those kids will knife you in your sleep, and sacrifice your organs to allah.

oh, won't somebody think of the children?

with enough hugs and kisses and love and nice fluffy pillows, everything will be fine. you just need to have faith.

idiots.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/18/the-guardian-view-on-british-children-in-syria-bring-them-back

so, i'm going to send this one out to don.

hope he enjoys it.

if you want to commemorate the people that fought for the freedoms you enjoy today, you should march in a union parade, not wear a poppy.

don can't forget things that he never knew.

but, what we're remembering is not the "sacrifice that veterans made". no. that's a lie, that's historical ignorance.

what we're remembering is the tyranny of our own government in slaughtering it's own civilians - and we're standing for a few brief moments, together, to ensure that we never let that happen again.

those new to the country can be forgiven for excusing themselves from the ceremonies that honour the dead, if they don't feel that that is their history. but, i do expect their support in standing strong against any future government that would revert to the past, in bringing back conscription - and wearing a poppy doesn't mean much, in the latter context.

well.

does anybody have any statistics on the incidence of poppy-wearing in first generation canadians? it's an empirical question.

i don't care about don cherry. he's kind of an institution in this country, but one of the things i remember about him was thinking he didn't even know that much about hockey. i don't actually know what he was trying to say, or if it was actually offensive.

if you said that recent immigrants don't celebrate easter, you'd mostly be right, because they largely aren't christians. now, if you implied that they should celebrate easter, you'd be saying something confusing. why is it reversed with remembrance day, which is a very specifically eurocentric event? why would we expect muslim or chinese immigrants to commemorate the deaths of white canadians fighting a pointless war for the british empire?

and, cherry is wrong on that point - world war one had nothing to do with democracy, and these people didn't die to save anybody. rather, their deaths were a symptom of their lack of freedom. most of the soldiers did not gain the franchise until after the war (if they survived it) because they didn't own property, and most of the people that died were conscripted to fight. those millions of dead did not choose their fate, they were pointlessly slaughtered for reasons that historians still can't entirely figure out, a hundred years later.

it's a completely orwellian holiday.

further, the canadian story is inherently ethnic in context - quebec nearly started a civil war over it, something called the conscription crisis. they didn't think they were dying for anybody's freedom, at all, they thought they were being marched off to die by the anglos.

if i were to move to china, i'd be faking it if i were to get into emotional reflections about the rape of nanking, even as i recognize that it was a horrible war crime. i don't know if they wear ribbons, or do something else to commemorate it, but i know i wouldn't do it. i'd have the respect to sit quietly and wait for them to finish, but it wouldn't be my holiday, and i wouldn't participate.

so, what he said was weird. but, if the premise is that the insinuation that immigrants don't celebrate remembrance day is insulting, i'd question it on it's face.

if there's an issue at hand here, it's maybe in coming to terms with the fact that remembrance day is kind of a white holiday that lacks relevance for a growing percentage of the country, while recognizing that it was never commemorated uniformly across the country in the first place.

in french canada, this is the day where we celebrate the end of conscription. but, don doesn't like the quebeckers, either - he's just allowed to talk about that, as he pleases.

so, i wanted to be extra thorough, and i don't apologize for that, even if it means i still haven't uploaded yet.

i guess it just gives me time to test on the chromebook, which i was hoping to have fixed by today but haven't even looked at yet..

but, i've got this worked out, even if it's later than i wanted it to be.

i need to do some running around today...

this is just a picture. but, we all need to start thinking more dialectically, in general, and this is a good example.

it's going to be cold in canada for a while, still.

but, you see all of that hot air in the atlantic? it's going to win the fight, sometimes. and, it's going to win more and more often over the upcoming years.

so, think of it like a struggle - an epic battle, a duality. that's reality: conflict, change.

if the line is over the st. lawerence, as it has been for the last several years, then it is true that cities that straddle the line - chicago, detroit, toronto, montreal - will have some absolutely brutal weather. again.

but, it's also likely that you'll get a few bouts of warmth.

this is my advice this winter: check the long range, and try to plan around the nice spots.

it's too early to lose hope in an early spring, because that hot water could still overwhelm, in the end.

i've posted this statement before, but it's not getting through. there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding.

when i say "i would never support elizabeth warren or pete buttigieg or joe biden, and now also bernie sanders, because they're too right-wing", that seems to be being misconstrued as though i'm pouting - as though i'm saying "i would normally support the democrats, but i don't like the candidate, so i'm withholding support".

in fact, i've been clear that i wouldn't normally support the democrats at all - that i would usually vote for a party to the left of the democrats, like the greens. i would usually be highly critical of the democrats.

so, it's not unusual that i'm withholding support for the democrats; what's unusual is that i was even thinking about supporting them in the first place, and that was due 100%, solely, entirely to bernie sanders. 98 years out of 100, i'm not going to even consider it.

and, i'm not a "non-voter". i'm just a communist.

i was born in 1981, but i'm comfortable in stating that i would not have voted for the anti-communist and pro-catholic jfk. and, while it is true that nixon was a racist despot, he still has an actual better legacy than jfk in terms of actual accomplishments. i would not feel ashamed about preferring nixon over jfk at all (although i would have voted for a socialist party).

hey, hey lbj! how many kids did you kill today?

i may have flirted a little with rfk - it's hard to tell how seriously i would have actually taken him  but, i would have more actively supported the various anti-war and pseudo-left candidates in the late 60s and early 70s, and then tuned out when they lost.

i would have interpreted jimmy carter as a sign of the apocalypse, and been a fan of punk rock and everything that that means from 1975-1993. so, i would have hated tipper gore and the pmrc with a passion. to the extent that i would have voted during these years at all, it would have been for people pretty far outside of the spectrum.

i might have supported clinton in 1993 just to get the republicans out and end the misery of it, and then horribly regretted it. but, i might have been a passive perot fan, too. you have to understand that clinton campaigned against most of what he did, in a time where you should have been able to believe him - he was the great deceiver, the great betrayer. would i have seen through it? it's hard to say. i know that chomsky saw through it, so there's some precedent, but i may have rationalized it. this is harder, for me, than jfk. by 1997, at least, i'd be looking at the greens. by 2000, we can start looking at reality.

- i did not support al gore, because i thought he was too pro-war and in bed with the oil companies. i do not think that a gore presidency would have significantly altered the course of history. i supported nader in 2000.
- the 1/50 fluke occurrence that caused me to seriously support the democrats was the invasion of iraq, and it's actually interesting to wonder what would have happened if it was gore that invaded iraq (as he had been arguing for since the 80s), and he had to go up against a republican. might they have elected a ron paul type? if so, i'd have had to have supported that ron paul type, against my better judgement. at the time, that war could still be reversed, and it had to take precedent over just about anything else. further, kerry had believable anti-war credentials. i supported kerry in 2004.
- by 2008, the moment to end the catastrophe had passed, and the democrats were running a guy that was promising to blow up afghanistan because he thought it was a tactical mistake to invade iraq. i did not support barack obama - i supported the greens in both 2008 and 2012.
- in 2016, i very weakly endorsed clinton, but, in the booth, i would have almost certainly voted for jill stein.

so, i'm not pouting; these people just aren't presenting proposals i'd actually support. i am seriously about twenty degrees to the left of the democrats. i look at a buttigieg and i agree with maybe 25% of what he's saying. then, i look at trump and i also agree with about 25% of what he's saying, which is unusual for a republican. if your argument is "you have to vote democrat because the republicans are so terrible", i might interject that trump isn't nearly as bad as bush or reagan or nixon, and might not even be as bad as clinton. sure, i'd rather somebody else was president. but, in context, trump isn't nearly as bad as he could be - and i'd certainly pick him over rubio or cruz. the urge and drive i felt in 2004 to get bush out is just lacking at the moment.

then, i look at the greens and agree with 90% of what they're saying. so, i'm going to vote for the greens and not against the republicans.

and, if you're upset by that, i don't give a fuck. rather, i will suggest that we have a debate about the policies that the democrats are supporting, and why i don't support them, and won't support them. but, you have to put me in context - i'm not a pouting democrat that's turning my nose up, i'm a hardened socialist that was dabbling in a party that i've spent most of my life fighting against.

in this particular election, i don't feel particularly conflicted, or like there's a hard choice to make. there's not a democrat in the field that would pull me away from the greens, this time. so, i'm going to be supporting the greens, to the extent i'm supporting anybody at all.

but, again - i can't vote in the united states. and, if i can't find a serious candidate that i actually like, i'm not going to spend a lot of time thinking about the process any further.

my position is essentially this - don't give me shit for standing my ground. if you want my vote, change your policies to reflect what i care about. and, if you won't do that, accept that we're in different political camps - i'm a socialist, and you're a capitalist.

the way you'd scale it would be by using a system made out of these.

every time i need more capacity to hold a new waste source, i'd just get more batteries.

