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louis · 2019-01-21 11:44:31

It's a win-win!

RobertDyck wrote:

louis wrote:
Will Starlink impact on your work Robert?
Probably not. I'm called whenever equipment fails: computer, monitor, scale, signature capture device, debit/credit card machine. Canada Post uses cell phone modems. If cell service isn't available, the local store franchise can provide high speed internet at their cost, or use dial-up. You'd be surprised how many franchises refuse to pay, put up with dial-up while demanding the other guy pay. Some have satellite internet, but not many. If Starlink does happen, bureaucracy will be slow to use it. If/when they do, I'll be the guy to install.

SpaceNut · 2019-01-21 15:42:22

We just got a mix of snow and freezing rain around 6" plus its really windy so it feels quite cold.

Good luck with the trip for work and hopefully its going to stay fixed....

RobertDyck · 2019-01-21 20:02:34

SpaceNut wrote:

Good luck with the trip for work and hopefully its going to stay fixed....

Thanks, but... This is my 3rd trip to this location. Last June installed high speed cell modem. They had a new cell tower, right beside a new store building. All steel building, no windows. Excellent cell signal until you take one step inside the building, then zero signal. A cell modem doesn't work in a building with no signal. Second time was to replace the signature capture device. Franchises in Winnipeg usually separate signiture capture device and debit/credit PIN pad, they have their own deal for payment processing, but remote locations in small towns use the new device that does both. Tried to get payment processing to work but after hours of work and many phone calls, discovered their merchant account with the payment processing service was cancelled when they moved, no new account was requested. Told the manager he would have to open a new account, but he was leaving on vacation. That was last fall. Today I replaced the modem, but payment processing didn't work. Turns out no one has requested a merchant account. Manager wrote a note for himself this time. When I got to the airport, found my flight cancelled. Next flight in 3 hours. I called the service to ask if we can get everything done in one trip. No call-back. Airplane is already 9 minutes overdue, so not going to happen. I would like to think they could get payment processing working remotely, but this is my third service call, the first was June. I'll probably be called back again.

SpaceNut · 2019-01-21 20:39:57

I am sure you have done the research for the metal building blocking the cell reception but here are a few links as to what others might find helpful to understanding the issues.

This problem is one that even the great stores such as Walmart experience

https://www.alternativewireless.com/blo … -building/

https://www.criterioncellular.com/repea … lding.html

RobertDyck · 2019-01-21 22:55:49

Yea, would be nice. Some places such as Pauingassi refuse to pay for satellite internet, suffer with dial-up. They sent me to Garden Hill last June, I had one paragraph explaining what I was to do. Discovered the metal building problem, advised them to install an external antenna. The second visit last fall I found a roof antenna with a signal booster hooked up to the modem antenna lead. No one else gets cell service in the building, the booster they installed just services the modem.

I would really appreciate a booster in the airport. It's across the lake from the cell tower. Signal in the airport is horrible.

Yea, the store manager took me across the lake last June in a Lund fishing boat with outboard motor. Last fall I took the ferry, a tug boat able to break thin ice. Today the manager drove me across in a pickup truck. He assured me the ice was at least 2 feet thick.

Thompson and Churchill have signal boosters as well as tables with outlets and USB ports to charge your phone. But Thompson is a small city with a population of 13,678 (Wikipedia), and Churchill is a town with 900. These other communities are smaller.

Last edited by RobertDyck (2019-01-26 22:57:44)

SpaceNut · 2019-01-22 17:25:25

There is cheap and then there is real cheap its comes back to not spending money if its not making you any.

Yes fishing houses will be on the lakes soon enough here as well since its been real cold.

IanM · 2019-01-26 22:02:43

We had one of my cats put down earlier today. She had had breast cancer for the past two months and was doing okay a month and a half ago but lately the tumors started bleeding all over. I'm glad she's in a better place today.

tahanson43206 · 2019-01-27 07:05:08

Sorry to hear of your loss, IanM. Best wishes for long lives for your remaining cat family. (th)

IanM wrote:

We had one of my cats put down earlier today. She had had breast cancer for the past two months and was doing okay a month and a half ago but lately the tumors started bleeding all over. I'm glad she's in a better place today.

SpaceNut · 2019-01-27 09:36:44

Ianm, sorry to hear of the pet loss as they do become a large part of our families as we love and care for them dearly as if they were our children.

kbd512 · 2019-01-27 10:22:19

IanM,

Sorry for your loss.

