Thursday, April 3, 2014
Luscious forest overhead scene...
New house update...
New house update... We took possession of our new home today, after doing a final walk-through. I also got a bit of an education from the former owner about how things in the house work, and where they are located. My first impressions are mostly ... that there's an awful lot of work to be done.
I'm “camped” in the house right now, and I'll stay camped for as long as it takes to get some changes made to the house. The biggest things to be done are new flooring (throughout the house, we've decided), new paint (again, throughout the house), and some remodeling in the master bathroom (mainly to make a nice big shower).
The flooring and paint involve lots of choices driven by style, something I am absolutely no good at. Debbie is working with a good friend who just happens to be an interior designer. The goal is to arrive at a design that (a) Debbie loves, (b) isn't completely crazy, and (c) I can stand. It's not clear that there is an intersection of those three sets :) I'm not sure what we'll do in that case!
I spent a lot of today in the local Walmart, buying the bare necessities required to make this house liveable for me over the next 8 weeks or so. The majority of what I got was for the kitchen – it's amazingly hard to cook without basics like oil, salt, knives, measuring cups, etc., etc. When I got to the checkout counter, the clerk said “Oh, you’re moving into a new house!” It was that obvious :)
I also managed to stop by the local Comcast office to pick up a cable modem/router and start our service. Compared with any Internet service we've ever had, it's crazy fast out here. On advice from some technical locals, I opted for the 50Mb plan (for a $10 monthly surcharge over the base 25Mb plan). There's also a 105Mb plan (for a $45 monthly surcharge), but the locals tell me that the 50Mb generally bursts to the same speed. I'll try that for a while, and if I don't like it I can always upgrade. With about an hour's usage, so far I'm just blinded by the speed – I'm not used to seeing videos pop up and immediately run, and that's what's happening. Also, my morning news read (which simultaneously opens 36 tabs) is easily 10x faster than our wireless Internet service back in Jamul. That's not a ding on our Jamul service – it's awesome considering where we live! But here in Utah, we just happen to be living where there is some modern and underutilized cable infrastructure ... and it shows!
I'm “camped” in the house right now, and I'll stay camped for as long as it takes to get some changes made to the house. The biggest things to be done are new flooring (throughout the house, we've decided), new paint (again, throughout the house), and some remodeling in the master bathroom (mainly to make a nice big shower).
The flooring and paint involve lots of choices driven by style, something I am absolutely no good at. Debbie is working with a good friend who just happens to be an interior designer. The goal is to arrive at a design that (a) Debbie loves, (b) isn't completely crazy, and (c) I can stand. It's not clear that there is an intersection of those three sets :) I'm not sure what we'll do in that case!
I spent a lot of today in the local Walmart, buying the bare necessities required to make this house liveable for me over the next 8 weeks or so. The majority of what I got was for the kitchen – it's amazingly hard to cook without basics like oil, salt, knives, measuring cups, etc., etc. When I got to the checkout counter, the clerk said “Oh, you’re moving into a new house!” It was that obvious :)
I also managed to stop by the local Comcast office to pick up a cable modem/router and start our service. Compared with any Internet service we've ever had, it's crazy fast out here. On advice from some technical locals, I opted for the 50Mb plan (for a $10 monthly surcharge over the base 25Mb plan). There's also a 105Mb plan (for a $45 monthly surcharge), but the locals tell me that the 50Mb generally bursts to the same speed. I'll try that for a while, and if I don't like it I can always upgrade. With about an hour's usage, so far I'm just blinded by the speed – I'm not used to seeing videos pop up and immediately run, and that's what's happening. Also, my morning news read (which simultaneously opens 36 tabs) is easily 10x faster than our wireless Internet service back in Jamul. That's not a ding on our Jamul service – it's awesome considering where we live! But here in Utah, we just happen to be living where there is some modern and underutilized cable infrastructure ... and it shows!
The wisdom of crowds...
The wisdom of crowds... Interesting piece on a fascinating topic. In this case, a crowd of ordinary people with no special access to information beat CIA analysts with access to classified intelligence...
