I Ain’t Ded
As Granny Weatherwax would say, nor am I ‘borrowing’. I’m finishing rehabbing an apartment and dealing with a very clumsy tenant who has managed to scald her forearm while dealing with a slow cooker and severely bruising the soft tissue in the area of her coccyx by falling/sitting down on a stump. All this while the Governor of Florida can’t make up his mind to do what is necessary as it might annoy Trumplethinskin™.
I hope to be back to annoying readers shortly. If you have a sewing machine you might consider checking out JoAnn Fabrics make a mask project.
42 comments
Ahhhh… Good ol’ Granny! Wyrd Sisters is still one of my favorite DW novels. Though, ‘favorite’ is pretty much within any definable “margin of error” as far as DW goes! 😉 😀
Did you ever watch the animated film? The voices were quite good.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159931/
I had EVERYTHING Sir terry Pratchett wrote or produced! Including: Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook, all the Diaries Terry produced with Stephen Briggs from 1998 to 2003 and other Dairies produced later.
There was a break until two more in 2007 and 2008. Terry did two more in 2014 and 2015. An almanac was produced in 2004, but it wasn’t really a Diary. And the Discworld Companion Books… There were 24! Also, the Map books, Science of Discworld books And the awesome Art books! All these are hardcover.
Discworld’s Unseen University Diary 1998
Discworld’s Ankh-Morpork City Watch Diary 1999
Discworld Assassins’ Guild Yearbook and Diary 2000
Discworld Fools’ Guild Yearbook and Diary 2001
Discworld Thieves’ Guild Yearbook and Diary 2002
Discworld (Reformed) Vampyre’s Diary 2003
The Discworld Almanak: The Year of the Prawn (2004)
Ankh-Morpork Post Office Handbook: Discworld Diary 2007
Lu-Tze’s Yearbook of Enlightenment 2008
Discworld Diary 2015: We R Igors: First and Last Aid
Discworld Diary 2016: A Practical Manual for the Modern Witch
Yes, I do love my Discworld! And Diggers. And The Carpet People (these got me hooked on Pratchett in the early 70’s). Etc.
Many of them were damaged or destroyed in the 2009 flood.😫😭
I stayed with the novels of Discworld, the Carpet People, the Bromeliad Trilogy, and Johnny Maxwell. I have a soft spot for the Watch followed by the Witches.
I missed the animated films, which is annoying as I subscribe to Acorn and they apparently produced it.I do have the Hogfather, Color of Magic, and Going Postal videos.
I would have thought that if you subscribed to Acorn, you would be able to get them. As you say, they did produce them. They are available on Amazon Prime. I signed up last year when they had a deal on a 12 Moth subscription, though that was mainly for Twitch Prime & the Music. 🙂
I finally got my A$750. But the prices have all skyrocketed! Exchange rate hit 60c among other reasons.
There were originally 3 card’s I was considering:
ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 5700 XT OC Edition
Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX 5700 XT OC
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 5700 XT Special Edition
I decided against the ASUS as the lowest price was A$819 and the other two were around A$750 (as of last week). As far as specifications go, they were equal, except that the Sapphire SE did run a few degrees C cooler & was a little quieter at high multimedia/game loads. Curiously, I checked my favorite supplier last night & they suddenly had the ASUS for A$748 but the other two (Gigabyte and Sapphire) were both at A$899! very strange! Well, I don’t usually “look a gift horse in the mouth”, so I grabbed the ASUS and a Seagate Backup Plus Portable 5TB 2.5″ USB3.1 drive. I was planning to get one to hook up to my WiFi Router as a Media drive (movies & music). That was on sale luckily, I got it for A$219.
One advantage the ASUS has was that I could connect two case fans to it to be controlled by the card temp’s. I got a case with a 140mm side fan right over the GFX card to help cool it. But it operates on the system temp’s which are a lot lower than the GPU temp. I have a very good side fan (Corsair SP140L that came with the water cooler but I replaced them) & two excellent front fans (Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000) that together can blow a lot of air over the card that should, in theory, not require the noisier card fans to operate at high speeds. I guess I’ll find out. 😉 😀
I’m guessing that ASUS don’t have any stock issues & must have a lot of stock, so actually discounted them to move them. The other two do have stock issues. *shrug*
Oh! AMD have a deal on until the end of April where if anyone buys an RX5000 series card, they get 1 to 3 2020 top games for free. The 5700 XT get’s 3. And two of them I wanted but they were over A$80 each! So, that saved me A$160+ also. 😆
The fan spec’s are:
Airflow (higher is better):
Corsair SP140L: 113 CFM
Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000: 158 CFM
Static pressure (higher is better):
Corsair SP140L: 3.99 mmH2O
Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000: 10.52 mmH2O
RPM range (wider is better):
Corsair SP140L: 400-2100 RPM
Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000: 800-3000 RPM
Noise level @ max RPM (lower is better):
Corsair SP140L: 43 dB(A)
Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000: 41.3 dB(A)
Noctua (Austria) really do make excellent fan’s! And have a 6 yr warranty too. So they should, as they are also the most expensive! I have four, two on the WC radiator (in a *pull* setup. i.e. above the radiator at the top of the case to pull the air through. It’s more efficient than pushing from under the rad. It actually dropped the water temp 2.3C) & two on the front intake.
