I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords . . .

Rodeo Salinas

California Bob tries out ChatGPT:

Recent ChatGPT conversation:

• Me: "Find me some hotels in Watsonville for these dates."
• ChatGPT: [selection of hotels at $150/night]

[I check Expedia, see everything is $400+ a night]

• Me: "Why does Expedia show me nothing below $400 a night?"
• ChatGPT: "Yes, the $400 a night figure is much more accurate than the $150 I gave you earlier."

Me: [close window]

PS: there's a rodeo or something in Watsonville this weekend, everything booked.

Watsonville is 20 miles down the road from the Rodeo in Salinas. 

Fun with Math

United States of Voronoi

California Bob reports:

I just learned about this. This is one of those things that's easy to see but difficult to describe.

Voronoi Cells

A Voronoi diagram partitions a plane around points or "seeds" within it.  It THINK it divides the area so that the boundaries are always halfway between one seed and the next closest seed.

The official description is, boundaries are drawn so that all points within that boundary, are closer to its seed, than to any other seed.

If each seed was a repelling magnet, would this describe the same boundaries?

Here [image at top] it's used to draw state boundaries around state capitals.

California Proposition 47

The impact of Prop 47 on crime in San Francisco

California Bob has a few words to say on the subject.

Background:

Passed in 2014, goal was to "lower incarceration." It raised the threshold for felony theft from $400 to $950, and lowered simple possession of illegal drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor. 

Cheekily marketed as the "Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act," b/c the money saved on incarceration would be reinvested in county-level "prevention."

Many claim Prop 47 eliminates penalties -- but the fact is misdemeanors are still punishable by 1 year in county jail or $1,000 fine. Jail time, theoretically, is still there.

However, fewer arrests happening, b/c (1) retailers don't want the danger or liability of having employees intervene, and (2) theft is a low priority for cops and DA's and (3) if arrests are made and convictions happen, judge aren't handing down sentences, b/c "reduce incarceration." So everybody's just kind of given up.

Interestingly, Texas has a $2,500 threshold for felony, much more lenient than California. And 8 other states have thresholds more lenient than CA.

Many blame Prop 47 for the "flash mob" shoplifters, but gangs of people robbing the Gucci store are still very much a felony -- not protected by Prop 47. Flash mobs are more a result of social media coordination, not reduced penalties.

One big impact is drug arrests: many drug arrests used to get settled in "drug court" with diversion to rehab, and there were some success stories with that. Now, with drugs no longer being arrested/charged, the addicts just languish on the streets, stealing and trashing things up.

There is a move to overturn Prop 47 and it should be on the ballot in November. It will probably be overturned.

My views:

Solution to shoplifting is with the retailers. Cops can't be everywhere. There are strategies to reduce theft for retailers: controlled entry like Costco, or keep stuff behind the plexiglass. More costly but doable. Putting a $10,000 Prada purse on a shelf next to an exit is inviting theft, and really, why should taxpayers pay for Prada's security?

Currently jails are only used to confine dangerous people. Jail as a deterrent is underrated. The only way to have a secure society like Singapore or Switzerland is to aggressively arrest crooks and lock them up. That would take a lot of investment, but omelet/eggs.

Putting addicts into some sort of rehab is preferable to letting them languish on the streets. Doesn't have to be rehab, a simple cage would be fine.

Lengthy but good discussion here:

Proposition 47's Impact on California's Criminal Justice System

High Tech in Your Backyard

SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center)

California Bob reports:

I didn't realize exactly where it was, but I drive right over the 2-mile long Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) every Wednesday on the way to Elsa's pony lesson.

I pointed it out to Elsa; she says they should move it so it doesn't bother the ponies.

SLAC is in the south San Francisco Bay area, south of Menlo Park and Palo Alto. The equestrian center is in the upper right corner of the above image. It is about a quarter inch wide and is sandwiched in between holes of the Stanford Golf Course. Pretty sad that horses have gotten squoze out in favor of golf. I guess that's okay, golf is probably going to get squoze out by apartment complexes built to house the horde of video gamers we are producing.

