But probably hot and humid.
Yesterday stayed hot all day. Wife and kids got in the pool after dinner, but I watered the gardens. Cabbage is doing well. I got about 7 blueberries but they were sweet and delicious. Peppers going crazy, broccoli still alive. Out of the six mounds I planted, I’ve got three that sprouted and seem to be growing. Watermelon or hard acorn squash, I don’t remember which, maybe a couple of each… Corn is still growing. Fewer onions than before, damn squirrels dig them up. Maybe I’ve got some cilantro popping up, something is anyway.
I did get out to pick up my new benchtop power supply and did some cleaning/ organizing at my secondary location.
Today I’m taking some stuff to a local auction house. We’ll see how it does. Saves me the shipping hassle, and moves stuff out of the house. Speaking of, I took 3 boxes of stuff out of my office, mainly old manuals and catalogs. I like catalogs the same way I like trade magazines. It’s easier to find stuff you never knew about in a catalog or ads in an appropriate magazine. Now I’ve got some more room on the shelf in the closet for the good stuff.
So I got some stuff done, but not as much as I’d like.
Dinner was frozen steak on the grill. For sides, I thought I’d fry some potatoes and maybe do some onion rings. Six potatoes and 2 onions, half a pack of shrimp fry batter, cast iron fryer, and some peanut oil, and PURE HEAVEN! Called the kids in and we ate the home made kettle chips and onion rings while they were hot and fresh. Ate the steak by itself after all the rest was fried and eaten. So tasty and a nice treat. I just sliced the potatoes with a mandolin right into the pot of oil. Wife seasoned the chips with a variety of stuff, but we liked the dusting of Lawry’s best. Onion rings just needed a bit of salt. When you’ve got potatoes and onions getting close to their sell by, make meals with potatoes and onions!
Meanwhile, the insanity is continuing. Part of Seattle is now barricaded off as the “Capital Hill Freezone”, in Cali someone is burning homeowner’s flags that they don’t like (homeowners are next), MN is committed to getting rid of their police, and authorities are debasing themselves in public. What a mess. Spicy times are coming.
Keep getting ready, restock, add to your stocks, add to your knowledge and skills.
Keep stacking.
nick
BTW, HEB had signs up tonight that their supply of aluminum can drinks will soon run out due to to an aluminum shortage in the USA. Looks like Alcoa and Kaiser shutting down all the aluminum plants in the USA due to illegally priced aluminum from China was bad for us. Who knew ?
No more 2/$5 HEB brand canned drink specials. Simply stopping the loss leader would create a problem unless they provide a plausible story.
The aluminum smelting plants in the Pacific Northwest didn’t go away, but a lot of cheap hydropower has been dynamited to save the fish spawning grounds, and remaining power gets used for server farms for everyone’s Baby Yoda streaming habit.
Google has a huge server farm not far from Bonneville on the Columbia. Facecrack does too IIRC.
Granted, a lot of the craft brewers are starting to discover cans as their draft sales dry up, but a sudden shortage seems as weird as the “food shortage”, especially in Summer.
What a nice cool night. The tropical storm went to the east of us pulling cooler air in for a nice respite from the early summer heat. The week started in the 90s but today and tomorrow will barely reach 80 and nights in the low 60s. Slept with the windows open and a nice breeze kept us chilly.
Still looking forward to WDW in a month. Fingers crossed that there won’t be any last moment problems. Had a panic moment yesterday when I went looking for the confirmation email from frontier airlines to book the Disney pick-up and return. I spent a frantic half hour searching emails, nothing. Then the great-granddaughter wandered in asking “what are you doing”. I told her and she said “Did you look on your phone?”. I hadn’t, as I make sure to use email for everything to keep a record. But there it was, a TXT from Expedia with the details. I quickly called up their portal and got a copy to my email. Kids say the darndest things.
Looking forward to going to the community pool again. It looks like it was built in the 30s as a WPA project but they kept it in good condition. It’s a huge pool with a large shallow area for the kids and a 10f deep end for diving. It has two boards, one at the 6 ft level. Last time I got the courage to dive for the first time in 50 years. It was fun.
burn my flag and I’ll shoot you.
