One year ago today: July 20, 2023, squirrel-proof, my eye.
Five years ago today: July 20, 2019, why craigslist failed.
Nine years ago today: July 20, 2015, house aution plans.
Random years ago today: July 20, 2013, Happy 55ths, Apollo (not NASA).
Suddenly the last week does not seem so bad. Nothing like a good gig to improve my outlook. I’ll pick up some extra shelving lumber to keep busy today, before she heats up, I mean. In the rush to get the gear set up for the gig y’day, I forgot my pail of birdseed and cat nibbles outside overnight. I knew it was gone when Mrs. Red woke me up and I saw the birdbath tipped over. That means a raccoon or larger and bye-bye to $12 of gourmet birdie num-num. But that’s okay, I have some $5 bills in my pocket that will cover all that and more. In fact, if the club calls us back at all this month, that will completely take care of my gas budget, including an extra trip to Miami that was slated for next month. That bird bath is 50 lb of concrete.
Aha, the first thing on my feed is the CrowdStrike fiasco, long predicted by this blog. I just did not know which company, but it was MicroSoft. For those unfamiliar with the software, it is just an anti-virus that is supposed to stop various dangerous events on your computer no matter what the cause (I think, because I don’t know, but they call it “endpoint protection”). The cause, if ever determined, will be a millennial coding error. One coder can’t proofread another because of the lack of standards. This so-called meltdown had zero impact on anyone I know. But it’s a wake-up call for those who think it is okay for their identity and money to be digital.
What’s this, Israel fire-bombing Yemen? Yep, that’s the home base of the drone attacks, you attack the Jews, you pay the price. Of course, the press takes the angle that it is okay for the terrorists to target civilians, but an outrage when the Jews cause any collateral damage. And yes, if you hide terrorists under your hospital, that makes it a target. Do you even have to ask? So Biden won’t step down. If they force him out, his last remaining option will be to spill the beans. Time to call in the Hildebeest and finish the job. My favorite meme of the day, if Trump rescued a drowning child from the ocean, the Democrats would accuse him of starving the sharks.
Inside the Concorde cockpit.
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The stolen KIA. It has been recovered, but a burned out shell. The police say that is usually the sign it was used on a crime spree. So, we get another insurance check in the mail, but it has to go entirely to a reliable set of wheels for the Reb. Scientific American publishes an article saying parents who home-school should be required to pass the same background check as school teachers. Ha! Parents getting checked. Shows you how badly the public school system has lost their grip. The issue as I see it is control, they don’t want to lose control.
The rainstorm last week reveals a new leak in my workshed. It’s between the buildings so I do not know how to repair that. The papaya gauge shows this area was hit with 3-1/2 inches that day, while I was uptown for a few hours. Did I mention, Jack the drummer finally figured out how to use my e-mail address. There are people who still think gmail is the only service.in existence—and still rate themselves as power users.
Later, I claim success. I was actually able to stay home most of the day and while it lacks the elements of novelty and adventure so dear to my heart, I got truly rested. I did get another several hundred tubes cataloged, but I’ve hit a patch where only 1% or so have a value over ten bucks.
ADDENDUM
After more research, which is frustrating because there is no easy way to filter out certain poor responses, I have a partial solution. Program it myself, but rather than build it, use and Arduino. I still have to think this one through, but one of the things the Arduino does best is flash LEDs. It does not have the power to do much else. I would have to design some kind of control panel to get the exact beat on demand. An Uno would likely work and I would have to find some kind of display. I have one of those two by sixteen digit screens, but all I need is three seven-segments to display the timing from around 90, which is slow for us, up to say 144 for Johnny Cash.
Years ago I studied registers and had a few of them programmed. Registers can take a string of bits in serial format and turn them into bytes. I once programmed one to slow down million pulse per second crystal to a visible form using decade counters to progressively divide by ten, adding more until it was slow enough. My thinking is another direction. Rather than using hardware, use software. Forget the chips and program the code so the on-board circuitry of the Arduino does all the work. Ahem, I have no programmed an actual Arduino to do anything useful in close to eight years.
But if I do, I will avoid the pitfall of using libraries. It means more coding, but I doubt it will take enough memory space to even bother the Arduino. The gadget I need is likely available on the Internet for less than twenty bucks—but you find it. One thing that won’t filter is these on-line services, like Metronome OnLine but a lot of good that will do on a dusty stage somewhere. Or during a CrowdStrike event. Plus, none of them flash, just annoying ticky-bop sounds.
Ah, what have we here? Tinkercode. It’s like an IDE breadboard for Arduino. Brilliant, I will look when I can find time. Some of these use DropBox or require a Google log-on, which is a no-no on this computer. Several links to the Arduino home page say it is there, but I can’t find it.
