Running Bear's February 2026 Coffee Shop

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Good Morning All!
35F @ 89% foggy. Should burn off in a bit.

Well, we have been having fun! A month ago or so, a friends wife asked us if she could use our RV instead of sleeping in her truck until she found suitable accommodations. Sure said us. Oops! Have been getting overwhelmed with txt's from him telling me what a PoS I am for letting her stay there temporarily. Ya, could block the number but his wife wants all/anything she can get for fodder when the divorce is started. Found out yesterday that our Dau is now staying at the xFriend's. What a little Payton Place we have. We hope the Dau wakes up sooner than later as we think the xFriend is using her to get back at us. Both are adults, we have no say in the matter even if we could.

Caught the news last night - what funny looking sand on Myrtle Beach. Does SC even have any snow plows?

L8r
 
Well howdy there internet peeps and those still in their jammies,

It's Troy again.

Back from taking the wife to her optometry appointment. Her peepers check out fine. She resisted the urge to upgrade her computer spectacles. Not an issue of prescription change, just getting old. Her far distance didn't change enough for a new pair. She's "frugally frugal" so one pair will have to break down. then she'll dig out an old pair, and give herself recurring headaches before she goes in to get a new pair. And we have the good VSP vision insurance that knocks a good chunk off the merchandise.

After that we headed to City BBQ (a mostly Eastern US chain). Not only did we have a $10 reward earned on points, but also had the girl ask if I wanted the Senior Discount.

Hell yes! I will gladly keep the 1.50+ the discount gives back.

Then came home, kept doing laundry, and did my stretches. leg pain was about a 5 when I woke up at 3:30am. Enough that I took a NSAID xtra strength. I'm alternating Tylenol and Advil right now to keep the Ibuprofen from doing any more damage to the tummy.

And I've made some progress on the hills for my gaming table:

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Hills2.jpg


Hills3.jpg

In the pics above I'd just blasted them with IPA followed by homemade scenic cement via spray bottles. I've got a bottle of Aleen's Premium Decoupage, so I mix it 1:1 with PVA glue, then about 20:1 with water and some flow aid.

There are some edges that I still need to carve a rock face into. I'll work on that tomorrow after the sealer dries.
 


Good evening all. We are still in Italy. Our good ship, MSC Abidjan will (hopefully) have a full load of containers.. The cut off time is midnight tomorrow, then we sail to Northern Europe. There we will transfer to MSC Nerissa to the USA.

At the end of March we travel on MSC Sofia, then MSC Durban to Australia.

Tom. We are travelling in the 'Owner's Suites' on the ships.

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Anyone having trouble with Turbo Tax this year. There doesn't seem to be an option for the user (to go to forms) and input their own data or input last year's taxes from a file. Eliminating a lot of useless imputing of 1099-R's etc. I'm stuck with the software asking me a lot of questions I don't have any use for. It's taking forever went it's only a 30-minute job. I guess I'll have to call them and ask how they managed to screw everything up this year. Swal

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My book I ordered after the post by Trailrider; Truth, Lies, and O-rings arrived a few minutes ago. I got this used from Amazon for $5.00 and $3 to ship. Other than two slightly bent corners, it looks unused and unread.

To my surprised delight, this is a hand signed autographed copy by Allan McDonald dated 05APR18, and also includes the author's business card with phone numbers and personal email address.

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ctclibby said:
Found out some more stuff. Fedora has a spin ( or add-on ), not sure which for Mac Book's. Google "Linux on Mac Book" and AI should pop up with info.
Click to expand...
It’s not a MacBook Terry has. It’s a Mac Pro and I suspect one of the trash can ones with a special AMD video card. I suspect it’s made from a common part and maybe needs some settings like addresses or something changed but I’m not an expert. But AMS would not have made a custom video chip for Apple. But they would make a custom video card using their normal tech video chips. And custom parts that don’t follow standard rules makes it not get detected. That’s my guess.

I will look into Mac Book video driver add ons for my Mac Book with Linux even though it’s not Fedora.
 
NYC_George said:
Anyone having trouble with Turbo Tax this year. There doesn't seem to be an option for the user (to go to forms) and input their own data or input last year's taxes from a file. Eliminating a lot of useless imputing of 1099-R's etc. I'm stuck with the software asking me a lot of questions I don't have any use for. It's taking forever went it's only a 30-minute job. I guess I'll have to call them and ask how they managed to screw everything up this year. Swal

View attachment 256689
Click to expand...

I didn't have any trouble with my 1099 or W2. The W2 was imported automatically after a complete FBI and NSA identity check, and the 1099 I entered manually. I had to go a little slower this year since this was my first full year of retirement and I wanted to make sure I didn't screw it up.

Took about 40 minutes.
 
Going to need a hot beverage over here, and something from the sweet trolley, got some reading to do.

Two issues of Railroad Model Craftsman arrived today, the most recent edition (February 2026) and one a lot older (September 1995)
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In case anyone was wondering why I picked up a back issue that is now 40 years old, I have a hankering to scratch build a SP SD39...
 


Are the USPS excuses to telework still happening over there? AKA snowmageddon, snowpacolypse, snowzilla? I was about to put an order in with Iron Planet but they had a warning on their page about using USPS at this time, so my shopping cart will probably expire.

I need more kadee 18s for my UK stuff, another bunch of Kato HO motors as I burned out the one in my Mikado. Hasn't been running right since that reverser linkage loosened up. I guess the secret is not to keep adding more voltage to it to make it run correctly.
 
