November 13, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 13, 2023, computer-generated.
Five years ago today: November 13, 2019, allowed to lie.
Nine years ago today: November 13, 2015,set for life.
Random years ago today: November 13, 2008, where 5 ¢ = $1.

           It’s truly a pity how Apple, once a respected and user-friendly computer company, has gone downhill so badly. It turns out it is a hundred dollar trip to the shop to get rid of crap you did not ask for, and another episode with Apple’s built-in obsolescence. There can be little doubt when I got it working last week, I did not instantly disable the update feature. The apps I got working are precisely the same two as were disabled within a day. I thought this through, and decided a better deal was to buy a $90 unit from over on Donelson and bite the fact Win 11 will not run older software no matter how functional or popular it once had been. Here is a photo of the Gigrac under repair. It had to be completely taken apart to this level.

           I call the guy Stan, but I’m so bad with names. He had a unit I liked and mentioned he has a brother in Laverne that does excellent welding work. Let’s see if I get over there before I leave—the long-term forecast for this area is freezing temperatures by this weekend, and almost certainly by the 21st. Stan has a daughter and hubby move back home, as sign of the times. Alas, Stan is not doing that well, he has a number of maladies and is not recovering well. I have the rebuilt computer and expect to take it home with me to replace Wilford’s old gaming unit.

           The Reb had clients so I cleared out, visiting the post office and then to the library. Blogging from there always reminds me of how 2015 changed this journal from what impacted my immediate world to how the larger situation affects my decisions. A lot has to do with having more than myself to consider. If I did’nt say, we went to our favorite spot and the menu prices have doubled. I checked the bill and that single shot of sake was $11. She’s worth it and I can afford it but watching the budget is my department.
           Before dawn I cooked up ten pounds of chicken. Some boiled, some baked, it’s sad knowing Sammy won’t be here to enjoy his favorite. I’m still waiting on paperwork, so managed to write four personal letters and twenty-one e-mails in the process. And time to produce this clip on the kudzoo infestation up the street.

           A Milwaukee senator named Baldwin was elected this morning at 4:00AM by 108,000 absentee ballots, 90% in his favor. Green energy stocks are taking a plunge. Panic is off the scale as it becomes clear the new Attorney General is a fire-breathing anti-lawfare Trump supporter who was recently a target of the Justice Department. Trump is elected and Stephen King has not yet left the country as promised. If Trump removes property taxes for seniors, it will take years for the corrupt city halls to find other tax sources and I will use my $900 to buy a couple tools I always wanted. Like a thickness planer and I would definitely shop for an emergency generator.

Picture of the day.
Gambling for the semi-blind.
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           Here's a cutie I knew years ago somebody would invent. That means I already have a better version planned. Called the bulldog, this is an A.I. shotgun machine gun. It's utility comes from the fact that drones, at least or now, are very fragile. I'm refering to the quadcopter style that have no inherent aerodynamic stability. Anybody who has wrecked a drone by hitting the tiniest leaf or twig in the air, as I have, knows how little impact is required. This is a regular belt fed weapon chambered for shotgun shells. These differ from ordinary shotguy shells by costing, oh, ten times as much. The latest in laser-enhanced radar makes this unit very accurate, with reports of it bringing down multiple drone targets with a few shells each. The bulldog weighs only around 400 pounds and can do something humans can't, namely accurately catch flanking targets in a crossfire.

           My improved version would take the next logical step of turning this from a reciprocal to a cyclic feed, that is, make it a Gatling gun. That is a calculation I made back in the 1970s after seeing the battle scene from "Zulu". (Hey, isn't that a 1960s movie? Yes, but that means you were not listening when I told you I was raised in poverty.) I had known the Vulcan electric Gatling fired 6,000 rounds per minute. If, instead of bullets, each shell held 100 pellets, that would mean 600,000 red hot pellets spewing toward the target, or 10,000 per second. At that rate, neither drones nor Zulus are going to last long.

           According to people who have seen this autonomous weapon, it "takes the guesswork" of a drone skeet-shooting. The immediate answer is more drones or drone patterns that confuse radar. But for now, this apparatus is far cheaper than using missiles. I don't know that it would be so great against kamakazi UAV attack from the world's top drone power, Iran. Shown here is the latest models which plainly have incorporated stealth technology. They are cheap, being launched from a rack off the deck of a Toyota pickup that needs only a straight patch of highway where they can speed up to 100 mph.

           The beleiver in the passenger seat than pulls down a lever similar to an axe handle, whence the UAV climbs to a around 400 feet altitude and locks on to a target using GPS, although I'm certain there are already models that use more reliable guidance. I hesitate to call these winged craft drones but I also find UAV does not have good slang quality. Soldiers are more likely to call them "Yooves" which rhymes with hooves. This particulat yoove has a story behind it.

           It is a nearly identical copy of a US RQ-170 Sentinal, which comes with a $6 million dollar price tag. Except this not for surveillance. It carries two 110 lb warheads. Unlike the US, which likes to obliterate, these are designed only to put assets out of action. So, what is the story? It's how the Iranians obtained an original, fully functional RQ-171. Because the US did not take my blog's advice about hiring real programmers instead of millennial coders. Thanks to coders, who are addicted to ongoing updates, a brand new Sentinal flew directly to an Iranian military airfield, made a perfect three-point landing, and rolled up to the commandant's front door. That was on December 4, 2011 and the US has never admitted the loss was due to stupidity, claiming the yoove was downed using Chinese or Russian technology.

Last Laugh