jc blog - tales of a modern-day nomadic hunter-gatherer

Follow jcomeau_ictx on Twitter This is the weblog of Intrepid Wanderer. You never know what you might find here; graphic descriptions of bodily functions, computer programming secrets, proselytizing for the antichrist, miscellaneous ranting and kvetching, valuable information on living off the land... if you don't share my rather weird interests you may want to try slashdot instead.

You can consider my Del.icio.us links an extension to my blog, as are my LifeTango goals and my other to-do items. My to-buy list is also public, but only for sharing any useful ideas that might be there; I'm not requesting charity, neither do I offer it.

You can find me easily in google searches, as jcomeau, jcomeau_ictx, or jcomeauictx. There are lots of other jcomeaus, but AFAIK I'm the only jcomeau_ictx out there so far.

If you want to comment on anything you see here, try the new Facebook comments, reachable by clicking the "[comment]" link at the end of each post. If for some reason that isn't working, go ahead and email me, jc.unternet.net. You know what to do with the first dot. Make the 'subject' line something reasonably intelligent-looking or it goes plunk! into the spambasket unread.

This RSS feed may or may not work. Haven't fiddled with it in forever. RSS Feed


2019-09-29-0640Z

I just hit upon a super-small bicycle design that satisfies all California-relevant definitions (PDF) although I'm sure a cop would have a hard time with the ors in the 39000 definition:

picture a Razor scooter with a horizontally-extended base and a comfortable seat, like that of a motorcycle. then mount pedals between the seat and the steering column. finally, add two more wheels, on either side of the seat, that don't touch in normal operation but one of which will keep you upright during stops, that satisfy the "or having four or more wheels" part of the 39000 definition (and thus mooting the 20-inch wheel requirement). it still fits all the other definitions since it does have two wheels in a tandem arrangement.

I'll use a shaft with gears on each end for the drive rather than a chain, but that also matches the given definitions.

I've been pondering that off and on for a long time! now I can get down to the nitty-gritty of actually making something that works. and then make it ultra-portable, and finally even wearable. [comment]

2019-09-18-1443Z

got the full amount of my SSA benefits this month, from SSA TREAS 310, not the reduced amount I got for a full year (September 2018 to August 2019) via TCS TREAS 449. now to see if I can get back that $2400 they took. since they don't answer their snailmail it's probably going to be difficult. [comment]

2019-09-17-2306Z

2 days ago I had $25 and change to get me through the end of the month. then I got hit with $20 taken out of my credit card by FreedomPop for going over my bandwidth allocation for the month—even though the phone was sitting a few feet from the wifi router the whole time. so I had to be really careful with my remaining $5. today I spent: $1 on a loaf of fresh-baked Safeway French bread; $1.30-something on two chicken thighs at Raley's (a good place for finding such $1 deals with enough protein for a day), and a dozen Uncle Eddie's eggs at Skippy's Egg Store, the first time I've ever made it there. that should get me through next couple days, and if it doesn't, I've still got another dollar.

last time FreedomPop did that to me it hit me completely by surprise, and I bitched about it on Twitter until I got a refund, but now I know it's in the contract and I can't really do that again. it would be nice if they'd email me and let me know I'm approaching the limit, but they don't, they only send texts to the phone itself (which I have in quiet mode and I'm not checking). anyway fuck 'em, I'm going to pull through this on my own.

one of my friends says I know how to "make a dollar sing" and she's right.

last night I got a prototype of a Python3 uWSGI blockchain explorer working. the trick is to get the server running in a thread ("enable-threads" must be enabled in your .ini file) on launch, e. g.

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # the default action goes here
elif sys.argv[0] == 'uwsgi':
    import uwsgi, threading
    SERVER = threading.Thread(target=serve, args=(BLOCKFILES, *sys.argv[2:]))
    SERVER.start()

then your callable routine handles the HTTP requests.

I don't know about you, but I hardly see the point of frameworks, even a lightweight one such as Flask. you're still going to need to know the nitty-gritty of uwsgi, and the "routing" syntactic sugar really isn't worth it to me.

I'm running the Pi Network app now, and after 3 days I'm mining 0.47PI per hour. please sign up with reference code jcomeauictx and join my security group, we'll both mine more effectively.

also you might want to join me at RobinHood, so you and I both get a free stock. skip the part about giving them your bank login credentials, that's scammy and dangerous. you don't have to do it to get the stock, and there's a much safer way of funding your account: choose a bank that's not on their list, give them the account and routing numbers, and they'll make two small deposits to it, which you can then verify through the app. and even then, I'd recommend using a separate bank account dedicated to that one purpose, and only keeping in it funds you can afford to lose.

I just sold this morning the TROX stock they gave me, it was instantaneous, there were no fees, and I should be able to withdraw the $9.66 in 3 days. that's pretty good. almost $10, in a week, for just a few clicks of effort. [comment]

2019-09-16-2005Z

I've lanced the swollen gum next to my previously-painful tooth 3 times over the past weeks, and it doesn't seem to help. barring any new pain flareup, I might just leave it alone and hope for the best, at least until I get to Mexico. [comment]

2019-09-15-2301Z

saw Patrick K. for the first time in years, or at least recognized him, as I pass lots of people I know without realizing it until later, which leads me to believe I probably pass by hundreds more people I know without ever realizing it.

then later on today I undertook the dreaded task of refilling the old-style gas can from which I fill my Coleman camp stove. I say "dreaded" because not only is it tedious walking almost a mile each way to the gas station, I didn't know how to pump it. sure, I can pump gas into a car, but for some reason the pumps don't dispense gas into these short, squat cans unless you know the secret. well, today I learned it.

first, I paid my $4 inside, then went out to pump #1 outside the Shell station at Washington and Howard. just as I thought, it wouldn't pump. I went back inside and asked for help from the cashier. it wasn't the Mexican woman today, it was a young Asian lady. she couldn't get it to work either. finally she went and got the owner or manager, a guy about my age who was apparently wondering how someone like me can manage to survive without knowing such a basic requirement of civilization. anyway, he told me to "pull up on it", which I did, but still no joy. he said "no, not like that", and I said "OK, show me", and he did. he pulled up tight on the flexible rubber part (vapor recovery hood or "foreskin"), and magically the gasoline started to flow. then I said "OK, let me try", and I was able to finish getting my $4 worth (about a gallon at bay area California prices). so now I know the secret. maybe I'll remember next year when it's time to refill again. I should be good for the rest of the summer. [comment]

2019-09-14-0324Z

ran out of propane today. might just go the rest of the summer, about 7 weeks, with the Coleman dual-fuel (white gas and unleaded) stove. [comment]

2019-09-11-0355Z

I'm reading The Gulag Archipelago at archive.org. that famous quote beginning "And how we burned in the camps later..." is a footnote on one of the very first pages of the first volume. and now around page 100 I find this interesting paragraph, in which Solzhenitsyn is numbering the psychological torture methods being used:

8. The lie. We lambs were forbidden to lie, but the interrogator could tell all the lies he felt like. Those articles of the law did not apply to him. We had even lost the yardstick with which to gauge: what does he get for lying? He could confront us with as many documents as he chose, bearing the forged signatures of our kinfolk and friends—and it would be just a skillful interrogation technique.

exactly like cops in the US. exactly. [comment]

2019-09-05-2317Z

lanced the swollen gum near my tooth and drained the pus. didn't help much, at least not yet.

replaced the 27-year-old, still functional but ugly, microwave with a new one. it was a real bear getting it to fit. still don't know if the vent is going to work. [comment]

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