January 19, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 19, 2023, the ones to avoid.
Five years ago today: January 19, 2019, reminds me of Aunt Bea.
Nine years ago today: January 19, 2015, get nothing else done.
Random years ago today: January 19, 2008, remember the space elevator?

           Time marches on, Disney announces plans to fire the Pixar department, Sports Illustrated cans the entire staff, LA Times is on the rocks, but for most it is twenty or thirty here and there. What do these places have in common? They went woke. Sports Illustrated putting a man dressed as a woman on the cover, that cost them. They could have at least put a pretty one. The good news is that it’s obvious this is the tip of the iceberg, that other corporate types are having similar issues and trying to disguise it. Somebody get the popcorn.

           Such a nice day, I spent most on logistics. The saw crank needs more repair, the trick with plastic is to melt small metal hooks (I use stapes) around the crack. I was looking for my trunk full of Arduinos and I can’t find them. Another waterproof case sprung a leak and wrecked my card reader. Most of this happened because stuff got moved to the wrong side of the shed when the hillbilly crashed here. He’s still in the slammer and no word but it has certainly been more than the 30 days he was saying. Here is the painting on the inside elevator door at the Citrus Tower, the only trip we’ve made this month.

           I exhausted my outside energy and sat down to the bass. Yep, it comes back to me, that tune “Wonderful Tonight”, which I do not care for. I never in my life identified with the relationships between older already paired-off people. I understand they are a big market, just not one where I shop. I found my old music transcript, one I picked out on piano, so the scale and passing tones are exact. I had thought of playing the lead riff on this tune but the bass line fakes it fairly well. Stay with that, this song is best memorized. You can tell the bassist was a guitar play by the way the line changes every verse and chorus. But it’s that ending that throw in a bunch of curves. I downloaded the original, played the notes I have written and aced it.
           At this point, I called the guitar player to see about Sunday. The barometer is dropping fast, meaning that Nebraska blizzard is having an effect even at this distance. I baked up enough chicken for past the weekend and checked the coffee inventory. I got a feeling this weather is really going to hit. The giuy’s wife answered, he’s broken down in the Lowe’s parking lot. I offered help but they’ve got it.

Picture of the day.
Types of shaft couplers.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           One hour later and the temperature is dropping. It isn’t the cold that gets my shoulders,so musch as a rapid change. I got inside before dusk and cranked the heaters. I opted for a study session, this time focus is on a chip called a 595. It goes by various names and I think I have one around somewhere. You know me, I was content to do the reading and I think I got it. You’ve encountered this chip many times. It takes a string of bits (serial) and bunches them into bytes (parallel). This confuses the daylights out of some people. Myself, I understand the operation, what I don’t get is how this is used for so many things. I’ll give you the quick explanation.

           The stream of data coming in should be divided into groups of eight, got it, 8 bits to a byte. How do you get dumb electricity to do this? Well, you carefully control the stream with what is called a latch. Every eight bits that come in, you store in a “register” that has 8 memory slots. Then you shut the latch and cause all 8 to exit in parallel, that is, like that ribbon connector you may have seen in older computers. This happens at lightning speed. There are on-line descriptions but as always, they expect you to know too much. The latch has to close, not open, to let data in, and the clock does not time anything.

           By the time I leaned back, I’d studied this chip three hours. Nicknamed the “595” its full title is 75HC595 and it has many copycats. If you learned your stuff about gates and flip-flops, this chip is a classic example of how they all work together. The chips are usually available at hobby outlets for around $3. For reasons unknown, I’m intrigued by how dumb electricity can be made to do such things. My plan is to find one and see if I can get it to work. I often imagine the one-way flow of water to help grasp DC electricity. Think of this chip as a hose that that fills up a pail with a measured amount of water, then dumps the whole pail at once, and repeats. Instead of a steady stream from the hose, you get an intermittent dousing from the pail.
           For those who want a more technical understanding, here is the Arduino tutorial, which also shows some code that uses an array to control the output. You may even notice how the array contents closely match the behavior of Johnson counter.

           Meanwhile, I’m slowly taking inventory of what music gear I don’t use any more and the Fishman has to go. The Gigrac is twice as heavy for what I need, it is this far from being replaced by a powered mixer. But if February goes well, I may have a tech peek at it. Some fifteen years of electronics tinkering and I can’t repair a simple amplifier, don’t it beat hell?

ADDENDUM
           How about some politics. Here’s where I remind you I am not a Trump supporter over his politics. I hate liberals and I would support anyone who “makes their blood boil”. Some crackpots are putting it about that Taylor Swift is a government psyop. The WEF, the globalists, just handed Trump another victory by declarin gif he is elected, they are sunk. States where the Democrats cheated the most and traditionally claimed control, like Iowa, fall to massive Trump victories when monitored paper ballot voting takes place, this time to determine the Republican candidate. (Trump came in 30 points ahead of the other three combined, ha!)
           This is throwing the regime into blind panic, the premise is that if Trump gets in, they will all be exposed. Well, serves them right, they have been like political cancer for at least 30 years. Continually hauling Trump into court isn’t working, they just wind up putting themselves on trial. They are too obvious and Trump just keeps rising in public opinion. The Democrat party faithful are switching sides in disgust. America knows the Left cannot win legitimately and the mood is that they are planning to create enough social unrest to declare martial law, which suspends elections. Their game plan appears to be staying in power long enough to plow under any opposition. Problem. That won’t work.

           Trump, even if the worst happens, is America’s hero. Except for a declining core of ultra-haters, there are few who don’t see Trump, for whatever his failings, is trying to save America. The 20 million illegals are not going to leave without a fight. There is talk of a bounty and that America wants to play “Cowboys & Illegals”. And as one post put it, 200 years from now the world will still be talking of Trump, while the others will be buried in the trash heap of history. Good point. Trump is already as famous as Napoleon or Churchill. Some say he has eclipsed Kennedy as our good President.
           In a reflection of shifting public sentiment, the leftist newspaper Baltimore Sun has been sold to Conservative owners. This is not going to please the big media, whose cash reserves have been leeched for years as they prop up their losses since Trump arrived. TMOR, the “loss” of this newspaper means the left-wing mainstream media will no longer have control over what version of news reaches the public. The biggest fear of the media is that the Sun will begin releasing fair and honest reports about Trump.

Last Laugh