Silicon Valley Redneck

I seem to have misplaced my checklist.

That board I sent out to fab?

I included the Arduino-style programming header... but omitted the AVR programming header for installing the bootloader.  That used to be on my MCU-based-board checklist!  I must be getting rusty, and also the checklist is around-here-somewhere instead of in front of me.

Oh, well... only half a dozen of this iteration; I can use one of the existing headers plus a tacked-on pin on the RESET- line, and a kludge cable.  Assuming the system works as intended, I'll be making another run of the boards, with refinements.

Or, I could see about procuring a half-dozen chips with the bootloader pre-programmed.  Might be easier.  (Hm.  Adafruit has them, but only in DIP format.  Here's somebody with the TQFP; maybe... oh, ships from Turkey.  Probably takes quite a while to get here.  Kludge-O-Matic, here I come!)

Ignorance and hate just go together, don't they?

Some commenter on the Internet made a remark about how we oughtta cut off the Trumpists' food supply and just starve 'em into submission.

Yeah... where's he think the food comes from?

Food supply is a little detail Wells missed in "The Land Ironclads".

Afterthought:  Yeah, Stalin managed to starve millions of farmers to death.  Do you want Stalin?

First new board design in a while

Got the sensor-birdhouse controller board all designed and out to fab.  Ought to have been a 2-hour project, but with distractions and tinkering, it ended up taking all day.

Ordered a half-dozen copies from OSH Park.  Now I need to order parts.  And more copies of the things that connect to it.  And I need to 3D print a few more birdhouses, and write the firmware (mainly based on existing libraries, I think).  Some testing can happen while boards are being fabbed; after all, I have a couple of cobbled-together units sitting on the bench.

I need to take a closer look at the radio protocol and the available libraries and figure out what, if anything, I can practically do with the back channel.  The design includes some outputs, just in case there turns out to be a use for them.

Mundane things can still be important

Back to dealing with things somewhat under my control....

I think the dealership-installed replacement 12V battery in the Venerable Prius may have been new-old-stock or otherwise stale; it doesn't really hold a charge for a whole week.  (Mind you, until this year the car didn't generally sit anywhere near a week un-driven; 'twas my daily driver, meaning really almost daily.)

So, I've ordered another one from an on-line source.  Not all that much money, even with shipping.  Were we going into stores, I'd look in person and check the date codes, assuming I could actually find such a specialty battery in a store, which seems a bit questionable.

And, we'll be trying to line up contractors for spring/summer work: driveway repair and extension, exterior work on house and barn, transforming the seasonal swamp into a year-round pond for aquaculture, and so on.

In the slightly less mundane category, I need to design a custom Aard-Wino type of board: usual ATmega328, plus management for a solar-charged LiFePO4 cell, a header for a COTS nRF24L01+ module, and a few other features.  Might actually get that done today, and sent out to fab.  It's for a sensor birdhouse, and, since I figure on building several of them, I'd just as soon avoid a bunch of tiresome and error-prone hand-wiring.

Incitement, much?

Headline from Pravda-by-the-Potomac, the Washington Post (motto: "Democracy Dies at Midnight!"):

Rallies ahead of Capitol riot were planned by established Washington insiders

Story commences:

The fiery rallies that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were organized and promoted by an array of established conservative insiders and activists, documents and videos show.

The Republican Attorneys General Association was involved, as were the activist groups Turning Point Action and Tea Party Patriots. At least six current or former members of the Council for National Policy (CNP), an influential group that for decades has served as a hub for conservative and Christian activists, also played roles in promoting the rallies.

The two days of rallies were staged not by white nationalists and other extremists, but by well-funded nonprofit groups and individuals that figure prominently in the machinery of conservative activism in Washington.

"Fiery"?  Like... those "mostly peaceful protests" during the summer?  Oh, wait.  Completely unlike events involving actual fires, weren't they?

This ain't news coverage.  This is propaganda.  Specifically, it's propaganda aimed at stirring up hate and fear, to motivate action against mainstream conservative and Republican organizations.