This story, linked here yesterday, has me shaking my head still.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8403347/Chicago-Mayor-Lori-Lightfoot-says-rioters-f-ing-lawless-meeting-panicked-officials.html
–they sound SURPRISED that riots and looting are lawless activities that will have consequences. The one guy (who has been living off the taxpayers in Chicago almost as long as I’ve been alive) is no baby duck, but the rest??
I remember my dad taking me to a Blackhawks’ game when I was a kid, and pointing out the bullet holes and pock marks on the arena from the ’68 riots.
–gee, ya think? And this little note…
I’m struck by the lack of photos of AK wielding gang bangers, and by the prevalence of white “protesters” in other pictures. I have to wonder about the photo editor’s point of view, and I wonder how hard it was to find some pics and how many others had to be ignored. On the other hand, even when I was growing up there in the 80’s you knew which neighborhoods you absolutely didn’t want to be in, so maybe the ‘citizen journalists’ have some sense of self-preservation left. Giving the media’s normal willingness to harvest photo and video from FB and other social media, it is a tiny bit suspicious that there aren’t more pics from social media posts…..
Second largest city in America, btw, with some of the strictest and most reactionary gun laws in the nation, but they’ve got armed vigilante groups composed of criminals, and AK wielding gangbangers…..
n
added audio file is available https://news.wttw.com/2020/06/05/what-are-we-going-have-left-our-community-aldermen-react-panic-sorrow-unrest
Added- it’s also interesting the way they mention ’68 and MLK to conflate that with GF
That’s OK. Without the police who’s going to stop you?
The replacement for the police. It is being said that the police are the only major institution the progs haven’t been able to take over, so they must go. This is not an act of libertarianism. In the prog mentality, the police will be replaced by a stronger institution that will enforce their will.
I doubt this will really happen, but I have been wrong before.
Second largest city in America, btw, with some of the strictest and most reactionary gun laws in the nation, but they’ve got armed vigilante groups composed of criminals, and AK wielding gangbangers…..
When we went last year in March, pre-virus, it seemed like the further you got from the Michigan Ave. bridge over the Chicago river, the less the city and other government entities cared about providing services and maintenance. Ironically, the future site of Obama’s planned library is pretty grim.
That’s how you end up with urban “food deserts.” Major retailers decide not to build in certain zip codes because it’s just not worth it. We’ve had outcries here over the years because this or that grocer or department store decided to closeup in the crappy part of our metro area and they always have some minority senior citizen on the news with a tear in her eye saying “where am I supposed to shop now?” One convenience store/gas station chained pulled out of that entire quadrant of town and when asked about it their primary reasoning wasn’t robbery (though, that happened). Their biggest loss was employee theft. They struggled to find anyone who wanted to work in that part of town AND wouldn’t steal from them.
They struggled to find anyone who wanted to work in that part of town AND wouldn’t steal from them.
In Portland, we half joked that the life expectancy of a Plaid Pantry convenience store clerk on the east side of town out to Gresham was about the same as Ensign Ricky, Redshirt of the Week, on the old “Star Trek”.
Guess what color the employees wore as their uniform shirt.
Before we left, the residents out that way successfully fought off a Trader Joe’s planned for the neighborhood. Fearing gentrification (God forbid) to take advantage of I84, the residents claimed that they didn’t want the kind of people living around them that Trader Joe’s would attract.
OMFG, HBO Max has removed “Gone with the Wind” from their streaming service.
OMFG, HBO Max has removed “Gone with the Wind” from their streaming service.
“Casablanca” is next. The African American man plays piano and sings in the white American owner’s club at the request of the white European woman … who subsequently fails to leave a tip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do2olZ49M54
God, she was beautiful.
Ho, hum. Another day, another $300 million promised from Plugs to community police forces, if you elect him. I wonder how much Plugs has promised when you add it all up? Trillions I guess.
Ho, hum. Another day, another $300 million promised from Plugs to community police forces, if you elect him. I wonder how much Plugs has promised when you add it all up? Trillions I guess.
I don’t think there are enough Alzheimer’s experimental drugs to try and load into Biden in order to get him through a debate with Trump without a gaffe.
