Hot and humid. Maybe less than the past few days as the storm system might have gifted us some cooler winds.
Certainly miserable yesterday. Not as hot but saturated. Made working outside a chore.
Got some stuff done. Got the front yard mowed before the rain. Back yard was still too wet. Got the truck loaded with stuff for my more ‘industrial’ auctioneer. I’ve got to go by my secondary location and load up some more this morning, and get it all to him around 9am. Early start for me.
While I’m there I’ll do a pickup at the other nearby auctioneer, and try to jump the line on the other other auctioneer and pick up the stuff for my daughter’s room. I don’t want to wait until Thursday to do that, but I forgot to make an appointment. Wuflu means appointments and curbside pickup.
It feels like I got more done than that. Oh, I did move some stuff around in the garage. That’s ongoing. I’m moving stuff into the garage that really shouldn’t get wet, and moving stuff out that is much lower value or hardier. I still cover it outside, but water gets into everything eventually.
So that’s my day, go get rid of some stuff, go get some stuff, get home to watch the kids while the wife does a site visit for work, and do some stuff around the house. The only prepping I’m doing today is the pickup, which has some web gear, and that’s only good if it comes to a shooting war. Which I sincerely hope it does not.
Still, it is stacking, and getting rid of stuff generates cash and happiness in my wife, which is not a small thing.
Join me won’t you? Stack something today.
nick
BTW, anyone else notice that with all the wuflu and the shooting and rioting that Epstein’s procurer and Joe Biden are both out of the day to day news cycle? Coincidence?
“Coincidence is just another excuse to ignore reality.” -Me.
Not a surprise to anyone here
https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-fundamental-flaw-of-libertarian.html
I’ve delt with my share.
BTW, anyone else notice that with all the wuflu and the shooting and rioting that Epstein’s procurer and Joe Biden are both out of the day to day news cycle? Coincidence?
Have you noticed that there are no more riot stories from Washington DC ? My son says that there is a rumor that Trump had Homeland clear the city. The rioters were all arrested and moved … elsewhere. New inhabitants in Gitmo ?
We are in a time of national emergency. Trump has extraordinary powers right now. He is choosing not to use them except in extreme circumstances at the moment.
Rush just said a very true item about the Never Trumpers, as Rush often does. The Never Trumpers totally failed in their efforts to get Romney and McCain elected. The Never Trumpers are absolute failures in their presidential efforts.
BTW, George Will and the rest of the Never Trumpers are abdicating the 2020 election to Biden and are looking at the 2024 election now. A bunch of crazies ! You go to war with the army that you have, not the pie in the sky army the Never Trumpers wish for. And make no mistake, we are at war for the future of the USA.
Interesting and insightful–
https://gunfreezone.net/a-look-into-the-entitled-insanity-of-protesters-attacking-a-car/
n
Not a surprise to anyone here
No one truly qualified to do software QA work is going to be happy doing that as their full time job. Black box testing where modules are linked into test code and checked against spec? Not going to happen. Not cheaply anyway. And even then, absent a career path, your QA guys are going to spend their evenings surfing Indeed.com.
The place where I work is facing the issue right now. Sure, they were able to hire a software QA “manager”, but lots of people want that notch on their resume.
The manager is a few years out of TAMU Corpus Cristi with a stint at a teeny consulting company in San Antonio in between. Essentially, he has a pulse.
Interesting and insightful–
https://gunfreezone.net/a-look-into-the-entitled-insanity-of-protesters-attacking-a-car/
n
One of the leaders of tomorrow!
Worth watching at least the first 12+ minutes.
Guns not magic wands.
–note that he’s shot with an AR, probably in 5.56 and goes down but isn’t killed, and STILL tries to get to his gun.
–shot a SECOND time with AR, STILL not dead.
Cops looking for a chest seal and CAT tourniquet.
LOTS of video.
n
BTW, George Will and the rest of the Never Trumpers are abdicating the 2020 election to Biden and are looking at the 2024 election now. A bunch of crazies ! You go to war with the army that you have, not the pie in the sky army the Never Trumpers wish for. And make no mistake, we are at war for the future of the USA.
The Republicans have repeated the same mistake since 1992, counting on a rerun of 1980.
Oh, lets cede 1992 and beat them with someone better in 1996.
Oh, lets cede 2008 and beat them with someone better in 2012.
