Silicon Valley Redneck

How the cats observe the day

Huckleberry has been acting like a little boy in a gorilla suit, doing naughty things that a gorilla can get away with.  In particular, he's been trying to play with the laser printer, apparently confusing it with a laser pointer (which is a legitimate cat toy).

Around mid-morning, Southmoon apparently caught sight of someone in a gorilla suit.  Or something.  She's not explaining what happened, exactly, but she was in either the dining room or the basement and got frightened - so a frantic dash through the living room, scattering newspapers and wastebasket contents hither and yon, into my office, and behind my desk, subsequently scampering into the security of the craft-room closet.  She's out now, and lying on my desk, but very twitchy.

Maybe we need a gorilla alarm in the basement?

Ook!

Happy National Gorilla Suit Day!

This holiday brought to you by the Acme Gorilla-Suit Company and its arch-competitor, the Ajax Gorilla-Suit Company.

And remember: pink gorillas are gorillas too!

Ever notice how, the more times you type "Gorilla", the wronger it looks?

Boots Theory again: wait a minute!

So, suddenly the Boots Theory of Poverty is a subject for study and for public attention?

Uh-oh.

See, the thing here is... the applicable economic phenomenon is kinda fundamental.  In verse form, it would fit right in with The Gods of the Copybook Headings.  There's nothing to study, and no point to raising public awareness.

Yes, people at large should be aware of it, as an aspect of how the world works.  Thinking in those terms might lead some to scrimp on unnecessary expenditures so as to save up money for buying longer-lasting durable goods.  Promoting long-term thinking by the poor is good; it might help some of them escape poverty.  But that's not how the Establishment works.

If the Establishment is deciding we need to hear about this now, then either it's yet another distraction or the Establishment has decided that Something Must Be Done - perhaps that the cheap-crap tier of goods must be eliminated entirely (which, given that most of our manufacturing has long since been outsourced, would be a consequence of any major East Asian conflict).

Eliminating inexpensive, poorly-made boots would eliminate the exploitation of the poor by evil profiteers selling inferior-quality footwear - and leave the poor barefoot.  Or maybe the poor will be issued government boots, whether they fit or not.  Um.  Government-issue boots.  Did I just hear something about setting up local draft boards...?

A song for the Canadian truckers

Everyone else is posting that "Convoy" song from the 1970s... which, yes, does come to mind, but it doesn't fit in detail.

That song is about outlaw truckers defying speed limits, tolls, and the like.

The Canadians are rebelling against an outlaw government.  Not really the same thing.

Here's my suggestion:

We are the Little Folk—we!
    Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you’ll see
    How we can drag down the State!
We are the worm in the wood!
    We are the rot at the root!
We are the taint in the blood!
    We are the thorn in the foot!

Cloud Minders, beware!  You overlook the Little Folk at your peril.  Especially when you depend on their labor!  They need not even mount a protest; all they need do is stay home for a few days, and your glorious empire will fall to pieces.

Bonus warning to the overclass:

Foreign overlords - for so today's rulers are, regardless of where they may have been born - would do well to heed the culture and sensibilities of their subjects.

Say 'we,' 'us' and 'ours' when you're talking, instead of 'you fellows' and 'I.'
Don't ride over seeds; keep your temper; and never you tell 'em a lie!"

The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

In breaking news, Russian troops are now advancing on...

... checks notes...

... Ottawa.

Because Canadian truckers would never get upset enough with government policies to organize a protest, so clearly the whole convoy thing is a Russian front, and all those trucks are full of Greek Russian troops.  And it makes perfect sense for Prime Minister Pierre Bieber to be spirited off to a Secure Undisclosed Location™, lest he be abducted by the Russians and held for a Prime Minister's ransom*.

Also, opposition to authority is now officially Fascism, because, as we all know, Fascism is all about opposition to authority, and freedom of speech, and people doing their own things.  "An it harm none, do what ye will" - Mussolini, or somebody, amirite?

