How Stupid Are California's Recall rules ??

 So Gavin Newsome need to get over 50% of the vote, or he is out.  Well, do the math !!

Let's say 10 million people vote, and Gavin only gets 4.9 million of the votes to stay, and 5.1 million vote for him to be kicked out.  Well,  the rules say that the person that got the most of those 5.1 million votes is the winner.

There are 46 people running, so if 45 of them each got 110,000 votes, that leaves Candidate 46 with 150,000 votes ... and WINS ... so 1.5% of the population gets to decide who is Governor ... how crazy is that ??

Getting a Third Covid Shot ...

I was fully vaccinated seven months ago. I walked into a pharmacy this week and got another Pfizer shot. I didn’t tell the pharmacist it was my third; she didn’t ask ... but I did lie in that I said it was my second, so now I have TWO vaccine cards !!  Since the U.S. has no central database of immunization records, the store had no way to know I’d been vaccinated at the local health department.  I did not provide any ID or Medicare numbers (just checked the boxes that said "no insurance"), so I doubt I'm tracible. 

Justification ... Israel’s Health Ministry recently announced that after five months a double dose of the Pfizer vaccine remains 91% effective at preventing severe disease but only 39% effective against infection. Israelis over 60 who received their last shot at least five months ago are eligible for a third dose. Germany said it will offer third shots to the elderly and sick starting next month, and White House officials told reporters they will soon advise Americans who are over 65 or immunocompromised to get them. I’m 69, so why shouldn’t I get one too?

CNN Health reports that a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can “strongly” boost protection against the Delta variant – beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday suggests.

The data posted online suggest that levels of antibodies that can target the Delta variant grow fivefold in people 18 to 55 who get a third dose of the vaccine.  Among people ages 65 to 85, the Pfizer data suggest that antibody levels that should protect against Delta grow 11-fold more than following a second dose.

The second dose cause a slight fever, 1 day of body aches, and a really sore arm ... but that's it.  The third dose has caused a mild fever, a little bit of tiredness, and a sore upper arm at the injection site ... small price to pay.

Recently, Bloomberg published this chart about how the immune system reacts to the third shot:

So I took the plot and inserted (in RED) 8 months ... so got mine at the 6th's month.  You can see here (in RED) how I think the antibodies did.

Death of Dick Farrel, a longtime conservative radio host from West Palm Beach, Florida ... planetary IQ just shot up.

Let’s be clear here … I’ve had my dual shots of the vaccine, and the “hard NO” vaccine people have made peace with themselves.  Since break-thru Covid cases are very rare (recent UK numbers put the rates down in the 0.1% range) and the death rates even lower, if you’ve had the vaccine, then the morbidity of Covid is approaching that of the flu.  

When Covid first hit, hospitals were swamped and morgues were over-whelmed, we were all scared thinking “I didn’t sign up for this”.  Then, science came thru and gave us the vaccine.

Now, if a MASS Covid event occurs and hospitals and morgues are again swamped, it’s the “hard NO” group and THEY DID SIGN UP FOR THIS. 

So, why should I care?  I don't.  This is Darwin at it’s finest … the dumb will die (like Farrel who try to convince others to NOT take it) and the smart will live.  The immune compromised will hold onto their social distance behavior and wear face masks because they accept the risk Covid possess, and have come to accept the behavior that keeps them alive.  "It’s not a pandemic of ignorance," quipped the Santa Monica Daily Press in an editorial about Los Angeles County's spike in cases and hospitalizations. "This is a surge of straight stupidity."

The smart will live and the dumb will die … seems about right.  I just wish the hospitals would STOP giving the lung transplants to the un-vaccinated who recover ... they don't deserve them.

EMR Telemetry ... the end

Prologue:

Most of the people involved have passed on, and I’m one of the few remaining that was on the inside to witness the decisions.  While this is my opinion, I will try to be as honest as possible.

Introduction:

During my time at EMR, I met many talented and smart people, who shaped my time there to be something I recall with fond memories.  People like Joe Keller, Jud Strock, Art Kelly, Gary Schumacher, Marvin Edgeworth, Bud Thurmond … the list could go on, but these guys helped me extensively and their memory will live with me always.

I landed my dream job at EMR Telemetry (aka; Fairchild-Weston) in 1983 as a Senior Applications Engineer.  The company, located in Sarasota Florida, employed about 1200 people.  In a town as small as Sarasota was back then, the company was a major force there.  

This article will highlight three times where decisions were made which helped destroy the company, with a fourth one at the end for the “final nail”.  Sure, corporate decisions didn’t help, but the lack of success that these decisions caused forced the stakeholders to make decisions which eventually closed the company.

The Company:

At the company were four Strategic Business Units … mine was telemetry (known as EMR Telemetry from its founding name), and the second borrowed ideas and product from EMR and it was called Signal Processing … they did classified projects for the “three letter agencies”.  The third was the “black box” business for commercial airlines, and the fourth was Data Recorders (which then was mostly the old “reel to reel” magnetic analog units).