My i7 CPU, running all 4 cores at 4.6 GHz for an hour or more, never get above 64C. Without over-clocking, their max is 4 GHz & they stay below 58C. So I’m pleased about that. Should extend their life a bit. 😉
Currently, just running Firefox (with about 80+ tab’s loaded) and a couple other app’s in background, the CPU is sitting at 22C (ambient is 19C). Funny, when I move the mouse around, the temp goes up 1-2C and drops when I stop moving it. (I’m easily amused these day’s!) 😉 😀
Oh! When I got my March electricity bills, it was about A$35 cheaper than Feb & A$25 cheaper than Nov-Jan. Most of that is because of the dead GFX card! That sucker pulled a LOT of power, especially running for 3 weeks 24/7 in Jan, where the bill was A$10 higher than previous ones. The new card is a bit more power efficient as it uses the new 7nm die and my old one was on the 24nm die. So… Size does matter! 😈
It’s been raining non-stop for three day’s! it’s just a shower currently, but was really coming down all day yesterday & most of the night. The front of the Units, gravel driveway & lawn area is completely flooded. Luckily, there are two steps to the front/back door’s and the footpath has drainage. There are flood warnings across central Victoria, and one of the main Dam’s hit 100.1% capacity yesterday! We can’t win!
I almost forgot… One of my T friends in FL tweeted this! I knew FL was a Neo-CON anti medicare State… But, wow!
https://twitter.com/ConnorCJolley/status/1245313612207386626
I figured out I should be able to watch by connecting to the free IMBD channel on Amazon Prime. Wyrd, but it may work. They have commercials, but who cares.
Most of the world has stock issues because corporations are going for the cheapest price for the parts that are used to make just about everything. If you need 200 parts to assemble your product, you have 200 individual failure points. I you were dependent on a company in Wuhan for a part, you are down. It’s stupid to put ‘been-counters’ in charge of production. Look what it has done to Boeing.
Yes, the US is fucked when it comes to health care. We spend twice as much as anyone else and get less for it.
Well! Continuing on my years of “I can’t catch a break!” The card I ordered last week is now out of stock & they are saying it the supplier is claiming 2-3 weeks for a new shipment! Of course, since fate hates me, my local store now has stock! So, I can wait another 4 weeks, or cancel my order & ask for a *fast* refund, but it’s Easter and everything is closed until next Tuesday! I have an account with the local store & they usually give me a discount as I have spent a lot there & sent them a lot of Business. They are selling the card for $6 more (was $19 but i-Tech has raised the price a bit since I ordered), but I am paying $24 (or $26?) shipping with the other company anyway. And what is the bet that if I cancel the order, the local store will suddenly have no stock?! Though… Looking at my online account, they have stock in all stores (8 or 9 around AU) & their Warehouse in Melbourne. So, If I get on it early Tuesday, I *MIGHT* be able to put a deposit & get them to hold one. I don’t have enough $ now to pay the AU$769, but can put a $200 deposit. And I’d rather have the local support anyway.
My original Supplier i-Tech (you can see it’s now on 2-3 week pre-order):
https://www.i-tech.com.au/asus-amd-rog-strix-radeon-rx-5700-xt-oc-edition-8gb-gddr6-dominates-1440p-gaming-90yv0d90-m0na00.html?desktop=yes
Th local CENTRE COM (I have been dealing with this group since about 2005 when they only had 1 store):
https://www.centrecom.com.au/asus-rog-strix-rx5700xt-o8g-gaming-graphics-card
Nothing is ever simple or easy any more! Humans seriously SUCK!
Supply chains are screwed up all over the world. Amazon still offers free delivery, but the no longer 2-day for Prime. They are prioritizing food and medicine. That doesn’t bother me, but the price swings does.
I always try to go with local vendors when they still exist so I have someone to terrorize when they mess with me. One star reviews are not nearly as satisfying as walking through the door and raising hell in person. Thanks to my police training I can make “Sir” sound like the nastiest slur available in any language. It was more effective when I towed their car, but voice control is quite effective.
Go with the local store. I really hate when I use a store’s app to be certain that a store has what I want only to discover they haven’t updated their inventory. Lowe’s hardware is the exception. Their inventory is up-to-date, but the people at the store don’t always know where what I want is located.
Yes. Supply is a real issue, and I know that. I really didn’t want to cancel my order with i-Tech. They have been a great supplier for the past 6 years. But I simply cannot wait another 3 weeks or even more possibly. They replied this morning to my cancellation request & have approved it. Also that they will refund ASAP. It’s nice to know they will respond quickly. Kudos to them & I will continue to be a client in future.
I called the local Centre COM and they are putting a card aside for me.
I hope things are a bit more sane for you my friend. Take care of yourself. I have enough to be concerned about! 😉 😀
Oh! Here… I decided to reply to a Trump tweet (with the new & appropriate hashtag: #TrumpLiesPeopleDie)! Enjoy? 🙄🤷♂️
And this one, retweeting a Rawstory post about how the Banks decided to bail out trump decades ago rather than “let him die”.
