Warmer, wetter. Maybe even rain today or tomorrow. Just in time for Halloween. Joy.
It was definitely warmer all day Tuesday, but still, much more pleasant than 3 weeks ago. And while we need the rain, at this point, waiting for Friday would be fine.
Spent Tuesday driving around, and doing stuff for the household and the kids. Hit Costco for some lunch staples and treats. Spent half again what I used to spend without as much food, and much less meat. Granted that I am buying most of my meat at HEB, it’s still a big increase in price. 88/12 ground beef was $4.50 and I bought 6 pounds. I can’t even get 80/20 at HEB most of the time, at the same price, so that was competitive, if higher than a couple of years ago. Chicken I buy at Costco because I like the packaging. A few cents per pound higher, but I can just put it in the freezer with no further fuss. That is worth the bump. I bought a six pack each of legs, thighs, and breasts. Since I was there, I bought milk. I stopped because it went bad quickly vs the HEB milk. But it was convenient. Sometimes my time is worth more… like when I don’t have any to spare.
Spent the evening at D2’s band concert, then watching vids about the sound board and digital boards in general. I’ve got today to get to my secondary, grab some of the stuff I want to send to auction, and get some of my sound gear to use as demo for my mini-seminar with the kids on Thursday. It’s gonna take a bit more exploration and figuring out how their current setup is running before I can work with them on their own gear. I need volunteer hours at the school, and it is usually fun to work with bright, motivated kids. But I have to catch up on some technology first.
I have to say, I like simple. I like discoverable. I like using the minimum needed to get the job done. The sound board, and the whole sound system at the kid’s school is overkill for their needs. Worse, it’s not easy to “play” with, to discover and self learn. With only a single part time drama teacher, it’s like giving a Dodge charger to the kids when they need a Metro, or even a Hasbro ride on toy. Build the output side that the kids don’t touch to modern standards and set it up so it sounds good. But the input side should be simple and straightforward. The knowledge and conceptualization needed is much higher with the board they have than with an analog mixer. It isn’t even a question of money. The board they have is not expensive as those things go. It might even be an order of magnitude cheaper than if they had provided all the capability separately that this board has. It’s still a poor choice for middle school kids just starting out.
There are a lot of things in prepping and in life that are a lot like the kid’s sound system. It’s capable. It’s a good value. It’s more than is needed. It takes more knowledge and understanding to use. Revolver, striker fired semi-auto, Double action/single action semi-auto with multiple safeties… beltfed… airmobile… Baofang, yaesu, FT-1000, FlexRadio. CB in the truck.
Every area of prepping, every piece of stuff for the gear whore that lives inside us, all the gear reviews and prepping guides, they all sometimes suffer from the same thing. A CB radio or FRS/GMRS can be explained to someone in 5 minutes. So can one of the packaged business radios. Ham, not so much. Commercial public safety and .gov systems? Specialist territory. Even water filters, water purification systems, and water supply systems, as basic as they seem escalate in difficulty and complexity, starting from germ theory and the idea you need to make clean water…
I’m rambling a bit, but I guess what I want to say is advanced capability is nice to have. Ease of use, ease of conceptualization, ease of repair, self discovery, those are critical. This is especially true when a person is stressed or under pressure, or there are no experts or teachers. If a stick works, use a stick. A revolver is point and pull. Many semi-autos are not. Match the tool to the user. Sure, stack the high speed low drag stuff for you or your operator buddies, but be sure you have something the weak, ill, and old can use while they are home watching the kids. If your 3oz backpacking stove takes only one type of gas bottle fitting, and needs arcane and extensive secret knowledge to start, maybe stack a coleman stove instead.
Whatever you decide, do stack it up… just think about someone other than you using it.
nick
Give the ISD a large dollar amount, say a billion dollars, and they will find new and inventive ways to spend it.
A Dodge Charger isn’t about the engine capacity as much as the brakes.
I’ve seen it first hand. A Chevy Spark (Metro equivalent) doesn’t have the same stopping capability from 85 MPH as a Charger.
OTOH, a Metro may have done a lot better braking since the curb weight was about 400 lbs lighter than the Spark. Progress.
75F and a bit of breeze. Sun still hasn’t risen, I better find a virgin to sacrifice…
At least the coffee is good.
