Silicon Valley Redneck

Wunnerful.

Took a little (much needed) nap.  Woke up, sort of.  Checked phone.  No missed calls, but a voicemail.

'Twas the Frigidaire apology-bot announcing that, owing to inventory issues, that freezer I'd ordered from Home Depot on June 18^th for delivery July 1^st ain't happening August 19^th either.  Someone, or something, is supposed to call within the next 48 hours to schedule a new delivery date.  Next spring, ya think?  And meanwhile I haven't been looking around for any-freezer-that-I-might-actually-be-able-to-buy.

Oh, and Home Depot's web site isn't terribly helpful.  Go to Freezers, check the box for Hide Unavailable Products, and it still shows plenty of items, including the one we were supposed to be getting, complete with Add to Cart buttons.  Click through to any particular product page, though, and it shows Out of stock.  Great.

Update:  It's now Sunday afternoon, a bit over 49 hours since that message was left, and no sign of the promised followup call.  Maybe - dare we hope? - the message was a spurious retransmission of the original delay announcement?  Maybe?

Update 2:  Somewhere around the 53-hour mark, as I was out mowing some overgrown grass, the phone rang; 'twas the same bot, but this time I managed to answer it and press the proverbial "1" for more information.  Rejoice!  For 'twas indeed a mere restatement of the first delay, announced at the end of June, and the revised delivery date remains the 19^th of August.

I hope it's real this time.  We kinda need that freezer.

Calvinball: level up!

Apparently the new rule is that everyone has to wear sneeze guards.  Er, face shields.  Well, sneeze guards.

Which kinda-sorta makes sense for, e.g., medical workers who are in close proximity to those who may be infected with the Klonovirus and are coughing and/or sneezing.  But for the general public?  Really?  I thought we were supposed to be worried about respiratory ærosols, about which those face shields do nothing.

1. You can't play it the same way twice.
2. No one's allowed to question the masks.

I think the next move is rook takes battleship.

... Maybe this is an excuse to go around in public wearing a motorcycle helmet, which not only comes with a built-in face shield but also protects against both impact and identification?

Newspeak dictionary: "Mural"

Traditionally, a mural has been a large work of art painted directly on a wall, or perhaps a ceiling.  The word comes from a Latin word meaning wall; see also intramural (within the walls), etc.

In Newspeak, words painted on a road now constitute a mural.  I think crosswalks may also be included when convenient.  Not art, not on a wall, but we'll call it a mural anyway.

Amazon Day oopsie

So I mentioned there was supposed to be a whole lot of stuff arriving today?  Lot of it grouped together today because Wednesday is Amazon Day?

I got a dozen Amazon notifications of attempted delivery.  Tracking info says "either the item was too large or your mailbox was too small."  Also something about looking for an attempted-delivery notice.  Apparently Joy likewise got notifications regarding some things she was expecting.

Er.

At least a couple of times a week, just about every week this year, there's been at least one USPS delivery of stuff that most definitely does not fit in the mailbox.  Vehicle (station wagon, Jeep, or regulation parcel truck) comes right up the driveway, and the driver deposits the parcels outside the garage door.

I did trudge down to the mailbox, and there wasn't a note in it, so this wasn't a case of not-the-usual-driver unexpectedly finding that a 40-pound case of kitty litter doesn't fit in the box.  Maybe the explanation was wrong, and they couldn't fit all the Amazon Day stuff in the truck?  But how is it that some other Amazon stuff shows out for delivery, while some of the things that show attempted delivery are not especially large?  'Tis confusing.  Maybe the contract calls for all packages to a given address tagged as Amazon Day to be delivered together, my other orders weren't tagged as Amazon Day, and Amazon isn't too good about keeping track of USPS delivery capacity?

I hope they get it sorted out, and the stuff delivered.  Usual course of action with an attempted-delivery notice involves going into the actual post office, which We Are Not Doing These Days.  For now, I guess we wait to hear what's actually going on.

Update 1:  Ah, the things that show as out for delivery are coming via UPS, not USPS.  Most of the USPS items show will try again, though a couple of them show other status or nothing at all informative.  All of 'em have that didn't-fit-in-the-mailbox thing, which makes no sense unless they were somehow put on entirely the wrong vehicle.

