Archive for the ‘under the fedora’ Category

Beer, Crops, Laptops Browsers & Retailers Under the Fedora

Posted: August 16, 2020 by datechguy in under the fedora
Tags: , , , , ,

Apparently a small beer company in Seattle is making beer with the Acronym APAB (all Police are bastards) on each can. The owner says he’s happy to lose customers that disagree.

The irony here is palatable he is free to put whatever message he wants on the beer, other are free not to buy it, that’s free market capitalism at work.

The bigger irony? He is free to do so because he doesn’t have to worry about those who disagree torching his brewery, thanks to police.

In something right out of the movie The Devil & Daniel Webster, between 180 and 270 million bushels of corn in Iowa were likely damaged by hurricane force winds and rain that hit the state. Given that Corn is the basis for a lot of what we make and eat expect food prices to go up fast.

As Glenn Reyonlds put it: “We’re lucky to live in a country where news like this doesn’t presage a famine.”

Thank capitalism.

I finally got that replacement laptop I was talking about. I ended up buying a HP from my local Staples vs the Acer I was going to buy on Amazon because it seemed to me that every single laptop being sold there was from a 3rd party seller and the number of bad reviews of the specific sellers seemed awful high to me so I decided I’d rather buy somewhere so if there is a problem I can go to an actual person in an actual store face to face (or these days mask to mask) for relief rather than go to court.

It’s nice having choices like this rather than having to go through a monopoly like Amazon.

Thank Capitalism

Counting the new laptop that is still in its box I now have 3 laptops functioning. All of my email in done on the oldest. This one is going to get hooked up to ann old screen with an HDMI cable as soon as I find one and the new one will be for my general work. Interesting point. Didn’t have brave on the oldest laptop and because I wanted a link for an email opened a site I visit regularly in chrome.

The number of ads and popups was astounding. You don’t really appreciate the joy of running a brower like Brave until you do without it.

Thanks free market.

Finally apparently Macy is leaving its location in Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile” where it currently has 8 levels with 170,000 square feet but has been hit twice during riots.

Everyone is insisting that this has nothing to do with the riots or police response I’m sure Amazon’s moves to get people out of Seattle and into the suburbs have nothing to do with the riots either.

But that’s the thing about the free market, people respond to incentives whether they are taxing to the pocketbook or hazardous to one’s health.

Someone might want to warn Austin Texas about this.

Corona Virus Side Effects Under the Fedora

Posted: March 26, 2020 by datechguy in business, DaTechGuy's Quick Thoughts, economy, News/opinion, oddities, personal, Uncategorized, under the fedora
Tags: , , , , , ,

Had some interesting Corona Related personal side effects / stories over the last few weeks.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I went to the Market Basket near my house after dropping off my son to work and noticed that they were now offering Romano’s quality Prime steaks. It seems to me that if this was a crisis where panic buying was warranted such items would not be available. I shot a video on the subject that you can see here.

Because of the cancellation of Events in the area my youngest Son was unable to see Letterkenny Live in Boston on Saturday. Because he was free our family as a whole could go out together to celebrate DaWife’s birthday with our traditional “person who had the birthday picks anyplace they want” that night as it was the closest day to her birthday that we were all free and didn’t have dietary restricts based on Lent or other religious vows.

This turned out to be good luck for her because within 48 hours of that visit Massachusetts imposed a ban on eating at restaurants meaning that if we didn’t have the dinner that Saturday there would have been no birthday dinner out for DaWife.

To paraphrase Job, DaPanic giveth the Panic taketh away

Speaking of DaPanic taketh away my Doctor’s appointment for re-evaluation my shoulder was cancelled as the Governor also ordered all schools in Massachusetts to close which means that my Doctor who has small kids on no notice suddenly had no childcare so he had to stay home.

This meant that I won’t get my shoulder re-evaluated for another two weeks (the new appointment came through while writing this) which means my restrictions at work remain in place and that no decisions to continue or cancel rehab will take place. Yesterday Reliant called and said that due to the new restrictions and the desire to limit exposure they will do my appointment by phone. This means no x-ray but I seem to be progressing OK.

It seems to be that if still like this could be handled this way now it likely could have been handled like this before.