———
dug out a small mixing board for my demo and discovered it wasn’t the one I thought it was… so I have to go looking for the other one. This one has a proprietary power supply and it’s missing. The other one has more features anyway.
I can’t even remember where or when I got the one I found. Jeez.
n
And the same thing applies to most churches. Churches have no need for sophisticated sound processing. An analog board, with a maximum of 8 buss’s, 32 inputs, will cover most situations. Instead, they go with fancy digital boards, use 10% of the features, and have trouble finding people to do the sound. The newest ones have Bluetooth or WiFi capability and the sound dorks walk around with an app on an iPad trying to look important. And generally do a poor job of mixing the sound.
The band director for our small school has done a superb job. In his youth he was the drum major for the University of Tennessee marching band. The guy has to know his stuff.
Fixed it for you.
@ray, this board is very popular with churches. As digital boards go, it’s pretty basic, and pretty well laid out for someone making the transition from analog to digital.
https://www.allen-heath.com/hardware/qu/qu-32/
The digital processing is great if you know what you are doing, and can use it, but it’s well beyond the “sit down in front, read the labels, and get something usable out of the speakers” that most volunteers or part timers are comfortable with.
I get the impression that this board is popular because it’s physically smaller, since it reuses the same faders for input and output. It’s half the size of a similar analog board, and doesn’t require a rack of effects and processing by its side. As I’ve said though, it’s not immediately obvious from simple inspection what’s going on, and how you work with it isn’t particularly discoverable unless you are already familiar with similar boards and workflow.
95% of the time they need only something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Mackie-Mix-Mix8-8-Channel-Mixer/dp/B00ND1KGEI?tag=ttgnet-20
4% of the time they might need something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Mackie-ProFX-Mixer-Unpowered-12-channel/dp/B07XF8Z2CQ?tag=ttgnet-20
And 1% of the time do they actually need what they have.
Other schools with more of a performance program might need to adjust the ratios a bit, but at middle school, it’s rarely more than a mic or two for a speaker on stage, or a teacher or PTA member, or band leader.
Our school rents a wireless mic package for the twice a year musicals, they could rent the board as well. On the other hand, we’re well equipped with an active PTA and educational foundation to buy or rent what we need or want, and most schools are not. D1’s high school doesn’t have the PTA funding that D2’s middle school has.
I can make a good argument that bringing in mics too early is bad for kids that want to be performers, and every level of tech you add can distance the performer from the audience.
n
https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/29/russian_court_fines_google/
Watch out for that interest.
We are getting a little bit of rain. Just enough to wet surfaces, without enough to make much difference to the grass.
n
Ladies and Germs: The Dumbocrats
Beauty queen claims Donald Trump groped her after luring her back to suite at New York’s Plaza Hotel
Twenty years ago and she brings it one week before the election. Sure. What’s next, tRump groped “Little Rocketman” Kim?
Forgot to mention, on the way home from the concert last night we stopped for burgers.
Hipster joint, very limited menu, wagyu and angus burgers, seasoned potato wedges, bacon wrapped hot dog, and that’s about it.
Burger was $12 or 13. $5 more got the fried potatoes and a drink. Four burgers, two fries, and three drinks was $80.
They were good burgers, but were they $20 good? No. Kid loved it though.
There was steady but slow business while we were there. Two employees.
Maybe that’s the future of fast casual dining?
n
I provided a second hand Thinkpad to a charity volunteer I work with, bought via eBay. It turned out to have a failed CMOS CR2025 battery. Looking to replace it, the cheapest compatible (pre-wired) was GBP9, which I felt was a bit much for a CR2025. I found a source on eBay of a pre-tagged CR2025 for GBP3.40. On delivery, simply removed (using soldering iron) the wires and connector and soldered them onto the new battery. Took all of about 5 minutes. Now have it installed in the Thinkpad, and all is well.
I installed Linux Mint on the Thinkpad (T430U) and talked the new user through the differences with Windows 11. Her comment was that she preferred LM. Since receiving late last week, she is now confidently using the Thinkpad, with Firefox accessing her Gmail account and LibreOffice (which she was unfamiliar with) producing documents for distribution to others.
(The Thinkpad cost GBP20.35, shipped. I installed a 240GB SSD from spares.)
