Heading up to the rig shortly to drive it for 10 miles, fill up the tank, run the genny, put a load on it and check for mice. I think I found where they got in last year, the dealer removed a panel in one of the bays so I replaced it and hopefully that helps.
Bringing mouse traps, already put down dryer sheets everywhere but have heard that doesn’t help but it can’t hurt the smell of the rig so I’m leaving them.
Wish me luck, knock on wood everything is fine.
I love the rising sun, makes for such nice pictures.
These are some of the servers I manage. 16 of them I designed and built by hand up to 9 years ago and they’re still running. Knock on wood!
I held off on my opinion of Steve Jobs because I felt it would be rude to post what I’m about to say about both him and his company at the time of his death. I don’t wish anybody dead and I was NOT happy about his death, I didn’t hate the man. His death saddened me, plus he died of the same cancer my Mom died of 2 years ago, 11/29/09. But his death didn’t fill me with feelings of there goes a man the likes of Edison or Einstein or even Bill Gates. I don’t feel he compares to any of these three favorably and here’s why.
I have been in the computer industry professionally for over 20 years. I started toying with them back in 1978 when I worked for a stereo store. I have A LOT of experience with both PC and Apple products, to be fair calling a post 2006 Mac a Mac isn’t fair, it’s a PC pure and simple. Apple, no, correction, Steve Jobs realized that saying a computer is faster isn’t the same thing as actually being faster, the Byte mark was a joke but millions bought because of the commercials where Jeff Goldblum would brag about how much faster a Mac was. Well, using the Byte mark, which was compiled to run optimally on Apple’s G series CPU’s, when run on an x86 (Intel and AMD) computer they lagged behind, much to the joy of Apple fanboys everywhere.
As an honest computer nerd it ticked me off that Apple would knowingly run a rigged game and then brag about the outcome. I was about 50/50 into Mac’s at the time (even though I hated that they were built in China) but this turned me off enough where I stopped working on them completely, one could say I had my priorities backwards and they would likely be right.
Reality set in for Apple when they realized even cooked numbers weren’t going to continue working and they couldn’t shoe horn a molten hot G5 or the never to be built G6 into a laptop, enter Intel (I could write about their tactics as well, maybe someday) with a big shit eating grin on their face to save the day, literally. Apple development on the G6 stalled because it couldn’t do the job.
The crow Apple had to eat was mighty indeed and Apple fanboys will tell a different story I’m sure, hey whatever floats yer boat boys but the truth is the truth. Intel put an ass whuppin on Apple (at the time AMD put a whuppin on both Intel and Apple) and they knew it and they knew they had to make the switch or not have anything to put into their laptops. Try and imagine the backdoor meetings for that eh?
Getting back to Steve Jobs, there was a reason why he was ousted at Apple in ‘85. He couldn’t be managed period, the company was suffering and while John Scully says things a bit differently now, the way Jobs did things back then simply didn’t work. After he was gone for 11 years the environment for Steve to come back was right, the company was again suffering but now Steve was older and much wiser and he had a relationship with Bill Gates that he put to good use and between Gates money and Jobs taking full control Apple was saved.
So, that being the case why am I not an Apple fan? Because in 1992 Apple, after building facilities and hiring thousands pulled up stakes and moved almost all production to China. A country known to be euthanizing baby girls and working people in sweat shops for next to nothing. This had the needed result of huge profit margins for Apple which today is more than Exxon Mobile. You would think that production could be brought back to the States when Steve Jobs heard the reports of conditions at the major plants in China right? Nope!! Apple did nothing without the approval of Steve Jobs who pushed for more production capacity which in turn caused the operators of the plants to push workers even harder for longer. Would YOU make that choice?