EMR had provided equipment to all of the space programs up thru the 1980s, and commanded over 80% of the market … so indeed, going to work for EMR was fantastic … we had money … we had prestige … and we commanded the market.

The EMR Product:

Telemetry systems, were for the most part, a huge bank of “front end” signal capturing equipment, connected to a large “main frame” computer with disk farms, and custom software (the software alone often ran to six figures).  As a result, most systems were in the one million dollar range (sure, today, a system that powerful is a Dell PC and a few plug in cards, but back then, we were in the stone ages).

My First Act:

I had established myself there as someone brash enough to “fight the good fight” and “think outside the box”.  I got that reputation, I think, because when I first joined, about 1 year in I was given the task of “Capture Manager” for a major pair of Request for Proposals (RFPs) from a major aerospace company.  The first thing I did was tell the President, Joe Keller, that he was wrong, and that the Request for Proposals (RFPs) should be ignored … the spec was asking for something we could not do.  In the end, we requested an audience with that company, made our pitch, and got awarded a major contract from them.  I was a hero.

Myopia at its best:

A friend from the Data Recorders unit came to me one day and said “we have this huge RFP that involves recording lots of videos … you think outside the box, so how would you architect a solution?” (back then, video was an analog signal about 5 MHz bandwidth).  So I spent a few hours and sketched out a diagram that showed a box converting the analog signal to bits, and using new high capacity disk drives to store the data.  I told him that using his current analog recorders would result in an expensive solution that was based on aging technology, and that my approach was based on new approaches that were started to be embraced by industry.  Note that neither of these products truly existed then, but today, video encoders, decoders, and digital storage are everywhere.  

Anyway, my friend floats this up the chain of command, and shortly thereafter, our CTO comes into my office to explain to me that I clearly don’t understand video signals.  If he had seen the wisdom in my approach, EMR would be “the name” in video encoding and digital recording.  Now, I could have fought for the idea, but it was not my SBU, was not my project, and not my product line … so I just shrugged and got back to my work.

A House Divided:

At one point in time, Signal Processing had been contracted to write “high end” software for their customer that did data visualization and data storage.  While at the same time, the EMR Telemetry side had their own software … so sure enough, the two products were being pushed simultaneously to the same customer sets.  So Marketing, Sales, Engineering, Customer Support, Training, everyone, was trying to figure out which product to invest time and resources into.

Finally, management called everyone together where the two different development teams got to pitch their product so that a winner could be chosen … so we would have one core product, one marketing vision, one product to train, and sales would know which product to support.

At the end, management decided to keep both … support both … invest in both.  The house was now divided.

Money Dried Up:

In the late 1980’s, PCs were coming of age, and some OEMs were trying to develop low cost telemetry systems to compete with EMR.  Their problem was that the customers had lots of money to buy “good” systems, developed by the professionals at EMR, so they didn’t get much traction.

However, in 1991, the Cold War came to an end, and Congress started using the term “the peace dividend” to justify cutting DoD budgets.  The result was that our customers, who had money before, now had little, and they were being forced to buy PC based systems instead of the huge “main frame” systems of before since they had little money, but a continuing mission.

To address this, I assembled a few engineers, borrowed some software, and took some old signal processing hardware, put it together, and showed management how EMR could be the solution for PC-based telemetry systems … allowing our customers to have “the EMR brand for 5% of the cost of a main frame system”.

I can still hear the words … “Tim, I can’t keep 1200 people employed selling $50K telemetry systems”.  At this point, I knew the end was near, and started looking for a place to move to.  And indeed, it came to pass that they could not keep 1200 people employed while offering million dollar systems either.

Final Act:

One of my last programs I led was a new data multiplexer, running what was, at the time, the incredibly high rate of 50 Mbps.  It was successful, and management decided that they wanted to take that product, modify it for the commercial world, and market it to a new customer set.  Well, in Product Management, we call that the “Launch Risk Matrix” … where basically, new product brought to new customers is the highest risk.  

At about this time, I decided to leave the company because after all the other stupid moves, and figuring this was just not going to work (IMHO), I needed to get away.  They offered me the position of lead on that team, but I knew it was the wrong product to the wrong market, so I politely declined.

Indeed, after I left and they demo’d the new product to the new customer for the first time, it caught fire.

Epilogue:

Today, the SBUs are gone, the buildings are gone, and the only ones left in Sarasota are retirees.

Texas boy, 3, dies after accidentally shooting himself in the chest at birthday party

Original Story

Until we learn that guns with ONLY split trigger safeties, like the GLOCK line, these things will continue to happen.  It's why I love Rugers ... they have the split trigger for "dropped discharge" prevention, but also have a lever.