Update 2:  A "We (RE) Deliver for you!" note, captioned "Sorry we missed you while you were out", turned up with the regular mail.  Says "Will need to be picked up."  Great.  Excuse me, guys, but in case you hadn't noticed, we're having a bit of a Pestilence lately, and this county is a red zone last I heard (after having been pretty safe until the tourist traps reopened).  Which is kinda why so many people are having stuff, y'know, delivered.

So I go to usps.com/redeliver, feed in my name and address, so far so good, then the "article number" from the note... oopsie!  No information available.  WTF?

Then I try scanning the QR code, and I get the mobile version of the schedule-redelivery thing, which doesn't seem to offer any options as to scheduling delivery of specific parcels within the massive shipment.  Argh.

So then Joy demonstrates the epically inconvenient approach of going to the Amazon tracking page for each item, pasting the USPS tracking number for that package into the USPS tracking thingy, and requesting redelivery one by each.

So I think now everything (more or less) is scheduled for a Friday retry, except for the kitty litter, which is a problem unto itself.

Clarification to update 2:  You'd think the Amazon tracking page would include a link to the USPS tracking page, but no.  Gotta copy & paste the tracking number from one site to the other.

Update 3, Thursday:  All of the redelivery requests (none for anything unreasonably large nor heavy) turned up in the mailbox today with a "you're gonna need to bring your truck to the post office" message.  The USPS phone maze is entirely automated, doesn't work properly, and apparently has no freakin' way of contacting a live person at a specific office.  Joy is attempting to get someone at Amazon on the phone to try to sort things out.

Update 3a:  Getting a helpful-sounding person at Amazon on the phone didn't take long.  She's going to try to make arrangements with the USPS to have the smaller stuff delivered, and the big boxes of kitty litter maybe brought one at a time over some decent interval.

Update 3b:  Supposedly it's sorted out... seems Amazon has channels of communication with the USPS.  Something like being their biggest customer and thus having leverage.  Hey, they've had the USPS making Sunday deliveries for a few years now.

Anyway, we're supposed to be getting the kitty-litter shipments spread out over several days, and the other stuff brought in a more or less timely fashion.  And, should we feel the need to accumulate more kitty litter after this all arrives, I guess I'll just do what I ought to have done in the first place, which is a "subscribe and save" for one box a week.

Update 4:  As of Monday morning, none of the Amazon Day stuff (via USPS) has been delivered.  A couple of later parcels have turned up, but nothing from the Wednesday non-delivery.  Being as how some of the smaller stuff was food products, maybe it's been sitting around a bit long now?

I'm developing a suspicion that Amazon's direct-line contact people at the USPS don't actually communicate with local post offices, but just put in the very same redelivery/reschedule requests that customers can do for themselves online.  (This would be the same as the customer-service reps at Home Depot's 800 number.)

This seems to require another call to Amazon... and maybe seeing if we can just cancel the whole thing, have the post office do a return-to-sender, and re-order what we actually need.

Meanwhile, I've ordered a package of the same kitty litter from Walmart, which I think will be coming by FedEx.

Why is Amazon sending heavy packages USPS to begin with?  I suspect that, as a former government agency, the USPS is bad at business, and negotiated way-too-low special pricing for Amazon.

(In normal times, I'd have no problem with taking the truck down to the post office to pick all the stuff up.  These ain't normal times.  Were I thirty years younger, or were this January, I could maybe bundle up in a full HAZMAT suit to make a pickup run, but in my current condition and this weather that would invite - nay, positively summon - heatstroke.)

Update 4a:  Monday afternoon's mail brought a whole stack of "Final notice, ya gotta pick this up yourself" notices, which appear to correspond to the boxes of kitty litter.  No word on the other stuff that was supposed to have been delivered last Wednesday.

Dane-geld, by whatever name

A saying, of late: "This is a peaceful protest, and as long as all of our demands are met it'll stay that way."

Translation: "I come in peace.  Give me all the money and nobody gets hurt."

The Return of the Pottsylvania Creeper?

