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August 3, 2021 – Five Monkeys and the Pole

August 3, 2021 /

I couldn’t substantiate whether this story was true or not. But it is easy enough to find through internet stories that we could call it a parable. It goes something like this.

Five monkeys were in a cage with a bunch of bananas at the top of a pole. As soon as one of the monkeys started climbing to pole, he would get blasted with water until they all refused to climb the pole. Next one of the monkeys was replaced. Once the new monkey started climbing the pole, the other four monkeys would pull the new monkey down preventing him from attempting to get the bananas. Then another monkey is replaced and the same behavior is emulated. Finally, all the monkeys are new and have never been sprayed yet they have been trained to stop any monkey from climbing the pole without a real consequence.

This story seems to be mostly used in the business space to talk about office culture and to inspire to challenge the status quo. But, I can’t help to think about how we are culturally behaving as a result of Covid-19. Call it cancel culture or public shaming but people are no longer allowed to hold individual opinions that deviate from the cultural norm. And when I say cultural norm, I do mean an ignorant, non-fact based, science is settled kind of way.

The idea that science is settled is actually anti-science. There are a finite number of laws in science. Laws are provable by math and measurement. A theory is when data supports a hypothesis but it is not entirely provable or there is not enough data to support universal adoption as a law. Neither of these terms are codified because this by it’s definition is science; even laws should be continuously challenged to ensure that they are still laws.

Let’s get back to Covid and our culture. We are bombarded with radio, TV and quasi news stories about how the vaccines are safe, do our part, etc. I would call it a propaganda campaign. Admittedly, it must be pretty safe (for now) because a lot of people have gotten the vaccine. But as a scientist, I have a responsibility to challenge the accepted norm because the only way to prove a hypothesis is to test it.

My analysis of the situation is that we have the majority of society that are not qualified as scientist and failed to do their own research. They have abdicated any level of investigation to celebrities or media types rather than challenge the status quo. Given that what I believe, people have the right to be ignorant and even stupid as long as their right does not infringe on mine. In this case, we have people that are now verbally shaming and using non-qualified belief to pull the monkey down from the poll.

These were all memes that I saw yesterday that pertain to the Monkeys and the Poll parable. You can watch my Governor as a science authority within the first five minutes. This wasn’t the clip I was looking for but I think it is a perfect illustration of the propaganda campaign.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that there is much we can do about it. My best suggestion is to be aware of the world that we are living in. Pick your battles because we are not going to be able to fight them all and only the ones worth fighting. Let’s keep our calm so that we don’t make enemies out of potential allies.

End Your Programming Routine: One time I remember in seventh grade science that we had two people holding a string on each end tight. The amount of energy it took for one person to pull the string away from the other was significant. But when a third person pushes in the middle of the string, it takes that much less energy. My point is that we are not going to solve this problem using the strategies of the status quo. We are going to have to address the issue from the side where it is much easier to move the string.

August 2, 2021 – The Durability of Polycarbonate

August 2, 2021 /

Recently, I have started having some obligations at 4AM. It means that I need to be ready to rock and roll, that is talk and lead a meeting first thing in the morning. It is not easy to roll out of bed and be ready to go. To be honest, it kind-of throws off my whole day because even going to bed at 9PM, that is only 6 and a half hours of sleep. I can never get to bed that early.

Last week was a difficult week not only taking the days off but also coming back into this early morning situation. That was partially why I took the week off, I am just a little bit out of sorts. But it was also a transition week where I hung the office door and am ready to move in, just waiting for my new desk to arrive. I need to fix the roof on the garden shed before the weather changes.

I have all of the data put together for one final post on the office project. That should come soon. But this weekend I started tearing off the roof of the shed. Last October, a blustery wind came in and ripped my flashing at the transition between the composition roof and the clear polycarbonate. I got a tarp on the roof the next day and there it has sat waiting for better weather and more time.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but for some reason, there are two holes in the polycarbonate roofing. So, not only did I need to replace the flashing, which means re-roofing, but also the clear panels. are clearly showing some serious sun damage.

