Cool, damp, and windy is my prediction for today…
I’m putting this up early as today is my science teaching volunteer day at the daughter’s school. Rocks and geology this month. hmmmm. I thought it was going to be electricity. Bummer.
I’ll check in later, but you guys are on your own this am….
n
9º and sunny. Light winds make being outside tolerable. This cold means not much slush on the roads. The only downside is that it took a while to clean the frost off the windshield.
Wife is feeling a little better. Sore from coughing and difficulty breathing, but that’s to be expected. She’s getting the gunk out of her lungs, which is good. Regular doctor tomorrow for a followup should give her a clearer picture. Thank God for modern medicine.
Speaking of which – if it were not for modern medicine, I would have been dead a half-dozen times over. It’s because of modern medicine that I’m still alive, and because of that, I have my children. Never would I think that I don’t owe my life to my predecessors.
On the other hand, I’ve worked hard to improve my lot in life, and to provide for my family. The thought that “I didn’t build that” just doesn’t sound right. Truly, I stood on the shoulders of giants. I expect those to follow to take what I leave and do well with it. I give it to the future freely, unconditionally. On the other hand, I could have just huddled under a blanket and done nothing with it. THAT is the true waste.
On the other hand, I’ve worked hard to improve my lot in life, and to provide for my family. The thought that “I didn’t build that” just doesn’t sound right.
This +1000 People don’t realize how much Obola crushed this country. We are heading for full Commie if we don’t keep a check on things.
Dilbert: “Health Problems”
https://dilbert.com/strip/2019-02-18
Oh gosh, I want to post this on my office door. Dare I ?
I lost a portion of my hearing back in 1986 when a main steam line warming line came loose about 20 ft away from where I was working in a power plant. That 3,600 psia, 1,000 F steam blasted an incredible amount through that one inch hole to the atmosphere. I was wearing ear plugs and ear muffs since I was working on the 60,000 hp baby steam turbine that was wailing like a banshee at 5,600 to 5,700 rpm as the boiler demanded. And there was another 60,000 hp baby steam turbine right next to it. The 1.1 million hp steam turbine was right above me on top of the building, three of them. Martin Lake Steam Electric Station, right outside Tyler Texas.
When the steam line broke, the world went white, I could not hear anything since the sound overwhelmed my ears. I jumped off the baby steam turbine and ran 80 ft to the building exit door. By the time I got to the door, the steam in the building was visible and starting to obscure the door. This was a building 60 ft tall, 100 ft deep, and a 1/4 mile long. The operators rode bikes inside it to make their rounds.
Anyway, I almost totally lost my hearing for 24 hours, it came back the next day. But, I had a very little noise in my right ear. Now I have tinnitus in both ears and the right ear has a screaming 3,600 rpm motor in it.
xkcd: “Physics Suppression”
https://www.xkcd.com/2113/
Man, there is a mafia in every collective nowadays !
Explained:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2113:_Physics_Suppression
I’m putting this up early as today is my science teaching volunteer day at the daughter’s school. Rocks and geology this month. hmmmm. I thought it was going to be electricity. Bummer.
Excellent !
One of the Smithsonian museums in DC has an awesome rock and geology collection. The amount of quartz’s displays with all of the colors is simply amazing.
Over The Hedge: uncelebrated birthdays
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2019/02/19
There is nothing sadder than an uncelebrated birthday. True dat.
Martin Lake Steam Electric Station, right outside Tyler Texas.
Small world. My nightmare since December has been the new segment of the toll road around Tyler, including a Christmas Eve plate camera debugging session. Only log checks on Christmas Day — a holiday miracle!
God only knows why they need a toll road, but it generates money. Lots of trucks and Oklahoma plates going somewhere.
Not quite. I haven’t celebrated a birthday in 30+ years. Best decision I ever made. F-bombs come out when people that know me try to wish me a happy birthday. It is NOT a pleasant thing for everyone.
“America’s Socialist Revolution has officially begun”
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/americas-socialist-revolution-has-officially-begun-24617/
“They find personal wealth utterly revolting, and they’ll stop at nothing to redistribute it.”
“Still Using Windows 7? Microsoft’s Next Update Is Critical”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/366610/still-using-windows-7-microsofts-next-update-is-critical
“If you want to continue receiving Windows updates, then the next Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 update is critical as it adds support for SHA-2 encryption. Without it, future updates can’t be downloaded.”
