Why "Star Wars" Isn't Science Fiction

Science Fiction has been degraded in recent years to mere spectacle, without purpose.

I wrote before about E.M. Forester's The Machine Stops, a real science-fiction story about a dystopian future where people huddle in their homes, connected to each other only by video screens and electronic communications, having their every need catered to by machines, while at the same times having no idea of how the machines work.  It could have been written last week, describing America today or in the near future, where we all "cocoon" in  our homes and have our meals pre-made and delivered, while we all watch YouTube videos and instant message each other.

It was written over 100 years ago.

What is interesting about the story is not the technical details, but the human ones.  The main character's Mother spends her days bloviating online to her thousands of online Facebook friends about "Music of the Australian Period."  Forester is hinting that her lecture is full of bullshit nonsense - anticipating the podcasts of the future - where everyone is an expert and facts are flexible.

He gets the human part right. But even the technical details are amazingly prescient - predicting indirect LED-style lighting, pad-type devices (round, not rectangular - there's a hint, Apple!) as well as a voice-activated control system like Siri.  Missing are any light sabers, exploding death stars, or evil empires.

Instead, Forester points out the evil empire is us - humanity - and our desire to wallow in our own crapulence.  And sadly, it seems Forester was right.  Corporations seem to look at these descriptions of a dystopian future as a roadmap for profitability.  Republicans subscribe to a "Club for Growth" as if packing as many humans onto the planet as physically possible is part of God's plan and the route to success, not misery.  Yet others have given up on planet Earth entirely and want to colonize desolate waterless planets bathed in radiation.  It makes no friggin' sense.

The problem with Star Wars is that it is all spectacle and no plot.  Oh sure, there is a plot, as much as any soap opera has a plot.  People connive against one another and two sides fight it out, with neither one ever winning.  It is Space Opera, not science fiction, based in part on Japanese Samurai films and in another part on the mindless Saturday morning matinee 13-chapter serials that kept children entertained before the era of television (e.g., Tom Mix, Flash Gordon).  Why do you think the first Star Wars was called Chapter IV?

A year or so ago, I signed up for Disney+ for a month, figuring I would see what the fuss was about in The Mandalorian.  I told Mark, "You probably won't like this, it is Star Wars crap!" as he wasn't really a SciFi fan.  Oddly enough, he liked it, I think in part because of Pedro Pascal's gravelly sexy voice, and in part because of all the action sequences.  Before anything gets too boring, a fight always breaks out. That's action-adventure, not SciFi.

Sadly, so much of SciFi today is this way - plotless spectacles that rely on CGI to keep us entertained. And while we all enjoyed watching the Titanic sink in 3-D, people have since become jaded by CGI spectacles.  Heck, you can create your own with an online AI-chatbot in a matter of minutes.  Just don't count the number of fingers on each hand.

So much has been lumped in with "SciFi" these days, including fantasy films (swords and elves and that sort of shit) as well as comic book heroes.  Each is the same as the other - CGI distractions, little in the way of plot, and nothing that really makes you think about greater issues confronting humanity.

The best SciFi stories are often allegories about humanity and life on Earth.  The best of the original Star Trek episodes weren't about shooting it up with Romulans or Klingons, but were thought-pieces about issues confronting humanity in 1968 - or indeed, any era.  And not surprisingly, those episodes were written by actual science fiction writers, such as Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, D.C Fontana, as well as a host of others.

The Machine Stops isn't about battles between empires or sword fights between protagonists - indeed there are no fights involved.  It is a prescient warning about where humanity is headed with technology and is designed to make you think about what technology has wrought.  That it still is relevant a century later is evidence as to its real power.

Apple has licensed The Mandalorian to promote its new phone - telling people they can take snappy pictures and join-up with their fellow cosplayers via the machine.  In a way it is apt, as they are using a SciFi franchise that mindlessly glorified technology to promote mindless technology.  After all, you wouldn't want to have a phone that connects you with people who don't think as you do, right?  And we certainly don't want people thinking Apple is part of the problem and not the solution - right?

That is the weird thing about Star Wars - they posit a future (or a past, in a galaxy far, far away) where there is limitless energy, limitless natural resources, and yet what do people do?  Kill each other over control of resources.  Quite frankly, it makes no sense.  If you have that level of technology, you don't need to "restore order to the galaxy" or whatever (the weakest plot motivation ever devised) because the galaxy has, if not limitless, at least untold resources.  And there are always other galaxies, right?

(And please, don't get me started on Space Whales!).

But maybe that is the real corporate message here - no matter how much we have as a civilization, it is never enough, and we need to go to war and kill each other to maintain power and control of these resources.  It is a pretty sick message, if you think about it.

But hey, maybe Star Wars is a message movie after all!  Because if you think about what they are really saying, it is that humanity really sucks and that we are doomed to fight with one another, perpetually, to gather whatever scraps we can scrounge from the table, or to hoard resources and accumulate power.

Pretty sad message!

KOA Points - An Example Why Points Are Worthless

To get a "free" stay ($50) at a KOA you need 25,000 "points."  Each stay only "earns" you 1,000 points.

We are making plans for our summer trip.  We are spending one night at a KOA en route, to break up a long day of travel.  We don't stay at KOA's much as they are expensive, and like most commercial campgrounds, often place you chock-a-block next to another camper.

But they are handy in some situations.  You want a spot off the highway with a laundry and a nice site with a brick patio and barbecue grill - they have that.  But it can cost $70 a night, which, with my "geezer" pass is enough to spend three days or even a week at a Army Corps park - with a site on the water, away from fellow campers.

When we made our current reservation, they offered to "renew" our membership for $35.  I don't recall paying for membership in the past, and our "points" would roll over from year to year.  Now they expire unless you pay.  Since we don't stay at a KOA more than once or twice a year, it make no sense to renew.   Even the 10% discount would require we stay five nights or more, just to break even.  We're just not KOA frequent flyers.

I am not taking a piss on KOA here.  Their "rewards" program is designed to reward frequent flyers, not occasional users.  If you stay at a KOA for 30 nights a year, you will earn a free night stay (or the monetary equivalent thereof) as well as save over $200 on camping fees (minus, of course, the $35 membership fee). So, for Mom and Dad in their 45-foot bus motorhome, who spend all day inside watching Fox News and waiting for the grandchildren to arrive, well, it makes some sort of sense.

For people like us, well, not so much.

I recounted before how Mark signed up for "Hilton Honors" as we stayed at the Atlanta Hilton twice a year when he worked for the Lighthouse.  It made sense as we were "frequent flyers."  But once he retired, well, those points got used up or expired over time.  Ditto for airline miles - I got a missive from American, I believe, offering to preserve my miles from expiring - for a small fee.  I laughed.

Yet, a lot of people chase rewards points and cash-backs and don't bother to think about whether they are actually saving money or just attaching themselves unnecessarily to one brand.

When I was flying from DC to Silicon Valley once a month, it made sense for me to accumulate frequent flyer miles, and use them to try to wrangle an upgrade to business class.  In this era of over-booked flights, the concept of a "free flight" is largely illusory.  Besides, back then, I would book my flights a month in advance (round trip from SFO to IAD, "staying over" three weekends) and get fares as low as $199 a flight. Why waste miles on that, when they are better spent upgrading to business class?

But again, once I stopped traveling, it made no sense to hang on to the miles, and in fact, I had few left as I tended to use them as soon as they accumulated.

Like a gift card or gift certificate, I tend to use these things right away and get rid of them like a hot potato.  The gift card industry knows that a large percentage of cards are never used as idiots put them in a drawer somewhere to "save for special" and then forget about them.  Money is money, and no one stuffs a $100 bill in a drawer and forgets about it.  Well, at least I don't.  I had to break Mark of that habit, early on (as well as the habit of stuffing gift cards in a drawer).