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1248948398276788224
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1249290536332058629
I got my refund, that was fast! I called the local Centre COM & they have a few in stock & are holding one for me. I’ll pick it up in the morning.
I’ll be glad to get this over with!
Oh, my 2nd link above was me replying to a typically pathological lie by Der Drumpf! I thought you might like it. *sigh*
My experience in the tech world in the 1980s taught me that Asia shuts down for the Lunar/Chinese New Year, so you weren’t going to get anything from the East for at least two weeks, and much longer if it wasn’t ordered before the festival. So, looking at the Covid-19 epidemic hitting China just before the New Year told me: Don’t bother, you can’t get it unless it is already in a shipping container at sea. The US has transferred so much manufacturing to China, that when the Virus struck there were no stockpiles of anything. ‘Just-in-time’ inventory control is great and efficient if there is never a broken link in the supply chain, but that is the problem, something is always going to fail and no one wants to be the link with the expense of warehousing parts. Trump had already screwed up things with his stupid trade wars. He still doesn’t understand that China isn’t paying the tariffs he imposes, the US consumers are paying them.
You definitely did not want to sit idle for three weeks while your supplier is hoping to receive product. Everyone is already stir crazy and if you can’t get on-line or game it gets worse. I have a tenant who driving me nuts as she keeps borrowing tools and things to keep busy as her phone is busted and she can’t get to Facebook or Twitter (her pacifier/dummy/binky). People are taking care of things that they let slide but they are beginning to act like junkies who need their next fix. I may organize some ditch digging to keep them busy and away from me. I’m used to isolation because of the military and I’m beginning to long for the Aleutians. 😈
Trump is insane and stupid which makes him dangerous to living things. He thinks he is king, a delusion that his Attorney General has fostered. The media should stop airing his daily rants live. He’s up to two hours and he’ll get to Fidel Castro/Adolf Hitler length at any time.
Yeah, I know how Asia works & I’ve often ranted about what a load of BS JIT is! Just an excuse by way overpaid exec’s who only want to maximize profit to cut costs of warehousing. They are as good at “cause & effect” as Trump! They all live in the perfect World they create in their tiny minds! Reality is an amusing concept.
Well… You can forget what I said above! Centre COM tried to screw me! They raised the price before I got there to $849! I argued of course that the card was put aside yesterday at the previous price of $769 and was told no deposit was necessary! Got nowhere & the Manager was away, of course!
So now I am livid!! I’ve sent a very pissed off eMail to their MD whom I’ve known for over a Decade and told him what I think of him & his company and that he has not only lost a good client, but I will contact every person I’ve ever recommended them to to stay away because they cannot be trusted! Also contacted Consumer Affairs because this fit’s the anti price gouging laws during COVID that the Vic. Gov has implemented! I’ll also post a tweet about it. Just the facts, that’s all I’ll need.
People usually have to find out the hard way that I am NOT some sucker that can be screwed! I’ll send the bastards broke! Won’t be the first time!
If you operate a business and screw customers when they are stressed, like now with the COVID-19 problem or after a hurricane, they are no longer customers. This is a time when you can score major points with customers by taking care of them, not screwing them. You hit a few forums, tweet about it, complain to consumer protection, and they have a problem. I don’t see where it’s worth the $80 they aren’t going to make anyway, because you won’t buy it. It’s stupid.
So now, instead of gaming you can use your time making life miserable for Centre COM. Enjoy 😉
They made it a matter of principal! And I truly despise stupidity & know a damned con when I see one! This was a stocked item at a set price. So there is NO legitimate reason to raise the price on that item! On new & future delivers from their supplier, if the price has been raised by the supplier or cost of shipping, warehousing etc. have increased, then fine. But this was purely a rip off! ESPECIALLY given the item was set aside at the previous price! Nope! I’m done with them and they will regret it, if they have a clue! They could offer it for free to me now and I’d say no! Too late, too bad, you are screwed!
You know me well enough to know that once something becomes a serious matter of principal for me, they’d have better luck moving a Mountain with a desk fan!🤨😒
I decided that even though I am pissed and I will not deal with them again, I still need to do things right. So I contacted their Complaint’s department & detailed the problem & what I would do about it. I received an email from the Director:
“Settle down Paul, there is no need to get worked up on what is a simple issue of Australian currency exchange, stock shortages, world pandemic and increased demand. I refute your gouging claim emphatically, just look around at most industries, there are stock difficulties and prices rises everywhere. I understand your frustration but lining us up as the problem is way off target, I am sorry you feel this way, however it is certainly misguided.”
It disgusts me when some clown thinks I am a typical ignorant boob that has no idea how things work! Good for me, bad for them!
So, I’ll add that to my formal complaint to Consumer Affairs.
Also, I found that I can order the GIGABYTE AORUS Radeon RX 5700 XT card (that I originally wanted) from Amazon Prime for AU$751 with free shipping from the USA by next Tuesday (though, that expected delivery date may change of course).