Acesori A-World clock / charger

 The device sorta works ... I love the display ... setting the controls via the instructions is difficult, but not impossible ... and having a CR2032 button battery as the backup is nice.

However, if you use it to charge your phone, via the wireless pad or via the USB port, once your phone reaches 100%, it stops charging.  Thus, if you do like I did one night, I connected my phone while it was at 90%, so in the morning about 8 hours later it was at 67%.  This is because about 1 hour after I plug it in, it reached 100% and turned off the charger function ... and this happens if you use either the WIRED OR WIRELESS charging function.

Manual

My Favorite Sayings ...

I've collected these few gems over the years ...

--------------------------------------

Rabindranath Tagore

The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.

--------------------------------------

Augusten Burroughs

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

--------------------------------------

Isaac Newton

Truth is never to be found in simplicity.

--------------------------------------
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: 

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you lived and lived well.”

--------------------------------------

God grant me … 
• the strength to change the things that I can change,
• the tolerance to accept the things that I cannot change,
• and the wisdom to know the difference.

--------------------------------------
From the Persian poet Rumi, 

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

--------------------------------------

Remember this when trying to teach someone who won't listen or learn:
It's like trying to teach a pig to sing ...It wastes your time and it irritates the pig.

--------------------------------------

From StarTrek:

There can be no justice, so long as laws are absolute. Life itself is an exercise in exceptions.

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.

What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived. 

--------------------------------------

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.

— Confucius

--------------------------------------

Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.

— Nelson Mandela

--------------------------------------

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

— Maya Angelou

--------------------------------------

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

— Samuel Beckett

--------------------------------------

Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.

— Elizabeth Edwards, attorney and activist

--------------------------------------

Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.

— Angela Lee Duckworth, author

--------------------------------------

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.

— Helen Keller

--------------------------------------

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.

— Winston Churchill

--------------------------------------

If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.

— Shane Koyczan, poet

--------------------------------------

Grief and resilience live together.

— Michelle Obama

--------------------------------------

1. Money cannot buy happiness but...somehow, its more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes Benz than it is on a bicycle.

2. Forgive your enemy, but remember the bastard's name.

3. Help a man when he is in trouble & he will remember you when he is in trouble again.

4. Many people are alive only because it’s illegal to shoot them.

5. Alcohol does not solve any problem, but then neither does milk.

John Wayne

--------------------------------------

Vicki Harrison, author

Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.

99% to 70% Alcohol

Standard 70% rubbing alcohol is in short supply right now ... I most recently checked Walgreens, CVS, and Wal-Mart, and all were out.  So I stopped in at the distillery down the street from me as they are making hand sanitizer (like many are right now) and I thought I'd buy some (didn't need it, but thought I should make sure I have some).  

While chatting, I told them that 70% isopropyl is in short supply and they volunteered that they buy 99% isopropyl as part of their production process ... so they sold me a gallon.  But 99% pure isn't all that valuable "as is" as it doesn't kill bacteria very well (lots of articles about why, so I won't go into detail).  

So I wanted to reduce it to 70% and re-fill the 3 partial bottles I have of 70%.  So the formula (without getting into all the math) is:

4 parts water, then 9.7 parts 99% isopropyl gives you 70% isopropyl.  If you want easy math, then:
4 parts water, then 10 parts 99% isopropyl gives you 70.7% isopropyl ... but weaker is probably best, so ...
4 parts water, then 9 parts 99% isopropyl gives you 68.5% isopropyl

And yet another way ... you want a quart of 70% isopropyl, then it's 9.34 ounces of water and 22.65 ounces of 99% gives you a quart of 70% isopropyl.

How to Win on eBay ...

DISCLAIMER:  I HAVE NO FINANCIAL INTERESTS IN ANY WEB SITE MENTIONED HERE.

We've all had it happen ... you find something you want on eBay and then lose it in the last few seconds of "open bidding".  While frustrating, it's easily fixed.

eBay veterans call it "sniping" ... you wait until the last 3 seconds of the "open bidding" window and put your bid in just as it closes.  This way, you "sneak in" under the wire and take it from someone who isn't right there at their computer.

You can, however, buy software that will do that for you on your computer.  I used to use that, but it's a maintenance hassle.  No now I've found a BETTER way ... it's an on line service that does it for you ... called MYBIDDER.COM.  


You setup an account and it verifies that the name and password are correct.  Then, you simply put in the item number and max bid, and within a set number of seconds before it closes, the software puts in your bid to steel it away from others.  I won't say it's 100%, but my win rate has gone WAY up.

Website wants to show notifications ... ALLOW or BLOCK

Seems that everytime you go to a web site, it ways "such and such website wants to show notifications" and you get to ALLOW or BLOCK.  I find that so irritating ... and even if you tell them BLOCK on Monday, by Wednesday, they are asking yet again.

To solve that, there is a plug-in called "No Thanks" that blocks this annoying feature.  And the owner will even do "specials" for you (for example, I download some torrents and the search engine I use always pops up an advertisement for their VPN service.  For 10 Euro's, he stopped it.