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for profit but there is a point when you must look at HOW you’re making that profit and who it affects. This has become a problem all over the country, to the point where people are saying Capitalism is bad, no, it isn’t. The problem is people, no matter what system is in place, people will subvert it, pollute it and twist it to their agenda. Capitalism provides a way for ALL PEOPLE to become wealthy should they choose to do so but of course there are no guarantees and is a post for another time. Apple, under the leadership of Steve Jobs made a pile of money on the backs of people they hurt and instead of taking the reports coming from China and stepping back and saying enough is enough, they tried to cover it up, they had about as much success as the virus cover up but people don’t care and that says something about people.
Steve Jobs will go into the history books being compared to Einstein, Edison and many others. In my view he doesn’t belong there. I didn’t come to this conclusion based on bias, I wanted to like him and Apple, but both kept giving me reasons not to. Apple will continue to make hardware in China, as many companies do but I believe in karma and what has happened to the thousands upon thousands who suffered to work insane hours in conditions American’s would never put up with will probably come back to haunt them.
My opinion on this is the unpopular one, people look at Apple and especially Steve Jobs with loving eyes, everything they have done makes these people smile and brag about how the world was changed by them. Two countries were changed for sure, can you say for the better? Do better toys really make for a better life? The fact that Apple moved some manufacturing 1,000 miles away to another part of remote China where it’s difficult to check on how employees or iSlaves are doing is very telling also.
Hearing Steve Jobs defend conditions at the factories should disgust you because he ignored the conditions completely. He stated “We’re all over this”, really… lying about what you’re doing isn’t being all over it, talking about the restaurants and other things Foxconn had to put on premises because of the sheer size of the compound may make him happy but the promised 30% raise from $1.00 per hour to $1.30 per hour making him happy, disgusting.
Quote from Steve Jobs "We hope the hike in wages will help improve the living standards of the workers and allow them to have more leisure time, which is good for their health." Quote "You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice.” Amazing, what did he think they would show him when staff went to check it out? Come on, really?
The 12+ hour work shifts, the abuse and having to ask for permission to use the bathroom are just part of the benefit package right? Steve Jobs completely ignored what was going on in China, deluded himself into believing Foxconn treated their employees the same way American employees are treated only they have theater, swimming pools and restaurants in the compound. Hey, so does Google but I’ll lay odds they aren’t abused, forced to work without overtime pay and forced to confess poor job performance in front of their co-workers.
I’m done, I wrote this because I am sick of people who know I am in the computer field saying how awesome Steve Jobs was. The last person who did that had to endure a 30 minute explanation about why Steve Jobs was NOT awesome, just a guy very good at marketing and figuring out what people would buy.
I’ll put on my fire suit now because I’m sure I’ll be taken to task for saying anything negative about Apple and burned in effigy for talking smack about the almighty Steve Jobs. If you doubt the things I have said here do a little research, what you find may actually shock you.
You may want to start HERE.
There are some pieces of music that just hit you. Carmina Burana ~ O Fortuna is one of them.
When you have 1,600 watts, Klipsch RF-82 Reference speakers and 2 monster subwoofers you’d think I would include something with bass, so for that I use Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture which will bring the house down. But it does so clearly and while putting a very big grin on your face. You’d swear you were at the concert, when they pound the drum you feel it.
Playing house music on this system will actually cause the neighbors china to rattle. I only use house music to test the subwoofers about once or twice a year though, it’s all I can handle.
This system will be hard to get rid of when we’re ready to full time because I’m not going to build up the system in the coach. I’m plenty happy with the basics in there. I had nothing better to post today and when I ran across the video I figured why not post it?
Have a great Sunday everybody.
It’s High School graduation time, Ford released the 1982 Mustang GT H.O. (for high output) and magazines proclaimed “The Boss is back!!”. This GT had 160 horsepower which is laughable today but back then it was a sign that the era of decal performance was over. By decal performance what I mean is stickers applied to the Trans AM, Camaro and Mustang to give the impression of performance with nothing to back it up under the hood.
