Category Archives: Technology

The Cicadas Are Coming!

Posted on May 16, 2013 | 2 Comments
insects.tamu.edu

insects.tamu.edu

The online news media has been anticipating the arrival of Brood II cicadas since the first daffodils bloomed. Here’s the coverage in a nutshell…

“There will be 30 million of them!”

“They’re coming! They’re coming!”

“Hundreds have been spotted in North Carolina” (which probably means an anonymous phone caller asked “I found this weird bug. What do you think it is?”)

“Really! They’re coming!”

“They’re hatching in southern Virginia!” (I live a few miles from the North Carolina border, which to me means southern Virginia. Ain’t seen, heard, nor smelt any yet.)

However, I like cicadas.

Anything that bumps politicians and celebrities off the news is a good thing.

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Things You and I Wouldn’t Really Say

Posted on May 9, 2013 | 1 Comment

balloon

There are some wonderful quotes throughout history. However, what some people would say would be very different from such wonderful literary quotations.

“I want to die with you, Wendy, on the streets tonight in an everlasting kiss.” – Bruce Springsteen; “Born to Run”

“Hey, baby, you’re like, not-too-bad,”

“I came. I saw. I conquered.’ – Julius Casesar

“General, in accordance with reference (a) [OPORDER 12345], objective achieved 23hours 10 minutes Zulu.Over.”

“I regret that I have but one life to give for my country!”- Nathan Hale upon being hanged as a Yankee spy.

“Ngggh”

“The torch has been passed to a new generation…” John F. Kennedy, Inaugural speech.

“Hey, dude, you’re old, go away.”

“That’s one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armsrtong, the first man on the moon.

“Ha! Take that Madonna, and Kanye and everybody else. I did it! Me! Ha! Take that you losers!”

Maybe that’s why we look up to those people who said it first, and better..

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Posted in Actor, Arts, Blog, Celebrity, Communications, Culture, Education, Friends, History, Humor, Media, People, Philosophy, Technology

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What Am I Missing?

Posted on May 6, 2013 | 1 Comment

 

cell

I must be missing out on a great part of life without even knowing it. While I know I’m missing “it,” I don’t know what “it” is. Others seem to be massively engaged, while I’m left out of the excitement.

I speak, of course, of the people who must constantly be talking on their cell phones. They drive with their phone to their ear, walk while talking on the phone and even shop while similarly engaged.

It must be important, because they seem to speak loudly and with great excitement.

I suppose a top legal expert or a neurosurgeon might have to consult at a moment’s notice, but since I see a lot of this activity at Wal-Mart, I suspect that these are not necessarily among the highest paid in-demand professionals.

Are they getting advice on which breakfast cereal has the highest fiber content? The best canned asparagus? Which box of wine is most highly rated?

Whatever it is, it sure must be important, and I feel left out.

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Posted in Philosophy, Blog, Business, Technology, Communications, People, Arts, Actor, Culture, Humor, Media

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Is Knowledge Power?

Posted on May 2, 2013 | 3 Comments

phren

We are a data driven society. Polls are taken regarding virtually any subject and consume far more of the media than the actual events they attempt to predict. Reliable instant communications allows twenty-four hour news to feed us information on scandals far and wide. We are shocked by the collapse of a clothing factory in Bangladesh or by the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria. We have access to unemployment data, Gross Domestic Product and how each affects Wall Street in real time.

We believe that if we decode all the data in DNA, we could recreate mammoths, or even dinosaurs.

Satellites feed us data to allow us to accurately predict the weather days in advance (except when the surprise severe storm appears.)

Does that make us powerful? I think not.

Knowledge is only powerful when it is used to make a decision and then execute that decision. If we read about a disaster and it causes us (and countless others) to make a donation to an organization that is helping out, that’s powerful. If knowing about a house fire causes us to check our smoke detectors and buy a fire extinguisher that means something.

Merely knowing is inconsequential. Knowing what to do with what you’ve learned is wherein the power lies.

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Doing Well / Doing Good

Posted on April 26, 2013 | 1 Comment

heal

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/25/news/economy/cancer-drug-cost/

The link above goes to a disturbing article about a drug company that has tripled the price of an anti-cancer drug because people literally can’t live without it.