https://www.18650batterystore.com/18650-Batteries-s/106.htm

so, what am i going to do?

well, i think i've saved myself from paying an electrical bill for a while, already. i don't need to start messing around with converting heat to electricity. yet.

i want to finish my thought with the usb fan, but it's only necessary to an extent.

however, every time they boost the price, i'll need to do something to compensate and take something else off the grid, or down somehow.

if i can just find a way to run the fan off the lights using mirrors or lenses, for now, that's a win. step two will be getting a small battery, and a larger panel. and i will need bigger and bigger batteries and more and more efficient recycling options as the price increases - which it will.

for now, i need to get back to focusing on what i was doing.

something more exotic - and i'm not exactly channeling tesla because this source didn't exist when he lived - is the question of whether you can pull down radio waves and wifi signals.

again: that's not "free". it's being generated.

but, it's out there.

this is smart.

i would support introducing it into the building code.

so, what's a smart way to do this?

well, if your heater is near the window - and it probably is - then you can put one side on the window, and the other over the heater, then dump what you generate into a battery. and, the colder it is outside, the better it will work.

you could also potentially dig up your floors..

it's true that you'll lose a little of the heat, but the point is that you're wasting oodles of it in the first place.

if you could potentially set up a system that takes a few watts an hour from a dozen different sources, you could salvage enough heat to charge your batteries. ten sources at two-three watts each would be twenty-thirty watts an hour.

so, these are the two ways to salvage excess energy from around your home - light and heat. a potential third source would be sound, but it probably is too low efficiency to bother with.

if you don't use a lot of energy to begin with, i think you should be able to reduce your consumption to the big appliances, and please understand that i'm not proposing you can get off of the grid using these methods. you will need something like a solar panel outside to run your stove and your fridge, and your lights and your heaters in the first place.

but, i've piqued my own curiosity, here.

i have two heaters in here.

in canada, we live with these devices that emit hot air into our living spaces, and we have them on half the year.

it's very wasteful, and there's a potential source of recycling, there.

i want to be clear.

1) this isn't free energy, in the generative sense. it's energy recycling. i'm not generating energy out of nothing, i'm trying to find a way to reuse the light energy being ejected by the lights as waste. and, maybe you could reuse the energy from the heaters, too, which would be even more cost effective.

2) it's not free in terms of money, either. it costs me money to run the lights. it's just that i'm running the lights anyways, and the lights are currently relatively cheap. further, if i can find a way to generate electricity from the heaters, that's energy that my landlord is paying for.

3) it's therefore not a perpetual motion machine, and i'm not breaking the second law. certainly, i can't get more energy than i'm generating. but, lighting and heating are inherently wasteful, and if we go out of our way to efficiently recycle the energy we're wasting, then the end result may just go to show you how much you're actually wasting.

so.

could, i get some overhead led lights and feed a fresnel lens into a 200 W panel, with a homemade lithium battery array? at peak usage, i'm looking at 300 wh for a computer and maybe that much for extra gear, so if i can get 25 kw worth of battery space, and can get the fresnel lens running at something close to 50% efficiency, i could fill up more than i need for a full day in a few days. and, that's more than enough for continuous day-to-day use. i'd just have to scale it as best as i could.

one thing at a time....but, if electrical prices keep going up, i might have myself a new hobby.

but, wait.

if i use this panel, i can get 50-100 mA directly from the led.

i thought that wasn't enough.

but, if a fresnel lens can give me 5x that....

he showed a small fresnel lens at a 2x factor, and a big one at a 20x factor. surely, i can get one at 5x.

i'm going to wait until december, but we're still going with this.

i'm as curious as anything else, at this point. i'm an anarchist. fuck the 2nd law. or, at least, fuck being a slave to it. let's see how much we can break it, just for the fun of it.

so, i mentioned that empiricism is required for a valid epistemology.

my laptop was manufactured in 2006, and purchased as a refurbished model in mid-2010. the two t4300 processors were first manufactured in 2009, and the bios revision is likewise set to 2009, so i guess it got upgraded at the store. i should probably think of it as a 2009 model. nonetheless, it came with vista pre-installed, and is not a high-end machine at all.

usb 3.0 didn't exist until very late 2009, and you were probably unable to get your hands on a low-end consumer grade laptop with usb 3.0 ports until 2011 or 2012.

so, i must have usb 2.0 ports. and, if there's any further question about the issue, msinfo is clear enough about it:

why am i pulling more than an amp, then?

not 900 mA. 1.03 A.

see, those were my two options, logically - either i'm pulling more than i should be, or the device is restricted in what it can pull. it makes no sense that i'm getting over an amp out of the usb 2.0 ports. but, that's the actual answer.

so, the fan is indeed drawing at 2.5 W as advertised, and it's not a lot, for what it is. i'm not going to be able to drive this any further. that's as strong as it gets.

how, though? well, i guess that either the electricity in the board is faulty, or i got a very late usb 2.0 revision that can draw at usb 3.0 levels. well, do you have a better explanation?

i think that 500 mA is pushing it for a solar panel on a led light. i'll look into it, but it doesn't seem like a worthwhile investment, i don't think. rather, i've got it plugged into the wall socket drawing 2.5 W. there's a second usb slot; together, i can pull a maximum of 5 W from the wall over usb. so, i'm better off getting a second similar fan, maybe one that's just a tad bigger.

right now, i've got the 90W fan at half speed, which i hope is 45W. together, it's 47.5W. if i push this up to 50W, and i "only" save 40W, that's still pushing 30 kwh, or 15-20% of the total usage.

or, maybe i'll find the right solar cell technology, after all.

so, here's my updated information, in regard to the things i use frequently and want to get down to the 1.5-2.5 kwhish range:

ac fan (on full) - 0.08-0.09
ac fan (on low) - ??
laptop + monitor - 0.02-0.03
lights - 0.01-0.02 (per bulb)
modem - 0.01-0.02
usb fan - 0.002-0.003

also:
stove: 0.4-0.6
desktop pc - 0.2-0.3
coffee machine - 0.15-0.20
90s laptop - 0.05-0.06

i really only slept for about three hours yesterday morning, so it was actually kind of a long day, carrying over from thursday night. i wanted to get the finishing touches on inri000 done, but i instead ended up spending the afternoon clearing out shows for the rest of the week.

i have to get ready for the trip to toronto now, but i should hopefully have some time to upload a file or two before i go.

if i'm efficient about this, it might only take a few hours, but i don't want to get stuck.

no.

we need to start seeing them through a more realistic lens, which means understanding that they've been there for a long time and aren't going anywhere. instead of alienating and othering and attacking them, we need to accept them for what they are and work with them.

that doesn't mean being naive. the russians are different, but the chinese would wipe us out and colonize us if they could. lest we forget that we tried to do that to them? lest we forget the opium wars? so, they're the same as us. surprise? i don't know why, that should be obvious.

if we see them as adversaries, we will put a self-fulfilling prophesy in motion. but, if we try to work together despite our differences, we could potentially work together - which means making concessions - to build a better world, without conflict.

it's an error to conflate them. russia is an integral part of western culture, and china is an alien race that sees us as inferior, too. but, that doesn't matter much, in purely tactical considerations. we need to reach out to work together, not dig in and work against each other...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-russia-china-fadden-trump-1.5357109

if you put freeland in power, the conservatives will win the next election by splitting the vote in ontario.

what's the alternative?

no.

i think that it's clear enough that trudeau does not have a clear successor, and if the party wants to go through this, it's going to need to run a leadership contest. looking around, i don't see any great options, which is why we ended up here in the first place.

but, the next liberal leader should be making it a priority to reconnect with the party's historical positions on foreign policy and social services, and try to reverse the slide into neo-liberalism that set in after mulroney. one of the major reasons that trudeau was successful was that he projected a reversal of neo-liberalism by channeling the legacy of his father, even if the facts didn't uphold that. elevating freeland would drop the pretext around this, and almost certainly either resurrect the ndp from imminent destruction, or give people the resolve to actually vote green.

we've seen this movie before. it's what happened with paul martin.

liberals in canada want to vote for a social liberalism. if you want a market-centric, end-of-history, neo-liberal, progressive conservatism, we have that, too, but it's the other guys.

and, all that these consistent attempts to move the liberal party to the right accomplish is conservative governance.

they're only 13 seats short. they can win that back by focusing on some urban seats and investing in education, climate, housing and health care. but, if they don't, people will get fed up and vote for somebody else, instead...

i would like to see some renewal at foreign affairs, but if the pmo is going to bring back the deputy prime minister role, they should probably avoid appointing an upper class american that sits in a riding in toronto.

that would be pretty tone deaf.

it's not a constitutionally mandated position, and in the sense that it means "she's next", it would be broadly contradicting the changes that trudeau & butts brought in after 2013 to try and increase voter interest in the leadership.

