Miscellanea

The 1099s are beginning to roll in; I've received two from My Favorite Uncle (the USAF one and the Social InSecurity one) already.  Private industry, which is supposed to be SO much more efficient and timely than the gub'mint, hasn't seen fit to send me their 1099s as yet... but they have until the end o' this month, right?  And I'm thinkin' they'll use every last day of the available time, too.

I'm also thinkin' I MIGHT do my taxes before the very last minute this year, on the off-chance I may get some money back.  That's because this is my year to take the one remaining child exemption I share with The Second Mrs. Pennington, which usually results in a modest refund rather than me writing a check to the Infernal Revenoo Service.  "Service?"  My ass...

―:☺:―

Did that sound bitchy?  I didn't mean to sound that way, if so.  Wait.  Mebbe I DID.  But, as long as we're bein' bitchy, there's this: I don't like Blogger's new default comment form, which takes ya to the bottom of the comments page.  Which means ya have to scroll back up to read previous comments (which I always do, so's I don't repeat what someone else said and look stoopid or redundant or both) and then scroll back DOWN to make your Astute Observation™.  Unless you're the first to comment, which is almost never the case for me, given that I lay around in bed until the crack o' noon.  Or thereabouts.  On most days, anyhoo.

WHY do coders feel compelled to fix shit that ain't broke?  That's one o' life's small yet enduring mysteries.

―:☺:―

This is interesting...

Air Force photo by A1C Ericka Engblom

F-15E Reaches 10,000 Flight Hours: An F-15E operating from Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, became the first Air Force F-15 of any type to reach 10,000 flying hours, according to airmen at Bagram. The Strike Eagle, No. 89-0487, achieved the milestone on Jan. 13. A crew from Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., flew the aircraft on the historic mission. The F-15E, assigned to Seymour Johnson's 335th Fighter Squadron, has been flying for more than 21 years and is a veteran of combat going back to Operation Desert Storm. "It has taken more than 21 years of qualified maintenance technicians performing more than one million hours of inspections and repairs in all types of environments . . . to ensure aircraft #89-0487 was available," said CMSgt. John Parrott, superintendent of Bagram's 335th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Unit. He also credited all the other airmen, like weapons loaders, involved in keeping the aircraft operating. (Bagram report by TSgt. Vernon Cunningham)

That's from the Usual USAF Source, of course.  I wonder about the veracity of that claim, though.  I suppose it's true when one only considers the F-15, but I'm pretty damned sure each and every B-52 has at least 10,000 flight hours on the airframe, given the fact the BUFF has been in service for-frickin'-evah (read as: since 1954, the newest BUFF bein' procured in FY62).  The same could be said for the KC-135, the C-130, and god-only-knows how many other front-line airframes.  They're gonna be around a LOT longer, too, from the looks o' the budget situation. 

It's Still 2012

And speaking of the New Year... the Beeb has a short slide show of New Year's Eve pics from all over the world, these bein' my two faves:

The clocks make the photos, don't they?  I have serious trouble believing the Rooshians partied in Red Square sans wodka.  But then again, I heard alcohol was banned in Times Square,too.  What's this world comin' to?

―:☺:―

The holidays have been hell on blog traffic here at EIP.  Note:

Paradoxically, December was our best month ever...

I dunno what happened but we came within a tick of doubling our visits and page views compared to December 2010.  And I thank you for your patronage!

Slow

An update... Last week I posted a lil blurb and a photo about the last military flight out of Iraq and there was some discussion in comments about the troops on that aircraft... like "did they make it home for Christmas?"  Well, one of the guys or gals on that plane dropped by EIP last evening and left this comment:

said...

You will be happy to know, though we were delayed in Kuwait for a couple days, everyone on that last flight made it safely home for Christmas. Thank you all and I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

 Welcome home, Sir or Madam... and thank you.

―:☺:―

It sure is a slow week... the Usual USAF Source is taking the week off, there aren't any new political cartoons at Townhall today, the Guardian didn't publish their favorite vids last Friday, and blog traffic is down.  But there's this, which you've prolly already seen since there were over a million Facebook shares and it was on Red Eye:

I think the ending is cool... poetic justice if there ever was such a thang.

