09:09 – It was 48.2F (9C) when I took Colin out at 0645 this morning, cloudy and breezy. After a beautiful day yesterday, cooler weather, rain, and possible thunderstorms are to move in today and persist through Sunday.
When I sat down to work yesterday after lunch, I found a dead mouse on my desk. I picked it up by the tail and took it to show to Barbara. She screamed and levitated onto the dining room table*. Fortunately, I had a spare USB mouse on the shelf, so I plugged it into the hub. I coiled up the dead one’s tail, secured it with a twist-tie, and stuck it in the dishwasher to see if that’d revive it. I should probably stick my keyboard in as well.
Ever since the election, Kurt Schlichter has been taunting lefties about their massive fail and claiming that Trump has been winning at every turn. In his column this morning, he finally admits that Trump not only isn’t winning, he’s losing big-time. His only real success to date has been the confirmation of his SCOTUS candidate. Otherwise, he’s backed off or reversed himself on nearly all of his promises. He’s done nothing about his wall, expelling illegal immigrants, or even refusing to accept more of them. He promised to repeal ObamaCare as a top priority, and has done nothing. Sanctuary cities continue to mock him. We’re not withdrawing from NATO, nor even forcing other NATO countries to pay the costs of their own defense. We’re apparently not withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. In short, as I expected, Trump is just more of the same-old-same-old. The deep state is still running things, and will continue doing so until this country undergoes a complete reboot.
* Not really. She doesn’t much like real mice, live or dead, but USB mice don’t scare her.
Rain overnight, cool and clear this am. Currently 60F and 70%RH.
One more chance to work outdoors…..
While looking at maps yesterday, I identified a couple of areas that I drive past almost daily that had WAY more buildings, roads, etc than I thought. Houston has a lot of very deep lots compared to the frontage on the street, and some have a little driveway with a building on the frontage. The result is that you can have almost a city block worth of stuff and it’s pretty much out of view.
I haven’t felt as nervous, creeped out, stressed, and horrified in a long time during daylight hours. I turned into a driveway and drove into an apartment complex. Holy hell batman. I had no idea that such a sinister and oppressive place existed 50 feet off a major street in what is otherwise a ‘good’ part of town. Filthy, broken down, with a whole bunch of sullen people hanging around, with one dead-end entrance. Man, what a hole. The worst part is that it’s one fence away from a good neighborhood, with $500k homes, and I’d bet that NO ONE in that neighborhood even realizes it. This is a good reason to look at some overhead imagery of your AO….and then go take a look.
There are a couple of other areas I’ve identified to go look at too. Mostly they are completely surrounded by other development with only one road into the landlocked area. You could have ANYTHING on a wooded lot in some parts of town.
n
You’d think the USB* mice would be the most terrifying….
n
*Ultra Scary Badass
I’ve been to several “dead end” apartment complexes in Vegas. Co-worker of a friend lived in one. Seedy dudes hanging out smoking ciggies, one way in and out, mostly Hispanic and Asian.
Broken windows, jury-rigged repairs, trash everywhere, low ceilings, hulking feel to the building.
nasty
Otherwise known as: Why section 8 should be fought off at all costs.
“This is a good reason to look at some overhead imagery of your AO….and then go take a look.”
I did just that in depth before making an offer on the house I currently own, partly for security reasons and partly to be sure there were no “surprise” building works or other development in the offing.
In our case, the urban invisibility effect you describe works to our advantage, as my home is not visible from any road and also not obvious or easy to find for anybody who has no business actually being there.
I subbed Tuesday for the gym teacher. I am his favorite sub and he calls me first when he needs a sub.
In one class a girl took out her cell phone. I told her to put it away. She ignored me. I told her again in a very loud voice at which time she complied. A few minutes later she headed for the changing room (also a bathroom, we were in the gym) and I told her to give me her cell phone. I had to tell her a second time. She gave me the phone and suddenly did not need to go to the bathroom. I was going to give her phone back at the end of the period. Then she copped an attitude. Phone went straight to the vice principal and her parents will need to pick up the phone. She was pissed.