If you are paying money to keep your "points" alive, consider carefully whether it is worth it.  In our case, $35 would have kept 3,000 "points" alive, which were "worth" only $15.   No savings there and we had no intention of staying 30 days more at a KOA this year.

I think companies are getting wise to this, which is why they charge fees to be members of a rewards points scheme. There are overhead costs associated with dormant accounts - which is why banks charge fees on dormant accounts - to drain them dry and close them.  But for "rewards" schemes, there is little point in letting someone accumulate points for several years, give them a 10% discount, and then a free night's stay, if they are only staying a few nights a year.

It is akin to the problem with online coupons and the like - offering windfall savings to buyers who would have bought anyway.  Bank of America offers me "deals" on things, and I have to click on and "accept" a deal to get the cash-back. Maybe subconsciously I end up buying from that merchant?  Perhaps, but I doubt it. I think mostly I just get the occasional windfall cash-back on gasoline or something.  I am not interested in a discount on UnderArmor, meal kits, or food delivery, as I never buy these things.

But getting back to KOA rewards points, I would rather shop on price than on rewards.  Because even the nicest KOA I have been to (and indeed, some are very nice!) pales in comparison to the great outdoors you can experience in a State or Federal Park, National Forest, or Army Corps Park.  Not only that, but they are a helluva lot cheaper as well!

Out of Data!

For the first time, all three of our cellular devices ran out of data before the end of the billing cycle.  What's up with that?

It seems that everything today is a video.  Fahrenheit 451 has arrived.  In that Ray Bradbury novel and subsequent movie, the story is told of a dystopian future where books (and all forms of print) are banned by the government, in order to control people and prevent them from being exposed to different ideas. Since houses are now fireproof, firemen actually set fires, by burning books.  Paper combusts at 451 degrees Fahrenheit, hence the title.

People read wordless comic books instead of newspapers, and video has supplanted the printed word, in this horrific world-of-the-future. It all seems so familiar right now. Today, when I search on something on Google, the first five hits are for YouTube videos. How do I fix my bicycle?  Watch this 30-minute YouTube video whose content could be reduced to two paragraphs of print, at best.

Of course, the point is to have you watch one commercial after another, which is why so many YouTubers and Vloggers stretch out their "casts" to get you to watch longer and longer.  It is getting to the point where I always check the video length before watching. 30 minutes? Unless it is a movie, I ain't clicking.

So much of social media is now video, too - unnecessary video as well.  I despise these videos that are nothing more than some guy or gal staring into their laptop or phone (often the latter, in their car) and just talking. I mean, I know people personally, who talk, and if I want to hear someone talking, I can just listen to them.  Often they have something more interesting to say.

The printed word rules. It is compact, requiring little in terms of physical space or digital space, and can be "fast-forwarded" or "rewound" at will and "played back" at any speed.  I can download and read repair instructions in a matter of seconds.  A video takes a minute to load sometimes, and you have to watch five minutes or more before you realize the guy is talking about a different machine or has no clue what he is talking about.  Just give me the service manual, please!

But more important than the general decline of civilization, civility, and intellect (because that's just inevitable, right?) is the staggering increase in bandwidth needed to send all this video data, particularly at higher definitions.  Simple ASCII characters required only 8 bits, assuming you have 128 characters and one parity bit.  That's one byte per character.

There are a little less than a million words in the entire works of Shakespeare.  If we assume an "average" word length of 8 characters per word, you'd need "only" 8MB to store the entire portfolio.  But if you want to just watch "Hamlet" the video uses up 1.6 GB.   Granted, the play's the thing, to be seen, not just read.  But the example illustrates how much more space video takes up than audio. And let's face it, most of the dreck on YouTube ain't Shakespeare (certainly not my channel, anyway!).

So bandwidth literally costs money - to produce and to consume.  And this blog is (nominally) about saving money. I have recounted before how you can reduce resolution on most channels to save bandwidth and avoid data caps. But with the plethora of streaming channels online, it gets cumbersome to do this, particularly as each channel has a different name for bandwidth adjustment and locates it under a different icon.  Disney calls it "data saver" and puts it under your "profile" - but resets it to data-waster on a regular basis.

I think YouTube used to have a resolution adjustment, but I can't find it now.  Oddly enough, it seems that porn sites are the only sites that let you scale down to as low as 240p.  No one likes interruptions!  Yet some channels - most, it seems, stream by default in high-res and don't offer a lesser resolution (or make it hard to select and don't save that preference)

AT&T Prepaid has a "video management" setting that throttles video on my poverty hotspot, but I am not sure if it works OK or merely causes some streaming channels to pause:

With video management on, we manage your video experience, striving to deliver video in standard definition (at a max of 2 Mbps if you have both a 5G-enabled device and rate plan, or 1.5 Mbps otherwise). This should be perfect for viewing on a smartphone, but you can turn it off any time to enjoy higher definition video, when available

Sadly, it seems that this "stream saver" feature is limited to hotspot devices these days. Speaking of which, we may lose our hotspot subsidy unless Congress re-authorizes it.  We may lose it anyway, as, thanks to inflation, our income may now exceed the caps.  AT&T has temporarily authorized a $15-per-month credit, for the next three months.  Hey, that's something!

You could, of course, merely pay more for more data or "unlimited" data (which, as we discussed before, is not really unlimited).  But throwing money at a problem is not solving it.  And I suspect the Internet providers are happy that more and more people are watching video rather than reading, and watching 4K on their smartphones, which, as AT&T admits, is just plain stupid.

Of course, the ultimate solution is to consume less.  I find myself downloading fewer and fewer "funny videos" because they usually are a disappointment and take too long to load on my phone.  Even photos, particularly photos of text are stupid and a waste of bandwidth.  Just type it out, for chrissakes!

Why, dear God, do cell phone photos take up so much data?  They don't seem to be much better than the old digital camera days - and in fact, in some respects, worse.

But maybe that right there is the solution.  So long as we keep watching pointless high-res videos of people talking into cameras, the streaming sites will offer more of this garbage (as well as overblown soap operas and "reality" shows.  If people want to pay extra for this crap, that is their business.  But on the other hand, it utterly voids their right to complain about "living paycheck to paycheck."  One cannot squander money and then complain about being broke.

But moreover, if people stop watching high-res videos because they are too expensive to watch, then maybe advertisers will get the hint and pressure streaming services to offer lower-res options.

I mean, I get it - you have an eight-foot television and are watching Lord of the Rings, Dune Edition - you want the high-res imagery.  But for a YouTube "how-to" video peppered with ads, well, the source video probably wasn't in 4K, so what's the point?  Just dial it down, be happy, and save money.

So there's a hint to all you marketers out there - you may be losing eyeballs by putting up your ads for laundry detergent in high-res.  Americans don't like paying for television as it is - paying for ads is even worse.  And if you are paying-by-the-byte, then a 30-second ad for Old Spice may literally be taking a penny out of your pocket.*

Ain't worth it!

* I estimate that each hour of streaming video uses about 1GB of data in medium resolution.  Some higher resolutions can go up to 7GB an hour(!!).  Assuming the low end, each minute of video is 16 MB and one 30-second ad is 8MB.   Our AT&T hotspot charged $55 (without subsidy) for 100GB of data per month.  So each MB costs about 0.00055 cents. In other words, that 30-second Old Spice ad is literally costing you 0.44 cents to watch.  Of course, this adds up, over a month, to quite a few pennies!

I Swore I Never Would Install Another Split-System (#8)

I haven't been posting as of late because I have been busy!

