reported that Chutkan turned away a request from the Department of Justice to put Trump in jail for violating a gag order she re-imposed on him. In a footnote reinstating the gag order, the judge denied federal prosecutors’ request to incorporate her order into the conditions of Trump’s release.”
I’ll bet that they would jail Trump too.
The DOJ needs a complete overhaul. Fire every supervisor and up.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Some of the houses around here are moving on 100% financing deals with trusts involved. Has anyone else heard of this?
I cannot imagine any bank providing more than 60% financing to a trust. The downside is just a disaster dealing with the trust (legal issues). So the money is coming from Hedge Funds (private banks).
Sounds like the famed Gazan tunnel network wasn’t dug as deep as it should have been. I wonder if the IDF is using seismic instrumentation to map them?
I am no military man, but “divide and conquer” is basic strategy. I suspect the IDF will cut Gaza in half at the midpoint, then perhaps quarter it E-W through Gaza City, and the city to the sourth, then into 8ths N-S along the Saladin Highway, then demo any underground connections between them, then proceed to “clear” each isolated segment.
The IDF has only a limited force, urban combat is tough, and a lot will have to be kept back against the possibility of assaults by other neighboring entities.
Questionable Content: Talking Boat
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5167
Ah, the future of AI. Everything will talk to you and remind you of your past failures.
Joe Rogan just put up a YT video of Musk letting him shoot the Cyber Truck with an 80# compound bow with a broadhead. It bounced off, but left a dent. Musk claimed they shot the CT with a .45 tommygun, 9mm, and some shotgun and nothing penetrated.
“Qualcomm brings receipts: Snapdragon X Elite gets benchmarked, completely dunks on Apple’s M2 processor”
https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/laptops/qualcomm-brings-the-receipts-snapdragon-x-elite-gets-benchmarked-proves-it-beats-apples-m2-processor
Ah, the cpu wars are back. This time it is about who can do the mostest with the least amount of power.
Also:
https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/how-does-the-apple-m3-compare-to-the-snapdragon-x-elite-the-hell-if-we-know
Over The Hedge: Dibs On The Spleen
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2023/10/31
Yuck.
“was shot while committing a felony” but I’m not Politically Correct.
The glass? The side body panels? The tires?
My LG V20 has Airplane mode: all radios off. I can turn each of wi-fi and mobile data off. I think Location is the GPS but I don’t know for sure. It does eat the battery sitting here under a metal roof, so. I need to play with that.
Bluetooth eats the battery too while constantly looking for something to pair with. I don’t use th eOBD dongle in the car very often but that’s all the BT I have.
I forgot to clarify that I use OsmAnd for caching map data on Android platforms. It isn’t 100% up to date, but the app does not require a data connection to give general directions.
When I got lost in Bellevue, I opened the tablet and asked for directions to Austin. The app quickly drew a map, starting with the route to the closest freeway entrance.
A significant number of Dems won’t admit it openly, but they want this to end with Trump lynched on the steps of the Capitol, exactly where he was Inaugurated in 2017. That’s the only conclusion to the situation which will truly satisfy them.
Jailing Trump for life won’t satisfy because, as you point out, he’ll have 24/7 Secret Service protection at a “country club” prison given the non-violent nature of the crimes. Maybe even in Florida at Eglin – is that still open?
Qualcomm is garbage, and the benchmarks are contrived. All of the big vendors have ARM laptops available now with their chips, and no one wants them. Apple vacuumed up anyone good at Qualcomm locally after Steve Jobs died and Tim Cook did away with the internal rules against building up capabilities in Austin.
The only way Windows would gain traction on ARM would be for Microsoft to spend 15 years building their own CPU design team as Apple did, offering not only a CPU but an integrated package of memory, processor, flash, and I/O, including a graphics capability.
I criticize Apple’s “disposable” laptops, but an 8GB M1 feels as crisp as my work PC with 32 GB, discrete flash drive, and an Nvidia GPU.
Back in the day, HP may have stepped up, but HP isn’t HP anymore.
