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RV_

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  1. Randy, so you said the demand across Texas daily is 39kWh, and Powerwall's are 5kWh? Then it will only take ~ 8 Powerwalls? That doesn't sound right.
  2. The topic is in the first link. Everyone can read it. 🖖
  3. A picture is worth a thousand words. The virus is contained in droplets by and large. To survive the virus needs to stay moist/wet. So dry packages, letters, objects in a store etc. - like doorknobs, do not pass it along. Infection depends on a large viral load of the virus and the masks lower the load with just my mask. Much less load if I am masked and the folks I am around wear masks. Large viral loads result in the more severe infections. As well, if you check the statistics the cases of Influenza dropped way down to almost zero while most of us were masked. Coincidence? Hope that helps.
  4. Linda, Just saw this. The data is not collected from home testing necessarily but from medical testing. If you get a positive test at home most folks would then go see their, or a, doctor for treatment. Since the home tests are less accurate and the user may cause false positives or negatives, docs will do another test because tests in medical labs are more accurate they will test you to be sure and treat or not accordingly. For example I got tested knowing the new variants are increasing and more transmissible. I was pretty sure it was allergies as with the rainy summer here the plants have gone bonkers and docs are saying they have been inundated. Here the local VA clinic has a daily COVID testing station in their parking lot. from 10am -2:00pm. So when I got a runny nose and a tickle in my nose and throat for several days I drove there and I was the only one there so it took just couple of minutes and they emailed and called me the next day to let me know my test was negative. EZPZ. I also got the RSV Vaccine and my flu shot last week and will be getting the new bbooster that is not for the newest variant of COVID but is for some the booster in 2021/22 did not cover. They are rushing new vaccines after that for the newest very transmissible variants. So I will likely be getting two boosters in the next few months. Not a problem as I am not afraid of shots and vaccines. We had many more in the military and nary an issue, not even from the dreaded Anthrax vaccine. I had a terrible case of Swine Flu in 1975/76/77 I forget exactly which year but I was about 24 y/o give or take. I will never ever forget how sick I was. But I don't remember ever getting more than a sore arm overnight or two at most, and not bad the second day. Having given thousands of shots, blood draws, and starting IVs I can tell you from my experience it is more the big guys that turn pale green, sweaty, pass out, or even get shocky and/or vomit. Even when I worked Peds ward there were less drama kings than with the adults. Oh sure some cried and tried to escape but I cannot remember one child turning green or getting shocky. I even did the basic training line a couple of times with no needle that shot the vaccine into the muscle with high pressure. But I am masking in public indoors again. I got our 51st anniversary dinner take out and it was as good at home as in the restaurant, a Greek place called "The Purple Onion." We wear masks so we can be around for our 60th.
  5. RV_

    Texas

    As for wasps no need to throw it and create a fire hazard. There are dozens of videos on YouTube showing people doing this. It is important that the water in the shop vac be soapy too. Or use just the gas fumes: The gas stays in the cup. They pass out and fall into it. I think this method and the soapy water are much safer than throwing gas at your building where those missed can sting the thrower.
  6. RV_

    Texas

    80° here and 20% humidity. I can't deal with the heat and humidity down there as it was as bad in Louisiana and that's why we moved Glenn. You can always put on more clothes and layer for the temperate cold here. But like I said for all the years I was stationed in Louisiana and San Antonio, "once you are down to your skivvies you get A/C . . . in the holding cell for indecent exposure! I feel for you folks in the extreme heat and near the wildfires. Be safe Glenn.