It seems like appliance follies go on forever.  We finally broke down and bought a new microwave.  Mark's Cuisinart (which he actually uses regularly) finally broke after 20 years - the safety latch is part of the plastic bowl and although they say it is dishwasher safe, well, the high temperatures tend to make the plastic brittle and the latch broke in several places.  I found a new bowl set on the Cuisinart site for $60 and the machine looks like new.

Yes, I contemplated buying a used bowl, but the folks on eBay wanted $30 or more for one, and the plastic on those was as yellowed and brittle as the one we already have.  Some were in fact already cracked and broken.  Despite the promises of that wonder-material, plastic does degrade over time, a process I call "plastic rust" - a topic of a draft posting I never finished.

The new toaster oven (free, under warranty) arrived and it works great.  I decided that it wasn't worth my time to repair a $59 toaster oven, so I gave the old one a toss.  The garbage man is going to start wondering why my trash is so heavy!  First a window unit, then a split system, then a toaster oven.  It is like I am throwing away bricks.

There is something pleasing about having new things.  It gets depressing to own things that are broken-down and don't work well or have broken features.  Whether it is an old car or a broken appliance, having busted-up stuff isn't always good for your psyche.  Sure, a "barn find" rat-rod is fascinating. But then again, hot steel floorboards and a "Texas Tan" (surface rust) are only charming for so long.  That new car smell can be intoxicating.

Of course, new doesn't always has to be new.  A lot of people throw away perfectly functional machinery only because they are bored with it, or their lease was up, or some other reason than being worn out.  A three-year-old car can be like new, as can be a three-year-old cell phone.  Why pay double for not a lot more?  And the upgrade from a decade-old appliance is considerable.

The split system I installed in the garage nearly a decade ago went kaput.  Spending over $150 on a new control board on the premise that it was not the inside control board that was broken (those are NLA) seemed like a sketchy proposition, particularly when the rest of the unit was a decade old and while not at the end of its design life, was getting awfully close.  So for about $800 or so, I got a new unit.  And this time around, I wall-mounted it, so it won't be collecting dead leaves and detritus on the ground - which may help extend its service life.

It is not an easy process, even though I was replacing an existing system.  The wall mount required drilling into brick, which requires some effort and some sharp carbide bits.  But it all came together in a couple of days.

This is the 8th split-system I have installed, and I think I am finally getting the hang of it.  I struggled with some earlier installs, dealing with leaks, until I realized that my tubing cutter was worn out and my flaring tool was kaput as well.  The difference between the amateur and the expert is in the tools.  An expert with crappy tools can be in a worse place than an amateur with new tools.  This time around, no leaks, right from the get-go. Pulled a near -30psi vacuum almost right away and held it for a half-hour without budging.  Put some pressure in it and leak-checked and no bubbles from the soap solution.

As I noted in my earlier posting, these things get gross over time, accumulating debris on the cylindrical fan.  So maybe even if they can last longer than a decade, it might not be a swell idea.  At least now, I know how to clean them thoroughly.  We never had that problem in the lab!

In fact, that is a problem in manufacturing research.  When you make things new, they are never dirty or clogged or corroded.  Sure, you can test in the "real world" but 100,000 miles of driving cross-country isn't the same as ten seasons of Syracuse salt and snow.  You can only emulate so much, which is why manufacturers end up with problems after a few years - problems that never showed up in product testing.

But eventually, things get old and worn and reach the end of the Weibull curve.  You can waste a lot of money trying to repair an end-of-life product, so just move on.  When that point happens is often hard to determine.  Repairs seem "cheap" compared to buying anew.  But a machine that is near the end of its design life is likely to throw you another big repair bill soon thereafter.  And then thereafter.  And thereafter.  Sometimes it is best to call it quits and start over.

On a happier note, consider how durable the human body is!  It can go for as long as 100 years before wearing out.  The ball joints on your car may be shot after a decade, but your hip socket may not need replacement for 70 years!  Pretty durable design!

If only God designed cars, instead of Darwin.

Camping Is Not Protesting!

If this is protesting, then I am a full-time protester (no, just a camper).

There has been a lot of misunderstanding about recent protests at college campuses.  Some "media" outlets linked to Hamas are portraying brave protesters being assaulted by the Police for no reason at all.  Even "mainstream" media outlets are lying-by-omission by implying the protesters are being arrested for protesting.

They are not.  They are being arrested for camping out on private property.  Camping is not protesting!

We saw this almost two decades ago with the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd, who set up a drug-fueled orgy campsite in Manhattan.  People were assaulted, not by the cops, but by fellow "protesters" - many of whom were just there for the party or in fact, homeless drug-addicts.  The same effect happened in Seattle and Portland, when protesters declared "cop-free zones" and people were killed, beaten up, and raped, not by the Police, but by fellow protesters.

Similar tactics have been engaged by self-proclaimed climate protesters who chain themselves to roadways or glue their hands to the pavement.  They are more than just protesting, they are blocking the highway for other people to use.

That is not protesting, it is just trespassing.

It has long been held by the Supreme Court that the first amendment is not absolute.  The government can control the time and place of protests, require permits, security, and so on.  The first amendment does not apply to private spaces, such as a college campus (whether or not a State University is "public" space is a good question, however).  Occupying the Dean's Office was all the rage in the 1960's and 1970's, but it was, in fact, illegal trespassing.

And what colleges learned since then - or should have learned - is that if you allow people to "camp out" as part of their protest, things will get severely out of hand, very quickly.  I wrote before how Cornell, in the heart of ultra-liberal Ithaca, New York ("10 square miles surrounded by reality" - according to bumper stickers that liberals put on their Subarus) had major protests in the 1960s, where Black Panthers occupied the Dean's Office, demanding a "separate but equal" black dorm. Irony much?

Anyway, fast-forward to the 2000's and the school wants to bulldoze a forest to built a parking lot.  Students chain themselves to trees, and one even climbs up and lives in a tree for weeks.  The school curtly informs them that unless they leave, the will not get their diplomas, or even transcripts if they want to transfer to another school.  The protest collapsed and today, the forest is a parking lot.

At Syracuse, one of the Deans told me, "We learned something since the 1960's - students graduate every four years!  We can wait them out!"  So often they put up with these protests - up to a point - knowing that the students are a four-year blip on an institution that is over 100 years old.  They can play the long game.

Like I said, up to a point.  When tents start going up and people from off-campus start loitering around, hoping for some tender co-ed pussy or a bong hit, well, it is time to shut things down. The party can quickly get out of control.

This happened to my brother, whose politically correct puppet extravaganza started attracting dead-heads to their commune every summer.  Nearby farmers were happy to rent out space for the drug-fueled orgy and it quickly got out of hand with traffic jams, drug overdoses, assaults, and eventually, a murder.  These sort of encampments are not self-policing and what little self-policing there is, tends to sweep crimes under the rug - as we saw after rapes at "Occupy Wall Street."

The reality of these arrests is that the protesters are not being arrested for protesting, but for trespassing.  You are free to hold a sign and hand out flyers and even chant your slogans (sans megaphone, please!) on the public sidewalk, provided you are not blocking it or harassing pedestrians.

You are NOT free to protest on private property or pitch a tent on public property.  And THAT is what these "protesters" are being arrested for.

Sadly, I think a lot of these protesters are what they used to call, "useful idiots" as many of them are chanting slogans calling for "Death to Israel" or in support of Hamas, which is a terrorist group.  They make any legitimate protest look ridiculous, and no doubt the Republicans are eating this up - and using these protest on Fox Fear News to get the oldsters in The Villages to vote GOP (like they wouldn't already).  Vote for Trump or next they will be pitching tents in front of the Applebees!  Right where all the prime golf cart parking is!

