Blogiversary™
I started doing this 16 years ago after the American electorate committed an act of supreme self destruction and gave the Shrubbery a second 4 years to screw things up. It would appear that people are becoming aware that Republicans just can’t help themselves and attempt to destroy the nation every time they are given a chance to sit in the Oval Office.
Clinton left the Shrubbery with budget surpluses and the Shrubbery left Obama with the Global Financial Crisis. Obama left Trump with a growing economy and Trump leaves Biden with a crippled economy and over a quarter million dead Americans.
As long as I can I will respond to the important things: the World Cup, the Iditarod & Yukon Quest, Tour de France, and tropical storms.
Politics are the static in life’s radio, so you have to deal with them. You try to ignore them until you can no longer hear the music.
12 comments
And I have been annoying you almost as long! 😈 Lucky you. 🤭😏
Seriously my friend… I don’t know how you do it all. You have impressed me for well over a decade. if the rest of the USA had your core strengths, it wouldn’t be in the deep cesspit it’s in now.
And thanks. You’ve helped me more than you may know. And I suspect others here also and over the years. I am in your debt. 👍
Thank you, Kryten although you overstate the case. I believe in facts and fairness. I enjoy fantasy but not in governments or law enforcement. Primates are born with a sense of fairness as shown in studies with monkeys, so being unfair requires perverting your core knowledge.
You and I have dealt with real life and death issues, so these calls for violence from politicians strikes a sour chord. One of my neighbors is a rabid Trump supporter accused me of gloating because Biden won. I bought her a coloring book and colored pencils and she stopped talking about politics. I never discuss politics and never mentioned who I voted for, but I require masks around me and seat belts if I give people a ride so I’m assumed to be a Democrat. It doesn’t occur to them that I know that masks and seat belts save lives – it’s not a matter of belief; it’s a matter of knowledge.
Hopefully the next four years will be better than the last four. That’s not a lot to ask considering 2020. 😈
No, I didn’t overstate my case. I couldn’t count the thousands of people I’ve known, you are in a limited group. But I know better than to argue with you about that. You wouldn’t be you otherwise. 😼
We both know trying to convince delusional fools about reality is a complete waste of time and energy. Part of my particular training was based upon studies that proved that changing a major habit takes a minimum of 21 days for a skilled *educator* (and I do not mean torture, though it would seem so for the subject).🤔😐 That’s a bridge too far unfortunately. One of the supposed “strengths” of Homo Sapiens is a strong survival instinct. I think people that have that instinct, are in a definite minority! I contend that three of the strongest instincts are laziness, selfishness and willful ignorance. 😼🙄
If we didn’t have a strong understanding of, and *belief* in, reality and fact based evidence, and a good moral compass… Neither of us would have had the *job’s* we had! At least, back when we had them. I am not certain that is the case these days. 🤷♂️🙄
I envy the USA now. You have a future again. We know it will not be easy or quick. The morons across the spectrum will expect instant fixes of course.
We (Aussies), on the other hand, have no end in site. We have no real opposition to the LNP, only an LNP *light*. ALP may be slightly better, except that with the LNP we get exactly what we expect. Scams, con’s and bugger all of much else. 🤷♂️😣
OT: I am finally getting around to my long-awaited PC update! Though it would surprise many. I like to surprise people… One of the few pleasures I have left! 🤣😏 I’m just waiting for some parts to arrive. I’ll let you know about it if you like.
As an interviewer/interrogator we looked at 6 weeks to start getting the truth and torture was counter productive. If you torture someone they will tell you what they think you want to hear to stop the torture. All well and good for political purposes of false confessions, but worthless as an intelligence tool. Deprogramming is a different skill set and is worthwhile when dealing with cults and terrorists. You need to get through to them that they were living in a delusion, but in small steps without making it seem like an attack on their core beliefs.
Trump has just been breaking things on his way out the door. It took Obama 8 years to clean up after the Shrubbery (Geo. W. Bush) and the Republicans will resist with every trick they can. We can hope that the next stimulus package is big enough to keep people afloat while we rebuild after everyone gets vaccinated.
I’m interested in your build, just as a marker for what’s available.
Yes, 6-8 wks was typical. We’ve chatted about this a few times over the years… Maybe *reminisced* is a better word. Trust is the first bridge to cross. And the most difficult.
