Waiting in Line for Star Wars

@john2001plus
0 minutes ago
That wasn't my grandparents waiting in line to watch Star Wars. That was me.

You Should Code in Game Boy Assembly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SHaveLOt0M&lc=UgxyCe6jOiZMGWIiOrt4AaABAg.APw4PbvXIM9APw5MaHKUZr

Highlighted reply

@systemoflevers
2 minutes ago
I have been wondering if all the game boy programming then was in assembly or if anyone was using something like C




@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
 @systemoflevers  There were no C compilers.   I'm not sure how optimal C code would be.   It is a slow processor that mostly does 8-bit math.  There is some limited 16-bit math, but you don't want to use 16-bits if you only need 8.  To have optimal code you need to be aware of your register usage and plan things out.  For most things it might not matter, but you also don't want to waste limited cartridge space with unnecessary code.

My first week I didn't have the development system until Friday.  I spent my first four days reading manuals.  On Friday I wrote code to calculate a car skidding around a curve.  It might have been 1 or 2 lines of C code, but it took 90 lines of assembly and most of the day to write.

Fwd: The most beautiful idea in physics

FYI.

---------- Forwarded message ---------

On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 8:17 PM Grant wrote:

Incredible nature is one reason I believe in God.  As stated in the interview, "ït all comes together"  Physics is beautiful. 

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: John Coffey

To: Grant

Grant,

I have a similar viewpoint.  I am not an atheist.  I like pantheism, but I am more of an agnostic.

I tend to believe in a generic concept of God, but this presents philosophical questions that I am not comfortable with.  Those would be, "Who made God?" and "Why is there something instead of nothing?"   My point is that we believe that all events have a cause, so every event must have had another event that preceded it.  Does this go back in time forever?   Every possible answer I can come up with makes no sense.  Either there was a first event or there wasn't.  If there was a first event, what caused it?

If we believe that God is eternal going in both time directions, then we might as well believe in a universe that is eternal in both time directions.  Believing in God might be wishful thinking.

--

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

In loving memory

Seven years ago I wrote this on Facebook...

"I should have smiled, but I was fiddling with the camera to take a selfie.
We had a nice meal at the Sirloin Stockade. I ate too much turkey. 🙂"

Infected

Although my forehead scanner never showed a fever, my temperature at the Doctor's office was 100.  My normal is 97 and change.

I still feel sick.   For now I don't feel as bad as the last two days.  Two days ago I had intense shivering.

My doctor thinks that I am fighting a viral infection.  Everybody tells me, "there is stuff going around."   People have told me that either they or a family member have been sick.

I didn't trust the expired COVID tests that I used two days ago.  One of the tests initially showed a solid color on the line that shows that you are infected, but then the line became clear.  This is odd, and in my mind made the test invalid.  This created some confusion on my part as to whether or not I have COVID.

Yesterday I bought a new COVID test that also tests for two kinds of flu.  The results were negative for COVID and the flu.

--

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Chess for Babies?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWqKWyiCmyg&t=77s

I doubt that babies are capable of abstract thinking.  (BTW, the games on this video are really interesting.)

I remember that at a young age, maybe 9 or 10, I was fascinated with any kind of grid, like a tiled surface.  I would imagine a ball traveling along a diagonal and bouncing off an edge at a right angle and continuing on bouncing off other edges.  This was long before ball and paddle video games were invented that did essentially the same thing.  

My point is that humans have a natural fascination with geometric patterns and chess is a geometric game.

Free Brown County vacation?

I received a card in the mail offering a free hotel stay in Brown County along with $150 in cash. The fine print said it was a promotional offer, but I wasn't sure what the scam was.  Offers like this are sometimes tied to timeshare pitches, or they might require you to sign up for a service that charges you every month.

In any case, nobody is going to give you $150 in cash without a major catch.  I threw the card away.

Lately, I've been thinking, "There's always a catch."  I don't just mean promotional offers — it seems to me that most things in life come with hidden downsides. Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but it feels like that's true more often than not.  (For example, several things I've bought have broken within a year or two.)

--

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Keeping Score on the NES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WahER4-nl08

@john2001plus
8 minutes ago (edited)
It has been 25 years since I wrote video games, but I never bothered with BCD numbers.  I was aware that they existed, but the whole time that I was doing machine code from 1976 to 2000, I never bothered to learn how they worked.  I assumed that they were a leftover from when 4-bit processors were doing math on calculators.