The first casualty in war is the truth.  Most Americans discovered, only years after the Vietnam war ended, that we were propping up an unpopular dictatorship in South Vietnam - so unpopular that people were willing to gamble with Communism instead.  Today, many Americans still don't get it - and argue "we coulda won" if only we dropped even more bombs - after dropping more bombs in Vietnam than we did in all of World War II.

In Ukraine, it is hard for the average American to see what is going on. We see videos of Russian tanks being blow sky-high and assume Ukraine is winning.  I am sure Russians are seeing videos of Ukrainian tanks being blown up, instead.  Propaganda is always suspect.

In the current conflict in Gaza, Hamas has used the media to good effect.  They are touting casualty numbers that are not really backed up by hard data.  The UN blindly agrees to these numbers, but the people touting this are clearly biased.  The UN is hardly value-neutral.  Stories of atrocities abound, but I doubt we will know what really took place until years from now.

What is really going on?  Well, it is a proxy war between Iran (Shi'ite) and Saudi Arabia (Sunni) over control of the middle-east.  We lost in Iraq and the Iranians are expanding their influence there.  They are arming the Houthi rebels with anti-ship missiles.  The Iranian "Navy" is even kidnapping ships and holding them for ransom.  And of course, those thousands of missiles that Hamas has fired at Israel over the years were smuggled in from Iran (No, the Palestinians didn't make them out of old water pipes!).  This is just another bloody chapter in middle-east politics and citizens on both sides of the conflict are caught in the middle.

That is the messy, dirty reality that no one wants to confront.  Israel wants to wipe out Hamas, but to do so means wiping out a portion of the population of Gaza.  Iran hoped to rally the rest of the Arab world against Israel in this latest war, but like Russia in the Ukraine, they have found themselves in a bit of a pickle - perhaps over-extending themselves too far.  The rest of the Arab world seems uninterested in helping Gazans, or even allowing refugees into their country.  Maybe there is a reason for this.

If you can't win on the battlefield, win in the arena of public opinion.  Russia hoped to do this with their trolling wars about Ukraine and Hunter Biden - a "scandal" that even Republicans, after years of "investigations" and even impeachment hearings, have conceded were made-up stories planted by Russian agents.  They did manage to get their hooks into one Presidential Candidate, though.  Wonder what they have on him, other than financial blackmail?

The current protests are, I believed, part and parcel of this sort of public opinion campaign.  Useful idiots are out protesting for a terrorist organization that would kill every last one of them, given the opportunity.  You have to remember the people of Gaza overwhelmingly voted for Hamas.  It is akin to feeling sorry for Germans who were killed in American bombing raids during World War II.  Innocent civilians?  When they voted for Hitler, put the Nazi flag on their house, sent husbands and sons to war, and worked in war industries?

I noted before this is a tough question, and modern insurgent warfare is based on the idea that there are no "innocent civilians."  Terrorists set off bombs or gun down people in restaurants, discos, theaters, railroad stations, airports, airplanes, and even cruise ships.  Some sympathizers will even excuse these murders as "acts of war."  But military retaliation?  That's out of bounds, buddy!

The asymmetrical response is what the terrorists are hoping for, so they can be the victims on the world stage.

Yea, I get it. Some small child crushed in the rubble of Gaza City or Dresden or Hiroshima is an innocent who was blameless in those conflicts.  On the other hand, calls for "cease-fire" are little more than calls for surrender.  And quite frankly, Hamas does not desire any cease-fire, as each dead baby is money in the bank for them.  They know the value of good propaganda, and Israel is charging up their bank account quite nicely.

That's the problem with war - the people running it, on either side, really don't give a damn about the real victims of war.  And in a way, they can't.  A General who worries about casualties - military or civilian - cannot achieve military objectives.

Some clever wanker posted today that Napoleon spent two decades at war, but never suffered from PTSD.  Well, duh, he was a General, ordering others to their death, not his own.

But getting back to "encampments" - no, we cannot allow that.  It it not protest, it is trespassing and intimidation.  We have learned over the last two decades that allowing people to camp out as part of a protest, never ends well.  These folks are not being "terrorized by the police" but arrested for trespassing.  The first amendment doesn't apply here.

Camping is not protesting!

UPDATE: I am losing no sleep over the Police evicting protesters from occupied buildings and encampments.  Trespassing is illegal and not a legitimate form of protest.  The protesters have undercut their cause by such actions.  One wonders if they are even false-flag operations fueled by outside agitators to discredit the protests, as these occupations are so over-the-top.

Ditto for "climate protesters" who block off highways.  But then again we don't truck in conspiracy theories here!

"bOth PArTiEs aRE THe SaMe!" No, They're Not.

Young people are being trolled into believing that change isn't possible - at the same time change is happening.

If you read online, which is bad for your mental health, you will see postings from supposed young leftists who chime, "Biden is no better than Trump!  Might as well not bother voting!"  But of course, this nonsense isn't from Americans, but our friends in Russia, who are hoping to elect Trump, so they can win the war in Ukraine.  Right there is a good reason not to vote for Trump.  America should not be a puppet state for a failed Communist country.

Granted, there are some on the far, far left who really believe this nonsense.  Unless student loans are forgiven right away and we have nationalize health care right now, there is no point in engaging in the system - just overthrow it!

But the history of revolutions is spotty.  The Russian revolution was supposed to liberate the serfs and make everyone equal.  Tens of millions of the "liberated" people either starved to death or were lined up against a wall and shot.We are still dealing with the fallout from that "revolution" today. No, revolutions never quite work out the way you think they will. Even Robespierre had his turn at the Guillotine.

Our own revolution promised freedom for white male landowners - and no one else.  It took another 250 years of incremental change to get us to where we are today.  And Republicans want to reverse a lot of these changes, too!  Meanwhile, Democrats keep chipping away at things, slowly bringing about change in a manner that most don't notice. Young people, not having lived as long, don't see the dramatic changes of just the last few decades.  To them, things are as they always have been - and not changing fast enough!

But we are making progress, in dribs and drabs - and this is far superior to revolutions or Trumpism, either of which would destroy our country.

President Biden is said to have a low approval rating and isn't getting anything done in Washington. But most of his agenda so far has been slowing down and reversing the "changes" enacted during the Trump administration - hampered in part by the judiciary which has been stacked with far-right judges with questionable legal credentials.

But a lot of important changes are taking place.

Just last week, the "net neutrality" regulations were reinstated - ensuring that your internet service provider won't slow down streaming services from competing networks - forcing you to watch their drivel instead.  A big deal?  Maybe not, but it is one of those incremental changes, undoing a small piece of evil that Republicans fought for.

Similarly, the FTC banned "non-compete" agreements for ordinary employees. Again, Republicans wanted to enslave workers, preventing them from taking a better job at better pay (or just getting away from an abusive boss).  Unless you changed careers or moved far away, such agreements could lock you into one job for life.  For an ordinary employee, such agreements make no sense - but some employers tried to use them to keep hourly employees captive. It just isn't right and the Biden administration fixed that.

If  you've been reading my blog, you will know that I am ambivalent about student loan forgiveness.  So much is left unsaid. Would we forgive loans going forward as well?  What about those who struggled to pay their loans back?  Is it right to bail out specific groups, whether they are students or banks?  Maybe forgiving loans is attacking the symptom of the problem of higher education, and not the underlying cause - the staggering increase in the price of college in the last 20 years.

All that being said, you can't blame young people for feeling put upon by staggering student loan debt, which they want forgiven now.  Biden tried, but the Supreme Court - stacked with Trump nominees, shot him down.  But every month, it seems, Biden has found a way to wipe out the debts of more and more borrowers.  Yes, it is an incremental approach, but it is yielding results - just not as fast as some people would like.

Bear in mind the alternative is no results.