i don't think she could win a leadership contest - she's a conservative, and the liberal base is way to the left of the actual party. she'd have a ceiling of around 20% against much of anybody. people would sign up to vote her out.

if there needs to be some process put in place to change the leadership of the party, and maybe there does, she's a one-way ticket back to opposition.

there's no way i would vote for her.

it's not clear to me what jurisdiction they have here, and my kneejerk reaction is consequently actually about canadian sovereignty. it's bad enough that warren is doing a poor job representing her own constituents. she has a lot of nerve calling for the canadian government to even answer her phone calls.

if i were the pmo, i'd tell her to write a letter to her mp.

that being said, it's really more reflective of the kind of right-wing populism that is defining the democratic primary at the moment. warren and sanders are the worst when it comes to this, because they're really just mirror reflections of donald trump. they're desperately grappling for some kind of enemy to define - bankers, the rich, technology, gays and, now, apparently, canada. and, she kind of is a south park republican, isn't she?

there's a level of randomness regarding the behaviour of whales, meaning some of them are going to get hurt, regardless. to an extent, you can't stop it. but, i'd like to see what the review says. i think we might come out fairly well in a systemic study, but if there are reasonable steps that the government can take then i think positive suggestions would be well received by both the sitting government and a large percentage of the canadian voting public. i do believe that there have been regulations introduced recently to restrict commercial vessels from operating at specific speeds; that is, this is something the government has actually legislated on fairly recently. they are more likely to be receptive than dismissive.

so, i think that canada would welcome any kind of constructive debate on the topic, actually.

but, warren doesn't want constructive debate - she wants to find an enemy to demonize and then try and build a campaign of hate around. the way to stop her from doing that is to call her on it and deconstruct it as she does it.

what i would like to support is a candidate that offers a positive socialist vision for the country and the continent, and she's about as far from that as is possible.

https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/u-s-senators-call-for-review-of-canadian-protections-of-endangered-right-whales-1.4688046

something i was able to isolate this afternoon is that the laptop only runs at 30 w if it's left on, or at least is only running at 30 w now that i've disabled everything i can. there does seem to be a small spike when it turns on, but it only comes out to around 0.01 or 0.02 added, so it's kind of just error. i was thinking it would be more than that...

i'll get a better bounds on the modem tomorrow.

so, if i leave it on all of the time, as i have been, i'm using

0.03(12*.105 + 6*.205 + 6*.144) = $0.10/day.

if, on the other hand, i'm strict about turning it off from 7:00-19:00, i'd be using:

0.03*12*.105 + .02 = $0.05-$0.06/day, which is just half the total amount.

if i leave it on for peak period and turn it off at night, it's:

0.03*6*(.205 + .144) + 0.02 =  $0.08/day

if i average that out, the difference is $0.02-$0.03 cents a day, or $0.60-$.90/month. so, let's say about $0.75/month.

it's not worth being neurotic about, i don't think.

i should just turn it off when i'm not using it. if that averages six hours a day, it's 5-6 kwh

https://wikileaks.org/vault7/document/SeaPea-User_Guide/SeaPea-User_Guide.pdf

today was completely lost, but in the end may not be wasted.

i was midway through writing the following post at around 9:15 this morning when i made a terrible error that resulted in me losing the day but may fix the access issues i was having on the drive.

this is what i was writing...

so, i was very, very slow getting started today.

i checked my email minutes after the post at 3:26 this morning and spent the next two hours dealing with that, including applying for a second mastercard through pc. they're threatening to shut down the site, now, if they don't get something in three days. i feel like i'm under an extortion attack by islamic terrorists - "give us the money in three days or it's all over". fuck.

i had to write several emails trying to order the thing out, and all i can do is hope it works.

but, it means i need to call td today. i'm in for the weekend, but will probably do an outside run on monday. that might include stopping by the bank and having a chat.

i used to have all of this information in boxes, but it's one of the things that disappeared when i left my items in storage. i have virtually everything from 2011-on, still. the credit karma site says the last payment was in june, 2006. really. i'm asking about a 13 year-old credit card. well, it's what google wants, what can i say...

i'll have to call the board today, too.

i then spent some more time thinking about the fan. can i just buy a 20 w desk fan? nobody seems to want that. 45 w? maybe if i import it from europe.

to finish the thought, i then experimented a little to see if i can plug the usb fan right into the wall, and i can, but i'm not getting as much amperage from it.

the next thing to check was my usage from the other day, and i noticed a spike where i didn't expect one (in hindsight, i can explain the spike). i thought i was sleeping (i wasn't). did i turn my laptop back on (yes)? so, i went to check the event log and couldn't open the file.

at that point, i realized that the entire system32 folder was owned by an alphanumeric s-12367tg77567896yp90 user. so, i went to take ownership and did, and then tried to remove the user, but couldn't. it said i had to remove the inheritance. i didn't think it through, i just clicked ok.

all of my security tabs disappeared.

fuck.

well, i can try a reboot, right? nope...

so, i was back in winpe on the desktop, and while the chkdsk was quick, the startup recovery couldn't find the operating system.

thankfully, i had a good understanding of what i did and the background to fix it (i did vista support, remember). just something else i'm technically an expert in. so, if you ever find yourself in the situation where you remove all ownership to a directory, accidentally or not, what you need to do is run the following script:

for /l %%x in (1, 1, n) do (
   echo %%x
   takeown /f dir /r /a /d y
   icacls dir /inheritance:e /t /q
   icacls dir /reset /t /q  
)

...where n is some appropriate number of iterations, dir is the directory.

if you do this for a system directory, as i did, n must be large, and you get something like this:

for /l %%x in (1, 1, 200) do (
   echo %%x
   takeown /f d:\windows\system32 /r /a /d y
   icacls d:\windows\system32 /inheritance:e /t /q
   icacls d:\windows\system32 /reset /t /q  
)

 so, i let that run and took a nap.

and, it still wasn't done when i woke up.

what i'm doing with the script is (1) recursively taking ownership of every file in the directory tree and putting it in the admin group, (2) turning inheritance back on and (3) resetting the acl to default. (1) will error out on each iteration, until it's done. (2) and (3) will then increase the size of the numbers processed over the next iteration of (1), so the loop is necessary to complete the process, and, while this should end, it can get frustrating when you only get through a few files per iteration, once you've been through a few thousand, already, because you have to do them again.

so, i did the last few thousand files manually by jumping directories. and, it wasn't done until 17:00...

that was brutal. it's my fault. i wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere. but, i merely lost a few hours on something that i've seen stump mcses. this is considered abstract in the field of tech support. i think they think there's a better answer, but there just isn't, you have to use brute force. fwiw, while i didn't write the tests (because they were charging a lot for them, and i wanted to get paid when i went to work), i went through three months of training by a certified microsoft employee that they flew in to ottawa from seattle, and then worked second tier microsoft support for a few months (until they shipped the jobs to the philipines). he hated the weather and couldn't get out fast enough. i bet it's nicer in manilla, if you can deal with the hurricanes. but, i basically have an mcse on top of the other degrees. i usually forget to mention that when enumerating my unofficial degrees, but that's in there, too. so, i figured this out quickly because i know what i did and how to fix it. most tech support agents would have had a hard time with that, though - that's a higher tier support problem because file systems are considered to be an abstract concept.

anyways.

i logged back in and noticed that the funny username, which i had up to this point assumed was myself from the previous install, had disappeared, at least, but that doing so had left a stream of previously hidden files, almost as though i had a rootkit. upon closer inspection, these files appeared to be exclusively related to remote access.

i've been pointing out for months that i think the cops have something installed on the drive....

so, i spent a few hours doing things like removing services, setting group policy settings and deleting directories. in the end, i can't say that i have any evidence of intrusion, but it's funny - i've turned on the event log (which was off, and i don't remember turning off) as well as the group policy editor (same.), so i should now be able to track any intrusion, when i previously couldn't. to be clear: if the cops installed something on the drive, they also turned off the software that would log them doing it. if they try it again, i should catch them in the act.

and, that's the day.

i didn't call the board. i didn't call td. i didn't finish the liner notes from inri000.

but, i'm going to get something to eat and try to push myself to finish it before i fall asleep.

it's just too cold to go out this weekend. this is normal for me - i shut down when it gets cold, and come back in the spring. i may come out of hibernation to forage if it seems nice, but i usually see my shadow. there are exceptions for artists i can't miss - i saw do make say think on a cold night in december, 2017 - but they are few and far between.

like, there's some chance i could be out once or twice between now and april.

so, there's some shows on saturday, but i'm staying in. and, we'll see if the weather co-operates a bit better next week or not.

there's a very high chance i'll get to plaid. that's the only thing coming up right now.

i ended up sleeping until after 22:00. so, it wasn't merely a nap. i'm up, now, and have eaten, but i need to take a shower before i get back to finishing this - and i really should finish it tonight.

i did get my fan.