I put this on in 2017. This is five years of wear. It appears that everywhere polycarbonate touches wood, the panel has become black. My speculation is that the tannins in the wood are reacting with the plastic. These clear panels come it two flavors, polycarbonate or PVC. In theory, polycarbonate should be more durable than the PVC, it is also more expensive.

You can also see the tarp line. It looks like that has caused some blackening as well as sagging likely from excessive heat. I also have to change all of the custom fillers because the panel design for both polycarbonate and PVC panels. So far, I am not super impressed by the durability. If I was going to consider changing the panels periodically, it may have been worth going to the cheaper panel but for now, I am am going to go back to polycarbonate.

Another mistake I made the first time was leaning the panels on the side. They sat that way for probably a month and bent out of shape (permanently). You can see this in the picture as well. This time I will take more care in the panel storage so they don’t start our warped.

End Your Programming Routine: I am thinking that this should be a heavy weekend project, so maybe 24 hours or so. I spent three hours tearing off the three tab yesterday. I will probably pick at it when I have time this week. With any luck, I will have this done by the beginning of next week.

July 23, 2021 – 1984 2:10

July 23, 2021 /

This is the last chapter in section 2. That also means that we are moving into section 3 which will be a tone change and the consequences to all of Winston’s actions. In fact, this chapter has Julia and Winston caught by the Thought Police.

Did you think that Winston was going to get away with his treason? I guess the question that I have is why did they wait so long before they arrested the pair? I suppose that it was to build suspense in the book as well as a chance to explain a lot of the whys for the 1984 society. It is ironic that the moment Winston figures everything out that it is immediately over.

This chapter was pretty light on concepts. If I was going to be pushed into giving away the book, what I would say is the following.

Freedom is found when you are not attached to ideology. Winston’s revelation is that the future is the Proles. That is because they are not spending all of their thoughts and energy defending the system that they have created. When we look at the application of that idea in our own lives, we can probably find aspects that would overlay this type of concept particularly politics but also other beliefs like religion.

End Your Programming Routine: I am keeping it short today. In fact I am going to be gone a couple of days next week as it is birthday week. I broke my political dichotomy a number of years ago. So, Winston’s statement rings pretty true to me. If you are reading this, you probably think more like me than not but it is a good reminder to not get wrapped up in this stuff.

July 22, 2021 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

July 22, 2021 /

Alright. a one week hiatus still doesn’t mean that I am going to talk about this subject every week again. I think that it means I am going to put it in if I have something to say. Today I want to talk about less than lethal self protection.

I am going to try and make the case that there is a place for carrying less than lethal options on a daily basis or at least in certain scenarios. The term less than lethal means as it says that these would be weapons that provide a deterrent rather than a potentially deadly outcome. Ideally, a person would carry multiple options because not everything works or is appropriate for every situation.

To compare and contrast the advantages, let us start with the positives. First of all, it is not desirable to use lethal force in every situation. It may be too crowded or unsafe for some reason. It may also be that you do not want to use lethal force. For instance, the idea for this post came from me walking the dog the other day. I carry pepper spray for the express purpose of walking the dog tends to draw other dogs toward us. I have had a pit bull attack my dog (before I was carrying pepper spray) and the owner had to beat the other dog off. Fortunately he was there to do it.

It probably seems evident that the downsides are that there is a chance that less than lethal works definitively. It is also the case that you often need to be closer than you want to be to use it. Last, it may not be the right tool for the specific scenario meaning that there are lots of different options and one might be more appropriate than another.

Speaking of options I thought that I would bring some up. When it comes to adding do-dads to carry on your person, I prefer to have items that can perform multiple roles or at least most effective.

  • Flashlight – I try to carry the Streamlight Stylus Pro pictured above. It is a useful tool, like when you need a light. A bright blast of light can be temporarily blinding or at least distracting. It can also be used as an improvised kubaton.
  • Pepper Spray – This comes in different sizes and concentrations. Based on anecdotal evidence interviews that I have heard from field biologists, bear spray (a form of pepper spray) is as effective of deterrent as there is.
  • Striking weapons – These would be things such as kubatons, batons or even improvised weapons like bats, golf clubs, walking sticks, etc.
  • Shocking weapons – There are various forms up taser or stun guns that provide momentary impairment.