The list goes on and on.  A few regulations here, a scant few new laws there (that were not shot down by Republicans, even if they agreed with them!) and change occurs, gradually.  Being older, I can see how these cumulative effects result in major changes.  Legalized marijuana?  I never thought I would see that in my lifetime!  Gay marriage?  Try explaining that to me back in 1990, and I would have laughed in your face.  In America?  Right, Buddy!

National health care isn't a thing just yet, but during the eight years of the Obama administration (which Republicans call "failed") Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act was created. Perfect? Hardly. But it was a start - chipping away. Trump promised - and still promises - to abolish it and replace it with nothing. He was even petty enough to narrow the enrollment window to make it harder to sign up. The guy just hates ordinary people, it seems.

Attempts to fix the flaws in Obamacare have been stymied at every turn by Republicans, who will vote down a bill they like just so Democrats can't score a "win."  In the mail today is a postcard from a far-right Congressman seeking re-election, claiming Biden has "done nothing" to stem the "invasion" at our border (even though border crossings are far lower today than under Trump).  Not mentioned in his screed is why this Congressman voted down the border bill.  The reason is, so he can claim Biden "did nothing."  Meanwhile he takes credit for infrastructure improvements and new semiconductor plants that are the result of the Infrastructure Bill and the CHIP act - both of which he voted against.

Biden is getting things done, and when he does, Republicans take credit for it.

Apparently, Republican voters are just too damn stupid to figure this out - their candidates flatly lie to them - lies that are easily checked, too - and they just believe the lies, anyway.  I guess you can expect that - from Seniors in The Villages who are halfway into dementia and spend all day forwarding memes from facebook.  Or the redneck in the trailer park, putting straight pipes on his Harley and his RAM truck, mumbling about his "free-dum" as he polishes his AR-15 and pines for civil war.

But young people?  People who claim to be liberals or even leftists?  They are willing to see a fascist get elected, even though they themselves profess to be "Antifa" or anti-fascist? The cognitive dissonance of the far left is the same as the far-right - which is often why, I guess, people say if you go far enough in one direction, you end up on the other side.

We saw this last time around, with "Bernie Bros" turning into Trumpers, because they thought it was "edgy"or something.  This time around, though, it isn't funny.  Republicans are flat-out saying that if you elect Trump this fall, you'll never have to worry about voting again as they will install a dictatorship and start assassinating anyone who opposes them.  This is not far-fetched rhetoric, it is exactly what they are saying.  Believe them!

They already tried to overturn a fair election - once through deception and illegal acts, and once again by brute force.  Fortunately, calmer heads - among them, traditional Republicans - prevailed.  Most of those calmer heads have been voted out of office or have retired.  What happens next time around?

The reason "not much gets done" is that people don't vote, particularly in local elections and in off-year contests.  Many people only vote once every four years, if that, during Presidential campaigns.  But who is elected to your State legislature and Governor's mansion is as important - if not moreso - than who is in the White House.  State legislatures determined districts - by gerrymandering - which insures that Republicans, who are a minority party have a majority in the House of Representatives.  The Electoral College gives more Presidential races to Republicans than the popular vote would have allowed.

And once in power, they can stuff the courts to insure their policies will remain unchanged, even when out of office.  Remember how Mitch McConnell denied Obama a chance to nominate a Supreme Court Justice, perversely citing the "Biden Rule" (which never existed).  That is outright subversion of Democracy.  Too late, McConnell is having second thoughts about the monster he was partially responsible for creating.  Frankenstein's monster has left the building.

Change is occurring - and in fact, it is what is fueling the fires of discontent on the far-right.  And by far-right, I don't mean political parties or politicians.  One problem we are facing are people who are scared by the thought that a woman is more than a baby-maker or sex-toy.  The idea that a woman should be paid as well as a man - and have similar opportunities - scares them to death.  What's next? Equal rights for minorities?

We are seeing a push-back by people who subscribe to "red pill" thinking, or "second amendment rights" or whatever.  People who are leaning into violence, racism, sexism, and a whole host of dark thinking.  Sadly, these folks are openly calling for civil war and the armed overthrow of the government.  And who's to say they might actually do it.

People talk about going back in time and smothering baby Hitler in the crib - or somehow turning the tide of public opinion in Germany long before 1939.  "If only..." they say, "history would be different!"  Well, here's a chance to make a difference - change the world, avert disaster, and smother baby Hitler in the crib.

And yet, some folks say that it makes no difference.  Why bother?  Trump isn't all that bad!  Biden isn't any better, they claim.  Similar things were said in Germany back in the 1930s.  Hitler will solve the crime problem and put those commies in jail!  The end result, a decade later, was utter ruin of their country and millions wiped out.

We can stop that from happening again - if we choose to.

Again, I suspect a lot of these "people" posting these messages that "bOth PArTiEs aRE THe SaMe!" are Russian trolls or even bots.  But as we have seen in recent years, a lot of people are influenced by influencers online.  I am not sure why people believe every word of some dork staring into their phone and blathering on about how vaccines are fake or whatever, but they do believe it.  I have to keep an eye on Mr. See as he watches YouTube videos which are little more than plugs for commercial products (and pretty obvious ones at that).  We are all susceptible to influence.

So it is likely - certain - that at least a few people out there are buying into the "both sides the same" argument and are not thinking of the real differences in the parties and the changes that have occurred over the years.  More change will come, if the right people are elected.  If the wrong people are elected, well, the change we have seen will be undone.

And you don't have to believe me about this - they flat-out have promised to do this.

Don't Engage!

You are never going to "change someone's mind" by arguing with them!

I was reading a rant online from a young woman who was upset that her boomer grandpa keeps sending her offensive facebook forwards about "politics."  They really aren't about politics per se, they are just insulting diatribes about how "young people" are deluded and "no one wants to work anymore!" - you know the trope.

One in particular went on for pages about a young college-age woman who comes home from school with her head all full of crazy ideas.  It is sort of a parody, almost, as it is so over the top.  One semester of college and she's gone full commie!  But then gentle, wise, grandfather explains to her the folly of communism and she sees the light!  "Thanks, Grandpa!" she says.  And no doubt the next day she drops out of college, marries her "High School Sweetheart"  (who never went to college but has a "real job") and becomes a "tradwife" and has five kids.  And they all lived happily ever after.  The End.

It is a typical boomer facebook fantasy - telling those kids "what for" by beating them over the head with facebook memes.  Facebook memes like that are not intended to "educate" young people, but are designed to amuse older boomers, who read them and say "right on!" as they commiserate about how awful "young people" are today.  Why just today I was at Denny's and the young waitress with the tattoos and piercings was giving me lip! Well, I told her off!  And she cowered in defeat.  And then everyone stood up and clapped.

Of course, that shit never happened.  It is just a fantasy devised by a bored troll at the Russian Internet Research Agency, designed to divide us as a nation - old against the young, left against right, black against white, women against men, and so on and so forth.  Divide and conquer is the oldest and most effective play in the book.

But old people gotta old, so there is no point in expecting Grandpa, who is halfway into dementia - or all the way, perhaps - into "changing his mind" about these things or having him stop forwarding this nonsense to you.  Just hit the "delete" key and move on with life.  He'll be dead soon, anyway.  Worse comes to worse, you can always "block sender."

Instead, this young lady wasted a lot of emotional energy and her precious time trying to argue with Grandpa via e-mail and then sending him a 16-page letter (single-spaced, no doubt!) going through his facebook "meme" line-by-line and trying to debunk it, as well as arguing why these straw-man arguments are so offensive.  Needless to say, Grandpa didn't read any of it but rather shook his head and said "kids these days, taking offense at every little thing!"