Biden had the high ground to go without a debate pre Wuxu Flu, but his ego wouldn’t let him so he insisted on a phone call with Trump to provide advice as a former VP.
Of course, now, the debate format is not going to be in front of an audience, probably with one old school moderator, maybe Brokaw, playing to Plugs’ strengths.
BTW, HEB had signs up tonight that their supply of aluminum can drinks will soon run out due to to an aluminum shortage in the USA. Looks like Alcoa and Kaiser shutting down all the aluminum plants in the USA due to illegally priced aluminum from China was bad for us. Who knew ?
No more 2/$5 HEB brand canned drink specials. Simply stopping the loss leader would create a problem unless they provide a plausible story.
I did buy three 12 packs of Diet Dr. Pepper for $11 (the store coupons are back !). They are good through September so I may go back today and buy three more. I drink one per day but my son usually steals XXXXXX borrows a can or two a day from my stash in the company fridge. I don’t mind.
Hoarding Diet Dr. Pepper, what have we come to ?
Hoarding Diet Dr. Pepper, what have we come to ?
Try living out west with a soda habit, especially in the Northwest. They’re not going to be sympathetic. Craft beer generally ships in bottles, and Starbucks serves in disposable adult sippie cups.
Beyond the aspartame junk science with the diet drinks, a lot of the hippie and Asian parents punished kids my age for indulging in any “pop”, and the mental scars endure. My wife and I got comments all the time from family and acquaintances. Not much is considered off limits for commentary if you find pleasure from indulging … well, except weed … and I was under orders to not respond with “It is none of your f*cking business, [uncle/cousin/hippie].”
I think in the case of the in-laws, the kids were beaten over lots of things, including sneaking sugary foods/drinks from the convenience store down the street from the adult motel racket the family ran.
The irony is these are the states that legalized weed as an adult choice.
How about showing them a picture of untended farmland and saying, “Behold the field in which my fucks are grown. See how it lieth fallow.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-deputy-shot-paso-robles-police-station-residents-told-shelter-place
Spicy time is already started. It’s just going to spread.
n
this is why I prefer to own my media. The Ministry of Truth can unperson a person, or a work of art, or even the schlock that passes for popular entertainment.
n
Yep. If it’s not under your sole control, you don’t have it.
xkcd: Pinouts
https://xkcd.com/2317/
I am fairly sure that the HDMI plug does not have 240 vdc on it.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2317:_Pinouts
Hagar The Horrible: practical gifts
https://www.comicskingdom.com/hagar-the-horrible/2020-06-10
Wow, that is really a practical gift from Hagar.
this is why I prefer to own my media. The Ministry of Truth can unperson a person, or a work of art, or even the schlock that passes for popular entertainment.
The Calibre shareware program will allow you to make backups of standard (not Fire) Kindle device contents. Just don’t pass the files around to anyone else — Amazon securely watermarks the book files for each customer.
Most of my Kindle books are … lets say not purchased from Amazon.
Yep. If it’s not under your sole control, you don’t have it.
There is much debate about whether BluRay and HDMI are under your sole control. OTA HDTV broadcasts can be recorded and saved, but the next rev of ATSC is going to clamp down and obsolete the existing equipment.
I still buy DVD movies if I want to keep something. The horse left the barn on DVD copy protection and region locking before the format even debuted publicly when Warner Bros. lawyers designed the encryption scheme. The manufacturers could stop making equipment capable of reading the discs, but I don’t see any end to the surplus floating around in my lifetime and possibly my kids.
_Digital Divide (Rachel Peng) (Volume 1)_ by K. B. Spangler
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Divide-Rachel-Peng-1/dp/0984737545/?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number one of a four book murder mystery science fiction series. I read the very well printed and bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published on Amazon by the author. I have ordered books 2, 3, and 4 in the series. There are also several other books and a long lasting web comic in the OACET universe.
https://www.agirlandherfed.com/
I have been reading the “A Girl and Her Fed” web comic for several years. I never quite got all of the stories in the web comic but I enjoyed the series anyway. This book is the start to explain the web comic and much appreciated.