There are others, for most practical purposes the list above is what are commonly available and appropriate for the everyday civilian. You could get into other chemicals like smoke or tear gas or even bean bag projectiles fired from a shotgun. You can see what I have, it is not that I don’t see value in the other things, it is mostly that I haven’t really had a need.

End Your Programming Routine: In the end, weapons are a subset of tools. There is an old saying that if the only tool you have is a hammer, then every situation is a nail. When you get into tools, there is always a specific widget for an application and it always works better for that one case. But, it is not practical to always carry everything so pick what you like.

July 21, 2021 – Trying For the Second Time

July 21, 2021 /

I am not way into this, it is just that I am interested in exploring. What does that mean? It means that I am trying out Linux again. The first time I tried it was probably four years ago and I thought that it was OK, I just didn’t put much effort into it.

Why would you try Linux you ask? Well there are a couple of reasons but first I will start series of seemingly unrelated stories. My son has a penchant for collecting junk. He is a bit of a rube when it comes to not being able to see through people’s motivations. I will give a couple of examples.

About four years ago, my son and a friend decided to build a go-cart. Unbeknownst to me, their tactic was to go around the neighborhood and ask for free parts to create said go cart. One smart neighbor (I wish that I knew who it was) gave him a free tire for the project. Not four and not a wheel, but a tire. Needless to say, I paid the eight dollars to dispose of it two years later

Now the second tire story. My son was building a costume for Halloween. He went to the local tire store to obtain some tires with the premise that he was going to cut them into pieces and assemble some sort of tire suit. Now, I don’t know if you have ever tried to cut a tire, but it is pretty difficult. Again, the store gladly gave him two tires (of which they had already collected the disposal fee) and then they got paid again when I got rid of them for the second time.

And the third story which is getting closer to where I want to go. Just two weeks ago my son and the same friend found a ‘free’ TV on the side of the road. He was convinced that not only was this a better TV than the one that we already had, but that this was somehow the score of the year. Once he found out that it doesn’t work I now have another disposal issue.

I think that I made my case for when a relative gave my son a free laptop, I was not very happy about it. One reason it was free was that the operating system was locked due to a forgotten password. It was also Vista vintage hardware and I didn’t have the OEM software to re-install the operating system and address the lockout. This was my first foray into Linux.

I installed Unbuntu and to be honest, it worked alright. We used it to display karaoke on the TV s couple of times. The operating system was definitely foreign to me and I didn’t spend much time using it, only to do what I wanted to do which was access the internet and display lyrics on the TV. That computer ended up getting recycled with a large techno junk effort that I made about a year and a half ago because we didn’t need it. We had other, better laptops to replace it.

So, why do I want to fool around with Linux again? Well, I have an old XP computer that was in the recycle pile earlier this year. For some reason, it wasn’t booting and I didn’t know if it was the hard drive or a RAM fault or what. A few months ago, I thought that I would try to copy the data so that I could dispose of it and I found that it was working. I put the computer back together and low and behold XP was alive again.

The reason it is still around is that my wife is convinced that there are pictures and other data that we would want to access again. I have copied the entire hard drive so I am confident that I have everything. But nevertheless, it is sometimes nice to have an old device that has a functioning serial port or LPT port. My point to this is that I am not convinced that I want to blow away my existing hard drive to install Linux since there is not enough no partition the existing drive.

About two months ago, I spent $5 on a TV tuner card. The driver was not supported in Windows 10 and I no longer have a Windows 7 computer. I downloaded and installed the XP driver and the hardware works. However the card only handles analog signals so I don’t have a way to validate that it works.

Unbuntu is supposed to be bootable from a USB drive. I think that I tried that before, but it is not working for me at the moment. The last tech note I read was that I need to redo the USB conversion to eliminate the problem so that is my next step.

