Wordle 1698 Hint

Hint: When every day is "Meatless Monday."

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First Letter: V

Wordle 1697 Hint

 Hint: You'll likely find 30-50 of them in a screenplay (and the film it's made from).

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First Letter: S

Wordle 1696 Hint

 Hint: That's a big fiddle.

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First Letter: C

I Didn't Plan to Bother With The Super Bowl This Year

The Chiefs aren't in it. The Jaguars aren't in it. I don't care much one way or the other about either of the teams that are in it. Meh.

I also don't care much one way or the other about the halftime show. I usually don't anyway, and while I like a lot of different kinds of music, Puerto Rican hip-hop doesn't show up on my list of Pandora stations. I did think the J-Lo/Shakira halftime show a few years back was pretty cool, but not because of the music itself, IYKWIMAITYD.

BUT!

The people Bad Bunny is pissing off seem like the kind of people who are worth a one-household ratings bump to piss on.

So I'll be going ahead with the annual ritual of making a few pounds of buffalo wings, etc., and watching the game. I'll probably cheer for the Patriots, just because it's cool that a rookie QB led his team all the way to the Super Bowl (and because I prefer the AFC to the NFC).

Wordle 1695 Hint

Hint: To surround something with something else, as when a journalist accompanies a military unit to report on its operations.

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First Letter: E

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #5

"Holding to nothing, clinging to nothing, the sage finds peace." (Buddhism, Sutta Nipata 4.1)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

While I prefer to make more out of less -- for example, running minimalist computer setups instead of trying to be "state of the art," buying my clothing used at thrift stores or inexpensively if new -- I consider myself more Epicurean than ascetic, and regard a certain amount of "clinging" as not just reasonable but necessary (property rights and a general "what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours" approach to life). I enjoy the good life. I have no ambition to own only a saffron robe and a begging bowl.

I also suspect that spiritual asceticism can, in many cases, entail its own kind of clinging. We've probably all known people with substance abuse problems who no longer use the substances involved, but who have substituted their "sobriety" for those substances as a subject of 24/7 obsession. They just found a different thing to cling to. It might be a better thing, but it's not the "absence of desire" that Buddhism, as I understand it, promotes.

Wordle 1694 Hint

Hint: A sheepish sound.

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First Letter: B

A Warning for Tom Woods Fans

Thanks to reader Thane Eichenauer for calling this to my attention:

Tom was hacked. Don't fall for it.@Support: Fix please. https://t.co/5roS6vSYub

— Scott Horton (@scotthortonshow) February 6, 2026

I know that some of my readers follow Mr. Woods, and may have bought things from or through him in the past (I've done so myself). Just don't buy this, because it's not really him and you won't get what you pay for.

Counter-Intuitive

It's 30 degrees outside, but 70 degrees inside the 1990 Jayco 806SD pop-up camper, with nothing but a small space heater running. And it's been at or about that temperature since about 20 minutes after I woke up and came to work this morning. The foam board insulation definitely made a big difference -- without it, at that outside temperature, it took an hour to get the temperature into the 50s. Once I get around to puting "siding" on the foam board (actually vinyl flooring that the previous camper owner threw in when I bought it), I expect the climate control will improve even more (and, of course, the thing will look better).

In between morning work tasks, I went through my weekly ritual of looking at used camper/trailer prices in my area on Facebook Marketplace. While I've committed to giving this one at least six months before deciding whether to stick with it or upgrade, I like to keep an eye on what's out there.

Having never watched this market before, I would have expected the prices of used campers/RVs to be down in the middle of winter, with a market flooded from people who use them for summer recreational travel, etc. deciding to get rid of ones they didn't use as much as expected last summer and figure they won't do so next summer either.

But the prices I'm seeing are actually up from last fall, except for older listings that still haven't sold (most of those were on campers that were too much in the "fixer upper" category even for me, and that I expect may not sell for any price -- a few are even listed as "free if you'll just haul the damn thing away already").

Three hypotheses:

• In north central Florida (and probably some other locales), a lot of these campers have clearly been serving as homes, and nobody likes to move in the winter. We may not have blizzards and icy roads in this neck of the woods, but we also tend to put on coats and gloves and stomp our feet trying to stay warm when the temperature falls below 65 (I laughed at that when I moved here, but now I've gone native). So people who didn't get moved out of a camper by December or so are probably just riding things out until spring.
• Same thing, even if they're ready to sell. To sell the camper, you have to clean it out and clean it up a little, and actually leave your heated house to show it to prospective buyers. They'd rather do that when it's 75 degrees than when it's 45 degrees.
• The "didn't use it much last year" sellers may not decide to sell until recreational travel season starts looking like a thing again and they start thinking "do I really want to put new tires on it, give the roof a new coat of sealant, etc., when I'll probably use it one weekend if at all? Screw it, I'll put it on marketplace, get it out of my driveway, and either buy a tent or stay in a motel if we go somewhere."

Or maybe it's something else.

If I do upgrade, the first exclusionary factor will be "not another pop-up." The whole selling point of this kind of camper is that it's nice and compact for pulling around; the sacrifice involved is that once you expand it, you're surrounded by canvas and vinyl that's drafty and not well-insulated. Which is fine when it's 75 degrees out, but not as fine when it's 45 or 95 degrees out. The pop-out area is just bed space (necessary for travel, not as useful when you're using it as an office); the real floor space, even if you don't have a stove/sink/etc., is maybe 50 square feet.*

* Don't get me wrong -- I actually consider this little pop-up fairly roomy, since what I'm doing in it is almost entirely just sitting at a desk. But with a larger hard-sided camper, I could have a bigger desk, use a rolling chair, line the walls with bookshelves, etc. and still have plenty of room to play my guitar or host a poker game.

Wordle 1693 Hint

Hint: Judicial/parliamentary mallet.