How then did I display scores?  I converted binary numbers to decimal digits.   I didn't know about the Double Dabble algorithm.  The more complicated way to do it involves a bunch of compares and maybe some division.

Problems with Internet Access after Mac OS Update

My iMac is dual-boot, meaning it can start up in either macOS or Windows 10. I mostly use the now-outdated Windows 10, but yesterday I switched to macOS to learn app programming. While using macOS, I was prompted to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system. I accepted the upgrade, which took about an hour. Everything worked fine afterward, both in macOS and when I switched back to Windows 10.

However, after leaving my computer in "sleep" mode overnight, I found in the morning that Windows 10 could no longer access the Internet. My other computer and my phone could connect without any problem.

I tried the obvious fixes — rebooting the gateway (router) and restarting the computer a couple of times — but nothing worked. When I switched to macOS, it connected to the Internet just fine. Then I set up a hotspot on my phone, and Windows 10 was able to access the Internet through that, which told me it wasn't a hardware issue and likely not a problem with the gateway.

I suspected that upgrading macOS might have caused the Boot Camp drivers used by Windows to become outdated. So, in macOS, I formatted a flash drive and used Boot Camp Assistant to copy the latest drivers onto it. Then I rebooted into Windows and reinstalled the drivers.

Initially, that didn't seem to help. I was about to call Comcast technical support, but I decided to reboot the gateway one more time. For a few seconds after restarting it, the Internet still didn't work — and then suddenly, Windows connected.

Apparently, the fix was a combination of updating the Boot Camp drivers and rebooting the gateway.

“If you encounter a bear...”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83uIwfsA8k

I'm not going hiking anywhere a bear might decide to have me for lunch.

population of utah

https://www.google.com/search?q=population+of+utah

When I moved to Utah in 1993, the population was between 1.8 and 1.9 million.  When I left Utah in 2015, it was 2.75 million.

Watch "The Earthquake Bed That Turns Into a Life-Saving Shelter"

On Sat, Aug 30, 2025 at 11:56 AM Albert wrote:

Now, if only the rescuers knew you are inside a metal coffin buried in the building debris. Then again the building may catch fire and you will literally be baked upon being discovered. It's a unique idea, possibly life saving, except for the "what ifs" of earthquakes.

https://youtube.com/shorts/aUiL70SDgVI?si=0JesJnHa1wVrIPv4

The only earthquake I experienced was around 1987 in southern Indiana. It was mild, and earthquakes aren't a major risk in Indiana.

In Utah, there were reports of mild tremors, but none that affected me. The Wasatch mountain range follows a fault line that experts predict could cause a major earthquake someday.

I'm more concerned about tornadoes.  We live in Tornado Alley.  After moving to New Whiteland, Indiana, I saw what looked like a funnel cloud in Greenwood, and then the news reported a tornado hitting Greenwood.  Year later, after I moved to Columbus, Whiteland was hit by a tornado.

Bartholomew County, where I live now, had three tornado warnings this spring, though none of them hit the city. About three years ago, a tornado-related windstorm knocked down trees all over the city, including trees across the street from me.  At the time, I thought my house was being hit by a tornado, but the actual funnel touched down on the west side of the county.

My sister's house was hit by a tornado.

When I was living in Columbus in 1974, a tornado struck the city and caused moderate damage. It destroyed one of my favorite restaurants. I was 14 years old at the time.

In the late 1980s, while living in Scott County, Indiana, I was relatively close to a tornado that hit Austin.

Back in 1999, there was a very rare summer tornado that struck downtown Salt Lake City. I lived near downtown, but I worked farther away in Sandy, Utah, where the storm only brought hail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Salt_Lake_City_tornado

John Coffey - The Doom Wiki at DoomWiki.org

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/John_Coffey

Obituary for Paul A. Belding

https://www.sawyerfuneralservice.com/obituary/Paul-Belding

John Coffey #32

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13954741/?ref_=ttfc_fcr_cr

My vision "problem"

For the past 4 to 5 days, my vision has been temporarily going dark at least five times a day, particularly in my good eye—the one that was operated on.

These episodes are usually triggered by minor exertion or even by coughing, and they last between 2 to 7 seconds. It was especially frightening when it happened while I was driving—once on US 50 and another time on I-65.