Ooh! Got 90 DAYS FREE of Amazon Music Unlimited. LOL
I haven’t used Amazon much & I only signed up for Prime last Month mainly for vid’s, Music & Twitch. But this went better than I expected. Th price had dropped a little “because of international exchange rate variation” according to the notification I received. Was A$744.11 plus free shipping from USA (because of prime). So that Adds to the lie from Centre COM. The supplier is Gigabyte & NOT from a US reseller, which I made SURE of first so I wouldn’t have any warranty/support issues. Also, I get my 3 free games from AMD! 😆
Expected Delivery is May 7th. *sigh* Ohhhh…. I am gonna make Centre COM suffer!
If it wasn’t for our DAMNED GST… It would have been A$$676.46 Bah! I really HATE Neo-CON Gov’s!
I just got messed over by a dealer on eBay who got booted off the site for less than honorable conduct (price gouging during an epidemic) and I will let eBay and PayPal do their thing before I get nasty. eBay has really been dropping the hammer on people selling “essential merchandise at inflated prices”.
Some guy in Britain is stuck with 5000 rolls of toilet paper and a couple of hundred bottles of hand sanitizer after eBay banned him and the store that he bought the toilet paper and hand sanitizer from refused to refund his money. He used a series of friends to get around limits on purchases of certain items at the store. He has more than enough toilet paper for the rest of his life.
GST or VAT or Sales tax are regressive taxes that affect the poor more heavily than the rich (see Sam Vimes’ theory of boots). The Florida sales tax on yachts, limos, etc gets paid by the seller not the buyer. It’s a matter of honor that rich people don’t pay taxes.
If the price increase was due to the exchange rate, buying from a US vendor would be more expensive as the US dollar has steadily been increasing against all other currencies. That is not true, ergo Centre COM is full of shit and price gouging.
Delivery has been weird in the US with many things coming earlier than stated, while others are caught in cat space for a while.
Yes. I’ve had problems with eBay sellers a few times! two were fairly new that had something I really wanted & claimed the item was new & unused. that was a lie. The last one was highly rated and the item was DOA and he said it must have happened during shipping, so take it up with the postal service. But there was no damage to the box or the item itself (a 2004 IBM Trinitron 22″ CRT for $155 + $25 shipping). This was 2009. I found a couple dead capacitors in the power supply & damage elsewhere. Never con an engineer with skills to find electronic problems! I told him, he denied it. I lodged a formal complaint with photo’s etc. to eBay, including an eMail from IBM that stated that model batch (from the S/N) was recalled for that issue, a batch of leaky cap’s that popped. I didn’t get a refund & that seller vanished. I haven’t used eBay since. A shame really, it was a bloody good display! I ended up with a Dell P1130 equivalent, still have it & it still works, though I haven’t used it for 6 years or so. Can’t now (not properly anyway)… No Win10 drivers of course. Only XP/Vista/7.
I read about that idiot in England & a few like him in the USA & a couple here (all goes viral for a day or two on twitter). I hope they all end up with huge fines & jail terms.
Agree about the stupid, highly unfair, tax system here, there & most everywhere!
“If the price increase was due to the exchange rate, buying from a US vendor would be more expensive as the US dollar has steadily been increasing against all other currencies. That is not true, ergo Centre COM is full of shit and price gouging.”
😆 I said something kind of similar to Consumer Affairs! But I like yours better. 😉 😀
Amazon have been surprisingly responsive & accommodating. I discovered two problems with the AMD free games promotion:
The cutoff date is the 5th of May to register the product, which must be installed and operating;
The promotional code that must be supplied by the vendor must be registered with AMD by the 27th April.
Amazon will email me the promo code so I can register within the week, & will prioritize shipping so I’ll (hopefully) get it before the 3rd. Give me time to install the card & Win10 etc.
The promo package is worth about $200. So it’s a good value added reason to buy this GFX card.
But honestly it doesn’t really matter in the end. Even if two of the games are ones I want! And they are very popular, so will be some time before they have any decent discount. AMD were quite clever really. 😉
Oops! Actually, I have used eBay since. Just NOT for anything electronic/mechanical etc.
I have bought some CD’s, DVD’s and Blu-Ray music and videos. But only when I know it’s the real deal and NOT a pirated copy (so nothing from China!) Like that complete MASH DVD set I got a few years ago. 😀
I did have a look when I was checking video cards in Feb. And there were some good deals… I just didn’t trust the sellers.
Everyone in the business knows that electronics either last forever or fail quickly. That’s why we would turn new builds on and let them run test software before loading the operating system and putting them in a box. “Infant death”, a part failing within 48 hours, wasn’t common, but it made you look bad when you were at a client and it happened.
The seller had to know that he was getting the CRTs cheap because there was a problem. Hell, he probably assumed they were stolen at least.
eBay is useful for finding ancient plumbing parts or collectable knick-knacks. I would assume that CDs and DVDs are suspect. We used to have a local store that sold them, and that was useful because you could inspect the surface before buying.
True. 🙂
It seems Centre COM accidentally & unintentionally did me a favor.