Yesterday at the baseball game I talked with the coach and explained in further detail what I had done. I had left him a note. He said what I did was fine and that he personally told the class that when a sub in his class they will be respected and obeyed. If a sub (generally me) report any problems the class will suffer. He then said that he also sent the girl to the vice principal because of her disrespect. This will result in after school suspension.
I like teachers that support me when I have to discipline a student. He is one of those teachers.
Obuttwad endorse Macron. Not that he would interfere or anything. Maybe he’s gonna buy a giant villa in France. Like all the celebriturds.
WRT surprise favelas in one’s AO: wife and I hadn’t even looked very closely at overheads but were driving around one day a couple of years ago here and stumbled on just such a place, in its rural northern New England manifestation, just a few yards from the lake shore and about three miles northwest of us. Sorta like an old-timey Appalachian holler, with crappy-looking trailers and dumpy collapsing houses, with various defunct vehicles and parts thereof, in kind of a wetland bog of sorts. One or two denizens loitering and of course smoking ciggies and staring vacantly at us. We expected a couple of those guys from the “Deliverance” set to show up any minute and tell us to squeal like a pig.
There are several trailer park “communities” in this town but nothing like that; most appear to be pretty neat and well-kept with Normals in and around them.
WRT France’s election; the fix is probably in for Macron, but even if it isn’t and LePen gets in, I wouldn’t expect any abrupt and wild changes based on her campaign rhetoric, just like w/tRump over here, as RBT has discussed above. New “boss” same as the old “boss.” The Deep State obviously got to him a few weeks ago somehow and he was told how things will be, just as they did with Obola.
I will continue to hope and pray for no more wars and that they will leave our Bill of Rights alone, particularly the Second Amendment, which has already long since been crippled (since the 1930s, what a surprise!) which guarantees all the rest for us citizens (not subjects or serfs).
You guys want Deliverance, try visiting this area and cruising around the back roads. Better yet, don’t. We almost bought a house in Jefferson that was within spitting distance of Copperhead Road. We’re maybe 45 miles east of there now, but the environment remains quite similar. I’m sure there are old-fashioned moonshine stills in this county, and the newspaper reports meth lab busts periodically. I don’t understand why anyone would want to build a meth lab at a fixed location instead of just making it in the back of a van or tractor trailer, but they keep doing it. And keep getting caught.
https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2017/05/03/swamp-people-47-trump-0-n2321868
Coulter is pissed off, but like Patrick, she still believes in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, i.e., that our elections and voting can work and there are actual “parties” still. Time for them to finally admit that we were all pantsed again and the “Establishment” is laughing their asses off. Next we’ll be given “noogies” and they’ll steal our lunch money. Oh wait….
Like RBT says above, and some of the others here, including me have said; we can’t vote our way out of this mess anymore. That time is gone, probably forever. Unfortunately it’s gonna take a hard reboot, although we can hope for the warm and fuzzy one, and there will be a lot of grief and pain involved. May happen next week, next year, or next decade but it’s coming.
“… why anyone would want to build a meth lab at a fixed location instead of just making it in the back of a van or tractor trailer, but they keep doing it. And keep getting caught.”
Same thing up here. We’re not dealing with the sharpest knives in the drawer; they mainly use the one-pot method of cooking that shit and do not have the brains or the wherewithal to cobble up a “Breaking Bad” operation. But it’s nice to have the running water and toilet at the fixed locations and doing it out of a vehicle is probably beyond their imaginations or abilities.
Also, figure that the LE “catches” are the tip of the iceberg; the other 90% are still out there, day after day, cooking up their shit. Plus we also get the heroin and pills thing in this AO. While the helicopters are busy searching for pot plants. Brilliant.
We hit 100F yesterday, here in the California High Desert. Probably the same again today. Rainfall is over, we had just under 5″ total for the year, nothing but an occasional few tenths here and there from passing storms is to be expected until fall.
The swamp cooler has been prepped – new pads, new pump, bearings oiled. The pleasant scent of new aspen, as a gentleman here noted the other day, wafting through the house.
