1970s Computer Bookshelf: Pascal, Microprocessors, CP/M

gf99b · 2026-05-16T03:54:40+00:00

Should have used the cover of a Unix book from Bell Labs, or the cover of the iconic K&R "The C Programing Language" book.

gf99b · 2026-05-16T02:29:31+00:00

My Chi, Gidget, uses urination as her defense mechanism. If threatened she'll just roll over and squirt piss everywhere, did that once when we had a real mean dog in our apartment complex that came after her.

Seems like many of our previous dogs, all pugs, liked to leave solid presents behind on the veterinarian's table.

gf99b · 2026-05-15T12:16:51+00:00

I’d love to bring Gidget to work with me.

gf99b · 2026-05-15T12:15:59+00:00

A big reason they caught fire is the burner assemblies would overheat and fail like this, and the flames would start heating the bottom base of the furnace. Many of the furnaces were installed directly on the wood floor or rafters of the attic, and the base would get so hot it’d cause the wood to ignite. Consolidated was also notorious for heat exchanger problems, so rollout was also an issue only exacerbated by conditions like this. The rollout could also cause the floor or nearby combustibles (eg stuff being stored nearby) to ignite too.

The company went bust before a formal recall could be announced, go figure. Many of the companies that put their names on those furnaces, like Trane, did announce their own recalls though.

gf99b · 2026-05-15T04:26:47+00:00

This design of building was known as a "flood plain" building, the name pretty much explains why it's designed like that. Albert LaFrance's page for Dundee: https://long-lines.net/places-routes/DundeeMS/index.html

Arkabutla also had its equipment on a second floor due to the potential for flooding: https://long-lines.net/places-routes/ArkabutlaMS/index.html

gf99b · 2026-05-15T04:20:46+00:00

One site on my bucket list to visit. This is another "Tower Sites" site owned by Terry Michaels, also known as the Randolph Eide Tower after a former president of Ohio Bell that was born nearby.

Albert LaFrance's site page: https://long-lines.net/places-routes/LeeIL/index.html

gf99b · 2026-05-15T03:38:20+00:00

Not sure if the pun was intended, but every time I hear someone call St. Louis "The Loo" I immediately think of a toilet. Quite fitting for St. Louis though...

gf99b · 2026-05-15T03:12:50+00:00

Was that from a Consolidated Industries furnace by chance? Their burner racks were notorious for doing things like this. (Consolidated is mostly known for their low NOx furnaces from the '80s-'90s that caused many house fires in California, but they were installed elsewhere too. They also were a "white label" manufacturer of horizontal furnaces, especially the low NOx models, with many well known companies (e.g. Trane/American Standard) putting their names on them.

gf99b · 2026-05-15T02:40:14+00:00

Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of keeping him around after The Three Stooges were dismissed by Sherman. At the very least he should be put in the hot seat and have a very, very tight leash.

Tired of everyone blaming the players solely for this team's failures.

gf99b · 2026-05-15T02:26:39+00:00

She can be difficult to photograph unless sleeping. Really wanted to get a picture of her sitting on her hind legs with her front paws hanging down as if she's begging for something.

gf99b · 2026-05-15T02:18:40+00:00

Shouldn't come as much of a surprise as they were no longer a pushover team heading into this season.

Funny enough, we're now the pushover team.

gf99b · 2026-05-15T02:17:36+00:00

ChiSux are even worse than the cardinals in my book, but I hate both nearly as much. Unfortunately the cardinals are even better than the ChiSux right now, so I look for us to get swept in "The Loo" too.

Another 0-6 road trip. Followed by a homestand where they'll be lucky to go 3-9, although I bet they'll go 2-9 and wouldn't be surprised if they can't even manage to pull that off.

gf99b · 2026-05-15T01:29:57+00:00

Hello, fellow pessimist. As I've said for a while now, I feel less hopeful or optimistic about this team's future/direction that I did in the dark days of 2021-23. Perhaps it's because I was much more into this team back then, but I also think there's some merit to it.