Tarsnap gets even cheaper!
Tarsnap gets even cheaper! Secure cloud backup for any UNIX-like machine, with data stored on Amazon's S3 service. The service's web page is here.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Cloud-based circuit assembly...
Cloud-based circuit assembly... I wouldn't have foreseen this would happen. Amazing!
Bootstrapping a compiler...
Bootstrapping a compiler... This story about a modern effort assumes that the reader will think that bootstrapping a compiler is something unusual or odd. But back in the early days of microcomputers (mid '70s to early '80s), I and many others did this as a matter of routine. In those days, the “computer hobbyists” (of which I was one) had ready access to computer hardware, but the software tools that existed were prohibitively expensive. So ... if we wanted a compiler (or assembler, for that matter), we bootstrapped it. My favorite route was to bootstrap a simple assembler, then use that to add a macro package, then use the macro assembler to write a simple compiler (usually for C, sometimes for Pascal), then write the actual target compiler in that. I've lost track of how many times I followed that path, but it was at least a half dozen times...
This is what it feels like to be a geezer geek :)
But being a geezer EE is even more fun, 'cause then I get to talk about vacuum tubes!
This is what it feels like to be a geezer geek :)
But being a geezer EE is even more fun, 'cause then I get to talk about vacuum tubes!
The dissing of the president...
The dissing of the president... Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal. Near the end he expresses a thought I've had often these past few months:
Go read the whole excellent piece...
And all so reminiscent of the contempt the world showed for Jimmy Carter in the waning days of his failed presidency. The trouble for us is that the current presidency has more than 1,000 days to go.Exactly.
Go read the whole excellent piece...
Quote of the day...
Quote of the day... From Susan Vass, as seen on PowerLine Blog:
Everybody gets along. Everybody eats at the same three local diners. Everybody is polite. Everybody is smiley and friendly, even teenagers! Why?Much more at the link...
Because everybody is armed to the teeth – cowboys, geezers, Iraqi vets, tattooed Latinos, nuns.
We know which political party you should join...
We know which political party you should join... Apparently Covered California (the California ObamaCare insurance exchange) knows which political party you should join: the Democratic Party, of course!
Rope.
Tree.
California state bureaucrat.
Some assembly required!
Rope.
Tree.
California state bureaucrat.
Some assembly required!
The Internet is a wonderful thing, part 693,283...
The Internet is a wonderful thing, part 693,283... The New York Public Library has released high-resolution images of over 20,000 maps in its collection. Some of these are famous historical maps. These images are freely downloadable. Awesome!
It's enough to make you wonder...
It's enough to make you wonder ... if the nutritionists have any idea at all what they're talking about!
When I was a kid, my dad taught us to suck on a smooth, round pebble to satisfy the thirst we worked up when hiking. That was the best advice he could find in his reading. We carried a couple of small canteens on our hikes.
Then when I was just 9 or 10, he read some new advice: people who were working hard should drink a couple of quarts of water every day. He bought bigger canteens and we started carrying much more water on our hikes, and we stopped sucking on pebbles.
Much later – in the '90s? – I started seeing advice about the minimum amounts of water we should be drinking daily. These were always vastly larger than the amount of water I actually drank, amounts so large that I had trouble imagining choking that much down. I once asked my doctor whether I should drink more water, and he told me not to worry about it – I showed no signs of dehydration :)
Now I read the latest advice, which is basically this: drink when you're thirsty. So we've gone from drink as little as possible, to drink moderately, to drink a whole lot, and now to drink whatever you feel like drinking – all within my lifetime. One could imagine being quite confused :) But I'm not – I decided quite a few years ago that the nutritionists were far more confused than I was, so I just ignore them...
When I was a kid, my dad taught us to suck on a smooth, round pebble to satisfy the thirst we worked up when hiking. That was the best advice he could find in his reading. We carried a couple of small canteens on our hikes.
Then when I was just 9 or 10, he read some new advice: people who were working hard should drink a couple of quarts of water every day. He bought bigger canteens and we started carrying much more water on our hikes, and we stopped sucking on pebbles.