And I saw another headline recently, along the lines of "GOP Increasingly Talking of Civil War!"  Which... yeah, like warning against it?  Like saying that the Progressives / Democrats are frickin' starting one?  As with the Scary Boogaloo Bois, those who warn that a war is in the works are tarred as the instigators, while those who are actively attempting to start the war get a free pass.

And this headline is very much war-starting propaganda.

Clarification:  It seems there are (at least) two sets of Boogaloo Bois.  The ones with which I'm slightly familiar, from some years back, lean Conservative / Libertarian and have been warning of the Boog as a thing to be avoided, pointing out that Progressives seem to be trying to start it.  Apparently there's another set that's Anarchist (and not particularly aligned with Progressives and their allies), and that bunch is busily stirring up trouble, not trying to prevent it.

Ah, another change of materials

So, for reasons not yet public, I'm thinking we need another 400 feet of heavy-duty, large-bore garden hose.  Maybe four hoses of 100 feet each.

Home Despot has such things.  But... seems they all (at least the ones with decent reviews) have aluminum fittings, instead of brass.  Great.  All the faucets are of the brass persuasion (is that supposed to be changing?), so galvanic corrosion is a concern.

Maybe I need to add galvanic isolation doohickies on the faucets where I expect to leave hoses connected?

Snow, again

There were a few flakes drifting down around 0600 when I went to fetch the morning paper.

Now (0815-ish) there's a fair bit more falling, and even a little accumulation on lawns and rooves*.  Weather map shows patchy snow over a large area.  I don't think we'll be driving anywhere today.

* Newspeak Dictionary does not like archaic forms.

Ah, what a way to start a Saturday

Stumble out to the kitchen to commence the daily routine: dump and rinse the dishpan, then dispense caffeiniferous beverage to consume while checking the morning Internets.

Note that the recessed light over the sink is off, and flipping the switch doesn't make it light up.

Grab the stepstool, remove the bulb, note that it's one of the LED ones.  Been there since May of 2018, I guess?  Aren't they supposed to last longer than that?  Anyway, fetch and install a replacement.  Still no light.

Check the breaker.  Doesn't seem to be tripped, and flipping it off and back on makes no difference.

Uh-oh.  The counter outlets are on the same circuit as the overhead light, meaning... yeah... the refrigerator is also off.  Well, the ice hasn't gotten melty, so it's probably OK.  Joy says she'd noticed about an hour earlier that the coffee maker wasn't powered.

Poke at the breaker panel some more.

Wait... the GFCI for that circuit isn't in the panel.  It's in one of the counter outlets.  Actually, two of the counter outlets have GFCIs, for inadequately explained reasons.  Check the one that's most accessible.  Nothing.  Find the other.  Give the reset button a good poke.  The light comes on, and the refrigerator runs!  Huzzah!

And that, wrapped up by 0403, was the second minor fiasco of the morning.  Of the first, don't ask.

A meal even untidier to cook than it was to eat

Well, mostly the main course was untidy.  Ribs.

I thawed out a couple of slabs of beef back ribs, then, considering the afternoon's schedule and logistics, decided to follow the directions on the package for a change.  Put 'em in a pan, cover with aluminum foil, and pop in the oven at 350°F for a couple of hours or so, then finish on the grill if you're so inclined.

Only, figuring to give them an hour or so in the smoker, I gave then a couple of hours in the oven at a mere 325°F whilst I continued with the brush-clearing operations out in the back yard.

The smoker having been lit, I extracted the pan from the oven and found the meaty bits much reduced in dimension, most of the fat evidently having cooked out.  Well, fine.  Out to the smoker with them.

Later, 'twas time to cook some sweet potato fries.  Heat the oven up to 425°F.  Notice, during pre-heating check, that the oven floor is awfully greasy.  The hot oven produces copious quantities of smoke, or grease fumes, or some such.  And grease has even escaped from the oven.

Apparently the aluminum foil over the pan failed to contain the grease.