IanM · 2019-01-27 11:48:58

Thank you all for your support.

RobertDyck · 2019-01-29 11:59:32

-34°C (-29°F) right now, windchill -51°C (-60°F). Predicted daytime high -31°C (-24°F), predicted overnight low -37°C (-35°F).
file.php?id=29656

A couple memes from Facebook...
50976792_10216014259423124_9101438009810616320_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ht=scontent.fyyc2-1.fna&oh=64413dade7327264cbe9a49a66568320&oe=5CC2C511
50962033_2122022811215171_315661589241921536_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&_nc_ht=scontent.fyyc2-1.fna&oh=1d4c002b37fb33f4cbd6abe06f442606&oe=5CB83095

IanM · 2019-01-29 13:08:08

Chicago's going to be so cold tomorrow (-16°F actual temperature, I've heard -50°F windchill and calculated ~-43°F windchill with Google's forecast) the University of Chicago, an institution that prides itself on not closing, has cancelled its classes, although not having other natural disasters in the summer is a plus.

tahanson43206 · 2019-01-29 15:41:08

The current chill in parts of the Earth, as reported by IanM above, made me wonder what is going on on Mars.

https://twitter.com/marswxreport?lang=en

The report above is a couple of Earth days old, but it does compare to conditions in Minnesota.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2019-01-29 18:32:23

Yup the polar vortes is coming and for me about 3 to 10 inches of snow by morning...

RobertDyck · 2019-01-30 07:17:54

Absolute low in this city used to be -40°C. Last time it got down to -40°C was one night in January 2005, I thought we would never see it again, but here it is. So where's that "global warming" thing?
file.php?id=29664

Last edited by RobertDyck (2019-01-30 07:23:29)

tahanson43206 · 2019-01-30 11:24:48

For SpaceNut ...

Would you be willing to open a new topic with the (suggested) name of MyHaciendaOnMars?

The word Hacienda did not show up when I ran a search of the Forum.

The intention is to stimulate imagination and discussion of what each contributor would specify for their personal economic estate on Mars, if they had unlimited funds and the ability to bypass regulations on Earth.

I recognize that the word has significant negative connotation on Earth, due to the way Europeans behaved in times past, but the original meaning (as reported by Wikipedia) seems innocent enough.

(th)

GW Johnson · 2019-02-03 14:53:14

Odd that the record low for Winnipeg is -40 C = -40 F, when the record low for Minnesota is -60 F = -51 C, set in 1996, one of the two winters I spent there. I looked it up.

The morning it was -60 F in the "arrowhead" region up adjacent to Lake Superior, it was -31 F down in Mankato in south central Minnesota where I was. That was Feb 2, 1996. The afternoon high that day in Mankato was -14 F. The wind had died down, so it wasn't too bad changing batteries in the parking lot that afternoon. It had been 30 below with 40 knot winds all night the previous night. Very dangerous wind chill near 70+ below.

Those two winters were a real education for a Texas flatland boy like me.

But being a Texan, I find absolutely nothing objectionable about using the word "hacienda". It's quite the common word around these parts. It's just a synonym for "home" or "house".

GW

Last edited by GW Johnson (2019-02-03 14:54:57)

SpaceNut · 2019-02-03 16:17:19

Of course that home for mars has little to do with personal cost to own it. Its sort of what would our dream home on mars might be like.

Topic was created My Hacienda On Mars its sort of what the Dream is about for many.

Some of us would go much like the ancestors did to spread out across the west, while others want to setup hotel Sagan with all the furnishings.

RobertDyck · 2019-02-05 02:05:43

Technology idea, but a very first step of a new invention. Don't know where to put it.

Power for implants. There are various implants in the human body, all need power for electronics. My idea is to power it by the human body itself. Perhaps run from carbohydrates in blood. Start with a semipermeable membrane. Cells have various channels in their cell membrane, to control what comes in. Could we make a channel based on a glucose transporter vesicle, but designed to not decay, and could be embedded in a polymer membrane. The membrane would have to be biocompatible. How about a small tube, the size of a small blood vessel, with an artery feed in. The tube would be a polymer membrane inert to the human body, and the outlet fed into a vein. This polymer tube would leak blood plasma, but without any proteins. The tube would be contained in a larger tube to collect that liquid. The liquid with sugar would feed a fuel cell. A paper published in Science Direct: A high-power carbohydrate fuel cell. Waste from this fuel cell, and the rest of the blood plasma, could be routed to a lymph vessel. Liquid from blood plasma would include oxygen. Power from the fuel cell could charge a lithium ion battery, that could power implanted devices such as a pacemaker, or control electronics for a prosthesis. Perhaps interface to sensor nerves. But it wouldn't produce enough power to run motors of a prosthesis. As long as waste from the fuel cell is also biocompatible, such as CO2, the human body can dispose of them.

