Tues. Dec. 14, 2021 – Busy like a beaver, busy like a bee…

By on December 14th, 2021 in personal, prepping, WuFlu

Warm again, and wet. Very light misty rain all day yesterday, depending on where I was, had me driving the Expedition on my errands, when the Ranger would have been a better choice. Forecast for today looks like even more likelihood of real rain. Well, we shall see.

Did my errands in the morning and early afternoon. Picked up D2, and spent some time making erasers out of some sort of clay like material… Little tiny erasers shaped like fruit, pie, and animals. It was fun to play with the clay and make stuff.

Today I’ll head out to my client’s house. Port forwarding is still not working correctly. Some of them are probably being blocked by ATT, but normally the non-standard control ports should get through. The cams’ app used to get through without issues. I hate chasing issues like this, where I’m just poking around in the dark.

And then home to more family stuff. There is so much end of year stuff at my wife’s work, and with the kids’ school semester wrapping up, that we’ve got multiple things happening every day, and worse from my point of view, every night. I already missed one of my favorite things, our visit to the school district’s FFA Christmas event. Photos with Santa, hay ride, baby animals, and show animals the kids have raised, and lots of people from school and the neighborhood. It’s a real community event and a fun way to spend a few hours. The kids in the culinary program at the alternative school sell food- cookies, frito pie, etc, and that is ALWAYS worth spending a few bucks. Local local local…

Stack up some local community. They’ll be the ones helping you, or turning you in, or shooting you for your preps. You need a good idea of what the people around you think and feel.

And of course, stack the preps.

nick

68 Comments and discussion on "Tues. Dec. 14, 2021 – Busy like a beaver, busy like a bee…"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    70F and 98%RH this fine morning.  Ug.

    n

  2. drwilliams says:

    "Busy like a beaver, busy like a bee…"

    "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee…"

    Bees are busy and can sting.

    Beavers are just busy? They could float, too, if they weren't so busy.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    Today I’ll head out to my client’s house. Port forwarding is still not working correctly. Some of them are probably being blocked by ATT, but normally the non-standard control ports should get through. The cams’ app used to get through without issues. I hate chasing issues like this, where I’m just poking around in the dark.

    Is the client paying for residential or business service?

    Residential is subject to port blocking without notice since the contract terms often do not allow for servers. The Log4j fiasco may have motivated AT&T to block the possibility of Minecraft servers being hacked and used by bad actors.

    I've also noticed more enforcement for torrent activity.

  4. SteveF says:

    I've also noticed more enforcement for torrent activity.

    Likewise. I can pull down my software installation images and what-not but upload is often blocked, not just throttled.

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    The reality is that other than SSH, they  shouldn't be blocking any ports anymore.   Far too many IOT devices and the apps used to manage them need remote access.  Most of them use HTTP or HTTPS to establish the link, so blocking 80 doesn't just block servers anymore.

    If I can't find anything misconfigured, I'll run gibsons port scanner against it and see if that tells me anything.

    n

    worst case, from my pov is I have to learn enough to get the ubiquiti gateway working.  It's supposed to have a vpn endpoint built in.

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    linux mint weirdness….   I used "restart" instead of going all the way down, and now my power saving settings are not being applied.   Monitor turns off after 15 minutes (the  default) instead of 'never'.

    I freaking hate power saving modes and always turn them off.

    n

  7. Greg Norton says:

    I freaking hate power saving modes and always turn them off.

    I have an old 6GB MacBook Pro 2007 which would make a great Linux machine if I could ever solve the problem of the machine going unresponsive whenever the lid gets closed.

    It used to work properly until a few years ago with a Linux kernel upgrade that changed something in power management.

    As Dr. Pournelle used to say, Unix is a Guru Full Employment Act.

    Linux is doubly so.

    Mint 19.3 is getting really long in the tooth. IIRC, that is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as the base. Five years is an eternity.

    The machine where I have 19.3 installed is *old*. I believe it is an original Core2 CPU running on an Intel motherboard. Power saving capability is pretty minimal.