The symptoms resemble postural hypotension, which occurs when blood momentarily drains from the head due to standing up quickly or other exertion. I've experienced this occasionally since I was a teenager.

Today, I saw my optometrist to rule out retinal detachment, a potentially serious complication of cataract surgery. Fortunately, he said my eye looks healthy.

I also visited my primary care doctor because I felt some difficulty breathing. He listened to my lungs and ordered blood tests. He gave me samples of an expensive asthma inhaler, which may help, because I was first diagnosed with asthma two decades ago while living in Salt Lake City.

I believe I can improve my health by losing weight, and I'm actively working on that.

Playing DOOM on the PC

I had not played DOOM for at least 15 years.  Playing it again makes me happy.  This is partly because of nostalgia, but I think that the game play is the best.

Playing on the Ultra Violent difficulty level feels a bit stressful.  This used to be no problem, but I struggle to get through the levels.  The game has "jump scares" where monsters will suddenly ambush you.

The resolution of DOOM is only 320x200.  This wasn't much of an issue back in 1993, where standard CRT monitors were typically 640x480.  But playing on a modern screen makes the game look chunky.  This is similar to my vision before my recent cataract surgery.  BTW, the SNES and Gameboy Advance versions ran at half this resolution, making the game look even more blurry.

There are alternate downloadable DOOM engines that support higher resolution and maybe more detailed graphics.

OG Doom Tested On High-End 1993 PC - How Well Did It Actually Run?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cpITc1Rrlw

@john2001plus
My first Intel computer was a 486 33 MHz in 1995.  It cost $1200, and I played Doom on it.  At the time, I didn't notice any problem with performance.  I would upgrade the processor a step at a time to 66 MHz and later 100 MHz.  I needed 66 MHz to play Descent, which was more demanding.

The recent Doom news has caused me to click on Doom videos.  (Randy Linden is coming out with a new version of SNES Doom, and I briefly worked with him on the original SNES Doom released in 1995.)  The more I click on Doom videos, the more Doom videos YouTube recommends to me.

This has prompted me to play Doom again.  My current computer is an i7-10700K.  I was a Doom fanatic back in 1995, and I am surprised at how fun it is to play the game again.

My role on the SNES port of Doom

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qxWJFBVwlnc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5PknJvplKg&t=1823s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSlmVbAM_kA&t=4473s

@john2001plus
1 year ago 
1:14:31 I am grateful that Randy keeps bringing up my name in these interviews. My role was minor since I worked on many projects. I don't specifically remember editing levels, but it was so long ago that I don't recall. I know that we were trying to reduce the size of the game to fit on a cartridge. I believe that I was involved in massaging the data, which is something I did on multiple games, especially Dirt Trax FX.

My Vision Two Days After Cataract Surgery

Two days ago I had cataract surgery on my good eye. 

I went for a short drive. They said I could drive as soon as I was comfortable driving. I tested my vision by trying to read a store sign. My vision is not perfect, but maybe I'm seeing 20:30 or 20:40. That's about what I'm used to.  Maybe this will get better, or maybe it won't.  Maybe glasses can improve my vision further.

Due to the antibiotics they injected, in 29 hours I went from almost blind in that eye to seeing clearly.  The first day I could barely see anything.

Now that I'm no longer as nearsighted, my up-close vision is terrible.  They are making me wait three weeks to get a prescription for reading glasses.

I am going to get some cheap store reading glasses to get by.

--

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Vision

  My vision has been improving throughout the day.

I just walked outside and was impressed by how clearly I could see distant objects. My main issue now is that I can't see up close very well. Before the surgery, I had the opposite problem—I was about 7 diopters nearsighted. Now, I may have shifted to being slightly farsighted.

I need reading glasses, but my optometrist wants to wait three weeks before prescribing them.  

How many computers do we own?

https://interestingcompute.blogspot.com/2025/06/computers.html

From Facebook March 24, 2020

I was born at a time that made my life a transition between the old and the new. The people who came before me went through the Great Depression, World War II, and the Korean war. The technology of the 1960s was hardly distinguishable from the 1950s. The cars were practically the same. I didn't get a color television until the mid-1970s. High tech was a transistor radio.

