Cool, damp, but clear. And then more of the same. Warming to high 70s, low 80s, and maybe some wind to help dry things out.
I started Wednesday with a pickup on the way to my client’s house. That went well, so I got to work only a little bit behind my best guess at arrival. After confirming his issues, I found the piece of gear common to all 4 TVs, and it was failed. Stuck in a boot sequence. Not recoverable. It’s the second one of two to fail in the same way. Just locked up. Talked to my business partner for this client, and he’s ordering a new one to be delivered today or Friday. I asked him to go with the hard wired version this time, as this wifi version was only used because we couldn’t source the hard wired version when we did the initial upgrade and install of the parts. It’s available now, and 1/3 the cost as a bonus.
I’m always going to chose simpler, and hard wired, over wireless if I have that option. There’s a lot less to go wrong with wired ethernet.
On the plus side, while looking at the ubiquiti logs to be sure a new IP address was available, I noted that most of the infrastructure devices on the net had uptimes of ~750 days. Considering the power/lightning situation in the countryside, and the age of some of the gear, and that before all the upgrades and money spent to fix stuff we’d go down every month, that is awesome. FWIW, the biggest factor for reliability was probably re-dressing the rack with sensible layout, new cabling, and cable ties for management. Lots of cable ties and management. An AV rack has a lot of connectors that don’t latch or get captured, so any cable movement risks pulling out connectors. Tie that stuff in place. And label everything.
Today should be me doing stuff at home to get ready for a trip to the BOL for the holiday. Dunno if the universe will allow that- it’s been pretty insistent that I do other things. I don’t mind getting interrupted to go earn money… my client pays me very well to take good care of him. Plus, I invoiced for the year, and that money will come in handy (and it will go right back out of my hand-y too.) BUT, I have stuff I really need to do here.
Guess I should get started.
The stacking will take care of itself, the maintaining won’t. Do some of both this week. Winter is coming. . .
nick
Hallo! Snow here today, and a beautiful sunrise. Good friends here for breakfast, and hunting in the snow this afternoon. A good day. May you all have a good day too!
44F this morning. I was shivering in bed last night so I turned on the heat. I’m glad I did.
Coffee is brewing, lunch is packed.
I’m going to have to dress up for the bus stop…
n
Someone remembers the “Star Trek” anniversaries, even the obscure dates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgOZFny7F50&t=110s
I still prefer wired network connections over wireless where possible. While building our current house, I ran Cat6 to all the important places – downstairs tv alcove, my office, garage, upstairs tv, wireless AP locations, etc. They all terminate in a small av closet upstairs. I also have power there for my server, switch etc.
I’ve had to occasionally go back and run more Cat6. One run for an AP I didn’t plan for, a couple more office runs, and for outside cameras. I still have to do 2 more camera runs. I’ll get to that real soon now…
Yes, yes, yes. I did that at the church when I was doing the live broadcast. Cables were labeled twice on each end. One label, closest to the connector, was the location where the cable connected. The other label was the location of the other end of the cable. Yes, it was tedious. Made it easier for me and more importantly for anyone that replaced me.
I also used Visio to create a cable map that showed every piece of hardware and all the connections to each piece of hardware. It was easy to look at the diagram and figure out where a problem was located rather than tracing cables. I updated that diagram each time I made a change and posted a printed copy on the side of the outermost rack. I also provided a copy of the diagram to the company that installed the original equipment.
I also labeled all the connections when I worked at Tau Beta Pi. That was simpler as there was only network cables involved. All the cables in the server rack were labeled. I also had a Visio diagram of the connections.
I prefer wireless connections over wired for almost everything. I am wired from the modem to the router and my main PC, a couple of couples run years before wireless was a thing, to two locations upstairs. Those connections are to WAP’s as part of my mesh network.
I have had problems with cables and cable connections, sometimes in difficult locations. I have never had a problem with wireless connections that a simple reboot wouldn’t solve. There are just a few WAPs visible in my location so there is little competition for spectrum. Wireless speeds are just fine for me. I have dropped my Xfinity connection to 150 down, 20 up. I have found that is more than enough bandwidth and wireless speeds fit well in that constraint.
Good hunting, Denis!
19F here in the high desert, they missed it by 5F on the high side, again,
Clear & cold, bits of the big “bomb cyclone” have not reached us yet. Lit the heater at 2am, house is pleasant.
Family members in east Tacoma report rain, snow, power outages, a friend traveling to Reno sent a video of snow falling in Donner Pass.