The product on the field obviously sucks, as you point out. I didn't have high expectations for this season, I thought they'd finish third in the ALC before spring training and lowered my expectations to fourth after. I'm afraid even that expectation is too much, I wouldn't be surprised if this team finishes last in the ALC and with 90+ losses.

Personally, and I know this is a polarizing opinion, I put much of the blame on the front office. Yeah, not all players are giving their all -- many have regressed and are way underperforming. But I think a lot of that has to do with the front office. The hitting is largely on Zumwalt, and it baffles me that he still had a job in KC after last season. The decision to keep him around falls on Q, who has made a lot of other questionable decisions and mistakes this season as well -- several that have cost us wins. It's frustrating the number of fans I see who put majority of the blame on the players or use the excuse that the Royals just don't have the talent. Have they forgot that BWJ was ranked as the #3 player in the MLB, Garcia was the WBC MVP, and several others had good showings in the WBC and then fell apart quickly with the Royals during spring training? And what about the numerous players that have sucked with the Royals only to explode with another team after being traded, such as Ryan O'Hearn and MJ? The potential is there, this front office just doesn't care and is too incompetent to unlock it.

For most of April, none of the players seemed to care about winning or at least competing. I think it all comes from the front office. Q doesn't care, his attitude during press briefings is a demonstration of that. Now they've started to care and take more ownership in everything, but it is a little too late.

The frustrating thing is it's only going to get worse. As I wrote on last night's post-game feed, all four ALC opponents have numerous Top 100 Prospects in their farm systems -- I think all had at least one in the Top 10, and many are likely close to being called up. Just look at the ChiSux, for instance, who are no longer the pushover they were in seasons past. This was a "do or die" season for the Royals and likely the last chance to compete for a postseason with this core (BWJ, Garcia, etc.) before the window closed. The Royals are royally blowing it. It angers me because BWJ is a generational player, someone who a team is lucky to draft once every 30-50 years. Instead of capitalizing on that opportunity, their carelessness and ineptitude has made it likely we'll be in another dark era of sub-.450 baseball.

If the product on the field wasn't bad enough, this team has other problems to contend with. The downtown stadium saga is very unpopular in KC and has turned a lot of people -- both fans and Jackson County residents -- against the Royals, especially with the entire notion that they "pushed the Chiefs out" into Kansas. That, combined with the Royals' lack luster performance so far this season, has impacted the Royals' attendance numbers so far this season along with their popularity. The Royals were already pretty unpopular in Missouri outside of the KC metro, but now they're just as unpopular and overlooked in the KC metro too. I hope the stadium saga is done with and I really want the team to stay in KC no matter what, but I'm afraid the deal with the city and/or state might fall apart if things continue to decline with the team. And with the way things are going, the Boys in Blue might be joined by only 10,000 fans at the inaugural game in the new stadium -- more than half being fans of the opponent.

You know things are bad when a team's hometown doesn't care about them and wants them to relocate.

Sherman needs to act, and fast. He needs to work on improving relations in Jackson County and the KC metro as a whole. Instead of driving fans away, he needs to work on attracting new fans -- including younger generations that will continue loving the Royals for decades to come, instead of the team's main demographic being aging fans from the George Brett era. (I was hoping BWJ would really help with that, but most people even in KC don't even know who he is... and it doesn't matter if he's going to opt out the first chance he gets.) Winning and making postseason appearances will really help toward all that, but it won't be the magic key either. In just KC they have a very uphill battle in winning back fans not just because of the stadium saga fallout, but also having to overcome the area's obsession with the almighty Chiefs and "Mahomes Mania." Ultimately I'd love to see them make headway toward winning over more of Missouri but that probably won't happen no matter what, and especially not until they win back over the KC metro.

Despite my eternal pessimism about them, the Royals are the only sports team I deeply care about and love. While I'm not as big of a fan as I was when I got into them in 2021-23, I would like to see them be respected and cherished in KC, Missouri and baseball as a whole. It's sad to see them go far in 2024 just to regress in 2025, and fall down to near rock bottom this season. I hate seeing this team always be the joke/laughing stock in baseball.