Random Notes

Blog-Bud Andy has taken up v-logging with his new fanboi phone that does photos, videos, finds you dates, changes the baby, and fixes dinner, among other thangs.  He's done two of those thangs now and he's pretty good at it.  I tried that back when the MinoHD was new, once.  I sucked.

Andy also mentioned in his v-log that he'd been off for three whole days and was kinda-sorta beside himself.  I've been off for 3,327 days now (not counting today) and am just as happy as the proverbial pig in... umm... stuff.   I'm living proof (well, "living" is loosely defined) that being easily amused is one o' life's most under-rated blessings.  (And how did I get that exact day count, you might ask?  By going to this handy lil web site.  I LOVES me some technology!)

―:☺:―

Remember a couple o' few days ago when I posted about the Beloved Wings blowing out those Feral Dogs at The Joe?  Well, they did the same thang last evening to the hot Winnipeg Jets, who came into The Joe last night on a roll, having won sumthin' like seven of their last ten.  Alas (for Winnipeg's fans), those same Jets proceeded to flame out, losing to the Wings by a score of 7-1.  The Jets DID manage to score the first goal (34 seconds into the first period) but it was all downhill for them from there.  Good stuff, Maynard.

―:☺:―

Shocked!  That would be me when I slide off the bar stool and forget to ground myself before doin' so.  The seats of my spiffy bar stools are covered in some sorta suede-like fabric that is a potential solution to America's energy crisis, provided one could somehow harness the megawatts of static electricity generated by the simple act of getting up.  I swear I've seen blue arcs emanate from my fingertips once or twice.  This phenomenon is exacerbated by the current negative ten percent relative humidity inside El Casa Inmóvil de Pennington.  The low or nonexistent indoor humidity is yet another reason to hate winter.  Which I DO.

And it's still cold outside, although there's a warm-up coming by mid-week if the good folks at the NWS in ABQ are correct.  

We might even be able to pull off an outdoor Happy Hour!  Let us pray... 

―:☺:―

I believe I mentioned I was considering buying a new peesee rather than getting the current desktop repaired.  Well last Tuesday I did just that.  I did my patriotic duty to stimulate the economy... and I also gave Hewlett-Packard (a fine, outstanding AMERICAN computer company who sells stuff assembled in China or Taiwan, outta parts made only-gawd-knows-where) my bid'niz, in the hopes they'll be able to keep my pittance of a retirement check coming along each and every month.  Well, that and the fact that HP gives me an employee discount on their stuff, and every lil bit helps, yanno?  OTOH, I'm not too pleased with how long it's gonna take the box to get here.  I ordered the thang on 12/06 and HP tells me the machine will ship on or about 12/19, with a five to seven day delivery date to follow.  Doesn't that seem excessive?  But then again... Taiwan is a long ways away from New Mexico.

The Weekend Continues

I almost always title my blog posts before I write them... it's the very first thing I do.  And then I write, keeping the post title in mind and trying not to venture too far afield from the thought contained in the title.  That usually works for me except for those times when I'm more scattered than normal, and be kind, Gentle Reader, as you read that last bit.  When I'm scattered I'll choose some sort of post title like "Potpourri" or "Miscellaneous Ramblings" or "A Few Things" or something of that ilk.  Today is such a day, so forgive me my trespasses and I'll forgive you yours. 

I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday listing hard to port and taking on water.  It all began Thanksgiving night when I settled down in the early evening to watch the end of a one-hundred-plus game college ball rivalry, which is to say Texas-Texas A&M.  The game was magnificent and I'll say that as a disinterested party with no affiliation whatsoever with either school.  But I loves me some rivalry games, they're always intense and usually result in hard-played football, which is the finest kind.  It saddens me to see the end of a tradition and I watched one end Thursday evening.  But we digress.

I fell asleep on the couch almost immediately after the game was over and slept for well over six hours, awakening just after 0300 hrs.  Six hours of sleep falls within the Usual, Customary, and Reasonable range for me of late and I was faced with a dilemma: do I go back to bed, in my real bed, with every expectation of tossing and turning fitfully for a couple o' hours until it gets light or do I make the coffee and stay up?  I opted for "make the coffee."  That was my first mistake and the rest of the day was pretty much downhill from there.  I managed to stay awake for a lil over six hours and then took a two hour nap.

