Silicon Valley Redneck

Getting back to my roots!

Current mini-project: fixing my laptop computer.

With J-B Weld.

... Yeah, 'twas a mechanical failure: the screw that secured the left hinge fell out, apparently having stripped the mating threads, 'cause it wasn't nohows re-engaging the block.  This left the block trying (with altogether too much success) to pry open that corner of the casing every time I opened, closed, or adjusted the lid.

So there I was, with the full panoply of my tools elsewhere and/or in storage, and besides this thing is nearly 8 years old, was a bargain-bin purchase in the first place, and consequently has been annoyingly short on pixels for CAD, IDEs, and such.  The grand plan called for relegating it to lab use, a couple of months hence, and getting a new model with a bit more horsepower and a 1080P screen.  In short: not worth putting a lot of hours into fixing it right; I just need to fix it so it doesn't fall apart right away.

Hence the J-B Weld; I stuffed a bunch into the offending corner, getting as much as possible around the hinge block.  Then apply clamps, wiggle to try to get the block as near as possible to its proper location, and go do other stuff for a while.

The glue being somewhat set, I moved one of the clamps to the other side to level the keyboard, and now it's working.  As  a computer, anyway.  I'll test the folding later.

Update: Seems to be functional, for now.  On close examination, the corner has a slightly melted look to it, and the lid isn't quite snug against the base in that corner when closed.  But how many 8-year-old laptops are still on the road, anyway?  Ya gotta expect a little Bondo, right?

Update 2:  Is this the most SVR thing ever, or what?

I suspect this wouldn't work for me.

Insty linked to this book on how not to be seen.

From the description:

The Gray Man is the antithesis of individual expression. He hides in the corners of conformity. He only flaunts a quotidian nature. He meanders through the mundane and occupies the ordinary. Individual expression and exceptionalism are his enemies. The Gray Man is the forgettable face, the ghost guy, the hidden human.

I've kind of tried that on various occasions.  Not so much trying to be invisible, as such, but merely not to be recognized as myself.  It never works.

There was this one time, in college... I randomly decided to show up for a midterm as Not Myself.  So I ditched the necktie, curled the mustache down instead of up, put on a shaggy wig, covered up with an old mil-surp jacket, and attempted to disguise my walk.

Didn't work.  Everybody recognized me right away.  People I didn't even know recognized me right away.

Some of us just don't do anonymous.

(And, on the Internet?  I use my own name.  I've occasionally pondered creating a deep-cover identity, but always worry that I'd be recognized anyway through some turn of phrase.)

Stupid places, stupid people, stupid things: don't.

I heard something about a nearby white nationalist rally.

Should I show up and hang out with the opposition?

1. No; I have way too much stuff to do.
2. No; I'm guessing that the opposition includes "anti"fa and is way nastier (and probably more racist) than the white-nat losers.
3. No; one side considers me the worst kind of non-white, and the other considers me the worst kind of white.
4. No; don't go stupid places with stupid people and do stupid things.

Instead, I'm off to do something constructive.  Several somethings constructive.  I'll have to check later for reports on the event.

(Is it even a white nationalist thing?  Maybe; this was on local news, which seems to be a bit more clueful than the usual propaganda channels.)

Another little note.

There are certain areas where, if you randomly stop for lunch at a roadside diner, you'd better like MEAT!  Because MEAT! is what food is.

That side of baked beans?  The description said something about plenty of smoked pork.  I think there was more pork in it than actual beans.

Yum.

Meanwhile, in the offline world

Getting familiar with a green and pleasant locale.

At some point (but not this week), I'll probably swing by the local Y***** dealership and announce that I need a little red sporty thing for my midlife crisis.  The dealer will likely be confused.

Additional:  A few notes about this place.

Yes:

• Plastic straws.
• Actual humans working retail.  Usually enough of them to keep the lines short.
• "Um, we don't deliver out there on your schedule.  Let me call around and find a manager who can fix that."
• Yard equipment that doesn't say "CARB Compliant."
• Pretty good meals at sit-down restaurants for around $10.
• Talking heads on the TV who know what Memorial Day is about.

No:

• Front license plates.
• $100,000 building permits.

A reminder to the Washington Post, among others.

We noticed that you're blocking ads.

Oh, you noticed that, did you?  Just happened to notice?

The only way to notice that, and to pop up the nag screen, is to run unwelcome code on my computer.  Which is used in interstate commerce.  This is known as exceeding authorized access.  Which is a frickin' felony.

Yeah, I know.  Everybody does it, and gets away with it.  Right up until someone in the Executive Branch decides to notice.

(And, no, declining to download the ads is not "exceeding" authorized access by any plausible interpretation of the term.  Not unless the entire WWW is fundamentally illegal, as some have argued.)