The price I paid Amazon for the GIGABYTE AORUS Radeon RX 5700 XT of A$744.11, was on the day of the best exchange rate for the past several weeks (according to XE . com) The price today on Amazon is A$873.99 which is around the price most of the stores in AU have been selling it for the past Month! Fate is whimsical. 😉
I only cancelled the order for the GFX card with i-Tech, I still wanted the 5 TB 2.5″ external HDD. It arrived in the Ausstralia Post Alexandria NSW Distribution center on April 14th. It was still there until yesterday, but the AP Tracking website say’s it’s in their Melbourne Distribution Center as of 7.45 PM today. How long it will be stuck there, is anybody’s guess. They are estimating delivery on Mon 27 Apr. So, two weeks to get a small package from Sydney to Victoria. *sigh*
Those IBM/Dell Trinitron CRT’s were way ahead of their time really. Native (maximum) resolution was 2048 x 1536 at 80 Hz. Kind of 2K (2560 x 1440) that LCD’s were able to do by end of 2015. But it’s maximum refresh rate was 170 Hz @ up to 1280 x 1024, & 120 Hz @ 1600 x 1200. The advantage the IBM had was better s/w & a DVI-I video port as well as the standard 15-pin VGA D-sub, which is all the DELL had. There are inexpensive adapters to convert DVI-D or DVI-I to HDMI, but need an active & expensive converter to convert the analog only D-Sub VGA. basically, the IBM had a digital I/F built in while the DELL is Analog only. Even though hey were about the same price when launched! Dell have always been cheap sod’s.
eBay does have it’s uses, but “Buyer beware!” is essential! Same for Amazon too, & other e-tailers, like Kogan. They definitely do not have a spotless service record either!
Too bad you weren’t looking for crude oil. Sellers were paying people over $30 a barrel to get rid of it. That’s right, if you had some place to store it you would be paid to take it. There is 30 million barrels of excess crude oil being pumped every day, and the recent OPEC+ agreement that Trump cooked up with Putin and Mohammed bin Salman only covers a 10 million barrel reduction.
Yeah, I have watched something I bought go north from New York to Boston, west to Chicago, then South to Memphis, before it went south to me. It paused a few days at each of those locations, I assume because people were wondering why it was there.
The Trinitrons were great graphics monitors if you could afford to buy them and the graphics cards that supported them. My engineering clients bought them to produce reports for projects. The paper output was usually sent to wide format HP plotters.
eBay is good for specialized odd ball stuff, especially if it is too old to be in a big box store but not old enough to be an antique. For example, the knobs for a 1960s shower valve.
Our theiving, incompetent BS liar Angus Taylor LNP “Minister for Energy & Emissions Reduction” (before lNP it was simply “Minister for Energy”, they added ” and Emissions Reduction” (to pretend they gave a damn about reducing emissions), tweeted that he’s negotiating with the USA to store OUR oil reserves in the USA!
https://twitter.com/AngusTaylorMP/status/1252490278864187392
Unsurprisingly, this has met with a storm of “WTF?” and “are you insane” type replies.
Yes. the Sony Trinitron tube was great, even in the early 90’s. It improved with age. The IBM/Dell high-end Trinitrons were around the AU$3,500 mark. But the high-end LCD’s were/are about the same. Such as the NEC MD304MC that sold for US$3,600 in 2008.
https://www.necdisplay.com/p/md304mc
Someone did a great spoof of #trumpIsAnIdiot (and several other trending hashtags!)
https://twitter.com/Stop_Trump20/status/1250868554511134721
Made me (and many others) laugh! 😆 Even though we know, it is sadly very true!
If Mr. Taylor has someplace to put oil, like an empty tanker, currently he would be paid $ 20 to $35/barrel to take it. There is no storage available for oil and too much oil is being pumped. You have empty mines, the US stores its oil reserves in oil salt mines. If you do deep rock mining an old coal mine would be ideal for oil storage. A strategic reserve needs to be close at hand, not on the other side of the world. Consider what an easy target an oil tanker is. If there is a world-wide crisis can Australia trust the US to give up the reserve – 4 years ago I would have said yes, but not anymore. I don’t trust my government to do the right thing, so Australia shouldn’t.
Trump is ready for a canvas sport coat, the one with the belts in the back.
Agree about the oil.
And about Trump. I just tweeted this one:
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1253504375789506560
My portable HDD just arrived. The AP website say’s it’s still in Melbourne! 😆 Everything is messed up. Well, that’s one out of the way.
High school chemistry and reading the bottle tells us the taking household disinfectants is a really bad idea that results in call to poison control and a visit to the emergency room if you are quick enough. If not, the funeral parlor will give you a hair cut, so you don’t have to worry about the barbershops being closed.
As for the light, I think he is referring to UV-C which is use to disinfect hard surfaces. There is a mobile phone sanitizer that is a box with a UV-C light inside. It does get rid of bacteria and viruses, but leave the smudges on your screen. UV-C lights are used in hospital air conditioning ducts to sterilize the air and robots with UV-C lights are used to sterilize labs and rooms. UV-C light is harmful to all living things or it wouldn’t be an effective way of sterilizing.
Trump is a moron. If he wants a Clorox IV drip and the lights in his tanning bed replaced with UV-C bulbs, let him. Let’s stop wasting resources on every wild idea someone tells him about. He is just prolonging the lock down with his bullshit ideas.