I said my day was downhill but it wasn't all downhill.  The Beloved Wings played an afternoon game in Bawston yesterday, the broadcast start time being 1100 hrs MST, which was right around the time I awoke from my nap.  The game was a good one, except for the fact the Bruins' only two goals both came as a result of Dee-troit turnovers.  They have to stop that stuff, to be kind.  The Wings also scored two goals and we went into OT as a result and then to a shootout where Dee-troit won, snapping Bawston's ten-game win streak.  Both the game and the final result were VERY satisfying.

We then switched over to yet another rivalry game... already in progress... and watched what was left of the first half of LSU-Arkansas, followed by the remainder of the game.  I had hopes for Moogie's Hawgs when I switched over and saw the score was 14-0 in their favor, but Andy's Tiggers regained their composure and blew the Hawgs out in the second half, which was never close.  So:  Andy glad, Moogie sad.  Me?  Asleep on the couch, again.  Blowouts just aren't that entertaining, unless it's YOUR blowout.

I woke up sometime after dark and hied my old ass off to Mickey Dee's, where I suffered a major disappointment (see below).  I should have known better and that's all I'll say about that.

I then retired to the study where I dragged the Emergency Desktop out of the closet and set to getting it running.  Eighty-five Microsnot updates (85!  Eighty-freakin'-five!), numerous anti-virus updates, and one Firefox upgrade later (from 3.0.19 to 8.0.1) we were done, sorta.  I still have to restore my financial software to its current state before end-of-month close out, but that's no biggie.  The laptop is current in that space, as is the outboard hard drive.

I find it interesting that this is the second time my spiffy desktop has failed in its sweet short life and it's the second time I've had to fall back on the obsolescent box I replaced three years ago.  Both 'puters are Gateways, but the old one is so much more reliable than the newer one... even if it's slower than molasses on a January day.  The old box runs XP, which takes forever to boot up, but at least the thing runs once it's finished gnashing and thrashing its way through the boot sequence.  It has a much slower processor, too, but once again: it's adequate for the tasks at hand.  I'm simply glad I have a fall-back position other than the laptop.

And the weekend continues...

Noticed and Unnoticed

Noticed: Today is another one of those days here on The High Plains o' New Mexico: there's more wind than any human bean wants or needs, which is to say constant wind in the mid-20 mph range, with gusts of 30 mph and above.  That's not as bad as some days but the wind, along with temps in the very low 50s, is bad enough to make me forgo shopping that should be done but won't be.  The wind will also cancel Happy Hour today.  Oh, I'll still knock back a beer or two but I'll do so indoors and will forgo (once again) the usual, customary, and quite reasonable cigar... said cigar being one of the necessary ingredients of a successful Happy Hour.  The changing of the seasons has had a remarkable impact on my cigar consumption, which has resulted in a considerable reduction in expense (good) along with a reduction in my perceived quality of life (bad).  And winter isn't even here!  I've been thinkin' about suitable work-arounds in this space and haven't come up with any as of yet.  Got any ideers, Gentle Reader?

Unnoticed:  Our sixth blogoversary slipped under the radar this past Tuesday. We had put up 4,151 posts (according to Blogger's "edit posts" screen) as of 11/15/2011 and the sheer quantity of mindless drivel I've posted to these inter-tubes never ceases to amaze me.  It also never ceases to amaze me that people actually READ this stuff, some of whom (yeah YOU, Lou) have been with me since Day One (well, almost) and others (Kris, Jenny, Laurie, Bob) have hung with me nearly that long.  And then there are the others who came in afterwards yet continue to hang around, The Deity At Hand only knows why.  I didn't mention SN1 or SN2; there's a reason for that, which falls in the "duty and obligation" space.  But that said, I appreciate their patronage along with that of the grandbabies, who now know more than they prolly should about Dear Ol' Granddad.

I DO go on.  My bottom line?  Thank you ALL for dropping by and thank you for your friendship.  I dunno how long blog life is or can be but I don't see myself giving it up any time soon.

Unnoticed, II:  No one remarked that the state of California transgendered me before being transgendered was cool.  I didn't let California's oh-so-unilateral action go to my head (or other places), though.  It's good to get in touch with your feminine side, even if you're forced to do so by the gub'mint.

