SMB

 I see no point battering my head against OpenSSH.  However, I have reached the point where:

 smbclient //192.168.4.42/linuxcnc -U clayton%mypassword

gives me access to the Windows directory. But

sudo mount -t cifs -o claytoncramer@192.168.4.42 /mnt/linuxcnc

 asks for the same password and rejects it.

Not Enough Y-Travel?

Mostly for benefit of other amateur machinists.

I need to cut some pieces from a 6"x6" CFC plate.  At first glance, I did not have enough Y-travel to get to the near edge of the plate to zero the Y axis.  Nor could I cute this plate in half on the chop saw because there was no obvious way to clamp it down.  How did I do this last time?  I added another spacer block to get the spindle far enough from the column.

Bird Dogs Aim High

Our dogs are bird dogs, so anything flying needs to be chased.  This morning their barking was unlikely to be useful.

Is There a Graphic Artist in the House?

 Long, long ago when Jimmy Gerald Ford was the President, my first full-time job was writing telemetry software at Jet Propulsion Labs for what was eventually renamed Voyager 1 and 2.  I wish that I could say that I up to the task, but I was 18 and lacked the emotional maturity for the job.  I received a Mariner Jupiter-Saturn T-shirt, of which I am very proud.  

That T-shirt is now in the sentimental rag bin.  I would like one again.  I cannot get a decent image from it or my briefcase from back then.  I was able to find a low resolution image:

I would love to have someone recreate this image at a useful resolution for printing on a T-shirt.

For Those of You Still Upset at Trump

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, et al., v. Caleb Reese, et al.  was the challenge to the federal ban on sales of handguns to young adults.  DOJ did not appeal their loss at the Fifth Circuit.

Another Victory

 JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES INC. et al. v. Bonta (9th Cir. 2025).  My friend Don Kilmer has been chasing this absurd case for a couple years.  California passed "—a statutory scheme that bars firearm advertising that 'reasonably appears to be attractive' to minors..."  These idiots cannot even pass laws.  What is "attractive" advertising to minors?  

This is not primarily a Second Amendment case.  It was decided on free speech grounds.  The 9th Circuit ruled again California two years ago, remanding the case back to district court to be reheard consistent with that decision.  (By the way, appellate courts do not directly strike down laws; they tell the trial court to rehear the case consistent with their decision.

We earlier held that Section 22949.80 of the California Business and Professions Code—a statutory scheme that bars firearm advertising that “reasonably appears to be attractive” to minors—violates the First Amendment.  Junior Sports Mags. Inc. v. Bonta, 80 F.4th 1109 (9th Cir. 2023).  On remand, the district court declined to preliminarily enjoin subsection (b) of Section 22949.80, which prevents the firearm industry from compiling or using personal information of minors for marketing purposes.  Junior Sports Mags. Inc. v. Bonta, 2024 WL 3236250, at *8 (C.D. Cal. June 18, 2024).  We reverse the district court and clarify that our constitutional analysis applied to the entirety of Section 22949.80. 

There was nothing subtle about that 2023 decision; you could hear the anger during oral arguments.  The decision uses language more direct than usual:

We REVERSE the district court’s order denying in part the motion for a preliminary injunction and REMAND with instructions to issue a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the entirety of Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22949.80.  [emphasis added]

I Keep Promising to Stop Bragging About That Cadillac

Driving with adaptive cruise control makes keeping speed limits so easy.  Instead of setting cruise control after every use of the brakes,  I just set it and leave it on.  When traffic slows, the car slows, even to a complete stop.  When the car ahead moves away, my car slowly accelerates away.  I can go for miles on city streets without touching brake or gas.  

It still requires some attention.   A curving lane means it may not see the car ahead until an unnerving closeness.

I Cannot Make Sense of the Social Security Taxsble Income Provision of OBBB

It appears that the goal was to make Socisl Security income exempt from federal income tax.  You may not realize this but once you get above about $30K of Social Security benefits each year, you pay income tax on the marginal amount.  My thinks this is wrong because you were already taxed on wages so you can get that benefit at retirement.   I agree but find it is as logical as the long-ago Irish tax on windows and Dutch tax on stairs.   There is little intrinsic logic in any of it.

Okay, I get that the goal was not to cut taxes on me.  I can afford to fund Ivy League antisemitism and so I must.  What I cannot out is if OBBB just increases the amount of Social Security income my wife and I can earn without it being subject to income tax, or if the benefit is only for those with low AGis.  I fear that it is. 

According to ChatGPT, if your AGi exceeds $150,000 you get no benefit.   If you are below that level, you get some reduction in taxes owed for several years.

My Frustration With ChatGPT Continues

I have given it several programming problems that it asked me enough questions to solve. I requested a program to produce gCode to produce a particular hole pattern in a 6" high hexagon.  Itctook a couple tries to understand what I needed, but it managed.

Attempting to get it to make Windows 11 provided sftp server support remains beyond it.  After four hours fighting OPENSSH,  going in the same circles repeatedly,  I asked if there were any commercial or free sftp servers for Windows 11.  There were.  None of them actually work.  Each time one failed, it would suggest another that does not work.