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First Letter: G

Killer In The Code: A Podcast Recommendation

You've probably heard of Michael Connelly, or at least of his work -- the Harry Bosch novels (later a popular series on Amazon), the Lincoln Lawyer novels (later a movie and still later a Netflix series), etc. I've been a fan for a long time, ever since I happened across yet another of his series characters, Jack McEvoy, in The Poet, and I'm pretty sure I've read all his published work unless a novel just came out and I haven't noticed yet.

Connelly did not start off as a novelist and occasional poker player on Castle. He started off as a reporter at the Independent Alligator, an off-campus student newspaper of the University of Florida here in Gainesville (before I lived here), and then a working newspaper journalist (especially a crime reporter).

He's back on non-fiction again, this time in audio form, with "Killer In The Code: Solving The Black Dahlia & Zodiac Cases," a podcast series that's exactly what it sounds like.

I am not a cold case homicide detective. I don't play a cold case homicide detective on TV, or on the Internet. And it's always possible that some of the stuff in the podcast will turn out to be incorrect or exaggerated -- that's always been the case with "true crime journalism," even before it became one of the most effective forms of clickbait. But from my entirely amateur POV, the case Connelly and his co-hosts (some of whom are retired cold case homicide detectives) have made over the first eight episodes is incredibly persuasive.

In addition to being persuasive, it's fascinating, and delivered in very listenable form. You should check it out.

It Used to be the Only Way. Now It's Touted as Some Kind of Epic Hack.

ZDNet:

This $20 gadget lets you watch hundreds of free TV channels (and ditch streaming services for good)

Even this far into the age of streaming, after the age of cable, I find it hard to believe that anyone doesn't already know you can hook a cheap (cheaper than $20 -- I think I paid about $5 for my current one) antenna to a TV and watch stuff "free to air."

OK, I get it -- ZDNet knocks down commissions on sales of things they advertise review -- but it's weird to see it promoted like some kind of startling new development.

Wordle 1692 Hint

Hint: Quick downward aerial maneuver (usually with an attack or grab at the lowest point).

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First Letter: S

Wordle 1691 Hint

Hint: I think of today's Wordle as a gentler version of "admonish."

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First Letter: C

A Periodic Reminder: For Most Users, Linux IS Ready for Prime Time

I suppose it's one of those algorithm-driven things, but over the last couple of days I've seen a lot of social media posts bemoaning the "fact" that Linux is still just too hard for regular people to use, and wondering when that will change.

It changed a long time ago.

Back in 2002, I tried to get Red Hat Fedora running on a PC and gave up. The following year, my Windows 98 "daily driver" computer got a persistent boot sector virus and, in desperation, I installed Mandrake Linux from CDs a friend had sent me. It took me several hours to get things figured out, but I didn't miss a day of work (just a night of sleep).

Since then, while I've occasionally used MacOS or ChromeOS for periods of time, Linux has remained my go-to, and I have never been tempted to return to Windows.

What has happened is that I've bought PCs with Windows reinstalled, and gone ahead and set those Windows installations up before installing Linux as my default boot option. I've done this as recently as this year, which means I've had to mess with Windows Vista, 8, 10, and 11.

Here's the cold, hard truth:

• Most Linux distributions, especially Ubuntu and Mint, are easier to install and set up than Windows. You're asked a few questions, you click a few buttons, and boom, you're up and running. The last time I did a PC set-up, it took about ten minutes to get Linux installed, updated, and running, and about 90 minutes to get Windows -- which was already installed -- updated and running.
• Most Linux distributions update quickly, easily, and optionally. You see a little alert button letting you know that updates are available for Linux (and for the apps you've got installed on your machine). You click that alert at your leisure, decide whether you want what's being offered, tell it to update, and it does so -- in the background, in seconds or single-digit minutes, while you're still using your computer. Windows always wants to spend three hours updating, either when you start the machine or try to shut down the machine, and doesn't want to let you say "no, I'll do that some other time."
• Unless you're running very specialized proprietary software (including the newest games), Linux has the apps you use. Some of them are the same as on your Windows PC (for example, you can run Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and other browsers), some of them are basically as good (e.g. LibreOffice is a decent replacement for Microsoft Office; GimP is a decent alternative to Photoshop), and almost all of them are completely free (I've never "bought" a Linux app other than in the form of making an optional donation to the developers).

From what I hear, Windoze just keeps getting worse (apparently 11 is now implementing non-optional screen advertising).

Linux got better than Windoze at least a decade ago and has just kept getting better yet. Even Raspberry Pi OS on an ARM CPU is simpler, faster, etc. than any Windoze machine I've had the misfortune to use. The only time I boot into Windoze is if I have the urge to play an old DOS or Windoze game (I don't like Linux's emulation/virtual machine stuff), and that's usually once or twice a year because I know it will be forever before the damn updates finish and I can actually do what I went there to do.

One of those social media posts cited the archetypal "granny" and how she's just scared to leave Windoze because it's easy and Linux sounds hard.

If your granny is getting a new computer, get her to let you install Linux Mint on it. It will be easier on you than getting her Windoze set up, and it will be easier on her when she wants to browse the web, check her email, play solitaire, etc. instead of sitting there wondering why the machine has been "updating" for six hours. The screen setup will be very familiar to her from the beginning. Unless your granny does CAD work for a government contractor, she will likely never miss Windoze even for a minute. And you won't get as many phone calls asking you to go un-fuck her computer.

You're welcome.

Wordle 1690 Hint

Hint: You do it with a scale.

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First Letter: W

I'm Sure I'm Far From the First to Person to Get This Impression ...

... but after reading the latest batch of "cryptocurrency analysts say" and "cryptocurrency analysts predict" headlines, I did decide to plug a prompt into Yupp (affiliate link), and was pleased with the output Google Imagen 4 Fast returned.

