Wet and pretty warm. Should be drizzling and in the 60s, but we’ll see when I actually get up. It did rain in Houston while I was at my lunch, but I was able to get some stuff done.
I put out some more lights, and a little bit of decor. Then had a very convivial couple of hours with friendly people who share one of my enthusiasms. Great food, fun times.
Swapped trucks, and headed to the BOL. Drove through a bunch of rain. Crazy people in pickups passing me at 90mph in driving rain on the freeway. Nuts.
Today I’ve got stuff to do up here, but I won an antenna tower in an auction and I probably have to pick it up before 2pm. That means leaving here at noon. Not a lot of stuff can get done before noon. I don’t want to drive down, back up here, and then later back down, even if the Rohn tower needs to be up here. The most efficient thing would be picking it up on my way home, then bringing it back up here when I come back up next weekend. The only downside is leaving here early today, and having the truss on my truck for a week. I’m going to call and see about a later pickup.
Funny thing is I was also bidding on ANOTHER tower in a different auction that closes in a week. It’s a much better tower, taller, stronger, and never installed. But at $4000 retail, minimum, I think people will bid it up past where I’m comfortable. I’m glad I got this smaller one as back up. No towers in the auctions in years, then two in the same 2 weeks. That’s how my life works. I won’t chase the other tower as hard, since I have one now, but I won’t let someone steal it either.
There’s always something more in the ham radio hobby, and in prepping.
A nice self contained water treatment plant would make my day….
Stack the good times along with the stuff. And if these are bad times for you, reach out.
Stack it up!
nick
64 F and raining and thundering this morning. Gonna be wet at church but I have my long insulated Eddie Bauer rain jacket. The weather liers say it is going to be 73 F later.
My grandfather had a 45 foot tv tripod antenna at his farm 60 miles north of Dallas. Worked well until his antenna motor froze up.
Its crazy to think about what we used to do for analog TV reception.
Most of the TV transmitters are concentrated on “farms” anymore and aiming an HDTV antenna in a single direction should pick up the majority of stations for a market provided the location of the receiver is within range of the signals.
I have two big antennas in the attic, one aimed at the Austin “farm” due south and another aimed north-northeast towards Waco so I can get their H&I and AntennaTV stations. I still receive the local Faux News station on the TV connected to the Waco antenna.
Oooh. These weren’t available when I installed our two antennas.
https://store.antennasdirect.com/DB8e-Outdoor-DTV-Antenna.html
Oscar? If it is nominated, SeaOrg will get to work.
https://screenrant.com/top-gun-maverick-awards-national-board-review-best-picture/
“Top Gun” is a lock for “Fan Favorite” should it end up there, but if the flick ends up in the “Best Picture” category, given the odd appeal of last year’s winner, “Army of the Dead”, I’m guessing that “RRR” or “The Norsemen” could sneak in enough votes to win the new award.
“Black Panther 2”? Watch “RRR” and then make your argument. I’ll wait.
66F and 90%RH with mist and a light overcast. No decision about the pickup yet. Work to do…
n
Hot Christmas Gift Tip:
Make sure you review at least three different “Coolest Gadgets of 2022” lists so you know what cheap Chinese carp currently in oversupply is to be avoided at all costs.
My “Hecho en China carp” experience for this weekend was Hunter Fan Studio series. IIRC, the fans are “Home Depot exclusive”.
I spent the better part of this morning assembling the fan blades and getting them torqued properly only to discover that the downrod socket on the motor was drilled at an angle.
Back to Home Depot. I’ll let them disassemble and pack the fan blades. That’s still American labor … I think.
Home Depot hosed the Hunter Fan Company.
The “Apple Silicon” MacBooks are on a lot of “coolest gadgets” lists. I wouldn’t pay $2000 for a machine that is intentionally designed to be thrown away in 7-8 years, but if you can get an Air or a 13″ Pro for less than a grand, they are interesting machines, with USB-C docking being the “killer app” IMHO.
UPDATE: The Studio series Hunter Fans are not Home Depot exclusive, but they are not stocked in the stores, probably for a reason.
Much needed and long awaited rain came this morning. Wearing my uninsulated Eddie Bauer rain jacket.
Snowflakes falling in Tehachapi elv 4000ft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrua-KJsGQU
Nothing sticking. A live cam so maybe not when you view. The five Tehachapi train cams are some of my favorite to view. Edison to Mojave.
I got the copy of Office 2021 for my Mac. Same price as the Windows version $29.95 plus tax. I have three copies of Office 2021 for my Windows. I ordered one copy several months back but the place messed up. Between their fixes and what not, I wound up with three licenses.
However, I use Visio 2016 and it will not play nicely with Office 2021. So I use Office 2016 on my Windows machines and ignore the 2021 version. I ordered 2021 just for the Mac. The Mac apps are good, but I am familiar with Windows versions and paying $30.00 for familiarity is worth it to me.