I Don't Often Do This...

... but here's a post from the Shoebox blog in its entirety.

This is not a spoiler, it’s in the trailer and it’s pretty key to the whole movie: in the future (which sucks, btw) everyone kind of freezes at 25, then you have a year to live unless you buy extra time. So… your mom can be crazy hot. Your mom. She’s gonna look 25, same as you. But she’s your mom. This would not be easy to deal with.


Navigating the fact that everyone kind of piles up and the rich get richer and time is literally money in kind of Occupy Wall Street, the movie, is absolutely real actor Justin Timberlake. And this is his mom.  In the movie. In real life, this is his mom.  She seems nice. But not nice. I hope the future does not turn out like it did in this movie. I could not act like it’s OK that this is my mom. Also, no jet packs.

Longtime readers know that I'm not a movie guy and that's putting it kindly and gently.  I could pull a Jack Nicholson and tell ya what I really think about movies but you prolly couldn't stand the truth. Yeah, a quote from a movie.  I'm into irony.  

All THAT said, I love the Shoebox "Tiny Little Movie Reviews" on a number of different levels.  First and foremost, they're TINY and there are no long-winded expositions on anything, let alone the nuances of this actor, that special effect, or the other bullshit.  Second: they're always funny.  Always.  Third: the reviews tend to validate my feelings about movies, in general.  I guess I'm kinda un-American in that regard, but I really don't give a Big Rat's Ass.  I'm of the opinion Hollywood lost whatever relevance it had 30 years ago.  At least.

This Is Interesting

From Tech Crunch:

Up-and-coming social network Google+ will soon be integrated with Google’s blogging platform, Blogger, according to a message now appearing in the “Edit User Profile” section of Blogger’s Settings.

The message reads “Connect Blogger to Google+ : Use your Google profile and get access to upcoming Google+ features on Blogger,” and includes links to “Learn more” and ”Get Started.” Unfortunately, the links are dead-ends right now, so we don’t yet know what type of integration is being planned.

The “Learn More” link is currently dumping to this “page not found” message in Blogger’s Help Center, while the “Get Started” link simply redirects logged-in users to their Blogger Dashboard.

[...]

Chitu says it’s possible we’ll soon see even deeper integration between Blogger’s commenting system and Google+ comments in the future, thanks to the forthcoming integration. That would position Google+ against Facebook on another front beyond just social networking: blog commenting.

Facebook Comments (such as those used here on TechCrunch) provide a way for authenticated users to sign in using their Facebook credentials in order to leave a comment. The drawback, of course, to using a system such as this is that it requires commenters to post using their “real” identity, not a pseudonym. While somewhat effective against trolling and other bad behaviors, it also has it drawbacks. 

Rumor has it G+ will soon allow pseudonyms, so all the Anons and folks who don't use their real names can rest assured their privacy will be protected (heh... as if anyone is really anonymous on the 'net) if and when Google links Blogger and G+ comments.  I think the linkage of the two systems will be a Good Thang, but I will admit the bloom went off the G+ rose for me a few weeks back.  I haven't even looked at G+ in over a week... I guess I'm just not that social.

Coincidence? I Think NOT.

So, I was commenting on Lou's post about the air show she went to this weekend and got this:

Google scares me sometimes.

OCD, Part II

I got up about 20 minutes ago and am just now enjoying my first cup... which isn't bad considerin' I was up until past 0600 hrs this morning... labeling frickin' posts!  I took these screen shots before I went to bed:

You mebbe thought I was kidding about the OCD thang?

OCD

One of these days I'm going to beat my tendency to be seriously obsessive-compulsive.  But it looks like that won't happen any time soon.  The astute among you Gentle Readers... and that would be all of ya, right?... may have noticed I have a new widget in my sidebar: a tag cloud showing labels I've assigned to posts.  I have NO ideer what came over me but I decided to begin labeling posts and started by asking Blogger to display all posts about Obama (which Blogger does by searching for the word "Obama").  About eight hours and 227 posts later... and that's just scratching the surface... I finished labeling those posts. It doesn't help matters that I sometimes (more often than not) combine three or more discrete topics in a single post... which means I have to actually read the drivel in order to label it properly.  Obsessive.  Compulsive.