Story Idea, If Someone Wants It

I often come up with ideas for fiction, but I'm just no good at writing fiction (especially maintaining writing enthusiasm all the way to the end of a story). So I sometimes share the ideas as "writing prompts" in case someone better at writing the story, but maybe not as good at coming up with the basic idea for the story, might find them useful. Here's today's:

A sleuth of some sort (private or gummint) traces a series of global "eco-terrorist" attacks back to something called ROTAC LLC, and discovers that the company has no human owners/operators.

ROTAC is an agentic artificial intelligence created by, and launched automatically upon the death of, wealthy radical  environmentalist Giles Tennyson. ROTAC's sole imperative is to "defend nature," and its training data is exactly the kind of stuff you'd expect a radical environmentalist to feed to an AI model.

Yes, the names were important in inspiring the idea. But I guess they're not really requirements for doing something with the idea. If you use it, enjoy it (and maybe let me know you used it -- remember, everything on this blog goes directly to the public domain, so there's nothing to worry about in terms of "intellectual property" considerations).

Wordle 1689 Hint

Hint: Close, but no ...

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First Letter: C

Pretty Comfy Camper!

Yesterday, I finally made it to Lowe's and picked up two 4'x8' sheets of R-5 foam board to install as top side walls, over the canvas/vinyl, on the Jayco 806SD pop-up camper. Total cost, about $20. Cut them to fit, popped them in, duct-taped the seams/sides.

Overnight, the temperature got down to 17 degrees fahrenheit outside, but so far as I know the camper interior didn't get below the high 50s (that's where it was this morning; I left a small space heater running at its lowest setting overnight).

Right now, it's 27 degrees outside and 71 degrees at my desk. Based on prior experience, I'd expect it to be much cooler without the insulation/draft-proofing.

I had planned on covering one side (the non-shiny side) of the foam board with gray vinyl flooring (left to me by the camper's previous owner) as "siding," but yesterday was cooler and windier than I preferred for that outside work. I'll do it on a warmer day.

I should end up with top walls that can be popped in and out easily, but are pretty firmly anchored when in place, and that can be reversed for cold or hot weather. Right now, the shiny side is in to keep heat in. The "siding" will go on the non-shiny side so that it looks pretty good in winter. In summer, it will be shiny-side out to keep heat out. If there's a hurricane coming, I'll pop the walls out, put them under the trailer, move my office stuff inside, and pop the camper down until the storm has passed.

Wordle 1688 Hint

Hint: Think "porcupine" or "sea urchin."

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First Letter: S

Thanks For Asking! -- 02/01/26

Monthly AMA time! You -- boring pseudonymous trolls excluded at my discretion -- ask (in comments below this thread), I answer (in, or linked to from, comments). Enjoy.

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #4

"Yield to overcome; empty to become full." (Taoism, Tao Te Ching 22)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

Two Things I Like About the Weather in North Central Florida

One is the predictability.

I grew up in a tornado-prone area, where you got (at most) a few minutes' notice that something terrible was inbound.

While I hear about a tornado in Florida now and then, they're not the norm. The norm is that you hear a hurricane may be forming in the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico, then a few days later you hear that it has formed and may make landfall in Florida, then a few days after that it arrives and you already have some general idea of what part of the state it will likely come through. Plenty of time to put away anything in your yard that the wind might carry away, stock up on flashlight batteries and bottled water and so forth, or even just plan a family trip out of the area. The storms can certainly be ugly, but they're not surprises.

The other is that the temperature extremes are narrower and shorter.

In Missouri, it gets both colder and hotter than in north central Florida ... and stays that way. You might see periods of several days where the thermometer doesn't reach five above zero or doesn't fall below 90.

In north central Florida, it falls below 20 degrees maybe one or two days every couple of years, and seldom tops 100. And when it does either of those things, it does so for a few hours before warming or cooling by several tens of degrees. For example, tonight it may get down to 19 or 20 degrees, but tomorrow it will be in the 40s. Over the last week, we've had daily lows in the high 20s or low 30s, and daily highs in the 60s and 70s. This summer, even if it hits 97 during the day, it will fall into the 70s at night.

I only see one down side to that, and that's that you have to think more about clothing choices. It might be 30 degrees out when you leave the house (bundle up a little!), and 70 degrees before you're ready to return home (so make sure there's a t-shirt layer you can strip down to if you don't want to get uncomfortably warm).

Wordle 1687 Hint

Hint: When you assign or set aside something, usually as a share of something else (hours of a day, acres of a land parcel, etc.), for particular purposes or persons.

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First Letter: A

Wordle 1686 Hint

Hint: Very large, like Jacksonville's baseball team (even bigger than Steve Miller's big ol' Jet Airliner!).

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First Letter: J

Wordle 1685 Hint

Hint: Like a good pie crust or a bad case of dandruff.

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First Letter: F

They Really Think a Lot of Their Instant Pots, Don't They?

A few years ago (long enough that I can't easily find it on any kinds of order searches), I bought a six-quart Insignia knock-off of the Instant Pot pressure cooker. I vaguely recall that the Instant Pots were the Big New Thing of the Moment, but kind of pricey, and that the Insignia was on a really good sale, probably less than $30, so why not give it a try?

I used it a few times -- I recall making some rice dishes, pasta, and successfully "broasting" a few things -- thought it was pretty cool, then put it away and mostly forgot about it.

Then we moved, occasioning three changes:

• We're having food from "out" less often and doing more cooking at home;
• I'm doing more of the cooking at home, seeing as how I'm here all day working from home, while Tamara's at an office all day; and
• When we moved, the Insignia "Instant Pot" struck me as a thing to use for that. I'm mostly more of an outdoor griller than an indoor chef, so clever devices strike me as handy solutions.

I've whipped up several things in the pressure cooker so far, including attempts at Chinese-style curry chicken (not bad, but I haven't been able to get the spices quite right) and a pretty excellent pot roast.