Did my taxes and I paid way too much during the year. Now have to figure out how to adjust my w-4p. When I did it last year, I didn't understand (still don't) what I was doing and when I asked them to take out 500, I didn't know that it was actually 500 more.
 
chadbag said:
It’s not a MacBook Terry has. It’s a Mac Pro and I suspect one of the trash can ones with a special AMD video card. I suspect it’s made from a common part and maybe needs some settings like addresses or something changed but I’m not an expert. But AMS would not have made a custom video chip for Apple. But they would make a custom video card using their normal tech video chips. And custom parts that don’t follow standard rules makes it not get detected. That’s my guess.

I will look into Mac Book video driver add ons for my Mac Book with Linux even though it’s not Fedora.
Click to expand...
I do indeed have the trashcan Mac Pro. E7 Xeon, and twin AMD D-300 graphics cards, 32GB RAM. I did manage to get the system to recognize the graphics cards, though only one of them. It seems to do "okay" for web browsing, but anything more strenuous, and whatever I'm trying to do crashes or freezes. Yes, I am trying to use things that are either Linux-specific or vetted to run on Linux.
I'm trying to get a little more use out of this multi-thousand-dollar computer before I scrap it, but the frustration level is rising fast.
 
Kusojiji said:
Are the USPS excuses to telework still happening over there? AKA snowmageddon, snowpacolypse, snowzilla? I was about to put an order in with Iron Planet but they had a warning on their page about using USPS at this time, so my shopping cart will probably expire.

I need more kadee 18s for my UK stuff, another bunch of Kato HO motors as I burned out the one in my Mikado. Hasn't been running right since that reverser linkage loosened up. I guess the secret is not to keep adding more voltage to it to make it run correctly.
Click to expand...

Iron Planet is barely 200 miles from here and I wouldn't use USPS for even that short distance. Dun't duit Laddie!
 
bnsf971 said:
I do indeed have the trashcan Mac Pro. E7 Xeon, and twin AMD D-300 graphics cards, 32GB RAM. I did manage to get the system to recognize the graphics cards, though only one of them. It seems to do "okay" for web browsing, but anything more strenuous, and whatever I'm trying to do crashes or freezes. Yes, I am trying to use things that are either Linux-specific or vetted to run on Linux.
I'm trying to get a little more use out of this multi-thousand-dollar computer before I scrap it, but the frustration level is rising fast.
Click to expand...

Have you looked to see if Direct X has been updated? Is the power supply still up to spec? This system should be screaming with speed. Have you tried a different distro?
 
RhB Michael said:
Iron Planet is barely 200 miles from here and I wouldn't use USPS for even that short distance. Dun't duit Laddie!
Click to expand...
I ordered from Iron Planet last summer with USPS. No problem. I've not had a USPS shipment ever go missing as a seller or a buyer, and only infrequently has it taken a longer path than necessary. THAT has happened a few times, where it took an extra week to show up. But not that often.

My question is why is @Kusojiji buying KATO motors from the US when he lives in the land of KATO
 


bnsf971 said:
It worked fine on the outdated version of Mac OS it had, and worked well on Windows 10. I may wipe everything and hack the latest version of Mac OS onto it.
Click to expand...

This is what Google AI says plus some other links I found but did not vet

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Linux® Drivers for AMD Radeon™ Graphics​

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AMD
https://www.amd.com › ... › Customer Support




Download Linux drivers below for AMD Radeon graphics cards, including AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series, AMD Radeon RX 7000 Series, AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series, AMD ...Read more




AI Overview
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faviconV2

+6



AMD FirePro D300 (often found in the 2013 Mac Pro) on Linux is supported by the open-source
amdgpu kernel driver and Mesa (specifically the radeonsi driver) for OpenGL support. The driver is built into the Linux kernel and Mesa, requiring no separate download for basic operation, though it may need to be enabled for older GCN 1.0/1.1 cards.
Linux Mint
Linux Mint +4
Key Details for AMD D300 on Linux:
  • Driver Type: Uses the amdgpu driver, which supports Graphics Core Next (GCN) architectures.
  • Installation: Most modern Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch) will have this enabled by default. No proprietary driver is necessary.
  • Troubleshooting: If the system fails to boot or graphical glitches occur, using the nomodeset boot parameter might be required for the initial install, or ensuring your kernel supports amdgpu for GCN 1.0 (sometimes requires amdgpu.si_support=0 or 1 boot parameters, depending on the kernel version and if the specific card was explicitly enabled).
  • Performance: The open-source Mesa drivers provide excellent performance and support for OpenGL.
  • Management: radeontop or other generic GPU monitoring tools can be used to monitor performance.
    Linux Mint
    Linux Mint +4
Ensure your Linux kernel is relatively up-to-date for the best support.

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discussion.fedoraproject.org

[Guide] Installing Fedora 40 on Mac Pro 2013 and enabling amdgpu for video hardware acceleration

I found this article very useful. All Mac Pro 2013 models utilize the AMD FirePro D300/D500/D700 GPUs (Southern Island driver “Curacao, Trinidad, Tahiti” family). To successfully install Fedora 40, you need to boot the LiveCD in safe mode. Fedora 40 will not enable the AMD GPU(amdgpu)...
discussion.fedoraproject.org discussion.fedoraproject.org
 
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