There’s a huge difference between doing well and doing good. Novartis, the drug company is apparently doing well.

On the other hand, we have the example of Jesus curing everything up to – and including – death. The most He asked for was some hospitality.

I doubt that when we meet our maker, He’ll be impressed by our ROI (Return On Investment) or EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization).

I suspect He will judge us on WYDTLMB (Whatsoever You Do To the Least of My Brothers.)

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Danger! Doom! And Disaster!

Posted on April 23, 2013 | 3 Comments

Among all the doom and gloom that we read about every day, is one particularly troubling story.

Giant snails are invading Florida.

I lived in Florida for a few years, and remember my wife reading to me from a book about Florida. The book said you could describe Florida in one word.

Bugs.

Now I know snails are really terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs, but anything that makes you want to squish it qualifies as a bug in my book.

These snails are particularly nasty. They are Giant African Land Snails and get as big as rats while eating their way through stucco and plaster.

I believe that instead of panicking, we should act.

First, chill four cases of chardonnay.

Mix 100 pounds of butter with a quart of minced garlic and the juice and zest of two dozen lemons. Fire up the big grill and invite your friends over for an all-you-can-eat escargot party.

Better chill more chardonnay and add a couple of cases of beer.

grill

colbyandstacy.wordpress.com

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Science Fun

Posted on April 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

bird

I enjoy science, so naturally I enjoy the little scientifically based trinkets that demonstrate a scientific principle. In other words, they do something that can be done easier and more efficiently, but the trinkets do it in a creative way.

There’s the drinking bird that bobs as the liquid inside cools. There’s the Galileo thermometer with the different colored balls; which tell you the temperature. Then, of course, the radiometer – it looks like an old incandescent light bulb with four blades inside which spin wildly in sunlight – although there’s no way to harness the power. Finally, there’s the little frame with 5 balls hanging from it to demonstrate Newton’s Third Law – for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.

Naturally, I’m fair game at certain stores.

I bought a “floating pen” that balances on its tip within a magnetic base.

I took it out of the box and told my wife that I used to have one of these and they are so cool.

I placed the magnetic base on the table in front of her, and set the pen into it.

Instead of standing up, it immediately fell over.

My wife laughed so hard, she almost fell over.

Hey, maybe this is one more way to demonstrate Newton’s Third Law!

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Goodbye Windows XP

Posted on April 12, 2013 | 1 Comment

xp

In less than a year, Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft. This means no more updates, upgrades or security patches. For software, that’s pretty much the end.

Microsoft’s operating systems are like some families, there are winners, losers, and some family members we don’t even talk about.

Windows was Microsoft’s blatant attempt to have an operating system just like Apple’s. (See, it’s different; Apple has a trash can, Microsoft uses a recycling bin!!)

The first successful version of Windows was version 3.0. Version 1 and 2? Don’t ask.

For most of us, what came next was Windows 95 and 98 which were okay. An improvement here, an improvement there, but not earth shattering.

In 2000, Microsoft released Windows ME which was the first of Microsoft’s marketing efforts to get people to change to Apple computers. Windows ME was notable for its instability and was derided as “Mistake Edition” or “Many Errors.”

Everything up to this point Windows was a Graphical User Interface (GUI – pronounced gooey) bolted on top of the old command driven Disk Operating System (DOS). Basically you used a mouse to point and click and the computer essentially entered the equivalent old DOS command for you. However, a mouse was easier than remembering a couple of hundred commands each of which had to be typed in the exact correct manner. Windows XP eliminated this extra step and proved to be a robust reliable performer.

Totally unsubstantiated rumor has it that Microsoft realized that people would flock to whatever new operating system it released. If true, this would also mean that they wouldn’t have to make good operating systems every time.

If so, that would explain Windows Vista. Vista was universally recognized as a “target rich environment” for improvement. Many businesses elected to stay with or return to Windows XP. Everyone waited for the updates to correct the problems.

Microsoft’s solution was to release Windows 7; this meant you could buy what Windows Vista should have been rather than Microsoft correcting it. That was the bad news. The good news was that Windows 7 worked, was reliable and did most of the things that users wanted.