In the early to mid-1970's I was very interested in electronics because at the time that was about as high tech as you could get. However, when the most primitive computers imaginable started to emerge around 1975, I became immediately hooked because I could see that this is where the future was headed.

John Coffey

NES Games Were Written in Assembly

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kFjSxwijItU

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
I wrote games in Assembly for the SNES, Gameboy Color, Atari ST, and Timex Sinclair 2068.

10 Year Old Wins Utah Speed Chess Championship

Note the date:

https://chessplayeratlarge.blogspot.com/2009/02/10-year-old-wins-utah-speed-chess.html

The press always gets details wrong and reported this as a ten year old winning the state championship.

When Kayden was 8, I was only scoring about 50% against him.  He looked so small, but was playing very well.  My overall results against him went quickly downhill from there.  However, when he was 12 and almost a master, I won 1 out of 2 against him in a subsequent speed chess championship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayden_Troff

Sugar Consumption, Date format

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xHXtGsKq5JU

The International ISO Standard for dates is YYYY-MM-DD.  I have been using this format for at least 15 years.  

In the computer world, this is called "Big Endian", where the largest value numbers come first.  Many computer processors use this format for numbers, although Intel and Intel-compatible processors use "Little Endian", where the least significant part of the number comes first.  "Big Endian" has a small advantage because it is easier to sort records using this format.

Greenwood Chess Club 10nth Anniversary!

Thanks for supporting the Greenwood Chess Club.

Columbus Chess Club Last Night

Here's what happened at the Columbus Chess Club last night:

Last week, we had a new player join us—Leno. He's from Brazil and is currently a summer intern at Cummins Engine Company. Based on his play, I'd estimate he's about a Class C player.

This week, four more new players showed up. Two of them are brothers, and one is Leno's roommate. Although they claimed Chess.com ratings in the 950–1100 range, they played surprisingly well against both James and me. They are comparable to James.  He struggled against them, and I even lost one myself, so I think that they are in the B class.

With 11 players in attendance, our small meeting space felt a bit crowded.

Chess is more popular than ever, and seeing new, stronger players emerge in Columbus is a welcome development.

Eli is a 13-year-old about to turn 14.  He plays astonishingly well. My record against him was only slightly positive. His mother brought him to the club late last night, and he scored 3 out of 5 against me.

Eli has an Expert-level understanding of his openings. I wasn't well prepared for his repertoire, which is something I can work on. Our games are intense positional battles, which remind me of playing masters, and I believe he has real potential to become one.

Although Eli calculates very well, I sometimes manage to spot tactics that he overlooks. Also, if I can reach an endgame against him, I usually win.

Due to other commitments, Eli can only attend the club occasionally.

Since I'm officially ranked 27th in the state, I've enjoyed the status of being the top player in Columbus, once by a wide margin. That distinction may no longer hold, but I welcome the challenge of stronger competition.


Best wishes,

John Coffey

When was the clock radio invented?

In the mid-1970s, while I was a teenager, I was thrilled to get a clock radio.  It meant that I could wake to music and news.    I don't remember for sure, but I think that I got up between 6:30 to 7:00 to catch a roughly 7:30 to 7:45 bus, which traveled less than 2 miles, and I was in class by 8:00.  As I recall, our school got out some time between 3:00 and 3:30.

"The first radio alarm clock was reportedly invented in the 1940s by James F. Reynolds and Paul L. Schroth Sr. While these inventors are credited, the origins of the clock radio are somewhat unclear, with no official U.S. Patent Office record. The Sony Dream Machine, released in 1968, is considered a notable early example of a clock radio featuring a snooze button and AM/FM radio. 
Elaboration:
Early Inventors:
James F. Reynolds and Paul L. Schroth Sr. are widely credited with the invention of the first radio alarm clock in the 1940s. 
Lack of Official Record:
The exact details of the clock radio's invention are not documented in the U.S. Patent Office, leaving some ambiguity about the precise timeline. 
Early Models:
While Reynolds and Schroth are credited, the exact models they invented are not widely documented. The Sony Dream Machine, released in 1968, is considered a landmark clock radio. 
Evolution:
Early clock radios were large and heavy, but they evolved into more compact and portable models, including those with digital displays and additional features like smartphone charging stations. "
https://www.google.com/search?q=when+was+the+clock+radio+invented&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS1160US1160&oq=when+was+the+clock+radi&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBggBEEUYOTIICAIQABgWGB4yCAgDEAAYFhgeMggIBBAAGBYYHjINCAUQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAYQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAcQABiGAxiABBiKBTIKCAgQABiABBiiBDIKCAkQABiABBiiBNIBCDY3NTBqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

L3 Airport Security Scanner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BciNv4LKC68&t=700s

The airport scanner's logo is L3, which is a company I worked for from 2001 to 2014.