Oh, lets cede 2020 and beat them with someone better in 2024.
…
Republicans, Mike “The Tank Commander” Dukakis beat Plugs. Biden is not Clinton or Obama. Wait for 2024, and you’re going to possibly face The First Female [insert minority and or ADA status] President.
(Imagine the optics of debating Tammy Duckworth.)
OTOH, does Plugs officially have the nomination?
Linky no worky. At least where I am now, at the Toyota dealer getting brakes redone on my Highlander.
@ray, are you using their free wifi? Maybe the ‘guns’ in the title has their nanny filter engaged.
n
Hey Ray, there is a Fenix UC30 FLASHLIGHT on sale for what seems to be a good price at Battery Junction, free shipping and IIRC no sales tax. I didn’t find a better price, but didn’t look too hard. You probably also have your sources.
It looks like this is a case of “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8568265/Austin-Police-Association-President-says-shot-BLM-protester-looking-trouble-it.html
The audio from another twit has several “loud” shots, followed by 3 “much quieter” shots. There is video of the “protester” with the rifle raised and aimed at the driver. He said earlier in the day that people who disagree with his beliefs were pussies who wouldn’t come and get some. With that as givens, it looks pretty clear to me.
n
While I’m sympathetic, I’m gonna put this one in the same category. You guys all know how I feel about the wuflu by now…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8567615/FOURTEEN-members-Texas-family-test-positive-coronavirus-party.html
— I guess granny was probably gonna die anyway, so that’s ok then, and dad-in-law will either make it or won’t.
Seriously, I re-consider my beliefs about the situation every day. I keep coming to the same conclusions, but I LOOK at it every day. Consider that this might indeed be a big deal, and that you might end up like this guy. Let the other guys put their fingers in the fire to see if the flame is still hot….
n
“One of the leaders of tomorrow! ”
–they’re like toddlers, stomping their feet, complaining about daddy then calling for daddy to punish the ones they hate.
n
From my Dad, probably making its way around Facecrack, or his buddies on the intertubes. Very long ! I apologize for the poor formatting.
“This may be the best and most honest political promotion statement you will ever read. It decidedly does not brush objections aside.
You hate Biden ? READ it. You hate Trump? READ it. You think there’s no choice? READ it. And, read it with your grown-up hat on.
We’ve all been dealt huge responsibility with this election. The first step toward accepting responsibility is accepting it, and the first step toward accepting it is recognizing it.”
“READ THIS. Read every single word. It’ll take you about three minutes. Be sure to read to the end (take a few minutes and read all of it!)”
“Are you sickened and despondent with the current campaign and upcoming presidential election?
I consider myself a conservative and do truly believe our country is at a political/economic/moral/ social crossroads. I need to let you know I could/would never vote for Joe Biden to lead this country. To me, he represents everything that is wrong with our current political structure. On the flip side, I look and listen to Donald Trump and I cringe at every rude, insulting comment he makes.”
“If you find yourself in a similar state of mind, please read the following article:
A Message For Christians About Donald Trump
Here’s a famous joke about God and how he talks to us.
“A deeply faithful Christian man is stuck on roof at home with massive flooding up to the 2nd floor. Rowboat comes. He says “No, I’m waiting for God. I prayed and I know he’s coming.” 2nd Rowboat. “No, I’m waiting for God.” 3rd Rowboat. “No, I’m waiting for God.”
Water rises. The man drowns. Now he’s meeting God in heaven. The religious man says, “Where were you God? I prayed. I was faithful. I asked you to save me. Why would you abandon me?”
God says, “Hey, I sent you 3 rowboats.””
“Did you ever consider Trump is our rowboat?
Maybe God is trying to tell us something important–that now is not the time for a “nice Christian guy” or a “gentleman” or a typical Republican powder puff. Maybe now is the time for a natural born killer, a ruthless fighter, a warrior. Because right about now we need a miracle, or America is finished. Maybe the rules of gentlemen don’t apply here. Maybe a gentleman and “all-around nice Christian” would lead us to slaughter.”
“Or do you want another Mitt Romney, Bob Dole, John McCain, Gerald Ford or Paul Ryan? Did any of them win? Did they lead the GOP to “the promised land?” Did they change the direction of America ? No, because if you don’t win, you have no say.