Seems people have been getting mysterious, unexpected packets of seeds in the mail, apparently from China.

(I've gotten packets of seeds with only Chinese markings many weeks after ordering semi-arcane seeds on Amazon.  Making assumptions about their connection to my Amazon orders, I attempted to sprout them, in little pots.  Nary a one of them germinated.)

Sometimes, gift horses require close examination.

Afterthought:  What do these seeds look like, and has anyone heard from Putrid T. Gangreen lately?

Update:  Or was it the Press Secretary?  Bit of a tomato herself, no?

Has anyone translated the Chinese markings on these seed packets?  "Seed of the Damn' Gorgeous Tree" perchance?

Getting serious about setting up the lab

I must be getting serious about setting it up.  I just ordered a beer fridge.

OK, so... basically a mini-fridge that (1) gets decent reviews, and (2) is short enough to fit under one of the folding tables.

And it's not actually for beer (duh).  I just need a place to store things like solder paste that aren't all that shelf-stable (various sorts of adhesives, probably some other things) and that don't really belong in with the food.

... Still need to run a drain line for a dehumidifier; if I can't, at this point, air-condition the lab area, perhaps I can at least keep the humidity down to something tolerable.

Meanwhile, I'm still learning KiCad, which has improved considerably since I first looked at it, but still seems to have a ways to go.  I might use it for an open-hardware project later this year, in addition to the client project that's the current incentive (making minor changes to someone else's design).  After years of using quirky EAGLE, and making a start on learning quirky DipTrace, there's yet a whole new set of quirks to learn, o joy unbounded.  I was also supposed to be learning (presumably quirky) Circuit Studio, but maybe that can wait.

(Still haven't set up any sort of machine shop.  Logistical constraints (mainly Pestilence-related) seem to limit me to rather small, benchtop equipment at this point.  There are decisions to be made.  I ain't gettin' that Tormach 1100 this year.)

Addendum:  Got a collection of related (to each other) projects that mostly could be kinda-sorta addressed using a Pi Zero or Pi Zero W, but... well, I'd still need to add some functions that the Zero kinda lacks, and, more to the point, while there are places happy to sell me one-each Zero for dirt cheap, nobody's willing to sell me a dozen unadorned Zeros at any price, and I really don't need a bunch of cases and power supplies.

So!  Prolly end up buying a bunch of ESP32-based modules, adding the needed functionality, and, for some applications, leaving the built-in radio turned off and using a nRF24L01-based module instead, what with WiFi coverage being limited and most of the applications not calling for a lot of bandwidth.

(Yes, the ESP32 modules have a couple of features I need that various flavors of Arduini lack, and starting from scratch with a suitably-capable STM32-family chip not only would take longer but would be significantly more expensive; ESP32s are amazingly cheap.  Were I starting from scratch, I'd likely use a sub-GHz radio, but somehow the 915MHz chips are now pricier than 2.4GHz parts.  Something to do with volume, I guess.)

Oy. Weather.

Supposed to be probably-thunderstormy most of today, but no promise of any actual rain showing up locally.

Early-morning conditions: temperature in the low 70s; humidity in the low 90s.  Fine for lounging around; not so great for wrestling with heavy stuff.  Which, yes....

What with a bunch of stuff expected to arrive this week, I figured it was time to remove some of the clutter from the staging area in the garage.  So, two small but very heavy pieces of furniture to be moved out of the garage, across the top of the gravel driveway, over the retaining wall, across the back lawn, into the barn, then to their new positions where maybe they'll even see some use.

I got very sweaty indeed, for so early in the morning.  But, there's now a good-sized patch of clear floor space in that corner of the garage, and I have some more options for organizing the stuff that I use over in the barn.

More unwelcome news

It occurred to me, a few days ago, that there was another occasional associate to whom I owed an update on the move, now that we're actually moved and more or less settled in.

So I composed an e-mail, sent it off... and got a reply from his widow.  I missed him by two months.

RIP, Earl McCune.  (See also.)

Earl was quite a Character, and also very good at RF and other analog circuit and system design.  We first met back in the 90s, when my then-boss (another person I should get back in touch with) brought him in to help with a spread-spectrum radio project (spread spectrum on the 915 MHz band then being the New Hotness).  In the process, Earl taught me some tricks of the trade that have come in mighty useful over the years in a variety of contexts, most of them not involving radio communication at all.

