Running Bear's September 2024 Coffee Shop


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Talking dead languages, Pascal would also be in that category. But it's a very useful language. My first job as a software engineer (pre graduation) was at DEC supporting some internal apps in VAX BASIC and writing more (and extending existing ones) using VAX Pascal. oth were very modern versions of those languages at the time.

I kind of went down the Pascal path a while though I never learned Modula-2 and Modula-3. I did do some Oberon, which was a next generation Niklaus Wirth language from the 90s from the Swiss ETH. I even got published reviewing the Oberon/F software for Mac (and later other platforms IIRC).

But then I learned Objective-C and never looked back. And now Swift. We use Swift and Objective-C daily, and it's amazing how far every day use languages have come in the last 30 years (Objective-C is originally from the 80s but was far ahead of its time in concept which was a fusion of Smalltalk and C). I was never a great C fan but adding Smalltalk on top made it my favorite. (There are of course all manner of interesting languages today in daily use, and a lot more that have been released but never used much outside of labs)
I know Pacal is a dead language, but it will run in Windows 11. I really only write golf related programs, and I don't write those anymore. I though I might help out a friend pairing up some scramble teams. I know the program I wrote does the calculating who's playing with who in about 5 seconds. Jimmy a friend who does it now takes about 30 minutes to figure it out. If I wanted to Randomize one of the positions for any reason in Pascal I would use the below similar code.

for i:=1 to max_no do begin\par
repeat j:=succ(random(max_value));until not(check(j));\par
inc(cl);\par
a[cl]:=j;\par
writeln(j);\par
end;\par

Swal
 
I refuse to admit I know COBOL. That said, I programmed all the dead languages, but not for anything other college classes or general knowledge. I was making more money doing repairs at the time than they were offering to do programming.

 Willie: I think I finally got the switch fixed. As I was taking pictures, I started playing with the switch. I found that there was some drag going one direction only. A touch of oil along the ties from the hinge point, works like a charm now. Thanks for making me take a second look.
 
I was making more money doing repairs at the time than they were offering to do programming.
I dropped out of college because there was more money to be made from working. Despite my sister and her husband both holding college degrees, (Accounting and Engineering) I earned more than the combined total of their incomes. My sister, who prepared my taxes, was surprised by the amount of income I had.

Looking back that was not the best choice. I worked too hard, played too hard and my body paid the price. My income increased annually until I began experiencing health issues. And so, the roller coaster ride commenced. I've been riding it ever since.
 
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There are fewer than 100 days left until Christmas!

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I refuse to admit I know COBOL. That said, I programmed all the dead languages, but not for anything other college classes or general knowledge. I was making more money doing repairs at the time than they were offering to do programming.

 Willie: I think I finally got the switch fixed. As I was taking pictures, I started playing with the switch. I found that there was some drag going one direction only. A touch of oil along the ties from the hinge point, works like a charm now. Thanks for making me take a second look.
I wrote my first Basic program in 1969, for my Accounting Systems class. I was an accounting major. I really enjoyed programming, and was good at it. Did all of my electives in the CS department, including Cobol, IBM 360 Assembler language, and Operating systems. My first job out of school was assembler language programming for the Southern Pacific Railroad, in 1971. Spent the rest of my Career in IT, never accounted for a day in my life, even though I got a BS in accounting.
 
I dropped out of college because there was more money to be made from working. Despite my sister and her husband both holding college degrees, (Accounting and Engineering) I earned more than the combined total of their incomes. My sister, who prepared my taxes, was surprised by the amount of income I had.

Looking back that was not the best choice. I worked too hard, played too hard and my body paid the price. My income increased annually until I began experiencing health issues. And so, the roller coaster ride commenced. I've been riding it ever since.
My son did the same and earned more money than my daughter who stayed at college. He tried to talk her to leave college and earn money.

Now my son is in a dead end job 'he sort of likes', but going nowhere. Prospects zero.

Daughter, on the other hand, has a very well paid job. Throughout her (short) working life she has been 'head hunted' and gone from well paid to very well paid jobs. From working in a local company she now works nationally around the U.K.. She has recently been offered a job with a European company who have branches globally.

Yes leaving college early may mean more money at the time, but staying on brings better rewards.

Off course it all comes down to the end goal.

Daughter and SiL have a goal to retire from work when they reach 45 years of age. (They will.)
Son knows he will keep on working until retiring age. Unless he drastically changes his ways, he will.
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with jobs, or not.

It's Troy again.

Been up since 3am. Sciatica of course. Took a tylenol, rubbed Bio-freeze on my leg, and tried to sit on my new couch.

Yep. A new couch. A very CHEAP new couch from Wayfair.

Why? Because the decent quality couches were running 4-8 week delivery. And I needed something in the troy-cave other than the recliner to lounge on. The recliner hits all of the sciatica pressure points. A couch gives me more options for sitting with minimal pressure on the bad spots.

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it came in 6 pieces (plus cushions and ottoman), two cartons, and took about 30 minutes to assemble. Took longer to carry the pieces into the basement than to do the assembly. It is narrow though. barely enough room for the cat and I together for a nap.

Today is take the Toyota Camry in for it's 70,000 mile oil change and maintenance. That will take two hours. Debating on weather to get the shuttle driver to bring me back home (7 min drive) or stay there standing the entire time? Probably take the shuttle. I can at least get in a walk around the complex, and keep an eye on the pile of dirt that used to be our walking trail.

Screenshot 2024-09-17 at 7.14.43 AM.png


They came out to fill in the hole yesterday. Now we have to wait on them to return to reconnect the two sections of asphalt walking path the water main break destroyed.
 