Perhaps even an artificial "sphincter" could constrict flow into the polymer tube when the battery is a full charge and the device doesn't need more power. Open the sphincter to generate power when the device needs it. Just like the endothelium of a real artery. And think of the tube as an artificial capillary. Power would be dependent on blood sugar, the battery would smooth power flow to electronics. Over time, plaques that form in blood vessels could form in this polymer tube, reducing efficacy of transport channels to transport liquid and sugar.

That article is dated April 2006, how do I get a copy? Still low income.

RobertDyck · 2019-02-05 02:36:57

GW Johnson wrote:

Odd that the record low for Winnipeg is -40 C = -40 F, when the record low for Minnesota is -60 F = -51 C, set in 1996, one of the two winters I spent there. I looked it up.

Was that real temperature or windchill? When I visited the Minot Air Force Base when I as 19, a local had record lows posted on a cork board, they were windchill but the article didn't bother to mention the word "windchill". January 29 was -34°C with 30 km/h wind and high humidity, windchill was -51°C = -60°F. Here this January 30 was -40°C but almost no wind and less humidity, windchill -48°C.

Last edited by RobertDyck (2019-02-05 13:32:04)

GW Johnson · 2019-02-05 11:31:43

Robert, I was there!!! The night of Feb 1-2, 1996, was 30 F below zero all night, with the wind blowing fiercely at 40 knots. Wind chills varied, but were 70-75 F below zero all night. That's what the TV weathermen were saying.

I got up and went to work at Mankato State U the morning of Feb 2, 1996, with the TV weathermen saying the morning low was -31 F. When I got home that afternoon, I changed-out the battery in a car with the TV weathermen saying the afternoon high was -14 F, and that "that was ridiculously low for a high". I also found that same -14 F as historical data for Mankato recently on-line, ambiguously enough to be mistaken as a low when it really was the high that day. The wind was calm, so it wasn’t too bad changing that battery. But, my can of beer froze solid in 3 minutes flat. Took 3 hours to thaw inside.

That evening (still Feb 2, 1996), TV from Minneapolis reported a stunt by a then-famous-statewide mostly-retired TV weatherman. They sent news crews up to the tiny hamlet of Embarrass in the "arrowhead" region, to watch him fling boiling water up, to have it fall as snow. Embarrass did not set the record that day for morning low at -61 F, because the official weather service thermometer broke in the cold. This guy's 3 neighbors all agreed: their porch thermometers all said -61 F. Just not official. The official record low of -60 F was set at another nearby town in the "arrowhead" region.

By the way, the same local TV weatherman who reported the high in Mankato that day as -14 F also reported the high at Point Barrow, Alaska, as +32 F. This cold snap was typical polar vortex stuff, just before that name was used. In those days, the cold snap events could be longer-lasting, because climate warming had not yet weakened the circumpolar high-altitude jet stream. It changes quicker now, both ways, with the weaker jet.

The next winter was about 10 F warmer, but a lot snowier. My own front porch thermometer said -10 F every morning for months. I thought maybe it was broken. But it went to 104 F when we moved back to Texas, so I knew it was really OK.

-60 F morning lows in northern Minnesota, Feb 2, 1996. Not wind chills, the real static air temperature! For sure.

From New Years to mid March, 1996, there was not one single morning in Mankato when it wasn't -20 F or colder, and it never got above 0 F in the afternoons. THAT is what I personally actually saw as real static air temperatures. The wind chills varied. Those static air temperatures didn't. The cold snap lasted 2.5 months. Not days. Months.

Winter 1996-1997 was warmer but snowier, and had breaks to it, not one long continuous dangerous cold snap, instead a series of continental air masses. Fairly normal, but on the cold side.