Additional:

Ever wonder about the real reason the Big Internet companies push so hard for so-called "net neutrality"?  It's partly the obvious: pushing distribution costs onto the ISPs, forcing them to upgrade the infrastructure for the benefit of Big Content.  But those bogus claims that your retail ISP might censor your favorite pr0n?  Naw.  They're worried that your retail ISP might offer an ad-filtering service.

And: Some of the big ad-distribution networks routinely serve up malware.  Blocking them is just good security practice.  Until I'm reliably assured that none of the ad sources on a site will be transmitting nasties to my computer, the adblocker remains in place.  (Seriously, have you ever looked at how many content- and ad-distribution networks are referenced by any of the big websites?  Most of them with uninformative names, and little or no information available about what they do?)

Busy, busy day

Found my way to the Very Important Morning Meeting, despite my phone persistently directing me to the place where Google Maps thought the address was, rather then the place where the building actually is.

All papers having been shuffled, 'twas away to the fields and groves to plant the flag.  And round up all manner of tools and supplies.  Except for the ones that slipped my mind, and the ones I don't currently have a way of transporting.

Yes, there's news.  Those who know will catch the oblique references (the series of events having been anticipated for some time).  For the rest, well, details will follow.  With pictures.

Now, it's time to go round up some dinner.  And then collapse.  Tomorrow, there's work to be done, but at least it doesn't (I think) involve paperwork.  Oh, and I need to introduce myself to some people.

Unit sanity check

So I clicked on one of the clickbaity stories at weather.com and got one of those little semi-videos about loose barges smacking into a dam in Oklahoma....

One of the captions announced that:

The barges were carrying nearly 4,000 pounds of fertilizer when they sank

Um.  That's... less than 2 tons.  That's not a bargeload; that's a U-Haul load.  (And, yes, the text changed color in midsentence.  Apparently that's mandated by the modern stylebook.)

The text of the article says:

The barges were carrying 3,800 tons of fertilizer, the Associated Press reported.

Which makes considerably more sense.

Don't nobody proofread no more?  Is all the media production done by city kids with no clue about pounds and tons, and no idea how big a pound of fertilizer is?

Obligatory distractions

Spent a few hours yesterday worrying about many of the stress items (some of which were subsequently resolved) while out of communication in a cramped space with obligatory Distract-O-Screen, mercifully without mandatory audio.

Based on occasional glances at the screen, let's see, there was some sot of feature film, I guess.  Might have been Dances With Fish or something?  Seemed to involve lots of fighting, and:

• An improbably spacious submarine
• Edward Scissorhands
• Irritable C. Bass and the Frickin' Lasers
• Lots and lots of glowing stuff
• The Vorlon and Shadow battle fleets, and I think maybe I spotted a Minbari individual at one point
• Even more glowing stuff
• Some really weird propellers that seem like they'd be remarkably inefficient and also are oddly placed; are they just there to create a workplace hazard?
• A late appearance by some dude in a yellow shirt and green pants

Then there was a trailer for a cartoon called maybe Pet Stew.

Then a TV show, Triumph of the Grace or whatever.  Then some apparently high-school-themed show with, wossname, Oswald Cobblebot?  I can never keep those guys straight.

 

At least I'd also brought my own distraction in the form of a Kindle freshly loaded with Alma Boykin's latest (plus plenty of other content).

Don't panic (just yet)

Next few days are Complicated, with an extra dose of stress.

Posting may be light to nonexistent.

If nothing (else!) goes horribly wrong, there should be lots of new material soon.

Critters:vet::

Hadda chase a twinkle-truck last night.  Just after midnight, like.

Turns out the patient was (initial diagnosis, anyway) hiding a case of pneumonia.  Which puts some significant wrinkles in near-term planning.

Got home slightly after the time I'd normally be waking up.  Had a small nap.  Now caffeinating.  Breakfast in a while, then back to the hospital for updates & coordination.

Took the critters to the vet today

Huckleberry was on his best behavior (once we got him there; getting him into the carrier was quite an adventure).

Top Hat was reasonably cooperative, or at least timid.

Southmoon was, well, in touch with her inner mountain lion.  Did I mention that her father was half Siamese, half mountain lion, and half demon?  The vet techs (plural) eventually managed to administer the required vaccinations.

Now they're back home and settling down.  Tomorrow morning, we need to give 'em a dose of the latest Revolution variant (the last one had little effect on their fleas).

Controversy!

Seems some people are all bent out of shape about a Calvin Klein ad that features...

... No, not a non-orientable surface for storing perfume, universes, and everything else...

... But, rather, a supermodel kissing a robot.

The Space Pope sez: DON'T DATE ROBOTS!

That, though, isn't the issue.  The foofaraw come about because the robot appears feminine, and...

... No, that't not it yet...

... No, it's because a non-lesbian female model kissed a feminine-looking robot.  Which is Not Allowed.  According, apparently, to this week's edition of the rule book, which is even more subject to change than the list of Abominations Unto Nuggan.