FULL DISCLOSURE:  I HAVE NO FINANCIAL INTEREST OR OBLIGATION TO THE OWNER OR SERVICE.  I'm just a happy customer.

Why we Love Larry Hogan

You've probably heard of "the Metro" ... the subway system that serves DC, Maryland, and Virginia (the DMV).  Each line has a color assigned, and every budget item needs to be approved by the leaders of the DMV.  Well, Gov. Hogan earned my respect when he said he'd veto the Metro Expansion for the Purple Line ... said it was too expensive and we could not afford it.  So what happened ???  The steering committee cut back on a few stops to make it "affordable" ... so then Hogan approved it, saying "now THAT we can afford". 

Then when he disagreed with Ass-Hat Trump, well, couldn't love him more.

He's been very public with his cancer battles ... In 2015, Hogan revealed he’d been fighting skin cancer and appeared in public with his white mane gone and bandages on his face. “Before you get into speculation about what the other guy looked like, I wanted to tell you about it,” he joked.



Man's got a sense of humor !!!

But what impressed me most, I think, is when in early March, he announced that he was signing over all duties of governor to his Lt. Governor because "running the state is easy when compared to fighting a pandemic, and as of today, that will be my only job".

Taken from NBC's web site 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maryland-gov-larry-hogan-emerges-leader-early-action-coronavirus-n1164256

By Corky Siemaszko

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan emerges as a leader in early action on coronavirus

The GOP governor took action while Trump was still calling the pandemic a ''hoax."

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan went before the cameras last week and broke some bad news to his constituents — the state had recorded its first death from the coronavirus.

“We pray for his family,” Hogan said of the victim, a man in his 60s with an underlying condition. “Unfortunately, we are only at the beginning of this crisis and while this is the first death in Maryland it will not be the last.”

Hogan also noted that a 5-year-old girl was among the confirmed coronavirus cases in the state, a development all the more alarming because the vast majority of infected people have been older.

“This fight against pandemic is a race against time and we must take action now,” Hogan said. “We cannot afford to delay.”

That has been Hogan’s mantra from the start of the crisis. The Republican governor took steps to protect Marylanders on Feb. 27, when he first inked parts of emergency legislation to increase funds for the fight, cancelling out-of-state travel for state workers, establishing a help-line for the public and meeting regularly with his coronavirus response team. In comparison, on the following day, Trump called the coronavirus “new hoax” drummed-up by Democrats to damage him and his administration.

Hogan also declared a state of emergency in Maryland on March 5 — more than a week before President Trump made a nationwide emergency declaration.

The end result is that Hogan and fellow governor Andrew Cuomo, Democrat of New York, have at times eclipsed Trump as a national leaders in the battle against the deadly pandemic. And the steps Hogan has taken in Maryland to combat the coronavirus have been as aggressive as those taken by other take-charge governors in hard-hit states like Mike DeWine of Ohio, who is also a Republican, and Jay Inslee of Washington and J.B. Pritzker in Illinois, both Democrats.

Hogan hasn't been shy about criticizing the Trump administration’s slow response in the first days of the crisis or its inability to say for sure when badly needed supplies like masks, ventilators and test kits will be available.

“I can tell you that there's quite a bit of frustration on the part of all of the governors that we don't have answers to those questions,” Hogan said earlier in the week. “And the first answer is no, we don't have enough test kits and neither does any other state, and no, the federal government does not have an answer.”

Hogan’s frustration comes from a deeply personal place — he is a 63-year-old cancer survivor, putting him in one of highest risk categories for coronavirus complications. So his life depends on this.

But the fact that Hogan has been willing to criticize the Trump administration does not come as a surprise for people who have followed the career of a Republican who was first elected governor in 2014 and was re-elected four years later in a deep blue state.

Hogan, who is only the second Republican to be re-elected in the state’s history, was “never a fan” of Trump and made that clear even before he won the GOP nomination in 2016, said Todd Eberly, associate professor of political science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

“What set Hogan apart from other Trump critics, however, is that most of those critics eventually fell in line behind Trump or left office,” Eberly said. “Hogan governs in a different manner and has rarely hesitated to criticize or disagree with Trump — sometimes forcefully and sometimes more subtly.”

Last July, when Trump lashed out against revered Baltimore congressman Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, and called his Baltimore district “dangerous” and “disgusting,” Hogan fired back via his spokeswoman saying “Baltimore City is truly the very head of our state.”

When it comes to Hogan's aggressive approach to the coronavirus crisis, none of the academics and journalists interviewed by NBC News found fault. "I haven't heard a whiff of serious criticism," said Josh Kurtz, editor of the Maryland Matters news site, who has covered Hogan for years.

