One year ago today: June 15, 2024, idiotics?
Five years ago today: June 15, 2020, balmy.
Nine years ago today: June 15, 2016, paying cash, the hardest lesson.
Random years ago today: June 15, 2008, breakfast at the Diplomat.
How about an incredible event most people will never hear of. The Hubble, which I did not know had such video capabilities, has captured an exploding star. But I am suspicious. Is this video in real time? Or is it time lapse? Does a star really explode that fast? Hubble has previously photographed similar events, some of which took years. This one I found phenomenal because there is no reason a star could not just wink out like that.
The crowd was disappointing with the staff singing 25% of the songs to keep the show going. It’s still a lively event but the signs are unmistakable to the trained eye. It was the last old-style watering hole in the south county unless you want to drive out to Hicksville. There were no regulars present except Dexter and buddies. Bradford was not there and has not been in a while. Here’s the gossip quota, except it isn’t real gossip. Bradford has been permanently banned from that establishment. See addendum.
I ran some numbers this morning and am I glad I spent my last dime on this place when I did. Even if there is a house pricing collapse, the damage is done, since few people could afford or qualify for a mortgage at half of today’s prices. When I added everything up, this place actually cost me $22,312 and nobody knew it was the last bargain in America. The story is told in this blog, and it was a close-run thing. I really did have less than $200 left the day I moved in, but now simply owning this cabin has increased my net worth five-fold. It was just supposed to be a free and comfortable place to retire. But have you seen what’s going on out there?
People spending $1,500 per month rent seems onerous to me. The reason for this review of my housing situation is a direct result of the possibility that I may not be able to tend to my own household chores. That would crush me, I’ve never had to have help like that. I could not sell this place for even $200,000. It now represents the largest chunk of my net worth. I have three more back treatments. The first one slowed me down. But, it’s not like I have a choice, is it?
We are out of grits. How is this possible? Staying at home like never before, that’s how. I now have lots of boxes, but no Jim Dandy. At dawn I got up and baked a corn and sausage pie which will have to suffice. Wow, youTube (owned by Google) is really serious this time about piracy. I like that, because it increases the odds somebody will establish a whole new web operation just to meet the demand. It’s finally become clear to even the moron-class that Google is doing evil things with your computer. And that is not as acceptable as it was even five years ago.
Some 90 minutes later, I backed away. YouTube is applying their new software unevenly, going for the newest and more popular movies. That means it is something they have to get around to, which in turn means it will be defeated. Meanwhile, I still have a ton of unwatched DVDs around here to wait them out. I will respect their right to make money as much as they respect my right to tell them stay off my computer. And no, I don’t buy that crap that if they can’t force ads on you that the movie would not get posted. Or that people, if they could not see it for free, would go out and pay $20 for it. Are you sure you don’t need any mangos?
As a control, I tested various workarounds to non-anti-adblocked videos, including this utterly loco Jeet who does some very dangerous things with electricity. Trust me, don’t fool around, that boy is bat-guano crazy and you could get dead. I have seen that guy set himself on fire. Anyway, somehow youTube can enable the “watch?v=” switch, or can tell if it is disabled on my system. Now, that means war—that is intrusion and I will always side with whoever is against it. Even if they are just sending a signal to detect a condition, that is unacceptable. If you want something in or out my computer, you pay me for it.
What’s most apparent is youTube has removed the play and pause controls. They are not operated by clicking on the video. If you pause the video too long, it must be restarted—and it appears they can tell if you restart. That’s why this computer is exclusively for the Internet and contains nothing but this blog.
The Lee Harvey Oswald window.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
It’s Jason Derek Brown Day around here. True, he’s probably guilty, but that’s now what makes him a celebrity. Rather it is how he has made a mockery of standard police tactics, you know, where they are allowed to lie, cheat, threaten, and break the law. Brown would have nothing to do with it, and all these years later, something like twenty now, he’s still hiding out in Utah. I’m not saying he is innocent, I’m saying even if he stone-cold guilty, he is under no obligation to be questioned—and that is exactly what the police don’t want you to know.