I wonder if one will be able to use Windows Update after this with a brand new Windows 7 installation ?
I suspect you’ll be able to pull down a roll-up update, then this update, as stand-alones to get up-to-date.
Of course, Windows 7 support will be going away soon enough. (I hate that. I have Server 2008 boxes I have to retire & I cannot until the bean-eaters get over their tiffs.)
I wonder if one will be able to use Windows Update after this with a brand new Windows 7 installation ?
–that’s a good question. I still install win7….
n
–that’s a good question. I still install win7….
Microsoft will either have to decide they’re serious about ending Windows 7 or make support generally available for the newest processor/chipset generations from AMD and Intel.
Try to buy a new laptop capable of running Windows 7.
It looks like Apple will fix their laptops finally. The “101” MacBook Pro, the last laptop they sold with a decent keyboard and upgradable memory/hard drive, will probably not make the cut for the next MacOS.
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/18/2019-macbook-pro-6k-display-airpods-airpower/
In the last year, I see more ThinkPads in airports where I used to see MacBook Pros.
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – In the Red”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-in-the-red/
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, aka “Che” OC, believes that if Amazon brings $27 billion to New York in tax revenue minus a $3 billion tax break is somehow a $3 Billion loss. Liberal math equals no deal. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2019.”
Green new math !
Try to buy a new laptop capable of running Windows 7.
Yes, I have decided to start planning on transitioning our shop to Windows 10 Pro. I do not want to but it is obvious that the market is following Microsoft. We just do not have the money for the transition right now.
And, these ultra high resolution displays are scaring me at the moment. We have already had customers complaining about the text display size on them.
“China wants to put a solar farm in space by 2025”
https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/18/china-solar-farm-power-station-space-2025/
“Humanity uses a lot of energy, and while solar power here on Earth is doing a reasonable job of contributing to the electricity mix, scientists have long hypothesized that gathering the sun’s energy from space would be a lot more effective. And now China says it’s going to be the first to do exactly that, announcing plans to build an interstellar power station that will orbit the Earth at 36,000 kilometers.”
“According to China’s state-backed Science and Technology Daily, Chinese scientists plan to build and launch small power stations into the stratosphere between 2021 and 2025, upgrading to a megawatt-level station in 2030 and a gigawatt-level facility high above the earth before 2050. Without atmospheric interference or night-time loss of sunlight, these space-based solar farms could provide an inexhaustible source of clean energy. The China Academy of Space Technology Corporation claims such a set-up could “reliably supply energy 99 per cent of the time, at six-times the intensity” of solar installations on earth.”
Interesting. I’ve been reading about SPS (solar power satellites) for 30 ? 40 ? years now.
Hat tip to:
https://www.codeproject.com/script/Mailouts/View.aspx?mlid=14169&_z=1988477
We are truly living in the future.
ADD: Interstellar power station ???
And, these ultra high resolution displays are scaring me at the moment. We have already had customers complaining about the text display size on them.
I have a 2560×1440 display on my company laptop. I set the display size of text, apps, etc. to 200%.
I’m the last person buying laptops with 768p displays for my personal use. For 14″ screens, more resolution is pretty pointless unless you use the laptop for watching pr0n frequently.
“Looking back at 2018 predictions, Bob was somehow 70 percent correct”
https://www.cringely.com/2019/02/19/looking-back-at-2018-predictions-bob-was-somehow-70-percent-correct/
“My first prediction a year ago: The rise of 5G networking will lead to a crash in broadcast TV.”
“Okay, this clearly didn’t happen, though both network and cable TV total viewership in the USA have peaked, with total subscriber numbers declining in 2018. But do you have 5G? Neither do I. The prediction still stands, but it has been pushed back by the slow 5G roll-out. So I was wrong, but it’s only a matter of time before this happens exactly as predicted. My family and I were homeless for months after the fire, staying with friends, in AirBnBs, and in our 1978 GMC Royale RV. Throughout those months we used our T-Mobile unlimited 4G Internet for EVERYTHING — VoIP, Internet, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube TV. All it took was a USB Channel 12 LTE modem, a MIMO antenna stuck to a window with suction cups, and a $40 WiFi router. And now that we are finally back in a house, we haven’t changed at all our mix of programming. It may be the golden age of television, but TV is dying. Still, my over-optimism about timing made me zero for one.”