"Gov. Hogan has been way ahead of the federal government in addressing and responding to the coronavirus,” Kurtz added. “He's been proactive and open with Marylanders. In his role as chairman of the National Governors Association, he's been involved in some of the earliest federal briefings on the virus and has been good about relaying that information to his team and to his constituents."

When NBC News reached out to Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat who has sparred with Hogan in the past on various issues, Ferguson's spokesman gave an assessment of Hogan that could pass for praise in these politically fraught times: "We have nothing negative to contribute at this point," said Yaakov Weissmann in an email.

Hogan, unlike Trump, was quick to recognize the coronavirus threat and quick to mobilize the other U.S. governors, Eberly said.

“As chair of the National Governors Association, Hogan was already in a leadership role and I think he used that role quite wisely to get people to understand just how serious the situation was,” Eberly said.

How has Hogan managed to thrive in a blue state like Maryland during a period of intense political polarization?

Part of it is Marylanders just like Hogan, the experts said. He is married father of three, grandfather of four, and his wife Yumi Hogan is the "first Korean-American first lady in United States history," according to his official biography.

“He exudes competence and confidence,” said Stella Rouse, associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland.

And Hogan’s not afraid to tell off his constituents when he sees them straying from the rules that have been set in place to protect them.

“Despite our warnings, despite rapid escalation of virus, some people are treating this like vacation with parties and large gatherings,” Hogan said during his Thursday update. “If you are engaged in this type of activity, you are in violation of state law and are endangering lives of fellow Marylanders.”

Another reason Hogan thrives, Kurtz said, is that “Maryland isn't as liberal as people assume it is.”

“Hogan has found the sweet spot where a lot of the voters are,” Kurtz said. “He's held the line on taxes and a lot of people like that. He's a pretty unassuming guy, and handled a cancer diagnosis early in his tenure with good humor, grace and grit.”

In 2015, Hogan revealed he’d been fighting skin cancer and appeared in public with his white mane gone and bandages on his face. “Before you get into speculation about what the other guy looked like, I wanted to tell you about it,” he joked.

Rouse said Hogan is more a pragmatist and less of an ideologue, which is a rarity in the national Republican Party these days.

“The result is he has a lot of political capital in a state that is 2 to 1 Democratic,” Rouse said.

Eberly agreed.

“He made clear when he ran for governor that abortion and marriage equality were settled law and he had no desire to re-litigate them,” Eberly said. “On gun control, he made no mention of dialing back what Democrats had accomplished.”

Now, Eberly said, Hogan maintains a statewide approval rating that “seems to defy gravity.”

Kurtz said there is already talk of Hogan running for Senate in 2022 when his term ends, but what might dissuade him is that he would have to take on Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who is a Democrat.

“Van Hollen is pretty popular, and a Republican hasn't won a Senate race in Maryland since 1980,” Kurtz said.

Hogan could also, conceivably, run for president in four years.

“Hogan likes to describe himself as a John McCain/George H.W. Bush kind of a Republican,” Kurtz said. “If that kind of a Republican ever comes back in fashion, he could be a serious contender.”

--------------------------------

28 June 2020 Update ... his last press release continues to be the man I want as president ... compare this to Arizona, Texas, and Florida:

“While yesterday the United States saw a record number of COVID-19 cases, in Maryland, our key health metrics continue to trend in a positive direction. Our daily positivity rate reached a new low of 4.38%, and our seven-day positivity rate fell to 5.05%. Our total current hospitalizations have dropped to 511, their lowest level in 83 days. We have now conducted more than 600,000 tests, and have nearly 200 testing sites available across the state.

“As we continue to safely reopen, it is important to remember that this crisis is still not behind us. More than 65,000 Marylanders have been infected, and more than 3,000 Marylanders have now lost their lives to this deadly virus. We mourn each and every loss.

“Because of our early and aggressive actions, Maryland is better positioned for an economic comeback than nearly every other state in America. Our unemployment rate is more than one-third better than the national average. We have led, and will continue to lead, on the road to economic recovery.

“Now more than ever, as we begin to come into contact with more people, we must all continue to remain vigilant. Our health and economic recovery depends on all of us continuing to exercise personal responsibility in order to keep ourselves, our family members, our neighbors, and our coworkers safe. We encourage all Marylanders to get tested, wear a mask, and practice physical distancing.

“Throughout this crisis, Marylanders have been strong, resilient, and they have never lost hope. And now, while we still have miles to go on our road to recovery, I have no doubt that the people of our great state will continue setting an example for the rest of the nation.”

Obtaining a Handgun Qualification License (HQL) in Maryland

It's pretty straight forward ... and I applaud the process ... I am all for ownership rights, but also all for keeping guns out of the hands of assholes.

Bought a handgun from grabagun.com ... good price and reviews gave the gun I choose good marks for the price.  They cannot ship you the weapon (either handgun or long gun) ... it has to go to an Federal Firearms Licensed dealer in your area.  Grab A Gun has a good link to ones in your area, so use their list.  The FFL will receive the gun and you go in with your HQL and Drivers License to get it handed over.  The FFL I choose charges $50 for a long gun handover and $100 for a handgun.

