One year ago today: September 24, 2004, United, First, whatever.
Today I try to find a home for the trailer, maybe even work for it. I can and will rent it to anyone with a credit card that I can replace the entire trailer with if they get out of hand. The point is I have to get the thing registered out of state. The whole trailer thing is not good, Steve said I could park it behind the shed when I moved in. Now he wants it moved for no good reason. It is brand new, covered with a new tarp, not in anybody’s way and in a spot that cannot really be used to park anything else – behind the tool shed. I think I’ll tow it over to Fred’s on Monday morning.
[Author's note 2021: the above trailer refers to a tow trailer, not a mobile home. This is the trailer that eventually became a camper. I had forgotten the rest of this day, but evidently I was also looking for a mobile home to purchase. In the end, it was 11 more years before I found what I was seeking--a real house. I lived in trailers all that time. Eleven years.]
I was looking at land, but habitable land (something with a domicile). In particular, the cost of trailers (mobile homes) that are situated on private lots. Fully taking into account that this is a hurricane zone and the building is neither a trailer, a home or mobile, I have lived in worse places. The highest rent I have ever paid in my life has been since I moved to Florida. You should assume I will do the proper calculations over a trailer before I buy in. This is sheer speculation at this time as I have not received any money from RofR nor seriously looked for a high-paying job. The point here is that I plan far ahead and always have – but it is also proof that merely being able to plan well is not any kind of edge in this economy. You can still get scrood.
I’ll talk a few things over with John. Who has nil experience planning ahead. However, unlike most of the people I chum with, John does know that planning when you have money is totally different than when you don’t have money. For example, my projections for the trailer are the price of the land and building plus $100,000. What is the extra money for? It is to earn enough in very secure investments (such as Class A Munis) to defray the monthly costs of taxes, utilities and upkeep. It is hard for me to understand how so many people overlook these recurring expenses. Nor do I find it easy to sympathize with people whose equity is 100% tied up in the property and thus have to use their social security to pay the bills. Property poor, I believe, is the term.
Another constant is the sick practice of real estate sales people who put their pictures in the ad. They must be so full of themselves, particularly the couples who think they are Ken and Barbie, or the women who look like middle-age hookers. “Gee, honey, look at this handsome couple. Why, I think we should fire our ugly real estate agent and base our future decisions on cosmetics.” All these pictures are of people in their mid-thirties. Gag me.
The trailer is moved, it is just before noon. It is in the huge empty parking log behind Fred’s. He agreed instantly, probably because he has a matching trailer hitch. The trailer is an excellent replacement for a large and expensive pickup truck. It is also low maintenance. The parking lot is large and full of nooks where the trailer could fit, but there is one great spot and one bad spot. You watch, even though the places have been vacant for years, some Florida asshole is going to complain the trailer is in her way. There should be a photo near to prove the trailer is not and cannot be in anyone’s way, it is behind a telephone pole. Chained to it.
In fact, to prove a point, let us see how long it takes for some Florida peckerhead to squawk. I’ll include very clear photos to show the trailer is in the middle of nowhere in an unused spot. The grass patterns show it is not any kind of foot traffic area and there are no doors or even windows blocked, no reason for anyone to beef. It is as completely out of the way as humanly possible under the circumstances. It does not occupy a potential parking spot. The trailer has to be wiggled into position behind the telephone poles, and there are far more convenient parking spots closer to the building access. I’ll bet, in the second matching photo of the immense, unused and empty parking lot (on a busy Saturday business day), you can hardly see the trailer. Hint: look at the bottom of the telephone poles in the center area. The bet here is how long before some Florida asshole gets into a fit. Their problem is not ordinary jealousy of others, that they have aplenty. What they really hate is the thought of somebody else hauling something in a trailer without telling them. There is no cure for that condition, except death I suppose. I highly recommend the cure.
Mike came over, he is quite typically frustrated by computers. For that, he sure has some nice computers. He was a tad incredulous about the number of IBM Thinkpad laptops that are over here, usually the result of thinking laptops are something special in the computer world. I explained they are actually fancy toys and are rarely an economical repair. I said frustrated, and I mean because adults want a computer to do something for them without the hassle of having to learn how it is done. After all, that is why most adults buy a computer, see? They want the computer to put all the indents and margins in a letter and make it look perfect for them so they don’t have to learn spell checkers or the innards of burning a CD. Without a childhood exposure to computer methods, it is hard to have any feel for what to expect of the contraption.
Case in point. Mike did not understand why we could not just hook up his laptop to my system and transfer the files. Why we had to first burn a CD, which takes a long time on his equipment and will not display properly on my seemingly infinite network of bigger units. You know, I can’t answer that myself. It seems that networking causes all kinds of other idiosyncrasies Don and I were not anticipating. We were already wary because things went so well for what we are used to. The free memory error (so far and over here) occurs only on computers that we networked.