—–
Updated the Apple devices because of a zero-day. I hope Apple isn’t keylogging and screen grabbing everything for their AI.
(I hope Apple didn’t write the zero-day to force upgrades.)
—–
I guess SUSE came out as totalitarian woke. I tried it years ago and found it kind of “meh”.
I don’t see myself being an Apple or Microsoft user much longer, certainly not upgrading to Win11, so I should settle on a Linux distro.
Debian seems OK. There seems to be an issue with repositories just vanishing and the package manager not being able to find them. But I think I had the same issue with straight Kubuntu.
—–
Did some shopping, picked up an entire bird for $4 at the newish Grocery Outlet in Rosamond (with $35 in other purchases). Moderate crowds midday. First time I’ve been: prices were decent, fresh food section decent, selection better than Aldi’s.
I am hosting Thanksgiving, again. Tho my friends wife is doing the baking – practically leaped at the chance actually, being an empty nester mom with no-one left but herself and a vegan husband to cook for
The forecast for last night was mid-forties. How that translates to 28F at my house is a mystery. The Sun is bright and warm. No clouds and the temp is now 48F.
I’m sure I can find a project around here.
Other than checking all faucets are wrapped.
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/11/21/denver-mayor-promises-armed-resistance-to-ice-n3797209
There’s a word for this.
Starts with “i”.
Not “idiocy”.
I took my weekly trip to the range Monday, and decided to test my pocket carry gun, a .380.
Don’t judge.
Anyway, I loaded up with practice ammo, and the very first shot was a squib.
I’ve never had that happen before, even back when I did my own reloading.
It was disconcerting. I had to disassemble the gub to make sure the barrel wasn’t blocked by a bullet. Which, for this particular pistol, is difficult to do. Even though I did see a hole in the target, about 18 inches lower than point-of-aim. Just being thourough.
Fortunately, the barrel was clear.
Oh, and Lynn and anyone else who may have issues manipulating auto pistols:
I saw a youtube short from a firearms dealer talking about options you may want to consider to get more capacity than a revolver gives you. In my experience, he’s right about the optic offering you leverage, at least on my P365.
Stupid kids. I told them at the beginning of class to not use their phones. One girl was using her phone, trying to hide it, boom, confiscated. One of their parents will have to pick it up at the office. The need to be on the phone overrides any form of judgment. Too bad.
@ray:
Makes one wonder if the people who claim that phone use is addictive may have a point.
G.
It’s not the phone itself, it’s the constant connectivity of instagram, tictok, etc.
And it develops quickly.
n
The best gun is the gun you have on you when you need it.
A derringer in your boot beats a 1911 at home in a safe.
Yes, it does. And it has been happening for many years. Girls especially like it because they can talk about someone behind their back. Snarky little remarks that if the same thing were said about them would put them into tears.
The students are willing to risk getting the phone confiscated, trying to hide their actions, just to text someone. I usually spot the activity. I have seen backpacks placed on desks to hide the phone, the classic between the leg text so the phone can be quickly stuffed under the leg, the placing of the phone on the keyboard of their Chromebook so it looks like they are typing.
I am certain I have missed a few over time. I have a reputation of being lethal on cell phones which somewhat keeps the students from trying to use the phone. I also tell them if they really need to text, just ask me, and I will generally let them. There is no need to be sneaky, which is the part I really don’t like. Thinking they are pulling one over on the sub does not sit well with me.
I have seen the text/phone addiction at the collegiate level way back in 2015 when I worked on the UT (TN) campus. I would see students leaving a classroom and the first thing that goes in their hand is the cell phone. One time I was walking on the right side of the sidewalk, saw someone coming toward me with their face buried in the phone, so I stopped. She ran into me and then blamed me for not getting out of her way. I told her I was there first so “f” off buttercup. She looked shocked.
“Analysis-Legal hurdles ahead for Google’s forced sale of Chrome”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/analysis-legal-hurdles-ahead-googles-202323445.html
“(Reuters) – Efforts by U.S. antitrust regulators to break up Alphabet by forcing a sale of its Google Chrome browser and other proposals to limit its search dominance are likely to run into legal challenges on grounds the remedies are extreme.”
“After a ruling in August that Google illegally monopolized the search market, U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors argued to a judge on Wednesday that the company must sell Chrome, share data and search results with rivals and possibly sell its Android smartphone software.”
The laptop addiction at the collegiate level has been a problem for a much longer time.
