death-valley.net shutdown & data scrape

[David_Bricker]

DAW, the "other forum" you mention having a gap in continuity was not because of the people working behind the curtain. It was due to the same people that impacted dvnet.

Trust me, there are many stories circulating with differing reasons. I doubt we will ever know the complete story.

And yes, many of those core members are off doing other things. That's life, and is an issue that impacts many online forums.

David Bricker / SYR

[trailhound]

Tr
Hee hee.  iSeries isn't a mainframe.  It's one heck of rock solid platform.  I know, it's semantics, but zSeries is the mainframe.  Either are far better than the PC environment.

David "43 years with IBM" Bricker / SYR

I started with the System/32 and followed the line: System/34, System/36, System/38, and AS/400 rebranded as iSeries.  I made a good living for 40 years on one language RPG.

[MojaveGeek]

OMG, 40 years of RPG I guess it paid well

David... you worked for IBM?

[David_Bricker]

OMG, 40 years of RPG     I guess it paid well

David...  you worked for IBM?

Yep, still do.............. Hoping to retire sometime next year.

David Bricker / SYR

[MojaveGeek]

Yep, still do.............. Hoping to retire sometime next year.

David Bricker / SYR

Cool. Somehow I thought you were already retired, you seem to spend (well maybe a bit less these days?) out in the California desert. What do you do (if you don't mind asking). I was on the faculty at MIT, and a founder of the Media Lab there, for 4 decades, before I retired.

[David_Bricker]

Job titles are entirely non descriptive in IBM. I'm a Technical Advisor for the last 14 years. Basically, a liaison between our high end storage customers and development. We get the fun jobs, like explaining to the customer what happened when their 5 Petabytes of storage went offline. Banks, insurance companies and airlines tend to ask questions at that point. Fortunately, that happens very rarely.

In the past, I've been a field tech, worked in development, education, high end support, marketing, and a couple of other roles. The last 25 years, I've been lucky enough to have a lot of flexibility in my work hours, able to work from home, and have had extensive travel. The travel component disappeared the year before Covid hit, and hasn't returned. So yes, that reduced my trips to the desert.

Our son still lives an hour from Panamint Valley, so we still get out there. And with our first grandkid coming next month, I expect our trips may increase again. I am looking forward to both the grandkid, and the chance to dust the cobwebs off the XJ, and get some exploring done.

David Bricker / SYR

[DAW89446]

Congratulations to Noah, his wife and you and Jody regarding the new family member! 

Retirement is nice. I've been retired for 6.5 years now. Trona was hell to work in, but going to hell and back is paying off. 

Hopefully rodents didn't occupy, build housing developments and eat the wiring and other tasty bits of the XJ. Many a vehicle parked for more than a few days in these parts have met their demise by the furry Occupy [make & model here] groups. 

[Kauri]

Hopefully rodents didn't occupy, build housing developments and eat the wiring and other tasty bits of the XJ. Many a vehicle parked for more than a few days in these parts have met their demise by the furry Occupy [make & model here] groups. 

I've constantly battled mice in our vehicles in the CA Bay Area, it's certainly not just an issue in the desert, though I'm guessing it's probably worse there. 

The only method I found that works is a "mouse moat" (I first learned about this at https://ucnrs.org/mice-barrier-cars/), I just use 14" aluminum flashing propped up on the inside with wood blocks, even for vehicles stored inside a garage. A lot cheaper to make, and less time-consuming even with set up and take down every few days, than repairing mouse damage and invasions!

[David_Bricker]

I've constantly battled mice in our vehicles in the CA Bay Area, it's certainly not just an issue in the desert, though I'm guessing it's probably worse there. 

The only method I found that works is a "mouse moat" (I first learned about this at https://ucnrs.org/mice-barrier-cars/), I just use 14" aluminum flashing propped up on the inside with wood blocks, even for vehicles stored inside a garage. A lot cheaper to make, and less time-consuming even with set up and take down every few days, than repairing mouse damage and invasions!

The mouse moat is a very interesting idea.  I wish I had known about that 1 month ago.  We put our Subaru (temporary Jeep JT Rubicon) in the garage in HI before leaving.  I haven't seen mice or rats inside the house or garage, but they are prolific, since we live on the wet side of the island.  I put desiccant bags and peppermint oil inside the car, and we do have quarterly pest control service.  Hopefully, it will be good for 8 months.

The XJ is stored in a 40' shipping container, so I hope that will help.  IT did sit outside for about a year, and my son had traps and caught a couple of mice in them.  So far, no damage has occurred that I've seen.  The container so far has been quite well sealed.

David Bricker / SYR