One year ago today: October 6, 2021, intensely studied myths.
Five years ago today: October 6, 2017, bye-bye Virgin (mobile).
Nine years ago today: October 6, 2013, because it is 6:30AM.
Random years ago today: October 6, 2007, 70% French Canadiens.
The small dog has the runs, the big dog is limping, the Reb has sniffles, and my muscles are doing their usual cold-weather thing. And if I didn’t say, the big cat has a sore rump. There, how’s that for a start of the day? I baked biscuits and took the dogs for an hour’s walk, to clear the baffles. It’s cold out there, so why did half the neighborhood crank up their gas leaf blowers, knowing it scare the animals? Because it was that kind of morning, that’s why. The solution is obvious. We go to the movies. Which one? It doesn’t matter, they are all the same these days. The last two generations have produced no Walt Disney’s.
I’ve been taking the doggies on extra walks, they are not enthusiastic. It is chilly but hardly something that would bother most pets other than the ultra-pampered. It’s plenty warm if you stay in the sunshine. Back inside I made a large order of chicken massalla and baby potatoes and you know why I did that? Temptation. The Reb generally does eat potatoes but she told me the tale of the two small potatoes who escaped out the back porch and that is good enough for me.
See that old rocking chair? Can that be fixed, she asks. I think so, but experience has taught me that wood repair compounds lack strength. On the other hand, I’ve become adept at adding reinforcing slats where they don’t show. Here’s a nice clip of the Cumberland River. The USA has better-sounding names for things than most countries. This is up near Lebanon and I see it could double as a short documentary on guard rails. (Later, I do not know why this GIF won't animate. It remains as is until I find out.)
91-year-old supermodel.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
A movie it was, we decided on an Agatha Christie take-off, with the usual bunch of unknown actors. A whodunnit about a whodunnit and I don’t recommend it. “See How They Run.” Give it a five, or possibly a six if you know the details about Christie, and the fashion of her workings. I don’t, this movie is based on “The Mousetrap” which I’ve never seen. The puns and semi-okay acting kept us awake despite the fact there was no chemistry between any of the actors. Each was their to play their own role. There was one funny scene, during tea, that’s it.
Remind me while I’m here to pick up that Yeti battery for the van. I was out there taking measurements and it does need a few modifications to be easy to sleep in. There is no way to make the existing seats into a comfortable work table like the airlines with their fold-down trays. The Yeti will allow for a fan, lights, a computer, and coffee maker, which greatly enhances the experience. Unlike the car, for some reason, a single light-duty fan is enough to keep the interior quite comfortable in otherwise too-warm a day. As for chilly nights, I intend to find out how well the Yeti handles and electric blanket. Or make that a heating pad. There are so many millennial wimps out there many places don’t sell the blankets any more.
My theory is the larger unobstructed head-room in the van makes the small fan more efficient. If I did not say, that Google tablet is indeed a piece of crap, a toy of little practical usage. I am nearing the end of my supplies of older computers that are not tainted by Internet code so I don’t know what I’ll have in the van for this. For example, on this computer, I cannot edit MP4 movies and by the time I get home, much of the footage is already out of date. There’s a first-world problem for ya.
ADDENDUM
Catching up on my news feeds, Europe has mandated all chargers must soon be USB-C, the micro. That’s a bit hasty if you ask me because the tips are fragile. Biden’s lame attempt to use Hurricane Ian as a distraction kind of worked—against him. India gloats that its Mars probe lasted eight years, telling the world what to expect when you copy American designs. Because anybody who’s tried it knows you can’t just copy the product, you have to copy the culture that created it. So brag all you want, dumb-bunny. Boston Dynamic releases a statement they won’t weaponize robots. Ha. They’ll just make sure the lugs are in place and establish a shadow corporation to do the dirty work. Boston Dynamics sold out to the military on day one.
Here’s something to chew on. With my programming background I say these robots have enough built-in faults that however few of them will be needed to win a battle, that will be their undoing. In the meanwhile, humans do all the dying. A lot of programming is repetitious, or to be specific, the coding is. This amplifies the flaws of the coder who will always gloss over modules that are “good enough”. This creates a “Europe” of conflicting code that cannot be unified. Instead, there will always be a small but not powerful enough counter-measure that has its day.
Partially I think this because I’ve never really coded for a living, making it easier to look at the larger picture. Most code, I’ve done once and never again, with the rare blessing of having code that worked right the first time and rarely required structural or logic maintenance afterward. Hence, I’m triple-leery of Boston Dynamics operations when I see model after model having the same apparent performance characteristics. They are not building new, they are trying to make old code work better. That’s as deep as I’ll go on that today, but my warning is permanent on this one.