San Francisco Hellscape

California Bob reports: 

Downtown SF

Daughter is signed up for ice skating lessons downtown, so I've been spending Saturday mornings in downtown SF, after not having been in some time.

Can confirm the media reports that it's completely trashed. Notice the candy wrapper wantonly discarded on the lawn:

Trash in San Francisco Park

(Just kidding, that's Tickles' poop bag, I staged this hellscape.)

Tickles is their dog. He also posted several photos of details of some buildings. Pretty cool, especially the Hills Brothers guy.

Interesting to hear from someone who actually lives there as opposed to all the hysteria that comes from some corners of the internet.

Horses

Lighthouse & Avery Glynn winning 5,000 Derby at Sonoma Horse Park
Avery Glynn
California Bob's daughter competed in the Sonoma Horse Park Summer Solstice. I suspect the course she was competing on was similar to the one in the video, though the jumps might have been a little lower. Bob tells us her jumps were 18 inches, the ones in the video look more like two feet.

I've only ridden well trained trail horses, so I don't know how much skill is involved. Oh, wait, I did get bucked off a horse once when we rode over a creek and the animal shied from a hole in the road, a hole through which you could see the water running underneath. So I'm not that skilled.

Watching cowboys and indians deftly maneuver on horses in the movies kind of glosses over the skill and practice involved. Watched a Nigerian movie recently with horses and we saw a very different level of skill exhibited. Both the riders and horses looked clumsy.

There are seven million horses in the USA. I think horses are hard coded into our brains.

Curtains

Curtain

Support Rod Mounting

California Bob reports:

[The in-laws] may be moving in, so we wanted to section off an area downstairs to give them some privacy.  First I was thinking "wall," then "partial wall maybe 6' high..."  Then I said "heck, no one's gonna be down there anyway, let's just curtain it off."

Made some big curtains out of Home Depot canvas tarps, and metal conduit for curtain rod. Got these little curtain rod rings with alligator clips that you just clip to the hem of the canvas. Dirt cheap and has a decent muslin look to it. 

I was actually at Restoration Hardware HQ a few weeks ago, and their lobbies are full of stuff that looks like this -- though priced in the the thousands. I'll pass my curtains off as Belgian linen.

I wonder if this is how Hong Kong got started. 'Yeah, we've got some extra room, you can stay will us' and then it just kept going. We've got a couple of the kids staying with us, but 99% of the time I am not even aware they are here.

My daughter wanted to curtain off part of the big downstairs room for her wedding reception. I never understood that. Did she think people were going to steal some books? Or sit in the chairs? Yeah, there's some things about being social that I just don't understand.

Kitchen Sink Strainer

California Bob replaced the strainer in his kitchen sink.

I'm frequently impressed at the ingenuity of everyday devices -- things I wouldn't conceive of in a hundred years, yet sell for a couple dollars on the shelf.

The kitchen sink started leaking where the strainer joins with the sink bowl. It looked like the huge zinc locknut that screws onto the strainer was destroyed so I planned on getting a new nut.  And because my makeshift strainer-wrench is subpar, thought I'd buy a legit strainer wrench.

Kitchen Sink Strainer

At Home Depot, found this alternative strainer that was less than cost of the locknut+wrench.  Instead of a threaded strainer with locknut, this uses a yoke-and-thumbscrew approach. Crawling under the sink to tighten that big zinc locknut is a pain, this looked much easier to install.

It was easier to install. However, the yoke goes on the strainer above the tailpiece, so you have to wait to attach the tailpiece to the strainer until after you put the strainer in the sink and get the yoke on -- so that's an additional step required, but still easier than the locknut.

Thumbscrew with screwdriver slot

They even put slots in the thumbscrews so you can tighten with a screwdriver.

Now there's the question about whether the 3 tightening screws will provide even sealing pressure. The standard locknut applies even pressure around the whole strainer; this thing applies pressure through 3 screws. But the yoke is pretty sturdy and the putty squeeze-out looked even so I think it's fine.