Arguing with nonsense is pointless and that is the point of propaganda.  We've had a few years or even decades under our belt dealing with online trolls, who have gone pro.  They make nonsense arguments knowing they are nonsense, unsupported by any facts.  If you try to logically address them, they ask you for citations to authority. "Do your research!" they say, while doing none of their own, other than to parrot things they read online.  By the time you respond to their first nonsense argument, they have already piled-on with ten more, in a technique known as "gish-gallop."

“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”

― Jean-Paul Sartre

To an observer, it looks as though the trolls have "won" the argument, as they are spouting all sorts of "facts" and issues, while you are fumbling to cite to authority to rebut their first ridiculous proposition.  This is why "fact-checking" doesn't work, as the other side doesn't bother to read your fact-checking or, in fact, care.

I was at the Dentist's office yesterday and they had an actual local newspaper (all six pages of it) with a comic section.  The author of the "Mallard Filmore" comic has gone off the MAGA deep-end and was doing "fact checking" in a comic.  It must be true because he said so!  I think I trust Alley-Oop or Mary Worth more for fact-checking.  But it illustrates how fact-checking has failed - the other side can say bullshit and call it "fact-checking" which sounds much better than "alternative facts."  It is, in a way, how the far-right tried to co-opt "Fake News" (once used to describe things like Breitbart or OAN) and applied it to the "mainstream media" - a term that they managed to turn into an epithet.

You have to fight fire with fire, and as unseemly as it seems, you are better off insulting your opponent than trying to argue with them.  If she just sent back a one-sentence reply along the lines of, "Oh, Grandpa, you and your silly facebook memes!" maybe he would get the message.  If you make it appear that only stupid people believe such arguments than maybe they will be shamed into reconsidering.  But if you send a 16-page letter with point-by-point rebuttals, well, you have legitimized their argument and they will simply retreat into their belief system.

I think we are perhaps turning a corner on this.  The newly unleashed "Dark Brandon" is a step in the right direction.  The name itself is taking a page from the far-right playbook, co-opting their "Let's Go Brandon!" meme and turning it on its head.  Dark Brandon doesn't try to react to right-wing nonsense arguments with point-by-point rebuttals that no one reads (and rightists never believe anyway) but instead gets down to their level of snarky insults - usually backed up with one simple, easy-to-digest, fact.

And it works, too.  Suddenly, it is no longer "cool" (if it ever was) to profess support for Trump, who is caricatured as an obese, smelly old man who farts a lot and shits his pants.  In the match-up for who is hip and who is not, it is an easy win for Biden, even if he is five years older than Trump.  Trump comes across as the angry boomer forwarding tired facebook tropes.  Biden is the hip grandpa you always wish you had.  You know, the one who doesn't want to cut your Social Security or outlaw abortion or take over the government by force.

For the policy geeks, the facts speak for themselves.  But for the hoi polloi, facts are like garlic to a vampire.  You lose an audience with facts, early on.

And lest you think this is some sign of the decline of American politics, bear in mind that the history of our country - and indeed the world - has fallen along similar lines.  Name-calling and cat-calling opponents has a long and tortured history.  Our "Founding Fathers" had a nasty habit of distributing anonymous pamphlets which spread all sorts of nasty rumors and falsehoods and also engaged in name-calling.  Go overseas and you see more of the same - even worse!  Ever watched the "proceedings" in the UK Parliament?  They just shout over one another.

I am not saying one has to stoop to the level of lying to respond to lies, only that trying to debunk lies is something that only the faithful will actually believe, and they've already come to that conclusion independently.  To reach the average smooth-brained voter, you need something more catchy.  The guy who buys into Trump's name-calling routines isn't going to be persuaded by some long-winded fact-check.  All that does is rally the troops already on your side.

Democrats, it seems, are finally figuring this out, and it shows in the polls.  Independent voters are starting to turn on Trump.

Getting back to our young woman, her long-winded 16-page letter isn't going to "convert" Grandpa or suddenly get him to "see the light."  A better solution is to simply ignore him, as there is little to be gained in getting him to "change his mind."  Disengagement is the best approach (and requires the least effort).  His road-to-Damascus experience is something he has to come to on his own - if he ever does.  Arguments won't persuade someone whose idea of "clever" is a forwarded facebook meme.

But failing that, just make fun of his memes.  Maybe he'll get the point.

Yet More Home Appliance Follies! (Microwave Edition)

This time, it is microwaves!

I noted before that our house was remodeled 18 years ago before we bought it, so all the appliances are about 18 years old.  So far we have replaced:

• Ice Machine
• HVAC System
• Washing Machine
• Dryer
• Garage Door Opener

That leaves the kitchen appliances (I repaired the refrigerator with a used control panel, so it might go a few more years), and the hot water heater.

The kitchen microwave died about three months ago at least.  Mark is not a microwave cook and we use it mostly to heat water or reheat beverages.  So it was not missed much when it died.  We thought (briefly) of replacing all the kitchen appliances at once, but the cost was pretty staggering and, oddly enough, the stores seemed less-than-interested in selling them to us (some sort of reverse psychology gag, no doubt).  So we took a pass.

A recently widowed friend of ours lamented that his microwave was broken as well.  So we decided to go to Home Depot and buy two of the cheapest microwaves possible (GE, $198) and install them in both houses.  We got a stainless steel one for his house, a white one for ours.

An older "associate" in the appliance department told us at first that nothing was in stock and we would have to have them delivered (??).  And all the guys working in the appliance department were old - older than I am, and I'm 64!  What's up with that?  Why pushing for home delivery?  He didn't want to take them down from the racks?  They want to sell installation services?  What?

I pointed out that they have them in the racks and they were a "cash and carry" item and he demurred, roping in a second and third senior citizen to work the vertical lift to get them down.  The second fellow was quite knowledgeable about appliances, I'll give him that!  We were talking about the trend toward stainless-steel appliances (and how white is now a "special order" color!).  The irony is, kitchen appliances were once referred to (and still are, in some circles) as "white goods" because of their color, but obviously that ship has sailed.

"Stainless" steel appliances today are made with low-grade stainless steel that would rust like a Tesla if not for the clearcoat paint applied to them.  That is how they get away with using cheap steel, but also how they can claim the appliances are "fingerprint" proof.  The original, high-quality bare stainless appliances would leave fingerprints (much like a DeLorean) which you would constantly have to remove with Windex.  The fellow warned that if you scrub a "stainless" appliance with any kind of abrasive cleaner or scrubbie, it would remove the clearcoat and the thing will look like hell and start to rust.

Maybe Mr. Musk should have spent some time at the Home Depot appliance department before they came out with the childishly named "cybertruck."  Of course, clearcoat does yellow over time, particularly in the sun.

Anyway, he got the two boxes down, and $400 later we are out the door.  Prices on under-cabinet microwaves are all over the place.  In 1992 or thereabouts, we paid the staggering sum of $500 for one (special order!) as they were a "new" thing at the time and expensive. That would be over $1100 in today's money.  The least we paid was $99 when remodeling the condo - it was cheaper than an old-fashioned vent hood (you know, the kind with scalloped edges!) which was a staggering $139.  So we've installed a few over the years.  And given inflation, $198 is pretty reasonable.

At the lake house, the previous owners had a microwave shelf installed in the cabinets, and an inexpensive $79 tabletop microwave sat there.  That really is the cheapest way to go, and if it dies, well, with $79 and ten minutes of your time, you are back in business.  We never saw a need to change it, either.  In fact, an under-cabinet job there would have required we replace the cabinet over the stove, as it would have left less than 10" of cooking height.  Sometimes it is best to leave well enough alone and kitchen remodeling returns only 50 cents on the dollar - if that - in terms of immediate resale value (after a few years, this drops to zero).