All true. And I do know how you feel. At least you only have to deal with Drumph. We have to deal with him, Boris (we are still Commonwealth) and Scummo!
Scummo’s latest insanity:
https://twitter.com/CatPurry9/status/1253918492094427137
I got a message from Amazon that my card has finally been processed for shipping. *Expected* delivery date is now May 17th. Believe that when it happens. SO I wont get those games or the 3 Mth free Xbox Live for PC (bit like Origin Access from EA. it’s M$ version. Get some old & new games for free with the account). So I lost out on about $250+ of value because of Center COM being bloody crooks! I added all that to my complaint. I’m not expecting much. *shrug*
Amazon is definitely not doing guaranteed two day shipping for Prime members. They are prioritizing purchases to send out the most critical items first. All of the US delivery services [post office, FedEX, UPS] are getting hammered with the sudden shift from business accounts to home accounts, i.e. multiple items to a business to single items for houses.
Somehow my discount on my auto insurance because of the COVID-19 lock down became an increase. Everyone is playing games. It still isn’t annoying enough to consider injecting bleach or swallowing a flashlight. Australia is in better shape than the US, hell every other country in the world is better off than the US. Only 5 more weeks until hurricane season, can we skip 2020? Life should have a fast-forward button 😈
Yes! A fast-forward button would be nice sometimes! Or a rewind button… Though, that would be insanely dangerous in the hands of the majority of Humans! 🙀😒 So maybe not. just stick with FF… Though very limited. Imagine people like trump using it! 🙀😒
Did you watch SNL? They did a great sketch with Brad Pitt playing Dr. Fauci. I was PMSL!
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1254257688050954240
I tweeted here about it with my comment:
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1254375147152138240
Looks like for once in the past year or so, my timing was good! That price of $744 I paid Amazon for the GFX card was the lowest in 3 Months or so! It is now selling on Amazon for $924! The US/AU exchange rate variation is yo-yo & other costs & supply availability are also changing day by day. If I’d had the money in Feb., I could have gotten it for $675 to $700. 🤷♂️😕
A lot of companies are increasing prices, most are being relatively smart about it and not going crazy with increases (unlike Centre COM)!
The two major Supermarkets started home deliveries again, the stopped that in March. I put in orders with both as they both had different availability on items I wanted. They both used to try to outdo each other on Sales & specials, now very few things are discounted & a few things have increased a bit. I like cream in my coffee & that used to be $2.40 for 600ml, now it’s $3.00 (for both of them). they also have limits on how many of some things I can order, another reason for ordering from both. Most meat is limited to 1 per order for example. Other items are limited to 2 per order, like many canned products. Got one delivery yesterday (Sun.) and the other tomorrow (Tues.)
As for Trump and his kids… they think they are a 50’s Mob!
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1254369595999219712
Anyway, I know you are definitely NOT stupid & are being careful & sensible… Still, I dislike not being able to do more than hope (I really HATE that word & all it stands for) you will get through this BS safely & without much stress & drama! Difficult I know with the Apartments. Still, be safe!
That goes for the other regulars here also!
Soooo… Yeah. Color me surprised!
the Amazon & UPS site I was given a tracking link were updated yesterday and say that expected delivery is May 12th and that the GFX card is “in transit”.
It just arrived by Australia Post! I asked the driver when it arrived in Aus. & he checked his portable terminal & said it arrived here Thursday in Sydney and was dispatched the same day. 🤔🙄
But I am a bit concerned! The card was just shipped in it’s standard store display box! Not in a proper shipping box. The flaps at each end weren’t even taped down! And one was open. The box corners have been crushed in & there is some other damage, but nothing very serious. The card itself is packed in foam, so maybe it will be OK. 😕
I’ll let you know.
First off, Dr Fauci is professional civil service and can only be fired for cause which would result in hearings and probably ends up in court. As long as Dr Fauci does his job in a professional manner, he will be there as long as he wants and can leave with his full pension whenever he wants. Trump is the sixth President that Fauci has served. Fauci outside the government is the end of Trump, because Fauci can get media attention and people believe him.
The Trump Org. learned how to operate from working with the NYC families (you want concrete or garbage pick-up you deal with the mob). He then cut deals with the Russian mob and other East Euro groups when he couldn’t get funding from US banks. Deutsche Bank was not making loans with their money, they were middle men in the loans to Trump. There were a lot of all cash transactions for Trump properties that are looking very suspicious.
Right now prices and exchange rates are fluid. Amazon is beginning to feel like the stock market. The only way to lock in a price is to buy it immediately. So many things are being imported by the sellers at Amazon you are seeing delivery times of months, not days.
Don’t worry about me, M8, no one is shooting at me and I have no intention of letting people get too close. I have bandanas and gloves and the sense to use them.
I think the tracking systems are overloaded and not updating as usual. Now you can get your games 😉
Regarding Dr. Fauci… I see. I forgot about how being a Civil Servant in the USA works. Not that Trump or the GOP gives a damn about rules, laws or conventions. Anyway, in that case, why is Dr. Fauci being so deferential to Trump?🤔🤷♂️
The card appears undamaged (checked with a strong magnifying glass handed down from Grandpa (has a British Army insignia, probably from when he was an Armorer in WW2).