  7. These price wars make more affordable choices. Like computers and chips the Chinese EV imports here will make EVs even more affordable. "China's passenger vehicle sales returned to growth in August year-on-year. Consumers were tempted to buy with deeper discounts and tax breaks for electric vehicles. Industry data showed car sales were up 2.2% in August from the same month a year ago to 1.94 million units. It was the first year-on-year gain since May. U.S. carmaker Tesla was a major winner. The auto giant has offered big discounts for its vehicles and saw its share of China's EV market almost double in August to 13.2%. The data said Tesla sold close to 64,700 cars in China in August. Consumers bought up even though China's general economic growth was weak. Chinese automakers continued to bet on overseas markets as domestic growth eased. Data showed exports surged 31% in August on the year. Sales of new energy vehicles were also up more than a third last month. Rivalries in China's auto market have grown more intense as makers struggle with weaker demand. A price war started by Tesla at the start of the year also continues." More with a video here: https://news.yahoo.com/china-car-sales-grows-aug-140548967.html?contentType=VIDEO
  8. Good news for investors. Excerpt: "A blockbuster initial public offering from SoftBank Group’s Arm Holdings is fueling optimism on Wall Street that an IPO logjam could finally break open after a two-year drought. The one bank that needs that to happen most is in a prime position to benefit: Goldman Sachs (GS). Goldman is one of several big banks behind Arm’s offering, which is expected to happen next week and be the largest since electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive (RIVN) went public in November 2021. Arm designs microchips for phones and tablets. 'What is the normal?' The lineup of IPOs is happening just in time for Wall Street, which is suffering from an extended dealmaking slump that followed a boom in 2021. Clients turned cautious about everything from the direction of interest rates to relations with China to the larger US economy, dampening the optimism needed to go public, buy companies, or take on more debt. Firms across Wall Street slashed bonuses and staff, announcing cuts of roughly 20,000 jobs since the end of 2022. "We've had a moment of clarity, where we realize that trees don't grow to the sky," said Donna Hitscherich, a senior lecturer at Columbia Business School and former investment banker. "There is going to be a new normal, but what is the normal?" Thus far the freeze has failed to thaw in 2023, which has been the worst for IPOs year to date since 2016 as measured by deal volume, according to data provider Dealogic. This current quarter is no different thus far, although most of the activity during third quarters tends to happen in the final month of September. 'Risk-on sentiment' No bank is in more need of some good news than Goldman, which is under an extreme microscope in 2023 as CEO David Solomon wrestles with everything from partner unrest to concerns about strategy as he tries to put a consumer banking experiment behind the company. Its investment banking revenues were down by 20% in the second quarter, which trailed performances at JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America. The drop at Goldman was worse than expected and contributed to a 58% pullback in profits across the firm. More in the article here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/arm-and-instacart-could-help-break-wall-streets-ipo-losing-streak-094313390.html
  9. Vlad where is your Kirk quote? It is blank! Do YOU think it is a good thing for Texas to allow Texans with Powerwalls to sell their excess back to the Texas grid? Be well.
  10. I applaud Texas for allowing Texans with Powerwalls to get paid and add their excess power to the Texas grid. If being empathetic for Texans struggling and many dying in winter and summer because their grid can't handle demand is confirmation bias then I am guilty. If any disagree please say with which fact or assertion in the links and your source of different assertions. I am always willing to change my mind given new facts. Say so and hearsay and claptrap are not new facts. The article I started with is good news for Texas. And Jerry Jones did say what he said as quoted by a lot of Texas sources. What you do with that info is up to you.
  11. I posted an article to answer this post above showing Jerry Jones as published in the Dallas Morning news that ERCOT had nothing to do with price gouging. Here are search results with hundreds of articles about it. https://www.bing.com/search?form=MOZLBR&pc=MOZI&q=As+Texans+went+without+power+some+companies+made+billions However with the news daily of Texas power grid about to fail from the heat wave I thought since more than a few folks on here actually live in Texas I am all for anything that could help Texas. And this thread was about Texas approving some relief and making it a win for Texans with Powerwalls and Texans struggling with inadequate electric infrastructure for peak electric demands with the increasingly crazy summer heat and increasing witer killing cold.