  8. Ray Thompson says:

    I tried to make a post about storm doors. I got internal server errors when posting. Even pasting back what I had copied into a new post produced the same error.

    What was unique about that post was there were several double quotes ("). I am wondering if the software on the server is looking for unmatched quotes or too many quotes.

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    Wow, I missed this when it happened in Nov. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrW5XCA_9EQ&t=1s

    This shootout happened 20ft from the door of the Goodwill Outlet where I shop when I'm on that side of town!

    n

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    @ray, when that happens, use the back button to go back to the comment form, select all and  cut  all, hit a couple of characters, post that.  Then use the edit button under the posted comment, paste your original into it.  Then it should post without problem.

    The problem is whatever is parsing the editable comment form in the first place, with all the formatting buttons.   The 'edit' option once the comment posts doesn't use that tool so it doesn't error out.

    n

    (until we figure out what's causing it.)

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    Severe Weather and Tornadoes – Central U.S.
    National Watch Center
    Current Situation: Severe weather impacted the central U.S. on Dec 10-11; preliminary reports of 52 tornadoes, 270
    wind, and 20 hail reports across several states. 18 counties in KY were impacted by tornadic activity and debris fields.
    Lifeline Impacts:
    Safety and Security:
    ▪ KY: Temporary flight restrictions in effect for Graves and Bowling Green counties during SAR operations
    Health & Medical:
    ▪ Fatalities/Injuries: KY – 66 (-14) confirmed fatalities / 105 unaccounted for; TN – 4 confirmed fatalities / 74
    injuries; AR – 2 confirmed fatalities / 21 (+3) injuries; MO – 2 confirmed fatalities / 9 injuries; IL – 6 confirmed
    fatalities
    Food, Water, Shelter:
    ▪ Shelters: KY – 8 with 276 (-28) occupants, TN – 4 (+1) with 6 (-2) occupants, AR – 4 with 27 occupants (ARC Shelter
    report as of 7:01 a.m. ET)
    ▪ KY: Mayfield has no water; bottled water has arrived in the city
    ▪ KY: Boil water advisories in effect for 18k customers; 3 water/wastewater systems non-operational affecting 10k
    customers; 11 systems under limited operations
    Energy:
    ▪ Power outages: KY – 14.6k (+0.3k) (0.7%) (DOE Eagle-I as of 5.00 a.m. ET)
    Communications:
    ▪ KY: 3 PSAPs rerouted; all 911 calls being processed; cache of radios requested/deployed
    Transportation:
    ▪ KY: All major roads opened; some secondary roads closed due to debris, downed power lines, and trees; clearance
    withing state capabilities

    daily update from FEMA

    n

  12. MrAtoz says:

    I freaking hate power saving modes and always turn them off.

    Ack! Global Warming! Climate Change! Fine him and lock him up! Build Back Better forbids this.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    This shootout happened 20ft from the door of the Goodwill Outlet where I shop when I'm on that side of town!

    The section of I-35 just north of the Travis/Williamson county line, not far from us, seems to be a magnet for bad events, including where Wilco Sheriff allowed APD to take down the Austin Bomber in a face-saving gesture after the real local law enforcement cracked the case.

    Interestingly, the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" house used to sit not far away. Maybe the area is cursed.

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    Indian burial ground!

    n

  15. dkreck says:

    Wind started yesterday afternoon and rain last night. Rain and more rain with some wind. California sure needs it but not to worry, no amount of rain will make the real problem of climate change go away. More draconian rules and mandatory masking starts again tomorrow. It's all TRump's fault. Go Brandon.

  16. Mark W says:

    Is anyone else have 500 problems today?

    Strange I can post this but not my comment, which has not quotes or links.

  17. RickH says:

    @lynn

    You are becoming quite the published author ! This makes seven books for you, congrats !

    Thanks for the order. I hope one day that I have book sales in two figures.

  18. EdH says:

    Rain and light winds here in the California high desert. 
     

