April 6, 2018 11:54 pm Update

Quantum GIS 3.0 is a really awesome piece of software. QGIS in recent years has been nipping at the heals of ArcGIS but with the latest version its taken another step closer.

QGIS biggest former weakness – the inflexible labeling engine that used to be a pain to edit labels has taken a Quatum leap forward. Also it’s much faster at many operations due to much more threading and caching. It’s great software that is open source, free for anybody to use for any purpose.

You can Download QGIS 3.0 here.

April 6, 2018 8:37 pm Update

The joys of porting code from QGIS 2.0 to QGIS 3.0. It’s not that bad, but annoying when they change method names, even if the new methods are saner then the old version. I guess sometimes you have to break things for a better tomorrow !

Bionic Beaver

I upgraded my laptop to Bionic Beaver, Ubuntu 16.04. I am very happy with the Beaver, it seems faster, with a somewhat glossier default theme and fast, well working Compositing Manager. It worked out of the box, although I had to add QGIS 3 to the sources.list and install that after the upgrade.

For the first time since i’ve owned the laptop, I now seem to have bluetooth and the internet working properly. Apparently they fixed that driver. QGIS 3.0 seems really nice and fast, and porting ovove

Goats and Soda : NPR

Dramatic Goat Rescue Operation For A Pair Stuck On A Beam Under A Bridge : Goats and Soda : NPR

"So when NPR listener Jason E. Farabaugh sent us a Facebook posting about two goats stuck on a beam under a Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge in rural western Pennsylvania, we jumped to it."

"No one knows why the goats climbed up on the pedestal of a Mahoning River bridge and set out along a narrow beam."

"They're not talking. But goats do love to climb and explore, notes goat specialist Susan Schoenian of the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. So these two goats, who are probably pals (because goats are social animals), escaped from the nearby yard where they lived and went on an adventure."

April 6, 2018 Morning

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Three weeks to Arbor Day 🌳. Overcast and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a south breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. Ducking 🦆 cold morning today, especially because I refuse to turn the heat on in the month of April although I may do so this weekend. But I’m poor so I can’t afford much heat. Utility bills these days are so absurdly high.

Today will snow before 3pm, then rain and snow between 3pm and 5pm, then rain likely after 5pm. β˜” High of 41 degrees at 5pm. 12 degrees below normal. South wind 8 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 48 degrees. The record high of 82 was set in 1921. 17.3 inches of snow fell back in 1982.❄

The sun will set at 7:27 pm with dusk around 7:56 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for clouds ☁ and 41 degrees. There will be a southwest breeze at 15 mph with gusts up to 25mph. Today will have 13 hours of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have rain showers before 11pm, then rain and snow showers likely between 11pm and 2am, then a chance of snow showers after 2am. β˜” Low of 31 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal. West wind around 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2017, we had light rain in the evening, remaining overcast into the early morning. It got down to 37 degrees. The record low of 13 occurred back in 1982.

Another really cold morning. It usually isn’t this cool for so long in April. Hopefully in another month it will be warm enough to have the windows open most days of the week. 🌼 I do like the fresh air in the mornings. Cloudy and gray now but rain later.

Listening to the House Song and the rest of Album 1700 by Peter, Paul and Mary 🎧as the bus makes the same trip it has made downtown with gentle starts and stops. 🚌 With so many things changing in the world I’m glad at least this hasn’t changed as the decades come and go.

Last night when I was out walking I was thinking about how old I was getting. 👴 I think it’s pretty remarkable that I am now closer to 40 than 30. Your mid 30s are a time when a lot of things change in your life. People come and go. Regardless of your best hopes, time marches on. Not all changes are good but many are and you have to accept what life gives you, and scrimp and save for a better tomorrow.

I promise myself I not order anything more from AliExpress. I was reading how bad those discount sites are for squandering your money. 💸You check to see if a certain product has shipped and then you end up adding another 50 cent component. 🔌 Sure, I could use more transistors. You have to plan ahead as it takes a while to ship so you end up buying things for projects yet seriously considered for building.🔬 I promise myself I will stay off that site.

Looking forward to upgrading to Bionic Beaver and QGIS 3.0. The final beta of Bionic Beaver, aka Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is out so I’m thinking about upgrading my laptop to the beta this weekend.💻 As I was noting yesterday, QGIS 3.0 has a lot or great features and speed improvements in want to take advantage of going forward.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Arbor Day 🌳 when the sun will be setting at 7:51 pm with dusk at 8:22 pm. On that day in 2017, we had cloudy skies and temperatures between 73 and 57 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 63 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1962.