I like it well enough that I've considered moving up from a six-quart to an eight-quart version, both so that I can do bigger dishes (like, say, a whole ham kind of thing) and because I figure that in the years intervening between my original purchase and now, there are probably new features to do different things with. Also, the actual Instant Pot brand seems to allow the user to choose different pressure levels, while the Insignia doesn't.

But wow, those prices. I usually expect to see electronics and household goods come down in price with wider adoption and brand competition, but it looks to me like this product has gone up across the board, and at a faster rate than inflation would account for. Even the off-brand types are well over $50 for six-quart versions.

So I guess I'll wait. I've seen no signs that the current one is wearing out, and I can always do bigger dishes in the eight-quart slow cooker, or in the oven, or whatever.

If you've got a favorite "Instant Pot" recipe, feel free to share it or link to it in comments.

I also finally tried making something in the new cast-iron Dutch oven -- jalapeño cornbread. I followed the directions to the letter, but it was just awful. Too dense and bland to eat. So I broke it up, threw it out in the yard, and the local crows just loved it. It was gone within half an hour. I may try again, since I don't mind feeding the local crows if it goes wrong again. We've got a standard bird feeder, but I've not seen the crows try it, and I doubt it would work well for them (It's small and their weight would likely cause it to swing wildly on its cable).

Wordle 1684 Hint

Hint: Don't be that way to a heart that's true. Heck, at least telephone.

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First Letter: C

Since It's Suddenly a Buyer's Market ...

... I'm interested in an AR-15.

I think $50 is a fair price given the sudden supply/demand shift. Donald Trump just told his loyal supporters "you can't have guns," so if they're really loyal they should be flooding the market right now.

Wordle 1683 Hint

Hint: Dim (light condition) or swarthy (skin hue).

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First Letter: D

Crass Commercialism: Proton Mail (Again)

I've used Proton Mail (affiliate link -- see details below) for more that three years now, and have used a paid account for more than two years.

I remain very happy with the service -- and when I say "Proton Mail" I mean Proton Mail, Proton Pass (their password manager), Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, and Proton VPN.

They're all good products, although I wish they'd hurry up with a native Linux desktop client for Drive so I can more easily replace Dropbox (there's supposedly a way using rclone, but I haven't been able to make that work).

Their apps are all at least as good as the Google equivalents, but with more of an eye on privacy (encryption, locating in Switzerland so it's not so easy for US feds to get your stuff, etc.).

This morning, I had an email from Proton on a change to their referral program:

Every friend you refer now gets a two-week free trial on any Proton plan, no credit card required. You’ll both receive US$20 in credits when they subscribe to a paid plan, and your maximum referral credit has been increased to US$1,000 — enough for years of free Proton service.

They do have a "free" plan. If you're a big email user it won't be enough for your needs, but I do encourage you to start with the "free" version and only upgrade if you decide it's for you.

I'd recommend Proton even if they weren't offering me $20 spiffs for referrals, but they are. So here's that affiliate link again. Enjoy.

Wordle 1682 Hint

Hint: Hunter S. Thompson's "Power" party/movement during the Battle of Aspen.

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First Letter: F

Helpful Hint of No Commercial Benefit to Me

This time it's not an affiliate link. If you use Woot (not an affiliate link), I get nothing but the satisfaction of knowing I helped you save money.

I don't even remember how I came across Woot, but it's basically a deal site that seems to be operated by, or at least associated with, Amazon.

They've always got a bunch of deals on a bunch of stuff; you can pay using your Amazon account, and the shipping is also by Amazon ("free" shipping if you're a Prime member).

Just as an example, I have a desk arriving today that I ordered for a family member. The normal Amazon price is about $115, but Amazon currently has it on sale for about $65. I ordered it from Woot on Friday ... for $20.

I've ordered stuff through Woot five times now -- electronics and household goods. Every time, I've checked the price on Amazon, and every time Woot's price has been substantially lower. Rough guess is that the average discount is more than 50%.

The down side is that of those five purchases, two were "impulse purchases" -- I might not have bought the things if I hadn't noticed the deal (you get emails and, if you choose, text messages, about the day's deals).

Crass Commercialism: Coupert

When it comes to "earn online," "cash back," etc. programs, I generally don't flog them to KN@PPSTER's readers until/unless I've made sure they're not scams.

Coupert (that's an affiliate link -- if you use it, I get some kind of commission/reward) is a browser extension that lets you track prices and get alerts when what you're looking for falls below a certain price. 

Or, rather, that's why I installed it. But, as Billy Mays used to say, there's more!

• When you go to a product page on e.g. Amazon, Coupert lets you know if there's a lower price at some other online store. That function isn't perfect -- when I was looking for a Raspberry Pi with 16Gb of RAM, it told me there was a much lower price at Newegg, but that turned out to be for the 4Gb version -- but it's saved me money that way at least once (I don't remember on what).
• When you check out at an online store, Coupert offers to automatically test various coupon codes from its database. Most of the time, all the coupon codes are expired or inapplicable, but it did save me $10 on a Walmart grocery order.
• Coupert has a "cash back" mechanism, and also when it does the coupon thing, it keeps count -- after three purchases where it couldn't find a working coupon code for you, you get $3 "cash back." I have redeemed the $3, as an Amazon gift card.

I think Coupert has saved me and/or given me $20 or so in the couple of weeks I've been using it. And hey, A.J. Green is A.J. Green.

Wordle 1681 Hint

Hint: Aerosmith says to "Walk This Way." The Bangles say to "Walk Like an Egyptian." But Stray Cats have the best walk of all.

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First Letter: S

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #3

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor." (Judaism, Talmud, Shabbat 31a)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

Note: The third Golden rule variant. They're not all precisely the same, of course, and the differences seem like points of interest to focus on. Next week we move away from Abrahamic religion.