I left Utah ten years ago today

I left Utah ten years ago today—on Cinco de Mayo.

This followed three intense days of packing. I only took what could fit in my car; everything else I sold or gave away. The car was packed so full that I couldn't squeeze in a single extra item. I even had to mail a box of pans I'd bought on Black Friday to my new home in New Whiteland, Indiana. (It's still hard to believe my car was so full that there wasn't room for a box of pans.)

I had planned to leave around 10:30 in the morning because I had a hotel reservation in Nebraska. But I wasn't ready until about 3:30 in the afternoon, and I didn't arrive at my hotel until around 1:00 AM. I remember liking Ogallala, Nebraska—a small town in the middle of nowhere—with a kind of quiet charm.

I had lived in Salt Lake City for over 22 years. I liked Utah; it had a profound impact on my life and career. I worked three jobs, moving from the video game industry to a major military contractor. I also spent 22 years running a chess club I started, organized tournaments, and served on the board of directors of the Utah Chess Association.

As I left Salt Lake City, I stopped on I-80 just before entering Parleys Canyon. I stepped out of the car for about 30 seconds—right there on the highway—just to take one last look at the place I had called home for more than two decades. Even though I loved Salt Lake City, I told myself that my future lay ahead. Then I got back in the car, and as I drove into the mountains, Salt Lake City disappeared from view.

i7-7700K (2017) iMac problems

After selling my 2017 i5 iMac to a woman from Scottsburg and setting up my 2020 iMac, I needed to prepare my recently purchased 2017 iMac (with an i7-7700K) for resale.

The first step was to remove the Windows partition and erase everything on the computer — and that's where the problems began.

I used Boot Camp to remove the Windows partition I had previously created, which should have reclaimed the 1.6 TB I had allocated to Windows. While the program successfully deleted the partition, it reported an error when attempting to reclaim the storage space. I then tried using Disk Utility (the Mac partition tool), which also failed and told me to try running it from Recovery Mode, which didn't work.  A few years ago, I tried the same thing on my old, dying 2009 iMac, and that attempt had failed too.

Newer iMacs have a built-in feature to securely erase everything automatically, but while the option exists in macOS, it doesn't actually function on older models. So, the recommended method is to boot into Recovery Mode, reformat the drive, and reinstall the OS — a process I had successfully completed on the iMac I just sold.

Unfortunately, the 2017 iMac with the i7 processor reformatted the drive but threw an error during the OS installation. It simply refuses to install. At this point, I have a $400 paperweight with no operating system.

I'm starting to wonder if the 2 TB hard drive might be defective.  It is, after all, an eight-year-old computer.

Next, I'll try creating a bootable USB flash drive with the macOS installer using my 2020 iMac. According to everything I've read online, that's the recommended next step if the OS won't install through Recovery Mode.  It is probably what the repair shop would try.

My Lengthy iMac Story

My Lengthy iMac Story:

Because of rapid advancements, computers quickly become outdated. From 1995 to 2010, I bought a new computer roughly every five years. I remember telling my coworkers in 2001 that my new machine could boot up in just 2.5 minutes—they were impressed. But how could a computer I considered "fast" in 2001 feel like junk by 2005? And the cycle repeated itself in 2010.

However, during the 2010s, the pace of chip improvements slowed. Companies were touting only 5–10% performance gains each year. A big reason was that it became increasingly difficult to shrink chip circuits. Intel got stuck at 14 nanometers. It wasn't until 2020, when Apple introduced its M-series chips—starting at 6nm and shrinking to 4nm—that we saw a meaningful leap forward. Much of the credit goes to TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), which produces chips for Apple and many other companies.

My first Intel-compatible computer, which I bought in 1995, cost $1,200. It was a barebones 486 running at 33 MHz, lacking features that are standard today. Over time, I Frankensteined it—adding a sound card, optical drive, better processors—one component at a time. By the time I had spent $3,000 on it, it was so obsolete that it made more sense to just buy a new machine. Newer computers came with all the features pre-installed and cost much less.

