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Some Big Propellant Tanks for BFR

Posted by takyon on Wednesday October 24 2018, @04:35PM (#3611)
4 Comments

I Have A Problem

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday October 21 2018, @03:58PM (#3607)
23 Comments
Career & Education

I am sleeping too much.

In the middle of the day I get weary. When I napped at NedSpace I'd get up eventually and go back to work, but they asked me not to sleep there anymore. My snoring causes dismay to the other users.

So I've been at home for several days now. Yesterday I got up at nine in the morning or so, had a coffee and a donut, went to the pharmacy, got home about one. Went to bed them slept until 8:30 this morning. That's right sleep eighteen and a half hours.

To be depressed makes me sleep to much, to sleep too much makes me depressed. Clearly the solution is to sleep less but it is a hard cycle to break.

I got my happy pills all up to date, taking them correctly again will help. But until they do I'll be wanting to sleep all the time.

I Got Me My Happy Pills On

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday October 20 2018, @07:31PM (#3605)
8 Comments
Career & Education

The reason I landed in the emergency room twice was that my pharmacy tried and failed to bill my medicine to the wrong account number.

I've had Medicaid twice; between the two I had the market rate Obamacare. My pharmacy kept trying to use my first Medicaid number. I repeatedly asked them "Are you _certain_ you're billing it to my Medicaid and not to my Obamacare?" and always they said they were certain.

When I signed up for the second round of Medicaid they never sent me my card. I was finally able to straighten it out by looking up my number at their website, then asking my pharmacy to read me my number over the phone. "No, that's wrong."

Today I had the grand ambition of going to downtown Portland to work, but just now I'm feeling really weary. Maybe I should go home. An argument for not going home is that I left my charging cable at work, and my iPhone is out of juice. An argument for going home is that I'm not expecting any calls.

In other news, the Federal Trade Commission sued Netspend for refusing to activate the prepaid debit cards that it sold. Mine was one such; that led to the pleasant surprise of receiving a check from the FTC for $33 a couple days ago. I'm going to blow it all on bus far and coffee.

I have a friend who is a waitress at a 24 hour restaurant. Lately she's been working swing on Saturday evenings, so whether I go downtown or go home, I'll venture out to her restaurant tonight.

I'm going to ask her to come to the hospital when I get my kidney out, so she can be there for me when I regain conscious in the recovery room. I've had two other surgeries. It's not being cut open with a knife that bothers me. It's not being unconscious that bothers me.

It's that I've had two other surgeries and so know quite well that my experience immediately upon regaining consciousness will be quite special.

ATTN: Anonymous Coward - There's Lots Of Work In Oregon!

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday October 19 2018, @05:04AM (#3603)
20 Comments
Code

In populous regions like Multnomah and Washington Counties - Portland is in Multnomah - half of the open jobs are "difficult to fill" while in rural areas, three-quarters are.

It's not just me saying this.

Get A Fucking Job.

Russian Orthodox Church Severs Links With Constantinople

Posted by takyon on Friday October 19 2018, @03:35AM (#3602)
10 Comments
/dev/random

Russian Orthodox Church severs links with Constantinople

In a major religious split, the Russian Orthodox Church has cut ties with the body seen as the spiritual authority of the world's Orthodox Christians.

The break came after the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recognised the independence of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow.

The row is being described as the greatest Orthodox split since the schism with Catholicism in 1054.

Relations soured after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Many Ukrainians accuse the Russian Church of siding with Russia-backed separatists in the east.

Russia sees Kiev as the historic cradle of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church now fears losing many of its 12,000 parishes in Ukraine.

Constantinople holds sway over more than 300 million Orthodox Christians across the world. The Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest.

Also at Reuters and The Guardian.

See also: Archbishop’s defiance threatens Putin’s vision of Russian greatness

Are You A US Citizen? Legal Resident? Pay Your Taxes?

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:13PM (#3600)
2 Comments
Business

Here's why I spent the night in the Emergency Room _twice_ last week, at a cost to the American taxpayer of I expect four thousand dollars:

My pharmacy had the wrong Washington Medicaid Member Number in their computer. I've had Medicaid twice; they kept trying to bill the old number, not the new one.

And just now when I gave them the _correct_ number off of Molina's Member Services website, they kept insisting that my Member # just absolutely _had_ to end in "WA". It does not!

However, they are _finally_ able to bill Molina, so by the time I get home tonight I'll _finally_ get to stop feeling like I just kicked heroin: I've been out of my Happy Pills for three solid weeks

US Deficit Jumps 17 Percent, Largest Increase in 6 Years

Posted by DeathMonkey on Wednesday October 17 2018, @06:44PM (#3599)
30 Comments
News

It turns out that increasing spending and decreasing tax revenue isn't good for the bank balance.

The federal deficit ballooned to $779 billion in the just-ended fiscal year — a remarkable tide of red ink for a country not mired in recession or war.

The government is expected to borrow more than a trillion dollars in the coming year, in part to make up for tax receipts that have been slashed by GOP tax cuts.

Corporate tax collections fell by 31 percent in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, despite robust corporate profits. That's hardly surprising after lawmakers cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21.

Income taxes withheld from individuals grew by 1 percent. Overall tax receipts were flat. As a share of the economy, tax receipts shrank to 16.5 percent of GDP, from 17.2 percent the previous year.

Federal Deficit Jumps 17 Percent As Tax Cuts Eat Into Government Revenue

Political Candidate Websites Are A Multitude Of Sins

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 16 2018, @07:13AM (#3598)
8 Comments
Code

Some gubernatorial candidate's website informed me that I was using "the wrong version of Internet Explorer" then refused to display anything at all.

In reality, I was using Safari 4.0.5 for Windows, running under Windows 7.

It has the Activity Window so I can fix tracking pixels that are static files, but because it doesn't support the Clipboard, I can't copy out the complex URLs for Javascript pixels.

For like three years I've been stressing over how to get Mac OS X 10.4 to run in a VM or an Emulator or some such when only just tonight did it occur to me to use Safari for Windows under Windows.

However, Safari for Windows works so poorly, even in a VM that has four CPUs and 4096 MB of RAM that in a moment I'll start setting up Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon, with the aim of using Safari for Windows under Wine. Which again: it simply did not occur to me until just tonight.

I recall that Safari 3's Activity Window supported the Clipboard. I expect Apple removed the Clipboard in version 4 because the Activity Window was an effective way to get the exact URL for videos, so you'd just copy its URL out of Activity, then paste into the address bar in a regular tab and you could save that video to your storage as G-d And Nature Intended.

I'm not sure when Apple completely removed the Activity Window but it's been quite a while now.

I Got Me My Wall Wart On

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 16 2018, @12:44AM (#3597)
3 Comments
Hardware

My unit is charging even as we speak

Other World Computing included a $100 off coupon for a case of wine. While not actually a teetotaler a whole case would last me until the end of time.

If you'd like it, mail your postal address to mdcrawford@gmail.com

After I somehow work up the gumption I'm going to sing on the street so I can hang at The 'Bucks while I work on Soggy Jobs.

Ass-Backwards

Posted by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 15 2018, @04:01PM (#3595)
32 Comments
/dev/random

I'm just going to put this out there for you all to think about. If you are taking your moral cues from politicians, pundits, or lobbying groups, you've got it precisely backwards. They are supposed to be taking their positions based on what you believe. The other way around is the tail wagging the dog.