I really cannot fault it with respect to Microsoft OpenSSH.  It is a very complex disaster with more layers of permission requirements for file access and user name and group than makes sense.   The previous way it kept trying to find some sftp server was very gratifying, but at some point, it needs to recognize that there seems to be no Windows 11 solution.  (Even attempting to run aside under Windows Subsystem for Linux was a failure.)

Suppressor and Short Barrreled Rifle Tax Now Zero

The OBBB had a provision lowering the transfer tax for suppressors,  short barreled rifles, and the odd "any other weapon" category.  I attended a 4th of July party at my daughter's house.  I was surprised and pleased that our youth pastor,  who is Navajo, knew about th4 change.  (Like many other patriotic young men, his has been a life full of things that go boom!

The reduction of the tax to $0 does not means you can just buy or build one.  The existing, not terribly difficult background check and tax stamp requirements are still there.  (A tax stamp promised on collecting a tax that is now $0, just screams for a legal challenge. )  I would prefer all of these were removed from NFA regulation, but take the victories where you get them. 

If, Like Me, You Were Dealt a Bad Genetic Hand For Heart Disease

This 7/2/25 UPI article discusses a new study that concludes statins are underprescribed:

"More than 39,000 deaths, nearly 100,000 non-fatal heart attacks and up to 65,000 strokes in the U.S. could be prevented if people eligible for statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs were taking them, researchers reported Monday in the Journal of General Internal Medicine....

"Along with warding off heart attacks and strokes, properly prescribed statins also could prevent every year nearly 88,000 heart bypass surgeries and procedures to reopen blocked or clogged arteries, researchers estimated."

I am glad I had the double bypass but if you can avoid it, it is better.

17th Century Inflation

I have just started reading Richard Ollard's This War Without an Enemy: A History of the English Civil Wars.  This book was recommended by my friend Joyce Malcolm, who is an English Civil War specialist.

Early on, he attributes this, at least in part, to a general inflation of prices in the 17th century throughout Europe.  This surprises me not in the least.  The core was the Spanish importation of gold and silver in mind-boggling quantities from the New World, much of it obtained by working Indian slaves to death.

Too Good Not to Share

Alligator Alcatraz started hiring:

Oh Yes, Happy Treason Day, Peasants

A friend has a T-shirt with Queen Elizabeth and this slogan. 

Saving Medicaid for Lawful Residents

The OBBB has a number of Medicaid cuts.  One of them cuts illegals off Medicaid.   You think this is odd?  We must assume that Medicaid is paying for illegals, because 20 states are now suing to be excused from providing Medicaid information to ICE.  7/1/25 Denver Post:

"Colorado and 19 other states sued the federal government Tuesday to prevent Medicaid data from being used for immigration enforcement.

"In June, the Department of Health and Human Services transferred data about people enrolled in Medicaid to the Department of Homeland Security, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The shared data included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, immigration status and information about medical claims made by residents of California, Illinois, Washington state and the District of Columbia."

Now, if you want to argue that illegal aliens deserve medical care, there is a plausible argument founded in a Christian commonwealth's duty to care for the poor.  But advocates for this point of view usually get pretty insistent that this is a secular society that barely tolerates Christianity (as long as you bake that cake!).  

Another argument is that providing care to the poor requires some care to make sure it is spent wisely.  Spending it on people who are not lawfully here seems unwise.

Vault of the Ages

This is a 1952 Poul Anderson post-nuclesr apocalypse novel.  

There are two major categories of such stories: recovery will be painful, but human spirit and knowledge of how to rebuild is widely enough known to do so; a new Dark Age will result from ignorance of survivors. 

Vault of the Ages is sort of in the middle. Five hundred years of Bronze Age culture with some use of salvaged steel and copper from the still feared cities.  But eventually someone not terrified of the taboos of the memories of radiation poisoning gets into a vault of knowledge about science, technology,  and the humanities and restarts.   (Humanities were still of merit in 1952.)

I generally land on the optimistic side.  Almost everyone is know has enough understanding of tools, machine tools, and the guts of industrial civilization that rebuilding would be painful but not hopeless.   We do not need to reinvent machine tools, assembly lines, light bulbs, electronics.  The knowledge is either widely distributed or in books. 

I Finished Reading Dugard's Into Africa

About Stanley and Livingstone.  Anyone that wonders why Equatorial Africa failed to develop need only read the descriptions of the really repulsive diseases and parasites both of them battled while exploring. 

I really enjoyed this book.  So much tangential history that I found fascinating. 

Another Victory for Open Carry

I am not generally supportive of open carry but used as a tool to get fascist governments to allow concealed carry, good.

Pennsylvania prohibits unlicensed open carry in Philadelphia.  It is generally lawful elsewhere.  Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Riyadh Sumpter (Pa. Sup. CT. 2025) overturned a conviction for violating equal protection (legal everywhere else in Pennsylvania), 2nd Amendment and 14th Amendment. 