My tomatoes failed last year – soil exhaustion or possible not enough water during the drought? Cucumbers and Bell Peppers did well, as did several varieties of hot peppers. The official last frost was April 15th, time to plant! I might try some herbs this year.
I rescued another cat – found him curled up unmoving on my lawn Tuesday morning. I assumed he was a car strike victim and a goner and took him to the vet to make it quick. To my surprise it was ‘just’ three badly sprained legs, probably a fall from a great height. So he’s enjoying soft food and enforced bed rest in the garage.
Not all of them are morons. Paul Jones, who teaches organic chemistry at Wake Forest, commented to me one time that he’d love to have a good meth cooker as a lab assistant. He said anyone who could make meth in large quantities without blowing himself up must really know his way around a lab.
Just be thankful that the feds haven’t thought of spraying the entire US rural woodlands with Agent Orange to kill all the marijuana plants.
Oops. I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned that.
I have been browsing the internet for the past couple of days, absorbing everything related to health care. It makes no difference if ObuttWadNoCare stays in place or if tRumpCrazyCare is passed, Big Medicine/Pharma and Big Insurance are going to screw us all. ALL premiums are going to soar/sore (yes, it is going to hurt).
Medical problems like asthma are going to see tremendous increases in premiums and even greater decreases in covered medications.
This will be spilling over into Medicare too. I have already received notices that our Part B, Part D, and Part F (Medicare Supplement) are going to take a big jump. It looks like we will be spending half of our combined Social inSecurity checks on healthcare premiums and then spending even more out of pocket as more and more tier 1 and 2 drugs will become tier 3, 4, and 5.
I can see now that in the not too distant future that our Social inSecurity will be entirely taken up by medical premiums.
I had project a worse case scenario for our 401Ks and Deferred Comp plans and it looks like it is going to happen.
I repeat, it makes no matter what the gooberment does, the insurance companies and medical providers are going to grab as much of our money, and more, as they can. There will be no improvements in our quality of life.
All the pontificating going on on the House Floor today is just a distraction. The Liberal/Fascist/Democrats are playing the high and mighty role and the Republicrats do not have a clue.
The enemy is the gooberment, all the gooberment and their shock troops are the K Street lobbyists and Big Medicine/Pharma and Big Insurance.
Thanks @Ed.
Heh, I remember reading the recomendation about putting keyboards through the dishwasher in PCHiaN. I was sure it was an elaborate hoax until I realised O’Reilly would never have allowed such a hoax on liability grounds.
“Pre-Bribing a President”
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/160266438656/pre-bribing-a-president
I like the way Scott Adams mind thinks !
Breaking Cat News, “May the 4th be with you”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-96qOPUQAASGoN.jpg
I don’t understand why anyone would want to build a meth lab at a fixed location instead of just making it in the back of a van or tractor trailer, but they keep doing it.
You use a motorhome. Everyone knows that after Breaking Bad.
Ever since the election, Kurt Schlichter has been taunting lefties about their massive fail and claiming that Trump has been winning at every turn. In his column this morning, he finally admits that Trump not only isn’t winning, he’s losing big-time.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/05/04/the-establishment-is-laughing-at-you-president-trump-n2321604
Good advice to Trump. He won’t take it. Just look at Trumpcare.
But Trump is playing the long game. Or he thinks he is.
I’ve been playing around with “KODI” lately to see what I can stream, now KODI is all over the news as the pirate software du jour. KODI itself is not illegal, addons let you pirate stream. I wanted to see if GOTGv2 would stream, yup, a nasty cam copy was up as soon as it was released overseas (torrent also). I launch IPVanish when I fire up KODI.
Anybody else tried it out?
I don’t understand why anyone would want to build a meth lab at a fixed location instead of just making it in the back of a van or tractor trailer, but they keep doing it.
You use a motorhome. Everyone knows that after Breaking Bad.
Nah, you use houses being fumigated. Wait, no, you build a bunker under a commercial laundry cleaning warehouse.