Then came Windows 8, supposedly for tablets, although it runs clumsily on laptops. Unfortunately, lots of people spell tablet “i-P-a-d” or else have something like a Kindle or Nook that uses its own operating system. Industry sources say that sales of PCs have dropped recently, and they believe the reason is that since the only option is Windows 8, people are holding off.

A winner, XP is being deep sixed. Windows 8, on the other hand…

I only recently took Windows XP off the only computer still running it and installed Windows 7.

At the same time, I updated 2 other computers by removing Windows 8 in favor of Windows 7.

So, to XP, I say, thanks for all the hard work. You’ll be remembered among geeks for a long time.

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The Church, Science and Mistakes

Posted on April 11, 2013 | Leave a comment
Pope Francis graduated as a chemical technician before moving on to study philosophy, psychology and theology. CNN (Link below)

Pope Francis graduated as a chemical technician before moving on to study philosophy, psychology and theology. CNN (Link below)

It seems as if many are watching the Vatican to see what Pope Francis is going to do. Lord knows there are mistakes to be cleaned up.

Being human, and being an expert at making mistakes, I accept the fact that churches and their leaders do the same.

My family is not particularly fond of my mistakes, and I’m not fond of the church’s mistakes.

The relationship between science and theology, for example. The church decided that the sun went around the earth, and when Galileo took a “responsible opposing view” the gloves came off.

The problem was that Galileo was right and the church was wrong.

CNN quoted Monsignor Tomasz Trafny, the Director of the Vatican’s Science and Faith Foundation as saying, “There was a time when theologians thought they understood everything… If you look at what is going on today you will see that theologians are very careful about what they are thinking or speaking about related to scientific issues.” [Click for CNN article]

This is good.

As much as I like the pastor at our church, he can’t seem to tell me why my car makes that funny noise, how to get my lawn to look better and we won’t even talk about how bad his advice was on my golf game.

Nevertheless, on spiritual matters he’s good to have around.

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Buzzards & Swallows

Posted on March 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

BuzzardTShirtToday is the day that the swallows return to Capistrano. Every year, like clockwork, they arrive on the feast of St. Joseph – March 19th.

Yesterday was Buzzard Day in northeast Ohio. That is when the buzzards return to Hinckley, Ohio – just a bit south of Cleveland. Buzzard Day is the Sunday following March 15.

Isn’t it amazing that all these birds know the exact date and where they’re supposed to be? Especially the buzzards who know to wait until the Sunday following the date.

I’m not buying it.

We have multibillion dollar airlines with state of the art airplanes and a federally operated air traffic control system. We have GPS, radar and autopilots.

Do we hit our scheduled arrival times as accurately?

Not a chance.

Most of the time they can’t even get you and your luggage to the same place at the same time.

Of course, the buzzards and swallows don’t have to print out their boarding passes at home, arrive at the point of departure an hour ahead of rime, pay for each piece of checked luggage and be searched by security.

Maybe that’s why they can keep a schedule.

(and, no, I don’t know why the font isn’t consistent!)

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Posted in Arts, Business, Celebrity, Communications, Culture, History, Holidays, Humor, Media, People, Philosophy, Science, Technology, TSA

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The World Ends! Again!

Posted on February 21, 2013 | 2 Comments
foxnews.com

foxnews.com

Like almost every other American, I have a smart phone, although I only use a few of its features. I do check e-mail, not so much to actually read all of it, but to skim through and see if there’s anything really interesting. The internet access is sometimes handy, although the slow speed and small screen are significant disincentives. The alarm clock comes in handy when I’m on the road.

When I access the phone, the home screen gives me the current weather – just basics like 23 degrees and clear or whatever. However, it has little gizmos to make the weather more entertaining. If it’s raining, a windshield wiper clears video raindrops off the screen, complete with wiper sounds. If it’s windy, I hear the sound of the wind and see clouds blow around the screen.

This morning, before the alarm went off I reached for my phone. The weather screen showed an asteroid streaking toward the earth accompanied by the sound of destruction and screaming.

I’d never known the smart phone to be wrong before, so I took immediate action. I’m a trained professional! I’ve dealt with all kinds of emergencies and disasters throughout my life, so I knew exactly how to handle this.

I immediately yanked the alarm clock power cord from the wall. I fluffed my pillow crawled back under my covers and reveled in the fact that the bed was so warm.