the device is about the size i expected, but it's substantively weaker than the one running, which is not exactly a surprise. i knew it would be weaker, but how much weaker? i cannot seem to get rid of the burning smell, which currently smells like a burning wood log, like at a camp fire, which is still gross, but at least a little better. the type of burning shifts, but the burning is constant. the fan is absolutely necessary. so, this is not going to replace the fan, or at least won't for the moment, and i'm going to need to find other ways to cut down electrical, including turning the modem off when it isn't in use.

i tested it on the two usb 3 ports on the chromebook and on the usb 2 ports on the laptop and the chromebook. i could not a discern a difference in pull. but, i got a lot less out of the hub (which would have wired the fan, the mouse, a usb key and the wireless keyboard in series - presumably on 0.1 A.).

i suppose that it's possible that the different ports are running in series, locally. that would mean i could have gotten up to 0.5A on the laptop, and again on the chromebook. but, if i could pull at a higher amperage, why wouldn't i have pulled it out of the usb 3 ports? the fact that i didn't would indicate i'm pulling at 0.5A on the device, max.

but, when plugged directly into the laptop, the fan doesn't seem to respond at all to changes in power consumption out of the other ports. it reacted to the keyboard in the hub, but not to the hard drive in the port next to it. i tried copying files to and from the drive, running media off of it - nothing affected this stoic fan, in the slightest. it just churns. keep in mind that the maximum power usage over usb 2.0 is only 2.5W, and an external drive is definitely going to use all of that if it can. that would suggest that the ports are really not in series at all, that it's getting it's maximum pull out of a 0.1 A connection and that it just can't pull any more than that. ever.

so, the device would be 0.5W max, rather than 2-3. that's kind of what i thought. tech specs are terrible across the board. you don't know what you're buying, anymore. if elizabeth warren wants to run against technology, why doesn't she insist on regulating specs so that you actually get what you pay for?

regardless, this is enough evidence to take a gamble on the solar panel, if i think it can do well in low light. i actually think that reducing the circuitry could increase the amount i can pull, if there's some kind of breaker being pushed down by the os. it might actually pull more power from the leds, if i can get a solid 250-300 mA signal. and, will that turn it up a little?

logic is fun, and logic is useful, but logic is not enough for a proper epistemology - i do defer to empiricism when required. i want a reading before i plan my next move, here. so, i got one of those little ammeter/voltmeter combos for what was left on the pre-paid debit ($11). i overpaid, but i don't want to wait a month for it to get here from china. it should be here by monday.

if i do the reading, and it's only pulling 100 mA then i've got the green light to go solar. if it's pulling higher than that after all, and this is the best the thing can do with sufficient power, then it's not worth it, after all, and i'm stuck.

so, i'm past my bed time now and i need a nap.

but, that sets up the template, which should speed me up.

i'm going to post a last update to this - and it's now done - because i'm solving some problems that some other people are having problems with.

java is actually one of the many things that i'm technically an expert in. so, this is very simple code - because it should be. there's no reason for this to be complicated, and that complexity is exactly what i want to avoid.

//i'm centering this. i guess you don't have to. but, it's more zen.
<p align="center">

//this produces a text box that will output the file name. i'm sort of cheating, because i typed in the playlist. but, it works.
<input disabled type = "text"  style="width:300px;background-color:#000000;border-width:0px;" id = "txtOutput"/>
<br>

//this is the new back button. no error handling, but it matters even less, now.
<button type="button"  style="font-size:50px;" onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[--elm]; Player.play(); txtOutput.value = titles[elm]">&lt;</button>

//this is the html5 control
<audio autoplay controls  style="width:500px;height:50px"  id="Player" src="first track">Your browser does not support the video tag.</audio>

//this is the forward button. still no error handling.
<button type="button"  style="font-size:50px;" onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[++elm]; Player.play(); txtOutput.value = titles[elm]">&gt;</button>

//this is the new, more interactive html table
//notice that the index increases for each entry
//i am also resetting the index here to keep things in sync
//the width is set to 200 because i'm actually using two columns (i've deleted the second for brevity and clarity)
<table>
<tr><td width=200 onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[0]; Player.play(); elm=0; txtOutput.value = this.innerHTML">1. track 1 </td>
<tr><td onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[1]; Player.play(); elm=1;  txtOutput.value = this.innerHTML">2. track 2</td>
.
.
.
</table>

//here is the script.
<script>
var nextsrc = [list of file paths];
var titles =[list of file titles]
var elm = 0; var Player = document.getElementById('Player');
Player.onended = function(){
    if(++elm < nextsrc.length){  
         Player.src = nextsrc[elm]; Player.play();
         txtOutput.value = titles[elm];
    }
}
</script>
</p>

============

again, this is a nice little player. you just need to input the titles manually - or you could write a short program to parse it from an m3u file.

i'm kind of proud of myself.

1) back/forth buttons work fine. if you keep pushing the buttons out of bounds, you will have to rewind them as far as you pushed them. you could be really retarded and create an error, i'm sure. i'm not worried about it.
2) even if you go way out of bounds, you can fall back in bounds by clicking a track in the list. it'll reset itself and works fine.
3) you can jump from any track to any other track. it's just an index.
4) the record actually plays through, and the "playing" track updates properly along the way.

so, basically, it works perfectly.

the buttons are fine for the forwards and backwards, but this is much nicer for the tables.

<table>
<tr><td onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[0]; Player.play();">1. track 1</td></tr>
<tr><td onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[1]; Player.play();">2. track 2</td></tr>
<tr><td onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[2]; Player.play();">3. track 3</td></tr>
<tr><td>4</td></tr>
.
.
.
.
</table>

error checking?

let the fuckers fuck up. i don't fucking care.

i stole the basic logic of this out of a forum, then added the extra buttons in. if you want a playlist, it's about as simple as it gets.

no js. no css. you can do that yourself. just paste this into an html document...

//back button. it just keeps going, so don't be stupid.
<button type="button" onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[--elm]; Player.play();">&lt;</button>

//html5 player
<audio autoplay controls id="Player" src="track 1"></audio>

//forward button. likewise, there's no end, here.
<button type="button" onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[++elm]; Player.play();">&gt;</button>

//tracklisting
<table>
<tr><td><button type="button" onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[0]; Player.play();">1</button></td></tr>
<tr><td><button type="button" onclick="Player.src = nextsrc[1]; Player.play();">2</button></td></tr>
<tr><td>3</td></tr>
<tr><td>4</td></tr>
.
.
.
</table>
</p>

//"script"
<script>
var nextsrc = [track list];
var elm = 0; var Player = document.getElementById('Player');
Player.onended = function(){
    if(++elm < nextsrc.length){   
         Player.src = nextsrc[elm]; Player.play();
    }
}
</script>

that's it.

so, there's no easy way to build an html5 playlist...

the only way i can do this that i actually like is to build my own java script directly into the document, utilizing the built-in functionality, but i'm not sure how well i'm going to like this. i don't want to cite external routines, i don't want to put in an existing player, etc. what if they move the document? i mean, look at what's coming up with my own site.

i don't want to stream the audio from the cloud - they just bought it, they have it in high quality in front of them. that's the point.

and, i don't want to enforce a plugin. i'll give you an m3u file instead as that's what i was trying to actually do. i use foobar. maybe you like something else.

and, then i kind of thought it through and it seemed silly, because buying the audio means you'll do what you will with it, and that's the point.

but, i still want a little front end.

i should be able to do this by just creating a couple of buttons right in the document. you'll need javascript on, unfortunately. it won't be pretty. but it'll work.

they're closed until the morning. and i'm going to get back to work and finish the html frontend before i stop to eat.

the fan is not here yet, but i've got some stats on what's running, anyways:

bathroom fan: 0.07 kwh/hr
laptop + modem + lights: 0.08 kwh/hr  (before turning devices off in dev mgr)
desktop fan: 0.09 kwh/hr

the only other thing running is the fridge, which i think is about 0.01.

so,

bathroom fan is 0.06*24*30 =  43.2 kwh
laptop + modem + lights is 0.07*24*30 =  50.4 kwh
desktop fan is .08*24*30 = 57.6 kwh

together, that's 151.2 kwh. my bills have been in the 160-190 kwh range, which would also include cooking and laundry. of course, the bathroom fan has been off here and there, while the computers have generally been off when i'm out, but the desktop fan has been on non-stop.

i was able to get monday close to 0.30 at off peak rates (although it was close to 0.50 at on peak rates). doing the math gets me close enough, and that's with the desktop fan on.

i want to do some more careful calculations. how much is just the modem + fan? how much is just the lights (in this room) + fan? laptop + fan? i'm confident about the fan, itself, so i should get some good estimates and be able to figure out what's worth shutting off and what isn't.

i might guess that it's something like the following to run each 24/7:

lights: 0.01 ----> 7.2----->$0.69
modem: 0.02 -----> 14.4---->$1.37
laptop: 0.04 -----> 28.8----> $2.73

....meaning i should probably be less neurotic about the time of day they're on and just turn them off when i'm not using them.

if i can take 50-70 out for this month by just keeping the fan off and the general usage down, i should offset the increase, at least.

the key point is that i can't be haphazard anymore.

i tried to go to google sites, and it's just....what?

i'm not a tactile learner. these guis-for-arts-students are just confusing as fuck. i don't want to draw it. let me code it, dammit...

but, i mean, theoretically? sure. i don't need to use the appengine, exactly - i'm not scripting. it's just text. but, i do need to be able to ftp it to the server.

ok. i'm calling td.

well, i applied through simplii.

i'd guess the chances are pretty low.

i did have a credit card with td at one point, but i cut up the card. i didn't cancel it. i just paid it down and threw it away. if i run a credit check on myself, the card does come up as active.

so, i'm going to call td and see what they say...

the amazon card needs a $100 downpayment, and appears to be through an american bank.

i'm not sure how to react to this.

i don't have any charges. i don't expect to incur any charges. but, i'm going to lose my site if i can't get them payment information, for a bill that i have no reason to think will ever exist.