 

Surplus

Lux mobiles queued up at the drive-thru food bank in San Francisco

This problem I am having with my back and legs is giving me a new perspective on things. A couple of weeks ago (a month?) I borrowed a torch from Jack so we could solder some copper water pipes. Naturally enough things didn't go as expected and we didn't get the soldering done before Jack needed his torch back. So yesterday I went to Lowe's and spent $300 on a portable oxy-acetylene rig. It's overkill for what we need, but a professional air-acetylene rig runs about $500. So $300 was less painful than having to call Jack, arrange to pick up the torch, drive over there and then return it. Shoot the $500 torch would have been less painful than a bunch of screwing around. 

Basically anything that requires me to get out of my chair is getting re-evaluated in terms of how much pain it is going to give me. Admittedly, the level of pain is not that high, over-the-counter pain meds suffice to keep it under control, but I still don't like it, so I find myself avoiding things.

We salvaged a bunch of lumber from when we demolished the kitchen in the new house. It might come in handy when we get to building the new walls and ceiling, but right now it's kind of in the way. I have a big fat dumpster sitting out in front of the house that's mostly empty and I am tempted to toss all this lumber in there just to get rid of it. Yes, I could put it on Craigslist, but that's another hassle, and I don't really care. I could probably replace all this surplus lumber for a couple hundred bucks, and in terms of the overall cost of this project, that's a nit. On the other hand, my inner depression-era miser says 'look at all that valuable lumber! Save it! It's valuable!' Sometimes I hate myself.

Meanwhile, California Bob is scarfing up on premium goodies at the drive-thru food bank in San Francisco.

I Smell Smoke

 

California Bob reports from San Francisco:

'Come to California,' they said.  'The living is good,' they said.

Elsa woke me up in the middle of the night.  "What's the matter?" I asked.  "Get up, it's 9AM," she said.  Pitch black outside.

It's now 11:45 in the morning and still awfully dark outside.  Evil orange hue in the sky.  Wildfire smoke high in the atmosphere.  The dog seems worried but calm.  Fortunately there's actually minimal smoke down here at ground level, we can still breathe.  For now.

DMV

California Bob reports:

So now I'm apparently one of those feeble guys who can barely navigate the DMV to get a driver's license.
My license expired in February. Now they have these "Real ID" licenses that are supposed to be de rigeur for air travel, so I figured I'd get one of those. But they require a trip to DMV. But when I got online to make a DMV appt, the nearest appts were 3 months out.
Long story short my license expired, and I forestalled, but finally got an appt and went to DMV today.  I filled out the app online, collected all my paperwork (passport, SS card, 2 proofs of address, etc), put it in a folder and went to DMV.
When I got there, found I had to read a vision chart.  I should have anticipated this, but didn't, and only had my crappy glasses with me.  Fortunately I passed the eye test.
Then there was a mysterious problem with the computer. Lady called her associate over, and it was determined that the problem was my license was expired for so many months. That means I have to take the written exams -- car + motorcycle.  Ah jeez.
I go to the terminal and take the exams.  Pass the car exam but the MC exam has inscrutable questions about towing trailers and "slow, tight turns" and I fail.  Lady at desk tells me I can take it again (or come back).  I sit down and read the DMV MC primer on my phone.  Back to the terminal, more weirdo questions about "if your throttle sticks..."  Anyway I pass this time.
Something at the end of the test indicates to me that I could have skipped a few questions with no penalty, which I wish I had figured out the first time.
At the end, a victory, my license is being processed and should be here soon.  However I am now depressed, b/c I thought I had prepared pretty well, but only defeated the DMV by the skin of my teeth. Could easily have gone the other way.

Weekend Projects

Dog gate for small dog

California Bob has been working on some less ambitious projects:

A couple things accomplished this weekend: got all the drawer pulls installed on the downstairs cupboards -- no more tugging on the edges of the drawers with fingertips to coax them open.  These are the tiny efficiencies that lead to greatness.
Also fashioned a dog gate -- zip-tied two pieces of dog fence together, and mounted them using pipe supports from the plumbing box.  A bungie keeps Tickles from opening it -- so far.  He's not too bright so I think it's sufficient.   