Rule #1: If the world is going to end, you might as well sleep in.

Turns out it was a glitch with the phone.

I still enjoyed the extra sleep.

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Posted in Communications, Culture, Education, Energy, Fiction, Future, History, Humor, Media, People, Philosophy, Religion, Solving Global Warming, Technology, Television

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The Good Stuff

Posted on February 7, 2013 | 3 Comments
Some of the good stuff -Music by the Moody Blues

Some of the good stuff -
Music by the Moody Blues

As you may have notice, lately I’ve been trying to write humor. Something to just cheer people up.

I look at the online news (CNN, FoxNews, NBCNews, etc.) and they are full of nothing but doom and gloom. Worse still, the stories that are real downers stay on their pages for exceptionally long times. It’s like they’re trying to milk tragedy for all it’s worth.

I know that the media believes, “If it bleeds – it leads.” Murder, for example, is going to make the headline on page 1 of the newspaper, while the good things (if they’re lucky) will end up on the middle page of the Sunday “Living” section next to the ad for hearing aids.

Therefore, if you want to be famous – kill somebody. Otherwise, if you’re really lucky and work real hard, you’ll end up with the hearing aids.

The media isn’t going to change. Sadly, they’re not going to wake up one morning to overpowering guilt and shame, repent and try to do good things. However, they ignore the fact that long term, this is not an effective tactic.

The most experienced practitioners of these practices, the print media, are dying off. It used to be that cities would have two or three daily newspapers. If something extraordinary happened, they actually would stop the presses and print an extra edition. The cliché newspaper boy shouting, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” actually was real.

Today most cities have one and only one newspaper, and even those are at risk. It’s no wonder – the newspaper delivers the exact same information as what was on the internet the day before. Whatever the “wire services” (aka The Associated Press) decides to send out will be on CNN today and tomorrow in the morning newspaper – often word for word.

Of course, most people already got the “tweet” and so even CNN is providing second hand news.

News magazines are practically a novelty. If you’ve got a copy of Newsweek, put it in an acid free plastic sleeve and save it with your pristine copy of “Amazing Fantasy #15″ (the comic book in which Spiderman first appeared.) The printed Newsweek may also become a collectors’ item.

Interestingly, not all magazines are at risk. I look forward to my monthly “Smithsonian,” “National Geographic,” and my technical magazines. Why? Because they make me think and they make me smile. My wife and I have real live interesting intellectual discussions about articles in “Smithsonian.”

“Make” magazine is full of things from basement inventors and weird and wonderful projects. Want to play around with a 3 dimensional printer – “Make” is the place to start. How about programming a credit card sized computer that costs around $30 to automatically water your plants? “Make” again.

Our kids love to learn, as did we when we were kids.

“Help me learn to ride a bicycle!”

“I want to take gymnastics!”

“Can you teach me some magic tricks?”

“Can I try soldering?”

My son recently asked us to teach him how to wash his clothes. I don’t expect that he’ll regularly take on this chore, but he was proud of himself for learning – as well he should.

This world is full of wonder and potential. It was designed and handmade by God himself. No subcontractors. No shoddy workmanship. “…and He saw that it was good.”

There’s lots of good stuff to learn and enjoy, and that’s what I’m going to focus.

Anybody with me?

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W8A

Posted on January 30, 2013 | 2 Comments

 

duck“Hi, I’m Steve and I bought Windows 8.”

Hi, Steve

“I admit it. I fell for the hype. It wasn’t the touch screen, or the applications. I believed the stories that it was more stable and faster than Windows 7.”

How many copies of Windows 8 did you get?

“Well, my daughter’s computer was new enough that when we upgraded hers to Windows 8 it only cost $14.99.”

So only one copy? Come on, you can tell us.

“She seemed to like it, so I installed it on three other computers”

So you inflicted Windows 8 on four innocent computers?

“They had this great price! It was new technology!”

What happened next?

“Some of my hardware wasn’t compatible with Windows 8. Some of my programs wouldn’t work. I had to uninstall it from one computer.”

And did that work?

“{Sob} I couldn’t find the Vista reinstallation disk, so I had to go back to Windows XP! {Sob}”

And the other computers?

“I have to uninstall Windows 8 and reinstall Windows 7 on one computer. One is sort of kind of working.  My daughter won’t speak to me!  I don’t know if it’s because of her computer or just one of her mood swings!”