Counting the microphones my church has, a few wired, mostly wireless, guitars (3), drum, electric piano, video players, and a couple of computers, 32 inputs is about the minimum. I think I counted 27 used inputs, there may have been more. At my last church we had two 48 channel mixers, one for the sanctuary, one for the broadcast. Out of the 48 we were using 36 inputs. We had 8 buss channels that were fully used.
Yes, the school programs I have seen required at most 4 inputs and one output. One local school has a 96-channel board, all digital, controlled by a computer or controls on the board, remote features and other fancy stuff. I don’t think anyone knows how it all works but knows enough to get by. It was donated so it was no big deal.
I could guess I could claim that the Humper groped me. People would know it was a lie as my affected parts would have been amputated.
I voted early today. I was not impressed with the poll workers. When I arrived at the desk the lady was texting (slowly) on her phone. I waited about a minute then said “what is more important, your text message or voting?”. She said she didn’t see me. People voting are not allowed to have cell phones so why are poll workers using phones?
New voting machines this year and new procedures. You have to go to the first station to be verified. Again, I used my VA ID. Then off to the second station to do what? Verify address, I think. I don’t know. The lady asked if I had something with my address. I told her all that was required was government issued photo ID and that is all she is going to get. Then to a third station to be handed a piece of paper with a code and sheet of paper with an arrow.
Next stop is the voting machine. I was told to go to a specific machine. Why? The code from piece of paper is entered, then the blank (except for the arrows) sheet is inserted into the voting machine. The vote screens are displayed. Touch screens this year rather than the selection wheel and press a button. Once the voting is complete the machine confirms the vote. Select everything is OK and the machine spits out the sheet of paper that was inserted with all the voting information.
The last stop is where the sheet of paper is inserted into a scanner and the sheet deposited into a bin. I guess the change in machines was to provide a paper trail that can be confirmed with the machine in case of problems.
I noticed the machines used to verify the voter and the voter address were MacBook Air’s, M1. Certainly they are more than good enough. Internet connection was wired to somewhere else in the room. Probably some VPN wireless connection to the county computers.
Voting took all of 10 minutes. I voted now because nothing is going to change my opinion between now and voting. It was a disgusting process as I don’t like either of the presidential options. I had to choose between a fool and a jerk. But choose I did.
Maybe but so is this
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-10-30/robots-can-now-make-your-fries-and-guacamole-the-future-of-fast-food
In sure it’s only a matter of time for the kinks to be worked out and the cost of the units should come down. Probably won’t lower the cost of the food.
Might slow the increases
and in good news
https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2024/10/30/scotus-rules-virginia-can-purge-voter-rolls-n4933781
My little air fryer defaults to 5 minutes at 400f.
I turned it on and let it heat while I quartered lengthwise three Hebrew National hotdogs. Straight from the fridge so, cold. Three dogs was enough to cover the bottom of the fryer’s basket.
After four minutes I could just smell frying hotdogs so I gave the basket a shake. Seven minutes to go. I shook the basket a couple times more.
When done I dumped the basket on a paper towel covered plate. About two tablespoons of grease ran out.
They taste good. A little less time might be better to not render all of the grease.
Buddy the Beagle is very interested.
BurgerFi already went bankrupt, and several other $20 burger chains aren’t far behind.
Shake Shak may survive longer, but that place is a darling on Wall Street so a 180 PE isn’t an issue at least for now.
98% held by institutions. No dividend.
I replaced my upstairs heat pump last year (1.5 ton). I just signed the contract to replace the downstairs unit (5 ton). Same manufacturer (Carrier) but a higher SEER rating than the existing (new one is 15). I essentially went with the most expensive single stage compressor I could. $12,800 installed. Ouch, but you gotta have heat and cooling. The old unit is 14 years old. It’s running fine, and I might get several more years out of it, but it’s not worth the gamble. Plus, I wanted to make sure I got a 410A unit before they start becoming unobtanium. I’ll let others work out the kinks in the new 454B systems.
Like the systems going en fuego due to the “slightly flammable” nature of the refrigerant.
The US campaigns have fully reached the ugly phase. One more week…
I am not sure that the campaigning can get any worse.