I haven’t fully decided whether I want to buy another hard drive or just to try it again. While XP does run and it seems to be fine, it is limited and not recommended to be on internet. I downloaded the last version of Firefox which is about a year out of date now. If you haven’t tried it, technology eventually stops working because the software is no longer supported. Or said another way, old technology stops communicating with new technology. It is a fine word processor or jukebox though.

End Your Programming Routine: You could say what I am trying to do is be cheap or a junk collector myself. I prefer to think of it as a thought experiment about determining whether there is life left in an old computer. I do also believe that the tactic of running Linux is a valid strategy to access data on a machine that is locked out or otherwise inaccessible. I will report more on this experiment as I get some time to get it actually working.

July 20, 2021 – Slowly Moving In

July 20, 2021 /

Today is a quick update as time is flying by. I still have door fitting and painting to do but everything else is done. That means that I can start moving in because I don’t need a door for that.

Since I had to cut the door and I know that the floor is out of level I want to do the work on any door fitting before I start painting. Once the door is up, this project is finished!

The plan is to put a desk under the black shelf (second picture). I am looking for the right size (nominally 2’x6′) because the room will be tight and every inch counts. I would love to build it so it would be exactly what I want, but I don’t think I will have time to do that now.

Originally, I was going to put a couch against the west wall (third picture). The measurements fit in the room but the couch does not because I didn’t factor the baseboard heater into the picture. I don’t think it would be a good idea to put the couch up against the heater. So, I am still working that out.

After this is done, the bigger work needs to get done and that is going through all of the junk and reorganizing the basement and garage where everything has been piled up while this process has been going on.

End Your Programming Routine: I am excited and sad to finish this project. I am looking forward to moving in and use the new space. I have lots of things stacked up waiting for this to finish so that would be positive, But, I will be done staring longingly at my project all day and think about my next move when I get a chance.

July 19, 2021 – It Really Was Something Special

July 19, 2021 /

Back on May 17, 2021 I wrote about the best/worst things. I kind of skimmed through that to make sure that I wasn’t repeating myself so recently and I don’t think that I will. My point of that post was that that events that were really great experiences were also incredibly difficult at the same time. While I was in the moment, it was exactly what I wanted but in retrospect the situation was not the best for me to continue. Or maybe looking at a different perspective that all things will come to an end.

Why am I revisiting this then again? I was part of a reunion of sorts this weekend. I got together with my former team last Saturday. What was amazing was that every single person that worked with me on my core team (on this continent) was there. I never got that kind of participation on any non-work function when we were together.

The reunion was the doings of my former right hand man. He contacted me in May and asked me if I wanted to get together with some former support team members. I said sure but I would have to shoehorn it into my packed schedule which ended up being Saturday. What was also amazing was that the majority of the people have moved on to other employment. Half of the people now live in a different states. It wasn’t as if this was my hand selected team, only one of them did I even interview and approve hiring. It was a collection of people that were assigned to my team.

One of the things that I think I did right was letting the team buy into decisions that were made. When I had latitude to do so, I was able to lay out the spectrum of decisions and consequences and let them choose how to proceed. Sometimes, we would evaluate our decisions after the fact and potentially make another choice.

For instance, we spent some time developing the Standard Operating Procedure. We worked on group consequences for not meeting our Service Level Agreement. We developed operating policies and procedures. Not everyone agreed with my methodology, particularly my last boss. But, my theory was that in order to get compliance, I needed to make sure that people understood and more importantly agreed on what they were doing.

I built an incentive program around Service Level Agreement compliance. That definitely influenced behavior as no one wanted to break a thirty day string of team compliance. But, occasionally there was a questionable action by a team member. When that was the case, I would make the team vote on the facts and end the end the results always ended up where I thought it should have been. It was sometimes difficult but the team had buy in for why something happened.

When I first started out with this team, we had almost no oversight. This was when the best progress was made. After about a year, we were really beginning to perform and people began to notice. That was when we began to get pushed to do things that were straying from what I wanted to do. Despite that, we had built enough foundation to continue to be wildly successful. The company leadership continued to tinker with the team and change the direction and in essence, I lost control. That was when I decided to leave.