About 2010 or so, a super secret government project recruited five hundred of the best and brightest from the military and federal law enforcement. Mostly men, these people had a quantum computer installed in their brain. The result was a mess, possibly quite intentional. Several of the volunteers went insane, others not so much but all were tremendously changed. The government then proceeded to slowly murder 150 of the 500 to hide the project.
A leader of group went public to great public turmoil, fear, and acclaim. Congress ended up creating a secret new federal agency, Office of Adaptive and Complementary Enhancement Technologies (OACET). This is one of their stories.
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (I could be talked into 5 stars)
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (155 reviews)
The author has another website also:
https://kbspangler.com/
Yep. If it’s not under your sole control, you don’t have it.
There is much debate about whether BluRay and HDMI are under your sole control. OTA HDTV broadcasts can be recorded and saved, but the next rev of ATSC is going to clamp down and obsolete the existing equipment.
Our den Roku and the 2008 Sony 46 inch LCD are having fairly major issues with each other. I have found that when the Sony TV fails to show the Roku screen that pulling the HDMI cable out the Roku for a ten second count and plugging it back in gets things to working for that day. I suspect that the 2008 Sony TV fails to respond to the don’t copy request properly after the initial hand shake.
The Kids laugh at me ’cause I torrent my/their TV shows and put them in ATV. “Old Man, we’ll just watch Netflix/Hulu/etc”. I tell them “until the internet goes out or deleted from said streamers.” Just like “Gone With The Wind.”
I also rip my DVD/Bluray and put on ATV. Like “UFO: The Complete Series.” Right now I only have a PS3 if I want to play DVD/Bluray.
Does the Calibre plugin get rid of that? How can you tell?
Plus, I’ve got several of those 5,000 ebook torrents downloaded for TEOTWAWKI.
Wow, the mortgage rates are still collapsing. 30 year fixed is 3.125% and 15 year fixed is 2.500%.
https://www.wellsfargo.com/mortgage/rates/
“Fed signals near-zero rates here to stay through at least 2022”
https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/fomc-meeting-recap-june-2020/
Yup, the USA is bankrupt. But we are the biggest game in town and people gotta play. Don’t hate the player.
Plus, I’ve got several of those 5,000 ebook torrents downloaded for TEOTWAWKI.
You ain’t gonna have time to read during TEOTWAWKI unless you in an absolutely hidden and waterproof underground shelter. You will be standing watch against looters, trying to grow food, shooting looters, scavenging food, shooting more looters, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553255193/?tag=ttgnet-20
Most of the issues I have in the AV world involve HDCP handshakes, non-compliant devices, and HDMI handshakes.
There’s a whole mini-industry that works around the issues. EDID cloners, HDCP strippers, etc.
The protections were never meant to be applied to anything with multiple display devices, but that is routine in the commercial world.
n
I don’t know how to find the watermark in an .azw, but if you’re concerned, convert the book to .epub and then back to .mobi or .azw. While it’s an epub, you can open up the archive and look at the pieces to make sure nothing’s been snuck in.
(That is, I can. I’m sure Greg and Brad can, and other programmers. Not sure how arcane the tricks are for those outside of our select fraternity.)
I don’t know how to find the watermark in an .azw, but if you’re concerned, convert the book to .epub and then back to .mobi or .azw. While it’s an epub, you can open up the archive and look at the pieces to make sure nothing’s been snuck in.
(That is, I can. I’m sure Greg and Brad can, and other programmers. Not sure how arcane the tricks are for those outside of our select fraternity.)
I don’t pass around my purchased book files, but conversion to MOBI would, in theory, remove the watermarking. Kindle will read MOBI natively.
I’ve never looked at the book formats. The reverse engineering done by the Calibre people expressed in their source is probably the best place to start if you are curious. Python is very forgiving for experiments.
We had a developer in our group at the Death Star who was cleared to look at Microsoft source code. Out of curiosity, he went to the site once and looked at the definitive *.DOC file reader, and he told us it was very disturbing to the point that he doubted Microsoft could make changes without breaking something.
Arg, my auction contact is out today so I’ll have to make my dropoff tomorrow.
Best laid plans and all that…
n
I suspect a bad cable. My Vizio TV didn’t like my Sony Ble-ray with the first cable I tried.
