One year ago today: January 23, 2024, fastest—so far.
Five years ago today: January 23, 2020, I liked that coop.
Nine years ago today: January 23, 2016, $7.00.
Random years ago today: January 23,2021, remember Ulm nests?
Finished, the audio book “Guest Room”. The title is incidental to the plot and near the end the author gets inspired to create a surprise ending. The Russian sex slave turns up on his doorstep, where the Russian mafia opens fire. Richard (the husband) is killed. Alexandra is taken into the hospital with a gut wound, where she recovers and goes into the protection program at taxpayer expense. It’s another frozen day (38°F), let’s check on Trump, er, I mean the news of the nation.
Trump is eradicating the bad apples, but still not going far enough. Texas reports big convoys of military heading for the border, including M-1 Abrams in case those Mexicans try anything smart. It was Mexico who let them through in breach of their promise to Trump to secure the border on their side.
The reports of the propane refill kit are real, so I will be buying one soon as I find a store. I learned fast the screw nozzles also work on the other bottles. I kept four of the blue “plumbers” type, so that solves my blowtorch quest. The kit shown here is like $60 because of that stand that holds the bottle upside down. I can build my own for a song. The other picture is my birdfeeders with the “Chinese hat” baffles replaced with larger sizes. This change, only 2-1/4 inches increase in diameter, was the result of arduous trial-and-error.
But this is a temporary solution. The varmints will find a way.
Cripes, it is staying cold. I’m stocked up with most necessities and I have a backlog of documentaries on tap in case I’m stuck in the house. But being cooped up can make me cranky. Like the issue of mental hospitals. Given the known hereditary link with mental illness, why should the public pay? If people with defective genes choose to propagate, they should at least assume the responsibility of paying for it themselves.
And remember those banks that closed accounts and refused to do business with non-woke people? It has not gone unnoticed at the top. Remember that Redditor who ratted on his father? Guess who Trump just let out of jail?
Hallway in Windsor Castle.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
While I made it downtown for supplies, it was a day holed up near the heater. I managed to get only one archive voice dictated into the blog. February 26, 1980, but first recorded mention of the journal that became this blog.This voice access app is a piece of crap, it takes longer to go back and correct the mistakes. It’s a system designed for dumb asses and it breaks up multi-syllable words into stupid segments. Yet I know enough people who swear by it [voice-to-text] that I’ll look for a better product. I now know why I see some really stupid things in print on-line.
No doubt there are on-line “services” that will do speed to text, but only a fool uploads private files to somebody else’s computer. I have that package of DNS around somewhere, I did not like it but it was significantly better than this MicroSoft shit.. You know, I’ve never seen the movie, “Oh Brother”, the where-art-thou movie. Just pieces here and there, so today is the day. But I’ve got a longing returning for my motorcycle. It’s been seven years, going on eight. Not across the country any more.
But at least Sunday drives. If this does not go away, I may as soon as September this year have some extra cash to plow into the Honda. It is no longer registered but that is an easy fix.
Assembler. Here is an example of Assembler code, properly documented. This is programming one step above using all zeros and ones. Code comes back to me from over 50 years ago with a surprising clarity now that I’ve worked with the actual electronic components on the Arduino. Items like the registers are no longer taken for granted that they work a certain way. One scary aspect of Assembler is the different steps needed to get it working on each new computer system. There is no set of universal rules for this, sometime you compile, sometimes it is interpreted, most time people don’t know what either of those are.
My interest is on the code itself. Let the engineers who screwed each system up in their own way figure out how to make it run. I was surprised to find the language I studied, MIXAL, is still in use. MIX was short for the Roman numerals for something, as the computer to run the code we studied was not supposed to be available until the millennium plus 9 years. The AL stands for Assembly Language. Simply put, MIXAL makes the coding much easier by using crude instruction words and allowing names for memory locations. If you’ve ever had a screen full of 00000000 and FFFFFFFF after a crash, you are looking at a MIXAL-like display.
Learning how the registers physically work has spurred me to re-learn assembler. I can actually visualize how the bit and bytes get shifted around by the mnemonic commands. My old lectures at university flash back to me, it’s a hoot. I see now why Susan Nixon seemed to smart and that 90% of the people in that class had no concept of the underlying mechanics. I’m reaching a stage where I can “see” the blocks of memory, quite fascinating, actually. If you want to follow along, here’s a link to a great video. If you don’t follow the video, assembler is not your cup of tea, but unlike many in my ancient study hall, at least you’ll know that.
ADDENDUM
Caltier. I’ve put the examination on hold, as the smaller totals do, when double-sorted, add up to the totals in the monthly disbursements. Caltiers computer people are just jerking them around. Since I invited you along for the experiment, here’s more details about the internal workings few other investors would share with you. Remember my calculations of how many and how much the other Caltier investors must have put in? Caltier just published that data for the first time and I nailed it. Fund 1 has only $13 million of the $50 million subscribed. That means the average investment is $4,600 to $4,700. From experience, I know the bell curve is skewed. The true average in the lower half is more like $2,500. In reality, that means the Reb & I , if we include the amounts pending to be unvested when the pause ends, over ten times that average.
Pause and look at this scenes from Valdosta, not that far north of here, courtesy of Tonio.
No wonder Caltier thinks we are accredited. Let me explain how this all relates. The Fund 1 is housing rental. Caltier is testing a retail rental venture called Fund B. They are seeking 30,000 investors with $10,000 each. This is nowhere near as simple as it sounds. I have read every word of their prospectus and that explains why they are bombarding us with this offer. They have surmised their best odds of coming anywhere near that $300 million goal is to appeal to people who have $10,000 to spare. And from their vantage point, that means they must appeal to non-accredited investors who know how to behave.
This morning, during my study period, I see Caltier has wisely dropped the entry requirement for Fund B to $5,000. Stay with my thinking here. The latest round of crazy database contortions with Caltier shows nobody over there is that sophisticated. The management people evidently don’t know spreadsheets very well and that disjoint follows both ways. They could therefore be basing their treatment of the Reb & I as accredited on the way they perceive “non-rich” people are supposed to behave.
Accredited investors get paid more. So here is what I’m thinking. That Fund B is accredited only, but it is a new fund and likely not using that same kershmozzle they’ve got their foot stuck into with Fund 1. I think the people designing the database are not the least concerned with who is, or is not checking in this case, the credentials. Management by now knows they are losing investors on Fund 1 by pausing it for the past seven months. Ay, now you’re thinking.
I recently decided not to renew two CDs over poor interest rates. By deciding on cremation, I now have a surplus in the funeral fund. Add this up, and I have the $5,000 minimum. Since it is linked to the same bank account, a $5,000 transfer would not raise any eyebrows. Fund B is pegged at 9.25%. (Fund 1 is 7%.) What if I was to slide the $5,000 into Fund B see if it takes, no questions asked? It won’t work, but I’m testing the system.
It looks complex, but is actually simple once you understand the steps that take place. Each command does only one simple step. However, the results are lighting fast compared to other code. I believe Arduino’s, which have fallen out of favor over here, will accept Assembler.