Anyway, the process is straight forward ... get your training on handgun safety ... you can find places that can do the process here.  I did not need to do this as I am ex-military, so I used my DD214 to get it waived.

Then, go here to get the process moving with the Maryland State Police (you need to setup an account).  Only thing to note is that the web site is not very intuitive ... just note the menu system on the left of the page and you won't have any issues.  I found one person / site that said you needed to use Microsofts browser, but I use Chrome and had no issues.

You'll need to input your DD214 or Training Certificate information while filling out the application.  Once that's gone as far as you can, you need to get finger printed via the "LiveScan" system ... you can find all the people who can do it here.  You can also use Google Maps, bring up your area, and search for "Live Scan" ... you'll find tons of groups that do it in your area.  They all should charge around $50, and some require appointments, but for myself, I found one in a small town and was able to walk in ... zero wait time.  You get a receipt that has your file number.

NOTE:  That file is only available to the Maryland State Police for a few days, so don't delay (at least that's what I was told).

Now, go back to your application site here to continue ... input your fingerprinting receipt number, answer 20 questions (like "am I nuts" ... yes / no) and then you can PAY FEEs ... $50.  Careful on the questions ... you get into the habit of answering NO, then at the end it asks "are you a US citizen" and "is everything the truth" so I'd advise switching over to YES for those two (but that's just me).

Wait up to 30 days and the license arrives (assuming you did everything right).  But, your not yet done.

You now need to complete your form 77R at the Maryland State Police Licensing Portal.  So yet another web site here ... and there you input pretty much the same information, except now you need to input your Handgun Qualification License number.  Within an hour, you will get an email with your PIN number.  Take that PIN number to the FFL where your handgun is located (or about to be bought) and you AND they fill out a form to submit (and pay the transfer fee).  From there, you wait 7 days and THEN you can take your gun.  Note that 7 days is not 7 FULL days, but 7 days, so if, like me, you fill out your paperwork on a Tuesday at 3 PM, you wait thru:
Day 1:  The Tuesday you completed the form.
Day 2:  Wednesday
Day 3:  Thursday
Day 4:  Friday
Day 5:  Saturday
Day 6:  Sunday
Day 7:  Monday
So on the following Tuesday, you can pick up the gun.

Hacking Digital Signatures in PDFs

The following is done on a Windows 10 machine.

The new W4 statements [Form W-4 (2020)] you have to fill out were created with digital signatures, so when you look at permissions, you find:
      Changing the Document:  Not Allowed
      Document Assembly:  Not Allowed

So I wondered ... how do you unlock "signed PDF" files ... you can only input where they allow you to input ... pre-set form fields!  Personally, I find this un-acceptable ... I have my signature in a pre-scanned TRANSPARENT PNG file so that (since I have Acrobat), I can drop in that signature so the form is complete.

In the past I just printed it to a PDF, but digital signatures retain the security of "NOT ALLOWED" ... sigh.  Well, it took me a few hours to figure this out, and "technically" your not unlocking it ... but instead "re-creating it" (which, if I'm being honest, that is what I do when I PRINT to a PDF and then put in graphics and text boxes. 

Anyway, to do this, do a PRINT to your standard printer, and you:
1) in the PRINT dialog, click ADVANCED
2) click the boxes PRINT TO FILE and PRINT AS IMAGE ... I choose 600 DPI
3) OK it and print it ... and it prints to a PRN file.
4) PRN is Post Script, so change the extension to .PS

Now, go to the web site:  www.ps2pdf.com ... you don't need to install anything (but I was so impressed, I did install the CHROME extension) and you upload the PS file ... and in about 1 minute, I was able to download a PDF. 

Once downloaded, open in Adobe Acrobat and do the RECOGNIZE TEXT function to turn it into something that you can more easily use.  Once done, you can insert or edit away.

Wendy's Breakfast Sucks ...

as of 3 March 2020 ...

First shot try got both sandwiches wrong ... and found shell in the egg.

Second try got us soggy bacon, and "cheese" seems to be put on with a paint brush.  I find the sausage patty too spicy and my last bite of sandwich (only could stomach half) found under cooked egg.

Fries/Potatoes under-whelming.

I will say, however, that I do like the Honey Chicken Biscuit ... that was good ... you can actually smell the honey when your un-wrapping it.

Free Faxing

You can pretty much do free faxing if your willing to use 2 sites.  The only limitation is that "free" on the sending means 1 page.  Please note that I have NO FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH EITHER SITE.  This information is based on using them over the past year.

SENDING:

For sending, I use "gotfreefax.com".  The "free" means you need to send only 1 page, which I have found FITS just fine ... just be careful and clear.  Just about all my needs fit on 1 page.