Everyone thinking about migrating must know that it isn’t worth the risk. Choice 1: you don’t get across, and have to go back. Hard to do with a long border. Choice 2: physical risk. Dying in the attempt.
If you’re serious about a border, pick one. Pick none and, well…
Yeah, Eglin is closed and the buildings reverted back to the Air Force. This may be one of the places where they send Trump if he’s convicted on Federal charges.
https://nypost.com/2023/01/17/inside-todd-chrisleys-cushy-florida-federal-prison/
I forsee a Constitutional crisis if Trump is convicted in New York or Georgia and either state demands his extradition from Mar-A-Lago. DeSantis isn’t going to play around, especially if he’s on the losing end of the primary season next Spring. He’ll have nothing to lose by protecting Trump and much to gain.
DeSantis is still very young.
Overbuilt then. I am reminded of “The Mote In God’s Eye” where the sailing master has a rationale for taking the human starship through the light sail rather than around…
Paraphrasing: ”if it (the sail) was made of a superstrong material the Moties would just have made it thinner!”
“X, formerly Twitter, valued at $19 billion in new employee stock plan”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/x-formerly-twitter-valued-19-175603209.html
I would not give you 19 cents for Twitter right now.
$0.18?
Prices in the US are nuts. I read recently that a colonoscopy is over $3k. I paid under $1k here, and Switzerland us expensive by European standards.
The problem is that Medicare and Medicaid only pay $500 for a colonoscopy. So the health providers bill private insurance $3K to make up the difference. Private insurance is getting very tired of paying more than the actual cost …
$0.18?
The problem is that Twitter is having disagreements with their advertisers right now. I am not sure that those disagreements are fixable in the near term.
And, Twitter is located in the second most expensive place in the USA to run a business. I am surprised that Musk has not relocated Twitter anywhere else in the USA.
Sitting here eating my candy corn …
https://www.brachs.com/products/candy-corn
Tomorrow I will buy more from the 50% off basket at HEB and Krogers.
I am releasing version 16.18 of our software today. It has been a while.
And the 64 bit port is on the back burner. Hopefully I can get back to it very soon.
“Tesla wins first US Autopilot trial involving fatal crash”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-wins-autopilot-trial-involving-173426117.html
“(Reuters) -Tesla on Tuesday won the first U.S. trial over allegations that its Autopilot driver assistant feature led to a death, a major victory for the automaker as it faces several other lawsuits and federal investigations related to the same technology.”
“The verdict represents Tesla’s second big win this year, in which juries have declined to find that its software was defective. Tesla has been testing and rolling out its Autopilot and more advanced Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, which Chief Executive Elon Musk has touted as crucial to his company’s future but which has drawn regulatory and legal scrutiny.”
The driver was apparently drunk. Not good.
“Top 10 Ways To Acquire Wealth Under Bidenomics”
https://babylonbee.com/news/top-10-ways-to-acquire-wealth-under-bidenomics
“1. Date Taylor Swift: Even if you’re already wealthy, this will bring your bankroll to a whole new level.”
My wife would have a serious problem with that.
So would I!
One of my customers in Israel just replied to my version 16.18 email that he is deployed at the moment and will not be reachable on a timely basis.
I have now seen it all.
Wait until a customer tells you that he’s dating Taylor Swift in order to get wealthy enough to pay next year’s license fee. Then you’ll have seen it all.
Choice 3: You’re enslaved for ten years.
Recall that the (amended) US Constitution does not forbid slavery. It forbids slavery except as punishment for a crime.
I’ll bet that some people would still come here, knowing the risk of being caught and enslaved, because either they’re that stupid or their home situation is that bad.
I updated two WordPress plugins today. Finally got the “ChatBot Blocker” plugin approved (after two months; there is a big backlog over in the WP Plugin group) and it is available for WP sites. It adds directives to WP’s virtual robots.txt file to discourage site scanners from several bots. Available here, if you are interested.
I also updated my “Privacy and Security” WP plugin (now at version 4.10). I use that on all the WP websites I manage (including this one) to set various privacy and security options all in one place. There are other plugins that do similar things, but I gathered those settings into one plugin to reduce ‘plugin’ clutter. Available here, if you are interested.
