September 4, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 4, 2025, Jack? Probably not.
Five years ago today: September 4, 2021, I prefer 4 strings.
Nine years ago today: September 4, 2017, I’ve always hated Google.
Random years ago today: September 4, 2012, was I ever high.

           You’re in luck. No picture of boxes this morning. Just Arduino, and there is so rarely a circuit of any use that works right off the bat. Such is this motor circuit incorporating the fabled H-Bridge. Here is one of the best pics of an H-bridge, showing the shape, the transistors, and the flyback diodes. By activating the switches in pairs, you control the direction the motor spins. All ordinary CD motors can be operated by this configuration.

           So, waiting on this morning’s mail, I ran a series of tests on my motor setup. Below is a tet board that shows the result of the code. Two lights, indicating when the signal is for clockwise or counterclockwise. The code is working, so it is more likely a wiring problem, and I’ve found errors already. In the diagrams, two of the wires are backwards. What you see here should be red-blue and it is blue-red. Easy to fix.
           But the motor should still spin and it does not. Very careful examination of the circuit schematic shows there ia a ground connection missing. This is so characteristic of the mass-produced crap on-line. People no longer take pride in their work and the world is flooded with their nonsense and mistakes. And we now live in an America where the last three generations fancy themselves experts at making excuses and dodging accountability.

           I find this refusal to take blame a trademark of the Internet. Are they on-line because they are soi-bois, or are they soi-bois because they are on-line. I took another hard look at Patreon, and I already know they are nothing but an on-line middleman. Most businesses on-line have morphed into anonymous money-changers, probably because the sellers market is so saturated and over-saturated, the few vendors who survive don’t offer any help at all.
           The other annoyance is the manner in which these people are convinced if it is on-line it is somehow different and obeys a mysterious set of rules that you don’t understand. Example, eBay. It is nothing but consignment sales. Ask how it works and they launch into their jargon, it’s all metrics and platforms and environments. No, it is advertising, sales, and commissions. But they are self-convinced that once things go on-line, all the rules change. And if you call things what they are, you are being obstinate.
           Worse, when some ordinary and established business practice goes on-line, when they rename it (two of my least favorites are “vertical positioning” and “heatmap analytics”), they also alter the meaning in their favor. No, what’s worse is they get offended when you notice.

Picture of the day.
Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Then called the Reb. Another bill, but hey, as I said so long ago, there has been nothing in my life (or most others, for that matter), to say things would not have wound up right here by some different path. We don’t argue like the rest and that alone is good enough for me. However, California is beginning to cost real money. I had to drive downtown and that 30 miles shaved nearly two hours off my day. More PPP, I would normally avoid this time of day, as the railway loves to block rush hour traffic. Plus every red light and every asshole driver in tow served to remind me my horn still does not work.

           It was record hot, and the next PPP was not just the lineup at the ATM, but the slowness of the machine, and the ATM I must use is inside a non-air-conditioned bank entrance that amps up the greenhouse effect. And of course, it is dumb-ass renter week. Most of those people should not be allowed around any electronic products with buttons.

           This picture is a Ford F-150. Trump mentioned it, this truck is nuclear powered. See that cylinder in back? That’s the reactor built by the Australian that runs the vehicle for five years before it needs refueling. It is also cheap and can be built by ordinary factories. It is already in operation according to some sources, it requires no monitoring and uses such low-grade uranium there is no danger of enrichment, so they say.
           The catch is the refueling. They want $1.3 million. For those who hate history, the F-150 stands for an ordinary 1/2 ton load-rated truck, the F-100, but mounted on a 3/4 ton suspension. Fill 'er up.
           I barely made it into the back bedroom and flaked out until past 7:00PM. Today was over my limit, so let’s find something sedentary for the remainder. Thank goodness I made that extra quart of iced tea. The mail did not arrive from Tennessee, the post office announced months ago they would no longer guarantee deliver times, causing yet another PPP over here. I’ll have to drive into town tomorrow again.

           Wait, I must have some sort of box picture for you. This blog is, temporarily at least, Box Central. Here’s one now, the wire stripper box.

ADDENDUM
           Here is something, that by now you know is a familiar recurrence in this blog. Big mouths talkers, and now-over-40 whiz kids who really do not know a damn thing about computers beyond their own stupid little apps. Once again, of the thousands of people who should know, I find not one who has the foggiest notion of how things really work with computers. Can you imagine, people who spend hours per day on-line and consider themselves power-users, cannot answer a simple question like, “How does Patreon work”.
           No, don’t go on-line or they will tell you gobble-dee-gook like it is “a subscription-based platform” or some similar GenX bullshit. Anyway, here is my logic. I’m still getting spurious daily hits from the middle of the Indian Ocean. So, either they are bots, or if real, they are using this blog commercially. And yes, if they are fake, I blame the blog providers for now foreseeing and preventing this activity. But, Google is full of whiz kids, nomsayn?

           The solution is, if they are going to make money off me, time to reciprocate. But I cannot find a single source that spells out exactly what is involved, nor the risks involved. To get paid probably involves giving strangers your bank account info, so don’t be a fool about it.
           Over the decades quite a number of companies have attempted to institute what I want, which is a micropay system. In fact, isn’t that the name of the very company I had hope for—until I learned they don’t just collect the money for you. They want to run your business. Here is where I mention I won’t use Shopify because they are Canadian (no privacy or security) and keep your information on the cloud (where it can be ransomed). I’m dumb, but I ain’t that dumb. I also think once these commission outfits complete a transaction, they should be required to delete it But that is a separate topic.
           What was the name of that company that charged 1ȼ for content and billed the payments to the user’s phone? The Reb warns that this blog was based and built on being free, that suddenly wanting even a cent can spook the readers. My thinking is that only applies if one is trying to make a living at it. I stress at this point, I am only looking. But I would have no problem publishing on a third-party site as a different offering. I've not forgotten that lawyer who started with the free e-mail "Now You Know" who began charging and disappeared.

Last Laugh