You can send PDFs, Docs, and JPGs.  Never used JPGs, but DOCs and PDFs work just fine.

If you use the FREE approach (red circle in picture), you get 3 emails from them ...
1:  Verify your email address (I have never gotten SPAM from them).
2:  It's in process
3:  It's done.

However, if you need to send multiple pages, you can buy blocks of pages ... see the black circled item ... 100 pages for $10, so 10 cents/page.  I bought a block over a year ago and I'm still using them whenever the FREE doesn't fit my needs.

RECEIVING:

For receiving faxes, I use "faxburner.com" ... the only limitation is that the phone number you give to people is only good for 24 hours.  If you pay them, they will give you a permanent number, but for my needs, 24 hours is just fine:

Bio-Advanced Moss & Algae Killer & Cleaner ... and using your own garden sprayer

I tried the Bio-Advanced 2-in-1 Moss & Algae Killer & Cleaner on the front half of my Cape Cod style house (I live in Southern Maryland).  I killed all the algae, turning it all yellow.  However, to get up to the top of the roof (which is really needed on the back of the roof), I needed a jet spray attachment ... and that is where Bio-Advanced said NO.  Their position is that you must use it with the hose end sprayer it comes with.  Now, I respect that, but it's too dangerous for me to get up on the pitched roof (I'm approaching 70 !!).

So, I decided to do some experimentation.  I cut open the original containers to get the sprayer off, and save the chemical.

You need to cut up high as the container is very full with chemical.  To the right of the Moss Killer is my test tube.  I measured out 25 ml (you can use anything really ... a shot glass even !!) and connected the sprayer up.  It took 10.01 seconds to empty the 25 ml.

So then, I repeated the experiment with my Ortho Sprayer.

Of course, I had the sprayer off the original Ortho base ... and dipped the hose into the solution (same 25 ml) and timed it.  Found that the 4 ounce setting got the same time ... 10.03 seconds.

So I sprayed the roof, and as assumed, it took about the same amount of time as when I did the front part.

The algae on the front and back died, so then I had a "roof cleaner" come out and sweep off the roof and spray their own chemical ... it wasn't needed, but that was the agreement.

Anyway, I then decided to spray my driveway where I needed to walk it without a hose available (it's 600 feet long), so I used the same Bio-Advanced Moss & Algae Killer & Cleaner, sprayed it into a large container then poured the resulting chemical into a hand pump sprayer and walked my entire driveway killing algae ... worked like a charm.

Happy St. Patricks Day

May the most you wish for

be the least you get.

May the best times you’ve ever had

be the worst you will ever see.

Spondoolies SP-20 and Spondoolies SP-35 cleaning

DISCLAIMER:  BOTH THE 20 AND 35 HAVE DIED.

Overhauling Spondoolies Bit Coin Miners

I own both the SP-20 and an SP-35.  Recently they started getting intermittent, so I decided to clean them up and do new thermal grease (since that’s about all you can do when the OEM goes out of business).  These are the steps I took … didn’t use ESD precautions, but I know how to handle parts, so I was not too worried.  Your mileage may vary.

Make sure you have thermal paste on hand … ArcticSilver is what I use.

The SP-20 is the hardest to do from the perspective of “how to take apart” while the SP-35 takes a lot of hours.

The SP-20

For orientation, when the unit is lying on a table, the RJ-45 is at the top edge.  So, take out the three screws at the top of each side and remove the top.  Now, you will see two ribbon cables running into the controller card … slide those off … there are no clips … just pressure holds them on.

Now with the cables off, take out the next three screws (from each side) and the sub-assembly that holds the controller card with the RJ-45 connector is now loose … but ... be careful to ensure that the ribbon cables don’t get in the way as your removing it, and “hinge” it towards the rear as the rear fans are wired to the controller card.

Once removed, you’ll see the two miner cards in there, loose.  Look at the stamped metal you removed … there are guides there that the two miner cards go into during re-assembly … remember them. Now, remove each miner card and set them aside.

Now blow out the chassis metal that’s left … blow off the controller card assembly, and blow off the miner cards.

For each miner card, remove the heat sinks (2 screws each) and blow the dust off.  Clean the old thermal grease off the heat sinks with 99% isopropyl alcohol (70% will do, but 99% is best).  Then, clean the old grease off the chips … properly cleaned, the chip tops should look like little mirrors.  Never touch either the chip or heat sink with bare hands … and remember that all surfaces are only clean via an alcohol wipe down.  I used Nitrile gloves to ensure that no skin oils got on any surfaces.

Apply a small dab of new grease on each chip, and using a razor blade, spread it out over the entire surface.  It goes far so you only need a tiny amount.  Once you spread the compound out via the razor blade and the top is fully covered, re-install the heat sinks onto each chip … first screw is turned a few turns to set it, and then the other screw is fully screwed in.  Once the second screw is screwed all the way in, finish the first.  These screws should NOT be tight … just turn until it stops.