?

i  guess i'll need to call them tomorrow...

i guess i could try to get one, but, i mean...

"hi.

i have a $75,000 student loan that i haven't made a payment on since 2008. my income is $15,000/yr, and i live on permanent disability.

can i have a credit card, please?"

i don't expect it to work out so well.

maybe i could get one of those amazon cards....

we might lose the appspot site.

they're insisting on credit card information, and i simply don't have one, nor would i ever qualify for one. i couldn't get one...and, quite frankly, i really don't want one.

i'm actually a little uncomfortable about the premise. i have essentially no traffic, but what if i get traffic? i'm not paying to deploy the site, either. if i have to, i'll move to a different server. but, i might want to get the hint and get off before they start charging, too. it's a little heavy-handed, and i kind of don't like it.

if i can hook it up to paypal, and they don't actually charge me, that's an answer. but if they insist on a credit card then i'm at a dead-end i can't get out of and it looks like i might have to migrate...

the web component will eventually be important in the alter-reality, when i get further into the genealogical and paleoanthropological theories that i built up over 2002-2006. it's going to be a while, but it will eventually get up. for now, it's just a very loose frontend.

at the least, i have to waste some time tonight trying to understand what just happened.

i was up all morning typing offline, and i got the html frontend for inri000 done after i woke up. so that will be up in the next short while. i just need to figure out how to embed an html5 playlist, and run it through a double check.

it's designed so that you can unzip it and launch it in the folder, directly. i've tested it for mp3, ogg and flac and believe it should also work for m4a and wav. apple's proprietary software is not supported by open standards like html5, and it will not embed properly.

i was hoping my fan would be here today, but i guess they got snowed in. tomorrow, hopefully....

so, we're up against norway and ireland.

my vote is very securely with norway.

at this point, it probably matters less than i'd like to think it does.

but, the consequences of actually sitting on the unsc would very likely abolish any remaining concept of pride that i have in canada's foreign policy legacy.

i hope they vote for belgium or something, instead. i don't want to go through the trauma..

....but, in theory, if we were headed towards a maunder minimum (we're not.), could canada actually get colder while india burns and sinks?

sure.

and, that would be climate change happening in different directions, in different places; what would be happening in the north would be no less of a change in the climate than what is happening in the south.

but, we should expect some kind of reprieve in the north, for at least a few years.

don't let liberals trick you into thinking they understand science. they don't.

if you're driving off a cliff at 100 mph and a tank hits you in the perpendicular direction, it might alter your trajectory, but doesn't ultimately affect the factors underlying your propulsion - it's just a complication in the calculation.

what's going on with the weather, though?

well, it's cold. it's snowing. this is too early for this.

the liberal media wants to trot out this old canard about weather and climate, and it's just a function of their inability to actually explain anything, and their insistence on monolithic narratives.

the climate is not defined by one thing moving in one direction, but rather by many things moving in many directions. those other things moving in other directions are not any less defined by the term "climate". it's just more complicated than they think you're smart enough to understand.

right now, "global warming" isn't really happening in the atmosphere. it's not because the concentrations of carbon dioxide aren't increasing - they certainly are. you can check the readings in hawaii, they're still going up. but, there's something else happening in the atmosphere in addition to the increasing carbon emissions, namely a decrease in solar energy, and particularly in the northern latitudes.

so, it's not that the idea behind global warming stopped, it's just that this other thing showed up and, at the moment, has overpowered it.

think of it like this - if you boil water with the lid on, you build up lots of steam inside the pot. the reason it's hot is the stove. but, then, if you take the lid off, you release all the built up heat. that doesn't mean you turned the stove off; the element is still burning, but some factor interfered with the process.

and, there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't refer to that factor as a part of the climate, other than a bunch of liberals that insist on overly simplistic, linear thinking.

in the southern latitudes, where the weather is driven less by the atmosphere and more by the oceans, you haven't really noticed this. it just keeps getting hotter, and the mean temperatures just keep going up.

but, up here in the north, the climate is currently being dominated not by increases in carbon dioxide but by decreases in solar energy. and, we're getting swamped by polar air moving downwards.

i don't have to tell you this was predictable; i predicted it. it's there. but, it's just a basic understanding of how the system works, regionally.

now, if this decrease in solar energy was permanent, you would in fact expect it to be a shift in the climate. this would be the new normal, and you'd have to get used to it.

but, in fact, what we know is that we're at the bottom of a cycle, and this should be the worst of it.

i'm still hoping for an early spring. it's too early to say, though.

i was feeling disoriented, woozy and sick last night and i had to spend most of the day sleeping it off. i'm not feeling that much better right now. i dunno. i'm smelling something, and don't like it.

it just makes me tired and depressed. i don't like it, i don't like being lethargic...i like being alert. edgy. full of energy. i like coffee. i like caffeine....

i haven't pulled the trigger on the solar panel yet, but i'm looking at a 10 W panel for around $15 that i have evidence can run at 5 V and 100 mA in direct led light. that's only a 0.5 W of power, which seems like it's not enough. i'm considering waiting until it gets here tomorrow, though, because the specs are....

it says it runs at 1 A over usb, but the power specs on usb are 100 mA. so, maybe i should try and test the device, first. it might be intended for newer motherboards that can pull higher loads. or the specs might be confused.

if i understand correctly, getting it to run through my existing motherboard would put a maximum draw of 0.5 W, then, and if i want it to run at 2.5-3.0W, i'll need to find a way to quintuple the current. and, the whole point is that it's a clean usb solution. this will at least allow me to test to see what kind of power i can actually get out of the thing.

for now, it is surely an improvement to run the thing over usb if it's only a few watts. my existing fan would be running at 70W, at full draw.

how much is that, actually? 70*24*30/1000 = 50 kwh. my average bill recently has been 160-175 kwh. so, that's somewhere in the 20-30% range. my previous estimate was perhaps too conservative. but, it's also running all of the time, so it's disproportionately expensive. the new fan would be running at 3*24*30/1000=2 kwh. if i'm only getting a half watt, it's only a third of a kwh - essentially nothing. so, if it's a good enough replacement, and a combination of other changes can get my electrical down enough that i don't need to shut the laptop down during the day, then there's not really any point in taking it off the grid.

on the other hand, if the device doesn't work well, and i can get my usage down low enough by disconnecting during the day, then that's the preferable option. keeping that fan going is the number one priority.

if my x was $19, the cost of the fan would be around $4-$8 (using old consumption numbers - so that would be $6-$13 under the new prices). it's a big increase, but it's still not that much. i know that. but, it's a big percentage. (45-27)/1.55= 11.61. so, if i can get that down to $0.10-$.30 (new: $0.15-.50), that's almost there. if i keep the other fan off most of the time, that's another $4-$8, and if i be more conscious about keeping the lights and stuff off, that should essentially resolve the issue - it'll just take a little longer to get the balance worked out.

it's not that the fans are a lot. they were $5/month, each. roughly. now, they're going to be closer to $10/month, each. it's just that they're half the bill, together, and it takes me over the rebate point.

and, if turning the other fan off means i end up sleeping 20 hours a day...

i should be aiming for $0.30/day casual usage. that will give me extra space to play with to use the stove and stuff. if i can leave the laptop on all day and still get under $0.30, that will be fine. i should be able to start paying attention to usage stats in the next few days. for now, i'm going to continue keeping the power off during the day until i can get the numbers clear...

the fan should be here today, so we'll figure it out over the next week.

for now, i need to stop to eat, and then hopefully i'll get back to work...if i can stay awake, which isn't a clear certainty....

i know. i'm supposed to be working.

but this needs to get figured out...