Ha, Trump just said no more bullshit windmills. He was referring to how they blight the scenery. I have only house news for today, I wonder if one day I’ll look back on this and figure I was actually quite active. I got a late start, but moved the shelf lumber onto the laundry deck, where it’s been slated for box storage. This meant moving some materials out of the way and chopping out some linden tree sprigs starting up. Then I repositioned the bird feeders so they are just far enough the woodpeckers and cardinals don’t have to take turns. I also put a baffle on the new wire peanut feeder and see it isn’t a great design.
The woodpeckers can get at the outer layer of peanuts only. Maybe it was meant for larger woodpeckers, the ones here are quite small. I also folded some metal stovepipe around the post nearest the main feeder to keep squirrels from launching off that. I drilled pilot holes on two braces and finally fixed that last segment of fence in the back yard. When was that storm? Last November or something.
I then dug out a bothersome linden tree. Next, I finally have a use for kudzu. I hacked away all the vines except those that started on the trellis near the bird bath. It’s not a reall trellis, but that 6” wire mesh used for reinforcing concrete. It forms a nice shelter for the birdbath. I had to staple it in place, that and the fence repair too far too long. It cooled a bit, so I grabbed the blowtorch and put a finish on four Zboxes and three Eboxes. Not only is the torch uncomfy in even this weather, I have to turn off the circulation fan or the flame goes out. That’s likely the first job I’ve hire somebody for.
These are the longest summer days and I’ve made the most of them. The fact is, I’ve gotten some late starts. That’s a far cry from a day when nothing got done. I was busy outside for five hours. And now I want a pork chop sandwich. With mustard. And I want minimum three cups of coffee. I don’t care for tapioca but could use a mixing bowl full right now. I went for two pork chop sandwiches and now I cannot move. So let’s put in some computer time.
I found some ancient UART connectors, I suppose from early Arduino studies, but I never built any devices. As you know, once I was able to program counters and registers without using integrated circuits, Arduino fell by the wayside. However, if you are going to learn device communication, UART is the best place to start. Could not get simpler, two wires, one transmit, one receive and the transmitter is sending all the time. It sends a code to each slave it wants to talk to, turning it on. Or it can send a master signal to all. This is as far as I got with Arduino, but I had drawn out numerous circuits where one Arduino did nothing but coordinate the others. By the way, years later, I see there are such circuits finally appearing on the Arduino websites.
If you’ve ever used a modem, that’s UART. The data is a string of digital pulses determined by your “baud rate”, a simple clock signal. Five volts is a 1, no volts is a 0. They are all in one string, so your modem is set to detect a start bit that chops the stream into 8-bit chunks, plus some overhead. Remember 9600 baud, 8 bits, not parity. That’s UART and that is pretty much all I know about it.
ADDENDUM
It’s a small city and we’ve not seen Bradford at all. You know he’s a rich kid and it was always evident he liked to party. I’ve told you long ago that he has a nasty streak and the report is that he threatened to kill somebody. You can’t do that and he is barred for life. It doesn’t make sense, I know the people he threatened. But four sources said the same thing. Namely, he threatened to kill some very popular people around here.
Let’s change to my research for today. Desalination. I saw some stats, such as there are 21,000 desalination plants in the world, and that seawater could hold ten times as much salt than it does. I’ve tasted totally salt-less water and it is flat, on the other hand, adding four grains of salt to a cup and you could taste it. While I think using natural heat sources could be the answer to large-scale desalting, I know it produced other problems, like what happens to all the removed salt. And it isn’t even all salt, there is another lot of crap in seawater.
It was A.I. that got me thinking again about the membrane or osmosis method. I’ve seen the marine units that start around $250. The real cost is creating the pressure needed to push the water through. None of the basic tech has changed, I was hoping more like A.I. designing a better membrane. Nor could I find any real data on how artificial semipermeable membranes are made. I have no solution, but think it a good idea to see if A.I. can produce a filter that works at much lower pressures. Nor does it have to produce drinking water, remember the story of Jerry Vander Houwen. He watered hay with treated sewer water and made millions. I think he died just a few years ago at age 85.