The MSM have finally figured out trump is reusing the same template he used in 2012 & 2016 with a few substitutions (usually just the target). Which is unsurprising to anyone with a clue. I’ve never heard him being called ‘imaginative”. Ironic given he makes everything up! 🤷♂️🙄
this was interesting:
https://twitter.com/ppv_tahoe/status/1331842893393387520
well… My plans for the build are on hold again. Luckily I was able to cancel most orders. I’m fighting the agent/Landlord of my unit suddenly, as they have been sending me eMails the past week (which are not considered legal anyway, has to be via registered mail) that my rent has been increased AU$27wk as of Nov 1st. That’s news to me given:
1. I have a lease which states no rent increases during the term of the lease (until March 2021),
2. due to the pandemic, Victoria Gov. has put all rent increases on hold.
I told you the landlord was a complete idiot and b*tch. I spoke to the Vic. Tenants Association again, and they gave me legal advice. including “enough is enough!”
1st set: I’m going to refer it to VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) along with a bunch of other issues this week. just have to collect everything, make copies and send via registered mail.
Once that’s all dealt with, VTA are going to help me find another, better rental. So, probably moving again! I hate moving.
Enough of all that crap! I think I’ve mentioned over the years how much I really liked the old Acorn BBC B+ (Beeb) and Acorn Archimedes computers. Then Acorn created the Acorn RISC Machine (ARM). Here is a very good video about the history of ARM, culminating in Apple dumping Intel (and why). Hint: Because the Intel CEO was, and is, a shortsighted idiot.
How Apple Just Changed the Entire Industry
It’s worth watching the whole thing. One very interesting part starts around the 15 minute mark. 🙂
Regarding my PC upgrade: I did get a Motherboard/CPU. I bought it from a friend I’ve known for over 20 years and I worked with (he’s en Engineer as I was). They cost him just over AU$1,300 4 years ago! :O I bought them for AU$230 ($200 + shipping from WA).
Gigabyte AORUS GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 Motherboard;
Intel Core-i7 7700K 4-core/8-thread CPU (5.10GHz OC @ 1.35V)
It doesn’t appear to be much of an upgrade from my 6yr old Gigabyte Z170X GAMING 7 Motherboard; and Intel Core-i7 6700K (OC: 4.60 GHz @ 1.33V), but it is. I spent a few hours comparing benchmarks I used on the older system and the difference is significant. It was certainly worth $230. No way I’d have paid over $1,000 though!
A review of the Motherboard is here with the insane spec’s. If you want to know why I wanted it, I’ll explain my reasoning (and it wasn’t just the bargain basement price from someone I knew had taken good care of it) 😉 😀
TweakTown: AORUS Z270X-Gaming 9 Motherboard Review
The parts I cancelled were a custom water-cooling setup to replace my old Corsair H110i GT AiO cooler. because the Motherboard has a waterblock and it does get quite hot (because of the quite large power regulation system and the PCIe PLX chip. I also wanted to water-cool my RX 5700 XT graphics card because it is capable of reaching at least 2.35 GHz liquid cooled, which gives me a nice boost from the current 2.2 GHz where the temperatures at max are almost 80C air-cooled. It’s within spec, but it’s a lot of heat to dissipate within the case. At 2.35 GHz and a good GPU waterblock and cooling system, I should easily get that under 70C which is about where I like it, it also means that heat is exhausted out of the case. I had also ordered a new Display (a larger 34″ 2K (1440p) 160 Hz refresh display, a new more comfy chair and some other parts. But none of those are urgent, so I decided to wait and see what happens with the above BS.
As always, I hope everything is well with you and the kitties! 😀
Moving sucks. Being a military “brat” and then my own tours, I have had more than my share of moves. Things always get lost or broken in a move and then you have to start fixing all of the things that annoy you in the new place, that you had already fixed in the old place. That said, you really need to divorce yourself from the aggravation of your current landlord.
Trump had no chance of overturning the election because it wasn’t even close. He paid for a recount in Wisconsin that found more votes for Biden than had been initially reported. 95% of all votes were cast on paper ballots which are machine and human readable. Any questions and you can verify the results by machine recounts and hand recounts. In most states if a race is close there is an automatic recount. Despite all of the claims, there has yet to have been any evidence presented to any court of fraud or misconduct (except for the Trump supporter in Pennsylvania who requested and absentee ballot for his dead mother so he could vote twice for the Bottle Blonde Mango.) The lieutenant governor of Texas offered a $1 million reward for proof of fraud – he still has his money.
I finally had time to watch the videos.
On the Apple/ARM issue – I’ve had two iPads and two iPhones and the latest chips really take care of business. The A13 in my SE-2 is more than good enough for a business laptop, so the M1 should be a decent desktop chip. The LEGO-like roll-your-own CPU model of ARM chips has been marching toward superiority for some time. Intel, like Windows suffers from bloat.