Here you go Lynn.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/nasa-wants-you-to-make-its-fortran-code-run-faster/
Once again “Dilbert” has a point:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/160305585086/the-healthcare-confusopoly
Man, what a hole. The worst part is that it’s one fence away from a good neighborhood, with $500k homes, and I’d bet that NO ONE in that neighborhood even realizes it.
In Vantucky (Vancouver, WA) we found the “dead end” trailer park near our rental looking at houses in Zillow. It was tucked away in the corner of our neighborhood, down a side street. “Avenida del Norte” kinda stuck out since most of the streets in SW WA are numbered. Your $10/hr housekeeper has to live somewhere.
Of course, my view of SW WA is that it is a huge “dead end” zone. Before we left, the working age adult labor force non participation rate (real unemployment) was 37%. The trailer park probably had a higher percentage of people actually working for a living than the surrounding “nice” neighborhood.
Today is Kent State Day.
Here you go Lynn.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/nasa-wants-you-to-make-its-fortran-code-run-faster/
No freaking way. I have the source code from NASA’s Gibbs Free Energy Reactor program. I did not think it could be so but it is worse code than our Fortran code.
[snip] Just be thankful that the feds haven’t thought of spraying the entire US rural woodlands with Agent Orange to kill all the marijuana plants.[snip]
Ever hear of Paraquat? The US government has proven more than willing to spray it on / around brown people.
No freaking way. I have the source code from NASA’s Gibbs Free Energy Reactor program. I did not think it could be so but it is worse code than our Fortran code.
My number one rule about working code is, “Don’t fsck with working code.”
NASAs best option would be to call the Energy Dept. to check on the status of this project.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/llvm-to-get-fortran-compiler-that-targets-parallel-gpus-in-clusters/
I was a little disappointed with my compilers class this semester. I was expecting to get to play with LLVM byte code on the back end, but most of the class lacked the programming skills. I settled for HHVM byte code — Facebook is still The Devil IMHO, but they have something with their PHP VM.
I’m taking bets on whether The Senate passes tRumpCare. The Libturdians are literally screaming millions “are sentenced to death” if tRumpCare passes. Also screeching “the Republicans didn’t even read…” lol! Twitter is bashing Dumbo’s for that one. It doesn’t matter to me, I’ll still be on Tricare until Medicare age. I can only hope the “millions sentenced to death” includes plenty of Libturdians.
“The Cloud Computing Tidal Wave”
http://www.cringely.com/2017/05/04/cloud-computing-tidal-wave/
I’m taking bets on whether The Senate passes tRumpCare.
I’ll bet two cents that the Senate does not pass Trumpcare. We shall soon be hearing “Don’t pass Trumpcare for the children !” in those hallowed halls of the Senate.
I thought that Trump could turn the ship of feddies. I may be wrong.
“The Cloud Computing Tidal Wave”
I think Cringely is wrong about Citrix. They are huge in healthcare since HIPAA compliance is easier to verify if you run your own servers.
He may be right about the profits for traditional PC manufacturers, however. I’m typing this on a circa-2012 ThinkPad I retrofitted with 8 GB of Crucial Ballistix RAM and a 3/4 TB SSD.
“List of Obamacare Taxes Repealed”
http://www.atr.org/list-obamacare-taxes-repealed
“The American Health Care Act (HR 1628) passed by the House today reduces taxes on the American people by over $1 trillion. The bill abolishes the following taxes imposed by Obama and the Democrat party in 2010 as part of Obamacare:”
“-Abolishes the Obamacare Individual Mandate Tax which hits 8 million Americans each year.
“-Abolishes the Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax. Together with repeal of the Individual Mandate Tax repeal this is a $270 billion tax cut.”
Wow. I had no idea that these taxes were this much.
“The Cloud Computing Tidal Wave”
I think Cringely is wrong about Citrix. They are huge in healthcare since HIPAA compliance is easier to verify if you run your own servers.
I don’t disagree but I do note that means that Citrix is becoming a niche server and is no longer part of the tidal wave of the Cloud.