the math with one of these charging ports just doesn't work, so i cancelled the order. the panels are just too small. if you're pulling in a watt, max, and you're pulling out 2-3, it's just not enough.

https://www.solarpanel.wiki/solar-power-bank/

so, what do i need? i should have done this from the start, i wasn't thinking clearly...

if i'm pulling 3 W constant all of the time, i need 24X3 = 72 W. i don't know how much wattage i can get from the leds, but i know it won't be much.

let's assume the worst case - that i can't get anything from the lights at all. then, i'll need the battery to run 20 hours a day in the worst days, and get all the sun from those 4 hours. 72/4 = 18. i need a 20 W panel...and a 20,000 mAh battery minimum.

on the other hand, if i can get the fan to run solely on the lights, then a 5 W charger should do it - and i won't need a battery at all. the signal from the leds should be constant, and it should just spin the thing.

i want to keep the cost down. and, i suspect i could turn a 5W charger into a component in a battery charger if it doesn't work. that will be one of the next things off the grid, and i can take my time with it.

so, i'm going to order a 5W solar cell that works in low light, without a battery. it should be a few dollars. it might not actually work, but if it doesn't i can use it for something else.

so, i was up around 22:00, got something to eat, did a star log entry, and am ready to get on to these notes - finally.

i wanted to understand how i would install a small solar circuit down here last night. it's the battery that seems to continue to be the problem, in terms of building anything. the diodes seem to be getting better, but small scale consumer batteries of the size and type i'd need are largely not a real thing, right now.

i realized at the last minute that my $10 charger was actually a charging kit. oops. so, i had to cancel that order. i was in fact online this morning, trying to find a replacement, and tentatively purchased a similar 20,000 mah charger for a few extra dollars, but i'm waiting on a confirmation that there's a battery in there.

the usb fan shipped this afternoon.

this is doable. i'll figure it out.

i need to get back to work this morning, and i need to make some calls at 8:30. this will be the last day - we'll be shutting down at 7:00 am sharp on wednesday morning.

on second thought, today is canadian cannon fodder day, and i don't expect them to be open. we're shutting down in seconds...

ww1 was awful for canada, and ww2 was only better in the sense that we pushed back a little. every time that the brits needed to march some people into the ocean, they picked the canadian regiments. we were the most expendable, and the most wasted.

some historians will try to save face on this. we were great soldiers. we were brave! we defined ourselves...

this is nonsense.

we were ritually slaughtered. by the thousand...

my favourite fact about world war one was that it preceded the franchise for workers. lest we forget? we choose not to remember this. but, your relatives that died for democracy in the great war were actually probably unable to vote for the people that slaughtered them.

and, that is what can never happen again.

for now, let's try to fix one thing at a time.

i was getting absolutely brutal migraines before i turned the fan on, remember. it might have been the gas, and it might be a little better now, but who wants to run that experiment? i'm not really convinced.

i had a few dollars left on an amazon gift certificate, so i just bought a cheap usb fan to replace the one i have on my desk. they're claiming it should be here by wednesday. and, they're claiming it runs on 2.5-3.0w. i'm going to guess that the honeywell that's been running more or less nonstop (except when it seized) is more like 40 W, and i think it's roughly 20% of my bill. really. i think the two of them together are about 40% of it.

19*1.55*.6 = 17.47

is it that easy?

so, i got a $10 solar usb charger, too, which should power the fan, even if nothing else uses it. the only thing i'd power through usb is an mp3 player i bought in 2006. so, we've at least got the desktop fan off the grid, now...

if that $16 gets me back to saving credits, great.

for now, i'm going to keep the desktop fan on and the bathroom fan off for a bit and figure out what the statistics say.

i need to call the board this morning, so we'll have a bit of a delay in shutting things down, but we're going to need to do this for a few days, at least, until i'm able to understand what's happening better.

i wanted to be done the liner notes today. i can probably get a start on it when i turn the modem off, but i think i'm only going to get 2-3 hours on this battery before i need to shut down.

so, is getting off the grid with solar technology financially viable for a renter, yet?

we're on the cusp. really.

i can't get the appliances off, yet. so, whatever i do, the stove and washer and fridge are going to stay on the grid. the lights are going to stay on the grid, too.

but, it is almost realistic to get everything else off. and, i'm thinking about it.

if i spent all of this time typing on a modern phone, i would both use a lot less power and have more efficient charging options. they actually have chargers for around $20 that can handle anything with a few watts. that would be a very smart investment, if i was a completely different person.

but, as it is, i have four laptops and three desktops that i need to run down here at various frequencies, along with a wide assortment of recording gear. i need the ac out, one way or another.

to run one computer and some peripherals in this room at the same time, i would need something like 100-150 watts of direct power. the usb chargers (5-20 W) aren't enough, but the standard consumer line (400-1000 W) is way too much. so, i'm looking for a kind of niche product, and the price is less than optimal. but, i could work this out for around $200. that's a lot on first glance, but if it saves me $15/month, and the price of electricity continues to go up, it's not long before it pays for itself. if i could figure this out for something more like $100, i'd do it on the spot.

i would probably want to get a second or third comparable station down the road, rather than wait for the price of the big stations to come down. i probably couldn't really charge a 400 wh battery in one window, anyway. so, why not get one for each window and break the circuit up?

the obvious next question is "how long does the battery last, though?" and that's kind of fundamental. is it going to last more than a year? if not, i'm not saving anything.

but, it's getting close. phones can be off the grid at this point - it's feasible and financially viable to do it. laptops should be next.

i just need the alternating current. that's the problem.

hrmmn.

can i push the 2nd law, here, a little?

how much usable energy can i get from my lightbulbs?

answer: i don't have to calculate it to know the answer is not much. but, i wonder if i could string enough cells together....

https://www.ecopowerup.com/knowledge/charge-solar-without-sun/

and, how feasible is a diy solar option for a few kwh per day?

i know that the batteries suck, but i'm only using 5-6 kwh per day, with the fans running. when i was trying to save energy last winter, i was using closer to 2-3 on the average day.

so, if i can jimmy up the consumer circuit to a solar converter into a battery that only has to save a few kwh at a time and just let the grid take care of the appliances and lights, maybe i can get the number under $45 without worrying about it as much.

i don't know, though. i'll have to look at it.

so, i did my groceries this morning, made some pasta, took a shower and fell asleep.

the sage smell was back when i got out of the shower, and it might not be coming from upstairs at all. this is a constant problem in this place: i can't actually tell where the smells are coming from, or what is causing them. so, last night it seemed like somebody was burning sage to cover the smell; this morning, it seemed more like the smell was coming from the heaters. it seems to be better, now.

but, i have no choice: i'm going to need to turn the fan off between now and 7:00 in the morning, and i'm going to have to leave it off and i'm going to have to hope the smell clears out. if it doesn't, i'm going to have to suffer through it until i can get to the root source of it.

so, what happened on thursday?

mindful of the impending yearly catastrophe that canadians call winter, i did a large amount of grocery shopping on hallowe'en (which wasn't so bad weather wise, at least at first.) with the intent to allow for minimal foraging until the end of the month, while hoping for the opportunity to take advantage of a nice day or two, mid to late month. i knew i was going to have to get out to toronto at some point but i had no intention of getting to any concerts in the region until closer to the end of the month.

but, my laptop crashed on the night of the third (corrupt boot sector. lengthy but easy fix.), which gave me several days to sort through the listings for the month, and i pulled out a night i couldn't miss out on. would you skip this night?

detroit component:
early evening show: tchaikovsky's first piano concerto at the orchestra hall
evening show: black midi, which are a noise rock band from the uk that has worked with damo suzuki

windsor component:
late show: lushh, which are an electronic jazz band from kalamazoo
potential late late show: heart attack kids, which are a punk band from london, on

that's a stacked night. i couldn't miss it.

but, i missed it. this is what happened...

i was running a little late as it was, but when i got to the bus station in windsor, the attendant informed me that the tunnel was closing for the night. what that would mean is that i'd have to find a way to get back over the bridge after black midi and, even if i could figure it out, i'd blow the late shows. it just wasn't worth it. alas...

so, i just stayed in windsor, which meant i caught the early show at phog, and then the late show at phog and then the late late show at meteor (and then went back to phog for a beer).

lushh were passively enjoyable, but i actually didn't find them to be mind-bending in any particular way. i didn't want to just go home after coming face to face with the bus situation, so i stayed. but, i wouldn't actually go out of my way for this. it tended to drag a little with superfluous space-filling solos that actually weren't that great, creating a large amount of empty space that was often not taken advantage of as well as it could have been. i tend to pay more attention to guitarists, but it was the drummer that tended to carry them. he didn't seem that interested in the idea of aphex twin remixing queen, though; he treated the proposition like i was proposing some kind of infidelity. or, maybe that was masking a physical attraction that he didn't know how to grapple with. hey, that happens. i'll back off, but offer's open...

it's not like it was a bad show; if you get the chance, you should take the time to give it a few minutes. you'll note that the particular link i'm posting is a bit more guitar-focused (and also very recent), so it actually kind of demonstrates the point: it just didn't quite get off the ground, for me. i need a bit more than that to really get into it.

but, i would choose not to skip them a second time, just in case.

i ran across the street after the set to catch what was left and was kind of baffled by the energy, which i was not expecting. i'm actually not 100% certain what i even saw at all. what i was expecting was a kind of rootsy mid-period whites stripes kind of thing, but they showed up with a bassist and a female drummer (i think she was the drummer for wine lips, as she was using the wine lips kit) and just tore the place down. they introduced themselves as the heart attack kids, but this was not the same band. so, was it also the bassist for wine lips? is there some merging going on here?

it's been a while since i heard something quite like this, which actually had some nirvana-ish undertones in all of the right ways. like i say, it just ripped.

but, this is an emergent phenomenon, so i have no link to share - just the observation that the heart attack kids have evolved, and a recommendation that you check them out.

so, i ended up back at phog for a last beer, listened to some kids talk about philosophy and stuff and stumbled out late into the cold...