It turns out that his philosophy of ground planes not only allowed me to put high-speed (by 90s standards) logic on the same small board as a sensitive RF receiver without interference, but also may have been a significant factor in landing my last formal job; in the course of a surprise job interview, I was presented with the question of whether Scheme A or Scheme B was better for managing multiple ground planes, and I was prepared to explain why, from a noise-management perspective, A and B were equivalent, and a different approach was required.  (Alas, he didn't communicate this philosophy to the people who define chip pin assignments, in particular ball-grid pin assignments.  With all too many of the high-density chips, it's simply not possible to follow good noise-mitigation practices.)

Our paths occasionally crossed after that, either at trade shows or out on the trails.  Last time, back in early 2014, he got onto the subject of semiconductor curve tracers, and after some discussion I had notes for a new product that, while not having all the capabilities of a Tektronix 576, would be good enough for characterizing small-signal devices while being much smaller and less expensive than the old Tek and also being computer-driven, so that saving data to a file would be convenient.

I got as far as having boards fabbed for a proof-of-concept unit, and then life got Eventful.  I've added some new notes and refinements to the spec, and will have to dust the project off in what remains of this year.  With the work I did on USB Gadgets in 2015-2017, I kinda-sorta have a decent starting point for the digital side of things, and I've come up with a refinement that should make the analog side easier.

Anyway, that's one reason I've been kinda quiet the last few days.  Still here, but... preoccupied.

Identity, 1936 edition

A friend of mine who calls himself a dachshund is furious over an article he has just read in a scientific paper purporting to give the essential qualities of a good dachshund. He finds himself libelled by implication.

"I think I could sue," said my friend. "This man here has said, in effect, that I am not a real dachshund."

From My Ten Years in a Quandary AND HOW THEY GREW by Robert Benchley (1936).

Back in those days, this sort of thing was considered ludicrous and thus funny.  (Likewise when Monty Python addressed a similar subject in Life of Brian.)

Somehow, though, it's gone from obviously ludicrous to dead serious and all must accept it.  Just in the last few years.

Insight from a spelling checker?

Chrome's spelling checker doesn't like Necronomicon, and suggests Macroeconomic.

Which... are they all that different, really?

(I just noticed that it doesn't like spalling, either; while in this case that was indeed a typo, it's also a perfectly legitimate word, albeit not one commonly used in blog-post composition boxes.)

 

Ah, well: back out to the barn for a while, as long as it's neither too hot nor too stormy.  Been unpacking some tools that had been mothballed for a couple-dozen years, and trying to remember how they go together.

New Progressive Racism neatly illustrated

Short, and to-the-point, video here (via, among other sources today).

Just goes to show: this new "anti-racism" is just about as anti-racist as "Anti"Fa is anti-fascist.  If it looks like a Fascist, walks like a Fascist, and quacks like a Fascist, well, I have to suspect that the "anti-" prefix is spurious.  Likewise with those who look, walk, and quack like racists.

Sunday-morning rural sounds

I was out in the yard this morning, before it got totally blazing hot (but after the early-morning HVAC-repair session).

Sounds like multiple neighbors have backyard shooting ranges, and they're using them.  Preparing to go all Rooftop Korean should the need arise, I suppose.

Some areas are just not very riot-friendly.  Urban revolutionaries looking to take their big-city cosplay war to the countryside may learn this the hard way.

C FAN. C FAN HERM. HERM, FAN, HERM!

So I think I mentioned that replacing the start capacitor in the heat pump outside unit hadn't gotten the fan to start on its own, and that shortly thereafter it had gotten to the point that even with a push start it wouldn't run?

Anyway.  The replacement for the other capacitor came in yesterday, so this morning before the heat got too bad I was out there in the sweltering humidity installing it.  And, hey!  That solved the problem!

I took the extra few minutes to safe everything one extra time and put the old start cap back in, to see if it actually still worked (it does) and because the replacement, while having the same electrical specs, is physically smaller and I figure a larger cap might hold up better in use.