I don’t disagree but I do note that means that Citrix is becoming a niche server and is no longer part of the tidal wave of the Cloud.
Citrix maintains the Xen hypervisor, a key cloud component at Rackspace among other vendors.
A shakeout will probably take the major players down to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. At some point, however, I believe “The Cloud” will suffer a security breach so heinous that a lot of navel gazing happens in large IT organizations regarding what is essentially returning to the mainframe computing model except with less competent administration than IBM in the glory days.
Gmail came tantalizingly close to a huge breach this week with someone faking “Google Docs” services. Who knows — enough people may be infected to cause serious damage. Check your Google account permissions and make sure that you don’t see that service listed among those authorized to look at your account contents.
$1 trillion in tax savings. That there should kill off “millions” of libturds/SJW/BLM/LBGTXYZ.
$1 trillion in tax savings. That there should kill off “millions” of libturds/SJW/BLM/LBGTXYZ.
Do it for the children !
Cut and paste from my ARRL newsletter, changes coming to FRS/GMRS and CB
————————————————————————————————
FCC Personal Radio Service Revisions Will Affect GMRS, FRS, CB, Other Part 95 Devices
Soon it will be legal for CBers to work DX on 11 meters. In a lengthy Report and Order (R&O) in a proceeding (WT Docket No. 10-119) dating back 7 years, the FCC has announced rule changes affecting the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), the Family Radio Service (FRS), the Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS or “CB”), and other applications that fall under the FCC’s Part 95 Personal Radio Services (PRS) rules and regulations. Part 95 devices typically are low-power units that communicate over shared spectrum and, with some exceptions, do not require a license.
“This draft Report and Order completes a thorough review of the PRS rules in order to modernize them, remove outdated requirements, and reorganize them to make it easier to find information,” the FCC said in a summary attached to the R&O.
GMRS and FRS devices are used for personal communication over several miles; compact FRS handhelds, often sold in pairs, are widely available. While GMRS and FRS share spectrum, GMRS provides for greater communications range and requires an FCC license; FRS does not.
“The rules will increase the number of communications channels for both GMRS and FRS, expand digital capabilities to GMRS (currently allowed for FRS), and increase the power/range for certain FRS channels to meet consumer demands for longer range communications (while maintaining higher power capabilities for licensed GMRS),” the FCC explained.
The amended rules eventually will eliminate combination FRS/GMRS radios for the most part, but allow up to 2 W PEP output for FRS transceivers. “[M]any current users of GMRS/FRS combination radios do not obtain licenses to operate over the GMRS frequencies in those radios,” the FCC said. “Much of this problem likely arises as a result of the mass consumer marketing of combination devices for sale to the public in large quantities to users who do not know about or do not understand the licensing requirements attached to such radios and obligations associated with operating in the GMRS.”
Inexpensive Family Radio Service handhelds are widely available.
The FCC said it no longer will certify FRS devices that incorporate GMRS capabilities or capabilities of other services. Existing GMRS/FRS combination radios that operate at power levels of less than 2 W ERP will be reclassified as FRS devices; existing GMRS/FRS radios that operate above that power level will be reclassified as GMRS devices, requiring an individual license. Radios that can transmit on GMRS repeater input channels will continue to be licensed individually and not by rule.
The FCC said changes to the decades-old Citizens Band (CB) rules will remove outdated requirements, including certain labeling requirements. DXing on Citizens Band will become legal too. Once the new rules are effective, CBers will be allowed to contact stations outside of the FCC-imposed — but widely disregarded — 155.3-mile distance limit. The revised CB rules further clarify how hands-free devices can be used with CB radios and will allow the use of wireless microphones with CB radios. The FCC left in place the current power limits for the CB Radio Service.
Most of the new Part 95 rules will become effective 30 days after their publication in The Federal Register.
OFD was a good do-bee and got the GMRS license. From my own ARRL email:
“Important Notice — New MF and LF Bands are Not Yet Available to Use!