Wordle 1680 Hint

Hint: Supposed lemming suicide site (Disney actually faked that scene).

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First Letter: C

Particularly Nice Weather ...

 ... for me, anyway.

The forecast tomorrow for my little piece of north central Florida (per Weather.com) has a high of 74 degrees, a low of 57 degrees, a fairly low chance of precipitation (although, as I always tell my wife, if the forecast here has a 10% chance of rain, it will rain), and maximum winds of 15 miles per hour.

Yep, that's mid- to late January around here.

Kinda sucks for most of you, though:

The dangerous monster storm threatening half of the US was bearing down on Friday with 12 states already declaring emergencies and areas typically unused to prolonged Arctic temperatures bracing for power failures and shortages. At least 230 million people are likely to be affected by the massive winter weather system as it forms in parts of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains and surges across southern and midwestern areas from Friday, blowing up the east coast on Saturday and as far north as Maine by Sunday.

Hope y'all are able to stay warm, dry, and safe.

Thoughts on the Jayco Camper After About Two Months

So far, I am very happy with my "home office" setup in a Jayco 806SD pop-up camper, which I purchased for $720 around the beginning of December.

Exterior-wise, most improvements will be waiting for spring. At the moment, I've got it effectively moisture-proofed using tarps, but I may replace most or all of the canvas with wood framing, foam sheathing, and some kind of siding. It hasn't had to weather a hurricane yet, but it's been through several heavy thunderstorm days with no leaks since I put the tarps on. I replaced the opaque yellow pieces of plastic the previous owner used in the window screens with better-fitting translucent acrylic. And the door got its decoration:

Interior-wise:

• I cut a desktop shape/size of plywood, painted it, turned the factory "dinette" sideways and fastened the plywood to it; that's now my office desk, holding my two computers, two monitors, and various accessories.
• I got rid of the "dinette" bench cushions, since it's impossible to sit on the benches (the desktop hangs over them; the benches are now just storage units.
• Between one bench and the rear pop-out, there's a space with tiny ledges, onto which a little wood platform that the previous house owner left behind fits perfectly. That works as a table for a lamp, USB charging tower, Echo Dot, etc.
• I got rid of the original pop-out mattresses, which were basically old two-inch pads. The front pop-out is now a curtained-off storage area. The rear pop-out is a bed with a real 8" memory foam mattress. I can sleep there when I want (i.e. if I tow the thing somewhere for camping, or when Tamara doesn't want me around), or it can be a "guest bedroom."
• Climate control is still somewhat dicey because, well, it's a drafty canvas-sided camper. I've got a decent space heater and a portable AC unit. When the temperature got down into the 20s the other night, it took me a couple of hours to get it into the 60s the next morning; if the temp hits 75 degrees outside, it's closer to 85 in the trailer unless I run the AC. If I frame the thing in, I may increase floor space by using a window AC unit. Third option: I may have an electrician put in a 30-amp breaker and "RV hookup" so that I can use the roof AC. But no matter what, it will need to be draft-proofed and insulated much more than it is.
• A heavy-duty extension cord brings power from the house to a UPS, into which my computer, monitors, lamp, etc. are plugged. A second extension cord is dedicated for use by the heater or AC at need.

When I bought the thing, I pledged to give it six months, both to decide whether I like having my office outside the house and whether it was adequate to the purpose. I do, and it is. But once the six months is up, I may start looking for a good deal on a larger non-pop-out unit instead of putting more money and time into improving this one. The non-pop-outs are structurally better insulated, and a larger one would have room for amenities like bookcases and so forth.

At the moment, the only real down side to this camper that I'm seeing is that it's not noise-proof at all, which might make podcasting difficult (it's only about 10 feet from the house's central air and heat unit, and the neighbors behind us have some remarkably loud chickens).

Wordle 1679 Hint

 Hint: Not quite a viscount, but more than just a knight.

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First Letter: B

Wordle 1678 Hint

 Hint: Big house! Slammer! Jug! Hoosegow!

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First Letter: C

Wordle 1677 Hint

Hint: Don't be such a square -- think higher power!

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First Letter: C

First Time I've Heard THAT Name in a Song ...

When I was a kid, during a family drive from Lebanon, Missouri to Springfield, Missouri on some business or another, my mom and dad decided to drive a little further and see if a house they'd once lived in was still there (IIRC, it wasn't). The little town was Bois D'Arc, pronounced "Bo-Dark" because MURKA.

I was surprised to hear "Bo-Dark" name-checked in a song referencing several states, but not Missouri, until I did a little Internet searching and learned that 1) there are five Bois D'Arcs in the US, including one each in the four states the song does mention, and 2) it refers to a type of tree, also known as the "Osage orange" tree, for which the Missouri town is named because there was such a tree near the original settlement (it's not common in the area; my mom once said she thought Bois D'Arc was French for "rainbow").

The wood of the Bois D'Arc tree is decay-resistant, making it ideal for the usage mentioned in the song:

With a great big ol' hard-on like a old Bois d'Arc fence post

You could hang a pipe rail gate from

Learn something new every day ... and it's one of my new favorite songs. Kinda reminds me of back home.

Wordle 1676 Hint

Hint: To ruin e.g. a reputation (or, what you might call W.S. Gilbert's creative partner if you knew him personally).

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First Letter: S

Happy Birthday ...

Lysander Spooner would turn 217 years old today had he lived to ages typical of those asserted in the early Old Testament.

I quote Spooner at least once a week to the effect of:

But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain -- that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.

But today I'd like to offer a second quote from him that I don't share as often but that's at least as continuingly apropos of current events:

A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, (or by any other name indicating his true character,) or by millions, calling themselves a government.