(The fasces, a bunch of random sticks arranging themselves higgledy-piggledy with total disregard to an axe, symbolizes this perfectly.)

 

* At current rates, roughly 1468 Rubles** worth of junk jewelry.

** 24 loonies.

More on the Boots Theory and Gresham's Law

Just watched this vid:

Luxurious, if not necessarily high-quality, trappings and the cheapest possible structure... does that sound familiar?

Oh, yes indeed.  The big new houses being built in Palo Alto a few years ago, replacing old run-down Eichlers?  All the modern amenities, much expensive shininess, but the actual structure is the very cheapest that will pass inspection.

The motivation is a bit different, though.  The owner of the theater wanted it to last, but didn't budget for durability.  The buyers of new rich-people houses in Silicon Valley, well... seem to me that, unlike the culturally rich (who pay for quality and durability, with the intention of spending once and keeping things in the family forever), the nouveau riche (including, it seems, second-generation nouveau riche) plan on buying ever more ostentatious things on an ongoing basis and just throwing the old stuff away.  Ergo, disposable luxury homes.  (There may also be a substantial DGAF factor involved, given the apparent personality type of today's tycoons greater and lesser.)

It's the overpriced, highly-polished, cheap-crap tier.  Just like those overpriced boots that are very comfortable until the first time you take them out in the rain, and that wear out after a few dozen miles.

... Oog.  This applies to public buildings, too.  An expensive new public library, for example, is unlikely to be designed and built for the ages; instead, chances are that the architecture will follow the fashion of the moment, and that the construction will be problematic, expensive to maintain, and doomed to need replacement in a few decades - when for the same money, it could have had a timeless appearance and a structure that would last for centuries.

James A. Moon, call your office.

Comes a tale from California of a man who may have committed suicide using a homemade guillotine.

... Yeah, song time.  But Michael Longcor's "Ballad of James A. Moon" doesn't seem to be on line, alas.

A simple color change on the map does it?

I think I just heard some White House dude say that national borders should be in violet.

I've never seen them so colored.  Is that all it would take?  Just reprint the maps with that little change?

Or do we need to paint actual violet stripes on the ground (and down the middle of rivers)?

... Oh.  Inviolate.  Maybe he said inviolate?  In which case, can he please have a word with the clowns making policy with regard to our southern border?  Is Cartagia Harris still in change of that?

Further thoughts on the Boots Theory of Poverty

One interesting result of post-WWII global commerce and industrialization is the emergence of cheap luxury goods.

While that may at first sound oxymoronic, it's an actual thing: relatively poor people can (or could, up until a couple of years ago) buy an astonishing array of affordably-priced shiny things that may or may not improve their lifestyles, but that are definitely nonessential.

This leads to much hand-wringing on the parts of the Goodthinkful Classes, and to calls for new sumptuary laws to keep poor people from wasting their money on cheap, unnecessary junk, as well as the outright elitism that decries the existence of poorly-made affordable goods: if people can't afford fine handcrafted toys* for their children, then by golly they should go without!

 

Then, too, there's the consumer-products version of Gresham's Law, and this one really applies to boots (as well as to many other things).  If you're shopping for a new pair of boots, you'll easily find cheap boots that might last a season of light use.  You'll also find cheaply-made boots, that might last a season, upbranded and sold at crazy high prices.  What you won't find, at least not easily, is something like the lightweight, mixed-material boots I had back in the mid-1980s, that lasted for several years of serious hiking - and by the time they wore out, the entire category had disappeared.  If you want boots that will last, you pretty much have to go industrial, and have big, stiff, heavy, clunky boots (guaranteed to keep your tootsies safe), or search for where the rich people buy their boots (pretty much guaranteed to bust a middle-class budget, never mind working-class)**.

The same goes for many sorts of equipment: there's the cheap-crap tier, possibly with some subtiers featuring varying degrees of chrome and overpricing, and there's the capital-equipment tier, which may be built to last but it's not the sort of thing you buy with your own money (and it may not be appropriate***, or even legal****, for home use).  The solid, good-quality, mid-priced items have largely disappeared, or at least require a lot of searching.