...and it was, indeed, cold - cold enough that i stopped a few times to warm up. i was reminded why i don't do this at this time of year. according to the thermostat, it wasn't that bad, but the wind was brutal. it was a difficult walk, at points.

but, i got me some nachos, took me a shower and then slept all day.

so, there's the review. it could be a while before the next one.

why can't we have nice, bright fruity smells instead of these thick, dirty herby smells?

yuck.

ok, so what else did i do tonight?

not much.

the catch-up is done, though. next is the review from the other night.

how's the smell? it smells like somebody's burning sage or something, which is every bit as unhealthy and every bit as gross as burning any other kind of plant. i would support a total residential ban on the stuff. if you want to bathe yourself in carcinogens as a part of your stone age religious ceremony, which is just hilarious in it's idiocy, then go do it on the reserve - it's something that shouldn't be happening in urban centres. ever.

as somebody with native ancestry, i find the whole thing to be flat out embarrassing.

but, i don't think there's a native american ritual happening upstairs, i think somebody's just dumb enough to think it hides the smell. it doesn't. in fact, it's actually worse. pot stinks but it's a lighter smell; sage is thick and heavy and oppressive in it's abject disgustingness.

i need to get some groceries this morning and do laundry one more time before i have to adjust to the new electrical reality - and, yes, i'm going to have to turn the fan off. if i end up coughing for hours and hours, he'll have to send the complaint to the ministry. i can't afford to run the fan anymore. i'll have to just take a lot of hot showers to blow the stink off, instead.

so, review first. then groceries. then liner notes when i get back. and, i guess i lost a week, didn't i?

you know, the oesp is set up like a contract.

i'd have to take a look at it, but i wonder if i could sue.

can bloomberg hurt biden in the south?

no.

you know who could, though, is al gore. and, what side is al on these days, anyways?

it's a hard task. they're loyal. they vote in blocs, because they know they have to. and, they're conservative as fuck.

so, if it crossed your mind? no. good tactic, wrong player.

what i should do is try to boot a linux distro from a usb stick, just to see how it picks up the battery.

if i can confirm that the charging issue is specific to the chromium os, the next step will be to wipe the thing down completely and put a lightweight linux distro on it instead.

This Chromebook comes with a dual-core Intel Celeron 1007u processor clocks in at 1.5 GHz, 4GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD, and a 720p camera. Despite a relatively low price of $244, the 4GB of RAM and 720p camera are very surprising but welcome additions. Usually, Chromebooks include a lower resolution webcam of 640 x 480 and rarely come with more than 2GB of RAM. These upgrades definitely turn the ThinkPad X131e into more of a workhorse, allowing you to run more tabs for improved productivity and higher-resolution video conferences. So far, everything looks great on paper.

i should be able to find a linux distro that can install itself with a few simple office tools on a 16 gb ssd partition, you'd think.

this machine just needs to be a glorified phone, remember - a phone i can actually type on.

i needed to crash, clearly.

and, i need to actually catch-up and get what i'm doing finished, now.

but, i'm not thinking that expending a lot of time trying to fix the chrome os on this chromebook is worthwhile. frankly, i don't actually like the os - i don't like the unnecessary focus on security (forcing you to type in a long pass key every time you want to use it), and i don't like the limitations on installing software. it was useful for what it was while it worked, but i want more control over it.

so, i would rather just install windows, anyways.

but, if i can get a normal linux install, instead, that's a step forwards, and one i can probably compromise with.

and, i wonder if i can actually install a normal hard drive in it, or not - i have a few around.

that's in a few days. first, i want to get done what i was doing, it's more important.

ok, so i got distracted again.

i was a little hungover this morning, and not entirely at full strength, but i'd like to stretch the day out as far as i can, here. so, i'm going to make some coffee and finally get a move on the reassemble.

in the mean time, i'll have no choice but to reduce usage in order to minimize costs.

if my primary concern is that they're changing the system so that poor people lose their rebates, and, again, they were targeted because they need it the most, what's the solution?

you boost the oesp amount by the amount that you expect the average price to increase by.

so, if $45 was the average value of x+f, and you're increasing x by 55%, then you make the following adjustment:

1) x + 27 = 45 <-----> x=18
2) 18*1.55 = 27.9
3) 27.90 + 27 = 54.90

so, if they increased the amount from 45 to 55, as the data will instruct them to do within a few months, then they can alleviate the issue where it's most important.

the validity of this argument is in realizing that $45 was not chosen arbitrarily. it is the average price. if you increase the rates, the average price shifts with it, and the oesp amount should change to reflect it. otherwise, you're just taking money away from poor people, and giving it to utility companies.

as was the case with the carbon tax oversight, this is just bad governance. they should have done this. it should have been obvious.

for me, that would mean that if my x is 19 and it goes up by 55%, then my new price before taxes is:

19*1.55 + 27 = 56.45.

subtracting out the $55 would leave me with a bill for $1.45 - which, after accounting for rounding errors on a small number, is close enough to a 55% increase.

1.13*1.45 - .318*1.13*1.45 = $1.11.

that's a $0.03 increase - which is roughly in line with inflation.

....and, expect the government to do a song and dance about the rebate, because it thinks you're too stupid to figure it out. that's the bait and switch - look the other way at the billions of dollars being thrown at ford's buddies in the industry, because you get a nice 32% rebate (after they jacked the price up by 55% on the backs of the poor).

well.

maybe you are, though.

i mean, you voted for them, right?

i'm not a fiscal conservative. but, your kids will pay for this blunder.

what was the point of doing this, exactly?

apparently, the government wants you to "know the true price of electricity"?

what? why? who cares?

if you're curious, this "true price" is set by the ontario electricity board, which is an industry captured regulatory body, and is something like five times the price as it is in competing jurisdictions. so, even if there was some value to knowing the "true price", it's pretty clear that this isn't actually it. it hardly seems worth the effort, does it?

i guess that they might think that there's some kind of propaganda value in adding a giant rebate to the bill - and you will now see a 32% rebate on every bill - but that's hardly going to be effective if the people that care most about electrical costs are going to have their rates increased by 800-1000%.

rather, what they're doing is a hand-out to the industry, and they're doing it on the backs of poor people.

first, who is affected, and how?

1) poor people that qualify and receive their rebates will have the effectiveness of their rebates reversed - rebates that were targeted to them because they need it the most. the rebates are not being cancelled. but, if a million of us have to pay an extra $10 a month, that's a $120 million dollar cut in welfare for people that need it.
2) people that don't qualify for the rebates, and that still use small amounts of electricity (meaning bourgeois liberals, essentially) will actually get a small rate cut. if you don't qualify for the rebates, you won't care about a $4 cut. but, if there's 3 million people that save $4 a month, that's a 144 million dollar tax cut for people that don't need it. so, you see what they did here?
3) if you use a lot of electricity, you're going to get reamed by a 10%+ rate hike. enjoy your $7, though.

and, what is the actual effect of the changes?