A frustration

Somewhere along the line, my father's little glass Klein bottle got wet.

Ever try to dry the outside of a Klein bottle?  Especially a little one?

I may end up hooking up a piece of thin flexible tubing to the hot-air rework station, setting it for maximum air and minimum heat, and threading the tube through the neck to the outside of the bottle where the remaining water is.

Friday afternoon randomness

Since I don't seem to be accomplishing anything useful this afternoon, what with one thing and another....

Headline:

The College Board Just Shot Itself in the Foot with Its New 'Adversity Score' Scheme

Wait, boards got feet?

Oh, I guess they do.  Board feet are a thing.  Glorious Petrograd Standard has 1980 of them: nearly two board-millipedes!

 

Then there's this:

Study: Many Democrats Exaggerated Mental Distress After 2016 Election

And many soccer players exaggerate physical distress after incidents, real or imagined, on the field.  What's your point?

A strange requirement

Seems a certain utility company (which shall remain nameless, at least for now) requires, among the other documentation for starting service, proof of purchase.

Which is inconvenient if you're trying to sign up for utility service before taking possession, since you don't have the box-top yet.

It also seems rather odd.  Has there been an epidemic of people taking over payment of other people's utility bills...?

A drear and drizzlesome morning

So I'm watching a webinar (something I basically never do) instead of going walkies.

Subject: "Is there an Alternative for Hi-Cap MLCCs?"

Some interesting points:

Ceramic capacitor vendors are phasing out products larger than 0603 (which is to say, a lot of the ones I use).

Dielectric labels are less informative than they sound; X7R is not a dielectric but a working-temperature range and a value tolerance.

Smaller caps with the same nominal capacitance, voltage rating, and dielectric temperature-characteristic label actually use a different dielectric material with much higher voltage sensitivity - so, really, if you're using it with DC bias that's a significant fraction of the rated voltage, you may be getting a small fraction of the expected capacitance.  Ergo, a smaller part with the same nominal specs is not a replacement for the old, larger part; you might need to use three in parallel, which kinda defeats the purpose of making them smaller, dunnit?  Also, you gain some fun nonlinear behavior, which may have complex consequences.

So, oog on several counts.

The webinar is by Würth, and offers as an alternative the H-Chip horizontal-electrode SMT electrolytic parts.  Which had somehow escaped my attention.  Oh: voltage ratings only go up to 6.3V; most of my bulk-cap requirements start at a 16V rating, and I often need 35V or 50V parts, taking safety margins and derating into account.  So, the H-Chip parts wouldn't have turned up in my searches.

None of which knowledge makes the morning less dreary.  And... if the vendors are really phasing out the parts I've been using, I need to alert my clients.  Argh.  When you're designing products with production lifecycles of a decade and more, it really helps to know in advance what's going to go out of fashion.

Are we back to electrolytics?  I don't like electrolytics.  They're not conducive to product longevity.  (Yeah, MLCCs have their own issues, especially with regard to mechanical stresses.  But those are sometimes easier to work around.)

Bring out the GIMP!

In the latest fun software-corp shenanigan, assuming this story is true....

Seems Adobe has gone full Vader on users of older versions of its software: "I am altering the deal.  Pray I don't alter it any further." Suddenly their existing licenses are invalid, and they may be sued for continuing to use the software...?

Which brings us back to the fundamental problem with subscription-based software licensing and cloud-based services; you can't count on the software continuing to work.  If you're using it for business, and you expect your business to be in existence (and using the software or service) for more than a few months, this is a Big Freakin' Deal.

Seems like it's well past time for some businesses that use Photoshop for big-bucks work to throw some money at the Gnu Image Manipulation Program.  Get it up to the standards needed by serious publishing businesses, and suddenly those businesses have something they can use in perpetuity at no additional cost, and Adobe is out on a limb without a paddle.

(And, yes, the GIMP team would need to be vigilant for patented algorithms sneaking into the code, which may be the issue with Adobe this time.  One persistent bugaboo of open-source software is that there's no indemnification against third-party intellectual-property claims... but now we see that expensive commercial software licenses don't really offer that either.)

Well, if a Horse can be a Senator...

Now there's a Bullock running for President.  Well, why not?

Don't have a Cow, man.  Go ahead, Ox him anything.  He won't Steer you wrong.

A little Tuesday-morning silliness

Following a Monday-morning link from Maggie's Farm, I found myself at this list of types of eclipses (Data General not included).

A comment led to this piece regarding a mole of moles.

Which really needs a link to A Habitrail Named Klein.

... And, way down at the bottom of the comments, someone finally made the Science Made Stupid connection.

Hmph.  I did some of my best work on an S/140, back in the day, and now no one even remembers that kind of Eclipse.

Added:  I'll just tack on a link to today's SMBC, regarding meditation.  Not related, but it is Tuesday morning.