And I started on my “NOK” box. This is a product that has been heavily shown on FB ads. It is an organizer for all of the “Next Of Kin” (“NOK”) information that they will need.
I’m at the point in my life (72 next month) that I need to get things organized. Have procrastinated on that task – it’s too close to a reminder of mortality – so figured it would be a ‘good thing’ to do. No issues have provided impetus for the need to do that, but it should be done. The cost of their kits is reasonable, and it looks to have all the pieces of what is needed. It’s a file organization thing; they provide labels and instruction sheets for various items that your NOK will need to know.
More info here. Note that it is an affiliate link, but that doesn’t increase your cost if you decide to get their product. First glance at the product is positive. It will take a bit of effort to gather all the info, but is a ‘good thing’ to do.
I also need to work on a will and other legal documents. All useful things to do. As some of you have documented in comments here.
I taught Al Jazeera’s IT people about using VMware Fusion. They were customers of the Death Star for VPN service.
I sometimes wonder if our VPN software was on one of those hard drive pulled out of Bin Laden’s hideout.
The available talent pool elsewhere isn’t as deep as it would be within an hour commute of the Civic Center, where Twitter HQ is located in San Francisco.
Real work solving serious problems, not “coding” with Hot Skillz.
Army Warned That Maine Gunman ‘Should Not Have a Weapon,’ Behaved ‘Erratically’ Months Before Shooting
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/army-warned-that-maine-gunman-should-not-have-a-weapon-behaved-erratically-months-before-shooting/
The Army trained him to be dangerous, and when he became mentally ill and a danger to others, they failed to protect the public.
Law enforcement knew he was dangerous, but didn’t do more than try to check on him and find him not at home.
His family warned people and asked for help, but didn’t get it.
The gun grabbers want to use this as an excuse to grab the guns of sane people so they can’t defend themselves. They can go GF’d.
The 18 families that lost loved ones should get a hard pipehitting attorney and file suit against the Army. They won’t get anywhere but maybe they can raise a big enough stink to make it clear where the first responsibility was to get this guy help.
The other avenue is to look at they guy’s brother, who was allegedly storing guns for him. If that’s the case they should bankrupt him with lawsuits then send him to the bus station with kneepads to make a few more dollars.
@Gavin
“was shot DFD” would be my description.
It took me two and a half months to get a will from the Maxwell legal office last month. I had issues with it their software would/could not fix and so I didn’t sign it. I’d been deferring that but I wanted one before the long road trip.
Losing a son solved some of the problems so I created one using WillMaker from Quicken/Nolo. (I bought so long ago I had to rescue it from the windows-old folder.) I had to port from a .pdf file into Word to get exactly like I wanted. They had to much
broiler plate“stuff”(it was eight pages), i.e., they included “stuff about state inheritance taxes which we do have, etc. I got it down to three pages plus the witnesses pages, etc.I’m down loading my e-books to one Kindle still have 48 books to go.
oh hell yes:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/10/racism-and-american-fiction.php
Barr is one of those people I would walk across town to spit on:
https://nypost.com/2023/10/29/opinion/anatomy-of-a-biden-family-coverup-executed-by-our-own-fbi-and-doj/
Sanctimonious fat ass needs exploratory surgery of the colon to look for his brain.
>> I call a house a bad savings account. You have to live somewhere. If it makes sense for someone, owning at least gets you some money back versus rent. In theory, I’m up over 200k in equity since we purchased (with 20% down). Of course, that’s money I can’t access unless I sell. And no, I don’t do home equity loans, especially in this environment.
All it takes to wipe out your unrealized gain is Plugs pushing the ‘launch a nuke’ button when he meant to push the ‘change my Depends’ button.
>> Rentals are a different story, but the circumstances have to be right to make money. I would bet most who do it, don’t.
Not making money? Then they’re not listening to the right “expert” on drive-time radio.
>> I have a slide rule older than that.
And I have an abacus older than that.