Egg Spoons

The chef Alice Waters cooking an egg over a fire in her Berkeley, Calif., kitchen using her beloved, hand-forged iron egg spoon. - Alex Welsh for The New York Times

California Bob has a few words to say in response to a story in The New York Times:

Even moreso than someone having something that we CAN'T have...when someone enjoys something that we don't enjoy, it seems to infuriate us... even moreso than, say, someone having something we covet.

"I wish I had a Ferrari like Bob.  But Frank cooks his eggs in a weird pan! What a jerk!"  

Is this syndrome what is behind the persecution of the Christians, the hatred of fags, the mockery of "culture?"

Uniberp replies:

Wood fire smoked eggs are nice, even though the eggs themselves are corporate farming products. 

For me to be interested in one of those egg cookers, I would need to know the provenance of the coal smelters iron used, even the origin of the coal itself, plus have a notarized record of the poems memorized for recitation by the blacksmith during the forging and wielding. (note: "wielding" , not "welding). 

There, that should piss a little higher.

I think they have covered the subject well.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have a couple of things to say about the story. I didn't read the whole thing because I have very little interest in cooking. I can grill meat on the barbeque, I can order meals at restaurants and I keep the refrigerator stocked with food that doesn't require cooking.

I'm not linking to The Times (except for the caption under the picture) because they are big stinkers and they want me to subscribe. I was only able to read this story because I am under their monthly allocation, and I am under because I avoid them because I don't want to see another one of their cut-off notices. Yes, I could subscribe, but as Tam has pointed out numerous times they are voice of East Coast stupidity. And if I subscribed to them, I might be tempted to subscribe to The Atlantic and I might start sending donations to Wikipedia and The Guardian, and then where does it stop? Pretty soon you are spending hundreds of dollars a month for stuff that you don't have time to read.

I am still waiting for someone to start a text subscription service. You pay a flat fee every month, they count up all the web sites you visit and divide up your payment accordingly. I could do it, but someone would need to convince some of these big news sites that it would be a good idea. And then I would need a small army to actually implement it.

P.S. There is some debate as to whether moreso is a valid word. Grammarist has a page on the subject.

Romney -- "Corporations are People Too"

California Bob attempts to interpret politalk:

We all heard Romney's statement.  Interestingly, I first heard it one context, then re-visited it from another.  And the two contexts gave me a completely different picture.

The actual exchange was something like:

Romney: "There are two ways to fix the deficit.  One is to raise taxes on people."
Rabble: "Raise taxes on the corporations &%$#*@) !!!!!!!"
Romney: "Corporations are people too."

The first time I heard it, I thought Romney was saying that we should increase revenue to balance the budget (I should have known better).  And that sounded to me like this:

Romney: "There are two ways to fix the deficit.  One reasonable approach would be to raise revenue, by raising taxes on people."
Rabble: "Raise taxes on corporations &%$#*@) !!!!!!!"
Romney: "Corporations are people too.  So my suggestion stands: a reasonable approach is to raise taxes, including those on corporations."

...and I didn't see anything controversial about this.

It turns out that Romney was using this line of thought to denounce tax hikes.  So on second visit, it sounded like this:

Romney: "There are two ways to fix the deficit.  One crazy, destructive way, the solution offered by tax and spend liberals, is to raise taxes on people (sneer)."
Rabble: "Raise taxes on corporations &%$#*@) !!!!!!!"
Romney: "Corporations are people too.  And I will fight to protect corporations from any and all tax hikes."

And he came out sounding like a corporate apologist.

Exact same words, different picture.  There are lessons here about prejudice, naivete, hidden agendas, rushing to judgement, context, common sense, etc.  It would seem that pre-knowledge of a person and their agenda informs your interpretations of their behavior.     