Paul Ryan couldn’t even deliver his own state, Wisconsin! Nice, but obedient. I mean Paul Ryan…not my dog. My dog is actually a pretty good defender and loyal.
Maybe God is knocking on your door loudly, but you’re not listening. Maybe God understands we need a “war leader” at this moment in time. Maybe God understands if we don’t win this election, America is dead. It’s over. The greatest nation in world history will be gone. Finished. Kaput. Adios.”
“And with one last breath, maybe what we need to save us at the last second, is someone different. Someone you haven’t ever experienced before– because you weren’t raised in rough and tumble New York where nothing good gets accomplished unless you’re combative, aggressive, outrageous, on offense at all times, and maybe just a tad arrogant too.
Someone with a personality you’ve never seen on stage at your church. Maybe, just maybe, being a nice gentlemanly Christian would not beat Biden and his billion dollars, and his best friends in the media who will unleash the dogs of hell upon the GOP nominee.”
“I guess you think God is only nice and gentlemanly. Really? Then you’ve missed the whole point of the Bible. When necessary, God is pretty tough. When necessary, God strikes with pain, death and destruction. When necessary, God inflicts vengeance.
Maybe you think God couldn’t possibly be associated with someone like Trump. Trump is too vicious, rude and crude.
When we won WWII, was God “nice?” Were we gentlemanly when defeating Hitler? Were we gentlemanly when firebombing Germany? Were we gentlemanly when dropping atomic bombs on Japan ? Is God ever “nice” on the battlefield? Or does he send us vicious SOB’s like General George S. Patton so the good guys can defeat evil?”
“It’s pretty clear to me God sends unique people to be “war leaders.” That’s a different role than a pastor or church leader. God understands that.
And maybe it’s time to re-define “nice.” Maybe Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan aren’t nice at all–because they led us to defeat. And losing again would mean the end of America . And God can’t allow that. Maybe Romney and Ryan mean well, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Or maybe they’re just jealous they had their chance and blew it. Maybe they’d rather help elect Biden than allow a Trump victory that would make them look weak, feckless and incompetent.
“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” (Isiah 40:30-31)
God is about miracles. We don’t need a “nice guy” or a “gentleman” right now. It’s the 4th quarter and we’re losing 14-0. We need a miracle.”
“So let me repeat my message to Christians: “YOU’RE MISSING THE BOAT.”
I believe Trump is our miracle. I believe Trump is our rowboat. Except he’s more like a battleship!
No one is saying Trump is perfect. No one is saying Trump is a perfect conservative. But he is a patriot. He is a warrior. He is a capitalist. He is the right man, at the right time. Yes, he’s a bit rude and crude and offensive. But that may make him the perfect warrior to save America , American exceptionalism, capitalism and Judeo-Christian values. The choice should be easy for Christians.
It’s Trump…or it’s the end of the American dream.”
The audio from another twit has several “loud” shots, followed by 3 “much quieter” shots. There is video of the “protester” with the rifle raised and aimed at the driver. He said earlier in the day that people who disagree with his beliefs were pussies who wouldn’t come and get some. With that as givens, it looks pretty clear to me.
The bacchanalia is on hold, and UT is not in session. The only reason anyone would be in Downtown on a Saturday night right now is that they’re looking for trouble of some kind.
Unless the driver lives down there, he’s not clean in this situation.
Maybe Romney and Ryan mean well, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Or maybe they’re just jealous they had their chance and blew it.
Mittens and his Daddy issues. Then again, a lot of pols have Daddy issues.
To recap, Mittens lost because he wouldn’t commit to a repeal of Obamacare, and the evangelical base of the Republican Party was not going to vote for an LDS Bishop to sit in the White House for 4-8 years without a guarantee of seeing progress on winding back the Prog agenda.
“Google Tells Employees to Work From Home Until July 2021”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-tells-employees-to-work-from-home-until-july-2021
“CEO Sundar Pichai decides to keep roughly 200K employees working remotely for another year.”
Can you imagine trying to get work done in that totally open environment ? The son said that his interviews there were crazy. He was also warned about the roving gangs of SJWs that would confront people and publicly verify their allegiance to the same. He blew off his second set of interviews due to all the crazy.
gentlemen, sometimes I get lost on colloquial english
Essentially, he has a pulse.
@greg meaning?
and yes, IT is reaping the wind with QA, essentially if you agree with devops, you dont need QA, agile etc etc etc etc etc etc etc development etc etc etc.