Web-Based Apps: Two Useful Tools of My Trade, and Maybe Yours

Over the span of several jobs/roles, I monitor -- and link to or otherwise make use of news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video content from -- more than 200 sites on a daily basis. Over the years I've tried out a lot of tools to make my work easier.

Two important specifications: These tools need to be 1) web-based and 2) cross-platform with respect to the browsers I can access them from. At any given time I might be working from a Linux desktop PC, a Chromebook laptop, or even an Android phone.  With respect to daily workflow, I need to be able to move from my desk to a car to a hotel room and not be messing around porting content from one machine to another.

To find the content, I use InoReader (not an affiliate link). It's a web-based RSS client through which I follow the 99% of my source sites which maintain functioning RSS feeds (shame on the others, but a couple of them are important enough to manually visit as necessary).

To set aside the content for further use, I can't just choose one browser and make sure I keep it synced across all the devices I use. Some of my devices can't run some browsers.  Booky (not an affiliate link) lets me keep nicely categorized bookmarks all in one place on the web and accessible to me whether I'm using Microsoft Edge, Chromium, Chrome, Falkon, Brave, whatever. On any given day, there's a good chance I'll be using at least two of those five.

If your job involves 1) many web sites and 2) multiple computers, you may find both of those tools useful.

Wordle 1675 Hint

 Hint: Like a car treated with Turtle, or a surfboard treated with Sex.

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First Letter: W

Well, That Sucks for the Broncos

In the AFC Divisional Round, the Denver Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills in overtime ... an OT which I did not expect and didn't notice until this morning. I briefly tuned into the game in the third quarter, when the Broncos were well ahead, saw Josh Allen throw an interception, kind of assumed it would be a blow-out, and went back to other things than football.

Blowing that lead and having to win in overtime cost Denver their starting quarterback, Bo Nix, who broke his ankle ... which means they'll be relying on backup  QB Jarrett Stidham in the AFC championship game -- in which they'll probably face Stidham's former team, the New England Patriots.  Even if New England really bobbles it and the Broncos play Houston instead, I'm guessing Denver's post-season is over.

I also didn't watch the NFC side, in which the Seahawks beat San Francisco (I predicted the opposite). So the NFC championship will come down to Seattle versus the Rams or the Bears. My busted bracket, and my continuing predictions after the bust, have the Rams whipping everyone until they lose the Super Bowl, which I still expect, although I'm sad that it will probably be the Patriots rather than the Jaguars giving them the beatdown.

Wordle 1674 Hint

 Hint: Its fruit is used as a spice and dye, but avoid the poison variety.

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First Letter: S

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #2

"Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." (Islam, Hadith, Bukhari 13)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

Note: The first three of our aphorisms turn out to all be variants of each other, so I guess we're on an extended discussion of the Golden Rule (or, in the case of the Christian aphorism, a precursor/appurtenance) for most of January. And looking through the AI-generated list, it looks like that may not be the only such grouping by topic/value.

Wordle 1673 Hint

Hint: Like the sun, or like angry speechification.

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First Letter: F

Broke the GoGun SixNeedler Out This Morning ...

Thanks again to Kent McManigal for calling this cool CO2 revolver to my attention with his review.

Mine arrived a couple of days ago, but I didn't have time to mess with it until this morning.

I also didn't mess with it for very long this morning because it's cold out (for north central Florida, anyway -- it was 25 degrees fahrenheit when I woke up and is just now climbing into the 40s) and why stand around in my yard in the cold if I don't have to?

But, I installed a CO2 cartridge, loaded it with the hardened steel darts (about 4" long) that came with it, and tried it out.

I can't really tell you how accurate it is because I'm not a great pistol shot. At five meters, it seemed to be hitting about an inch from where I was aiming. Not bad for my purposes. I don't foresee any situation in which I would 1) need to shoot someone more than five meters away and 2) pick this weapon to shoot them with.

As for how much punch it packs (again at five meters):

• I shot six darts into a piece of half-inch plywood and they pierced it all the way through with about half an inch poking out the other side (I had to use pliers to get the darts back out of the wood); and
• I shot one dart into one of those "decorative tins" that butter cookies come in. Only one because when the dart pierced the metal, went through the interior of the tin, pierced the other metal side of the tin, and stuck itself maybe an eighth of an inch into the plywood behind the tin, the little rubber fletchings/chamber sealers on the dart were stripped off and went flying off somewhere. I didn't want to ruin a bunch of darts doing that over and over again.

I wouldn't intentionally take the SixNeedler to a gun fight, but I also wouldn't want to get shot with it. I suspect it would bury itself completely in a human body (losing those fletchings and having to be dug out) unless it hit bone. Probably not a killer absent a very lucky, or very skilled, shot that got to the brain or heart without encountering bone, but painful as hell (especially if dipped in, say, cayenne oil) and calling for medical attention.

So far, I can't really find anything bad to say about the SixNeedler. It's cheap to own, cheap to use, fun to shoot, doesn't require the kind of range conditions needed for "real firearms," doesn't require the kind of cleaning a gunpowder-fouled weapon needs, and is pretty comfortable in terms of size, weight, and grip.

Wordle 1672 Hint

Hint: It's Speed's last name but his older brother X's first name.

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First Letter: R

So That's Done ...

Got the Raspberry Pi 5 all set up and am posting from it.

I'll still want to mess with some cable management, etc., but tearing down and rebuilding my desktop made it nicer, and I'm most of the way to reproducing my work apps, etc. from the mini PC setup. 

Between the faster CPU, the additional RAM, and running off of a solid state drive instead of SD card, everything is way faster than on the Pi 4 and feels comparable to the mini PC.

Benefit/Cost, Starlink Offer Edition

I'm coming up on my third month with Starlink (crass commercialism: If you sign up for their service via my affiliate link, each of us gets a free month), and this morning I got an email from them with a new (at least to me) thing:

[Y]ou're now eligible to redeem a free Mini Kit for travel, so you can take the same fast, reliable internet you use at home anywhere you go.