2005 Corvette C6.
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I had to reinstall Windows on all the networked items, except this unit. Ding! Another common point is all the other units were modified by a disk created on this unit, the only one with Win XP. I’ll be nice and pursue that another time. I was going to visit Aventura, did I mention the Jewish physics girl hangs out there? Instead, I picked up an computer from ABC which is in excellent condition except some bozo did who did not know how the cases slid off and bent the metal sides. That should be good for a tank of gas.
Thom also has a few extra monitors he says I can have. Remember the lovely Nadia? She is gone. She now has a job at a Country Club that pays $17.50 an hour to start – more than I ever made as a payroll accountant. There are accounting jobs out there that pay $12 an hour where these days a babysitter makes $10 per hour. Well, she was far too good looking to be working in a Thrift Store. Thom is too rich for it, while we are on the subject. The least he used to make running a pawn store is $70 per hour. He has some horror stories about people pawning everything they own past the point of no return, including churches. Tales like that make it easier to understand why I’m taking a break and entering some printer data.
Okay, an hour later. I am almost done entering all the cartridge data. I think, although I admit I have not checked the internet, that this is a valuable and unique database. Maybe I’ll see what is out there early next week. All I can tell you for now is the database is really complicated. Part of the difficulty is that it is very hard to avoid shortcuts when designing the list of printers. Get into that trap, and you will make it harder on yourself in the long run. Here is a tiny portion of the listings (in one table), and can you see the error? It is a tedious and stupid error, all my own fault, and I will spend considerable time correcting it.
F04
Business Inkjet 1100
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Business Inkjet 1200
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Business Inkjet 2200
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Business Inkjet 2230
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Business Inkjet 2250
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Business Inkjet 2280
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Business Inkjet 2300
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Business Inkjet 2600 Series
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Business Inkjet 3000 Series
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 110
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 120
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 140
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 145
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 150
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 155
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 160
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 170
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 260
ewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 270
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 180
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 190
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 280
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 290
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 210
Hewlett-Packard
F04
Color Copier 210LX
Hewlett-Packard
Not so easy, is it? Most people cannot even see the error, because it is a logic error. If you don’t see it already, quit trying to figure it out, I will tell you. Plus advise you to go into another line of work. It is a normalization error. I did not treat independent data properly. I’ll explain why I made this mistake, but that does not make it less of a mistake.
Reading the second field, you see that the printer description is repetitious. The phrases ‘Business Inkjet” and ‘Color Copier’ are repeated down the column. These are descriptions of what the item does, and it fooled me because it is also part of the model name. A Hewlett-Packard Color Copier 110 has to be searchable both as the name ‘Color Copier’ and the type ‘Color Copier’. See, it is even hard to describe. Try another example in reverse. A Hewlett-Packard Apollo P2200. What is it? A copier, printer, fax or combination thereof? I may have to introduce an intentional redundancy in my data, where a ‘Color Copier’ has an extra field listing it as a ‘Copier, color’ just so it can be found by a person searching from either standpoint.
Fortunately Fred has a background in database. He told me that he quit studying it at the point where things got too far from reality. That point is the many-to-many part of relational databases. You cannot make a computer think like a disorganized human. Some people may disagree with that, but they do not understand the intricate workings involved. The computer is dumb but highly organized, and these printer manufacturers had no overall master plan. Fred can already see the value of the database, and my intention to have a terminal set up in the store where people look up what they want without the need for a catalog or a clerk.
he database is a long way from that stage, but I think an equally long way from where I started eight months ago. The plan (or dream at this time) is that a customer, drawn by our impossibly low prices, logs on to my database or steps up to a terminal set up on the counter. Key in any piece of information, and the system matches the cartridge.
Model
Make
Type
Item
MSRP
Qty
Our Price
X-25
Canon
Cartridge, Toner
095
$73.99
Each
$55.00
I stress that this is NOT necessarily a picture of what the customer would see, but it represents the data retrieved, which happens so fast it is virtually instant. Certainly faster than using a catalog. If it sells, the system is expandable to include extras like a picture of the cartridge (gee, aren’t we glad we know how to take infinite horizon pictures) and maybe info on how many left in stock. It is efficient enough that the prices in this example are pretty close to what I predict.
Everything should look familiar except the Item 095. What is that? I’m glad you asked. It is many things, the most important of which tells me that of the 130 different cartridges that Canon currently sells, it is number 095 on my list. It will tell me lots of related information about that cartridge, even if Canon discontinues it or changes the name. How many of you even had any idea how many cartridges Canon sold? Hewlett-Packard sells 550 (which is really wrong) followed by Xerox with 160. As you see, it is a very powerful database already.
Here are some sample pictures taken on my Argus. I’ll need to get a better camera, being that I can’t borrow Glenn’s anymore, ha ha. Anyway, most of you get the idea. Hold it. Fred will have a really good camera, won’t he?
Rounding off the day, I fixed up that computer from ABC. It only has a 4.3 GB HDD and that is a little shaky. It just does not boot sometimes but diagnoses okay. Bill Gates at work again, when you defrag, he recommends that you turn off all other resident programs – but does not tell you how to do that, or even where to look for them.