Fast forward to 2011 and Ford releases the most powerful naturally aspirated Mustang ever at 412 horsepower, no supercharger, no turbo, just one of the best engines ever produced in the United States. 5.0 liters of pure muscle. Is Ford happy with that? No, Government Motors (that would be GM) allows the Chevy division to build a king of the hill Camaro called the ZL1 making 550hp, Ford replies I’ll see your 550hp and raise you 100hp to 650hp!
This is insane, the Z06 Corvette has a top speed of 198mph, this new monster Mustang GT500 has a top speed of 200+ mph. Seriously, if somebody told me back in the day that you could buy a 650hp Mustang at the dealer I’d call you a liar, no way.
Many people think, where can you put all that power to use? That’s not the point, gearheads know what I’m talking about. Just knowing you have it is enough and besides, there are legal ways to use all that power and half the fun is figuring out how to get all that power to the ground. 0 – 60 for the GT500 hasn’t really changed even though power keeps going up, why? Well, tires really don’t have a way of gripping the road any better so most buyers of these monster buy aftermarket street legal drag radials to make it possible to launch the car properly.
By the time most cars are at 60mph these monsters are at 100mph, simply amazing. Not only that but a 160hp Mustang in 1982 got 16mpg, if it was lucky, a new Mustang GT is rated at 17mpg but I had one, I averaged over 23mpg with 550hp on tap. These new brutes are cleaner, get better mpg and are built infinitely better than they were in the past.
You can walk right into a Ford dealer and walk out with a car capable of blowing away full blown race cars from just 10 years ago… Amazing. A new 2012 Boss Mustang is the best Mustang ever produced, this isn’t me saying that, although I agree, the critics that always bad mouth Mustang’s are saying it. You see, they hate live axle cars, but they love this one!
The must have it side of me has been waiting for these cars my whole life, people who know me will be shocked when they learn I have no interest in buying one… my how far I have come.
I have been a history buff since I was a kid. Having immigrated here from Norway with my parents in 1964 I am also into Norwegian history. I’m very proud of my countries history, as violent as it was for many centuries. I am also proud of American history and wanted to know more about why my parents immigrated here with my brother and I. Our sister was born here so is first generation American. I read so many stories of American history/heroism and it brings tears to my eyes to read or watch documentaries of them. Even pushing 50 if I had to, I would fight for this country even if it meant my death. I don’t know what an overweight near 50 bad back bad knees and bad elbows guy could do but I’d do what I could. I love the USA, ask my wife I bleed Red White & Blue.
But, I didn’t know enough about the country I was born in so I read what I could while in school and in the library. The Internet sure would have come in handy back then!
WWII was devastating for so many countries but it never touched American shores after Pearl harbor. American’s didn’t have to deal with any Japanese or Nazis up close, thank God. The Nazis invaded Norway on April 8th, 1940, the operation was called “Operation Weserubung” using Blitzkrieg tactics. The Viking’s used complete surprise when they attacked, so did the Nazis, lack of preparedness for a large scale invasion gave the Nazis room for success.
A parachute battalion (a first for warfare) was used to take out the Oslo and Stavanger airfields. 800 aircraft overwhelmed them and resistance was overcome quickly. Neutrality means one thing, weakness, the enemy could care less, if they want a fight and you don’t, they’ll bring it to you and make you sorry for not being prepared, a lesson lost on too many today.
Nazis troops brazenly marched into Oslo behind a brass band, imagine what that must have been like to see. Makes me sick to even think about. Thankfully there was enough resistance to allow the royal family to escape. After the initial shock of the surprise attack they were also able to slow the Nazis advance but superior numbers caused them to retreat.
June 10th the Norwegian 6th division surrendered after the British moved their troops to the French front, without allied support any further defense against the Nazis invasion was impossible. For the rest of the war the Nazis kept 300,000 troops in Norway to keep Swedish iron ore safe and to use its resources.
Norway had traitors who helped the Nazis, the most famous of which was Vidkun Quisling who seized power in a Nazi backed coup and the collaborationist Government proceeded to participate in Germany’s “Final Solution”. Disgusting.