A note put in line here, because my asterisk bin is empty: "contractor grade" tools are a special subtier of the cheap-crap tier; they're good enough to do useful work for a useful amount of time, but cheap enough that if they get broken, run over, or just misplaced at a job site, it's no big deal.  The contractor expects to replace them periodically, and budgets accordingly.  Don't buy a contractor-grade chainsaw expecting it to last a lifetime because you'll only run it once in a couple of years; it's made to be run hard and thrown away, and likely won't take kindly to sitting on the shelf.

 

I'm not sure where (if anywhere) I'm going with this... but it ties in with my observation from several years ago that the newly successful - mainly the tech poltroons tycoons poltroons - seem determined to pull the ladder of success up behind themselves.  We got ours; all you poors have to stay poor, because success destroys the planet!

 

* Some years back, a new CPSC safety regulation effectively made it flat-out illegal to sell one-off children's products in the U.S.; I'm not sure what the status of that is now, but you know it's not enforced against bespoke toymakers to the ruling class.

** The sad story of the planet Brontitall, and of the Shoe Event Horizon, comes to mind.

*** Some of the gear used by lawn-mowing services is not only priced way out of my range, but appears unreasonably dangerous for the home-gamer.

**** I'm having some vague recollection of an issue with professional-grade gas ranges and residential fire codes.

Back to looking at a bigger 3D printer

In among all the other stuff I'm juggling.

The CR-10 v3 is still looking eminently plausible, though I'm still a bit unclear on the extruder temperature range and the availability of a tent that'll fit the v3.

In another tab... I was also looking at the Ender-6 (only 250x250x400mm, but super-zippy fast and comes with its own enclosure), and then there's the CR-6 Max (400mm cube!) - but, as always, full specs are not out there in the open.

Ah, well.  Probably make a decision in the next week or thereabouts, depending what other chaos comes my way.

And it seems that slicer software has been rapidly improving of late, with features for breaking up large parts, support for structural fill, and so on.

Come to think of it - on the materials front, I was looking at overhauling the old FlashForge to support high temperatures on one side.  Now if only I could upgrade the other extruder to handle squishy materials, I'd be all set for making small parts in fancy materials, and there wouldn't be much need for a high-temp hotend on the new machine.  (Once upon a time, someone published STL files for the parts to upgrade the extruder, then he took the product commercial and pulled the files, and nobody seems to be selling the parts anymore.  Oh, wait: looks like I have the February 2014 edition of the files, which didn't print satisfactorily on the FlashForge, but I guess I can try printing them on the photoresin printer and see if I get usable parts, and if that makes the extruder play nice with NinjaFlex.)

Update grocery list...

Gotta stock up on Sugar Frosted Flakes, Extract of Malt, and Tuna Sandwiches.

'Cause we're coming up on the Year of the Tiger, and it does not do to leave a hungry tiger out of your calculations.

Snowy and blowy out there.

Not all that much snow, and it's not expected to last long, but it's nigh-horizontal.

Forecast for tomorrow: cold.  The FedEx guy said the last forecast he heard involved single-digit temperatures, but the lows I'm seeing are more twentyish, unless he meant single-digit negative centipedes or something.  (It'll almost certainly be in triple digits... Kelvin or Rankine, take your choice.)

I think I'll wait for a break in the weather before fetching the mail.

Regarding the Boots Theory of Poverty

Yeah, Sir Pterry (by way of Sam Vimes) did pretty much nail it, and the point that poor people can (as a rule) only afford crappy products that'll have to be bought again frequently, while the rich can afford goods that will last for generations, is worthy of consideration.

Though... sometimes poor people can get rich people's castoffs, cheap or even free.  In prosperous times, a cruise through rich-people neighborhoods during remodeling season may turn up some quality furnishings, barely used.  Though... that's more the nouveau riche, buying a new round of flashy luxury goods of dubious durability every year or three and throwing out the old stuff; it's not like the culturally-rich, who know the value of a dollar and spend carefully on durable goods.