Talking with the guys I came to learn that they stayed and enjoyed their work because the group was supportive and people cared. When that stopped happening, they decided to make a career change. I suppose I could add that description to myself because as my team incrementally stopped becoming mine I stopped caring.

End Your Programming Routine: I am not going to promise that I am not going to talk about this subject again because I am still trying learn the lessons from it. Call it therapy. I guess what was so amazing was that everyone made an effort to get together because I think they felt that it was something special as well. That really feels good.

July 16, 2021 – 1984 2:9

July 16, 2021 /

This was a big and a dense one. Finally Winston gets the book that is supposed to explain everything that is going on in his society. There are two excerpts that he reads verbatim (and is printed) in the book that covers the concepts War is Peace and Ignorance is Strength.

Before I get started, Winston says near the end of the chapter that there is nothing new here. Generally speaking and for the reader, this is true. We do get a much better explanation of the justifications for why things are the way that they are. Editorially I got a lot of clarity in the world of 1984.

Oligarchical Collectivism: This is the what of Big Brother. It makes perfect sense to me because I understand both words. But, in case you don’t I will define them here. Oligarchy is the form of government that where a set few run the government. Typically those few have ties to some sort of private enterprise and by proxy run the government for their personal benefits. Collectivism is a sociological term whereby a group of people live by and for the the same goals. Typically some sort of equality is tagged as the goal.

Put those two words together to describe 1984. An elite class of people rule a society who live and work for the existence of the Oligarchy. This is why the state of perpetual warfare and the exclusive production exists so that Big Brother continues to profit by the activities of the party. This is the basic premise of the the chapter titled ‘War is Peace’.

Double Think: This is the how of Big Brother. The concept of Double Think is an individual holds two conflicting ideas as true i.e. War is Peace or more aptly for this term Ignorance is Strength. Naturally, the two cannot be true when paired together.

The book tries to explain how it works, but not necessarily why. My interpretation of the psychology of Double Think is that the paradox of two opposites create an inequality. By saying everything is equal and yet nothing is actually equal it makes nearly all statements meaningless. And when that is the case, people either tune out to all things becoming agnostic drones or they believe everything becoming useful drones in the collective.

Since 1984 is held as a cautionary tale, I thought it would be interesting to overlay today’s Unted States to some of the concepts of Big Brother.

  1. Oligarchical Collectivism – Did you know that federal departments such as the FDA or Department of Agriculture are a revolving door of industry leaders from companies like Monsanto (now Bayer). Policy and power are consolidated in the hands of a few. Regulations are written to benefit the players in the game and exclude any competition. Also, despite polling, the collective continues to elect the same individuals supporting the Oligarchy.
  2. War is Peace – Afghanistan, Syria, Korea and who knows where. We have been in a state of War technically since 1953. Practically speaking we have been in deployed conflict since 2001. There is a generation of people (now adults) who have only known middle east conflict. This now low grade conflict not only benefits the military industrial complex which in turn benefits the Oligarchy without completely upsetting the apple cart for the rest of society.
  3. Double Think – Cloth masks do not stop the transmission of Covid-19 but Masks Save Lives. Take your pick of the many other examples. How about there is no inflation, we have an epidemic of gun violence, the food pyramid, etc. Anyone is free to have an opinion and even an ignorant one, but look at the claim and then look at the data and you will see that we are manipulated by Double Think. The problem is that no one actually looks at the data and accepts everything at face value
  4. Ignorance is Strength – Knowing what I have said about the first three items I am going to set the trigger with Black Lives Matter. I am not debating the validity of the statement or movement but using Double Think, the Oligarchy creates an environment where the population is divided and uses the situation to create chaos and therefore solidifying power. (Our) Ignorance is (Their) Strength, let that set in for a minute. As stated, it is Double Think but as application it should be written as I have above.

End Your Programming Routine: We are on the downhill side of this analysis. There are technically six chapters left to go so this should be finished in less than eight weeks. I didn’t think that it was going to stretch out that long originally. I think that you can see from my argument that Orwell was pretty right how things are going.