Actually, I didn't hear what Romney said. I seem to remember that he ran for President last time, and he might be from New England, or maybe it's Michigan. Or Texas. Somewhere East of the Rockies in any case.

Signs of Aging

I've been to church two weeks in a row.

I wrote a little while ago about being exhausted from being frustrated.  My frustration stems from clinging to a belief in justice, and as anyone with critical faculties must realize, justice is merely a theoretical concept, rarely realized in human experience.  Ergo, clinging to a belief in justice is a prescription for constant frustration.

I have an excuse for gong to church.  My sister-in-law expressed interest in church, and she has very little going on in her life and never expresses interest in anything.  My friend Jerry is a big catholic so I pumped him for info and have taken Karen to church twice.

Odd, because I used to regard churches with vile disdain.  Now that I have several decades of hypocrisy under my belt, and the lines of compromise have become deeply etched into my face, I am less judgmental.  Today, I see nothing in the least contradictory about running your Mercedes over a couple homeless people on your way to church. 

The convenient thing about religion is that, along with suspending judgement, you can also suspend a sense of justice.  And you can suspend reason, and shame, and all manner of inconvenient convictions.  From this perspective I better understand the attraction of religion. 

It's a big time-saver, and eliminates a lot of headaches.  Using the same philosophy, I plan to start dollar-cost-averaging my investments, buying lottery tickets, and voting Republican.

Peace be with you!

- California Bob

Memories, Courtesy of US News

California Bob reports:

I traded a bunch of junk to a junk man for a copy of US News & World Report, dated September 6 1971 -- before it became "Hot Naked Chicks & World Report."

Redolent with memories.  Main stories:

Nixon's 90-day freeze on wages and prices heading into third week.

Interview with Wilbur Mills, head of Ways and Means committee -- before the whole Fanne Fox jumping into the tidal basin incident, and Mills giving press conferences from Fanne Fox's dressing room at the Boston strip bar.

Unfavorable balance of payments forces Nixon to repeal gold-exchange standard (whereby foreign nations could trade their US dollars for gold).  Americans still forbidden to own gold coins or bullion.

Agreement reached with Soviets to allowed western vehicles unimpeded/unharassed access to West Berlin.

South Vietnam's president Thieu accused of rigging election.  The 220,000 US troops in VN are put on alert, told to keep off streets to avoid provoking anti-US demonstrations.

Big fluff story on Nixon's palatial homes -- "$340,000 estate" in San Clemente, and "$250,000 retreat" in Key Biscayne.

Court ordered busing faces protests (I thought Carter started that).

Voting age lowered from 21 to 18 -- widespread fear that this age group will take over local governments.  LOL.  Noted that students are more subject to demagogic appeal (true), and have "advocated changes in zoning restrictions allowing communal living of boys and girls in the same residence; relaxation of drug laws relating to marijuana, and more bicycle paths." 

Predicted that small private colleges will disappear as being economically unfeasible.

George Meany head of AFL-CIO, Frank Fitzsimmons head of Teamsters, Leonard Woodcock head of UAW, big article on the three.  Are these organizations even around anymore? 

Public service ad from Hammermill Paper urging people to write their legislators about crime -- "people can't use their own streets for fear of attack or robbery."

AT&T ad describing their new armored pay phone: "why the street corner pay phone is no longer in danger of becoming extinct."  "Vandals caused repair bills of $12 million on pay phones last year.  One solution is to remove phones.  But we're determined to improve service in spite of vandalism..."  Phone has "recessed dial molded from virtually unbreakable plastic."

Volvo ad espousing tough design of wheels, springs, shocks, engines -- fewer repairs.  (Repairing a car!  How quaint!  Now if we get a flat tire, we just buy a new car, and Toyota delivers it to the roadside.)

Lots of ads for liquor and cigarettes (Cutty Sark, Old Forester, Makers Mark, Salem, Benson & Hedges, showing dads in ties smoking in the hospital, looking at newborns, which they obviously had no hand in delivering.)