Interesting. Where would you live if your house suddenly burned down ? Or got ten foot of water in it ?
ADD: Most of my friends who got flooded by Harvey lived in an apartment for a year or so. The guy fixing my office building sheetrock and painting today was only out of his house in Katy for a week since he and his crew ripped the sheetrock out of his house and fixed it immediately, even with two foot of water in his house for a day. My cousin in east Houston lived in the upstairs of her house with her husband and triplets with no sheetrock downstairs for months. No kitchen appliances either (she is tough).
It’s been a dreary day. At 9AM it was darker than at 7AM. On and off misty rain. Heavy enough to see and wet the dogs but not much more than a few drops in the rain gauge. The temp made it all the way to 40F. Blah.
DreamHost sent an e-mail suggesting I protect my domain. “Without a secure certificate, your site displays as “Not Secure” in browsers and less likely for your users to trust you.” I do not get the message, perhaps because I have, for some silly reason, bookmarked my site in Firefox. Oh, I don’t get the warning in IE11 either and the only bookmark there is for my Lexmark printer.
I don’t particularly care if Mr. Joe Chicken “trusts” my site. Other than some SSI for the nav bar, it’s all static HTML. I use Notepad. Just read the site if you want. The NSA already knows you have visited. 🙂
I have a contact form if you want to send a comment. I also have a mailto: link so you can do the same from your preferred mail client. The shop page is whatever…. not much there but click and PayPal handles the shopping cart.
I can enable “Let’s Encrypt SSL” for free from my control panel. I think I’ll pass for now.
SEO will be better if encrypted? Meh. I doubt it. Google has been a mess for a few years. “emu in texas” I’m on the third page now. With DuckDuckGo, I’m Number One. On Qwant I’m #2 but #1 appears to be an ad.
I think I have the SEO stuff handled for one search phrase. 🙂
Interesting. Where would you live if your house suddenly burned down ? Or got ten foot of water in it ?
“Bob” aka Mark Stevens was a low numbered Apple employee in addition to being the InfoWorld gossip columnist for a while. Considering his rolodex (an actual physical one — you see it in “Triumph of the Nerds”) and who owes him favors, I doubt his homeless situation was quite the same as yours or mine would be.
He probably still has the house in Silicon Valley where he filmed “Triumph of the Nerds” and “Plane Crazy”. It may be rental income, but he was far from homeless even by the standards of the people I see camping in cars around Downtown Austin if I leave the office late.
Its Silicon Valley. A mere single digit millionaire is “poor”.
We still watch broadcast TV. I would ditch cable, but the kids are into anime right now, and the streaming service replacements would end up costing us almost as much as the cable.
Of course, it would mean no more of my money going to ESPN. Hmmmm.
Where would you live if your house suddenly burned down ? Or got ten foot of water in it ?
I saw a commercial for a travel trailer place in Georgetown yesterday. Not a huge trailer but for two, a $14,000 bumper pull seems sort of ok. It looked nicer than any tent I have seen.
But I may have an advantage in that if the house does burn up or down, I know how to power the water well and I know where the septic tank plumbing is buried.
We still watch broadcast TV.
I ditched DirecTv a year ago August. We miss a couple of channels. Not $142/month worth. Sling is pretty good. Amazon Prime is good. The Roku has tons of free stuff. With an antenna to get the Austin stations, we have maybe 26 channels to watch. The sub-channels are good. I like the Escape channel. 42.4 ? 46.4?
If it was just me, Sling and Amazon would go away. Sling Orange and Blue are $50/month and Amazon? I’m not sure I buy enough to make it worth it for “free” shipping.
@lynn, my friends who own the ‘toy’ store are living in their upper floor, while the first is still bare concrete and studs. No timeline for repairs as they are too busy and can’t afford it and are hoping to move.
I’ve got a secondary space we could make habitable if needed. Others already are. Wife is looking at lake houses. If the only way I can get a BOL is a lake house, I’ll take it.
n
I’ve got a secondary space we could make habitable if needed. Others already are. Wife is looking at lake houses. If the only way I can get a BOL is a lake house, I’ll take it.