After the war there was a purge of these people, Quisling was executed by firing squad 10/24/45, which in my mind, that was too good for him. Many fought the Nazis, one of the most famous resistance fighters was “Max Manus” who with other members of what became the “Oslogjengen” which translates to the Oslo Gang, drove the Nazis crazy with acts of sabotage preventing munitions, planes and troops from leaving Norway for the front.
They also saved the lives of thousands of Norwegian sons from serving in the Nazis “National Labour Duty” which was actually a Nazi scheme to send between 75,000 to 300,000 Norwegian men/boys to the German/Russian front. Factory workers would sabotage the munitions they made, tanks and everything else they could so failures of equipment and munitions was high coming from Norway. I’m sure it pissed the Nazis off but good when V2’s failed. 
After the war Norway had to rebuild its economy and this took time, when my brother was born my parents decided to move to the US. My mother had lived in the US during the 1950’s and went to school here and wanted to return permanently. A month after I was born we moved here, my father forced himself to learn English and both became productive American’s and taught us to be American’s and to love our adopted country.
What makes the United States great is people from every country on Earth has come here and with them the rich history of their heritage as well. No other country has it and when ever there is a fight people are shocked at how hard and consistent the US armed forces will fight. In WWI the Marines were called Devil Dog’s for their fierceness but along with that fierceness is the willingness to help other countries through tough times, help them fight for their freedom and help them rebuild after a tragedy.
Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend! God Bless The USA.
We have had State Farm for what seems like forever, my wife has had them since the '70’s and soon after we got married we consolidated everything into a State Farm package so everything was covered. Since we had no claims everything was great! We bought the RV and had 2 claims, both were handled in my view perfectly by State Farm.
Enter the house, last June we had a bad wind and hail storm, the roof was damaged as was the siding. The claim process was a nightmare, denied the first time even though the examiner saw damage, so we said fine, if State Farm says there isn’t enough damage then what can we do? I am not the kind of person who files a claim without having very good reason and they say everything is fine. They had done right by us for the RV, why would they be any different for the house?
I have found that how one division acts has nothing to do with another division, they’re like separate companies completely. I was ignorant of this fact.
We had our door knocked on by every single storm damage construction company out there saying they would handle everything and we turned each and every one of them down. Enter March 2011, an even worse hail and wind storm and now there is more damage, you can actually see the roof tiles were cracked from the impact and we have dings all over the siding.
State Farm came out and said yes you clearly have enough damage to warrant roof and siding replacement. They sent us a check for several thousand dollars less than the damage and said we would need to revisit the claim if the repairs were more than the check. We decided to wait until Spring of 2012…. our mistake… last night we get a form letter from some underwriter at State Farm stating “This insurance coverage is no longer acceptable to State Farm Fire and Casualty Company because of your overall claim activity”. Number of claims on file? ONE!
He then states the overall claim activity was the hail damage which hasn’t even been cashed or repaired yet. I do some research and find out that for State Farm this has become typical practice and there are class action lawsuits against them for it, who woulda thunk it?
I wrote my State Farm agent and told him there is no longer any reason to have State Farm unless this could be rectified since we would lose the discount from having everything insured with them, at least $220.00 a year discount, gone. Lets say he gets State Farm to keep our house insured with them, no way in hell I’m staying with them for longer than it takes to switch. How is one claim in all the years we have done business with them too many claims? The check is for $12,000, the damage is over $18,500 so now we can’t even get everything fixed without going back to get the difference.
I’m calling USAA since they give Veterans a discount plus they also insure everything and if they pass muster we’re going to drop State Farm like they clearly want to be dropped and hopefully USAA works out. I started doing some research about this and have found there are websites dedicated to exposing State Farm for their tactics in the home insurance field.
We’ll see how this new drama unfolds after our Agent contacts the underwriter to see what can be done.