When I sat in on the MIT class last week, I noticed about the same proportion of students surfing the web, etc. on their laptops as I saw at the mediocre state schools where I pursued my grad degree.
I took a paper notebook and my copy of the text. I didn’t need the book, but I got the professor’s signature on the title page after the lecture.
I took my weekly trip to the range Monday, and decided to test my pocket carry gun, a .380.
Don’t judge.
Anyway, I loaded up with practice ammo, and the very first shot was a squib.
One out of ten shots in a couple of my semi-automatics pistols is a failure to reload due to my limp wristedness. My wonderful XDM .40 is the absolute worst for feed problems and the absolute best shot of all my pistols.
I almost blew my head off starting looking down the barrel of my XDM when it suddenly finished feeding and shot because I had my stupid finger on the trigger. That is why I moved to revolvers. I just do not feel safe with my semi-autos.
“BREAKING: Gaetz Withdraws from Attorney General Consideration — Trump Responds (UPDATED)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/breaking-gaetz-withdraws-attorney-general-consideration/
The RINOs got him.
Holy “I can’t afford it Batman”. The wife and I would never see each other for days in a place like that. We are considering that our current home is too large for our needs. I would like something about 2K SQFT, single level, with a two car garage. Even that is pushing our needs.
The problem is our current home is paid for, we know all the problem spots, moving would mean my wife would have to toss 75% of her junk and I would have to toss about 50% of my junk.
Yeah, it would a serious stretch for me and the wife. And probably double the mortgage payment, property tax, electricity, and insurance that we are now paying.
My problem is the 37 year old disabled daughter living with us. The drama is unreal. That house gets her further away from me. She just about did me in this election with her ultra liberal sayings. She was a serious Kamala supporter and trans this / trans that.
I have actually thought about buying a $300K house for her to live in next subdivision. But I figure that the wife would effectively move in with her and that would probably lead to a divorce.
“Danish Navy Hunts Down Chinese Ship Suspected Of ‘Sabotaging’ Baltic Sea Cables”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/baltic-sea-fiber-cable-disruption-remains-murky-danish-coast-guard-shadows-chinese
“On Monday, the Yi Peng 3, a Chinese-registered bulk carrier, was suspected of damaging two fiber-optic data cables beneath the Baltic Sea, which connect Finland, Germany, Sweden, and Lithuania. The bulk carrier is anchored in Kattegat Bay alongside a Danish Naval vessel.”
Looks like the Danes are going to get a new freighter ship.
“12 UK Storm Shadow Missiles Were Fired Into Russia, Local Sources Say”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/stocks-slump-ukraine-fires-uk-storm-shadow-missiles-russia
WW III is coming.
The serious players will all try to position themselves before the new player takes the field.
Time is getting shorter.
n
The fact that Putin hasn’t taken out Zelenskyy yet makes me wonder what Russia is up to. Maybe Z isn’t really in charge. plugs’ puppet masters may control Z.
/tinfoilhat
@MrAtoz:
Maybe Putin thinks that there’s less chance of other militaries (particularly the U.S.) getting shirty if he waits until after Jan 20th? </wildassguess>
G.
Trump wants Zelenskyy alive to learn what he knows about the Biden crime syndicate, speicifically, the Vindman twins.
Putin got to test a new ICBM today.
Plus, the US doesn’t have that many ATACMS missiles to give to Ukraine. The Russians learned quite a bit about the system on Monday, information which will be widely shared.
Maybe Putin hasn’t a lot of trust in his generals following his lead … and even less in his nukes working?
I run the latest Fedora on my “road” laptop and home server. It just works.
I have current Linux Miint installed as a second boot partition on the laptop, but I rarely do anything with that beyond keep it updated.
My NVR is running on out of date Mint. I was able to open a wav file on a thumbdrive (from the school show) that windows wouldn’t open. I saved it, but I can’t figure out how to get it OFF the damned machine because of the way linux treats thumbdrives as read only. And I can’t get samba or smb figured out to share anything on the machine to my windows network.
What is two clicks in windows – sharing a drive or folder – is something I can’t figure out in linux.
Or using a thumbdrive….
n
The Dems and RINOs are going to regret making a fuss about Matt Gaetz.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2024/11/21/trump-picks-floridian-pam-bondi-attorney-general-after-gaetz-withdraws/
How big is the wav file?
If you’re still running Mint … 18.3 … ? … the NTFS support was iffy.
Reformat the thumb drive as FAT and the partition should mount read/write.
