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Right Angle: Backstage 02/28/23

This high-value edition of the Backstage show provides superior quality due to the absence of Bill. Thanks to Zo for sitting in for the STILL internet-free Mr. Whittle.

This high-value edition of the Backstage show provides superior quality due to the absence of Bill. Thanks to Zo for sitting in for the STILL internet-free Mr. Whittle.

54 replies on “Right Angle: Backstage 02/28/23”

In programming, sometimes its just a matter of looking at something else for a while, and when you look over your code again, you see the missing comma you have not been seeing the last 20 hours.

Yup. It is sometimes like proofreading any other written work: you know what you said so you cannot see that you did not say that. At least for some errors the compiler will give you an error message the line it was on, but when you have nested statements or a similar situation where the missing bit is somewhere else and the computer had no reason to stop until it got to the last ) or ; and the count was off.

I very rarely come to this site, but always watch the Right Angle shows on YouTube. Nothing has been posted on YouTube for five days, which is quite unusual. That’s why I’m here now. Scotty made an obtuse comment about Bill. What is going on?

According to the e-mail Bill sent out a couple days ago, and similar to what Scott said, his internet is down at his office (and while I think Scott was joking about the McDonalds) he must not be able to record at home… or his home internet is out as well as his work/office connection.

Thanks, sounds like a typical California problem. I hope it doesn’t spread to the rest of the country the way every other bad idea of the Left Coast seems to do.

I recommend Brave Search, as well as the browser of course. DuckDuckGo turned traitor on us. Brave’s founder, cofounded Mozilla Firefox, and invented script. I can forgive him for that last one…lol. Anyway, he got forced out of Mozilla for standing “Bravely” for Biblical marriage. The only disappointing thing is, they no longer update for pre-Windows 10 OS’s. I’m staying with Windows 7 until I can decide which OS is more trustworthy…Crapple, Linux, or who? Although Microsuck did do James O’Keefe good by blowing the whistle on the Feds…IDK. I just can’t trust an OS that forces all updates, and uses spyware tech in its very software.

Linux would give you the widest variety of choices, as you can pick between the Linux kernel, BSD or another that I’ve forgotten at the moment. Then you can pick the window manager (stuff like Gnome, KDE, a couple of fusions of those and several other options) and know that if any company that is putting together the distribution you use does go rogue or woke, you can find someone else who supports the same software.
With WINE and other similar things, STEAM (bad as they might be) and other companies developing games for Linux and everything else being web based, which OS you use is mattering less each day. Also, pretty sure you can get Brave for Linux… or going with the “no proprietary at all, not even logos and art” option of Ice Weasel.

Sounds great, now if I could only win that lottery I don’t play…lol. Budget is everything in my case, unfortunately. However, fortunately, I don’t play many games. But the ones I do would have to be available on what ever OS. Otherwise, I have to go with a couple of computers running different OS’s. Which I’ve done before, but that was back when Widows 98 was new…and I had money…lol.
Space Engine 0.9.9.0 says it requires Windows 10 or higher, so I’m currently stuck using the pre-beta, 0.9.8.0e. One of the few important software I’d need to run on the best graphics system I can get. IDK, but thanks for the 411.

Money wise one of the great things about the various *nixes is they are all free to download. You might need a spare hard drive or a flash drive to install one, depending on whether you want to keep whatever is on the computer you want to use (and there are directions on how to setup a dual boot, so you can use Windows and Linux) and the installers are generally good about doing everything for you.

Yeah, I’ve talked about that with a buddy of mine that goes way back to the beginning with all this computer stuff. Basically my computer guru. But he’s been elusive lately…kind of went off grid a while back. There wasn’t a thing that stumped him. I miss that…lol.

I always hated Seinfeld (along with its spiritual successor, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) becasue every episode revolved around some problem that couldn’t just be solved in two minutes with a serious beating

Anytime Seinfeld would come on, my wife would say the following:
They are horrible people. This is not a show about nothing, it is a show about horrible people behaving horribly towards others.
Then I saw the episode where George’s fiancé dies due to toxic glue on the wedding invitation envelopes. Upon hearing, George just shrugs and they all leave the hospital.
They are terrible human beings. As such, they are probably a very good reflection on NYC at the time. The show started pre-Giuliani and ended just as Rudy’s changes were taking hold. NYC late 80 through the mid-90s was a cesspool of terribly self-absorbed people. It changed very briefly in the late 90s early 00s, but has regressed toward the mean in the last 20 years, fully transcending into terribly self-absorbed again.
I expect many more Death Wish type stories soon but all the Charles Bronson types will have left for Florida.