    None of the winds gusting to 75mph that were predicted 🙂

  19. RickH says:

    @EdH — according to the Windy site, there are pockets of very gusty winds in (what I assume) is your area.

    https://www.windy.com/-Wind-gusts-gust?gust,36.892,-118.422,7,m:eIgacUp

    Interesting site, BTW.

  20. MrAtoz says:

    Road trip to Vegas tomorrow. MrsAtoz wants to make Tucson from San Antonio. Gonna be a slog, but will listen to Paper & Blood on the way. Early departure usually means MrAtoz get to drive for a looooooong time while everyone else sleeps. Even the dogs.

  21. Nick Flandrey says:

    As long as you can stay awake, that's the best way to drive…

    n

  22. Greg Norton says:

    Road trip to Vegas tomorrow. MrsAtoz wants to make Tucson from San Antonio. Gonna be a slog, but will listen to Paper & Blood on the way. Early departure usually means MrAtoz get to drive for a looooooong time while everyone else sleeps. Even the dogs.

    At least that is all I-10. Still, 12 hours, easy. Have a safe trip.

    I'd love to have an excuse to go and see the new location for the pinball museum.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y53ph_GN-rw

    Austin has Pinballz Arcade in three locations, housing a really sizable collection, but Vegas is the mecca. Plus, most of the games are still 25 cents there, as the video points out.

  23. drwilliams says:

    @Greg Norton

    ”most of the games are still 25 cents ”

    That’s for three games?

  24. Greg Norton says:

    ”most of the games are still 25 cents ”

    That’s for three games?

    I haven't seen that in an arcade since the 70s, even the retro special interest places.

    The last place I saw three games for a quarter was in the old Fort Wilderness arcade at Disney, before the steam train that circled the property was mothballed.

  25. lynn says:

    "Critical Apache Log4j2 Exploit Demonstrated in Minecraft"

         https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/critical-exploit-for-apache-log4j2-could-be-far-reaching-proves-real-in

    "Last weekend was a bad time to be a server administrator. A critical vulnerability emerged in Apache Log4j2. The big problem? Attackers have the chance to exploit the open-source Java package that all kinds of applications, from Twitter to iCloud, use to execute any code an attacker chooses."

    "That's as scary as it sounds."

    So they are going after the gamers now.  My daughter plays Minecraft a lot.

  26. EdH says:

    @RickH:  That’s pretty neat!  
     

    Seems a bit high compared to what William J Fox field is reporting. 

  27. lynn says:

    "DARPA Funded Researchers Accidentally Discover The World’s First Warp Bubble"

        https://thedebrief.org/darpa-funded-researchers-accidentally-create-the-worlds-first-warp-bubble/

    "Warp drive pioneer and former NASA warp drive specialist Dr. Harold G “Sonny” White has reported the discovery of an actual, real-world “Warp Bubble.” And, according to White, this first of its kind breakthrough by his Limitless Space Institute (LSI) team sets a new starting point for those trying to manufacture a full-sized, warp-capable spacecraft."

    "In an interview, White added that “our detailed numerical analysis of our custom Casimir cavities helped us identify a real and manufacturable nano/microstructure that is predicted to generate a negative vacuum energy density such that it would manifest a real nanoscale warp bubble, not an analog, but the real thing.” In other words, a warp bubble structure will manifest under these specific conditions. White cautioned that this does not mean we are near building a fully functioning warp drive, as much more science needs to be done (Updated 08/12/21)."

    "“To be clear, our finding is not a warp bubble analog, it is a real, albeit humble and tiny, warp bubble,” White told The Debrief, “hence the significance.”"

    I cannot decide if this is real or fake.

  28. lpdbw says:

    I apply to 3 jobs every week, and landed an interview this week, which is rare.

    It lasted 5 minutes.  For a 100% remote IT job, where it's likely I won't ever be in the same state as the business or patients, they told me no jab, no job.  It was the first question.  So me getting the "vaccine" is more important than every possible other aspect, including my skills, experience, and knowledge.