While this has been an inconvenience for me it’s has been a disaster for the Restaurant industry. When we went for DaWife’s dinner instead of the customary wait we were seated at once, there were empty tables and we noticed that they by 8:30 PM there was no sign of them being filled. Our server noted that there were very few people on and that her she and others were really being hit. Tipped her as high as I could afford and it’s a good thing too because as of today her tips are going to be exactly zero.

And that was weeks ago, yesterday I went to the local diner which is doing takeout only. They’re a two person business with no waitstaff so one might thing they could weather it. But Tina told me that business is down 90%+ and if it goes on much longer a business that weathered the great ice storm and the Obama years won’t survive.

Can you imagine being a restaurant owner who two weeks ago spent a ton of money of disinfectant to wipe down the tables with last week who now has a bunch of disinfectant and no tables to wipe?

Some people just can’t be pleased. Last week our place closed early when there wasn’t much work and people were groaning that they were worried about their jobs. This week, much to my surprise and most everyone else our place was listed as vital so remained open after the Governor’s order and now people are complaining about that.

About 35% didn’t bother to show the next day. If this keeps up it means that we will likely not have many, if any short weeks since there are less people to go around. Also yesterday I was practically the only person in my department for 7/8th of the day, the nearest body being 50 yards away.

Now that’s what I call social distancing.

Finally a quick reminder. I am now podcasting again. Rather than pre-recorded stuff I’m streaming live on YouTube Mondays at 12:35 AM EST and Fridays at 9:15 AM EST. I’m going to allow call ins on the Friday show using my old Radio show toll free number 888-9-FEDORA. Yeah it will only be my home phone on speaker but we’ll see if it works. If not then it will just be me.

Red Sox Unarmed, Celtics Addition by Subtraction, Bruins Butch, Brady as Batman vs Mutant Leader?, a Definition away from 1st place Plus Great Team Results Under the (Sports) Fedora

Posted: February 29, 2020 by datechguy in baseball, nba, nfl, nhl, Sports, under the fedora

Looking at the Red Sox Roster, while even without Mookie Betts the offense looks imposing, if you look at the Rotation of Sale, Rodriguez, Eovaldi and Velazquez as 1-4 I don’t see innings eaters among them. Particularly since Sale will start the season on the DL

Last season the bullpen was devastated by the lack of starting depth, I see no sign that this is going to be abated this year. Furthermore one or two injuries will turn this team into the 1929 Cubs of my greatest teams Dynasty league. Near the top in runs scored but even higher in runs allowed.

Well it won’t be boring anyways

The Boston Celtics continue to roll their .707 winning percentage is 4th best in the NBA just behind the surprising Toronto Raptors who have not let the loss of Leonard hurt them, the Lakers who lead the west with a .786 percentage and the Bucks who are blowing everyone away at 50-8.

It seems the biggest addition to the development of this Celtics team has been the removal of Kyrie Irving who went to Brooklyn and is now out for the year. It’s worth noting that Brooklyn this season is 4 games under .500 with Irving in the lineup and one game under without him.

It will be a tough slog to get by Milwaukee in the playoffs but Celtics with a talented team minus Kyrie has a much better chance than they did last year with him.

The Boston Bruins seem to remain the poor child of the Boston sports world despite having the most points in the NHL with a five point lead over their nearest rival.

With St. Louis leading the pack in the west there is a real potential for a Stanley Cup rematch which given how last years seven games when should be a source of a lot more excitement around here, particularly when you consider that they were the only Boston team to make it to the finals last year.

There’s still a lot of Hockey to play but I really think they deserve a lot more attention around here, but I suspect until Brady gets signed that attention is going to be lacking.

Speaking of Tom Brady when it comes to the Brady sweepstakes I’m burned out. There seems to be no other topic on sports radio so lets put it simply and repeat the obvious.

Not counting the pats unless a team is a QB away from a superbowl run over the next two year signing Brady for the 30+ Million makes no sense for them and risking one’s reputation going to a lesser team makes no sense for him. I can see Jerry Jones going all in because it’s his nature and I can further see Vrabel deciding he’s like to win one more ring with Brady but other than those two there is no logical place for him to go.

New England remains the best fit both in terms of comfort, fan support and the system. Remember they were only one defensive stop vs Miami away from a 1st round bye last year. This team for all it’s weaknesses is Brady’s best chance at ring #7

The only logical reason for Brady to leave is if he wants to challenge himself and frankly given Brady’s nature that might be a factor, it’s like Batman getting out of the Tank in the Dark Knight to take on the leader of the Mutants. I suspect that decision would prove just as unwise.