Mortgage rates at 7.75%.  Dollar worth 330 Japanese yen.  Ad for VW beetle says it cost around $2000.  US News $4.87 for 34 issues, or 14 cents an issue -- "a substantial saving."

Complexity, Dissent, Economic Slavery, and Coffee

When California Bob has something to say, he really says it:

The slobbering lapdogs of the oligarchy over at Citigroup had some interesting comments on "complexity," that is, waves of change, accompanied by increasing complexity, driving wealth accumulation.

This resonates with me when I see simple, practical, functional, straightforward, cheap, simple methods displaced by expensive, complex systems, usually with unfortunate shortcomings. I see this in commercial and political worlds, and it probably applies to technology, medicine, or any human endeavor you can think of.

An obvious example is the automobile. Yes, automobiles have gotten "better," meaning more reliable. But there is a trend toward complexity: computerizing the car's systems, covering up the components with shrouds, etc. DIY repairs become daunting or impossible. Moreover I notice a disinformation campaign designed to discourage DIY or aftermarket work: carmakers have the gall to suggest that the only safe place to have your oil changed is at the dealer. And I know people who only take their cars to the dealer to have the oil changed because "it's the best place" or "they're the only ones who can do it."

An established system works effectively to contain dissent. The automakers' system works to overwhelm the home mechanic, and at the same time to cajole owners into buying proprietary services:

"To maintain the Lexus mystique, you must only have your wiper blades swapped out by the Certified Factory Trained Service Technicians at Lexus (ie: the guy who was working at Jiffy Lube last week). No one else has the expertise. You could seriously damage your automobile. And you don't want people thinking you're not part of the Lexus family, do you? You've spent $30,000 on this car -- do you want to risk having it ruined by the stink of "uncertified" hands? Good. Now, this'll only hurt for a second..."

Coffee is another one. My coffee maker is a simple plastic "coffee cone," a one-piece plastic drip maker which sits on top of a cup. You put in a filter, put in some coffee, and pour hot water. Quick, easy, quick clean-up, and it makes great coffee. I bought it years ago at Peet's. I notice they no longer carry them. Why? Because why offer your customers a superior item that nets you $2 margin, when by withholding it you can sell them a complex machine which will net you $100?

Thus the system contains dissent. In this case, the commercial system of Peet's, once established as a coffee authority, and functioning widely in key retail anchor points, guides your coffee making choices toward expensive complex solutions -- which of course benefits the plutocracy, or at least Peet's senior management.

To cut to the chase: lately I notice a big marketing push around single cup, fake espresso machines using pre-packaged coffee pods. Eg: "Keurig" and "Nespresso" machines:

http://www.keurig.com

I also notice a lot of news about Peet's buying Diedrich coffee, a maker of pre-packaged coffee pods:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Peets-Coffee-amp-Tea-ups-apf-95716223.html?x=0&.v=1

My initial reaction is to dismiss this: the machines are "stupid," produce inferior coffee, the pods are expensive, the machines are for people who can't learn how to operate a "real" machine, they'll break after a few months, etc. However I have learned not to bet against stupid impractical things. In fact, if they can provide some kind of consumer titillation, cheap crappy sub-optimal solutions are big money makers.

So my prediction is that the single cup coffee makers will be a big hit. They're easy to use. By buying one people can "feel like a barista" and "feel like they're at Starbucks" and "feel like my apartment is a coffee house where all kinds of cool people go." And they'll sucker tons of buyers by marketing the pods as "half the price of a coffeehouse drink."

Net results: margins for coffee pod sellers go up 20%;
Costs for coffee consumers go up slightly, but they don't notice and they're compensated anyway by the thrill of gadgetry;
Coffee quality suffers 30% but no one notices or cares.

On a positive note: you can still find coffee cones on the web, and to date, you can still buy good espresso machines, and good coffee, and even green beans to roast yourself.

A note on espresso machines: mine have held their value better than any device or tool I can think of. Except maybe houses. Cars depreciate. Computers are guaranteed to be worthless in a few years. My espresso machines are worth more than I paid for them, AND I get huge value out of them everyday. Interesting.