Thing is, it's not an original observation.  I recall seeing the same principle elaborated on in an unrelated novel (by P. D. James?) some years before Vimes first appeared on the printed page.  I think anyone who's been both poor and somewhat prosperous has noted the same thing.  Or anyone who's run a small business using his own money and had to make decisions on furniture, capital equipment, and the like: do I get something cheap that barely meets the immediate need, or bust the budget getting something that'll meet projected needs for the next decade or so?

Some things just can't be corrected.

I mentioned that not-quite-placed Digi-Key order?

This morning, I noted that the "Pending change" note for my shipping address had disappeared, so I went ahead and placed the order (plus some RF stuff from the rack by the checkout line).

Aaaaand... the trailing digits of the ZIP+4 for my shipping address are still/again wrong, and don't match the (correct) ZIP+4 of my billing address.

Because, as we see time and again, Computers Don't Argue™.  The Algorithm says I must wear these Plus Fours, whether they fit or not.  I guess FedEx can deliver the package anyway.

Amazon has quite a variety of products that turn up on a search for Plus Fours, and nothing on the first page comes close to the customary meaning, though a very few could be said to be in the same ZIP code, and some of those have zippers.

Unpacking the reserve mouse

Well, after several years of use, the mouse on my desk was getting to the point where a major overhaul was called for.  Either that, or replacement.

Let's see... one of the slidey feet had come unstuck long ago; the remaining ones had become seriously furry.  The innards keep getting filled with cat hair, which of course will also happen to a new one unless it has a window on the bottom to protect it.  And, in a new development, the scroll wheel has gotten erratic (which could be due to cat hair).

Old mouse is a Logitech B100.  Oh, look!  There's a brand new B100 in the mouse closet!  (For the uninitiated, that's the office-supply closet, and the name has nothing to do with computer peripherals.  I have to leave the door open, because if it's closed Southmoon will insist on having it opened for her so she can check for mice of the furry variety.)  So, unpack that and hook it up.

Time to get a couple more.  Check Amazon.  The B100 isn't quite the highest-rated wired USB mouse there, but it's darn near the top, and at $7 for a mouse that'll hold up for a few years on my desk?  Yeah, I'll stick with that model.  No need to look for a $700 stainless-steel IndestructiMouse with a Gorilla Glass bottom window and fully-gusseted buttons to exclude dust.

Trying to do little projects...

... in little bits of time, doesn't always turn out well.

I set out to fasten together three parts: call them A, B, and C.  I settled on using epoxy.

The epoxy in the garage mini-fridge turned out to be considerably past its best-by date, but was still usable, I guess.  Use a dab of this now, and get a fresh supply on order.

With reference to Part A: there are four possible orientations of Part B, only one of them correct.  I got that right, at least.  But there's slop in the Y-axis, and I glued it at the wrong end of that slop.  Not a huge deal, but it doesn't look so good.

Then there's Part C.  Again, four possible orientations: one correct, one wrong-handed, and two completely wrong.  I avoided the wrong-handedness, but ended up with a right-handed, completely wrong configuration.  Which, in hindsight, might just be why I was having to apply an unexpected (but not unreasonable) amount of force during assembly (the parts were hand-fitted in an earlier session).

Oh, well... not having spotted the problems until after the epoxy had set up, I'm now left with the rather lengthy project of getting the parts separated again and cleaning them up for another try.  I think this must await acquisition of a propane torch - probably a next-week thing, as we now have several non-shippable items on the home-improvement-center shopping list.

Of headlines and real life

I keep seeing ever-more-alarming headlines warning of some new strain of the Pestilence.

The latest variant is super-duper-extra alarming!  Not only does it evade the Holy Vaccine, but it doesn't show up on any of the current tests, and it has no symptoms!  Oh, noes!  Anyone around you could be infected!  You could be infected, and you'd never know it!  PANIC!!!!!!