You could also try running gparted from Mint to format the thumb drive as FAT32, but you want to be *really* careful with that tool. You could easily end up formatting one of your hard drive partitions.
The thumbdrive should be FAT already. It’s 8Gb. The file is just over 1Gb.
n
Mint 19.3, Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
I thought it was still Mint 18xxx so I must have run update at some point.
The other tool just says “your version of mint is 587 days past EOL.” approximately. Doesn’t LIST the version number, which would have been useful, and which it KNOWS because it compared it… which is typical linux.
n
I have to clean out our dining room this weekend. The PC with the Mint 18.3 partition is in there so I’ll fire it up on Saturday before I pull my wife’s ad hoc “home office” so we can use the table for dinner.
Ellen in The Cotswolds? Seriously?
At The Farmer’s Dog too?!?
“Clarkson’s Farm” was my in-flight entertainment going to/from Boston last week. Jeremy Clarkson isn’t exactly “woke”, but he wouldn’t turn down free publicity regardless of the source.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/11/21/ellen-degeneres-leaves-us-for-cotswolds-following-trump-win/
I’m not sure what a “power lesbian” is, or where that particular label came from, but crazy is crazy…
S/he killed him because he wouldn’t turn out the lights, but the real reason is that s/he’s crazy.
n
smells like defamation…
https://thefederalist.com/2024/11/20/judge-rules-msnbc-pundit-potentially-defamed-trump-attorney/
Isn’t a “power lesbian” the one pulling the train in the women’s prison?
Bad Daddy!
19.3. Whatever you are running is still on one of my old computers stashed in the dining room.
18.04 was still a fairly popular flavor of Ubuntu until Microsoft deprecated it for VS Code support last year.
The problem wasn’t VS Code as much as Redmond not trusting their developers to deliver code without clean Coverity scans. Coverity is weird about certain time/date routines on older versions of GLibC, and 18.04 Ubuntu was right on the edge where the scans would generate false alarms.
“Dig their heels in.” WA State. Yeah.
I recently learned that one of my former students/fellow grad student in WA State now goes by a female name and pronouns.
I hadn’t heard from him in a few years and figured he was grumpy about our differing views of the Masters program and the branch campus CS department in general.
Instead, she probably thinks I have a MAGA hat collection.
That sucks. She is one of the few people I know who would appreciate what I did at MIT last week.
It’s been a while since I burned an audio cd. I don’t remember it being this difficult.
I tried the windows way. Put blank disk in drive, when it asks, tell it to make an audio cd. Drag and drop files. Click thru wizard. Disk spins. Nothing gets written.
OK. I THINK the problem might be I selected mp3 files.
But then I used imgburn to read the original disk, then burn and confirm a new one. Still waiting for the verification to complete.
I must be getting old.
n
verification failed multiple times. Maybe my media is too old.
I’m trying again. I really just want to hear the last disc of the Golden Compass audiobook when I drive to the BOL this week. I don’t want to take the real commercial disc with if I can avoid it. But I will if that’s the only choice I have.
Eventually, I should get a way to use mp3s in the Ranger. My phone thru a blutooth adapter to the radio has too low a level to be useful over road noise.
More low priority stuff to do.
n
Rabbit hole.
The factory radio for my trim level wouldn’t read MP3 disks. That was the next trim level up. Now, in the 2003 Ranger the radio is just a radio, so I could replace it with an after market, but the current affordable radios are complete chinese crap, and the ranger has a weird 1 ½ DIN opening, so not everything fits.
I might have, or could get on ebay, the next level up factory radio which DOES read mp3s off discs. I might do that.
I really like factory. It’s sturdy and is JUST A RADIO. And it has buttons for everything so I don’t have to look at it. I hate touchscreens as I’m usually bouncing around and invariably touch the wrong thing.
I also like RDS displaying the track and artist info, AND I like a couple of the HD Radio second channels that stations use here in Houston. My Expy has both of those, and it’s nice.
I might have to bite the bullet and just get a good, new radio.
n
Completed and verified the second time. Maybe using media branded “CompUSA” is part of the issue.
n
The factory radio for my trim level wouldn’t read MP3 disks. That was the next trim level up. Now, in the 2003 Ranger the radio is just a radio, so I could replace it with an after market, but the current affordable radios are complete chinese crap, and the ranger has a weird 1 ½ DIN opening, so not everything fits.
The factory radio in my 2005 Expedition Eddie Bauer would read certain MP3 CD disks but not all. And it would be playing one and randomly lockup so there was some serious incompatibilities there. I think that the lockup was related to the formatted size of the CD disk, the radio could only address so much and then fall off the cliff.