Since about my second day with Starlink, I've been considering throwing down another $300+ for a second hardware kit, just so I'm prepared for any equipment malfunctions.

The Mini kit, as it comes, is by default in "standby mode" with "unlimited low-speed data for backup and emergency messaging." If I decide I want to travel with it (or, presumably, use it at full speed right here at my home because my main rig died), I get half off their "Roam" plan.

All benefit so far. I'd never be stuck completely offline, and if I wanted to be fully online I'd just have to upgrade my plan with them.

The cost: It's not actually a "free" kit. I would be renting it for $5 a month on top of my regular Starlink bill.

That still seems like a pretty good deal, unless for some reason I decide to leave Starlink entirely and have to mess around with returning the kit (assuming there's not some kind of hook in the terms of service that makes me buy it in that case). It would get me through any equipment failure bits without having to lay out $300+ in advance of such failure, and provide reliable high-speed Internet access when my family travels.

So, I'll probably do that.

Wordle 1671 Hint

Hint: Big rift, if you get my drift.

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First Letter: C

Two of My Favorite Subjects!

1. Motorcycles; and
2. Money-laundering

Even if you're not interested in motorcycles and don't traffic in drugs, the whole "make it so the gummint can't see where the money goes" angle is both fascinating and educational. And, as usual, these guys just make very entertaining videos no matter the topic.

Going Cool British Rather Than High-Performance Chinese

I woke up this morning thinking that if Bitcoin had gone up in value, I might either buy the Chinese 32Gb AMD Ryzen Mini PC that's been on my Amazon Wish List for a few days, or the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 kit in 16Gb (not an affiliate link).

Bitcoin had gone up ... and so had the price of the mini PC.

So I ordered the Raspberry Pi. It even comes with same-day delivery.

I've been in the process of upgrading my Raspberry Pi 4B's accessories -- first an HDMI switch and USB switch so that I don't have to manually mess around with various things to switch between my "daily driver" mini PC and the Pi.

Yesterday, a second HDMI switch and cables arrived so that I can use it in dual monitor mode just as easily. Unfortunately, I ordered an incorrect cable (mini-HDMI to HDMI instead of the needed micro-HDMI to HDMI). Fortunately, when I decided to return it, Amazon gave me a "no-return refund" and credited my account -- pretty nice, considering the mistake was mine, not theirs. Which means I was able to order the correct cable (for an additional 50 cents) and I have a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable on hand in case I ever have a device that needs one.

Also yesterday, a 128Gb USB solid state drive arrived. I burned a Raspberry Pi OS disk image to it, and the Raspberry Pi 4B now boots much faster, opens apps much faster, and runs certain things (loading cached images, etc.) much faster than from SD card. It should last longer too.

Of course, the switches, cables, and SSD will work just as well with the Pi 5 as with the Pi 4B. I'll just move them over and be off to the races. The Pi 4B will either get gifted to my son (who already has my old Pi 3) or put away for future use as a media streaming box or whatever.

It's possible that I'll end up using the Pi 5 as my "daily driver," at least for a little while, but even if I don't I'll have it set up for work so that I have a 16Gb backup rig instead of an 8Gb backup rig for emergencies. It's probably not quite as fast as the Chinese mini PC, but it should at least be close, with a lower power draw. I'll probably get a new 32Gb "daily driver" at some point in the future, but I don't need that as much as I want the Pi.

In certain respects, the Pi is to a Chinese PC as the MGB is to the Mazda Miata -- not as much horsepower, but way more cool. In other respects, the British computer excels the British sports cars. It's cheaper and far more solid and reliable. Anyone who's ever had an MG or Triumph (I had the former via an ex-wife, and my brother had the latter) can give you plenty of horror stories on the weird malfunctions and the expensive fixes to what should be cheap problems. This will be my third Pi and the first two have never failed me in any way.

The MSN Ad Targeting AI Could Use Some Work

Because I use Microsoft Edge as my browser, my default "new tab" page shows me a bunch of news stories, etc., via MSN, that correspond to everything it can figure out about my activities and interests. 

And a bunch of ads for goods and services those activities/interests imply I might be interested in.

My online interactions with material relating to the Grateful Dead being not insignificant, it decided to pile on following the (second) death of Bob Weir.

A couple of examples from yesterday:

In fairness, it has also been showing me stories about Weir and the Dead, and ads for actual Grateful Dead merchandise. But it clearly has a way to go when it comes to accurately matching ads to to topics.

Wordle 1670 Hint

Hint: That thing you do to keep a particular person from finding, or a particular thing from happening to, you.

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First Letter: A

Lock Them Up?

Per NBC News:

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee announced Tuesday that it will seek to hold former President Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress after he failed to appear for a deposition as part of the panel's probe into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. ... The committee had scheduled a deposition with Clinton for Tuesday morning, as well as a deposition with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Wednesday. In a letter to Comer, the Clintons said they didn't plan to appear for the depositions.

Contempt of Congress comes with the possibility of a 1-12 month jail term and a fine of up to $100k.

While my own contempt for Congress is endless, and while I'm generally not in favor of incarceration for pissing off politicians, the Clintons have gotten away with so much shit over the years that I couldn't bring myself to feel sorry for them if they finally got the orange coveralls and leg irons treatment.

NFL Wild Card Round Bracket Outcomes, Modified Divisional Round Predictions

The sad thing about a bracket is that a single pick can destroy the final prediction. I went five for six on the NFL's Wild Card Round, but the one I missed involved the team I expected to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, the Jacksonville Jaguars.

I correctly picked the Patriots to beat the Chargers and the Texans to beat the Steelers in the AFC, and correctly picked the Rams to beat the Panthers, the 49ers to beat the Eagles, and the Bears to beat the Packers in the NFC.

