Last week it took me five days to buy my regular groceries while everyone else was panic buying at the stores. More items in stock but limit signs were everywhere today. I’ve took pictures to document the craziness for this montage video. Please consider donating CASH to your local food bank to help those struggling to put food on the table for their families. CASH donations will allow the food bank to buy food in bulk quantities at wholesale prices. If you don’t have a local food bank, donate to Feeding America (nationwide) or Second Harvest Food Bank (Silicon Valley).
The “Fridging” of Nancy Drew
This is year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that allow women the right to vote in the United States in 1920. This year also marks the 90th anniversary of Nancy Drew, the teenage heroine detective created as a counterpoint to the Hardy Boys in 1930. A beloved character still popular with generations of readers and viewers today. Dynamite Comics recently announced a new comic book series called, “Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew.”
That’s right.
Nancy Drew is dead and the Hardy Boys solving her murder. She’s not only killed off but also fridged, invoking two comic book tropes to jump start interest and sales. Only a male writer could have thought of stuffing Nancy Drew’s dead body into a fridge was an exciting way to celebrate her 90th anniversary.
Read more “The “Fridging” of Nancy Drew”Replacing UPS Battery After Low Battery Warning
I’ve gotten email notifications from my FreeNAS file server that my APC ES-725 UPS has a “low battery” condition. The 12-volt battery inside the UPS was no longer outputting a constant 12 volts to provide backup power during an outage. When that happened three years ago, I ignored the emails for several months. One day the UPS stopped working and started whistling loudly. I had no choice but to unplug the UPS to stop the whistling. My choices then was the same as now: replace the battery or the entire UPS. Most of the time, it’s cheaper to replace the battery.
Read more “Replacing UPS Battery After Low Battery Warning”Dear Healthy People — STOP BUYING Medical Masks
Last month I posted a video about medical masks being hoarded by healthy people were a bigger health threat than the coronavirus in the United States. A shortage of medical masks at hospitals could cause an outbreak among medical professionals and the general public. A few people told me that the medical mask shortage was just an Internet conspiracy theory.
It wasn’t.
Earlier this week a doctor and two ER staff members who identified a patient with the coronavirus at a Silicon Valley hospital are now under quarantine. A shortage of N95 masks left them exposed to the coronavirus while examining the patient. Yesterday the United States Surgeon General tweeted that healthy people must stop buying medical masks to avoid putting medical personnel at risk from a mask shortage. Medical mask hoarders are putting everyone at risk for an outbreak.
Read more “Dear Healthy People — STOP BUYING Medical Masks”Big Tech YouTuber Bitwit Discovers Fry’s Electronics Going Out of Business
Fry’s Electronics used to be where local PC builders scanned the full-page newspaper ads at the entrance and went inside to buy parts. None of the big tech YouTubers that I follow had anything to say about Fry’s going out of business in recent months. That changed when Kyle and Heather of Bitwit drove over to the Fry’s Burbank store to check out what viewers have been telling them for months. They made the shocking discovery that the rumors were all true. Not just at the Burbank store but also the Las Vegas store.
Read more “Big Tech YouTuber Bitwit Discovers Fry’s Electronics Going Out of Business”The Great Train Show 2020 – Trains & Dealer Room Montage
My first visit to The Great Train Show (Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, CA, Sunday, 02/23/2020). Train layouts ranged from Z (smallest) to O (largest) scale in size. The trains and dealer room were recorded on my Panasonic camcorder.
The Great Train Show 2020 – The Baz Boys Z-Scale Long Train
One of the longest trains at The Great Train Show (Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, CA, Sunday, 02/23/2020) was the The Baz Boys 20′ x 25′ Z-scale layout. Being the smallest scale of model trains, each car is about 2″ long. Two engines pulled a mile-long freight train across the landscape and a short passenger train zooms by on the opposite track. Video recorded on an Apple iPhone XR for 3.5 minutes from beginning to end.
SiliCon With Adam Savage Replaces Silicon Valley Comic Con
When Silicon Valley Comic Con 2019 ended last August, no announcements were made for the 2020 show dates. That was unusual since previous shows had the dates for the next show in advance. The only potential date we had for the last six months was a picture posted on Friends of Comic Cons that listed October 16 to 18, 2020 from inside the 2019 program guide. The official website for Silicon Valley Comic Con updated this past Sunday night with the new dates and more announcements forthcoming. But tickets weren’t on sale yet. As of yesterday afternoon, the old website redirected to the new website.
Silicon Valley Comic Con is dead! Long live SiliCon With Adam Savage!
Read more “SiliCon With Adam Savage Replaces Silicon Valley Comic Con”Will Apple iPhone 12 Expose You To The Coronavirus?
NOTE: The video that this blog post is based on has the word “coronavirus” bleeped out and replaced with the emoticons for “beer flu” since the YouTube algorithm is demonetizing and suppressing videos with that particular word.
Last week Jon Prosser of Front Page Tech announced on Twitter that he got a package from China. As far as he was concern, “it was Coronavirus in a box.” He apologized to the unnamed Chinese company for disposing of the unopened package. An irrational overreaction on his part to the coronavirus epidemic in China? If the package came over on a slow boat from China, he clearly overreacted. If the package came over on a fast airplane from China, he may not be overreacting. Speaking of fast airplanes from China, Apple plans to ship millions of new iPhone 12s all over the world later this year.
Will “coronavirus in a box” be coming to an Apple Store near you?
Read more “Will Apple iPhone 12 Expose You To The Coronavirus?”I Failed to Take Microsoft Windows 10 Certification Exam
Last year I bought the “Exam Replay” certification voucher with a one-year expiration date, a free retake exam and a 30-day practice test for $265 USD. My initial plan was to take the retiring Microsoft Windows 7 exam before April 2019. When that exam came and went, my revised goal was to take the new Windows 10 exam. I had to wait until summer for the new study guide to come out. That left about six months to get Windows 10 certified.
Plenty of time, right? Uh, no.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I failed to show up at the testing center to take the exam before the voucher expired last month. That flushing sound you hear in the background was $265 USD going down the toilet.
Read more “I Failed to Take Microsoft Windows 10 Certification Exam”