Only Seinfeld episode I ever sat all the way through was the BBO bad body odor episode. Kramer….funny then, but much more funny as a younger comic back on the old ABC ripoff of SNL called Fridays. IMO of course!

Hey, Scott? Yeah, the problem with Conservative candidates having —

“… eagerness to rally the base and reluctance to speak to people who haven’t already become converts …”

— Is in large part due to the fact that a lot of Conservatives will savage and if possible destroy any candidate that is less than 1000% ideologically pure.

Leftist have not cornered the market on Cancel Culture, there are people on the Right who are every bit as rabid in that department.

Until Conservatives stop creating circular firing squads we are going to continue kneecapping our best hopes for elected office.

This is just another form of affirmative action. Do we want the best possible candidate to win or do we want the candidate that checks off the most boxes of our personal ideology to win?

I think another thing that would help is if we actually ran some real Conservatives.

I.E. Mehmet Oz lost to a mentally crippled stroke victim because Oz was so unpalatable to pretty much both sides. Just that one seat would have made a crucial difference in the Senate. I can’t imagine why the Republican Party would run Oz or why anyone would endorse him and think running Oz was a good idea.

Oz is a great example of someone who should have been savaged and destroyed on Conservative grounds yet the Republican Party was unduly and unwisely convinced to run him.

Where were all our ideologically pure Conservatives when Oz ran for the nomination for the Republican candidate for the Senate?

Politics is a game you play to win. If we don’t win we can’t do anything to fix our problems.

“I think another thing that would help is if we actually ran some real Conservatives.“

Such people are anathema to the modern GOP leadership. Until those fossils are gone and not replaced by their acolytes and prodigies, we will continue to have more of the same destructive behavior that you describe.

This is so, and it’s one of the reasons I stopped calling myself a Republican and now make a point of self-labelling as a Conservative.

Not all Republicans are Conservative, as you point out. Where that is the case the choice for voters is like the choice between red gelatin and blue Jello. It’s all gelatin, all the blue Jello has to do is lie (‘taste’) better than the red.

I don’t understand, and it’s not like I haven’t put some thought into this, why the GOP leadership chooses to be just another flavor of bland, non-differentiated, nutrient free glop.

The best I’ve been able to come up with is … You know how people say we need to adopt the tactics of the Left to beat them? I think the Republican Party leadership looked at the gains made on the Left over the years and decided to adopt the same, or nearly the same positions …

“Hey! Choose us! We’re cheaper and tasteless!”

So the Democrats have a “brand” as Bill says. They’re the Blue Jello Gelatin. And the GOP leadership in all its lack of wisdom has decided to be the generic, weak, tasteless brand of red gelatin.

It’s no damn wonder the Democrat Left is having so much success.

It doesn’t help one bit that there are plenty of Republicans who look at all this as if it were a high school football team rivalry and kneecap our own quarterback if he’s not playing ball the way they want him to.

I think another thing that would help is if we actually ran some real Conservatives.

Yea, this.
Especially in leadership positions. Mitch needs to retire, but right now the Gov of Ky (up for relection this year) is a D. He has a high approval rating, too. Tough to get him out but we need a full on push.
We need to run a real conservative against him to take that Gov seat back so that when 81 year old Mitch has his debilitating life event, it doesn’t swing the senate worse than it is.
It’s an important race nationally that no one is talking about.

I wasn’t aware of the gubernatorial situation in KY so you’re right, no one is talking about it. TN is a neighboring state to KY. I’d think the Daily Wire would be looking into this but I haven’t heard a peep there either.

I’m not a member of the Daily Wire so I hope someone who is reads this and writes to them about it. They pay little to no attention to email and comments from non-members. This is exactly the sort of thing the Left loves to keep under wraps until it’s a fait accompli. Which is not difficult considering the reach of their media collaborators.

The Daily Wire is rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Among other things they played a major role in getting Glen Youngkin elected. TDW broke the story that allowed the Youngkin campaign to pivot towards the issues that got him elected.

They might be able to pull off the same sort of maneuver if they’re aware of the situation in KY.

Then again, they might already be on it. I don’t have time to sit through every political vidcast I’d like to.