Two Hours With CHATGPT Trying to Get OpenSSH Server Working

No closer than when I started.   If you want to do something utterly vanilla with Windows 11, on your local PC, it works well. Anything even slightly unusual, such as using sftp to transfer files from Linux and it turns into a steaming pile at about Linux levels of knowledge.   At least getting an ftp server working under Linux is easy (or builtin?).

I wish Linux were adequately supported for various hardware and with adequate self-repair capabilities. 

More Voting Fraud (With a Touch of FBI Corruption)

Sen.  Grassley reports on documents the FBI turned over showing that one FBI office received evidence of Chinese exhportation of fake driver's licenses to facilitate voter fraud.  As soon as HQ saw it, they pulled the report back so other offices would not investigate,  and explicitly to protect FBI Director Wray from getting caught perjuring himself before Congress. 

California Must Accept CCW Applications From Non-residents

Hoffman v. Bonta (S.D.Cal. 2025) grants summary judgment requiring California accept CCW applications from non-residents.  It allows for the possibility of applying stricter standards for non-residents, but there are obviously limits on this for risk of violating the privileges and immunities clause of the 14th Amendment.   

California's CCW scheme is not cheap; California does not want poor people,  who are most at risk of violence, to fight back).  If you regularly travel there,  you might want to apply in Modoc or Shasta County which have historically issued readily. 

Remember: Voting Fraud is a Conspiracy Theory

4/1/25 Department of Justice press release:

" PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that MD Nurul Hasan, 48, MD Munsur Ali, 48, and MD Rafikul Islam, 52, all of Millbourne, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty today to election fraud offenses, at separate hearings before United States District Judge Harvey Bartle III.

"In February, the defendants were charged in a 33-count indictment with conspiracy to commit voter fraud, giving false information in registering to vote, and fraudulent voter registration, arising from their scheme, ultimately unsuccessful, to steal Millbourne Borough’s 2021 mayoral election for Hasan."

Amazing How Discovery Changes Willingness to Settle

Discovery is one of the powerful,  albeit destructive tools of the American legal process.  Discovery can force a party to reveal all sorts of internal documents such as emails, texts, etc.  This is why no rational company makes important decisions in any achieved form.  Even the cost of complying with discovery can be daunting.  This 1/17/25 NPR article discusses how internal emails contributed to CNN losing a defamation suit.

7/1/25 BBC:

"US media company Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million (£13.5m) to settle a legal dispute with US President Donald Trump regarding an interview it broadcast on CBS with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

"Trump filed a lawsuit last October, alleging the network had deceptively edited an interview that aired on its 60 Minutes news programme with his presidential election rival Kamala Harris, to "tip the scales in favour of the Democratic party"."

This settlement goes to the Trump Presidential Library so Trump gets nothing personally.   I suspect CBS' internal emails revealed a lot that would have hurt them at trial.

It Finally Happened

I have often blogged or said in person that the reason electric vehicles will replace gasoline engines in the 22nd century is that electric motors are amazingly durable.   I have had one electric motor fail me: the spindle motor on my mill after 10 years of service suffered a brush failure.  Other gadgets with electric motors have plugs break, drive belts break, fan blades wear out.

I just had my second electric motor fail.   The sprinkler pump failed.  This is a two year old pump.  At some point it ran with either no, or insufficient water pressure.   Also decorative bark intruded into the ventilation holes likely damaging the rotor or its bearing. 

It was an expensive part to replace, but at current temperatures here in Boise metro, you have little choice to save the beautiful green lawn and flowers.  We will be putting some window screen over the ventilation holes to prevent a repeat bark invasion.

Microsoft Cannot Leave Anything Alone That Works

The last I set up FileZilla to sftp files from Linux in the shop and Windows 11 PC, it was painless and symmetrical.   I could download from Windows to Linux and Linux to Windows.   

This time trying to set it up has been a pain.  FileZilla copies from Windows 11 to Linux without problems.   From Windows 11 to Linux, not so easy this time. 

I have to install OpenSSH in Windows.  I do not remember doing this.  If I did, the rest of the process (configuring OpenSSH, using whoami to get Microsoft user name and Microsoft password, we're not part of the process.   And it still does not open an sftp connection from the command line in Linux.

Strictly speaking,  I can live with only a one-way connection.   It is just annoying.  If only Linux were as well supported as Windows.

Remember How Crazy It Seemed That EPA Had a SWAT Team?

As in observed at the time,  some agencies that would seem to be low risk actually confront some serious organized criminals.  5/29/25 Fox News article about $30 million fraud for COVID bailout funds:

" The wanted suspect is Armenian born and uses the name William McGrayan. He surrendered to police in the bust, slowly walking out of his front door towards the armored vehicle with his hands over his head. The criminal complaint says that an informant described McGrayan as "unhinged" claiming he talked about his ties to gangs in Armenia and threatened one person with a gun and baseball bat."

On PBS? Did the Funding Cut Wake Them Up?

From a PBS promotional email:

"

Premieres July 4 A Capitol Fourth 2025

A Capitol Fourth celebrates our nation’s 249th birthday with a live broadcast from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol - honoring our freedoms and independence, and those who defend them. Airs Friday, July 4, 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. To save this show for later, sign in to your PBS Account and use the  + My List feature. "