My bracket being busted on the AFC side, I'll move my picks for the AFC Divisional Round, as modified by that outcome, here just for fun:

• The Denver Broncos will beat the Buffalo Bills, and
• The New England Patriots will beat the Houston Texans

The NFC side of the bracket is still at 100%, and I still expect the 49ers to beat the Seahawks and the Rams to beat the Bears in that conference's Divisional Round.

Wordle 1669 Hint

Hint: If you're dining out in New Orleans, I highly recommend this stew.

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First Letter: G

Wordle 1668 Hint

Hint: The Scopes instance of today's Wordle made a monkey of William Jennings Bryan (and it was far from the first time he made an ass of himself).

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First Letter: T

The Computer Improvements Continue

It was nice to get an HDMI switch and a USB switch installed so that I can move from my Oumax "daily driver" mini PC to my Raspberry Pi 4B by pressing two buttons instead of changing keyboards, changing mice, and manually switching monitor input settings.

Nice enough that when I needed to add some things to my Amazon Haul cart to reach the $25 minimum (I was getting some household necessaries and they'd been sitting in the cart for several days), I decided to buy a second HDMI switch and a micro-HDMI to HDMI adapter so that I can run the Pi in dual display mode by pressing three buttons instead of two buttons. Those will arrive some time this week.

After doing some research on CPU loads, temperatures, etc., I also moved the Pi from Manjaro Linux with XFCE as its GUI to the latest release of Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux using the PIXEL GUI (a variant of LXDE). In addition to making more efficient use of resources because it's optimized specifically to the Pi, not just to the ARM CPU, its command line interface is more familiar to me than Manjaro's Arch Linux CLI.

Right now, whenever I have a few spare moments, I'm working on getting the Pi set up as a full backup work rig so that if the Oumax takes a shit I'm back up and running immediately rather than having to break out one of my old mini PCs or wait for a new one to arrive.

I'm also thinking about Pi upgrades -- switching from the standard SD card storage to a USB solid state drive would massively increase its read/write speeds and reduce latency. I might even go ahead and get a Pi 5 with 16Gb of RAM. I don't think those changes would get it quite up to the Oumax's benchmarks, but it's just fun to have a viable working computer (the 4B was my "daily driver" for a little while) the size of a pack of cigarettes.

Update: I decided to have a look at USB solid state drives and found a very good sale on one that reviewers say works great with their Raspberry Pi machines. So that's on the way. I'll probably put off further futzing within the OS until it arrives, as I'll plan on burning a fresh OS image to the SSD and booting from that in the future.

Another Reason to Boycott Hilton Hotels

Dallas woman fired for TikTok video warning of ICE agents at Hilton Anatole

When you do business with organizations that openly, actively, and enthusiastically support violent gang activity, you incentivize support for violent gang activity.

Bob Weir Dies Again

One morning in 1983, I was sitting at a "lab table" in a high school science classroom, reading the day's newspaper. I looked across the table at my friend Victor Weir, and asked him "are you related to Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead? He just died of a drug overdose."

They weren't related, but the possibility that they were related is the only reason I remembered that incident circa 2000, when I got together with my Deadhead wife and eventually noticed that Weir was alive and well. Again. Not sure when the programmers re-combobulated our simulation's timeline and the cleanup algorithm failed to erase that from my memory, but it was sometime during that 17-year period.

He died yesterday. Again. RIP.

Wordle 1667 Hint

Hint: It comes in six flavors, including "charm" and "strange."

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First Letter: Q

Don't Know Why I Didn't Think of That Before ...

In a post the other day, I wished that I could buy the GoGun SixNeedler (as reviewed by Kent McManigal) with cryptocurrency.

Kent suggested that I ask them when they will be accepting crypto. So I did. The answer: "I don't think we will any time soon."

Oh, well.

But then I remembered that Bitrefill (that's an affiliate link -- if you use it and spend $200, each of us gets $5 worth of Bitcoin), in addition to selling gift cards for various stores, also sells a "virtual Visa." I've never bothered with it before, because generally when I buy something with a credit or debit card, I just spend cash directly. When I spend crypto, I either spend crypto directly or convert it to a gift card for the store I'm purchasing from.

So anyway, I bought a $180 "virtual Visa" using Bitcoin. With Bitcoin fees, it came to a US dollar value of about $183.

And the SixNeedler, with tax and shipping, came to $179.42.

It's on the way:

I don't rock a huge arsenal, even though I've always loved shooting (and had a secondary MOS as a Quantico-trained marksmanship instructor in the Marine Corps). Guns can quickly become an expensive hobby, so I restrain myself. Our household has fewer than ten firearms, and several of them are family heirlooms, not for regular use.

For example, my dad's single-barrel .410 shotgun, which he bought in (IIRC) the early 1950s. Its stock was rotted out, so one of my uncles carved a very nice one out of a walnut stump. Then dad exploded the end of the barrel while hunting, and had it repaired (which ended up shortening it). When I was a kid in the 1970s, he took it to a shop and had the metal re-blued. I fired it once or twice in my youth, and will probably never fire it again.

I don't think we're under-arsenaled or anything, but the SixNeedler fills one niche that none of our other guns fills -- I can take target practice at the homestead with it, without having to invest significant money in a range that's safe for more powerful weapons. And while it's not the gun I'd carry if I knew I was going to a gun fight, it can put a hurt on someone, and for everyday open carry it's mean-looking enough (the barrel is 9mm and it's not obvious that it "only" shoots hardened steel darts with 9mm bases) that e.g. muggers would likely see it and opt for softer targets.

I'll probably review it here after I've received it and tried it out. If I really like it, I'll either buy the "official" chest holster or look for a workable chest or shoulder rig. I might even buy a laser sight for its Picatinny rail ... but I kind of doubt it. Its effective range is about 25 meters and any defensive use would likely be shorter than that.