    In other somewhat related news, our lawsuit appeal against Houston Methodist is filed with the Federal court of appeals, and we're waiting for Methodist's brief and then on to a court date.  

    To read about the case, see our website. Home – Guardians of Medical Choice.

    This is an expensive process, and the commies at GoFundMe canceled our fund drive, because we go against the narrative.  We've re-established at GiveSendGo and any donations or sharing of our website or the GiveSendgo page is much appreciated.

    I, personally, would appreciate any ideas on creative ways to do fundraising to support this.  Me being me, I think I'd like to stick to things that are moral and ethical, and mostly legal.  But if you want to put some more entertaining ideas out there, I could use a laugh. 

    7
    2
  29. SteveF says:

    But if you want to put some more entertaining ideas out there, I could use a laugh.

    Some blood banks pay for blood, right? Do they pay for blood that's been clot-shotted? If yes, gather up the execs, managers, and HR scum from the hospital, buy some clean buckets, and then bring buckets of blood to the blood bank.

    My job hunt went easily and mostly painlessly. I replied to headhunter email (mostly spam, some targetted) by saying that I appeared to be qualified and was interested but that the employer or end client requiring the clot shot was a deal killer. That cut down on the time wasted on interviews for positions I wouldn't accept. If they replied then I'd send a current resume and do all the rest. (I also stated that I was interested only in 100% remote positions with no travel; I don't know what effect that had on headhunter responses because the clot shot was the bigger issue.) Also, I was going after many more than three per week; probably averaged more than three per day between replying to headhunter email, finding things on Dice, and occasionally applying directly to a company because they caught my interest one way or another. As some high-performing salesman or businessman said probably fifty years ago, if you're not making enough sales, double your rate of failure.

    7
    1
  30. ech says:

    So they are going after the gamers now.  My daughter plays Minecraft a lot.

    The first article I saw about this vulnerability was from a guy with a private Minecraft server for his kids.

  31. RickH says:

    @EdH

    I may have mentioned it before, but I got this weather station: Ambient Weather WS-2902C WiFi Smart Weather Station – https://amzn.to/3s6MLlK  to replace one that I had for about 7 years (the rain gauge quit working). Nice setup, some minor assembly required, but reports directly to Weather Underground and other places without the need for a computer in the middle (just needs a wi-fi connection).

    The only installation issue was the double-U-clamp to attach it to a pole, so that took a bit of tweaking to level it correctly.

    The placement is not optimal for wind, but that's a limitation of my property. I have a really small back yard, so it's on a 8' metal pip just about 25 feet from the corner of my house. That affects the accuracy of the wind readings. I have a two-story house, and an HOA, so don't think I could get away with a 50 pole to get the sensor above the rooftop.

    But it works well, and the Android app lets me see the weather. The included color display is readable across the room.

    The Zon price is $179, but I got it for $149 from ToolWix.

  32. Greg Norton says:

    So they are going after the gamers now.  My daughter plays Minecraft a lot.

    The first article I saw about this vulnerability was from a guy with a private Minecraft server for his kids.

    I read that the server was vulnerable, but the article indicates that the Java client needs to be updated as well.

    The Minecraft server code always struck me as a side thing that Mojang and, later, Microsoft provided as a service but barely supported.

    I’m wondering why the client needs log4j unless the capability is in there for developer debugging and turned off in the final jar file

  33. Mark W says:

    Coinbase just had a meltdown and reported the XRP token as worth  $23M each instead of 81 cents.

    Luckily for them, XRP is on hold due to a bogus lawsuit by the SEC.

    If it had been true, I would already be in negotiations to buy my fleet of yachts 🙂

  34. RickH says:

    A research team at Aarhus University has developed a new molecule that attaches to the surface of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles. This attachment prevents the virus from entering human cells and spreading the infection.

    https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-develop-a-new-molecule-that-blocks-covid-19-infection/

  35. RickH says:

    @nick

    The problem is whatever is parsing the editable comment form in the first place, with all the formatting buttons.   The 'edit' option once the comment posts doesn't use that tool so it doesn't error out.