The new 630-meter and 2,200-meter bands are not yet available for Amateur Radio use. The effective date of the recent FCC Report & Order (R&O) granting these allocations has not yet been determined, and until the start date has been set, it is not legal under an Amateur Radio license to transmit on either band.
The fact that the new rules contain a new information-collection requirement — notification of operation to the United Telecoms Council (UTC) — complicates the matter of determining an effective date. According to the FCC R&O, the Office of Management and Budget (under the Paperwork Reduction Act) must first approve the information-collection requirements in §97.303(g)(2), which must be in place before radio amateurs can use the new bands.
Once that happens, the FCC will publish a notice in The Federal Register “announcing such approval and the relevant effective date,” the R&O said. ARRL will announce the UTC notification procedures and the effective date to use these new bands as soon as these are known.”
“But to have crowds of left and right coming out to confront one another violently, in a country whose citizens possess 300 million guns, is probably not a good idea.”
Haha, Patrick, good one! That could never happen here!
http://buchanan.org/blog/berkeley-birthed-right-126920
Spent part of this week on basics.
Stack food.
Fill bottles with water.
Repack bulk. I put the 40 pounds of tortilla mix into buckets. One 20 pound bag fits well, with room for a 5 pound bag of flour too. I broke the other bag down into 6 cup (36 tortilla) bags and vac sealed them. I broke the bag to have some onhand to try, and then needed to repack the rest. Now I’ve got 2 months (10/day) of tortilla mix in 2 5 gallon buckets, with an additional 10 pounds of flour as a bonus.
Work in the garden.
nick
“changes coming to FRS/GMRS and CB”
Thanks.
I just ordered a couple more hand-helds, here:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J1BD9SS/
They’re only 16-channel units and are limited to 400-520 MHz UHF, but at $30 for two of them, two spare batteries, two chargers, and a programming cable I figured they were worth it. That takes me up to about a dozen interoperable hand-helds, including half a dozen blister-pack FRS/GMRS units, four UV-82’s, and these two. Amazon also sells them in cases of 10 or 20, but I figured Barbara would shoot me if I order 20 of them.
I’ve exchanged email with several people who recommended the BF-888’s as inexpensive, well-built, and reliable. One woman said they have half a dozen of these that they’ve been using on their cattle ranch for more than a year with no problems at all. She said the range is good and they get at least 14 hours out of a charge, I assume at about a 90/5/5 ratio.
Hmm, I read thru some of the reviews on amazon, and even the complementary ones expressed issues that would be deal breakers for me.
Typical (paraphrased) favorable review:
‘I have bought 2 sets of these and they work well for me, except that the batteries died on the first set after only one use.’
‘These worked great even tho the antennas fall off’
‘worked ok the one time I used them to talk with someone I could see’
Typical unfavorable review:
‘Batteries wouldn’t charge’
‘couldn’t get programming to work’
‘on my third set, first two were returned.’
They are cheap, but they don’t sound too reliable, and there are technical and legal issues that might be important to some people….
n
Let us know what YOU think after using them for a while.
BTW, I can tell some info fatigue is setting in.
No one mentioned the on campus stabbing attack in Austin, or the active shooter in Tx.
They are getting to be just part of the background noise, and that my friends is how you boil the frog.
n
They’re supposed to arrive Tuesday. I’ll get them charged and programmed with FRS/GMRS frequencies and see how they do.
I don’t expect them to be as robustly built as the UV-82’s, but I have enough favorable feedback from people whose opinions I respect that I suspect they’ll do fine. Their receivers apparently aren’t as good as the UV-82’s, but for short-range tactical comms they should be fine. The transmitters are rated at 2W. And for $30 total, I’m not risking much.
Re: background noise
It’s just more straws on the camel’s back. Eventually, things are going to devolve into real violence, and once that starts happening it’ll snowball fast. But anyone who tells you he knows when that’ll start is just blowing smoke. It might be later today, or it might be five or ten years. But it’s going to happen.
“Amazon also sells them in cases of 10 or 20, but I figured Barbara would shoot me if I order 20 of them.”
Does she have to know?
She knows all…