Anyway, we went to our friend's house and took out the old microwave and put in the new one, which took about two hours.  The new bottom bracket (rail) was almost identical to the old one and it wasn't too hard to find studs to screw it into.  Of course, the upper mounts (through the bottom of the cabinet) were completely different (figures) so we had to drill new holes for the plug and mounting bolts.

Speaking of which, that $500 microwave in 1992 had a totally different mounting system.  Instead of a lower rail, it had a large plate (like a split-system) and did not physically attach to the cabinet above. Instead, insanely long captive bolts extended through the microwave itself and were screwed in from the front, into the mounting plate.   The new technique, using a lower "rail" and bolts extending through the upper cabinet, is much cheaper to make, I think.  But you have to make sure your cabinets are properly attached to the wall, or the whole thing will fall down.

As we are replacing an existing installation, it was a lot easier, of course.  And once we had the lower rail installed and the upper holes drilled, it was a matter of wrestling the machine in place and then securing the two upper screws.  Pro tip: Put an old blanket or towels on your stove, lest you scratch or damage it (as one installer did, repairing our old microwave) if you rest the microwave on the stove.

Yes, over the years, our old microwave has needed service.  Within a year, under warranty, the magnatron was replaced (essentially the guts of the machine).  Later on, they replaced the control panel when it began starting the microwave by itself, which was scary.  Membrane-switch appliances!  You have to treat them gently.  Well, now it is going in the trash and I have an extra control panel (they sent two) still new-in-the-box.  Sadly, it only fits an 18-year-old microwave.  Maybe I can sell it on eBay.

I also had to repair the handle - twice - using superglue and baking soda (The Marty Matchbox Makeover Method).  So after 18 years, this microwave was ready for the trash.

Speaking of which, how do I dispose of the old machine?  We put our friend's old machine in his rolly-bin. It will be interesting to see if they garbage man takes it.  I guess we could do the same as well.  Old appliances are difficult trash to get rid of!  I guess that is why so many people prefer delivery and installation and "remove your old appliance" as well!

Coming up next: Yet another split system!  And readers said I would be bored in retirement.  I wish!

More Appliance Follies

Split-system A/C units, like toaster ovens, might get disgustingly dirty before they actually wear out.

Now that the split-system A/C unit is running in the studio, I decided to attack the one in the garage that is eight years old and recently started throwing an "E1" error code.  Documentation that came with the unit is scant - the only thing it says it to "call for service" if you get an error code.

The unit has had it share of small problems.  The display (for temperature setting) is missing a leg on the LED display, so "72" and looks like "73" sort of.  Also the small stepper motor that moves the distribution vane back and forth (and neatly closes up when shut off) died and the vane stays in one position.

The good news about that is a whole new display board is only $25 and an easy, one-screw installation.  The stepper motor is only $6.95.  So some parts are available - from Midea - and cheap, too!

But the main control boards (inside and out) are like $150 each or "NLA", along with something called a "reactor" which is NLA.  A new unit (like the one I just bought for the studio) can be had for about $700 delivered.  So it obviously isn't worth "throwing parts" at an eight-year-old unit, even if I expected a longer lifespan out of this unit.

I could  not find the exact service manual for the MCHS-12AVH1 unit, although Midea has some manuals for similar units (there are hundreds of variations, based on capacity, voltage, country of use, refrigerant, etc.).  This unit is 110V, 15A, R-410a, 12,000 BTU.  It is similar to the one I installed in Mark's studio except that unit is rated for 20A (obviously less efficient).

I find the diagnostic page for a similar unit and the process for diagnosing an E1 code is as follows:

The diagnostic involves throwing parts - expensive parts - at the unit.

As you can see, the problem is either in the wiring, or the inside and outside PCBs are faulty.  I presume the wiring is OK (although I will run a jumper wire around and see if that fixes the problem - I have plenty of control wire left over from the previous install).   But I doubt it - wires don't just decide to disconnect themselves.  The other two "solutions" are to replace the indoor or outdoor control units.  (I am not getting the +/- 25V on the signal wire).

I suspect it is the outside control board, as the inside unit seems to work OK in fan-only mode.  The outside unit made a frightening "pop" noise when I turned on the power.  The inside control board is NLA anyway.  Do I replace the outside control board and hope I didn't throw $150 away?  Or just buy anew.

I noticed there was detritus on my workbench under the unit.  It looked like mouse poop.  Were mice living in the unit?  That would explain a lot - but where would they be living?  Turns out, they weren't.  It was just eight years of debris accumulating inside the unit.  I had cleaned the filters regularly and flushed the condensate pan periodicaly with hot water and soap.  But the fan - a long cylindrical deal - was covered with what appeared to be black fur - mildew and dirt, I guess.

I tried cleaning it off with a soft brush and black dots of filth rained down on me.  I then tried a spray bottle with soap solution. with similar results.  Finally, out of frustration, I used a garden hose - after laying down some old towels to catch the water and debris..  Little black dots of filth rained down on me, yet again.

Here is a picture of the first round of black plague (I had to stop to vacuum this up, several times):

Ugh, this is worse than a toaster oven!  Little black chunks of debris everywhere!

I suspect the problem is related to the fact it is in the garage and exposed to a lot of dust and debris, as well as hot, humid air, whenever the garage door is opened.  The unit in Mark's studio, with all that clay dust and glaze, will no doubt have similar problems - the window units not only had rusted out, but their guts were filled with dried-on clay dust, which I discovered only after taking them apart.

I finally got all the detritus cleaned out of the fan, cleaned the drain pan and coils, and flushed out the condensate line.  It was pretty bad.  And do to all of this, I had to remove the vane and diffusers, as well as the entire cover (which has eight snaps and as many screws) to expose the "guts" of the unit.  It didn't solve the problem, of course, but illustrated to me that these things need to be cleaned regularly - like a toaster oven - or they get gross.  Legionnaires' disease anyone?

But speaking of toaster ovens, I took the thing apart (again) and removed the rotary switch which I then disassembled.  The main power contact wasn't making contact and had signs of being overheated.  Poor design or defective switch?  But I was able to pull a part number off it and found the same switch online - although with a different shaft (the shafts appear to be interchangeable).  It was only $13 by China Post, so we should see it by August.

If that unit can be repaired, we'd have four toaster ovens! (someone died and left us theirs - the heirs were going to throw it out it was so gross, but Dollar Tree oven cleaner to the rescue!).

Yes, it is possible to fix things, provided you (a) have the skills, (b) have the tools, and (c) have a source of inexpensive replacement parts.  Usually one or all three are deal-killers.  There is always (d) your time is not as valuable as the cost of replacing the unit.  Don't forget (e) - bothering to fix an end-of-life product.

Spending time repairing a $59 toaster oven is sort of pointless, but if I do it, it will be for the experience, not to save money.  Spending time and money repairing an air conditioner that has most of its life behind it, is probably pointless too.  But I'll check the wiring before I throw it away.  I already checked the charge level (OK) so that is not the problem.

Toaster ovens should last more than eight months, though.  Air conditioners should last longer than eight years!  Should, anyway.

FWIW.

UPDATE: I disconnected the control wiring from the outdoor unit to the indoor unit and ran a jumper wire in its place. I had so much wire left over from the previous install that I was able to run it through the doorway. The same thing happened, the E1 error occurred.

So I believe the outside control board is bad. I disassembled the outside unit and it was filled with filth and the control board looks like it's fried. I ended up just buying a new unit to replace the whole thing. I also bought the wall bracket to keep the outside unit off the ground.

A friend of mine is installing a split-system unit in his garage and asked if I would do it for him. I explained to him that it was a difficult process and he withdrew the suggestion.

His local HVAC guy wants $1,500 to do the entire install (not including the cost of the unit itself which was about $1,000) which, from my perspective, is pretty cheap given that their hourly rate is over $100 an hour and it can take the whole day to install one of these, especially if you have to drill holes through brick walls.

