One year ago today: November 20, 2023, deep in Tennessee.
Five years ago today: November 20, 2019, this yard ain't level.
Nine years ago today: November 20, 2015, it's near Winter Haven.
Random years ago today: November 20, 2002, my political IQ.
One step closer to Mars. Flight six of the SpaceX rocket was successful. They've done more in six launches than NASA in over 50 years. Have you see NASA plugging yet another billion-dollare telescope to look to the edge of the universe while Mars has been shelved basically since 1976. A few rovers and a copter don't convince me of a thing, they are foot-dragging. If I was pressed to speculate what they found on the Viking mission, I'd say it was that Mars is full of water and perfectly habitable. And we wake to the news an American-made missle was launched by the Ukraine on the same day the Pentagon failed yet another audit. A lot of us wonder why it takes two and a half months to change the government. Two weeks is plenty. And silver despite the successful election, cannot be hammered back below $30.
The Ukraine attack was likely one of the out-dated cruise missiles or even a precision-guided rocket. Both use outdated inertial navigaton with an added GPS box for terminal guidance. They are surplus and sell for less than $2 million each because they cannot hit moving targets. Check nearby for a representative picture. They are boxed and launched in pairs in case the first missile only punches a hole with its 200 pound warhead. I note the missile was launched at its minimum range of 70 miles, a good sign the Ukrainians can't hit things further away without help. But Putin knows this is not the "massive attack on Russian soil" that would warrant a nuclear retaliation. He knows all he has to do is wait 60 days while the rotten American Democrat beast chews off its own leg.
The Reb is back long enough for us to coordinate a number of plans, just trust me that our plan-making algorithms have what is best described as nothing in common. This is true for many people I know but I don't look after their pets, and so on. Like many retirees, I am always on the lookout for extra cash--but over certain age you have to obey a different set of rules. One of them is don't get into anything that requires physical prowess and from there you can ascertain this is not an easy challenge. For me, the computer is more a tool in itself than just a box to a mysterious end. Tell you what, if you have time, watch this video on how memory works. This, for some reason, is the only level at which computer architecture has traditionally interest me.
The follow on from this study is a fundamental reason you've heard me draw such a distinction between programmers and coders. Coder do not need to know all this stuff, but it would make for one piss-poor programmer if he was not at least aware of these operations. I would love to some day find time to build some of these memory circuits just for the experience. Toward that end, I've made arrangements to visit with Trent. He's into coding and has said he wishes he'd switched to that career earlier. If he has something I can do part time, this has immense potential for me. I can program machine language, but have not done much of it in fifty years. Much of this is because, as just stated, coders can produce the same results without any in-depth knowledge--and this fact seems consistently proven anew each time another probe crashes. Coders have brought computers back to the trial-and-error stage.
Bluebonnet, TX state flower.
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The two climate goofs who threw paint at the US Constitution got hard time. That'll smarten them up. The Reb isn't feeling up to par. I took over the kitchen and cleaned up, I won't bitch much. But I do not mind clearing up her mess, I'm not keen on anybody else's. You know what I'm talking about. At mid-afternoon a biting wind came on. I know that wind, when it's done, winter is here I'm stuck because the paperwork did not arrive and now that's a problem. I walked the dog, who showed no affinity for that wind. I made the Reb supper, rice and tuna, wondering if it could be something contagious. She does not eat cashews as often as myself, and I never stopped to think y'day that they are related to poison ivy. It's a much-overdue rest and I got some study hours in. There was a video or two of 8-bit adder circuits build using only around 150 transistors. Watch that link above if you wonder why so many. It's the logic gates.
I sanded the little boxes witn 180 grit to take down some of the obvious ridges and see that this acrylic doesn't do such a great job of smoothing itself the way paint does as it dries. I have a swivel light to get the angles, so you can just see the tiny ribs in the coating. They are brushed parallel to the wood grain, but they are there, revealed by the edge of the reflection. This is the fourth coat and I still don't have my "Elvis clock" finish. The product is ordinary Varathane poly oil-based interior gloss. The printing on the can is maybe 3 point, but I've used this before. Could be I'm just getting fussier about quality. If there is a trick to this, I would like to learn it.
India's second richest man has been caught paying bribes to US connections, the goal was to acquire contracts from Biden's green deals that were worth billions. Trump has invited the CEO captains to a meeting to discuss their elimination of seed oils. Oddly, these restaurants are not the models of efficiency they pretend to be. Their profits are dependent on paying staff less than a living wage. Now they get hit with improving quality, right when a combo in some parts of the country already costs nearly $19 at a rest stop in Connecticut. (The average price of a Big Mac combo at any of the 13,700 outlets in America is $9.25, but still.)