Longer cables are especially suspect, as are cheap ones. HDMI uses a very high data rate and all kinds of electrical things can go wrong within the cable.
n
There has been something being built just north of the McD’s in Burnet. When I picked up the truck yesterday, I needed gas. I like the Shamrock / Circle K at the intersection, seems to run better than HEB gas.
Well, the new place is a Starbucks. I was hoping for Arby’s. Maybe some day.
If Subway could be bothered to make Rubens, I’d be happy.
Longer cables are especially suspect, as are cheap ones. HDMI uses a very high data rate and all kinds of electrical things can go wrong within the cable.
I have swapped the HDMI cable once already. I use nothing but the finest crap that I find on Amazon nowadays.
BTW, I was just in Walmart. Looks like their ship came in, there was no empty spaces on the shelves all over the store. I took back the bad latch microwave that I bought in May and bought another one. Hopefully the second time is the charm. I did not check their tv section because four tvs is enough for three people.
And nobody is QUARANTINING ! There are traffic jams all over the place out there in Sugar Land.
And I saw 99 F on my truck thermometer for a while. I never took the a/c off recirc. I did turn the fan from 7 (hurricane) down to 5 (gale force) after a while.
Well, the new place is a Starbucks. I was hoping for Arby’s. Maybe some day.
If Subway could be bothered to make Rubens, I’d be happy.
Starbucks will probably microwave you a sandwich to dunk in your coffee.
And nobody is QUARANTINING ! There are traffic jams all over the place out there in Sugar Land.
People are over lockdowns. The next one really will require military enforcement as will the mandatory vaccinations.
Management announced today that we can return to the office on a voluntary basis in July but, being the tightwads that they are, will evaluate which groups will be directed to work from home permanently. We’ve had space issues in our building since we moved in last year, and, again, the virus is a convenient excuse to cover for their p*ss poor planning.
We had a developer in our group at the Death Star who was cleared to look at Microsoft source code. Out of curiosity, he went to the site once and looked at the definitive *.DOC file reader, and he told us it was very disturbing to the point that he doubted Microsoft could make changes without breaking something.
Binary file formats are not designed, rather they are grown. And not organically but in a roughshod manner with heavy boots and lots of mud. Our main binary file, *.PSD, is a complete hodgepodge of inserts and oops. I changed our data storage from distributed to sparse a couple of years ago and that totally changed our file format from incomprehensible to even more so.
I do have a binary file of startup data for our calculation engine. I cannot recreate the file which is a ten step process so I think that I am missing a step. I still know the guy who created it, he loved to create things that only he could understand.
–here it comes again…
n
-while they mimed kneeling on his neck, re-enacting the events that lead to his death.
n
When I bought my 55″ Vizio, I also bought the Sony Blu-ray. Heh, what’s another $90 when you’re dropping almost two grand on a TV?
So, I had a brand new $25 Vizio branded HDMI cable. The Sony was “odd”. I swapped the ends, still odd. Tried a different port on the TV and that didn’t work. Tried it all the next day and it has worked for almost 10 years. I have no clue why the Sony was acting stupid.
The Roku is connected with the same three for $10 from eBay HDMI cable I used for DirecTv and never a problem. After rearranging the system, the Sony has a cheap cable also. The 12 feet long Vizio cable was too long and I didn’t need to run it through the wall any more.
Yeah, I had all of the electronics in the room next to the living room. Hide the clutter…. Jeez, reel-to-reel, receiver, turntable, dual cassette deck, a Betamax, a Hitachi VHS, LaserDisc player, an EQ, and then the DirecTv box. In the living room, just the TV and speakers.
The system has been trimmed down quite a bit to just the TV, speakers, LaserDisc, receiver, the Roku, and a Squeezebox 3. In, on, and above a nice looking stand from IKEA. With drawers for “stuff” like remotes that would clutter the coffee table. Much simpler.
Starbucks? No idea about their menu. A friend pulled into one once and treated. Yeah, it was ok coffee with sugar and creamer and whipped cream from a can with a pinch of cocoa sprinkled on top. And some chocolate sprinkles like you put on cupcakes. It was pretty. Tasty, too. But for almost $5 fifteen years ago, I’ve not been inspired to go back.