Won’t know until I install it tomorrow. I have a night of backing up and setting up my Win10 installer (merging all the up-dated drivers & s/w I use) on an USB stick.
No games. I had a chat with an Amazon AU rep & he said they have no coupons for the AMD promotion. I suspected that would be the case. It doesn’t matter, the main thing is the card works! One reason I got this one was a 4 year warranty. The only one, others are either 2 or 3.
of course, now that the card is here, AMD just announced their new NAVI 2 cards will be available around October. Including the RX 5950 XT with is reported to be much better. oh well… My new RX 5800 XT is about 3x better than my old R9 390X! So, I can’t really complain! Plus, I’d bet the NAVI2 cards will be well over A$1,000! 😉
https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/amd-radeon-rx-5950-xt-release-date-price-specs-3972186
Well, I better get to work! When i get the case open & the old card out, I will have a lot of cleaning to do! it’s been about a year & even with good case air filters (that I do clean), dust still finds it’s way in! TTYL 👋
Dr Fauci is a very mellow guy who treats politicians like they were grandchildren. He corrects Trump, but he isn’t obvious about it.
At least you have the card and before you thought you would. Yeah, every time I open a case I take it out side and blow it out. It’s the same with heaters and the air conditioner in the cats’ house. Cat hair is the pits. You now have something to do that needs to be done, which makes the enforced lock down easier to tolerate.
Mellow hmmmm? OK then. 🙂
This thread will close soon, so a last update. 😉 😀
Well, as I expected, this install isn’t going smoothly. Win10 being it’s usual PITA!! I forgot that W10 put’s 2 small hidden petitions on the boot drive. I installed a new W10 on the boot petition and the first boot immediately gave me the BSOD! Took most of the day Wednesday on my Tablet to sort out the probably issue. I didn’t want to wipe & fresh install as I have a lot of s/w that would be a real pain to reinstall (Like Steam, Origin Access & uPlay for my games). But it looked like there was no choice. So I spent half of yesterday and today moving all the related games & other data to another drive so I could do a complete reformat & delete the old W10 partitions. According to the Steam app, it still has about 2.6 hours to go. Moving 1.2 TB of files from an SSD to a HDD takes awhile, plus I decided to spend the time rearranging the files on my drives, which I’d been putting off when I updated my SSD’s earlier this year (did I mention that?🤔 Not sure.) I updated my Steam profile with all the new H/W details:
https://steamcommunity.com/id/Kryten42/
With luck, I may be up and running tomorrow.🙄🤷♂️
have I mentioned how much I truly HATE Windoze & M$?!
Apart from that, I did get to strip the case down and give it a good clean! Even got an anti-static spray and sprayed the filters, radiator, case surfaces & wiped the fan blades. Looks like new! It did take a few hours. I also tested the card with Linux & it seems fine, so that’s good. 😀
I hope everything is going smoothly for you Bryan! Take care m8. 👋
Watching Fauci I sometime wonder if he considers politicians to be another form of disease vector, an E. coli variant, or something else found in manure. 😈
Windows just sucks. They make the boot sectors targets and offer no real protection. If they get corrupted a complete rebuild is your only option. Every other major OS lets you fix things, but not M$. In MS-DOS you just needed to copy off your programs and data, then reformat and copy everything back on. But not in Windows, no, you have to go through reinstalling. Then you have to patch Windows after you rebuild the drive. It’s a waste of time, and after you get older there are a lot of things you want to do other than watch hourglasses spin or fake propellers turn. If a Windows machine crashes anymore it becomes a Linux machine.
Wow, man, you really did some serious basic training cleaning on that machine! That should be good for a while.
You could be right about Fauci! 😆
I decided to take some time off and just relax this weekend. The system isn’t going anywhere and given I’ve waited 3 months already, it won’t kill me! Plus, all things considered right now, rushing it is just stupid. I’ve spent a lot on this system and destroying something by being an idiot doesn’t appeal to me! I have to say it was a bit difficult to just switch off and relax yesterday, but was easier today.
Just catching up on some YT tech vid’s (Intel just announced their *NEW* 10th Gen CPU’s (more like 6/7/8/9.5 Gen since not a lot has actually changed, as usual). They put back the hyper-threading they disabled in several CPU’s in their stack to force people to buy there more expensive high-end parts. They figured out that all that did was force people to move to AMD. Also added a couple cores to their top end parts. They still haven’t learned that using *marketing tricks* (lying) to an audience that has a clue, isn’t a good idea. I watch them for their amusement value! Oh, it also requires a new chip-set & therefore new Motherboards.🤷♂️🙄
I’ll double check everything tomorrow (Tuesday) and install W10. Linux is working fine, but it doesn’t have the insane issues W10 does with s/w or h/w upgrades. I did manage to tweak the new RAM so it quite decent timings & low latencies (for this type of DDR4 DRAM). Running at 3,200MHz @ 13-13-13-24-1T (from 14-14-14-36-2T) with a small voltage bump, 1.35V to 1.40V. It doesn’t seem like much, but using a Linux test suite, it reduced the latency by 4.2ms which in several uses for me is significant.