Now I am a deplorable and garbage. What else can they call me ?
Why single stage? Just curious. I have a 4 ton 16 SEER two stage compressor and it seldom runs on high.
Your price seems reasonable. I paid $3800 for my Goodwin system that I installed plus couple of hundred for the a/c tech to connect the lines to validate the warranty. He offered me a job. Add a couple of hundred for some wiring and duct board to build a new plenum. Round up and call it $4500 total. I had fun installing the system, too.
Home Depot wanted $8500 plus tax to replace just the compressor. And moving the outside unit? Nope, “we never go under houses”. So to get the darn thing out from under the bedroom window they were going to solder onto the existing lines and lay 30 feet of new line along the edge of the house skirting. That’s a bit too ghetto / white trash for me.
$12,800 for 5 tons installed twelve years after I installed my system seems like a decent deal.
The current “Doctor Who” referred to unhappy fans using a Scottish slang term for pigs and told them to “go touch grass”.
Based on the ratings, I’d say they took him up on the suggestion.
I finally had the plumber out to remove the seized disposal. Replace the shut off valves, too, please. It’s a small company…. give them some business.
It was a couple of hundred more than expected. Yeah, I know they charge hourly plus parts. I don’t think the clock should run while they go to Hoover’s for a part they forgot. Twice. But it is done and it is a neat looking job.
But there is a leak on the hot water side. Slow, maybe three ounces since last night. Once I feel wet everything is wet. I’m going to blot with toilet paper tomorrow. I have it narrowed down to where the new valve connects to the cpvc or it’s the valve stem on the new valve. I think it’s the valve stem.
Then I’ll give them a call.
Exactly.
I know several hvac guys, and they all recommend a single stage compressor. Supposedly dual stage compressors generally have shorter lives.
Forgot to mention, on the way home from the concert last night we stopped for burgers.
Hipster joint, very limited menu, wagyu and angus burgers, seasoned potato wedges, bacon wrapped hot dog, and that’s about it.
Burger was $12 or 13. $5 more got the fried potatoes and a drink. Four burgers, two fries, and three drinks was $80.
They were good burgers, but were they $20 good? No. Kid loved it though.
There was steady but slow business while we were there. Two employees.
Maybe that’s the future of fast casual dining?
I took the wife to our Neighborhood Grill after Church and Sam’s Club last Sunday. $21 for two 5 oz burgers and fries. We drank water. I gave him a $5 tip for a total of $26.
I also stole some of the wife’s fries, he puts a very lite cayenne pepper on them with no salt.
I replaced my upstairs heat pump last year (1.5 ton). I just signed the contract to replace the downstairs unit (5 ton). Same manufacturer (Carrier) but a higher SEER rating than the existing (new one is 15). I essentially went with the most expensive single stage compressor I could. $12,800 installed. Ouch, but you gotta have heat and cooling. The old unit is 14 years old. It’s running fine, and I might get several more years out of it, but it’s not worth the gamble. Plus, I wanted to make sure I got a 410A unit before they start becoming unobtanium. I’ll let others work out the kinks in the new 454B systems.
You got a good deal. I put a 4 ton 16 SEER Ruud heat pump in the office last year. $16,000 with a new computerized thermostat and 10kw of backup heat strips.
I had a notification on my phone this morning from Google. The icon was a little b’day cake. So Google is telling me happy birthday. That’s new. I double tapped and it opened some kind of “talk to Google” box. That is new.
Just another day.
“Frustration Boils as Pennsylvania Voters Witness ‘Non-English Speaking Citizens’ Escorted Past Long Lines to Vote: Report”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/frustration-boils-as-pennsylvania-voters-witness-non-english/
I am amazed that the people in the line did not beat the van operators into the next week.
I’ll let others work out the kinks in the new 454B systems.
Dadgumit, more stuff to add to my software.
I had a notification on my phone this morning from Google. The icon was a little b’day cake. So Google is telling me happy birthday. That’s new. I double tapped and it opened some kind of “talk to Google” box. That is new.
Just another day.
Happy Birthday Paul !
You got a good deal. I put a 4 ton 16 SEER Ruud heat pump in the office last year. $16,000 with a new computerized thermostat and 10kw of backup heat strips.
