One year ago today: September 7, 2020, remember the Portland Shuffle?
Five years ago today: September 7, 2016, man, was I crabby.
Nine years ago today: September 7, 2012, early recharging station design.
Random years ago today: September 7, 2015, food.
I’m investing in another month’s food supply. To be on the safe side. Once more, my philosophy is not to hold up forever, but just until there is a break in the situation when other people get beyond their resources and have no choice but to take sides. The only thing saving the Democrats now is they are the largest minority. Trump’s plan, whatever it is, entrails allowing the bad guys to sink as low as they can, which they are accomplishing with amazing speed. Today, in a few hours, the van goes in to check that A/C. My hope is it is not a problem under the dash. And so as to avoid talking about shelving, I’ll quickly record what I got done today, and get back to the van and computers.
Tolerances are tight, both bottom shelves shown here have to be taken down and trimmed 2-1/8”. When done, every room in this cabin will be crammed to capacity. But as this could be my final destination, it would nice if I live long enough, to have my books and things handy. Kind of plan for the day when I can’t root through boxes and zip out to the shed to find things.
[Author's note: thest are not the permanent shelves. They are slightly narrower and stained a different shade. The interim goal is to get things up off the floor that have in some cases been stacked there for years. The wood is intended eventually to become boxes.]
The van is back and time for a tough decision. The diagnostic shows minor mechanical warnings, but over all they indicate a complicated electrical wiring or sensor condition that keeps the various components in synch. Without it, I will continue to get warning lights and annoying malfunctions. The fusebox is millennialized, so you can’t usually disconnect a single glitch. For example, I unplugged the power seat feature and now my door adjar lights don’t work along with who knows what else? Part of the millennial problem is their surface-level look at everything. This diagnostic “computer” is an example of their myopic mindsets.
It cannot spot compound problems or keep records of a condition that is worsening. They were once called idiot lights for the same reason. Nor can it predict the cause of a problem any better than MicroSoft can even forty years after they should have. After reviewing the symptoms, I’ve decided not to plow any more money into the van. Furthermore, I had the brake pads inspected to find they are thin and unevenly worn. A slight wobble in the front tires indicates other problems, which could lead back to the transmission. And the axles both show signs of grease leakage, probably a seal, but not something I’d repair.
Thus, keep the van until it craters. It remains within budget, so if I keep it until end of December, it will have averaged $300 per month. I don’t expand much, but of that I budget $100 for repairs and $100 for cost of ownership, an accounting definition. By January, if I sell it for $1200, I’ll essentially break even. I’m sold on the mini-van design so I’ll start looking for a replacement. If I could the van lasting 3 more years, I’d consider putting money into it. Now what about the A/C.
Can’t find the problem, except that the A/C fan never cuts in. Good thing I left the [bypass] wiring in place, if you recall. This time I’ll run power directly to the fan, not bothering to include any relays and coils. If that gives me A/C, I’ll leave it as good enough. I can be bothered to throw an extra switch if that’s all it takes. Maybe replace that pressure valve which statistically fixes the problem 25% A/C malfunctions. But no throwing even another thousand into the fray. I’m sold on the mini-van concept, now to get one that will really last a while, second hand of course.
Keeping all options open, I kept getting this ad for senior assisted living. I thought, why not check it out if the price is less than what I could rent this cabin for. Good luck, some 70 clicks later, I could not find a single web site that advertised “low price” that actually quoted a price. I found two that were $3,000 per month but that hardly qualifies as low rent. Some were $10,500 per month and should be ashamed to advertise as low cost.
Tundra Lodge polar bear tour bus.
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My pal, JZ, has not been in touch. Dang, when he does not even return calls, that more often than not means two things. Tell you what, if the A/C behaves, I’ll plan a quick trip to Miami after the 16th, to renew a prescription and check in on things. We know from experience he’ll go to places I suggest, like libraries, museums, malls, and flea markets. Or put another way, I have no use for casinos, strip joints, or any places full of the wrong kind of women. I don’t mean nothing here, just saying sometimes I help put things back on an even keel. That’s the difference a reliable vehicle can make in America.