I refuse to admit I know COBOL.
I know COBOL it's a business-oriented computer language and that about it. I really only self-learned to program because of golf. As far as college goes it just wasn't for me. Many people in my town Pawling , NY went to work for the railroad and they all got paid extremely well. I became an engineer and could make the same amount of money that God has if you wanted to put in the hours. I didn't want to put in the hours, so I left in 1981 but went on to another good paying job in the building trades. I was only briefly into the credit card thing. Paying anyone 24% interest was dumber than spending money on hot rods. My wife and I had loans on the house and cars no other outstanding loans. Once the house was paid off 13 years ago and I no longer had the expense of driving to work every day, it became really easy to manage our money. My advice to the government is stop borrowing money you dumb assess.
Swal
 
Good morning. It's cloudy and 72.
Still having problems with Paypal. Every time I try to log in, they want me to provide a photo ID. Just to check my balance, and make sure there are no weird charges. Currently looking at what all I'm using PP as a payment service, and what it'll take to dump them.
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with jobs, or not.

It's Troy again.

Been up since 3am. Sciatica of course. Took a tylenol, rubbed Bio-freeze on my leg, and tried to sit on my new couch.

Yep. A new couch. A very CHEAP new couch from Wayfair.

Why? Because the decent quality couches were running 4-8 week delivery. And I needed something in the troy-cave other than the recliner to lounge on. The recliner hits all of the sciatica pressure points. A couch gives me more options for sitting with minimal pressure on the bad spots.

View attachment 199314
it came in 6 pieces (plus cushions and ottoman), two cartons, and took about 30 minutes to assemble. Took longer to carry the pieces into the basement than to do the assembly. It is narrow though. barely enough room for the cat and I together for a nap.
.
That couch looks like it's been quite used?
 
Morning all,

66° and clear, going for a high of 90° later.

After thinking it through, (with a cleared head), I think the troublesome switch was getting caught on some of the water\glue solution that dried after I ballasted the track.


Good morning. It's cloudy and 72.
Still having problems with Paypal. Every time I try to log in, they want me to provide a photo ID. Just to check my balance, and make sure there are no weird charges. Currently looking at what all I'm using PP as a payment service, and what it'll take to dump them.
A photo ID?

BBL
 
Good morning. The college versus work discussion, always interesting but none of us really know what it feels like to come out of college today.

Over my career I hired both the college and graduate student in addition to hiring those without any degree. The college degree to me when hiring just meant to me that person was able to navigate the bulls..t of the college environment. The working person with no degree handled real life. I wanted creativity and especially drive in my sales and client services staff. The HR department wanted degrees. I have a BA degree in Education as I wanted to teach. That was 1974, in 1985 I earned a MBA because the company wanted me to have one on my resume and business cards! They paid for it and I got a very nice bonus and a salary increase for 2 years when they decided they were paying the management staff too much. They let the 6 MBA degreed staff go that they paid the degrees for. 3 years later the company facility was closed, sold for peanuts, merged and forgotten! I’ve worked in production management, sales and customer service. My high earning years were in Customer service and sales. I can personally tell you degrees of any kind for those jobs was definitely not needed.

Weather in So Central Wisconsin is again above the seasonal averages. 53f degrees now and going to 88. Still dry and the winds are calm. It’s not going to be a nice day.

Weathering at the bench this morning after I return from the fasting labs!

Yesterday was a good weathering day.

This evening the UW Badger Volleyball team #7 nationally plays Marquette University (where Terry and I graduated in 1974) at 7pm in the Kohl Center on campus instead of the Fieldhouse. They are looking to break the NCAA indoor attendance (17,034) record for REGULAR IN SEASON GAMES these teams set last year in Milwaukee at Firserv Forum, home this year to the Republican Convention. They had to hype something as Wisconsin has been disappointing and Marquette much more disappointing. We will be there!

Enjoy your day
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 68° here on the ranch. 68°-95° is forecast to be our temperature range for the next week, before the NWS says possible rain on the 25th. The last rain prediction evaporated!

Yesterday was a firewood day. It wasn't as productive in that department as most because I was doing some trees that had a lot of brush to trim off. Also in the way is a small storage shed that was crushed and destroyed underneath these trees during the tornado. There's not anything of any real value in it, but it nonetheless needs to be picked up and discarded. On the bright side, picking the pieces up from the ground will be easier than dismantling a standing shed, which needed to be done anyway.

Today starts early with a 9:00 appointment with the dental hygienist, a routine appointment. No other plans for today other than visiting the pool and the train shed later on. I'll probably haul some brush or tornado debris after the dental thing.

Nothing special out in the train shed yesterday. I did some painting on figures and ran a few trains. No issues noted while running other than a known problem with a ground throw mounted too close too the track on an industry siding. Truck sideframe on Blomberg 4 axle trucks hit it and stop. Replacing it with an N scale ground throw is on the project list somewhere, I even have the throw on the layout next to the switch!
From the archives, a few homes in Vernon.
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Yes, some of those many figures have a place to live.

Tom O - I have heard and read some very unfavorable things about the Cybertrucks. Tire wear is one of the most prominent complaints.
Patrick - I have fixed many turnouts by giving them a second look.
Louis - I too made more money when I dropped out of college, and did so for more than 20 years before some of my siblings with degrees caught up with and passed me by. In the end though, I retired at an earlier age than any of the other five (or their spouses).
Swal -
I was only briefly into the credit card thing. Paying anyone 24% interest was dumber than spending money on hot rods. My wife and I had loans on the house and cars no other outstanding loans. Once the house was paid off 13 years ago and I no longer had the expense of driving to work every day, it became really easy to manage our money. My advice to the government is stop borrowing money you dumb assess.
Since paying off my house/land in 1995, I have been cash only including cars ever since.

Everyone have a wonderful day today.
 
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