The replacement dual capacitor has three terminals: C, FAN, and HERM.

The red wires go to the C terminal, because obviously.

The black wire with white tracer goes to the FAN terminal, because there's only one of it.

The brown wires go to the HERM terminal, because Bel Thorne has, if I am not mistaken, brown hair.

We now have working A/C at both ends of the house!  And not a moment too soon; the outside temperature was passing 80°F when I buttoned up the unit, with nigh-80% humidity.  Gah!

I did incur one electrical-safety-related injury, though; as I was struggling with closing the cover of the disconnect right at the end of the process, I received a wicked pinch upon the right forefinger.  Ow.

Oh, and my multimeter shows nothing whatsoever across any pair of terminals of the old cap, so, yeah:  This capacitor is definitely deceased.

New fashion edict: shirttails out!

Since It Has Been Decreed that all shall go about their business masked (thereby confounding Big Brother's shiny new facial-recognition systems), let's throw in one extra fashion statement to sow confusion.

Henceforth, shirts should be worn untucked and hanging outside the belt.

A lot of people who carry pistols casually concealed in belt holsters wear their shirts this way, as it's an easy way to obscure what's on one's belt.

So, if everyone dressed like that... neither Big Brother nor the everyday mugger would have that cue as to who is, and who isn't, armed*.

Also, if you can get away with it, leave your cellphone at home.  Or keep it turned off and perhaps in a Faraday cage while out and about, unless you really need to be reachable every minute.  No need to feed Big Google.

* Clarification:  This doesn't apply to people who go around with swords on their belts.  Not unless they wear very long shirts.

Gonna need a bigger can of Weldwood

Not necessarily for the project at hand, but soon enough.

I hauled the intended top for the first custom workbench over from the barn: a 36x56" slab of 3/4" plywood, one side sort of goodish.  It's... a little big, really, for what I have in mind.  Maybe I should save it for one of the other benches?  Hm.  I don't want to carve up one of the full sheets of plywood for this, but don't I have some quarter-sheets of something or other, left over from packing the cargo pods?

Why, yes.  Yes I do.  I have, in fact, a few quarter-sheets of 3/8" OSB, and several quarter-sheets of one-side-shiny 1/8" MDF.  What if I laminate OSB between two sheets of MDF, shiny side out?  Might be a plan.

Doesn't hurt that, as I pull pieces of 2x4 off a crate, I find myself staring at just the right combination to support a 24x48" bench top, no cutting required.

Well, laminating a top onto that slab of OSB used up about half the readily-findable supply of Weldwood.  Like maybe more'n half.  I guess the bottom doesn't really need MDF laminated onto it; I can take some other measures to keep it from peeling and chipping, like maybe a coat of urethane varnish.  (I figure the top gets a coat of boat-deck paint.  I don't want an exposed OSB surface; not only is it prone to various sorts of damage, but it's ugly even by my low standards.)

Ah, well.  Bigger can of Weldwood is on order.  Lunch time now; then I'll pull the moving boxes off my new bench top and see how the laminating went.  The big workbench (for the electronics lab) is supposed to have a nice surface; I may end up buying a sheet of countertop laminate for that one, assuming I can find some that isn't too heavily patterned.

Update:  In among cooling/hydration sessions, I got the frame together.  Seems decently sturdy and stable; it may need neither bracing nor leg levelers (whereof I bought a supply for this sort of thing). Still need to apply some sort of protective coating to the bottom and edges of the top, attach the top, and paint the upper surface, then dig out the long-mothballed tools that are meant to be bolted to this bench.

And my high-school shop teachers all despaired of me ever being able to make anything.  Well, (a) I wasn't particularly motivated, and (b) they didn't let me play with power tools.

Evolving weather forecast

Was: thunderstorms.  Now: 90s, sunny, thunderstorms three days out.  They're always three days out.

Having to water the victory garden with a hose, being as how the promised thunderstorms haven't been materializing, or maybe the lightning gets real close but only a few drops of rain arrive.  (Storms over the mountains have been tending to dissipate a little south of here.)