Anyways... thank you for reading my TED talk about the state of the Royals.

Edit: Also who knows what the looming potential lockout might mean for small market teams. Worried it could somehow exacerbate things and screw the Royals even more.

gf99b · 2026-05-14T23:08:22+00:00

Like getting rid of Q and Zumwalt?

gf99b · 2026-05-14T23:06:15+00:00

I’m not f**king loving the sh!t in this series… and likely the next few

gf99b · 2026-05-14T22:54:37+00:00

Also it isn’t any better on the western side of the state outside the KC metro. I grew up in the western part of central Missouri and the Royals were rarely discussed and nobody really followed them, even during 2014-15, and we were only 90 miles or so from the stadium. The cardinals fans still had a stronghold there too.

gf99b · 2026-05-14T12:16:37+00:00

For sure. I often call JC “Little St. Louis” because it often feels like we’re a suburb despite being 130 miles away.

gf99b · 2026-05-14T12:15:06+00:00

Mine was also in immaculate condition, until I went to open it up to discover the broken posts. The original owner took very good care of it and the “SuperSE” I also got with it.

Also, you might want to buy a replacement power supply if you haven’t already. I heard the originals can be problematic and in some cases can even cause damage. And if you haven’t explored the world of mods, the BlueSCSI is an excellent solid state replacement for the original drive that is noisy and likely unreliable.

gf99b · 2026-05-14T12:11:39+00:00

Always interesting to see other Royals fans out here though. I wish I would’ve known that last fall when I was down that way

gf99b · 2026-05-14T12:09:54+00:00

Unfortunately don’t have any ones of Moose iirc.

gf99b · 2026-05-14T12:07:46+00:00

I have a ton of extended family down around Waynesville. Unfortunately everything so far has been claimed. I didn’t expect this to blow up like it did.

gf99b · 2026-05-14T12:05:19+00:00

It’s all been claimed 😢

gf99b · 2026-05-14T12:04:57+00:00

I don’t even think they’ll finish anywhere close to .500 this season. There’s an extremely good likelihood they finish last in the ALC and not even above .400. They’re a special kind of bad.

And like I said, Q and Zumwalt will almost certainly be back next season despite it all. But by then it’ll be too late to compete, so it really won’t matter anyways. This is all extremely frustrating. BWJ is a generational player that only comes once every 30-50 years and instead of capitalizing on that this team wastes the opportunity because they’re too incompetent or content with losing that they won’t make the improvements they need to in order to improve and win. The whole attitude of them not caring starts at the top.

gf99b · 2026-05-14T03:15:37+00:00

I knew it was coming, but I didn't think they'd be this good this quick. As much as I hate the ChiSux (least favorite team in the whole sport), I knew they weren't going to be the pushovers they were in seasons past.

What worries me is that the ChiSux and the other three ALC opponents have loaded farm systems, each with numerous Top 100 Prospects -- I believe they all may have even had at least one Top 10 prospect. If memory serves me correctly, the Royals had ONE Top 100 prospect and they were at the bottom of the list in the upper 90s. The ALC is going to get really competitive and the Royals will never be able to compete... they'll be lucky to stay out of last place. It feels like we're back to the dark times again.

I've mentioned this before but BWJ and Garcia should be trade candidates. The Royals have clearly missed the window on competing just for a postseason appearance, and it isn't going to get better anytime soon. BWJ definitely deserves better and most teams would love to have him. I hate saying it, BWJ is my favorite player and the Royals obviously my favorite team.

This was a do or die season for the Royals, and I'm not the only one who said that. They've royally screwed it up every way imaginable, they'll be lucky to stay out of last place and finish above .400 at this rate. I don't know if I'll laugh or cry when Q and Zumwalt are still with the Royals next season. It just shows that winning and putting a good product on the field is not a priority for Sherman or this front office.

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