I’m not all that into coffee. A couple of Wal-Mart Donut Shop k-cups in the morning with a splash of half and half and I’m done.
102F yesterday on the shady side of the house. It was 62F this morning and the A/C is set at 78F and has not run today. At all. It was 93F a few minutes ago. Speak of the Devil, the A/C just turned on.
Last month’s electric bill was 551 khw. That includes water because we are on a well. I’m doing something right..
Went out today for some errands. Well, mainly to get the boy more driving practice, he turns 16 next month ::shudder::
Costco enforced mask wearing. Target and Walmart didn’t. Costco was not busy at all, but traffic around town was back to normal levels. Lockdown is over for everyone it seems.
I wanted to stop at our local gun shop to check on the price of an AR that I want. They are enforcing social distancing, and there was a line 10 deep waiting outside. No thanks.
It looks like our company is embracing teleworking. I can’t do it exclusively, but it looks like I’ll continue the alternating 2 days and 3 days a week. I can live with it. I save money on gas, I get to wear shorts, and I don’t see people.
When I was a kid and Mom was driving the Renault R-10 and then the Mazda RX-2, she would left me shift. “Shift up!” So, if I ever get to Ol’ Blighty or where they drive on the wrong side of the road, I already have the skill to shift.
Assuming I can rent a standard transmission car.
Texas reports another record jump in new cases
Arkansas to enter phase 2 next week
Rhode Island Gov says students will return to schools on Aug. 31
BBG warns 4 states show signs of second wave
Hospitalizations are also at a record high of 2,153
–here it comes again…
There is no rest for the wicked. We will be living with SARS-COV-2 for the rest of our lives. Even though 120 companies are working on a vaccine, I really doubt a comprehensive one will be found. After all, we do not have a vaccine for the common cold and AIDS. And the flu “vaccine” sucks.
“TEOTWAWKI”
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2020/06/teotwawki.html
Aesop says it is the end of the world as we know it. And, he is knocking my end The War on Some Drugs ™ by equating it to unicorns farting skittles.
A comment, “Civil war 2.0 is coming.”
In practice, yes, but not of necessity.
Ages ago, 25 years or more, so I was still in my early years of working as a programmer, I laid out a binary file format for the client I was consulting at. I’d seen and studied the technical docs Electronic Arts wrote for some of their multimedia file formats, so I had an idea of what went into a professionally-designed binary file: a file type and a version (mandatory!), expansion points, fail-safe fallthroughs, and so on. And documentation. Lots of documentation so the next guy (or yourself, when you’re brought back five years later{) can figure out what it is and how to use it.
Wouldn’t you know, the next guy didn’t bother to read the documentation. He just added this-n-that to the format, removed the file type and version at the beginning (because those eight bytes in a couple-hundred-kilobyte file were nothing but wasted space) and he claimed never to have seen the documentation though I’d left both floppy disks (it was that long ago) and a bound printout of that and other program documentation.
The single biggest problem in the software field is that over 90% of programmers, self-described software engineers, architects, designers, and project managers are bozos. If they could be cleared out of the way, those of use still standing would be able to get more done than the ten-times-larger teams, with a higher quality. (I’ve demonstrated it myself several times: One time I did all of the useful work in an eight-man team. Another time I led a team of maybe four developers (numbers varied because I mentored and trained up junior developers and then they got stolen for other teams) and took over a year and a half to build a web application equivalent to something I’d done by myself in three months. There were other similar contracts.)
Assuming I can rent a standard transmission car.
Even in Europe, manual transmissions are an endangered species.
The new 8 and 10 speed transmissions are much better at maximizing gas mileage. Econoboxes and a lot of Nissans use CVTs.
Durability is a question mark, but the manufacturers really don’t want to be in their current position again, where 20 year old cars are still rolling around having received just routine maintenance.
There is no rest for the wicked. We will be living with SARS-COV-2 for the rest of our lives. Even though 120 companies are working on a vaccine, I really doubt a comprehensive one will be found. After all, we do not have a vaccine for the common cold and AIDS. And the flu “vaccine” sucks.