Surey there are lots of people stating, is cheaper and quicker, ok, be my guest
gentlemen, sometimes I get lost on colloquial english
Essentially, he has a pulse.
@greg meaning?
The individual that the company hired for the job is just there so the management can say that they have a Software QA Manager with a minimum set of credentials — Computer Science degree and some work history. The position is probably just a show for customers.
“McConnell will not bring coronavirus aid bill to Senate floor without liability protections”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mcconnell-not-bring-coronavirus-aid-184749662.html
“WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday no coronavirus relief bill will be brought to the Senate floor without legal liability protections included in the legislation.”
Good. I can just see the lawyers salivating to start suing employers.
“CEO Sundar Pichai decides to keep roughly 200K employees working remotely for another year.”
Can you imagine trying to get work done in that totally open environment ? The son said that his interviews there were crazy. He was also warned about the roving gangs of SJWs that would confront people and publicly verify their allegiance to the same. He blew off his second set of interviews due to all the crazy.
My first question is: Why does Google have 200,000 employees? What are they actually doing for the company?
gentlemen, sometimes I get lost on colloquial english
Essentially, he has a pulse.
“having a pulse” is just a person as a placeholder, they are doing nothing productive except for breathing.
My technical support manager has QA as a part of his job duties. We test our calculation engine extensively with 600+ known flowsheets and use a homebuilt tool to compare the results line by line. And we still have issues.
Roger that! 50 years ago I had to use engineering, analytical programs written by minimally talented engineers for IBM 7094 machines, not one appropriately schooled in such. They contained many bugs that I had to resolve when stumbling into them and had to learn to use octal to decimal conversion tables.
My technical support manager has QA as a part of his job duties. We test our calculation engine extensively with 600+ known flowsheets and use a homebuilt tool to compare the results line by line. And we still have issues.
Boost has some really excellent facilities for unit testing.
At medium- to large-sized companies, software QA is an over-40 ghetto anymore, especially on the West Coast. It is a dead end job.
Management drops hints that select members of development (read: me) may need to be “temporarily” assigned to work for our new QA manager to get his department up and running. I’m open that I have no respect for that guy’s credentials and would rather assemble furniture at IKEA.
TAMU Corpus “The Island School”
For the uninitiated: Publix is the Florida HEB equivalent.
The store managers get huge incentive bonuses on top of company stock — employee-owned company stock. If I were the manager, I would have been on the phone with the cops’ boss the moment they started handing out those citations in front of my store.
OTOH, Publix has been neutered by the politicians and Progs in Florida this year.
https://youtu.be/S-AWfJZsx5A
Why is it that some Hispanic authority figures of a certain age like “Serious” and the Hialeah doctor talk like Al Pacino in “Scarface” when trying to communicate a point to people they think are dumb? I worked for a guy at GTE who did the same thing.
You are clearly communicating your point, sir, I just don’t agree with you.
Of course, there are a lot of stupid people in Hialeah.
WRT to Fenix devices, I have two types that say “Fenix” on them:
1. Two flashlights, E15 and FD30.
2. A Garmin watch, model Fenix 5X Plus.
Yesh, I am fairly certain that is the issue. I guess I should have tried my pron sites to see if they worked.
Good price. But I don’t need another FLASHLIGHT. Want is entirely different story. Regardless, I think I will pass. Next upgrade I want is 2000 lumens in the same form factor. Or a Phaser, a Phaser would be nice.
Reading your email and reporting to the FBI.
If they’re like the 2.2 million that work for Walmart then they stand around in blue vests being unhelpful. 🙂
“Eye on the Tropics: Watching the next wave closely, though it has hurdles ahead”
https://spacecityweather.com/eye-on-the-tropics-watching-the-next-wave-closely-though-it-has-hurdles-ahead/
Looks like it might be Florida’s time in the bucket with PTC 9, Potential Tropical Cyclone 9.
Searching the intertubes for wrongthink?
I would imagine that many of those googlers are taking care of servers in their data centers. This is from 2018:
That link indicates there are 20 data centers worldwide; again, an old report. I suspect more – a lot more.
Looks like it might be Florida’s time in the bucket with PTC 9, Potential Tropical Cyclone 9.