What really happened today was my study if Assembler, even though my mind’s-eye has an unrealistic concept of how stacks and registers work. I get the concept and that is enough to get creative with the complicated subject of CPUs. I’m no engineer so spare me any discipline there. What I’m following up on is these “paging” files, you’ve seen them if you’ve every tried to set certain functions of your operating system. So, without any stab at accuracy, how about I tell you what and where I’m going with this?
Most have heard of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit computers. One of several things this impacts is the number of memory locations the CPU can directly address. You can do the arithmetic, but most computers sold nowadays are optimized for games, including the biggest game of all, “social media”. Games are memory hogs and we already talked about pointers. These have to move during program execution and we’ve seen the benefits of having them not move too far. This is because the pointer starts at memory bit 00000000 and reads an offset until it reaches FFFFFFFF. Then you get an OUT OF MEMORY message.
What a paging file does is reference a new starting point on another memory bank. It’s like telling the computer to go to (say) Volume Two, then using that starting point, you can reuse the same address all over again. I’m toying with the idea of using arrays within Arduino for a novelty display I have in mind. These arrays work almost identically to paging files It likely won’t amount to anything, but I enjoy the theories involved. Even if I never wire the thing up, I believe I can design a counter that works without integrated circuits, that is, using only “dumb” or passive components. I was almost there (I had a semi-working model) when I bought this place and had to move.
Or the big kerfuffle over the teacher who taped a kid’s mask to his face when it would not stay on. Makes perfect sense to me. The tape, not the mask. As for the mask rule, the teacher who obeyed such an anti-American rule should be shot, just kidding. Simply fired and blacklisted is enough. The distractions from the radical left takeover continue, and people are eating it up. Foreign wars, Texas laws, school boards, vaccines, lockdowns, and now some Canadian queer group wants to outlaw capital letters. They reflect dominance, you see. Either that, or their traditional struggles with shift-key tehcnology are showing through.
Trivia, there are not really any 64-bit computers out there, that number is simply the double of 32-bit and is pure overkill. In the software, the largest realistic usage is 48-bit, but there is physically no such thing. So let’s all play along and call it 64-bit, knowing those extra 12 bits are there but unused.
ADDENDUM
You know who is back in the news, but not doing well? Trey Gowdy. He’s an excellent talker, but he’s also wishy-washy on chosing sides. Thus, I withdraw anything I may have said that endorses him. He’s now denying the election was stolen, so somebody got to him. He may have also said election protesters should be arrested, which amounts to him potentially saying 60% of the country is wrong. I’ll say again, he’s a great lawyer, but he takes sides inconsistently, and now he’s turned on Trump. That was plain dumb. Sorry, Gowdy, you gotta go.
And hold on about the face-taping incident. First report said the teacher taped the mask so it would stay on. Next report says she taped masks on many students to humiliate them. Same teacher? This is why nobody can trust the US media.
Last for today, that creep Trudeau from Canada is a dyed-in-the-wool communist. He’s pretty much stated he’s using the COVID scare to grab as much left-leaning control as possible. The problem is, he’s angered the population to violence. It seems there is not such thing as a really peaceful rally when he shows his face, and he just got stones thrown at him. Or as the CBC says, “pelted with gravel”.
These anti-liberal people are being painted as a “mob” and as a small group of “anti-vaxxers”, but the pure hatred of Trudeau is much more widespread than they admit. Again, he is trying to pretend it is about the vaccine mandate, but he’s repeated warned Canadians of “consequences” if they do not obey his commands. I recently heard of the People’s Party of Canada when it was labeled right-wing. It is actually middle of the road, which indicates they are perceived as a threat by the far left.
And this Trudeau can downplay the protests as much as he wants. Fact is, he is escaping the crowds by narrower margins every time. They almost surround him in the last video I saw and nearly blocked his bus from leaving. The protestors are not backing down and it is only a matter of time until they get their hands on him. There are ten ways to stop a bus that cost less than twenty dollars.
What will be neat to see is him getting directly accosted or attacked. Like all liberals, he is at heart a coward and has no choice but to run like a chicken. I would like to see that, not politically, but because I don’t like liberals period no matter what their politics.