BOL ? Bust Out Laughing ?
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BOL
Bug Out L ?
@lynn, my friends who own the ‘toy’ store are living in their upper floor, while the first is still bare concrete and studs. No timeline for repairs as they are too busy and can’t afford it and are hoping to move.
When we got flooded in our house in 1989, we lived on bare concrete floors for six months. The kids loved it. Didnt have to pull the sheetrock as the flood was only one inch.
@Paul :
Without a secure certificate, your site displays as “Not Secure” in browsers and less likely for your users to trust you.” I do not get the message, perhaps because I have, for some silly reason, bookmarked my site in Firefox.
I suspect at one time, when you visited your site, you got that ‘exception’ warning, and you applied an exception to your site to allow visiting the http (non-SSL) version of your site.
If this is just a personal site with minimal visitor activity – or visitors that might provide income at some point – then moving to https might not be needed.
But, with free SSL certs available from most hosting places, including DreamHost (which I think is your hosting place), it’s not that big a deal to get a free SSL cert installed.
If your site is potentially income-producing, either directly or indirectly, then SSL is needed so your potential customers don’t see that ‘no-SSL’ warning. And if your business (domain) relies on visitors arriving via search links, then not having SSL will reduce you search visibility.
I have several personal sites that don’t necessarily ‘need’ SSL, but since my hosting place provides it for free, it only took a few minutes to enable it (via a change to the htaccess file, and replacing hard-coded http links to https ).
Didn’t take much effort to change this place (and others that I manage) to SSL. No extra cost, either, since my hosting place (JustHost and BlueHost) offer free certs.
Get your weather report from Mars: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/weather/ .
A bit cold overnight: -137F.
I asked Alexa for a Mars weather report; she agreed that it was cold there. And concluded “If you are planning to visit, bring oxygen.”
Interesting. I’ve been reading about SPS (solar power satellites) for 30 ? 40 ? years now.
I have been following the SPS ideas since the 80s. I always thought that the Soviet Union put a stop to SPS research by labeling it a space based weapon. I mean it can put megawatts of microwave radiation on almost any target on Earth.
Who holds the high ground controls the earth….
BOL- bug out location
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6721763/Four-people-injured-stabbing-attack-central-Marseille-police-shoot-assailant.html
“An official with the regional administration said there was no reason yet to think the attack was terror-related, but information was sketchy. ”
— other than that he stabbed 4 random people and one had ‘injuries to the neck.’
n
13-year old kid builds a nuclear fusion reactor in his bedroom:
https://www.foxnews.com/science/teen-builds-working-nuclear-fusion-reactor-in-memphis-home
That is one motivated kid. And the power of open source…
n
13-year old kid builds a nuclear fusion reactor in his bedroom:
https://www.foxnews.com/science/teen-builds-working-nuclear-fusion-reactor-in-memphis-home
More proof that building an exothermic (energy generating) fusion reactor is not going to happen anytime soon. Probably never. We got one issued to the Solar System a few billion years ago and building another one is way, way, way beyond our present technology. Exchanging higher temperatures for ultra high pressures is not a linear process.
+1000
I was at Sport Clips the other day getting a haircut, and of course ESPN was on. Some artificially enhanced talking head leading an argument between two ex-athletes I doubt anyone has heard of. It’s amazing how unbearable it is watch once you aren’t exposed to that crap anymore.
Heck, it bad enough watching Braves baseball. It’s about time to reactive my Sling tv subscription so I can watch. I can’t watch the pregame shows though…just too much stupidity. If I am a little early for a game, I put the tv on mute until first pitch. I’ve also been know to watch the game and listen to the radio broadcast.
I was at Sport Clips the other day getting a haircut, and of course ESPN was on. Some artificially enhanced talking head leading an argument between two ex-athletes I doubt anyone has heard of. It’s amazing how unbearable it is watch once you aren’t exposed to that crap anymore.
“Sports and broadcast” fees on my cable bill are up to $14. The cable companies have the tech to go “Al a carte” but they won’t so more people will cut the cord.
More proof that building an exothermic (energy generating) fusion reactor is not going to happen anytime soon. Probably never.
But but, the Skunk Works promised us one in a couple of years!