Magic Eight Ball truth:
https://hotair.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/titleimage-730×0.jpeg
“Trades”
https://areaocho.com/10206-2/
“You can bet your ass that Griner will still run her mouth about how unfair the US is, even though she has both seen how other countries do business and had the US free a terrorist to get her out.”
“This country now has one of the most evil governments on the planet. Perhaps that’s been the case for decades, and now they just aren’t bothering to hide it any longer.”
““ACC: Proposed Bill Would Cripple U.S. Plastic Manufacturing
https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/industrynews/news/21438578/acc-proposed-bill-would-cripple-us-plastic-manufacturing
“Congress introduces the “Protecting Communities from Plastics Act” (PCPA).”
These PLTs do not care about the future of our nation.
We need a
“Protecting Communities from ProgLibTards Act (PCPLTA)”
A Hot Chocolate Chronology
0m: Poured
1m: Too hot.
2m: Too hot.
3m: Too hot.
4m: Too hot.
5m: Too hot.
6m: Too hot.
7m: Ok.
8mm Too cold.
9mm Too cold.
10m: Congealed
Speaking of plastic and recycling, I came across this article:
Two companies, Plastonix and Elemental Recycling have done what others could not: they have found technologies that recycle all types of plastic. (here)
…and…
Maybe you can get your own plastic recycling machine in your garage soon.
I don’t know.
The new PC came with a 16GB USB drive marked as “free gift”.
Looking up how to make a recovery drive for Win11 and “tada!!” you need a 16GB USB stick.
Hmm.
I truly hope there is such a breakthrough. OTOH, there are no numbers in that article. Back when gas was about a dollar there were similar articles about a recycling plastics into “oil” process with some application of heat and pressure. Since garbage collection companies today are NOT running their trucks on recycled plastic oil, I conclude that the cost of the recycling process in energy is upside down. I suspect the same is true in this new tech.
Home. Picked up the antenna tower on the way. Looks like about 36 feet of usable tower. $65 iirc so worth the time to pick up. It will probably stay on my truck until I head back up.Didn’t get much done up there, but drop stuff off.
n
Be really careful plugging USB drives of unknown origin into Windows.
>> Maybe you can get your own plastic recycling machine in your garage soon.
I wonder what their power requirements are.
>> Maybe you can get your own plastic recycling machine in your garage soon.
I wonder what their power requirements are.
I wonder what the four ounces of palladium catalyst are going to cost ? None of these processes require good old cheap activated alumina.
Every single one of the wonderful chemical engineering grad student projects that I have looked at require multiple ounces of catalyst that costs a thousand dollars or more per ounce. The cool ones require hydrogen injection also. I’ll ask them what is the total cost of the product (usually a variant of diesel) and the pricing usually starts at $10/gallon. That requires a big subsidy from you know who.
Also, many plastics have chloride in them, That bond is difficult to break and makes disposal difficult, just breaking the bond produces CL2, a very poisonous and dangerous vapor.
For most of the last decade, getting money from the Feds or one of the big tech companies to study something even remotely “green” has been very easy.
Why ? Why ? Why ?
Why was Stargate Universe canceled at the end of the second season with a cliffhanger ?
Why ?
@EdH
I’d suggest a good vacuum-insulated stainless steel tumbler with a lid.
I have 20 and 30-ounce Yetis. Good time of year to look for sales.
My 30-ounce Yeti Rambler has been in almost daily use for four years. I have the clear lid, flip seal, and tumbler handle. The newer version of the lid has a built-in magnetic seal.
The trick would be to cool the hot chocolate to just above drinking temp before putting it in the Yeti. Otherwise it wil stay too hot for at least an hour.
Still just a few years away….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11526987/California-scientists-make-history-using-worlds-biggest-laser-replicate-reaction-powers-sun.html
n
@Lynn
Plastics recycling is a mirage–it always has been and always will be am illusion over the horizon.
Recycling used to have three built-in subsidies: newspapers, cardboard, and aluminum cans. All three are cyclic, but in good times made enough money to largely support the effort.
Then those markets changed: Physical newspapers are down better than 50% from the high in the 80’s, the Chinese largely quit taking cardboard, and many aluminum cans have been replaced by PET. No more built-in subsidy.
Clear glass is easy to recycle, but unlike aluminum there’s not much savings. And all it takes is a couple busted amber beer bottles to make a pile of clear glass worthless. Most recycled glass either piles up somewhere or needs a big subsidy to be used as aggregate or filler. (Note: glass causes problems if used to make concrete)
Looming over all the recycle streams is the problem of transportation: picking it up, sorting it, then sending the various recyclable parts to a dedicated recycler.
If a local trash-to-energy plant is operating, the best solution is to separate only the recyclables that have economic return and burn the rest to make electricity. Co-generating steam is even better.
When the grad students claim $10/gallon, the reality is probably at least twice that after collecting, separating, concentrating, and transporting are included.