Sadly, the most accurate indicator of pending FL storm intensity, the regulars’ stools at Sloppy Joe’s, remain off limits.
https://sloppyjoes.com/cam-bar/
I want five phasers. No, ten. With three extra power packs each.
Sauce Mix packages: In United grocery store, in the institutional food section, they have a giant 3-pack of Morrison’s Peppered Gravy Mix labelled “Loaded Baked Potato Soup”. The label says “You will need: Morrison’s Peppered Gravy Mix, frozen hash browns, crumbled bacon, grated cheddar cheese, chopped green onions”. I didn’t buy the pack so am not certain of amounts, but I did buy a small pack of Morrison’s gravy mix to test making it. It is not bad! Pretty good, in fact! I want to try making it in true prepper fashion using dehydrated potatoes – maybe from boxed scalloped potatoes – to see how it turns out. Could use those packaged bacon bits, and freeze-dried chives.
I don’t ever buy those packaged gravy mixes except for brown gravy because it is easy to make, but in this case it is an “ingredient”. Also, I’ve tried canning bacon before and wasn’t impressed with the texture – but this would be a good way to use it. This gravy mix would probably make good creamed eggs or creamed chipped beef, too.
I use the costco shelf stable bacon crumbles in almost every meal. I add it to eggs, both fried and scrambled, saute’d brusselsprouts and other veg, cream soups, baked beans, all sorts of things. I do keep it in the freezer, because I want more here than I can rotate just with it on the shelf.
my kids love hash brown potatoes for breakfast, rehydrated kind in little milk cartons… I do add garlic salt, pepper, and regular salt, or just hit it with Adkins Ranch Style Steak Seasoning- I use that on almost every meat too…..
n
The audio from another twit has several “loud” shots, followed by 3 “much quieter” shots. There is video of the “protester” with the rifle raised and aimed at the driver. He said earlier in the day that people who disagree with his beliefs were pussies who wouldn’t come and get some. With that as givens, it looks pretty clear to me.
The bacchanalia is on hold, and UT is not in session. The only reason anyone would be in Downtown on a Saturday night right now is that they’re looking for trouble of some kind.
Unless the driver lives down there, he’s not clean in this situation.
Don’t we have the right to drive where we want to ? For instance, if the driver wanted to run downtown to grab a meal from a special place. Or just out driving around. Or meeting a friend who lives on the other side of the town.
Bad week last week. I arrived at the church on Wednesday afternoon to get ready to stream the Wednesday services. No video was present and the control surface was trying to connect to the switcher. I checked the switcher and it was dead. Swapped the power supply. Still dead. The switcher was toast and without that little box the church has no broadcast, no stream, no screens. This was not good.
I traveled to the local vendor where the equipment was purchased and who did the install. I asked if they had a spare switcher that I could rent for a couple of weeks. They did, same as what I had. They also loaned me a power supply which produced the same results. I was able to swap out the dead switcher with the loaner. Doing the BNC connections in tight spaces is tough so I was thankful I had purchased a tool four or five months ago.
I was able to get everything operational although the AUX1 connector is flakey. I also needed to update the firmware in the switcher so that it matched the control surface and the tally box. Everything has to match. Was able to get the Wednesday services and Sunday services on the air and had the screens in the sanctuary.
Monday I pursued the purchase of a used switcher. Based on what I saw on E-Bay and another site that did not seem like a good solution. I contacted the vendor and they indicated they may have an old switcher to sell but recommended against that scenario. I would just be putting a temporary patch on the situation. I decided to buy a new switcher ($2,500). I needed one with three AUX busses. The vendor had none, their supplier had none.
I went to B&H and found a switcher in stock. Ordered and will be here on Thursday. The vendor said I got really lucky as the switcher is out of stock in many places.
This is a 4K switcher that can be easily set to HD. This switcher has only 1 HDMI input rather than than the 4 the non-functional switcher has. This will not be a big deal as I can remove three SDI to HDMI converters.
What I have to do on Monday is pull the old switcher. Then install the new switcher. This is going to require redoing a significant chunk of the cabling. I will have to redo the button mapping on the new switcher, reconfigure the matrix switch, and install an UP/DOWN converter to get SD signal for the broadcast. Old switcher would output SD, this new switcher will not.
This new switcher has 10 inputs where the old switcher only had 8. Also the BNC connectors are mounted to the frame whereas on the old switcher they were mounted to the circuit board. A much better design.