The other options that seem to explain why the GOP leadership does as it does is the “loyal opposition” idea and the Uniparty idea. I am not sure those two are not the same thing, but in the last several campaigns we have seen some good candidates run, raise a lot of money and then lose, with the consultants, ad companies and such getting paid quite well for failure.
The question of “do you really believe in what you are selling” does seem to separate some candidates from others. Trump seems to believe in America First, but has a few other problems. Our senator in Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, also believes in what he says and has won a few times by being underestimated by the media and leftists (but I repeat myself) and has been able to speak to the regular people on regular topics. As the guys here have sometimes wondered, some candidates seem to run as Republicans but cannot enunciate just what they are promoting.
On the “I am not a Republican” topic… since I am not a member of the party, am not running for office or affiliated with the party in any official way I would not claim to be a part. I might be a fan, a supporter and certainly a voter but I never call myself a Republican either. I would also label myself Conservative because that is the label that covers the postions I hold on most topics but I would like to see a lot of changes in government, its role in our life and school systems which are very liberal. Labels get messy when saying I want to conserve the hillside by removing a bunch of it so I can put in pilings and very large rocks to hold it back and stop it from sliding.

I’d like to see a Republican party that really honored conservative principles and values and would at least attempt to cut government programs/agencies/spending. But they don’t. They seem to be just as interested in growing government as the Dems are. Maybe this new crop that stood up to McCarthy will show them how.

I’m not, have never been and do not personally know anyone who is in the “Tea Party” but … I think those people were actively instrumental in nudging the Republicans back onto the rails. Or at least back to a point where they could see the rails off in the distance.

I don’t know if there are any ‘official rolls’ of Tea Party membership but it seems to me the people that were forcing McCarthy towards a more honest, more conservative stance in order to get elected Speaker were largely Tea Partiers.

Which means change is possible.

Michael Knowles makes a good point about the disadvantages of electing businessman to office. For a business, it’s grow or die. That’s not the kind of mentality we need in our leadership if you want cuts in programs/agencies/spending.

That’s not to say no one should ever vote for a businessman. Blanket typecasting is never a good idea, you miss the gems in the pile. Still, it’s something of which it is wise to be aware.

Mucinex is an expectorant. It takes water from your body and puts it into your mucous, making it thinner and easier to deal with. Decongestants are “speed” and antihistamines can alter your degree of alertness. If Steve is having issues with “Mucinex”, it must include the latter two ingredients and not just be the plain.

So based on the ingredients: Assuming one just goes for the Max label.
Dextromethorphan HBr (10 mg)  – Decongestant? (Speed)
Guaifenesin (200 mg)  – This is the expectorant?
Phenylephrine HCI (5 mg) – Antihistamine? Drowsy maker
Or do I have 1 and 3 backwards?
Thought Phenylephrine was not as good as pseudoephedrine.
But this form of Mucinex has all three.

1 and 3 backwards. Phenylephrine and Pseudoephedrine are both speed and efficacy depends on dose.

And I thought the trifecta was Robitussin, Arizona Iced Tea and Skittles…..guess I was rrrong on that one.

I didn’t like Steinfeld!! I watched him being interviewed about his show, and he bragged that he got FIVE checks for each episode! He got paid as a writer, producer, actor,,etc. He was terrible and got paid 5 times for each show????

I have spent my career, more than 30 years, as a computer programmer. If you would like, I could try to help with any questions. I believe that you should be able to figure out my email, just based on this post. If not, something else will need to be worked out.

I hear that foreign governments like China and Russia are buying vast quantities of gold.
Pennies for thought.

I think we as a nation are hoping to mine an asteroid that is filled with precious metals to solve our issues. Of course this would have to be a NASA-approved, inclusive group of asteroid miners. And we’d have to have Muslim outreach involved. But sensible monetary policy is heteronormative, oppressive, and “manspeak” offensive, so unicorns and asteroids are first in line for solving the problem. If Musk beats them to the gold, he will be nationalized.

I think that my brain hemorrhaged trying to read “heteronormative” — that is one that I find hard to pronounce while reading silently, and I fall over when I attempt it out loud. This modern Woke-Speak gives me a headache, so I’ve adopted the WOPR solution: I’ve decided to not play the stupid game.

Are you serious? That was old when I learned it in the 1980’s! All I remember about it is to not forget the period at the end of the statement or you’ll get pages and pages of errors. Such a wordy language.

Perhaps my nerdy play on terminology was too subtle.
While I realize that COBOL is an acronymn (common business-oriented language), it has always sounded like the name of a demon spawn to me. That implies pain.
Perl is an Interpreted programming language first released in 1987, and the name sounds like something found in a contaminated oyster. From the Wikipedia: Though Perl is not officially an acronym,[11] there are various backronyms in use, including “Practical Extraction and Reporting Language”.[12] 
All that said, I have no experience with COBOL, but Perl and I go way back due to its powerful text parsing capabilities.

The BSG reference is what comes to mind when I hear COBOL out loud. Thanks for recognizing that and shaking your head along with me. :smirk:

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