NYFS, of course…
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/hobbyists-push-back-against-3d-printer-crackdowns
Rentals are a different story, but the circumstances have to be right to make money. I would bet most who do it, don’t.
We’ve made money on most of our rental properties. It usually takes a long time and the money usually came when we sold them due to inflation. The wife is getting ready to sell her last rental property and then we will be down to the commercial property.
The commercial property usually makes 30 to 40% profit per year because we bought it in 2011 when banks would not look at your plans for less than 40% down when the entire market was still depressed from the 2008 nightmare. I actually had a banker tell me to deposit the entire money and he would loan it back to me.
I will still own another property but it is just cleared land that I am holding for the future.
“FBI Director Chris Wray Issues Warning that Hamas and Terrorist Organizations May “Conduct Attacks Here on Our Own Soil” – Something He Missed while Targeting Trump Supporters”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/10/fbi-director-chris-wray-issues-warning-that-hamas/
The idiot just realized that his ass is on the line if anything happens here in the USA while he was screwing around with innocent people.
I guess they kept it going long enough for the “right people” to get their money out?
n
Kinda slow night. Got started late, and were a lot of older kids. Most of them had great costumes on. In fact, the little ones did too and when parents were along with the kids, they were usually dressed up as well.
Had a good time, but it did get chilly later.
Last car cruised by around 10pm, but I already had the expensive stuff in, and lights off.
n
Tucker Carlson, “Ep. 35 Start another war, send millions more anti-Western refugees to the West. Starting to notice a pattern?”
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1719111686341242927
Do not bring two million Hamas sympathizers to the USA. That would be an immediate disaster.
I guess they kept it going long enough for the “right people” to get their money out?
The bankruptcy judges have incredible power with the ability to claw back payments up to five years ago. They will do it too.
I’m beat. I’m headed to bed.
See y’all in the morning.
n
“Magic Burns (Kate Daniels Book 2)” by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441015832?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number two of a ten book paranormal romance dark fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2008 that I bought new on Amazon recently. Note that “Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team. I have ordered books three, four, and five in the series.
Kate Daniels’s universe sucks. Forty years ago, the tech world crashed over the entire Earth and was replaced by the magic world in the form of a magic flare. Guns don’t work, car don’t work, electricity and phones do not work. But magic works. Good magic and bad magic.
After a week, the tech world came back to a drastically changed world. And radically fewer humans. And the magic world came back after a while. And the tech world came back after that. And so on and so forth.
Kate Daniels is a mercenary. And she is a current member of the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid despite her dropping out earlier in life. She carries a large magic sword. And many knives. And she has magic blood. And another magic flare is coming.
I liked everything about the story. I especially liked the very clear distinction between the tech time and the magic time. I had never thought about it that way. The series may be inspired by “Ariel” by Steven Boyett and “Dies The Fire” by S. M. Stirling except those never interchange the tech time and the magic time, they just transitioned to the magic time.
The authors have a website at:
https://www.ilona-andrews.com
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (9,448 reviews)
I’ve always passed on interviews with companies operating out of WeWork space here in town. A lot of companies are here for the party, but at least they buy/lease real space to make the writeoff look legit.
My wife’s nephew is building a “portfolio” of rental properties as he moves around the country to different Army posts, financed with the off-base housing allowance. He can’t be alone.
BTW, his word, not mine.
My wife’s nephew is building a “portfolio” of rental properties as he moves around the country to different Army posts, financed with the off-base housing allowance. He can’t be alone.
One of my cousins is buying rental properties around the USA with a partner. But, he works for Southwest Airlines and gets a free airline trip each month. So that cuts his travel expense to the rental properties.
During my brief military period, I had friends doing the same. Every move they took full advantage of a 2 week house-hunting trip to find a future rental that they were willing to live in for however long they were located there. One of them was pretty successful at it, and wanted all his friends to do the same, so he gave impromptu lectures on his purchase and rental strategies. Constantly. I’ll admit I learned a few things, but didn’t really want to hear him constantly. In retrospect, I would have been much further ahead now if I’d listened.