WRT the number of Google employees (2 million): I did a google search this afternoon and received 41+ million references. That is 20 per employee…..seems reasonable.
!!! It’s one thing for a $65 home wifi router to just up and die for no reason. It’s not acceptable for a $2500 piece of gear to just up and die.
We certainly do. Drive on public, taxpayer-funded roads, walk on public, taxpayer-funded sidewalks and streets. That came up from time to time in the past, before I stopped bothering to flag down a cop and tell him I’d stopped a mugging and the would-be muggers were unconscious in that alley. They all were going to arrest me — oh, pardon me, “detain me in handcuffs in the back of their cruiser”, not “arrest” — and they generally said something like “what business did you have here?” None of your damned business, jackass. I’m a free American going about my own business.
“Unless the driver lives down there, he’s not clean in this situation.”
Don’t we have the right to drive where we want to ? For instance, if the driver wanted to run downtown to grab a meal from a special place. Or just out driving around. Or meeting a friend who lives on the other side of the town.
The core of Downtown Austin is mostly fast food or bars. Even Ruth’s Chris was remodeled into 2/3 bar 1/3 restaurant. “Just passing through” is another tough argument since the one-way streets are fiendish. And I thought Tampa was bad.
The full story needs to come out, especially if the driver had concealed carry and discharged a firearm. The Progs are looking to turn Austin into Seattle or Portland over the Mike Ramos shooting. The murals are already going up.
Where are the BurnLootMurder crowds likely to set up in Austin? Are there any overpasses which would give a man with a scoped rifle a good shot into the mob? Asking for a friend.
5 gallon bucket of gasoline, some soap flakes, a rooftop overlook and a road flare. Instant atrocity. Instant lesson.
n
I didn’t quote it but wrt our previous discussion of lasers, there was a cop quoted that he had two officers who still haven’t gotten their sight back.
This will have two effects. ZERO tolerance on the part of law enforcement for lasers. And cops will not go to work without that. Being blinded is terrifying.
n
This new switcher has 10 inputs where the old switcher only had 8. Also the BNC connectors are mounted to the frame whereas on the old switcher they were mounted to the circuit board. A much better design.
OK, I am confused as usual. Which one is the better design ? I would think that the frame mounted BNC connectors are better.
The core of Downtown Austin is mostly fast food or bars. Even Ruth’s Chris was remodeled into 2/3 bar 1/3 restaurant. “Just passing through” is another tough argument since the one-way streets are fiendish. And I thought Tampa was bad.
The full story needs to come out, especially if the driver had concealed carry and discharged a firearm. The Progs are looking to turn Austin into Seattle or Portland over the Mike Ramos shooting. The murals are already going up.
It does not matter what the full story is. The BurnLootMurder crowd will manipulate it to meet their needs.
I am hoping that Austin PD will not allow them to run and ruin the city.
I have stayed in downtown Austin several times. It is not bad, in fact quite nice on the weekends.
Where are the BurnLootMurder crowds likely to set up in Austin? Are there any overpasses which would give a man with a scoped rifle a good shot into the mob? Asking for a friend.
They’ll set up on the 11th street bridge over I35 with banners getting close to the election.
https://goo.gl/maps/ydAmvCw6xxvLEiNv8
@Ray, sorry to hear about your TV problems. It looks as if you are on top of it, and will soon be back in full operation. Always tough on the sphincter.
I doubt this is relevant, but when I worked at the TV station, there were at least two signal paths for almost everything: a working channel and a hot spare. We had the ability to switch in seconds. Of course, we had to comply with FCC rules regarding staying on the air. We weren’t perfect because we had only one full power transmitter, and the standby was the old model with reduced output, something like 20 kW instead of 50 kW. Same for the aural channel. (For those who are curious, in the old days, TV always had two transmitters, one for the picture and one for the sound.) Later, a different scheme was used for transmitters: two half-power transmitters feeding a combiner, so if one failed, there was no interruption, but the output to the antenna was half power. In addition, we had three studios, and only one was needed to originate a program. It was really well thought out.
Your needs are much different, and you don’t need to operate continuously, but I am sure you can benefit from some similarities. And, failures always teach us some lessons. I hope your sponsors (the church, of course) can support the need to get some spares.
I only say this as a matter of pride. That TV station operation was first class, and the people were top notch. Easy to afford when there was so much revenue coming in.