    The code that saves the comment is the same whether for new comments or editing and saving.

    The 500 errors appear to be because of a firewall rule (outside of WP) on the server that looks at the POST (submit) before the POST is sent to WP.  I haven't been able to figure out why yet; there is no obvious pattern to the 500'd POST vs one that works. At least, not to my beginner-level knowledge of the firewall rules.

    But it appears to be at the hosting level, not caused by a WP, theme, or plugin.

  36. Alan says:

    >> Austin has Pinballz Arcade in three locations, housing a really sizable collection, but Vegas is the mecca. Plus, most of the games are still 25 cents there, as the video points out.

    @Greg, ever been to the Replay Museum when you were in FL? They've got a decent collection of both pinball and video games.

    Also, I have a '70s EM machine that needs a bit of finr-tuning when I get around to it. Gottlieb's King Pin

    The ex got the arcade Ms. PacMan. I've been trying to replace it but the prices for one in decent condition are crazy.

  37. lynn says:

    My 80 year old Mother had surgery this afternoon at Methodist to replace her right hip due to the constant pain.  The surgery went well, she will be there for a couple of days.  Her left leg is withered due to the previous left hip replacement that was a failure so recovery is going to be long and complicated.

  38. lynn says:

    The ex got the arcade Ms. PacMan. I've been trying to replace it but the prices for one in decent condition are crazy.

    You can buy a small replica ( Assembled dimensions: 22.75 inches D x 19 inches W x 57.8 inches H ) at Academy.com for $400:

        https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/arcade1-up-pacman-legacy-12-in-1?sku=multi

    You can play Pac-Man, Pac-Land, Pac-Man Plus, Super Pac-Man, Pac & Pal, Pac-Mania, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig Dug, Dig Dug II, Mappy, and Rompers on it.

    I played an arcade Ms. PacMan back in October. It was a blast from the past. I played several games on it and the arcade Galaga next to it.

  39. Nick Flandrey says:

    @Rick, that's interesting.  Why no formatting buttons in the comment exit box then?

    Fwiw I've never had the 500 error EDITING a posted comment, but frequently get them when initially posting the newly written comment.  What convinced me they were different is that once I get the 500 error, that text will always error in the initial comment box, but I can paste the entire text into the edit box and it will post without issues.

    As added info, if I paste the same text into the edit tool I get as an admin, i.e. Using the edit link  above the comment, it will 500 error.  Funnily, the admin edit also has the formatting buttons.

    And there is a difference between the initial comment post and the edited post because they handle tags differently, so something must be different.

    N

  40. Rick H says:

    Why no formatting buttons in the comment exit box then?

    I assume you meant 'edit', not 'exit'.

    The initial comment box uses standard WP functions to change the comment box appearance in order to use the CKEditor with all the buttons (the current comment editor box). When you hit the 'submit' button, standard WP functions are used to save the comment into the comments table in the database.

    I haven't dug into the code of the 'edit' plugin (the one that allows you to edit a comment after submitting), but I suspect that they don't use the same standard processes (WP functions) to save the comment into the database.

    I know that they use a different process to display their own edit box. Which is why it the 'after-edit' box looks different than the 'regular' edit box. The fact that pasting the same text into the 'after-edit' box doesn't cause a 500 makes me think the after-edit plugin is doing something that is not standard.

    I suppose that I could dig into the after-edit plugin to see what their code does. Or, I could build my own after-edit process that would use the CKEditor. I might put that on the 'interesting things to do that I may not have time to do right away' list.

    The newest version of the theme that I built and is being used here has an option to enable/disable the CKEditor box (if not enabled, the standard box is used). But still testing that. And some other projects are getting in the way of that one. (There are many items on the above-mentioned list.)

    On another note, I was doing some research into the log files for the 500 errors. I had an indication (maybe more of a 'feeling') that perhaps the automated backup process might be a contributing factor to the 500 errors, so I deleted that one and installed a different one. Not sure if it will make a difference though; the link between the 500 error and the database backup might be a bit tenuous.