In 2010, I bought an iMac because I wanted to do iPhone app development. It cost $2,000, already discounted from the original $2,400 price. If I had known it would take me so long to get into development, I probably wouldn't have bothered. I could have bought an equivalent PC for about a third less.

That 2010 iMac had a quad-core 2.8 GHz i7 processor with hyperthreading. At the time, it felt incredibly powerful—a huge upgrade from anything I'd used before. I told myself the higher cost was justified since it would last ten years.

About three years in, the power supply failed. One issue with iMacs—and all-in-one computers in general—is that they're harder to repair and more prone to overheating due to their compact design. By 2018, the power supply was failing again. A repair shop told me several components were on the verge of dying and that fixing it would be cost-prohibitive. By 2019, the machine was completely dead.

So, in 2019, I went shopping for another iMac. I found a used 2017 i5 model—twice as fast as my old one—for $1,050, which was a fair price at the time. I wanted an i7 version with hyperthreading, but those were going for $1,950 used.

By 2023, even this second iMac felt slow. The Android development tools I needed were nearly unusable due to performance issues. I realized I needed a faster computer—just a Windows machine for Android work. I could still use the iMac for iPhone development. So I bought a mini-PC with a 4nm AMD chip—five times faster than the iMac and capable of booting Windows 11 in just 7 seconds. Amazing.

However, mini-PCs can suffer the same heat issues as all-in-ones. They all use laptop components and compact cases. After 14 months of heavy use, mine overheated and died. It took three months to get repaired in China. Interestingly, the machine I got back was a bit faster. It was the same case, but I suspect some internals were swapped. The company wouldn't tell me what they fixed.

Then, in March 2025, a series of storms in Indiana triggered the next chapter in this saga. After several power flickers, my iMac died the next day. I brought it to a repair shop and, learning my lesson, bought a couple of surge protectors—which I highly recommend.

With my mini-PC still in China, I was stuck using an old laptop. Surprisingly, it streamed video just fine.

Worried that the iMac repair would be expensive, I started browsing for replacements. On Facebook Marketplace, I found a 2017 i7 iMac in Louisville—the same model that used to cost $1,950—for just $400. It was 60% faster than my i5. I was ready to buy it. But two things changed my mind: First, my i5 repair ended up costing just $50—a power supply cable replacement. Second, I admitted to the seller that I was nervous about the long trip to the south side of Louisville. I told him I didn't need two iMacs. He suggested I could sell my old one and even dropped his price by $50. That sealed the deal. I drove to Louisville on a day of severe flooding, had to turn around, and eventually found another route.

After buying the i7, I listed my i5 for $300. A buyer was interested, but I accidentally cracked the glass front while handling it. The shop quoted $500 for the repair. Although the crack is minor, the buyer backed out. I lowered the price to $200 and plan to keep reducing it until someone bites.

Meanwhile, Facebook kept showing me more iMac listings. Two 2020 i7 models appeared—one in Louisville, one in Carmel—both for $500. The Carmel one had more RAM and storage, making it more appealing. These newer models were twice as fast as my recent purchase and came with SSDs, which makes a big difference. I started wanting one of these instead.

The catch: the Carmel seller mentioned a scratch and a tiny crack on the right side of the screen. Since I was already dealing with a cracked-glass problem, I initially passed. The next day, the price dropped to $430, and then today to $380. I messaged the seller, drove to Carmel in more stormy weather, and saw that the damage was very minimal—so I bought it. A great deal.

Now, I'm trying to sell two iMacs.

P.S. Yesterday, my barber told me her old laptop takes 25 minutes to boot. I suggested adding more memory, but she didn't even know what that meant. I offered to take a look at it for her.

Coffee

Raging Indiana Waterfall Pours Floodwater Onto Cars Below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WsCbanZey4

When we lived in Madison, Indiana, during the 1960s, we used to pass this waterfall all the time. Most of the time, it was just a trickle.

Madison is divided into two parts: one lies along the Ohio River, while the other sits much higher in elevation, with a couple of roads connecting the two areas.