I have stayed in downtown Austin several times. It is not bad, in fact quite nice on the weekends.
Without a pandemic, the city does try near the river with area around the convention center and the new hotels, running up Brazos to the Omni. With 6th Street mostly shut down and convention business non-existent, however, the CHUDs are probably out at night in the area these days.
We used to be in the old Bell switch building at Brazos and 7th, between the Omni and the Driskill. I made a point of being out before 6PM because my parking was at First Baptist, CHUD Central after dark except on church nights.
CHUD (etymology 2)?
CHUD (etymology 2)?
Yes. Our term for the homeless in Downtown Austin.
Everyone at work called the parking lot to the east of our building, south of St. Davids Church, “The Murder Lot”.
I didn’t ask too many questions about that one.
CHUD (etymology 2)?
I am fairly sure that Greg’s definition of CHUD is the “Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers”. I saw one of them in the day time in Austin when we were walking down the street in the late afternoon in the summer of 2005. He was short and had a mass of body hair all over him with tattoos all over his arms and face. And he had a massive bull ring in his nose, at least two inches in diameter.
https://www.4wileyfarm.com/blog—down-on-the-farm/bull-bling-why-we-put-nose-rings-in-our-bulls
My wife was taking chemotherapy at the time and had lost all of her body hair, eyebrows, and the waist long hair from her head. She normally wore a hat but she was not due to the heat that day. The CHUD was watching her walk down the street towards him like she was a freak. I was very tempted to tell the CHUD freak to stop staring at my wife but she told me to be quiet.
I agree with a small tweak to that phrase:
I would imagine that many of those googlers are taking care of servers. In their data centers.
Those individuals are unlikely to be working from home. 🙂
On the other hand, people forget that Google is not only a Search company (Marketing for Ad-selling) but that they have a lot of development efforts going on at the same time.
In software, apart from Google Search you at least have to consider Android and all of the apps associated with it and some repeat apps being developed concurrently like Hangouts and all the other replacement apps for Hangouts.
in hardware, they have developed their own specialized equipment for servers and switches apart from Phone and wearables.
So, development and policing are probably the stay at homes.
According to the vendor it happens. Lot of heat, as in a huge heat sink. The vendor has lost a couple in the last year, about the same age as my old switcher. The new switcher has fans.
The new switcher. Connectors supported by the case rather than the logic board.
Lot of guessing on my part. I really don’t like being the only one in the church to understand and deal with this stuff.
Lots of single points of failure. Installing redundancy is expensive. I would never get that cost past the committees. If we don’t go on the air, we don’t. Inconvenient, yes, major issue, no.
Agreed. That’s my situation at work, to my great annoyance.
You should document as much as you can. I know you did at least that one networking diagram but that won’t help Joe the tech savvy parishoner to fill in for you when you can’t make it. Have you written up the procedures you follow for ordinary operation? For tracking down the problem when the signal doesn’t make it to the computer?
Rather than writing all that down (a time-consuming PITA, as I believe you’ve previously agreed) how about having someone follow you with a video camera for a while? Do your normal operations, keeping up a running commentary as you do it. Stick the videos aside and they’ll be there to help someone else figure it out. “Bus insurance” I call it.
Even in the live events industry, unless it’s a once in a lifetime event, we rarely had full redundancy. We rarely had any redundancy at all. The olympics and a couple of other events had fully redundant power systems. You never get much more than that.
I was in Greensboro with a performer, live for a dinner show at a national convention, with a video presentation to start my talent’s show. Then there would be video clips in between stories, and i-mag (big screens for the audience to see her). I’ve done all my checks, we’re good to go. Lights come up, I hit Play on the tape deck and ……….. nothing. I get the video guys scrambling, my talent starts winging it, and no one is happy. Someone in catering ran over the video snake with a heavily loaded cart and cut it into 3 pieces. No video for us.
I don’t recall if the video vendor got paid for the gig. We didn’t have any video for our show, so there is no reason for us to have paid. I’d have cut them back to just labor and some small percentage. They should have put cable ramps in place to protect the cable snake. As it is, they were out thousands for the snake. I’m pretty sure they made no money even if they got paid.
n
that same night I scratched my arm and ripped my shirt on a sharp edge of a metal shelf in the men’s room. Took weeks for that infected mess to heal.