He plans on using a wall mount and also building a small roof over the top of the unit to keep the rain out. Of course, you have to follow the instructions in the manual to make sure the roof is far enough away from the unit to insure proper air circulation.

On our conventional air conditioning system, we put a diverter on the roof to keep the rainwater from rushing into the unit. One of the technicians also suggested putting a fine chicken wire over the top to keep the pine needles out. I noticed in Florida people have plastic covers look like garbage can lids, that are attached with a tether. When the fan turns on, it blows the cover up allowing air to go through and then when the fan shuts off the cover flops down keeping debris and dirt out of the unit.

Some people report replacing their air conditioners here by the ocean every 5 years or so which seems kind of extreme to me. I notice our unit which is 5 years old is already showing signs of rust on the fan motor. I periodically remove the top and fan and vacuum out the inside of the unit. The next time I do that I'm going to give the motor a coat of black paint.

Small Appliance Follies (And Right to Repair?)

When small appliances break, they are often not worth fixing!

When I was a kid, they had articles in Popular Mechanix and even the Boy Scout Manual on how to fix your toaster.  Back then, toasters were pretty simple appliances and only made.... toast.  The heating elements, as they aged, would break, and it was possible to disassemble a toaster and crimp the broken heating element back together.  Of course, if the heating element was so old and brittle that it was breaking, chances are, the repair would only be temporary in nature, as it would break at another point shortly.  Such is the nature of repairs, which is why it is smart to think hard before trying to repair something near the end of its design life.

On the other hand, a new appliance should last more than a few months, which is why we have warranties.  Last June, before we went away for the summer, we bought a new toaster oven.  This is likely the fourth or fifth one we have bought - they do not live long.  Not only do they break down, they get disgustingly dirty, as baked-on grease and nonsense becomes impossible to remove.  Even using oven cleaner doesn't do much, after a while (and indeed, can cause more problems than it solves).

I wrote before about infant mortality in machinery and appliances.  In electrical gear, this is particularly a problem.  You put in a new light bulb, turn it on, and poof! it blows out right away.  In any batch of product, there are bound to be a few bad apples that fail early.  The rest will run for their design life until they fail late.  Responsible manufacturers use "burn-in" to cull the herd of the bad boys who would have failed early.

The term is confusing as nothing is "burning" during burn-in.  Instead, the product is simply run for a number of minutes, hours, or days (depending on the product and how much the manufacturer can afford).  Out of say, 100 products, maybe five will fail.  The reliability of the remaining 95 units is that much higher.  So you ship out the units that "passed" burn-in and have fewer complaints and warranty repairs from customers.

Of course, burn-in costs money, as you have to take up space in your factory with burn-in stations and people to plug the product in and monitor them.  In a factory making thousands of product a day, this simply is not feasible.  So to cut costs, many modern factories simply test the unit for functionality - if that - and then ship it.  The consumer becomes the burn-in tester or Beta tester as they call it in the software world.

Our toaster oven, Black and Decker model TO3217SS was pretty neat.  It had an "air fry" mode that cooked almost microwave fast.  We liked it, until about two weeks ago when it started acting up - not turning on sometimes, unless you played with the main switch.  Then finally, it stopped turning on at all.

There are three knobs on the toaster oven.  The top knob selects between toaster modes and oven modes and also sets temperature (in oven mode).  The bottom two knobs are timers, one for oven mode and the other for toaster mode.  Most toaster ovens have one knob to select mode, a second knob to select temperature, and a third knob for the timer.  So this is a somewhat unusual arrangement compared to other toaster ovens.

So, I look in  my four ring-binders of appliance manuals and I can't find one for the toaster oven - this is not like me.  Fortunately, I could download the user manual from Black and Decker or from Manuals.lib (the latter presenting a confusing "abridged" version as well).  By the way, Black and Decker is just a brand name these days (at least for some products), owned by something called "Spectrum Brands" the successor to "Ray-O-Vac" which is an ancient name for a battery company that only Boomers would remember.  Everything is made overseas.  Guess where?

Turns out, there is a two-year warranty on the toaster oven, as listed in the back of the service manual, so I log on to their site and start a warranty claim.  They want a copy of the original receipt.  No problem.  As a near-boomer, I keep paper receipts and throw them in a big cardboard box and when the box is full, I tape it shut and store it.  After seven years or so, I burn the box in the fireplace.

So I dig through the box and find it.  Actually, I already knew which layer of receipts to look in, as Quickbooks told me I bought it at Walmart on June 22, 2023.  Yes, it is handy to log these things!  So after 15 minutes of digging, I find the receipt, scan it in and upload it.

Turns out we only paid $59 (exactly) for the unit, which is below MSRP.  I get a response back from Spectrum Home Appliances (via Brand Protect Plus) the next business day.  They agree the unit is under warranty, but want a photo of the plug cut off with the date code which is stamped on one of the prongs of the power plug. That, and they want a check (OK, boomer!) for $7.50 for shipping and handling.  So I cut the plug off and take a photo and mail off a check to the company and they send another e-mail saying they will ship me a new unit.

By the way, I realized that the switch will probably last longer if we don't switch between modes with either timer "on."  When you switch a "live" switch, it will arc, which can leave a deposit of oxide on the contacts which can act as an insulator.  Better to select "mode" and then activate the timer, although that just moves the point of arc-ing to the timer switch.  Sadly, with the price of copper these days, so many switches now use aluminum contacts and aluminum oxide is an excellent insulator.  Switches don't last as long, as a result.

Of course, a lot of people would just say "forgetaboutit!" and buy another toaster oven.  Who saves receipts, except cranky old retired gay men?  Who has the time and energy to jump through these hoops and pay $7.50 for a $59 toaster?  Ditto.  They count on most people not being willing to take the effort and time to do this.  And if the toaster failed early-on, most people would put it back in the box and take it back to Walmart.

But of course, being a (retired) Electrical Engineer, I had to take apart the old toaster oven to see what was what. 32 small screws later, it is laid open for me to examine.  The main rotary switch is not showing continuity in any position, while the timer switches are.  The switch seems to come apart, but I have not examined it in that detail.

The devil in me thinks, "Cutting off the plug?  No big deal!  I have several replacement plugs in my box 'o electrical stuff!  Why not put a new plug on it, repair the switch and have two toaster ovens!"  All I need to do is find a replacement switch, right?

Uh, yea.  Nothing is repairable anymore and parts - other than cooking racks and pans - are not available, it seems, anywhere.  I can't even find a parts diagram or parts list so I can search by part name.  Even the cooking racks and pans are priced such that, for a $59 toaster oven, they are not worthwhile buying.  Unless I could find a switch for ten bucks or less, the deal is off.

Sadly, this is the norm with so much of our technology today.  Things are so cheaply made as to be disposable.  Technology becomes outdated so quickly there is little point in making something last a long time or be repairable as it will be outmoded so quickly, or repair labor costs will exceed the value of the item.

With our split-system A/C unit, for example, the labor cost (at over $100 an hour!) to install one can easily exceed the cost of the unit itself.  We have cheap labor overseas, not so much here in the USA.  Time was, the "mending man" could fix things, but then again, he wasn't driving a $100,000 pickup truck or had expectations of doing so.

No, nothing is made to last anymore, and in a way this is a good thing.  We don't keep things around for very long, but constantly upgrade to "new! New! NEW!" every few years.  Even when they don't break, we end up getting a new toaster oven every five years or so - they just get gross after a few years.

Maybe that is why Toshiba went bankrupt - not because of their nuclear power plant deal with Westinghouse, but because they over-built their laptops so they would never break.

I guess I am officially an old boomer!