The upside: the lawn, going unwatered, isn't growing very fast.  Which is a good thing, since I don't really want to spend a few hours outdoors in the heat.

Right now, with 73°F and 94% humidity out there, I'm trying to cool the garage down in anticipation of doing a bit of woodworking later; I'll be needing various custom workbenches, and it's time to build the first of them.

Update:  While I can keep the garage temperature down to something vaguely reasonable (it's fairly well insulated), humidity is another problem.  Bringing in 73°F morning air is all well and good, but it's coming in with 94% humidity.  Putting a portable A/C unit in the garage is not practical at this point, but I've ordered a dehumidifier; that should help.  Meanwhile, a sweatband should reduce the drippage.

The Internet is b0rked

Let's see, now...

The past week and more, the comics section at Seattle Π has been out of order; I follow my bookmark for Bizarro, and get a page with no content but a selector that lets me choose any of their comics, but only the first (9 Chickweed Lane) actually displays.  Oh, look: if I go to their main page and follow the "Comics" link, it seems there's a new page... but they left the old one there-but-broken, instead of redirecting or putting up a "moved" page.  Great.  Also, the formatting of the new page is dreadful.

A supplier that's been around since forever - I seem to recall encountering them three decades back, in the paper-catalog days, though I don't recall doing business with them - seemed to have things of current interest on their web site a few days ago.  When I took another look, their site was inaccessible; traceroute got partway there, then got a bunch of "no response".  Oh, look: the site I'd been looking at, apparently, has a domain name based on the full company name, registered a few years ago; a new search this morning turns up a domain name with a shortened version of the company name, that apparently was registered several years earlier, and that one is working.  But they don't have what I was looking for, besides which the search also turned up some really bad reviews involving long delivery times and sucky customer service.  Since my usual supplier has been performing well (despite a recent abject apology for not meeting their own standards), maybe I should stick with Old Familiar.

And!  DuckDuckGo is not working this morning; all searches fail uninformatively.  Maybe Google broke something upstream?  Never depend on Google.

The pursuit of clicks

Is documented in this here fine rant about SEO.

Kinda explains why all the "news" you see is formulaic clickbait, no?  I mean, even without the profound ignorance and ingrained biases of the News Establishment.

And, with the recent iterations of PigeonRank (using genetically-engineered pigeons with extra-short attention spans), eternal verities get buried behind trashy novelty: try looking for serious information that was published long ago and hasn't changed, and it'll be hidden behind many pages of results for unserious, but recent, chatter containing somewhat-similar keywords.

Addendum:  Know who's really good at SEO?  Those companies that sell public records.  Try to find the information that used to be in the White Pages, and what you get is nothing but companies that scrape the White Pages and various other sources and offer to sell you, for some absurd amount, the person's phone number and address, along with (possibly wildly inaccurate) former addresses, aliases, criminal record, relatives, and so on.

Little blatant, innit?

Comes the tale of a black cop in Portland, who's been on protest/riot duty.

Of note:

“A lot of times, someone of color—Black, Hispanic, Asian—will come up to the fence, and want to talk directly to me: ‘What do you think about George Floyd? What do you think about what happened with the police?’ [Then] Someone white comes up and ‘Eff the police, don’t talk to him!”

Yeah, gotta have those white overseers to keep the colored folks on the plantation.  They talk to outsiders, they might get ideas above their station and get all uppity.  Maybe even get the idea they're real people and don't need white saviors to decide where their interests lie.

But Progressivism has always been racist, hasn't it?  A century ago, it was firmly linked to the eugenicist movement, looking to keep the inferior races from breeding — for some interesting values of "inferior" and "race."

The New Progressive Apartheid has been in the works for decades now; in retrospect, the groundwork was being laid even as Progressives were loudly denouncing the Old Apartheid in South Africa.  It's just been accelerating lately, what with segregated housing, the concept of "cultural appropriation," and new (and ever-changing) rules that make any interaction between whites and non-whites a minefield for anyone who fears denunciation — which is to say, pretty much anyone with a job.

Remember the hoary slogan, "The people united will never be defeated"?  Look who's sowing division.  They're the ones trying to defeat us.

Update:  See also Why is Wokeness so white supremacist?