  12. Chalkie why do you do a personal attack to accuse me of not liking Texas? Did you stop beating your wife? Same kind of question. Perhaps I do not like some Texans Like Jerry Jones in the article below. The topic is the approval by the Texas Utilities commission to allow Texans to benefit by allowing Tesla Powerwall owners to sell back electricity which can then be used by their fellow Texans. Tesla did not get the deal, Texans with Powerwalls and their neighbors who might have more power available as the power augmentation by individuals works. I realized too late that the link was behind a paywall. Here is that article in the clear: https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/texas-freeze-allows-jerry-jones-natural-gas-company-to-hit-jackpot#:~:text=Cowboys owner Jerry Jones owns a Frisco-based natural,northern Louisiana at premium prices the past week. Let me know how that article indicates I do not like Texas.
  13. "The highest rates of people testing positive for COVID-19 are in Texas and the states that surround it, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 15 percent of COVID tests in the U.S. were positive in the week ending August 26, the most recent week of federal data, up 1.4 percent from the previous week. Five states—Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas—had the highest test positivity at 20.8 percent, according to CDC data. In Texas, a ban on mask mandates went into effect earlier in September. Those states were followed by Nevada, Hawaii, California, and Arizona, which all had 16.1 percent of tests come back positive that week." Map and more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/covid-map-shows-9-states-where-positive-tests-are-rising/ar-AA1gnXxM
  14. https://www.votervoice.net/iframes/AFSA/newsletters/354466?isInformationalBroadcast=true They have not published for the last two weeks. Hopefully they are back.
  15. Sounds like Pahrump (along with a lot of cities like here) start with the utilities then others see the opportunity to piggyback on them the rush is on. I know of three players here and we also have had our outlying sparse counties install fiber in some really rural areas like the Rifle CO area. The following is only for those who still have a Stix n Brix in a medium to large city or its burbs! We all had dial up in the 90s and relied on Telcos who started fiber deployments but then decided it was too expensive in the late 90s. The Telcos could have a monopoly on Internet services today but their CEOs blew it along with profits for years and threw all their eggs into cellular. Cable companies had a good thing but refused last mile to rural areas and they are on the way out all because they did not foresee the profits in Internet everywhere. We watch all our networks and many other channels over the air (OTA) using the existing cable and satellite wiring in the house with a distribution amp for perfect 1080p broadcast on more than 75% of the 57 or so channels we get. I forget to count the Spanish, Jewish, and some other channels channels we deleted from our line up that are less resolution. Many are perfect full HD and 720 p with a few oldies channels occasionally broadcasting old blurry shows from the 50s - 80s in the old standard resolution on the subchannels of each network. We have five full HD Public Television stations all different and free! Free After buying a $40 dollar directional HD outdoor antenna and a 60-70 dollar Electroline one in four out powered distribution amp. So we do not NEED streaming at all. Yes we have Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount plus, and Sling TV. We are about to drop Sling TV because we do not watch cable channels much at all. We canceled Hulu which forced ESPN+ on us despite us asking for them not to as we do not watch any sports except our home team in Football, Winter Olympics, and maybe the Super Bowl for the halftime show and the commercials. We are soon to drop Paramount, Peacock, and any other channel that charges us yet still shows commercials! I can watch FreeVee and all the free LG TV channels. We may just cancel them all and stick with OTA TV but with the writer's strike broadcast TV is all reruns. They are getting greedy. I remember the big draw for cable was the no commercials and no censorship of language or nudity in movies and shows. That was when we had maybe five channels and a few independents. Then cable became big biz and they started to raise prices and add commercials. Shoot even public television started commercials they disguise as "Made Possible by" We have always loved PBS and supported it but those ten minute every 15 minutes fund raisers on what would otherwise be great shows has turned us off to some of their programming. But since it went digital OTA TV has come a long way in addition to still needing it for emergencies and disasters. If the power ever goes out or the Internet we still have local news and weather using battery inverter to power our 24" 1080p TV, and then our tiny 12,000 mAh car jump starters with their USB ports tiny batteries that can power the little $6.98 indoor USB 5 v indoor antenna amp for a day or three. $6.98 Cheap amplified antenna link I use those cheapo antennas only on my two main computers using Hauppauge TV HVR 955Q Windows receivers for TV ( USB TV tuner link ) in a corner of my screen like the