Subj : Graphics driver quest To : Ky Moffet From : Barry Martin Date : Thu Oct 09 2025 07:10:00 Hi Ky! > > > Let's see, your old DSL was 0.5 Mb/s... So Starlink = 50 Mb/s. > > KM> More like 3.0 and 300, but same principle. Most websites and > > KM> FTPs throttle at around 100, so anything more is gravy. > > That last one now has something make sense: my fiber-optic service is > > 200 Mbps (verified by random testing to random speed test sites) and > > sometimes a transfer seems slower than it should. > KM> Yeah. Some throttle a lot slower than that. > I suppose it makes sense in the big scheme: if it's just me connecting I > hardly 'get noticed' by their system as far as loading is concerned. > Several thousand -- poential to overload. KM> Yeah, can't let the fast connections monopolize the entire KM> service. True -- actually I had forgotten about user connecting speeds. > > KM> It's a port that's Cleverly Designed to be both waterproof, and > > KM> where (because you can't get your fingers in there) to be able to > > KM> just jerk the cable loose. The entire router is designed to be > > KM> outdoors too, tho they no longer tell you to set it up that way! > > Y'mean they found a build-up of rust inside the case wasn't good? > KM> Or a lake and shorted parts! > Aw, just dip the whole thing in epoxy! KM> That's pretty much what Starlink did with its router -- it KM> doesn't even have any vents! I'm wondering about using it as a KM> cup warmer. They borrowed that from the old Macintoches? IIRC their electronics were pretty much a solid block dipped in some sort of epoxy. At least no problem with dust build-up clogging vents! > > KM> Nope, not unless you're troubleshooting. And apparently if you're > > KM> not gaming, you can just plug in your router and not do the > > KM> bypass thing. If you can turn off NAT in your router, that > > KM> problem is solved too. > > Those little tips might save you some money on a replacement router! > KM> I already have the spare router. > But if you use it it won't be spare! (The Starlink one would become the > spare, but that sort of ruins the joke.) KM> As they say, an heir and a spare! And the joke continues another generation! > KM> When the wind fairy doesn't get to 'em first, I let 'em dry a bit > KM> then mulch 'em with the mower, either way they disappear. Next > KM> door neighbor has a forest in his front yard, so I get more > KM> leaves than my share, but the lawn can use the mulch. > Pretty much the same here, just on a smaller scale. The three trees on > the property died ages ago (at different times). Neighbours have trees > and some do end up in our yard. If a shallow layer usually can mulch > and not bag. If a ton of leaves fall at once still mulch but bag as too > much of a mulch layer. One year left the thicker mulch layer and almost > killed that section of grass. KM> Yeah, the leaves really have to be dry enough to turn to dust KM> when they're smacked around, so they don't form suffocating KM> layers. Found that out! One Fall years ago for some reason I had raked a bunch of the leaves under the tree -- maybe was starting to snow and wanted to keep them somewhat dry until the next time I could bag them, I don't recall. Anyway, apparently never did get the time and they stayed under the tree all winter. Sping: nice ring of dead grass around the tree! > > Here the leaves are starting to fall, appears mostly the stressed ones > > because we have been having a drought. Good news is they're predicting > > rain for tomorrow some time -- and then another streak of dry weather. > KM> I haven't seen that drought has anything to do with it. We're way > KM> more dry here and the American elm (which came back from a stump > KM> that apparently survived the Dutch Elm plague) sometimes doesn't > KM> shed its leaves until the next spring. > The backyard tree was like that: held on to its dead leaves until > Spring. Not all of the dead leaves remain attached -- definitely had > shed most -- but enough remained. KM> I look around the neighborhood and conclude that trees are weird. They each have their own personalities! > KM> The black walnut usually drops them all the first time we get a > KM> cool night, tho last year it kept them til we got snow, WTF. > KM> It's always last to leaf out in the spring, a good month after > KM> everything else, and first to go bald in the fall. > "It's getting cool" . "It's getting hot" 'dressed'>. KM> That's about it... it's green for about four months, and greens KM> up so late that the first year here, I thought it was dead. KM> Everything else fully leafed out and it wasn't even running sap KM> yet. Yes, same with some shrubs and bushes: need to make sure the branch is really dead and not just a late bloo-- er - leafer. > KM> There must be some complex interaction between temperature and > KM> sunlight, as I've been kinda keeping track and it's more chaotic > KM> than not. Siberian elms down by the highway are already yellowed > KM> up, but the ones along my side yard look like June (they > KM> sometimes don't shed their leaves either, so we get frozen green > KM> leaves in December!) > Around here it seems like length of sunlight, temperature, and colour > depends on rainfall. The also depends on the individual tree, probably > just like people. KM> Yeah, how much sun they get is likely a big factor. At one time KM> freezing temps were supposed to be it, but that doesn't explain KM> the ones that drop leaves with no frost one year, and can't be KM> arsed til midwinter (or if at all) the next. I would guess a combination of sunlight, temperature, the timing between the two, and probably just the tree's specific internal clock all have a factor. > > .. 9 out of 10 people couldn't start conversation if weather didn't hang KM> . > KM> Ah, this explains why people in Montana talk ALL the time! > And why so quiet out here: for a while this late summer the weather was > so constant from day to day even the 'yakky' meterologist was having a > hard time coming up with something different to comment on. KM> Nothing to say, eh? :D Just get a parrot: "Sunny and hot! Sunny and hot!" ¯ ® ¯ BarryMartin3@MyMetronet.NET ® ¯ ® .... Polysaturated: Enough of parrot jokes! --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA þ RNET 2.10U: ILink: Techware BBS þ Hollywood, Ca þ www.techware2k.com --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com (454:1/1) .