I only have about 3,800 posts to go.  Aiiieee.

I Hate It When This Sorta Thang Happens

This:

Three hours, 46 minutes, 15 seconds and 34 page views.  Comments?  None, as far as I can tell... but a comment from a new reader came in at 1345 hrs so I might could be wrong and that wouldn't be the first time.  But, Hey!  It's good to have readers in the AOR and that's where this person is, judging from his org/IP address (not published here) and the time zone.

Gettin' My Fix

It's a beautiful day in the Hub City and we are enjoying all the Starbucks we can slurp down, surreptitiously checking out the bookstore wimmen (my favorite kind... I love literati types) (said wimmens are also surreptitiously checking ME out), all while availing ourselves of B&N's free wi-fi... which enables us to make our blog-rounds even as we're over a hunnert miles from home.

Ain't America GREAT?

I've Been Webified

So... you upgrade to Firefox 6.0, take this stupid lil quiz (and it most certainly has the dumbest questions I've seen lately), and FF generates a collage that is supposed to represent Your Web.  Here's mine:

And here's a link to the image above.  You can mouse over the icons and get suck-up messages that tell you how great you are... or rather how great I am, if you chase the link.  Like this:

My Wall?  Aiiieee!  Please.  That would be my Stream, thankyaverymuch.

I Got Nuthin'...

... you get a re-run.  This one's over five years old so it will prolly be new to most of you, seein' as how there are only about two of you Gentle Readers who have been with me since 2006.  This lil bit o' nostalgia was prompted by blog-bud Glenn, who posted a lot o' pics of the Edwards AFB air park... one such bein' an F-101 Voodoo.  I had a close encounter of the underwear changing kind with a Voodoo in the way-back...

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Old Computer Tech and a War Story

Lileks has some great old computer advertising promotional photos from the ‘60s and ‘70s here. Browsing through those old photos made me a bit nostalgic for the old USAF Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, the nation’s air defense system from 1963 until 1983. (More on SAGE, including some pretty cool old photos, here. Click on the “SAGE” links in the left hand sidebar.) I enlisted in the AF in 1963 and spent almost half of my life working in the SAGE system, albeit on the sensor (radar) end, not the computing end. Here’s a thumbnail description of SAGE:

By the time the system was fully deployed in 1963, according to MITRE, "the 24 SAGE Direction Centers and three SAGE Combat Centers were spread throughout the U.S. Each was linked by long-distance telephone lines to more than 100 interoperating air defense elements, requiring system integration on a scale previously unimagined. At the heart of each center was a new large-scale digital computer that had evolved from MIT's experimental Whirlwind computer of the 1950's. The largest real-time computer program of that time, it automated information flow, processed and presented data to 100 operator stations, and provided control information to the weapons systems. This processed information, including aircraft tracks and identification, was presented to operators on a cathode ray tube -- one of the first uses of this device to display computer-generated data." Each Center was built around a huge A/N FSQ-7 computer with 60,000 vacuum tubes requiring 3 megawatts of power and running the largest computer program written up to that time, with 500,000 lines of code. This program used an area in system memory called COMPOOL that could be shared by several subroutines. This would become one of the founding concepts for the COBOL computer language. The communications devices from Burroughs allowed each center to communicate with other centers, creating one of the first practical computer networks.

The air defense of the entire United States and Canada was based on a network of 22 “Direction Center” computers, each of which ran mere 500,000 lines of code. Your desktop machine has 40 million lines of code in its operating system, assuming you’re running Windows XP. We’ve come a long way, Baby!  

If you followed that “here” link above, you’ll note the main page has a photo of an F-102 superimposed on a radar tower, with a clickable link called “Bubble Check.” Click that link! The pilot that wrote that piece describes the bubble checks he performed while up in Alaska and maintains that USAF pilots only did that sort of thing at remote sites where the possibility of civilian complaints was low to non-existent.

Hogwash.