Once both boards are done, re-seat the boards back in place, in their guides and all way back so their power connectors stick out the back.  Then, put the controller card back into place, making sure the ribbon cables are routed through their cut outs and re-connect them. 

Now you need to move the boards about a bit so that they boards are into their proper position.  The controller assembly metal needs a little bit of force to get the screw holes lined up … the pressure is to ensure that the boards stay in place during movement.  Get each of the 3 screws of each side in … and don’t tighten any until ALL SIX are installed … and THEN tighten them.  Now, put the top back on and put the last 6 screws back in. 

SP-35

Pull the power supplies out and blow them out.

Remove the top via 3 screws in the rear.  Once the screws are out, you slide the top back about ½ inch and remove it.

You have two platters of miner chips … there is a top and a bottom.

But first, by the power supplies you will see two metal plates with 4 screws in each.  Those connect (or link) the power supplies to the processor boards.  Remove all 8 screws (2x4) and remove the links.

For the top miner platter, remove the heat sinks (2 screws each) and blow the dust off the heat sinks.  Clean the old thermal grease off the heat sinks with 99% isopropyl alcohol (70% will do, but 99% is best).  Then, clean the old grease off the chips … properly cleaned, the chip tops should look like little mirrors.  Never touch either the chip or heat sink with bare hands … and remember that all surfaces are only clean via an alcohol wipe down.  I used Nitrile gloves to ensure that no skin oils got on any surfaces.

Now, you will see screws holding that platter down … should be about 10 of them.  Remove those, and notice that by the power supply is a shielded ribbon cable … remove it … no clips … pressure fit only.  Lift out the platter and sit it aside.

Same instructions on the bottom platter … remove heat sinks and blow the dust off.  Then clean the old grease off the chips and sinks.  You can remove the bottom platter if you want … I didn’t.

At this point, you want to blow out the chassis and blow all the dust off the platters … then wipe the chips off in case any dust got on them.

Apply a small dab of new grease on each chip, and using a razor blade, spread it out over the entire surface.  It goes far so you only need a tiny amount.  Once you spread the compound out via the razor blade and the top is fully covered, re-install the heat sinks onto each chip … first screw is turned a few turns to set it, and then the other screw is fully screwed in.  Once the second screw is screwed all the way in, finish the first.  These screws should NOT be tight … just turn until it stops.  Do this to both platters. 

Re-install the top platter and reconnect the ribbon cable and the power links.  Screw the platter back in place.  NOTE:  I found two of the stand offs that the top platter sit on were stripped out from (I assume) poor production processes … so I just left 2 screws out as I didn’t want to disassemble and tap the threads.

Install the top and power supplies and you’re ready to rock, er, mine.

Torrents and Seedboxes ...

Many people on line have tried downloading torrents, and then using a torrent engine like utorrent (read: microtorrent) to download a file (maybe the latest HOT movie?).  And inevitably you stumble upon a copyright holder who will file a C&D (cease and desist) against your ISP ... which get's you cut off (because your ISP tracks your IP address and times assigned).

Then, you think "I'll use a VPN and log in thru Hong Kong" so they can't track me ... and that is correct.  But the problem is that setting up a VPN and monitoring it 24/7 takes a lot of time and technical "know how" (at least in Windows it does).  When I tried a VPN, I found that often it would drop off, and my network connection would resume "in the clear" without notifying me ... very frustrating.

Finally, I found the best solution ... a seedbox.  If you don't know what that is, this article describes it better than I can.  But in brief, it is your 'friend' in some "non-tracking country", say The Netherlands, where privacy laws will keep you from ever being disclosed or discovered.  They download the file you want, and you FTP it from them, and since no one can track the contents of FTP activity, no one ever knows you downloaded a "copy-righted" file.

I used UltraSeedBox for over a year, and found that, while they had good pricing, over the last 6 months their Customer Support went to total crap ... so after they LOST my RSS feeds twice, I gave up on them and switched to EVO ... only $5/month, super support (at least at first), and you can even pay them with BitCoin if you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to stay anonymous (I don't, but you can).  But their stability went lacking after a year (they got a virus and wiped out all my RSS feeds and all the files I had stored there ... and offered no way to get them back ... even a "screen grab" to remind me of the files lost would have been nice ... but they just wiped my account and said "sucks to be you").  Also their web interface kept getting hosed up when I would load in a bunch of torrents ... so I  switched to SEEDBOX.IO. ... yes, it's $10/month for the basic package, but well worth it for the stability, speed, and super fast customer support.

Final note ...  if you don't use SEEDBOX.IO and decide to use something else, make sure you ask about PUBLIC versus PRIVATE trackers.  I tried one where only after signing up did I find that they would only work with PRIVATE trackers ... and you don't want that as the options available in the "private" torrents is pretty limited (IMHO).