The ribs came out tasty, though.  I guess next time I'll use the really deep roasting pan, and be extra careful about covering it.

Update:  I cleaned up the grease that had escaped from the oven, but... after having spent a bunch of time this afternoon squatting to wield a saw at ground level, I think (creak, groan) that I won't be attempting to clean the oven itself this evening.

Division

A photo of a mall ninja / LARPer with a bundle of zip ties gives a glimpse of a "two types of people" division.

Some look at zip ties (or some other mundane object) and ask, "How is it that anyone can have a use for these?"

Others hear that question and ask, "How is it that anyone can not routinely use these?"

It seems that the Cloud Minders are proud to be absolutely ignorant of how the Troglytes perform their tasks that keep the machinery of Civilization running.  Mustn't sully their advanced minds with mundane knowledge of the world, when their role lies with contemplation of the Divine.

This maybe explains why so many edicts from On High are unsullied by any connection to practical realities.

A note to phonebots

Of all the possible answers to the question, "Who are you calling for?", responding, "No, I'm a disability adviser..." is one of the least convincing.

Especially when the intro message says you're a human-type person returning my call, and asking whether I can hear you OK.  Double-especially when you give the bogus answer in a different voice than you were using before I spoke.

(I'm not in the habit of answering "Can you hear me OK?" with a "yes", given that "yes" is basically something one should never say to a strange caller.)

The Deep Ones are on the beach.

Cthulhu has long tentacles.  I repeat, Cthulhu has long tentacles.

The question is... just how long are Cthulhu's tentacles?

We know Cthulhu has near-monopoly power in the on-line looky-findy area... and has considerable power to adjust what известия the public sees.  Then there are the political fundraising operations, etc.

What about monopsony powers?  (Aha!  The Newspeak dictionary doesn't think "monopsony" is a word.  It bloody well is.)  Aside from such Internet infrastructure as Cthulhu (Great Old Ones Meta-Corp, whatever) controls directly, it's certainly a dominant customer for connectivity and bandwidth.  Maybe enough to tell a major bandwidth provider that if the provider doesn't drop some relatively smaller customer, Cthulhu will drop the provider?

How much of the "we're dropping ____.com as a customer, effective yesterday, and they're free to seek Internet services elsewhere" is the result of corporate blackmail by Cthulhu et al?

I'd actually signed up for MeWe quite some time ago...

Hadn't paid much attention to it.  I'd posted exactly as much to MeWe as to Facebook, i.e., nothing.

Taking a closer look now.  The user interface is, somehow, even worse than Farcebook.  Not as much of a mess, true, but missing some really basic stuff.  I see no way to get from the main page to a list of one's current contacts, which would be really useful for finding, e.g., a contact's profile.  Apparently if I want to see someone's profile I'm supposed to wait for a post of his to turn up in my feed, and then click through to his profile.  Real helpful, guys.

Parler, I thought, showed some promise... but now it's gotten the Gab treatment.  It's long past time to go full Sherman on Big Corporate Internet... and whether that means Antitrust Act or March to the Sea is a tossup.

Addendum:  Something MeWe has in common with the before-time on Farcebook is the Extremely Bogus Friend Request: characteristically from an account with a profile pic of a scantily-clad young woman striking a pose and a wildly random name that almost certainly doesn't belong to that young woman, nor indeed to any woman.

Admiral Ackbar was unavailable for comment

Seems somebody has started circulating an image of a Commie-style poster calling for an armed march on Capitol Hill on January 17^th of this year.

Yeah.

Doesn't say which political faction it's meant to invite.  Seems like it's meant to be addressed to Trumpists, but the presentation is almost perfectly wrong.

I'm not sure what the actual source for this is, but just having the suggestion floating around will surely get a few crazies to show up.  And even if only two crazies show up, it's a dangerous criminal conspiracy and all political dissidents will be subject to collective punishment.  (If only one crazy shows up, I think they get him under intent to conspire or something.)