July 15, 2021 – I Learned Something This Week

July 15, 2021 /

I have run into this problem multiple times where the door jamb does not sit properly into the opening. The generic problem is described as the wall is out of plumb. In my ignorance of the past, I have tried to build up the drywall around the protruding jamb rather than try to deal with it.

I ran into the problem last year when I was working on the apartment as well. Then I did some casework last summer for a relative with the same problem. It all boiled down to the fact that I did not know how to handle a door frame when the opening is not plumb.

First of all what not to do. Do not put in the door out of plumb so it appears to fit properly. That part I knew because it will cause the door to fly open, slam shut or hit on the floor. To operate properly, the jamb needs to be installed close to plumb and square. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but close for nice operation.

Second, I have no one to blame but myself. I should have taken more care when framing so that I didn’t have this problem in the first place. I was so anxious to get things up that I didn’t think through the consequences of a bit of sloppiness. You can read yesterday’s post about minding the small things.

But how to fix it? It comes down to a bunch of extra fiddling (or work) to shave or add material to the jamb so that the trim will sit flush in the end. If the jamb is proud of the wall, then sometimes you can nail the trim on anyway depending on how much it is sticking out. The trick I saw when looking up ideas was to plane the jamb until it was flush with the drywall.

In my case, on one side of the wall it was close enough that I didn’t have to plane. But on the other sided of the wall the jamb was 5/8″ shy of the wall at the bottom. That means the wall was tipped inward. I also had some extra framing errors that kicked the the drywall out more than was necessary.

In the end, I had to cut a tapered shim to match the tilt of the wall so that the trim will sit flush. Or said another way, I built up the jamb to match the gap. That took time plus it will require additional filling and sanding. Debating what to do or even if I wanted to deal with trim has impacted my productivity some. I had to figure out how to cut the taper in finish carpentry fashion, plus mill the material, plus test it and attach it.

By the way, I didn’t look too hard but I only found half of the equation on YouTube. I saw a couple of examples of planing off proud jambs. I had to deduce that if you removed material on one half of the problem you must have to add for the other half of the equation. So that is the new technique I learned this week.

End Your Programming Routine: I took this on not because the project required it but as an exercise in learning. This is one of the areas that I have struggled in, trim around doors. The finished product will speak for itself but so far this is a huge improvement in the things that I have tried before.

July 14, 2021 – Mind the Little Things

July 14, 2021 /

Something that has annoyed me for a long time is the heat pump condenser drain doesn’t function well. The tubing is too limp and crimps to easily causing the pump to just run until the reservoir is over full and then it leaks onto the floor. It doesn’t leak often or a lot, but potentially things are getting wet that I really don’t want.

I should take my own advice sometimes because I don’t always mind the little things. Part of the damage on the apartment I had to rebuild last year was a result of not paying attention to the warning signs. I have some rot on the shop siding as well, I need to get that handled before it turns into a bigger problem. I am planning to do that work in the fall because I don’t want to kill the flowers that are growing in the area that I need to access.

Getting back to my current issue, this is a seasonal problem. Also because this has never been a dry basement everything is pretty well placed to prevent water damage. However, my guard is down from the normal wet season and I am trying to wrap up the office project so the basement is not really water ready. The other mental trap is out of sight, out of mind.

My plan is to run the condenser line into the sump rather than outside the wall. That will prevent the pinching that occurs with the tubing between siding. I purchased the materials to do the work for less than $16. I ran the line in about 10 minutes. It will take me probably another 20 minutes to secure the tubing properly and this quick project will be done.

In theory, there is one drawback to this solution. If for some reason the sump pump fails, then there is a risk of overfilling the sump. But, I believe that the water output is minimal and I doubt that there will ever be enough volume to trigger the pump. So, I believe that the risk is very low.

End Your Programming Routine: It is often the case that the consequences of decisions (or lack there of) are not realized until sometime in the future. Experience teaches you that if something doesn’t look correct, it probably isn’t. You still may not have enough information to predict the outcome if the situation is not corrected. So it is best to deal with things when you can.