Much later – in the '90s? – I started seeing advice about the minimum amounts of water we should be drinking daily. These were always vastly larger than the amount of water I actually drank, amounts so large that I had trouble imagining choking that much down. I once asked my doctor whether I should drink more water, and he told me not to worry about it – I showed no signs of dehydration :)
Now I read the latest advice, which is basically this: drink when you're thirsty. So we've gone from drink as little as possible, to drink moderately, to drink a whole lot, and now to drink whatever you feel like drinking – all within my lifetime. One could imagine being quite confused :) But I'm not – I decided quite a few years ago that the nutritionists were far more confused than I was, so I just ignore them...
867 miles...
867 miles... That's the distance between our home in Jamul and Logan, Utah. I'm up in Logan, getting ready to close on the home we've purchased up here (this Friday is the big day). But I'm here by myself – Debbie's still back in Jamul, holding down the fort there while I work on getting our new home ready to actually receive us and our menagerie. I'll be up here for a few weeks at least. I miss everybody already...
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Tractor and Attachments for sale!
Tractor and Attachments for sale! We are placing our gently-used Kubota B21 diesel tractor with all the trimmings up for sale. It's not going to Utah with us.
The complete set originally cost me over $44,000 about ten years ago. The first offer over $20,000 takes the whole thing immediately; otherwise the highest offer we receive before June 30 gets it. American cash only, please, unless we already know you. Note: we are not selling individual components from this set!
The main event is the Kubota B21 tractor – 21 horsepower (13.5 HP on the PTO) diesel “construction-grade” frame, hydraulic loader and backhoe, 4WD, standard 3 point hitch, high clearance, and integral ROPS. It has just over 200 hours on it. RitchieSpecs, 4.8/5.0 rating from TractorByNet.
The implements and accessories:
The complete set originally cost me over $44,000 about ten years ago. The first offer over $20,000 takes the whole thing immediately; otherwise the highest offer we receive before June 30 gets it. American cash only, please, unless we already know you. Note: we are not selling individual components from this set!
The main event is the Kubota B21 tractor – 21 horsepower (13.5 HP on the PTO) diesel “construction-grade” frame, hydraulic loader and backhoe, 4WD, standard 3 point hitch, high clearance, and integral ROPS. It has just over 200 hours on it. RitchieSpecs, 4.8/5.0 rating from TractorByNet.
The implements and accessories:
- Mill Creek utility trailer with hydraulic dump
- Gearmore 60" rotary mower (PTO)
- Bearcat chipper/shredder (PTO)
- Farmi winch intended for stump pulling and log skidding (PTO)
- Log splitter, a real beast (hydraulic)
- Small Gearmore cement mixer (PTO)
- Gearmore subsoiler
- Danuser auger post hole drill (PTO)
- Gearmore 1-ton removable loader tines
- Larger backhoe bucket
- Various parts, accessories, and 3 point hitch components
- Hydraulic tilt kit for 3 point hitch
- Gearmore blade scraper
Io in true color...
Io in true color... Jupiter's strange and sulfurous moon in all it's glory. Via APOD, of course. Full resolution image here...
IT's come to this...
IT's come to this... You thought you only had to worry about security on your computer, tablet, and smart phone? Wrong answer, vulnerability-breath! You also have to worry about your car...
A sure sign of oppression...
A sure sign of oppression... In the age of the Internet, one thing you can count on from every thug-run government: they're going to clamp down on free speech on the Internet. I'm looking at you, Turkey! Here's one of the ways they do it.
Duncan Lou Who goes to the beach...
It's astounding and inspiring; makes you want to stand up and yell for joy. Debbie and I have been amazed many time at the adaptability of animals, including that of our sweet little kitty Maka Lea. But Duncan Lou Who is a standout amongst them...
Software patents being revisited by the Supreme Court...
Software patents being revisited by the Supreme Court... Arguments before the Supreme Court tomorrow in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank. The outcome could be anything from a yawner to industry-shaking. More from SCOTUSblog, Fortune, Wikipedia...
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