So, having the fancy radio in your 2003 Ranger might not be any better for MP3 CDs.
The firmware in the MP3 CD players didn’t tolerate variable bitrate well.
17 years?
Tiger Direct kept some of the stores open in Florida for a couple of years, but they were all gone by 2009.
17 years?
– has it really been that long? I know I have a spindle of CD-r discs somewhere, I even saw them recently. But I’ve been cleaning and moving stuff, so now I can’t find it. In the drawer where recordable media live, I have three spindles of various DVD r flavors, but only two CD-r discs, and those were CompUSA…
I’m kinda surprised that it only took two tries, but theywere in cardboard sleeves, inside a plastic flip top box, undisturbed in a file cabinet drawer, the canonical cool, dry, place.
n
>> I was shivering in bed last night so I turned on the heat.
Grab another blanket or two. Saves on the heat bill. For best results include a 100 percent down comforter. Though read descriptions carefully. real down fill is not cheap. I’ve only seen a few at the thrifts but most often good values.
>> Oh, and Lynn and anyone else who may have issues manipulating auto pistols:
I saw a youtube short from a firearms dealer talking about options you may want to consider to get more capacity than a revolver gives you. In my experience, he’s right about the optic offering you leverage, at least on my P365.
My vote is for the Shield EZ.
Santa, please leave one of these in @Lynn’s Xmas stocking…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/I7l8t3VJGCU?feature=share
Wheel gubs rule!
Santa, please leave one of these in @Lynn’s Xmas stocking…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/I7l8t3VJGCU?feature=share
Wheel gubs rule!
I’ve got a S&W 629 with a 6 inch barrel. .44 mag cartridges get launched with a foot long fireball out the forward facing end. I had a guy shooting 9mm next to me at a firing range a few years ago. After my first shot, he asked me what my cannon was and moved down a few spaces.
https://www.smith-wesson.com/product/n-frame-163606
Thanks, drwilliams!
I had a nice outing in the snow (about two inches on the ground, and a dusting clinging to the trees – very pretty). -4 degrees C (25-ish F?), sunshine, and little to no wind.
Shooting in the snow is special, because the whiteness offers excellent visibility to pick up movements of game, and there is enough light to see by for much longer than on a day without snow cover. On the downside, the snow muffles sounds, so one does not hear game approaching as well as usual, and the whiteness also results in high contrast, with some very dark dark-spots in the woods, where anything could be hiding. I am seriously considering saving up some (considerable…) beer money to get a thermal spotting device for next season. Two to three thousand bucks for a good one is a lot of beer, though…
Clothing was satisfactory, no cold hands, feet or head, although I must look out a slightly warmer pair of gloves for next time. Gloves are always a compromise between warmth and dexterity, and I generally prefer to err on the dexterity side, as it is easy enough to stick a lightly-gloved hand in ones pocket or in a muff for additional warmth. Nonetheless, yesterday’s summer-weight pair were just a bit too thin for the temperature.
My recent acquisition of a tube-like fleece for covering neck and head turned out to be a good one – the material is warm, but not overly so, soft on bare skin, and not too tight, which is the usual pitfall that I find with “Buffs” and other tube scarves – they are not stretchy enough, which means they eventually feel constricting.
I did discover that my nice new teddy-bear fleece warm over-garment is a bit too bulky when worn while seated – it wanted to interfere with shouldering my rifle, which is no good. I see it being relegated to the car as a change of clothes.
I watched a falcon hunting a young hare. The hare escaped, thanks to a couple of fast jinking manoeuvres, and the falcon flew back to sit on the top of my high seat and mutter imprecations about juvenile hare. Apparently the seat’s location is good for human and avian hunters alike. This raptor didn’t seem to mind my being there, unlike an owl I met some years ago, which was quite determined to chase me away, and did a lot of angry tuit-tuwooing when I wouldn’t budge.
I watched a fox in a beautiful silvery-red fur coat hunt rodents under the snow, locating them by sound and scent, then pouncing through the powdery white stuff. The fox was successful on about every other attempt.
Just at dusk, two roe deer appeared. One was running too fast for a shot. The other was in no hurry at all, but it chose to traverse my sector skylined on the top of a slope above me, so I had no backstop. Both live for another day. My neighbour on the next stand over got a deer, and my pals on the next shoot over had a great day, so we probably pushed the game out of our territory while arriving, and towards theirs, where they were already waiting. Teamwork.