news that is on now. This one in the pic below is in a closet with the cable extended to reach my desk. I get perfect reception on all channels but we are in a city now and I used the outdoor directional digital antenna and Electroline Distro amp ( Electroline Amp link ) because I wanted max signal to power through all the preexisting in wall cable/satellite/ cables and interior connectors and splitters so I could use the existing wires to all rooms. They work perfectly with the Electroline amp. And despite the outdoor antenna the reception is limited without the distribution amp. It is the amp that makes the big difference. I have also tried those funky looking antennas with built in rotator and amps that go on a mast and they are terrible quality. They work for a few weeks then the rotator dies or the remote or the amp. YMMV Above in a closet, below second one for second computer over window: 32" 2k quad HD monitor with my normal browser top left, email on right, and OTA television in full HD o the bottom left: Each move of antenna requires a complete new channel scan with the portable cheaper amplified antennas. Tedious. If you are outside the range city TV you may need a much larger directional antenna outside with the Electroline Amp, too far out and you need Starlink. One data point. Anyone in the area is welcome to come see the setup.
  16. Lou good video. Watching it reminded me of them doing the fiber trunk line installs here in the last year, soon to my home as in the video. Realize that fiber allows for more 5G transponders enhancing 5g home and phone services. So more choices and competition for pricing and speeds/reliability. That is a good thing!
  17. I just did the Ookla Speed Test on my current Centurylink copper wired Internet connection. I test from my main computer system upstairs wirelessly to get my actual operating speeds. My WiFi 6 modem is downstairs and serves a lot of computers and devices. My new free upgrade WiFi6 gateway/router will be delivered today as part of their deal to keep my business. Great company. I may still try the T-Mobile just to see if the service is better than wired here. The advantage of the wireless modem/routers is they can be moved anywhere in the house without drilling/pulling/adding connectors for wiring. My printer for all systems is up here not downstairs and it is an Ethernet wired laser Brother DCP-7065DN. I bought six hi-capacity aftermarket toner cartridges for ~ 8 bucks each on sale and have only used two in the last eight years, and one drum unit $12 for it I have not used. They work as well as the $60 brother ones. We use digital (not paper from printing) almost exclusively now. I use a two Netgear PL1000 1TB Powerline adapters to plug the Ethernet network printer into and the other connected to the router downstairs which connects via a short Ethernet cable to the router and is plugged into a wall outlet and uses the house wiring to connect to the second just plugged into the wall, which has an Ethernet outlet that will avoid pulling more wires around or through the house. These are not as fast as direct Ethernet cabling but fast enough to handle printer data. So our phones etc all have access to the printer that are connected to the router wirelessly. Ours are just fine for our printer but now they have combo Powerline Ethernet and WiFi extender in one set of two for $79! https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Powerline-Wi-Fi-Extender-TL-WPA7617KIT/dp/B09L85MFNY?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1 Far cheaper than hiring the cable job or buying tools to put the connectors on the Ethernet cable after pulling it through and the cable. Not to mention I'm less inclined to climb 12 foot ladders these days. Until I checked today I was unaware how inexpensive the combo WiFi extenders and HomePlug Powerline adapters are today. We are in a middle income area and all the fiber has been pulled here and the effort is ongoing. The lower middle income folks are complaining about digging in and around their properties to make it happen despite the companies fixing any damage or having it fixed. Some folks would complain if you hung them with a new rope! 5G is strong just about everywhere here now and they started with the Powers corridor. Yesterday was our 51st Anniversary and it brings home how changed our world is . . . for the better by far! We take video calls on Google "Meet" free to our kids in Germany for granted now, and the call quality is perfect. 24 years ago we thought a millennium bug in computers was going to cause worldwide blackouts and planes falling from the sky. In 2000 we thought dial-up at 23Kbps not Mbps in 2003 was good, then we thought 5Mbps was great speed to use our Netflix streaming DVD in our Wii to watch movies in standard definition. No smart phones until 2007 and dash navigation devices were starting to come into their own with Garmin and Magellan leading that pack. Remember the crazy allegations that 5G was harmful? "Since the release of 5G, many false claims about its health appeared on social media. Examples of these myths include: COVID-19 vaccines contain 5G microchips 5G release is used to cover up the COVID-19 pandemic 5G causes headaches, migraines, and dizziness There is no proof behind these claims." Source with more: https://www.healthline.com/health/is-5g-harmful#false-claims 😉
