A Crummy Commercial

From now on money orders won't be accepted as payment for Jackson Harbor Press orders.   I received an order recently for $25, paid with a USPS money order.  Just for kicks I tried to deposit the money order using my phone and it seemed to go through.   However I got an message later that the money order was NOT accepted. So I mailed the money order in on October 20, 2026.  Unfortunately I had already emailed the customer that I would send the order the next day :(  I usually hold the order until the money order is deposited (usually at least a week) but in this case I didn't because I had already promised to send the order.   On November 3, 2026) I got the money order back from the bank.  They couldn't read the date (it's there, kinda hard to read but it's there).  Also they couldn't find the amount (it's there, not sure what the problem was).  Finally the customer didn't fill in either my address or his address. I will send it back on ...

This was a really freaky article: https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-there-anything-left-in-the-dream-of-cold-fusion-20261102/ I'd never considered the concept of replacing electrons orbiting an atom's nucleus with heavier negatively charged particles like a muon (200 times the mass of an electron) or even an anti-proton (1800 times the mass of an electron).  If done with hydrogen the resulting atoms are much smaller (and apparently not very stable).  They can be used to fuse with regular hydrogen at normal temperatures and pressures, thus the "real" cold fusion is also known as muon-catalyzed fusion.  This isn't of immediate practical benefit but it is interesting. The 1989 publicity extravaganza and subsequent deflation of cold fusion sorta poisoned the field.  Cold fusion was the Theranos of it's day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion   This brought to mind the old TV show: Fringe   :)  As I recall the show was on Fox, channel 11 in the ...

I had heard that Partick Stewart had died but then a coupla days later I saw this ad: source:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cFHZ3ODNA8 Of course I thought of this: source:  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tu-GiaJ8Xgo How many gazillions of  Star Trek: The Next Generation  viewers bought some Earl Grey tea just because of this often repeated line ?  :)  Personally, I did and yuck ! And of course there was this: https://www.threads.com/@tonysmith1973/post/DfHdv79EwGI/media I suppose he'd have rather been doing Shakespeare but sci-fi and silliness paid the bills ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Was this yet another case of being clickbaited: https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-pc-quietly-recording-what-you-type-default-setting At first I was wondering if this might be involved in my slow PC (as if a no-fan Celeron weren't responsible) ?  So I tried the procedure listed.  Then found the infamous default.dic file, this was what it contained: So basically nothing other than my name ?   I'm probably getting worked up about the wrong things :(     Apparently this whole thing was mainly about touch screens, both the touch screen keyboard and handwriting capture - that's what happens when I only read the headline :( Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was running out of room on a USB drive that I use for sneaker-netting files from machine to machine.  But looking at the prices of SD cards, they have doubled in price since last year ! Current Price, tax not included year ago price, same vendor, price includes tax I can't make my own SD cards but I do have tons of old USB drives.  It took me a long time but I finally realized that a lot of the trouble I had with backups and PVR recording were due to USB drives being SLOW.  The class 10 SD cards are just faster. So here is the plan, dig out the old USB drives (or SD cards) that have PVR recordings.  Then move those PVR recordings to rotating disk drives.  Finally reformat the USB drives or SD cards and bingo: almost new media for no out of pocket expense.  There is a lot of time involved but I got time (I hope :). And actually, maybe I'll just delete those old shows, they are mostly from PBS - after already viewing a murder show does anyone really need to...

Pa (rising) "You wouldn't think jus' reachin' up an' pickin'd get you in the back." I was picking some apples - just a few "gallons": https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/09/lamest-invention-of-2026.html but afterwards I was reminded of this from The Grapes Of Wrath : I hadn't been working as hard as the Joads but I'm older than Russell Simpson (Pa Joad) was in 1940 per the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Simpson_(actor) Old Russ would have been 60 (or maybe 63 ?) and I'm 71  :) Charley Grapewin (Grampa Joad) was my age in 1940: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Grapewin But Grampa Joad didn't make it as far as the peach orchards :( BTW a contemporary Tom Joad would just have to substitute Socialists for Reds: source:  https://clip.cafe/the-grapes-of-wrath-1940/every-time-ya-turn-around/ It's a different name but it allows our contemporary government story tellers to sell fear with their fiction :( Best Regards, Ch...

Previously noted that cowbells are popular in the CFL: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/11/cfl.html But one thing noticed when the World Serious moved to FL for the 3rd game was cowbell.  Per AI this is apparently a thing with rules: the shortened original:  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mtOXAIODnGc    the whole original:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVsQLlk-T0s Here's an example of cowbell from Tropicana Field in 2013: source:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfuyFRRj5pQ But what else would you expect from a Florida team, normalcy ?  Tropicana Field appears to be a spaceship: There are little tufts of sand or coconut shells or ? kicked up when a ball hits in the outfield: Oh yeah => the Brewers WON the 2026 series in 5: It was inevitable, the Brewers 2026 season reminded me of one of the Kilauea eruptions on the big island of Hawaii.  A video of lava coming down a road - not super fast or red hot but just an unstoppable wall: ...