1) the amount that producers can charge is going up by 55%. so, they're going to get much higher profits.
2) the amount that the government is subsidizing is going up from 8% to 32%. that's a four fold increase. so, the amount of money that taxpayers are giving the producers is going to increase dramatically, thereby increasing their profits even more.

together, that's called corporate welfare.

and, that's the baffling thing about it - if there was ever any reason to criticize the system that existed, it was that it was siphoning out public money into the hands of private corporations. the liberals can be awful, it is true. but, they're not so blatantly corrupt as this....

so,

1) you're looking at a cash transfer from students and disabled people to toronto condo owners.
2) you're looking at huge amounts of money being shoveled out of public coffers and into private industry, which is going to contribute to the deficit, while ford and his cronies laugh about it all the way to the bank.

this is what they do when they win. every time.

personally, it puts me into a confusing state, and i'll have to see what the bill looks like.

if the line order in the calculation remains the same, my previous calculation is correct, and my bill will go from $1.00 to $8.00. this is because they take the $45 credit out before they add the tax or the rebate. so, i have to eat the rate increase, but then i don't get the rebate to offset it.

my calculation is this:

1.13*(x*1.55 + f  - 45) - .318(1.13*x*1.55 + 1.13f - 1.13*45) =     (f=27)
1.13*(1.55x -18) - .318(1.7515x -20.34) =
1.194523x -13.87188

that seems better at first, except that my old bill was:

1.13*((x + f) - 45) - 0.08(1.13*(x+f-45)) =       (f=27)
1.13*(x-18) - 0.0904(x-18) =
1.0396(x-18) =
1.0396x - 18.7128.

subtracting out, i get the 15.5% increase, but am now adding an extra $4.84. static. and, that doesn't change with usage.

that means if my x is $19, my increase in cost only seems to be $2.94, but then i have to increase that by $4.84 rather than subtract it by $7.26.

how can i reverse that and get back to saving credits?

x*1.55 + 27 <  45 <----> x*1.55 < 18 <----> x < $11.60.

when i first moved in here, before i had the fan running all of the time, i was actually able to get my usage to less than $10. so, i know i can do it, if i can get the air quality in here cleared out enough that i can get the fans off.

in the mean time, as mentioned, i'm going to have to start turning off the modem when i'm not using it, and essentially completely disconnect everything during the day.

so, i had to fix that. sorry. honest.

but, they're still lying.

i'm going to correct the math slightly.

i multiplied the f by 155% thinking it would come out in the wash, but i actually dropped a factor. see, for me, i have a rebate, so it does come out in the wash - for my bill, specifically, i was right. but, more generally, that added term is important.

so, lets say your cost is x + f, where f is the fixed rate. the increase in cost will be 1.55x + f. then, you add tax: 1.13*(1.55x + f) = 1.7515x + 1.13f. then, you can subtract the 31.8%

1.7515x + 1.13f - 0.318*(1.7515x + 1.13f) =
x*(1.7515 - 0.318*1.7515) + f*(1.13-.318*1.13) =
1.194523x + 0.77066f.

that's your new price, where x is the previous cost of electricity minus the fixed rate and f is the fixed rate.

your previous price was:

(x +f)*1.13 - (x+f)*1.13*0.08 =
(x + f)(1.0396).

so, the difference in price is then still +0.154923x (albeit f less than the previous x), but it's also -0.26894f. the reason for this is that the fixed price did not go up by 55%, but will go down by 32%. that's the term i dropped.

here, f is about $27. so, you're still looking at that 15.5% increase (on an x that is f less), but then minus a fixed amount of $7.26. that's my error. i apologize.

so, if your electrical bill was $127 last month before taxes and adjustments, then x is $100 and f is $27, so your new bill will be 15.5% higher in electrical costs (applied to the $100, not the $127), but then $7.26 less. that $7.26 is a fixed amount and will not increase or decrease with usage. so, your bill will then go from $132 to $140, rather than from $132 to $152. it's still not $2 - it's just $7.26 less than the 15.5% i previously calculated.

so, your bills will go up by 15.5%, still.

it's just that then they go down by another $7.26. and, i'll let you calculate whether that's in your interest or not.

but, x*1.155 - 7.26 < (x + 2.00) <----> x*.155<9.26 <----> x<$59.74.

so, if your bill is usually $83 or higher you're going to be paying more than $2 more, and the amount will increase as you use. if your bill is actually often in the $300 range (assume x=300, f=27), you're looking at a $39 increase, which is more than 11%. that number will approach 15.5% as costs increase, but never exceed it.

so, that's another way to look at it - that 15.5% is a limit. a maximum amount. that's what you get by dropping the "error term".

sorry.

15.5%.

how low would your electrical bill have to be to have the difference be $2?

x*0.154923 < $2.00   <------->  x < $12.90.

i thought, maybe, they were just excluding the delivery charges, which would be dishonest but deconstructible. no.

there's no way to make sense of the email i got from enwin; it's just a terrible, horrible lie.

expect your bills to go up by 15%.

and, the idea that the price is going to only go up by 2% is just wrong.

let's say your current electrical cost is x. the price is going up 155%, so your new price is 1.55x. then, they'll charge you tax, so that's another 0.13*1.55x, so your new price is 1.7515x. they'll then reduce that by 31.8%, so that's

1.7515x - 0.318*1.7515x = 1.194523x.

previously, they would have charged you tax (1.13x) and then reduced it by 8% (1.13x - 0.08*1.13x = 1.0396x).

1.194523x - 1.0396x = 0.154923x. that's a 15% percent increase.

and, indeed, if your normal electrical price is $150 (how?), you're going to go from $155.94 to $179.18. that's not $2.

if you're actually one of these poor suckers that uses $300 of electricity, per month (including delivery)? your bill will go from $312 to....$358.36.

you know doug. he's in it for you.

so, it's that much more important that i get the battery fixed in the chromebook.

and, i'm going to start disconnecting from the internet and going into battery mode between 7:00-19:00.

my sleeping schedule for the winter is also now fixed...

this is going to have a gigantic shift on my behaviour and habits, because i'm not giving these fuckers a dime.

i'm looking at an electrical bill that is going to be ten times as high as it was.

what has the government done, here?

1) it's increased the price of electricity, by 53-55%.
2) it's then increased the rebates from 8% to 32%, which is 24%.

so, let's say your bill was $45. well, that's my bill. why is yours so much?

this is my bill from last month:

on peak - $3.77
mid peak - $2.69
off peak - $7.62
total:  $14.08
 
i then have to pay enwin $31.95 in "delivery charges". so, it was $46.03.

i have a $45 oesp credit, so that left me with a bill for $1.03. they then charged me $0.13 hst, so it's $1.16 with tax. then, they gave me my 8% rebate...which was $0.08.

my bill is going to go up 55%, now. so, instead of being $14.08, it's going to be $21.82. further, the "delivery charges" will go up by some amount, and i'm not working it out. so, my bill will now be around $55 instead of $46.

they'll then take the $45 credit out, so it will be $11.

then they'll charge me tax, which is 13%.  so, i'm looking at $12-13. after they apply their increased rebate, i'm going to be looking at $8.00-9.00 for electricity.

per month.

....for a service that should be owned and operated by the people of this province on a non-profit basis.

so, i'm outraged - this is just an obvious cash grab by ford and his private sector cronies, and everybody with a brain saw it coming a million miles away. it's exactly what happened under mike harris - they promised lower electrical rates, and their privatization schemes instead pushed the price through the roof.

we need public ownership of these utilities, and nobody is willing to run on it.

personally? i'm not going to pay for this. i'll cut my usage down, until it's next to nothing. i'll go type in the coffee shop, if i have to.

i can't believe how stupid the sitting government is. and, i can't believe how stupid the province is for voting for them.

this is a catastrophe.

i'm essentially going to have to turn all electricity in the unit off between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm, now.

============

Dear Valued ENWIN Customer,
We wanted to make you aware of two important changes that may impact your bill:

Winter Time of Use Hours Now In Effect

We would like to remind you Winter Time-of-Use hours are now in effect starting November 1, 2019. Remember, electricity rates are lower during off-peak hours. For the lowest possible bill, adjust your consumption accordingly.

Ontario Energy Board Sets New Electricity Prices

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has also set new Time-of-Use electricity prices for households and small businesses, effective November 1^st, under the Regulated Price Plan (RPP).
Prior to November 1^st, 2019, time-of-use electricity rates included a built in rebate, which artificially reduced the cost of power. Your bill also included an additional 8% provincial rebate.
Starting November 1^st, 2019, Ontario is making your electricity bill more transparent by moving the built in rebate included in the electricity rates and identifying the full rebate amount separately on your bill. With this change, the 8% provincial rebate will be replaced by a much larger 31.8% Ontario Energy Rebate (OER). This increased rebate will largely offset the rate changes.

Time-of-Use Price Period / Rebate	Prior to November 1, 2019	Starting November 1, 2019
Off-Peak Rate	6.5¢/kWh	10.1¢/kWh
Mid-Peak Rate	9.4¢/kWh	14.4¢/kWh
On-Peak Rate	13.4¢/kWh	20.8¢/kWh
Rebate (subtracted from your bill)	8% Provincial Rebate	31.8% Ontario Energy Rebate

The total bill for a typical residential customer who uses 700 kWh per month will increase by about $1.99 or 1.8% with this change, which is in line with the rate of inflation.
For additional information on this rate change including a sample bill, please click the link below:
https://www.oeb.ca/newsroom/2019/ontario-energy-board-sets-new-electricity-prices-households-and-small-businesses


Customer Service: 519-255-2727
Business Hours are 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Monday to Friday
Email: info@enwin.com