This is an excellent shot of the Lake Okeechobee levee. Even climbing to the top does not let you see the water along the south shore. The embankment is three stories high. There are several miles of shallow swamp on the other side and the lake is barely visible on the distant horizon. On the drive out, we saw unexplained piles of millions of tons of rock being accumulated along the roadways. We speculate it must have something to do with this levee.
We have an unseasonal cool spell. Out-of-towners might not think so, but it is Mediterranean out there. I biked to the shop, where I was the only one who made any money today and it wasn’t enough for supper. All afternoon was so rainy I didn’t hit the Kinko’s parking lot. Soybean ink (the kind used in inkjet printers) runs when it gets wet. I wouldn’t mind, but what about the paint job on your Lexus?This let me focus on the Internet café setup. I installed a networked printer over there, and testing shows that the software does not count pages. Mike was too busy to help me out with a control unit, so I tested using Very Atlantic (my computers have always had names). I can now completely control the entire operation and I’ve sealed up a lot of the blatant cracks in the system. In some cases I had to disable things against my better judgment.
One thing certain, it cuts out all cheating. The users quickly spot that I have remote timers on every computer. I’ve gotten around the possibility of anyone resetting the timer by turning off the computer. It was an obscure command called “seize after begin”. Generally the software works now, after 16 hours of learning curve. Using the software is not intuitive, so therefore it has to become routine.
Vibersoft could have done a better job if they’d focused the same energy into improving the parts people use. For instance, while they spent hours on a mysterious script screen, yet the customer receipt looks like hell. You can’t even center or bold the heading and it prints a lot of, if you’ll forgive me, goobledygook. The fact remains that the software finally did what I originally wanted and I should be happy.
So should all customers, but they aren’t. One came in today causing trouble and he promptly got thrown out the door. He tried to shake us down. He buys a used computer four months ago. Today he comes back saying it doesn’t work and if we don’t give him his money back, he’s going to report us for “not charging the tax”. Wrong, buddy. Computers that old are sold for the labor to make them work and labor is not taxed. For trying to strong arm us, he got a one-way ride to the sidewalk.
I’ve always enjoyed some quiet time at home, and now that another customer gave me the summer flu, I’ll have that opportunity. I’ve got everything I need except the Internet connection that was due today. It seems the wrong equipment has arrived. A single line wired modem. It was supposed to be a multi-line wireless. I’m afraid to check what speed of service was ordered. All I can guaranty is that I wasn’t in the loop, but even if I had been, nobody listens to me until they get into a jam and I have to bail them out. I always hear about whiz kids, but I never see what good they do.
During the endless testing, I visited Craigslist again. It is still monopolized by droves of shallow-minded trolls and desperate women. Ah, but ain’t that America? One lively series touched on the perennial complaint by women that they can’t find good men. That drew plenty of flak, which was predictable. What surprised me was the unusually high quality of the respondents. They unanimously agreed on the same thing I’ve said for years: where do these old women get their outrageously high expectations? If you can’t get a tall, handsome, rich, loyal, well-featured man when you are twenty, what makes you think you will at sixty?
One thing that has not changed (since I was a teenager) is the way women say one thing and behave another. All they want is a good man, but they mean a good man with lots of money and a fancy car. Lady, if you seriously want a date, get rid of the shopping list. You want equality? Then fight and pay for it like men have to.
I didn’t say men were good at fighting for it. It says here that during World War I, the French killed 75,000 of their own men. That is today’s trivia. The French invented the famous recoilless 75m cannon. This interesting weapon did not have to be realigned between shots, the first of its kind. It could lay down twenty shots a minute. To this day, troops are killed by friendly fire.
For exactitude, I was reading about assault tactics. I formerly thought a “creeping barrage” was shelling the ground ahead of parallel lines of advancing infantry. This is only partially correct because that will not work unless the enemy defenses were also parallel to the attack. The other army is not likely to oblige, meaning parts of any linear barrage will reach of the defensive positions at slightly different times. Your foot soldiers will be caught in the open between untouched segments of the defenders. A creeping barrage is the technique of contouring the attack to match the enemy dispositions. That is how things get complicated in a hurry.
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