'This is wild' | Columbus neighbors react to historic Bartholomew County floods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fivCkAzwoY

The flood peaked two days ago.  The day before, I took State Road 46 to get to the Interstate so I could get to Louisville.  State Road 46 was flooded the next day.

Reflections on America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIEo3rG2wME

@john2001plus

0 seconds ago
There are many restaurants in America, mostly chains, where one can enjoy a nice meal for $20 to $40. This is how most Americans dine out when not opting for fast food.

Cornbread is not cake; it is a dense bread. While I'm not particularly fond of the taste, it pairs well with BBQ, chili, or beans.

Many large cities in the United States have become dysfunctional, or they contain areas you'd want to avoid. Smaller cities tend to be the best places to live.

My Computer Being Shipped Back From China

My mini-computer, which took 41 days to ship to China using USPS, was shipped back to me on Monday using DHL Express.  It has already reached Indianapolis.  

https://t.17track.net/zh-cn?spm=a2g0s.imconversation.0.0.54c13e5f4Bq0lP#nums=9502219484

Another strong storm hits Bartholomew County; 15,000 homes lose power, some roads closed

https://www.localnewsdigital.com/2025/03/30/another-strong-storm-hits-bartholomew-county/

On the way to Indianapolis near Taylorsville I saw one damaged roof and a large road sign apparently blown over.

Update on Mini Comptuer

As I previously posted, my mini PC overheated and died in early January. After arguing with the manufacturer in China, they directed me to contact the seller—also based in China—for warranty service.

Fortunately, the seller agreed to honor the warranty, provided I sent the computer to them. I paid $83 for USPS shipping, and the package took 41 days to reach China. This was unusual, as I typically receive packages from China in three weeks or less. USPS tracking showed the package arriving in Chicago, departing, and then inexplicably returning to Chicago about a month later. At that point, I suspected there was an issue with shipping it to China and thought it was being returned to me. However, a few days later, it finally showed up in China.

After another week, the seller informed me that they would repair the computer. A week later, when I asked for an update, they said the repair would take one to two months.

Surprisingly, just a week after that, they said the computer was fixed and would be shipped back to me. I suspect that they had to replace the entire motherboard.

Assuming I receive it and it works properly, I want to prevent the overheating issue I experienced before when running the CPU at 100%. I originally bought this computer for its high performance, and the manufacturer had claimed that its cooling system could handle the heat.

One option is to lower the TDP from 55 watts to 45 watts, which the BIOS allows. This would reduce performance slightly but also decrease heat output. I could take a more extreme approach and reduce it further to 35 watts.

I should point out that some people on YouTube report boosting the TDP to 65 watts for better performance. A competing manufacturer does this by default with the same processor.

Apple is good at running its processors at about half the wattage. However, the M2 chip only gets half the performance.

Storm

I was working on my computer when an alarm went off on my phone, followed by a citywide tornado siren and multiple tornado warning alerts and texts.

The last two warnings, both from this month, were for tornadoes near the edges of the county, far from my location.

I did the only reasonable thing: I stepped outside to check out the weather. I wasn't the only one.  Just to the west, some ominous black storm clouds were gathering. It slowly started to rain, so I took shelter inside. The Weather Bug app indicated a fast-moving storm system overhead.

Then, the power went out. The storm sounded intense, so I temporarily hid in a large closet. It passed after a few minutes.

The power company sent a text estimating the outage would last until 2:15 AM.

The power came back on after about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

I wonder whether there was actually a tornado.

Two years ago, a tornado on the far west side of the county caused a massive burst of wind in Columbus, knocking down trees all over the city, including on a property across the street. That storm sounded worse; I genuinely thought my house was about to be hit by a tornado.

--
Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

How smart is AI really?

For fun, I searched Google for "John Coffey USCF Rating"

Google's AI came back with this response:

John Coffey, a retired software engineer and chess expert, has an Expert standard Over-The-Board (OTB) rating and has given chess lessons for 37 years.
Here's a summary of what's known about John Coffey's chess background:

Occupation: Retired Software Engineer
Chess Expertise: Expert standard OTB rating
Chess Teaching: Has given lessons at chess clubs for 37 years
Online Presence: You can find his free lessons on http://www.entertainmentjourney.com



At first, I wondered how Google's AI knew so much about me, but then I realized that this response echoes my Profile on chess.com, which reads...