I got the living BeJeebus scared out of me while at Lompoc AFS in the mid-60s by an F-101 pilot out of Oxnard AFB pulling an unannounced bubble check. Just to be clear, bubble checks had at least two purposes: one was to impress and entertain the troops at the radar sites, the second was to express displeasure with ground controllers who screwed up intercept vectors, causing the fighter jock to miss an intercept on an in-bound target. When the latter scenario happened, said displeased fighter jock would buzz the ground control intercept site, unannounced, usually lighting off the afterburner(s) in the process, which caused a helluva lot of racket and startled everyone within a couple thousand yards. Point made, and all that.

So, there I was, about 60 feet off the ground at the very top of the antenna of an AN/FPS-6 height finder radar which was situated on the edge of the “hill” the radar site was located on. Or, to put it another way, the radar tower overlooked a valley that was at least a couple of thousand feet wide and several hundred feet deep, the point being one could fly an aircraft through that valley and be beneath the elevation of the radar station.

It was a fairly warm and clear summer’s day and I was inspecting the antenna for cracks, a normal preventive maintenance routine. I caught a flash and a glint out of the corner of my eye, turned and looked over my shoulder and DOWN, right into the cockpit of an F-101 doing about 600 mph, 90 degrees to the ground, a mere 150 feet or less from my poor frail body. The pilot lit off the afterburners just as I caught the flash of the aircraft as it sped by and the entire antenna—including me, holding on for dear life—was rocked by a thunderous KA-BOOM-BOOM! The pilot stood that 101 on its tail as it passed over the search radar tower and shot straight up into the sky, disappearing in a matter of seconds.

As for me, I was left completely shaken, clinging to that antenna with a veritable death-grip. I was damned lucky I didn’t have to go home and change my pants after that event. And it took me about ten minutes or more to gain enough composure to climb down from the antenna. Bubble checks are impressive, indeed. Scary, too. 

I did some minor editing to the above, such as removing dead links and adding the pic of  the Voodoo (which sits on the prem at the AF Armament Museum at Eglin AFB).  We weren't much on graphics back when we started out with this bloggin' thang.

Potpourri

Let's get the politics out o' the way first:

Heh.  Secret note to Barry:  It ain't workin', asshat.  All your stupid-ass ploy is doin' is increasing my active dislike for yo ass, as if THAT were possible.

From the usual source.

―:☺:― 

More Google secret word stuff:

Google scares me sometimes.

―:☺:― 

Today is Bastille Day, or the 221st birthday of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Republics.  Or are they up to five now?  One loses count, not that that matters.  I have some happy memories of cool military parades down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées when the Ol' Man was stationed in Paris.  What eight-to-eleven year old boy doesn't like that sorta thang?  (One more thang... if you embiggen the picture you get a better view of those shiny yet out of focus helmets on the horse-guards behind Monsieur Le President's personnel carrier.  I had one of those.)

So... Vive La France!

―:☺:― 

Speaking of...   the US women beat the French women in the semi-finals of some apparently Big Sporting Deal a day or so ago.  But David Burge speaks for me on this subject...

iowahawkblog: I won't cheer for the US women's soccer team until they (a) stop discriminating against men, and (b) stop playing soccer. 

Heh.

Scrapin' the Bottom o' the Bloggin' Barrel X

We are EXCITED:

That shipment is this.  Woo-HOO and other typically American noises of elation!

In Which Google Insults Me

Am NOT!  I may be old, I may be slow, but I do NOT creak.

PSA

Blogger's bein' a shit again today, throwin' a 503 error every time ya go to comment.  DON'T despair!  Just right-click anywhere in the error screen, choose (left-click) "reload" and then click "resend" if you get a dialog box asking if you want to re-send data.  Yes, you do... otherwise you lose your Great American Novel.

Fuckin' Blogger.

A Minor Milestone

Sometime tonight (mebbe) or tomorrow (more likely) EIP will have its 200,000th visitor (the number you see above is as of 1820 hrs MDT).  That ain't much for those bloggers who get that much traffic in a matter of weeks, or days... in the case of the Big Dogs.  But I think it's kinda cool.  We ARE easily amused, yanno?

Was it you?  My SiteMeter is open, so you can sneak a peek any ol' time ya like.  Aside from the fact Enquiring Minds™  wanna know... there may be a prize.  Yeah, right.

Update, 07/07/2011 0005 hrs:  200,000:

And he or she never even knew.  That link is from Blog-Bud Alison's place.