  41. Alan says:

    >> You can buy a small replica ( Assembled dimensions: 22.75 inches D x 19 inches W x 57.8 inches H ) at Academy.com for $400:

    @lynn, I've played those and the play experience just isn't the same, especially at higher levels.

  42. lynn says:

    >> You can buy a small replica ( Assembled dimensions: 22.75 inches D x 19 inches W x 57.8 inches H ) at Academy.com for $400:

    @lynn, I've played those and the play experience just isn't the same, especially at higher levels.

    Yup, I would not be surprised.

    I own a Bally Harlem Globetrotters pinball machine that I have not played in a decade.  In fact, I have had the head off for the last two moves.  I need to put it back together, see if it still works, and sell it.  I have already replaced the motherboard once.

  43. Greg Norton says:

    @Greg, ever been to the Replay Museum when you were in FL? They've got a decent collection of both pinball and video games.

    No. And I grew up just south of there. I attended Tarpon Springs High School. If you have names of the principals involved, depending on the age, I might even know them.

    I haven't been east of US 19 and north of Gulf to Bay  in … geesh … 25 years (?).

    I know there is a semi-secret club/museum in Fort Myers.

  44. Greg Norton says:

    You can buy a small replica ( Assembled dimensions: 22.75 inches D x 19 inches W x 57.8 inches H ) at Academy.com for $400:

    The "Star Wars" 1up supposedly has a very close recreation of the original Atari arcade controller.

    I have a collection of MAME ROMs I used to keep refreshed from Pleasuredome.org.uk, but they pulled the plug on the site earlier this year and I haven't bothered to find new torrents. "Smash TV" has worked for me for about a decade at full frame rate so it doesn't really matter if my ROMs are a year or so out of date.

    Namco is prepping another "Pac Man" museum cartridge for the current generation of consoles, including the Nintendo Switch.

  45. nick flandrey says:

    @rick, wouldn't it be ironic if the part we haven't suspected holds the key to the problem?

    That was about as long a comment as I'm willing to fat finger on my phone, so only having one typo is pretty  extraordinary for me :-p

    I had to use the phone because it was intermission of the "winter" dance and band program at D1's school.  She's stage manager, so I got roped into taking her there tonight, and sitting thru it.   TOO LOUD!!@!!!   Just 'cuz you have a rack full of amps and some pro-level line array speakers doesn't mean you need to use them.  Jeez.  I didn't remember to bring hearing protection so I sat in the very back.  The under mezzanine 'fill' speakers are too loud too for peter's sake.  And cut back the 10K people, it's like a dentist's drill in my head.  Oh yeah, and pros change the mic battery before every show, no matter what the 'fuel gauge' says.  That's what makes them 'pros', and keeps their audio from dropping out.

    I feel like an Indy car pit crew forced to work at Jiffy Lube when I go to these shows.  yes, it's completely unfair and churlish.  Kids gotta learn someplace and sometime.  But they're doing it wrong, and no one is teaching them right.

    I will say that some of those kids can dance.  And by 8th grade, most of them look like they're well on their way to an eating disorder.

    Why yes, I am grumpy tonight, despite the last of the cobbler and some vanilla icecream.

    n

  46. Greg Norton says:

    I own a Bally Harlem Globetrotters pinball machine that I have not played in a decade.  In fact, I have had the head off for the last two moves.  I need to put it back together, see if it still works, and sell it.  I have already replaced the motherboard once.

    Pinballz here in Austin buys and sells the machines. I don't remember seeing Harlem Globetrotters at the Lakeline or original locations, but we haven't been in a while.

    Portland has a serious retro scene, including pinball, which was illegal there from the early EM days until 1977. The upside of the legal issue is that a lot of machines were hidden in back rooms and warehouses, where they were forgotten until gentrification started in the city core.

  47. Mark W says:

    Re Nicks power-saving comment earlier.