I’d rather see no vaccine than one developed by a Prog institution or, God forbid, someone funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
All of BillG’s kinky vaccination fetish fantasies will come true in the event of the latter. Are you going to question BILL GATES? Even the Subcontinent had the good sense to kick them out of the country.
From the same people who brought you Microsoft Bob …
(Melinda Gates was the Bob product manager)
Binary file formats are not designed, rather they are grown. And not organically but in a roughshod manner with heavy boots and lots of mud. Our main binary file, *.PSD, is a complete hodgepodge of inserts and oops. I changed our data storage from distributed to sparse a couple of years ago and that totally changed our file format from incomprehensible to even more so.
We had a guy in last year who bolted SQLite into our basic application platform so we could replace some of our binary file formats with the DB library’s single file databases. Great idea. Lots of promise there. Sadly, the project ended before it got to even one replacement format when, presented with his first installation assignment of our product at a customer site, after about 30 minutes of reviewing documentation and state of the bare servers, the developer stood up, announced “This is ridiculous!” and promptly quit.
The prospects for a vaccine here are pretty good. It’s hard to make a vaccine for a disease like TB, malaria, or AIDS where the body doesn’t naturally develop immunity, but this disease people don’t seem to be getting twice (despite occasional rumors to the contrary).
The reason there’s no vaccine for the common cold is that there are too many different viruses causing it (90 or so).
The reason the flu vaccine sucks is that they decide many months in advance which strains to vaccinate against, and then other strains actually end up circulating. Administrative delay… the same basic reason why this vaccine is taking so long.
The reason the flu vaccine sucks is that they decide many months in advance which strains to vaccinate against, and then other strains actually end up circulating. Administrative delay… the same basic reason why this vaccine is taking so long.
The first human trial for a SARS-COV-2 vaccine failed. I have no idea what the failure was but I suspect the volunteers grew a third kidney.
I’d rather see no vaccine than one developed by a Prog institution or, God forbid, someone funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
All of BillG’s kinky vaccination fetish fantasies will come true in the event of the latter. Are you going to question BILL GATES? Even the Subcontinent had the good sense to kick them out of the country.
Apparently the BillG foundation has been working on a human sterilization vaccine until SARS-COV-2. That should go over well when the worlds population drops by 90% after 50 years.
https://www.libertynation.com/why-isnt-there-a-vaccine-for-bill-gates/
Plus there is BillG’s trick that the vaccination device will automatically tattoo you for identification. I think that I will pass.
The nasal swab test has a false negative rate exceeding 50% if the test is done improperly (which mostly means not shoving the swab far enough back) and about 15% even under the best circumstances. The false positives are potentially “very high” for various reasons but I couldn’t find hard numbers except for asymptomatic “carriers”, in which the false positive rate is probably over 50%.
The antibody test can be wrong in either direction “more than half the time” according to the CDC.
Tests that are wrong half the time are useless, unless they’re so quick, cheap, and easy that you can test someone five times and take a consensus of the results. That’s not the case here. All that this testing is doing is transferring money into a handful of pockets and providing fodder for people to pitch either panic or conspiracy theories.
“CNN’s Angela Rye: Washington, Jefferson Statues “Need To Come Down””
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/08/18/cnns_angela_rye_washington_jefferson_statues_need_to_come_down.html
Wow. And yes, the Washington and Jefferson monuments are statues.
If this is what June is like, I can hardly wait for August. Gonna get real crazy out there. I can see thousands of people with ropes on the Washington monument pulling it down.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
Ya know, some days I’m glad I no longer work in the field I started in and loved working in, it’s clearly been getting worse and worse…
–note that the list of where they work and what they do is pretty much exhaustive of the possible places in theatre. In other words, they’re saying that they are everywhere and doing everything in theatre. Keep that in mind when reading below. And that one thing missing from that list is “Patrons of the Arts” or the one’s paying for it all.
and then there is the letter, oy vey. Lotta people gonna find themselves out of work next year. And then blame whitey some more. [ https://www.weseeyouwat.com/ ]
–they got sh!t festering in their brains is the problem….
–what do you think these whiny b!tches would have done if they WEREN’T involved in writing those statements??
— we got jobs but not the one’s we demand. FU snowflake, I couldn’t get into that union with 10 years work experience. Read up on what a ‘closed shop’ is.