The motherboard/CPU combo seems more than worth the price. I agree on the need for the cooling in your climate and mine. My big box is in the flow from my air conditioner. At the other house it was uncomfortably warm under the desk, especially with a cat covering the vents on top. I really am concerned about liquids and computers. I accept that it’s not logical now, but the feeling is still there.
Oops! I missed your reply…
I agree with you about ARM/Apple/Intel/M$. No surprise. 😉 😀
I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. In a nutshell, It seems that my original Z170X Motherboard and 6700K CPU, were essentially prototypes. My motherboard had about 25 BIOS updates over 4 years and it was very annoying. Even the CPU had 2 firmware updates! I actually regretted buying them, and I would not have if my older AMD system hadn’t completely died (PSU, Motherboard, CPU & graphics card – I suspect the power supply killed the rest). That was why I had to buy that DELL Venue 11 Pro W10 tablet, luckily for half price on eBay.
One main reason is that the this Z270 MoBo is the last to use the excellent Creative SoundCORE Sound processor and hi-end audio sysyem (saving me about $300 on an good audio card!) I can also team the two Gbit Ethernet and the WiFi for about 3.8 Gb/s.
Yes, heat, and especially humidity, in Summer here is a problem. I can’t run the A/C all day as my electricity bill will double! I usually just run the dehumidifier, which also lowers the temp’s about 5C but uses a lot less power.
It’s kind of crazy that in just a single *revision* of the Motherboard and CPU, the difference is significantly noticeable.
I think Intel bases CPU/MoBo are at the end of this cycle that started with the Z170 & 6700K. AMD are about the middle of their cycle now with the ZEN3 Ryzen 5000 CPU’s and RDNA2 RX 6000 series GPU’s. I think the next gen (Zen4 & RDNA3) will be a good time to fully upgrade. They will support PCIe 5 and DDR 5 RAM. I guess we will see what happens. In any case, I’m in no hurry to upgrade for some time. 😀
I heard from VCAT that they will review the case late January/early Feb. Which is pretty much what I expected. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets delayed further.
All bureaucracies are the same – hurry up and wait. You have to hurry up to finish what they want and you have to wait for them to do their job. Over here it really sucks because of the COVID restrictions. Hang in there M8.
It’s hard to understand why Intel has been having so much trouble reducing their die size. I assume that all of the extraneous crap they have larded on their chips is the reason. They add on but don’t redesign to eliminate all of the dead end circuits.
I think you’re right about the CPU/MoBo development. AMD are building on a better base because they bit the bullet and redesigned while Intel is still patching. We’ll see.
It also seems AMD are reviving a project shelved a few years ago for an ARM (M1) like CPU that does away the bloat. Should be interesting!
It’s a damned good thing I upgraded the Motherboard/CPU! The game I (and apparently most gamers on Earth) have been waiting for all year, was finally available to d/l yesterday. It’s called Cyberpunk 2077. As well as needing a good graphics card, it’s very CPU intensive. Now that I have a CPU that can clock all-cores at 5.1GHz, I can hit 100 FPS at 1080p on High settings. I played 1.5 hours last night and it’s a huge game and looks like a lot of fun so far!
Even though the eye’s can’t really see much difference after 60 FPS, 100 FPS minimum is needed in most shooter type games because of the input (mouse or controller) to display lag. You fire when the cross-hair is on target, but miss because the target is actually a few frames ahead. Especially for fast moving targets. In some cases, you do still have to aim ahead & pace the target, as in the real World.
I posted a tweet about it if curious.
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1336886287786074123
One of the things I love about it, is that it comes from CD Projekt Red (CDPR). They created the Wonderful series “The Witcher” and still support it (unlike pretty much every mainstream (so called) AAA studios). They also created GOG (Good Old Games) in 2008. So, we all knew the game would be unlike anything else, and it is. I am really enjoying the story (lore) and just exploring and learning.
There is a very good detailed overview of just what the game is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMmLUVmcwpA
Well… Off to play some more! 👍😎
Local Public Radio station had an interview with Keanu Reeves who plays Johnny Silverhand in the game. It sounds like a decent update to old-school adventure games that you can play repeatedly because different choices will produce different story lines. It could cause multiple pizza and soft drink deliveries for a weekend. 😉
Yeah, the old games were really annoying because of the latency. Your success had as much to do on the quality of your internet connection and computer as your skill. Well, now you have the computer so the ISP is your only excuse. 😈