    I did a project years ago for a wall of monitors running on embedded Windows on RPis. It was a complete nightmare turning off the automatic Windows power saving. It was a very esoteric parameter that had to be enabled in the dev system that built the SD card image that booted the Pi.

    Simple app. I spent 5x more time turning off the power saving so-called-features than writing the app. As I recall, there was a screen blanker and a feature that removed video from the monitor so that the monitor would go into power-save mode. Finding both of those settings was painful.

    Then it turned out the electrician installed 8 sockets behind 6 monitors so I didn’t have sufficient outlets for the monitors and the power bricks. Simple things get difficult.

    Got many 500s on this and edited a dummy post to work arond

  48. Greg Norton says:

    I feel like an Indy car pit crew forced to work at Jiffy Lube when I go to these shows.  yes, it's completely unfair and churlish.  Kids gotta learn someplace and sometime.  But they're doing it wrong, and no one is teaching them right.

    The local ISD built a fancy new venue at the IB school on the other side of the freeway within the last few years. We went to a kid performance there last weekend.

    Apple will essentially absorb the ISD's bigger venue so the push has been on to put facilities on every high school campus in the next decade.

    God only knows where they will find the money. The board keeps putting the bond issues on the ballot, and anything but very specific maintenance and needed construction gets voted down every time.

  49. Mark W says:

    Wow that worked. I tried to post it multiple times today.

  50. nick flandrey says:

    I haven't had MAME running on any machines in a while.   A couple of my favorite games just don't have the same experience without the controller hardware.

    Time Pilot ate many a dollar, but it's not as much fun without the joystick, and CrystalCastles needs a big fat heavy trackball.  Marvins Maze isn't in the ROM pack I had last time and it was one of my favorites.

    There are a lot of Galaga machines out there, but very few Sinistar sit in's.

    n

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23WE4cAVQlA

    And Xevious! So many hours….

  51. Greg Norton says:

    Time Pilot ate many a dollar, but it's not as much fun without the joystick, and CrystalCastles needs a big fat heavy trackball.  Marvins Maze isn't in the ROM pack I had last time and it was one of my favorites.

    Microsoft allows for a lot of controller types with the HID capability. Back in Vantucky, I interviewed with the place that builds the AWACS console simulators, and all of the controls were custom HID with USB connections to a PC buried inside the cabinet. The end result was very impressive — obviously the Air Force thinks so.

    (I didnt get the job. And they called me back six months later for another live coding exercise, the one time I gave a place a second chance to humiliate me just because the hardware was cool.)

    Sinistar plays exceptionally well on a PC with MAME using a controller with an analog joystick like the Logitech Dual Action controllers.

  52. Greg Norton says:

    @Nick – I found and fired up my ADS-B receiver gear tonight. One plane at ~ 34000 ft was sending lat/long, but another, flying at 38000 was sending the minimum, occasional altitude broadcasts only.

    I guess the standard hasn't changed much with regard to mandatory "Out" data.

    Realtek RTL2832U. The label on the receiver reads “ezcap – DVB-TFMDAB”.

    UPDATE: Just saw something low and moving fast. 2300 ft. Cops?

  53. Lynn says:

    Sitting with Mom in her hospital room, both of us wearing masks.  She is coherent and the pain is controllable.  Dad was still here when I got here at 830pm.  He is exhausted, they started at 330am in Port Lavaca.  I should have come earlier but I cannot stand the traffic anymore and I have a 25 mile drive in.

  54. nick flandrey says:

    I loved sinistar but sucked playing it.    The outdoor go cart place near me actually has a sit down machine and I did as poorly as I remember.  I AM SINISTAR voice and the fast music were my doom!

    And I've spent the last 5 minutes watching someone play the opening levels of Crystal Castles.  Only track ball game I ever played, and one of the very few that didn't involve shooting or violence.

    I still remember how to clear the levels and the guy playing sux!

    n

  55. drwilliams says:

    That's why Sarin and VX are so difficult to just buy.