Folks?  On the 17^th, don't go anywhere near Capitol Hill, your State Capitol, your County offices, City Hall, nor anywhere else remotely governmental.  Not if you can possibly avoid it.  And, on a Sunday, I think you can avoid it, no?

(Would the people you aim to impress/intimidate even be there on a Sunday?)

Another of life's little mysteries

How is it that snowy weather on the other side of a double-pane window causes a plate of reheated pasta to cool off so quickly, when the indoor air temperature at my desk is the same as always?

(Proposed mechanism:  Cold outdoor conditions lead to the heated indoor air being very dry - currently 25% relative humidity at my desk - so water at the surface of hot food evaporates faster than normal, causing unexpectedly rapid cooling.)

Meanwhile on ISN

The talking heads are assuring me that the situation in the Mars colony is perfectly peaceful, that only a few malcontents would have us believe otherwise, and that EarthGov is totally not bombing civilian targets.

Правда!

I awakened from my morning nap...

Southmoon:  "Ohboyohboyohboy!"  (When she's not being a fun-size mountain lion, she sometimes acts like a Labrador retriever.)

My father:  "Huckleberry's hiding in my bedroom."

Southmoon:  "Yeah!  That's what I was trying to tell you!  Grandpa's bedroom!  Huckleberry!"

Me:  "C'mon, Huckleberry.  Time to come out of there."

Top Hat:  "When you bring Huckleberry out of there, do we all get treats?"

Me:  "Oh, all right."  (Heads for pantry.)

Sumatra:  "Are you going to fetch the treat jar?"

Duchess:  (Ignores the proceedings; she doesn't like those nasty dry crunchy treats anyway.)

Curious economics

So, that big exodus from California?

I just called my friend and occasional colleague, Boris, back in Silicon Valley... but it turns out he's actually in Idaho, and working remotely nowadays.  Seems in Idaho his grandson can have a decent kid's life and get an education.  And, he just bought his first-ever set of snow tires (those not having been a thing in Russia back in the day).

Anyway.  Boris says that (as one might expect) the real-estate situation in places like San Francisco is dire.  And, the rental market is way down.

But...

In the suburbs, it seems that the high-paid megacorp employees are trading in their condos for houses.  So the condo market is in the dumps, but suburban house prices are actually up.

I check Zillow.  Sure enough: both the Sunnyvale house and the Palo Alto house show guesstimated values significantly higher than what we got for them a year or two back.

Still, I'm glad we sold them when we did, if not a few months earlier each (peak prices, up to that point, in the respective neighborhoods having been attained somewhat before we managed to get them on the market).  Holding onto them would have been a considerable gamble, even not considering the risks of renting them out while living far away.

A fashion question

Why aren't ¾-sleeve lumberjack shirts a thing?

It's long-sleeve weather around here, but I really don't like having my cuffs get in water, mud, grease, rotating machinery, and whatnot.

I can roll the sleeves up a bit, but rolled-up sleeves are inconveniently bulky.  Big black rubber mad-scientist gloves protect the cuffs, but destroy dexterity and are unsuitable for use around machinery.

No, I do not mean a T-shirt.  I want something made of a moderately heavy fabric, with buttons down the front and, doggone it, pockets.

Well, I did accomplish something today

Got a cheap little rollaway toolchest unboxed and assembled, and a bunch of Sherline-related stuff moved into it from the shelves, with some semblance of organization.

There's a bunch of other stuff I need to shuffle around and organize, and at some point I'll bring the Taig lathe over from the barn.  (The Taig doesn't get bolted to the bench; I just need to have a big enough space available to set it, on its own base, down.)

And, I should really move most of the flammables over to the barn, in with the gasoline and diesel and no ignition sources.  (Eventually, those things will go in the yet-to-be-constructed machine shed.)  Various not-too-heavy, seldom-used things really belong in the barn loft.  Much that's in the barn belongs on shelves (not yet acquired) in the basement.

(Huh.  Taig is still around?  I hadn't heard of them in a great long time.)