So I Acquired a 64-Bit PC to Run Newest Version of LinuxCNC

A gal from church was clearing out her fleet of PCs too primitive to run Windows 11 and I told her that I needed something that was 64-bit that could run Linux. It has 32GB of RAM, and several TB of both hard disks and SSD--far in excess of what LinuxCNC needs.

It had no built-in parallel port. LinuxCNC needs a real Centronics parallel port for timing reasons. I bought a PCIe parallel port made by StarTech. LinuxCNC would not control the mill! Searching for guidance gave me only a sensation that the parallel port might have the wrong address. Supergrok saved the day. It helped me find that the built-in parallel poets are at 0x3F8. This rang a bell from when I wrote a terminate-and-stay-resident PC-DOS (stop laughing) program that intercepted data going to the parallel port and converted Epson control codes to Postscript. It was wonderfully elegant in how it allowed programs with no Postscript support to use Apple LaserWriters 

Changing one of the LinuxCNC setup files to talk to the parallel printer at 0xC010 and problem is solved.

Complicating this was that F2 (enter BIOS) and F12 (boot from somewhere besides hard disk did nothing. It turned out that unless your monitor was hooked up to a DisplayPort monitor, they did nothing except assume you wanted to reinstall Windows. So I v dug an HDMI to DisplayPort csble.

I Want to Believe This Was a Leftist Playing Dumb...

but realistically, how many leftists played Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

The Straights of Hormuz

She probably has no clue that the Strsits of Hormuz has nothing to do with sexual orientation. 

That Missing Airman

 4/5/26 CNN:

Hiding alone in a mountain crevice behind enemy lines, the injured American airman knew exactly what to do: survive and evade.

For more than a day, the weapons systems officer whose F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down inside Iran avoided being captured by encroaching Iranian forces. At one point, he scaled the rugged terrain to a ridgeline 7,000 feet above sea level, equipped with little more than a pistol, a communication device and a tracking beacon.

It was into the high mountains that a team of American commandos, accompanied by US aircraft dropping bombs to clear the area, swarmed to locate the officer, bringing him and themselves to safety.

Fraud? No, Just Excellent Health Care

4/2/26 CBS News:

The FBI arrested a married couple Thursday accused of fraudulently billing Medicare for $7.45 million while running a hospice with a survival rate reported to be more than 97% after five years. They were the first in a series of arrests planned Thursday, federal officials told CBS News.

A high survival rate at a hospice provider is one of a series of red flags identified by state auditors for fraud because most people enter hospice care in the final stages of a terminal illness. In past cases of fraud, operators were found to be using false or stolen identities to collect federal reimbursements for palliative care.

This depressing chart shows more than $1 trillion dollars of Medicare spending in 2024. Other coverage reports that the task force examining this hospice fraud was named "Never Say Die."

You wonder how much of our hopeless deficits might disappear if the fraudsters were defanged.  Also, how many people in need of medical care are shunted aside by the fraudsters.

Project Hail Mary

The most pleasure I have had in a movie theater in many years. Thought-provoking, often funny, clever dialog and evidence that playing opposite an actor made of rock can work well.

No foul language, no gratuitous violence (some nasty bacteria have a bad end), and nothing that would you would not want your children to see or hear 

Trump’s Ballroom

4/3/26 New York Times article (behind a paywall, I opened the link in a private tab) reports the ballroom is really a shed for a very deep, very secure underground bunker.

Getting private sources to pay for the shed was clever. I doubt any of our enemies thought it was just a ballroom.

Just in Time for My Move to Tennessee

 The Post Office is requesting comment on allowing mailing of handguns. This has been banned since 1927. This will include:

Out-of-State Mailings by Non-FFL Owners: Non-FFL owners may mail Mailable Firearms to themselves or another person in another state for lawful activities under the following conditions. The mailpiece must: 1) Be addressed to the recipient. 2) Include the “in the care of” endorsement immediately preceding the name of the applicable temporary custodian. 3) Be opened by the recipient. 4) Be mailed using a class of mail, product, or Extra Service that provides tracking and signature capture at delivery. 

I will be able to mail all my firearms to my son-in-law to hold for me while flying there. Details on the procedures of the proposed rule changes are here.