"Hello.  My name is John Coffey.  I am a retired Software Engineer.  I have an Expert standard OTB rating and have given lessons at chess clubs for 37 years.  You can find my free lessons on http://www.entertainmentjourney.com, along with other interesting stuff."

My initial impression of ChatGPT was that it was just a Wikipedia that could talk.  However, for about a month, I have been letting it touch my writing, and it does an amazing job. 

 

The OLDEST websites EVER

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bdmmkwoketM

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
Was there a website in 1986? I used the text-only Internet from around 1989 to 1995. I didn't download Netscape until around 1995, and the Internet was so sparse that I didn't know what to do with it.

BTW, I was a programmer on the Space Jam video game.

Tornado Warning in Columbus Indiana Last Night

I was woken up in the middle of the night by a city-wide tornado siren. I was tired and didn't hear any severe weather other than distant thunder. Thinking it wasn't necessary to get out of bed, I checked my phone for alerts. There was a tornado warning for Columbus, but the tornado didn't seem to be nearby.

The siren stopped after about three minutes but started again. When it stopped for the second time, I was able to go back to sleep.

I can't find much in the news about it, but I'd like to know where the tornado was.  A couple of years ago there was a tornado in the western part of the county that created a severe wind that knocked down trees all over the city.

https://www.localnewsdigital.com/2025/03/15/136944/

Today it is threatening to storm outside.

The Problem with Laptops and Heat - and the problem with Apple computers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq9O99TgFv4

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
0:34 It is ironic that the video features the Minisforum UM790 Pro. Mine overheated and died after 14 months of heavy use. I argued with the manufacturer about the warranty, but they told me that the seller on AliExpress was responsible for warranty service. The seller agreed to inspect it if I shipped it to China. It took six weeks to arrive, and now the seller is examining the dead computer to determine whether they will provide warranty service. Mini computers use mobile components, making them similar to laptops. I now realize that a mini-computer is unlikely to have adequate cooling.

The Stupidity Epidemic: Why Critical Thinking is Dying

This is well-stated and completely on point.

It appeals to my biases. 🙂

John Coffey - IMDb

I have a page on IMDB, which I discovered by accident. If you search online for John Coffey, the results will be about The Green Mile.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13954741/?ref_=fn_all_nme_20

This is not as complete as this list:

https://www.mobygames.com/person/133588/john-coffey/

which itself is not complete.

The 59th Street Bridge Song

Something cheery for a Monday Morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QwxTXGSLWQ

Star Wars Youtuber gives detailed response to my question

My question was in response to a previous video in which he ascribed weird motives to people who enjoyed "The Acolyte" series. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7UFFjM_LCU

Diana Muldaur

I am always astonished at the passage of time.

Diana Muldaur played three different characters on Star Trek.  Right now I am watching an episode of the original series, Return to Tomorrow, where she is referred to as a young woman.  She was 29.5 when the episode aired.  I remember seeing this episode a very long time ago.

Twenty years later when she played in the second season of Star Trek The Next Generation, she was 50.  Her character, Doctor Pulaski, was interesting but the character had mixed reactions from the fans.  She was not invited back for the third season.

She stopped acting in 1993.   But she has come out of retirement to play in an upcoming film called Finding Hannah.  She is 86.

Time has a way of speaking up on all of us.

--

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

The Story of Chunk the Groundhog. Narrated by Gardener Jeff.

Been watching this guy occasionally on YouTube for years. There are only so many videos of groundhogs I can find entertaining, but it is cute.

https://youtu.be/3nS6OqHT7aU?si=0FS3JbHHy_hsJsAS

The guy fortified his garden but started putting out vegetables for the groundhogs so that he could record them for his YouTube channel.

A long time ago my father advised to never feed wild animals. You make them dependent. Animals know how to find food. However, I'm more worried about rabies, which is a deadly disease and especially common among raccoons. I've saw a video of a kind old lady feeding a bunch of raccoons. This can be dangerous.

Why The US Navy Really Needs This One Forest in Indiana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnpSDfHn8fs

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
Indiana is an "F" tier state?  Indiana is an industrial powerhouse with vast amounts of farmland and natural forests.  Columbus, Indiana, where I grew up and retired 40 years later, was determined to be the safest small city in the country.  The city is also famous for its architecture and is the worldwide headquarters of Cummins Engine Company.