“15 Best Science Fiction Noir Books” by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/15-best-science-fiction-noir-books/
I have read 4 of the 15: “The Demolished Man”, “Leviathan Wakes”, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, and “Altered Carbon”. I’ve got “Red Planet Blues” in my SBR (strategic book reserve).
How about “The Caves of Steel” by Isaac Asimov for this list ?
https://www.amazon.com/Caves-Steel-Robot-Book-ebook/dp/B004JHYRAO/?tag=ttgnet-20
Huh, other than the Alistar Renolds and Altered Carbon, those are all unknowns for me…
n
The scanner has Harris Cty Sheriffs Deputies searching for a suspect who ran…
they’ve got dog teams, deputies on the ground, and a helo with thermal camera and they can’t find him. The helo keeps trying to vector them to hot spots in the brush, but it turns out to be nothing.
huh, they just gave up. Missed why they are looking for the guy.
n
@ray, @nick:
Lo these many years ago, I worked for the BBC, sometimes known as “Auntie Beeb”. Being, at the higher levels, a Civil Service bureaucracy, she had procedures for everything. Most of the transmission output was single-path-to-air, although there was hot-spare equipment.
There was also a concept of “Grades” of programming. I never knew the exact details of how a programme gained a higher grade (lower number=higher importance) but the most notable was a “Grade 1”, which was reserved for the Monarch addressing her subjects directly, as in the “Address to the Nation” on Christmas Day.
In my day, the programme was made on film (16mm) and there were two copies of the film running simultaneously, and two copies of the programme on videotape, also running simultaneously. One film and one VT on mains power, the others on generator. One of each routed via 2 different Transmission Control rooms (also on diverse power) and routed diversely (cable and microwave) to the first transmitter at Crystal Palace, in South London. From there, the normal redundant distribution took up the load.
In other words, the likelihood of HM’s words not getting to the viewers was effectively nil. This level of effort is not sustainable in the long term, but for specials it was acceptable.
Nothing I’ve done since approached that level, although at my last gig there were main and backup signal chains, computer automation controlled. Single distribution, though.
G.
@ray:
I have a similar situation for a traditional observance, once a year. I provide sound reinforcement for a maypole dancing celebration in May. Not this year (first gap in 60 years) due to coronavirus.
I’ve been doing it for about 25 years, but no-one else appears to be willing to step up – not even Jenny, my youngest daughter, who takes after me in some things (she’s B.Sc (Hons) Physics, Lancaster (failed))
My recent bout of cancer has pointed out that I need to write a “Bus Book”, aka “What to do if Geoff falls under a bus”, for this.
G.
@nick:
At least you can monitor your local Plod for situational awareness. Here in UK, such things (even air band!) are illegal to listen to, on pain of heavy fines and equipment confiscation.
Back in the day (30 years!) I had a Bearcat 250, and was wont to listen to my local Plod on 147.425 NFM, unencrypted. Nowadays. the emergency services all use encrypted TETRA, and working gear to receive that is conspicuous by its absence. There are efforts to produce SDRs that can do it, using repurposed TV dongles, but the encryption is, so far, uncracked.
G.
There was lots of pushback in the US against agencies that tried to be all encrypted all the time. There was some legal basis as the US citizens own the airwaves collectively and the .gov only manages them. That idea has been attacked over the years so it’s not 100% anymore and many have forgotten it.
The police and med services can have legit needs for privacy in communications (HIPAA act for medical privacy, tactical privacy from sophisticated criminals) but that’s been limited under the idea of ‘checks and balances’ and the accusation so often used against the citizens, “Waddaya got to hide?”
As a practical matter, most dispatching happens over their MDU mobile data units (pc or tablet in the car), and the officers themselves use apps to ‘back channel’. They were using ‘whatsapp’ last year, some official app that does similar, and this year they are using another app the escapes me at the moment. I mentioned it recently though.
Last time I checked, there was some success at using SDR dongles to decrypt one of the Motorola encryption schemes here.
In Houston, only SWAT or the other “special” or “tactical” teams use encryption.
during disasters, FEMA says NO ENCRYPTION. Managing encryption is hard, and breaks interoperability, so it is discouraged.
I took my concerns to my contacts in local law enforcement when I realized how much info they were leaking on surveillance ops, and was told that the cops had NO evidence that any of the crims were using scanners. What a change from the past.
n