  56. Greg Norton says:

    And I've spent the last 5 minutes watching someone play the opening levels of Crystal Castles.  Only track ball game I ever played, and one of the very few that didn't involve shooting or violence.

    There is a really cool documentary on one of the streaming services about the glory days at Midway in the 90s. They were the kings of shooting/violence.

    I think Midway was the only place that made proper use of that TI chip with the cr*p assembly syntax. Midway and Home Shopping Channel's PSI subsidiary.

    Here's the documentary trailer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1OXgCmOvbQ

    "I'd buy that for a dollar." SmashTV. I don't think the per minute body count of that game has ever been topped.

  57. Greg Norton says:

    Multi-generational pimp and drug pushing conspiracy disavows Cuomo:

    He's right. The Mafia never would have done something like that. They have to live in those neighborhoods … unlike Cuomo.

    Cuomo rolled the dice that he would nuke Covid early and get drafted for 2020.

  58. Greg Norton says:

    I loved sinistar but sucked playing it.    The outdoor go cart place near me actually has a sit down machine and I did as poorly as I remember.  I AM SINISTAR voice and the fast music were my doom!

    Not many people could reach the end of the second level of Sinistar. The trick was to bring in as many bombs as possible from the first level, but then you had the problem of what to do with level 3.

    Incredibly hard game.

  59. EdH says:

    @RickH:  I was actually looking at that Ambient Weather model two days ago. It seems to be the best of the sub $500 units.

    My big concern was that it’s an IOT device, and I am just not network savvy enough to be sure of what it’s actually doing…

    I have noticed that weather underground seems to go down a lot during severe weather around here. I suspect there is an input to the weather underground database from a station that isn’t sanitized and crashes things (but I don’t really know) but it means that during the times that I’m most interested it might not work.

  60. Lynn says:

    That's why Sarin and VX are so difficult to just buy.

    And now we are getting special attention from the NSA.

  61. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    Heard of this one?

    https://www.idropnews.com/news/car-thieves-are-using-airtags-to-track-and-steal-high-end-cars-how-to-protect-yourself/174830/?utm_source=tapp&utm_medium=tapp&utm_campaign=12132021&utm_term=tapp

    Note that an iPhone can scan the immediate vicinity and alert you to an AirTag moving with you.

    But, darn it, the crack development team that is working 24/7 to implement that functionality on the Android has not yet been successful. Darn it.

    Is iPhone de rigueur for Tesla owners, or is something else cool enough?

    Probably more of a problem for the F150 owners. Darn it.

    (And for the record, my own alternative load for the Glitter Bomb would be CYA adhesive–4 ounces out the bottom, and another 4 sprayed in all directions, followed by glitter)

  62. JimM says:

    "3 hours horizontal is not enough to undo the compression of sitting for several times that long.  And I'm tired."

    I have had serious bouts of sciatica pain due to my blown out disks. I find that traction is helpful. In order to avoid being upside down and to make better use of my time, I built a  suspension chair that consists of an adjustable inclined ramp to lay on. My wife sewed up a harness that goes around my chest and closes with Velcro. The harness is attached to the top of the ramp above my head, so that the weight of my hips and legs provide a gentle pull on my spine. I set the angle at about 30 degrees to the floor. With some foam padding rigged up to make it reasonably comfortable, I was able to get hours of traction while working at a desk. I had to fix up the screen so that I could view it comfortably. I used an adjustable desk like this https://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Health-PHT2500-Professional-Adjustable/dp/B00P1E7P4E/ref=sr_1_61?keywords=adjustable+typing+desk&qid=1639594247&sr=8-61for&tag=ttgnet-20 for my keyboard and mouse.

    I recently bought an inversion table for cheap because it is easier to get into for a quick decompression. I find that there is no need for full inversion. I can get benefits from inverting as little as 20 degrees or so from horizontal. The best I have been able to do in the way of making use of that time is to read a book, although I suppose I could rig something up to watch videos or possibly get actual work done.

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