BTW, it has already died once. There is a circuit breaker in the attic unit, it melted during the heat of the summer. The new circuit breaker that they put in is much stouter.
“Electoral shenanigans in action”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/10/electoral-shenanigans-in-action.html
“Don’t get over-confident in the results of this election, and stand by for a massive nationwide campaign of fraud, disinformation and cheating that will make previous attempts pale into insignificance.”
“I had a few e-mails after that, accusing me of alarmism, or spreading untrue rumors, or what have you. I’m afraid they’re all wrong. The evidence is as plain as a pikestaff to those who are willing to see it for what it is. As witness to that, I’m going to cite two other bloggers who know what they’re talking about.”
We are already seeing localized cheating in several blue states.
Nevada Supreme Court had ruled that un postmarked ballots arriving days after the election will be counted. That is diametrically opposite a recent Fifth Circuit ruling. Seems an emergency petition is in order.
“Worst. Nazi. Rally. Ever.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/worst-nazi-rally-ever
“When Donald Trump’s campaign announced plans for a rally at Madison Square Garden, Democrats and their media allies knew they had a problem.”
“Trump was going to pack the house on their turf. So they wasted no time pushing the tired Hitler narrative and claimed that the choice of venue was an homage to a pro-Nazi rally held there in 1939.”
Wow, now this is racism as Trump is of German heritage.
“Trump Threatens Social Security’s Stability” By Froma Harrop
https://www.creators.com/read/froma-harrop/10/24/trump-threatens-social-securitys-stability
“Donald Trump’s tax and spending plans would add enormous amounts to the national debt, with some estimates as high as $15 trillion over a decade. But some of his tax cuts stand apart in threatening one of America’s most revered programs, Social Security. They would essentially bankrupt it by 2031.”
And here comes the screaming that the Republicans are going to throw Grandma in the street.
“NEO: Near Earth Objects: The New Frontiers Series, Book 3” by Jack L Knapp
https://www.amazon.com/NEO-Near-Earth-Objects-Frontiers/dp/1073559149?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number three of a eight book science fiction space opera series. I reread the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2019. I have all eight books in the series and am rereading them now with the number seven and eight books that I just bought from Big River.
Wow, great story with lots of character development and action. An older engineer buys a bunch of Nikola Tesla’s journals in an old chest and spots a design for an “electric turbine” that was never built. He builds a working version of the electric impeller (a device that converts electricity into motion) after many restarts and has an anti-gravity device. The rest of the story concerns project funding and building various containers for the electric impeller and various peoples trying to steal the design.
This book is specifically about finding alien artifacts throughout the Solar System. And then the aliens show up and drag six huge asteroids into unstable orbits around Earth. Not good.
The writing of the story is a little bit rough, a little more editing would have been good. But for me, the story is always the most important thing. This is my second read so that makes it a five star book for me.
BTW, this is not the first time that a story has been written similar to this. Several stories have “magical” engines for space drives. A very similar book is John Varley’s most excellent “Red Thunder” which uses the squeezer drive.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Thunder-Lightning-Novel/dp/0441011624?tag=ttgnet-20/
The reason why I like these stories so much is that it is not just the new drive device, it is also the design and work to build the container around the new device.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (219 reviews)
Lynn
When the Burnet HEB got a new gas station kiosk, it was an improvement. Twice the size with a real a/c instead of some sort of roof top RV unit.
It crapped. The windows of the old kiosk no longer existed. Me, being nosy, got a ladder to get on the roof.. Nice little compressor. Painted quite pretty to match the rest of the paint. But…..
They had wrapped the coils with paper to keep the pretty paint off of the coils. Never bothered to REMOVE the paper. So of course it blew a fuse.
I pulled a few panels and pulled off the paper. Went across the street to Hoover’s for a $15 fuse. Fixed it. A couple of weeks later something flagged that expense and I told the boss what I did. I did get a lecture about “wait for maintenance” to show up four days later from San Antonio. And you, getting on the roof to fix this is not in your job description.
But yeah, man, you ain’t out there with NO a/c in the middle of August. And looking at suffering from Thursday to hopefully as soon as Tuesday for a fix is just retarded. I fixed it, I didn’t fall off of the ladder. Problem solved. So I was cool.
Air flow man. It’s a thing.