–oh you b@stards, you gave us awards, money, recognition…. you suck. I guess it never occurred to them to NOT take the money and do whatever they wanted??
—omg, you included us in your materials, invited us to your events, but we still had to WORK for it…. you suck.
–I guess that’s the end of ‘intersectionality’. Doesn’t matter if your female, gay, some other ‘marginalized’ person, you’re not BLACK so you suck. And “exclude us”? Wasn’t whiny just complaining that they had to do the hard work of raising money? Schmoozing patrons? Grant writing?
–I can’t help but wonder what it is that they ‘fiercely love’ about theater if they’re so unhappy about how it is run? And oh my Gnu, they’ve got “truths” they need to share.
–apparently the “truths” are “about theatres, executives…….” although the screed isn’t clearly written on that point. And those truths are about white fragility. Which means what now?
–ooooh, I’m shivering. OF COURSE it’s anonymous. ‘cuz whites are so frail they’ve got all the power, and they’d schedule another seminar or ask someone to draft a statement or something. AT WILL employment. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. Anyone who doesn’t like working for me, or the way we run our company can GTFO. And if you try some EEOC complaint, I’ll hit up the patrons of the arts and see how many of them are lawyers….
Danegeld. Tolerance of intolerance. Both about this far from ending. Because I know there are going to be a lot of people who read this and think, ‘well if that’s how they really feel, then F’em.’
n
(FWIW, I’ve got a degree in the field, worked in the field, and my schooling in the field included exposure to TWO black dance troupes, whole seasons dominated by black playwrights, “color blind” casting that made ZERO sense, and a whole lot of ‘uplifting’ and opportunity for the very folks who seem to have forgotten that they are 13% of the population, and approximately 1% or less of the “Patrons of the Arts” who pay for it all. I’ve worked with black directors, actors, dancers, stagehands, choreographers and playwrights. If they had talent and ability it was well recognized. If they didn’t, they were generally excused and given more chances. Success in the business is almost purely meritocracy though. You either get the job done, or you GTFO eventually. F’ing whiners.)
Speaking of theatres, “AMC Says ‘Almost All’ U.S. Theaters Will Reopen in July”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/business/coronavirus-amc-movie-theaters-reopening.html
and
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/06/09/amc-expects-theaters-fully-open-july/5330476002/
“The chain reported that it lost more than $2 billion in the most recent quarter, when the pandemic essentially stopped theater going.”
“Theater employees will be required to wear masks. Moviegoers may only be encouraged to wear them.”
“AMC said it was looking into high-tech vacuums, “electrostatic sprayers” and upgraded ventilation systems. Clorox may serve as a cleanliness adviser.”
I just don’t know. Especially if they are going to coat everything in bleach.
All we need is a few zombies and my cousin’s “Feed” books will be coming true.
“Work from home, but have no room? Buy an Airstream RV”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/06/06/how-create-extra-room-work-home-airstream-rv-office/3136957001/
Ok, that is cool. Just don’t use the office potty.
Take over your wife’s She-shed.
n
and opportunity for the very folks who seem to have forgotten that they are 13% of the population, and approximately 1% or less of the “Patrons of the Arts” who pay for it all
My parents love the symphony in Houston and like the symphony in Victoria. The folks who fund both (give large cash donations) do not go to the symphony. Instead, they give cash donations to the symphony and then give free tickets to those people who like the symphony. But the people who give the cash donations like to go to parties raising funds for the symphony. It is a very strange relationship that seems to work. If there was no fund raising parties then there would not be a symphony. My parents buy their tickets but could easily find free tickets as the 1% hand the tickets out like candy.
For a not so quick but fairly complete look into the insanity over transgender politics, read thru this
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8407445/JK-Rowling-reveals-sexually-assaulted-20s-hits-transphobia-row.html
I put it down in the “over the edge and headed down” column on my decline and fall of western civilization tally sheet.
n
Seattle’s Autonomous Zone Has Its First Warlord; Local Rapper Raz Simone Takes Over
For some reason the urban battle in Detroit at the end of “The Last Centurion” comes to mind ….
Ha! The first thing that popped in my mind when I read the story was “he got his own she-shed!”