On Tuesday I was at Happy Jacks for lunch and they had some kind of skiing on the Olympic Channel on the set where first they go down hill for a bit and then have to climb this other hill to get to the finish line.

The best women’s time ran about 2:28. Then the started with the men, even the fifth place man was finishing better then the best women’s time.

It hit me that all that fellow has to do is declare himself a woman and he’s got gold. Perhaps Elizabeth Warren or someone from the British Labor party can explain how that would be fair to all those women who busted their asses to get their chance for Gold.

Finally My Dynasty online Greatest Teams League will just about done by the time you read this and our division winners have been determined. The 1970 Orioles win the AL East finishing 6-8 games ahead of the 1939 Yankees pending the only unplayed AL series left the O’s 4 games against the 50-100 1934 Detroit Tigers. They will meet the 1954 Indians who needed just one win in their four game series vs the 1973 A’s to clinch and got it courtesy of a 6 hit shutout by Early Wynn. It will be a battle of great starting staffs

In the NL the Brooklyn Dodgers are at 100-50 clinching the NL East against the hard luck 1957 Braves whose 90 wins would have won both the AL or NL west. Brooklyn will finish with four games against their playoff opponents the 1962 San Francisco Giants who have two left vs Pittsburgh before those final four at home vs Brooklyn but with an 11 game lead have plenty of a lead to spare. The only question is will this be a battle of the benches or will the stars come out to shine.

My next all time league will have 24 teams 2 wildcards and will feature all the division winners plus the 24 Senators and the 57 Brewers facing 18 differerent teams including the 2009 Yanks, the 2013 Redsox, the 2016 cubs and last years World Series Champs the 2019 Nationals.

Would be happy to have you jump in and join us.

Oscars, Medals, Carville whining, Biden Flailing & Back to Work Under the Fedora

Posted: February 11, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, elections, politics, primaries, under the fedora
Tags: , , ,

I think this image (via Ace of Spades’ Morning Rant) sums up the Oscars in a nutshell.

If these people really cared about climate change, veganism & saving the planet they’d ditch the broadcast and private planes and just have some guy read a list of who won.

Nancy Pelosi is still angry about Rush at the STOU getting the medal of freedom.

Pelosi saw the medal moment as overstepping the boundaries of the White House and Congress.

“Do it in your own office,” she told reporters at a press conference. “We don’t come into your office and do congressional business. Why are you doing that here?”

Admit it, your favorite part of Rush Limbaugh getting the medal of freedom is making sure that the majority of the Democrats in Congress had to be there to watch it.

It was mine.

James Carville remains worried:

“If we lose that, we’re going to be the British labor party and be out some theoretical left-wing la la land,” Carville said. “I’m afraid that Donald Trump is going to get re-elected and I have to do this four more years and I don’t think we can make it. I really don’t…The country can’t continue like this.”

The conversation continued with Carville outlining his view that politics should be about “coalitions” and tackling issues, not being an “ideologue” or talking about “reparations or any kind of goofy left-wing thing out there.”

“There’s a certain part of the Democratic Party that wants us to be a cult,” Carville said, ostensibly referencing Sanders’ impassioned base of support.

“I’m not interested in being in a cult…I’m not a very culty person.”

The Democrats have been a cult for a long time, Carville wouldn’t care if it remained so as long as they won and he could keep his snout in the pie

By the time you read this Joe Biden will be on his way to finishing 4th or maybe 5th in NH.

If he can hang on to South Carolina I still think he has a chance as the Black Democrat vote in the south will not go for the Socialist, the Gay Mayor or the (formally) law and order Mayor.

Biden was always a candidate surrounded by a media bodyguard (remember the no dissing Joe zone on Morning Joe) but he’s looked terrible on the campaign trail and impeachment has simply unhinged him.

Must admit I didn’t see this coming.

Finally I went back to work yesterday after busting my shoulder at work on the 24th of Nov.

I’m still healing and have a bunch of exercises I have to do to rebuild the strength in my shoulder but be aware that I might be posting a tad less (and tweeting a LOT less) now that I’m working full time again.

Thanks for all the good wishes during my injury with luck and work my recovery will continue on schedule.

Older Entries
Newer Entries