This is seriously getting into N-Ray territory, only with a claim that N-Rays are dangerous.

Meanwhile in the actual world, the Elder Strains are still around, still infectious, and sometimes causing the classic symptoms: I recently learned that a college classmate is in the hospital (in SoCal), slowly recovering from two weeks of Coofmonia.  Apparently he was vaxxed, and had been following the California rules, but he ended up in the hospital anyway.  At least he is recovering.

Also: regular old flu is still a thing, and can still be deadly.  Losing sight of that by focusing narrowly on one particular virus, however novel, is counterproductive.

The mainstream press has long been very bad indeed at presenting the public with the information needed for threat assessment, and the past couple of years have been really over-the-top bad in regard to information about threats, risk factors, mitigation measures, etc.

Got one phone call made...

The situation with the business credit card should be sorted out, though it took me a while to get through the automated system and reach a (helpful) human.

And another call-I-should-make has crept into the list, and for this one I'm not even sure I have the right number.

Meanwhile, I just got an e-mail reminding me that it's time to pay $288 for the annual domain listing renewal for jcmcontech.com, which is kinda odd, 'cause JCM has been out of business for nigh unto a decade now, I have no idea who might currently own the domain, and I was never listed as a contact in the first place.  Also, that's an awfully high price for a domain listing.  File as obvious spam.

Ah, well.  Time to attend to some other stuff, and make at least one more of the phone calls, this one once again in search of the missing (?) property tax bills.

A challenge

Spell "Sevierville" over the phone without singing.

Always fiddly complications

Started out the day with a to-do list and a sinus headache, which is never a good combination.

Somewhere along the morning, I decided I needed to order a few things from Digi-Key.  Pick the items, add them to the cart, proceed to checkout....

Hm.  The billing address on file for the credit card on file (my business credit card) is three years out of date: it's the Sunnyvale address.  Can't update the card data; have to delete the card and re-enter.  But... that card expires next month, so add instead another card, and I can put the business card back in when the new one arrives.  Meanwhile, set the physical card in the middle of my desk as a reminder that I need to check on its status, and also that I need to call the bank and ask why the billing address on that card, and not on any of my other accounts, is out of sync (if memory serves, the bank has the 2019 address, in Palo Alto).

Then I notice that the trailing digits of the ZIP+4 for my shipping address are wrong.  Go into the "edit address" form.  Fill in the correct digits.  There's a field for explaining why I'm changing my shipping address.  I fill that in, too, and hit SUBMIT.  My address gains a little green "Pending change" note, which persists into the evening.  Maybe it'll get processed tomorrow?  I don't really want to place the order until the address is corrected.  Meanwhile, I browse the rack by the checkout line, looking at RF modules.

Credit card.  Bank.  Oh, yes.  Check the bank's web site.  There are two addresses on file, one for my name with, and one without, the middle initial.  Both are the current actual address, and, between them, they're the address used for each of the various accounts with that bank, including the business credit card.  But, when I call up a PDF of the most recent statement, the mailing address is indeed the Palo Alto address from 2019 (also from way-back-when to 1988, but I wasn't dealing with that bank back then).  So... guess I do have to call the bank and ask what's up with the address, and also make sure that the new card, which should be coming soon, comes to the actual current address.  This has actually been on my to-do list since I bought the Sherline mill; I couldn't use that card, because Sherline does strict address checking and will only ship to the credit card's billing address.

Then a small piece of disassembled furniture arrived, and I assembled it (which involved straightening a flange that gotten slightly bent in shipping).

And the to-do list?  Got longer, not shorter.  Too many distractions and interruptions.  Including one of those annoying MediBot reminder calls that's sort of a hybrid: it's trying to leave important information on my voicemail, but it also wants me to push a button to confirm or cancel an appointment.  Said appointment was for my father, and it was for this week, but Joy had already rescheduled it, so she had to call the medical center again to ask why we'd gotten the reminder and to make sure the appointment really was rescheduled.