@Lynn
If they cancel a successful show like Longmire simply because the audience didn’t have the right demographics, they will cancel anything.
About 20 years ago I quit getting involved in tv shows until they complete five years and achieve a modest potential for syndication. I made some exception along the way, but pretty much quit doing that after they cancelled Dennis McQuaid in Vegas.
2010? Pincer movement on basic cable. All the ad money went to Facecrack and Google while the cable systems started rolling out digital systems which nuked analog VCRs in favor of their proprietary DVR boxes.
If they cancel a successful show like Longmire simply because the audience didn’t have the right demographics, they will cancel anything.
Both shows feature Lou Diamond Phillips in the cast. Coincidence ?
Some tech deserves to die. AIX and Irix were always lousy operating systems while Sun had cr*p hardware which a lot of customers were bound not to talk about under strict NDAs circa 2000.
HPUX and PA/RISC were interesting but insanely expensive.
https://www.osnews.com/story/135605/the-mass-extinction-of-unix-workstations/
Brush with inflation today at Home Depot – $10 per 40 lb bag of water softener pellets. They were $6 the last time I bought them in that store this Summer.
I usually hit HEB to fill the softener, but I had to return the ceiling fan. The stores are in opposite directions from my house.
Home Depot was busy clearing out Christmas decorations already. If you don’t have your Baby Yoda yard inflatable, I suggest you hurry.
@brad — I’m playing tonight instead of working. The minute I get Advent of Code Day 8 to work properly, I’m committing the code and forgetting about making it pretty.
As for work, I’ll deal with that tomorrow.
We need to hit the trifecta, or pull off the hat trick: make self-driving plastics recycling trucks powered by fusion reactors. They should be available in 20 years.
How about a garbage truck powered by a plastic-digesting fuel cell? It’s self-driving, but in order to qualify for welfare an 8-hour shift as “pilot” is required each month–no smoking or cell phones allowed.
Some tech deserves to die. AIX and Irix were always lousy operating systems while Sun had cr*p hardware which a lot of customers were bound not to talk about under strict NDAs circa 2000.
HPUX and PA/RISC were interesting but insanely expensive.
https://www.osnews.com/story/135605/the-mass-extinction-of-unix-workstations/
The problem with HP-UX was that it was a very vanilla BSD variant. It was limited to about 500 to a 1,000 file names when running ls -l */*/*.f . AIX had the same problem. My old Thompson Toolkit Win32 csh is fully recursive and can handle well over 5,000 file names across hundreds of directories.
Apollo Domain was very fast using its native apps (dir) but its unix apps were emulated rather that tied to the metal. The 68030 DN3500 machines were ok but the DN 10000 was insanely fast with its dual PA-RISC predecessor cpus and SCSI 10,000 rpm drives. It also pulled 50 amps on a 230 volt circuit and had about a dozen fans running 5,000+ rpm.
How about a garbage truck powered by a plastic-digesting fuel cell? It’s self-driving, but in order to qualify for welfare an 8-hour shift as “pilot” is required each month–no smoking or cell phones allowed.
How about a garbage partial oxidizer for their new natural gas garbage trucks ? Self driving but not self throwing on the trash cans.
>> The majority of scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore.
And Tony’s waiting for fusion power for the Jesus truck.
“Ex-Navy SEAL who transitioned from male to female says he’s now transitioning BACK: Blasts VA for giving him hormones after an hour-long consultation, and calls sex change ‘the worst mistake of my life’”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11527307/Ex-Navy-SEAL-transitioned-male-female-says-hes-transitioning-BACK.html
You have got to be kidding me. Poor guy. Wait, poor gal. Uh, poor thing.
>> The majority of scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore.
And Tony’s waiting for fusion power for the Jesus truck.
I am reading a book about time travelers right now. They have two future vehicles with nuclear batteries that they took 13,000 years into the past. In the future, time machines are cheap and easy to build.
https://www.amazon.com/That-Was-Now-This-Then/dp/1982192313?tag=ttgnet-20/
>> Plastics recycling is a mirage–it always has been and always will be am illusion over the horizon.
#1 plastics are viable here in the desert. The volunteer organization that assists at the county animal shelter raises money by collecting aluminum cans and # 1 plastic bottles which the local recycling middle-man pays competitive prices for since the org collects a decent volume of both each week and the materials are fairly clean.
Glass – any color – has been pulled from the city recycling collection to local drop-off locations. What’s collected is ground up and mixed with asphalt for road paving.
There are many problems with mainstream recycling:
Contamination of the load with non-recyclables
Contamination of the load with too much food residue
Shut-off of exports to China
Hand sorting is labor intensive
Lack of demand for the recycled products – don’t get fooled by a cardboard cereal box saying ‘made from 100% recycled materials.’ Those “materials” are trimmings from the in-house box production and easily go back into the production stream. What you need to see is ‘made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials.
Metals recycling is a much more profitable business.