I finally got around to updating my System build on Overclock, coincidentally 1 year since my last update. My comments for individual parts and spec’s are in the “component details” link on each part.
Kryten42’s 6700K Gaming-Multimedia Test Build
Oh! Speaking of YouTube, and remembering how much you like Walmart 🤭 It seems they have decided to sell their own branded Gaming PC’s. The title is a bit of a giveaway! 😉
Walmart Gaming PC: How to Do Everything Wrong
Here Bryan, just tweeted & before I hit the sack. 🤣🤣 Kitty Power! 😽😼
https://twitter.com/Classclown66/status/1257033342043725827
Your training as an engineer is obvious in your write ups on equipment. It is nice when people do that so that when you are dealing with a piece of hardware you know what to expect when you pop the top.
Yes, with the dollar amounts involved, it is always better to approach things well-rested. I just bought the new iPhone SE and waited until I had the case for it before doing anything. It has the newest A13 processor and a slightly larger screen, but both the front and back are glass. The back is glass to make it work with wireless charging. I got $50US off as an upgrade with my wireless provider, but ended up paying for a memory upgrade that I didn’t need and a color I’m in fond of to get one now. They just came out and at $400US from Apple for the 64GB models, people are buying them to replace their old phones.
As always, what are your primary uses? After you ascertain that, you build for the best solution for that use. You use more CPU/GPU processing than I do so you put you effort there. I go for high speed storage for data base operations. Latency is very important for gaming, especially for multi-player. In the ancient days of dial-up or a satellite connection you were often declared dead the same time the threat appeared on the screen. DSL wasn’t much better.
I gave up on Intel years ago. I used their gear when I didn’t have a choice. They let monopoly go to their head and stopped innovating. If I build another box, I’ll use AMD again. The only Intel box I have is a used Dell that I bought because it had Win-XP on it and I needed that operating system for some ancient software I wrote in the 1980s for a friend who still used it.
The dog had it coming. 😆
😆 I kinda feel sorry for the dog. There he is, dreaming of lady dog’s or food… and gets bopped on the head by a kittie! He looks a little bemused. 😉 😀 But yes, I can’t blame kittie either! 😆
Yes, I don’t like Intel simply because they gave up innovating and decided they could make a lot more money treating customers as stupid cash cow’s. Sadly, AMD weren’t even competing for several years. But that’s changed now, the shoe is definitely on the other foot. 😀 But I am sure it will likely be a case of Intel & AMD swapping places every 5-10 years or so. 🤷♂️🙄 One advantage AMD have now is that most of the major notebook & console manufacturers have moved to AMD.
We had our first sunny day in more than a week! So I did laundry & went out to the local park with an almost empty cafe nearby & spent some money I’m sure they needed on my usual double-shot cappuccino & a nice toasted roast veg foccaccia they make & a wonderful pastry my GP/Dietician would frown at (and I don’t care!) Got a 2nd coffee I didn’t really need, but I left a nice tip again. Te owner looked a bit surprised (she was there on her own), but smiled. I think I’ll go back there tomorrow. I can’t help much in other ways anywhere, but I can help them a bit.
I’ll do one last check of the system after dinner & set up W10 etc. We’ll see how that goes! 🤷♂️🙄 I’ve decided to use the W10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC (Long Term Service Chanel) based on the v1809 build 17763.1012 rather than the recent W10 Pro v1909 build 18363.628 as I had problems with the newer version as have other people according to various tech forums. At least I know the LTSC edition won’t be messed up with updates every other week!
Come on, it was a righteous hit by the cat. There was probable cause. 😉
You’re right – we need to support the businesses we like to help them stay alive. We had a preview of what happens when the Well From Hell spewed oil all over our beaches and destroyed the summer 10 years ago. We lost several long time businesses that couldn’t survive on local customers because so many locals were unemployed. I do what I can, including buying stamps I don’t really need to support the Postal Service that is in trouble.
The lack of innovation is the result of taking advice from the Wall Street “analists” who want companies to squeeze every last penny out of products and customers. Most of what is claimed as “R&D” turns out to be Marketing, not actual product improvement. Intel just stopped providing the quality that I saw from AMD. For the same price the specifications told the tale.
You’re right, I think I spend almost as much time uninstalling one or another update every month, as installing worthwhile updates. It’s ridiculous given that I have a single a bland single-user system that doesn’t ever approach its limits. If I was administrating a large network of Win 10 boxes it would drive nuts.
C’mon! I said I didn’t blame the kitty! It was well done though, and s/he didn’t have the claws out, so doggy got off lightly. 😉 😀
Seems Fauchi isn’t at all non-complicit after all (this video was quickly banned on YT):
[edited to confuse bots]
FYI: You may want to delete that comment. Up to you.
The anti-vaxxers will grab at any straw and promote any con artist who seems to support their delusions.
CBS News and Crooks & Liars covered this latest assault on families with autistic children. I know people in that situation and am not amused by what they do and the lies they spread.
Rather than worrying about quacks you should watch Sarah Cooper’s works: How to Medical and How to Grief. They are the only way to listen to Trump. May she live long and prosper!