Help wanted.
Job Title: Chief scientist
Salary $1.2 million US
Requires 20 years experience managing a large-scale radio project

Eric?
Tullio

We have a nephew teaching English in China right now, and he is having a WONDERFUL experience, but he is 20 and we are not. I'm too old to be uprooted, for any amount of money.

Old? Sure, I understand home and not wanting to move but you are not OLD.

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And My refrigerator is out too, I think I need an electrician

Much worse that a dead microwave IMO.

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And My refrigerator is out too, I think I need an electrician...

Beg, borrow, steal a heavy duty* extension cord and keep the refrigerator cold.

Have a guess that the breaker is getting old and trips easier than it should. Some brands are much worse than others.

*14 AWG Don't try one of those 18 AWG two wire cords, you will burn the place down.

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My 30 years old washing machine has stopped working and I had to buy a new one. So this year have bought 3 not CPUs or GPUs, a robot lawn cutter, a Samsung watch which scolds me if I am sitting too long in front of my computers, and a washing machine. All I wanted was a Ryzen CPU. Maybe next year!
Tullio

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Haruo Nakajima, who played the original 1954 Godzilla, dies.

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a Toaster

My mother grew up in a house you couldn't iron and make toast at the same time.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

a Toaster

My mother grew up in a house you couldn't iron and make toast at the same time.

They had electricity?

I used to know a woman only a few years older than me, and their first electricity was supplied by their own generator in the early '60s I think it was. They didn't get grid power until the late 60s or very early 70s.

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Grant
Darwin NT

They had electricity?

Yep, 110 service I think.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

It's a 4 slot toaster that I inherited, though today I don't use it much, and when I do, it won't even burn the bread, it almost won't even brown the toast for that matter.

Yes, you need an electrician. Something besides the breaker is bad and it may be hard to find. Perhaps that water leak did some real damage.

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Calling the Moon: Startup to Put Cellphone Tower on the Moon

An astronaut wandering the moon next year could use a smartphone to call home. A German startup is preparing to set up the first telecommunication infrastructure on the lunar surface.

The German company Part Time Scientists, which originally competed for the Google Lunar X Prize race to the moon, plans to send a lander with a rover in late 2018 to visit the landing site of Apollo 17. (Launched in 1972, this was NASA's final Apollo mission to the moon.) Instead of using a complex dedicated telecommunication system to relay data from the rover to the Earth, the company will rely on LTE technology — the same system used on Earth for mobile phone communications.

"We are cooperating with Vodafone in order to provide LTE base stations on the moon," Karsten Becker, who heads embedded electronics development and integration for the startup, told Space.com.

"What we are aiming to do is to provide commercial service to bring goods to the moon and also to provide services on the surface of the moon," Becker added.

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Accused burglar doesn't flush toilet, leaves DNA for police

VENTURA, California - A man accused of burglarizing a Southern California home took a bathroom break and left DNA evidence in the toilet that led to his arrest, an investigator said Tuesday.

The suspect "did his business and didn't flush it" during the October break-in in the city of Thousand Oaks, said Detective Tim Lohman of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

That allowed investigators to collect evidence to conduct a DNA profile. It matched another profile in a national database and detectives tracked down the suspect at his home in the nearby city of Ventura.

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Not a very bright crook - he should have realised that one should always clean up after doing a job

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

LOL. Maybe that burglar have met this bright crook.

This burglar had no one of his better days. The break-in to the villa in Tygelsjö in Malmö went on as planned.
The window was easy to break in to and inside the villa there were two modern computers.
The thief or thieves disappeared from the site with the theft, but an important personal belonging was forgotten in the villa.
Not only that the thieves had lost a wallet with a bigger sum of money - in the wallet, there was also an ID card that the police believed belong to the thief.
The police do not want to tell you how much money was left in the wallet, but the sum equals about the value of the stolen computers.

... and another dumb crook of the week award goes to ....

Man forges law enforcement letterhead in attempt to keep job at Reddy Ice after arrest

LAKELAND, Fla. - A Polk County man is facing more charges after allegedly, with the help of his girlfriend, forging law enforcement letterhead in an attempt to keep his job at Reddy Ice after being arrested.

... According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the couple came up with the idea to send a letter, on Sheriff’s Office letterhead, to Reddy Ice so that Sullivan might keep his job while away.

“Here's a bit of advice - if you're going to try to dupe someone into thinking you're working with law enforcement, you should probably use a real name and maybe not have misspelled words,” said Sheriff Grady Judd.

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MORE proof that the IOT (Internet Of Things) is ALWAYS one update away from being usable or completely bricked:

Firmware update blunder bricks hundreds of home 'smart' locks
Automatic over-the-air upgrade will knacker front-door gear for at least five days

Hardware biz Lockstate has managed to brick hundreds of internet-connected so-called smart locks on people's front doors with a bad firmware update.

The upshot is you can't use the builtin keypad on the devices to unlock the door.

Earlier this week, though, new software was automatically sent out to folks' $469 Lockstate 6000i locks – one of the upstart's top residential smart locks – which left the keypad entirely useless. The crashed locks – which connect to your home Wi-Fi for remote control and monitoring as well as firmware updates – are now going to be out of action for at least a week.

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Firmware update blunder bricks hundreds of home 'smart' locks
Automatic over-the-air upgrade will knacker front-door gear for at least five days

Hardware biz Lockstate has managed to brick hundreds of internet-connected so-called smart locks on people's front doors with a bad firmware update.

WTF would you want an internet enabled lock???

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Grant
Darwin NT

Self Inflicted = No Sympathy
More money than sense

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Firmware update blunder bricks hundreds of home 'smart' locks
Automatic over-the-air upgrade will knacker front-door gear for at least five days

Hardware biz Lockstate has managed to brick hundreds of internet-connected so-called smart locks on people's front doors with a bad firmware update.

WTF would you want an internet enabled lock???

Yeah, not Me.

I have one, not that brand. The door cannot be unlocked via internet but I can lock it if I forget to. It also let me know if someone does attempt to enter or tamper with the lock. I also have internet video of the front and patio doors. I have the live stream recorded in my office on a continuous 45 day loop.

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Vic do a little research about lock sets. Don't trust local lock smith who may have one brand that he sells. I have built over 1,200 housing units. That range from $750,000 homes to apartments and manufactures homes (trailers). High end get Baldwin, Medium Schlage, low end Quick-set. Master Lock is sold at Walmart. They make some higher end stuff but they also make junk. I frankly don't trust Master Lock. I can open them with the just a bump.

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Firmware update blunder bricks hundreds of home 'smart' locks
Automatic over-the-air upgrade will knacker front-door gear for at least five days

Hardware biz Lockstate has managed to brick hundreds of internet-connected so-called smart locks on people's front doors with a bad firmware update.

WTF would you want an internet enabled lock???

Yeah, not Me.

I have one, not that brand. The door cannot be unlocked via internet but I can lock it if I forget to. It also let me know if someone does attempt to enter or tamper with the lock. I also have internet video of the front and patio doors. I have the live stream recorded in my office on a continuous 45 day loop.

There are probably also models you can unlock via your smart phone.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.