Hillary's email...

Hillary's email...  The latest revelation is that the State Department didn't actually archive the emails that Hillary sent to other State Department employees.  Nor did they archive anybody else's.

Everyone I know with any sort of IT background shares my reaction to the news reporting on this issue: it's all complete nonsense, credulously reporting the State Department's assertions that this is a difficult problem only recently addressed.  That's the sheerest poppycock and twaddle.  Specialized email backup programs have been readily available commercially, and routinely used by private organizations, since at least the late 1980s – almost thirty years ago.  I personally selected and acquired such a system for my then-employer in the mid-1990s.  These backup systems save every email (no selection is required) and then provide tools for recovery of particular (or all) emails.

For the State Department (or any branch of government) to assert that this is difficult, time-consuming, or expensive is one of two things: an outright lie, or a confirmation of an almost unimaginable level of incompetence.

Occam's Razor says: it's a lie.

But why would the State Department lie about this, making themselves look stupid and ignorant?  The most likely reason I can imagine is that if they actually produced copies of their internal emails, it would expose them as the utterly incompetent fools and nefarious knaves the electorate suspects they are...

Dinner out...

Dinner out...  We went to Cafe Sabor last night for a nice outing.  The salsa and chips were just as good as on our previous visits.  Debbie had their tortilla soup (ok, not great – she says the coconut soup she had last time was much better), and the blackened shrimp tostada (also ok, not great).  Debbie's meal is in the photo at right – as you can see, the food was quite attractive, especially the tostada at left.  I had a chile relleno (outstanding!) and a sweet pork enchilada (very good, though odd).  By the time I thought to take a photo of it, I'd already eaten half of it :)  We ordered flan for dessert, and it was more like an eggy bread pudding (with one piece of bread) than a traditional flan (which should be a slightly overcooked custard).

The drive home in the late evening light was especially pretty.  The mountains around the valley were glowing in the reddish light of near-sunset, while the valley was mainly in shadow.  There were quite a few dramatically-lit scenes along the way.  Just south of Hyrum, on the east side of Highway 165, there's a small farm that's recently acquired a bunch of baby goats.  They were out playing “king of the hill” on a pile of giant wooden telephone wire spools.  I could watch baby goats for hours.  It's too bad they're only babies for about ten minutes – and then grow up to be extremely uncute goats...

Barn progress...

Barn progress...  I spent most of the day yesterday assembling the stand and about half of the Grizzly dust collection system.  By the end of the day, I had roughly 400 pounds of steel and copper assembled and lying sideways on my barn floor.  Next step: raising it to a vertical position.  That's going to have to wait for a few days, though, as I discovered during assembly that the stand doesn't actually come with feet.  That's because the usual method of mounting it to a concrete floor is to use fasteners in holes drilled in the floor.  That won't work for me, as I have heating tubes embedded in the concrete floor – and I'd really, really hate to hit one of those!  So I had to order some rubber-and-steel “machine mounts” (essentially, industrial-strength, 5" diameter rubber feet) designed for sitting this monster on a wood floor.  They'll be here early next week.  Meanwhile, the monster shall recline in a resting position :)

The two shipments due to arrive yesterday did arrive.  We now have two pallets full of foam flooring for Debbie's agility court.  My SawStop table saw also arrived, in a collection of sturdy boxes strapped to another pallet.  The garage area of our barn is starting to look like a warehouse!

Today is “sink day” – I'm replacing the faucet, garbage disposal, drains, strainer, and under-sink plumbing on our kitchen sink.  The immediate provocation was an annoying, persistent, and unrepairable leak in the existing faucet.  The secondary provocation was a desire to get a more powerful garbage disposal (1 HP model replacing an aging 1/2 HP model) and to remove an “instant on” hot water heater that we never use.  I bought all the parts I thought I needed earlier this week, but as I start the actual work I fully expect to discover 12 more things I need, necessitating at least 8 more trips to Home Depot and/or Lowe's...

Original Moog schematics online...

Original Moog schematics online...  This is a treasure for anyone interested in some classic analog engineering work...