  18. Roger thanks for the incentive to check and save money either way. Great info and update bud.
  19. I just got through and I was paying Centurylink $55 a month locked in and $10 a month for my gateway router with WiFi 6 etc. My new bill to keep me from switching to T Mobile home Internet is $45 a month for the same speeds (100-150 down 20 up,) and no equipment rental fees. They are sending me a new modem that is a free gift to keep me as a customer because mine is a rental only unit, and they are paying to ship the rental back. However, the City utilities, Google, and Ting, are bringing fiber to home with synchronous speeds of 500 Mbps up and down for the same price. $89 for 1TB up and down. So before switching from a great company with great service, call them and see if they are as good and will price match to keep you.. That said, I may yet be doing the $50 trial of T-Mobile service still keeping mine for the free period to see if they offer any advantage. Excerpt: "The answer is no. None of the CenturyLink internet plans have a data cap for practical purposes. All of them offer virtually unlimited data allowance. This rids you from any data overage fees and passive-aggressive messages reminding you multiple times that you have crossed a point of no return." https://www.highspeedinternet.com/providers/centurylink/internet
  20. That sounds like my experience with them last year with phones. But since this does not involve setting up phones. They said no problems with 100% refunds. They kept $30 bucks even though they could not make our phones work after spending hours at their store twice. I canceled within 7 days and then the trouble began. Their clerk made a mistake on the trade in on one of the two trade in phones and they said they could not refund that one because of their clerk's error?? So let us know if they s tardily do actually refund you. However I can risk 50 bucks to see, and then if I do need to quit from poor service whatever and I have again to battle to get my money back again if needed, I'll check back here. I am on hold now with CenturyLink who have been great since we moved here, to see if they are willing to price match as the speeds 100-150Mbps down 24 up ate similar. As well, Fiber to home is on the way very soon.
  21. Roger, I dislike T-Mobile and their parent company DT. Especially after a fiasco with their phones and phone service that they issued to us as new customers, and could not get to work for four days during which we had no phone service. It was in the middle of this fiasco and should be over now. However, I respect your comm and computer expertise so I just called them because my area now has 5G just about everywhere in the city and 'burbs. They now offer free equipment gateway/router for life, Speeds here 100Mbps down and 24 Up, a $150 gift card, and price lock for life of $50 a month when paid with debit card, three free months of service which I can try out alongside my current service with Centurylink. I would have to pay now an initial processing fee/payment of $50. I get a seven day complete money back guarantee where they refund the processing fee 100% (The $50.) Granted they were just bringing on 5G at that time and they were working issues with CDMA and Dish 3G/4G as well as having just merged with Sprint recently. So perhaps I will try it alongside of my Centurylink service. With $150 gift card and three free months, 50 bucks a month all taxes and fees and equipment are included. I am on the phone now with Century link to ask if they price match and doing local research. I will let you know when I decide to try or not.
  22. Kirk any comments on what your Texas papers reported above? Don't look behind that curtain. It's your energy Charlie Foxtrot, not mine. There's dozens.
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