In Mankato, the snow that didn't melt came a day or two before Halloween. About 3 feet of snow, stopped the Trick-or-Treaters dead in their tracks. I had 2 to 5 feet of snow in my yard all winter long. In the Dakotas and western Minnesota, the snowpack averaged 20-30 feet deep. It didn't melt until mid April, when it all melted in 2 weeks, with catastrophic flooding along the Red River of the North, into Canada.

GW

RobertDyck · 2019-02-05 14:52:52

According to NOAA: MANKATO, MN - daily max, min, for every day of the month of February 1996. This shows February 2 & 3 the low was -35°F. Doesn't give wind or humidity.

You can get USA weather records here: NOAA Daily Weather Records. Enter the city or town in the box with the hour glass up on the tool bar. That takes you to a search results page, click on "Daily Summaries Station Details" for the location you want. For Mankato it takes you here. Click the pull-down that says "Select year", and "Select Month", then click the button "VIEW DATA".

I'm not surprised that TV weathermen in the 1990s didn't know the difference between temperature vs windchill. And old alcohol thermometers can break if temperature drops below -35°C (-31°F). I read online that if the glass of the thermometer is properly annealed, it can measure temperatures to -124°C. The article says frozen alcohol will not expand when converted to the frozen state at that temperature. Freezing point is supposed to be -183°C, but a thermometer has vacuum inside above the expandable fluid, and vacuum changes the freezing point. However, cheap thermometers with the red stuff inside are not made from the best glass. A mercury thermometer will freeze at -38.83°C.

GW Johnson wrote:

When I got home that afternoon, I changed-out the battery in a car ... my can of beer froze solid in 3 minutes flat. Took 3 hours to thaw inside.

You took a beer outside when it was that cold? Why? You want something hot when it's that cold. And yea, cold like that reduces any car battery capacity. And can kill a battery.

GW Johnson wrote:

In Mankato, the snow that didn't melt came a day or two before Halloween. About 3 feet of snow, stopped the Trick-or-Treaters dead in their tracks. I had 2 to 5 feet of snow in my yard all winter long. In the Dakotas and western Minnesota, the snowpack averaged 20-30 feet deep. It didn't melt until mid April, when it all melted in 2 weeks, with catastrophic flooding along the Red River of the North, into Canada.

I was in Winnipeg at that time. We called it the "flood of the century". Early April, much of the winter snow had melted. Then tiny ice balls fell, my Firebird got stuck on a snow drift just 1/4 inch deep! After the ice balls came snow, and more snow, and more snow. It snowed steady for 3 days straight! Then it melted. The Red River flows north, it's the North Dakota / Minnesota border, from the border with South Dakota through Winnipeg to Lake Winnipeg. Drainage basin includes a tiny bit of South Dakota and northwest Minnesota. When the southern most part melts, the river is still frozen farther north. Often the river farther north is still frozen, causing melt water to back up and flood. In 1997 the river had melted to the town of Selkirk, north of Winnipeg. The floodway is a giant ditch around the city of Winnipeg, about as large as the river itself. That year the floodway had 10% more flow than its design capacity, it did suffer some erosion damage but did it's job. I had never seen the floodway completely filled before. There's a gate under the Red River just downstream of the entrance to the floodway, it can be raised to restrict water flow through the river into the city. They let more water than usual through the city as well. I was watching the river level at Midwinter Park a couple blocks from my house. That park is actually a levee. That year half the park was under water; landscaping covers up the shape, hiding the fact it's a levee, but it really became evident that year. It did it's job, my house was safe. But the river rose so much that any houses with river-front property had to be protected with sandbags. The floodway forms a large levee protecting the east side of the city, but flooding was so bad the river looked like a lake. Some people called it the "Red Sea". Officials were worried flood waters would go around levees, flooding the city from the west side. The army was called out to build a new levee extending miles west of the river. It worked. Several small towns and farms got flooded, but the city was safe. However, Fargo and Grand Forks ND didn't fare so well, they don't have a floodway.

Last edited by RobertDyck (2019-02-05 16:31:16)

JoshNH4H · 2019-02-05 16:04:17

What does a 30 foot snowpack look like on flat countryside?

RobertDyck · 2019-02-05 16:41:48

JoshNH4H wrote:

What does a 30 foot snowpack look like on flat countryside?

Winnipeg Free Press: Looking back: The Blizzard of 1997

Wikipedia, Duluth MN 2007: Duluth_blizzard%2C_December_2007.jpg

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