Well, don’t worry, you’re among friends. We’ll help you get through this.

“Thank you. I really needed that.”

Now let’s talk with this nice couple over here. Please introduce yourselves.

“Hi, I’m Bill, and this is my Melinda. We didn’t buy Windows 8 – the company I used to, uh, work for, sent us copies for free.”

Hi, Bill and Melinda.

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The Picture of Progress

Posted on January 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

 

Photographer-studio-1893

Ah, the conveniences that we’ve come to know and love.

The vacuum cleaner revolutionized housekeeping. Instead having tea while the hired housekeeper cleaned her house, women bought (or better yet, received as gifts) electric appliances that not only picked up some of the dirt from the floor but also made a lot of noise, scared the dog and created interference on the radio or television. To top it all off, the housewife got to take the contents of her modern vacuum cleaner out to the trash, creating a cloud highly reminiscent of the dustbowl of the 1930s.

Such progress.

(Don’t worry, this is the article on photographs I promised yesterday. Really)

Another area ripe for technological improvement was the family photo album.

In the days of film, you carefully composed your picture, checked the lighting, and took a snapshot. We were all very conservative because film, processing and flashbulbs were all consumable and wasting pictures could be costly. It was common for a roll of film with 12 exposures to be developed and printed starting with Christmas pictures, beach pictures, Halloween pictures and end up with the following Christmas’ pictures.

When we got the printed photographs, we discarded those that were out-of-focus, included grimaces or closed eyes and kept only the good ones. Ideally, those that passed muster would be safely mounted in an photo album, and tucked away where they would be safe, but easy to retrieve.

The early technological improvements were actually helpful. Color replaced black and white, and albums with plastic pages worked better than gluing four little corners for each photo. Lulled into a sense of complacency, we had no clue as to where photography was going.

The real change came with digital cameras. No waiting for the corner drugstore to process the pictures. No buying film, You could store and sort the pictures easily on your computer. You could crop, fix redeye, adjust the color and make small or large prints. Wow! Is this great or what?

Definitely, “or what.”

A hard drive failure could destroy every picture you ever took, and sometimes the pictures would be saved in some obscure location in a sub folder of a sub directory under a file name you would NEVER expect. The convenient digital picture you wanted would take hours to find.

I bought my wife a new digital photo frame and we decided we’d go through all the digital photos and figure out which ones to include. I retrieved the backup DVDs on which I had backed up all the photos.

THREE INCHES of DVDs, going back to my first digital photos taken in 2000.

Do you know how many photographs you can store on that many DVDs?

A lot.

Technology strikes again.

So if I don’t write a blog for the next 6 or 8 months, don’t worry. I’m just sorting digital pictures.

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Bathroom Humor

Posted on January 12, 2013 | 1 Comment

No, not that kind – just thoughts about the modern bathroom.

Restroom-01

It’s interesting that public restrooms, the term that is often used to describe grossness, have gone high tech while the home bathroom is essentially unchanged.

First, the mix of toilet types in public restrooms. Some flush themselves. Some don’t need flushing. Some are still the do-it-yourself. And I’m not counting the ones that are out of order.

A mom with a young daughter told me about the trauma of her toddler using the restroom. Because she was so small, the sensor would “see” her then not “see” her and repeatedly flush – a sensation the young lady found most disconcerting. Probably put her potty training progress back at least 6 months.

Some bathrooms have automatic sinks. Others have automatic soap dispensers and most have automatic towel dispensers, but there seems to be no logic behind the selection. You almost think the plumbers are having fun at our expense.

If you really want to make me happy, how about an automatic door opener so I’d be spared the need to touch the door handle just used by the people who don’t wash their hands.

While I dislike traditional blow driers, I must admit I do like the new ones with 150 mile per hour blowers – of WARM air. They actually work (without the need to use my pants as a towel) and it’s fun just to watch the skin on my hands ripple in the Jetstream. But then I am easily amused.

Maybe that’s why home bathrooms haven’t changed. After being confused as to which fixture is automatic and which one is manual, it’s kind of reassuring to go home and not have to figure out how to use the bathroom.

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The Advance of Technology

Posted on January 11, 2013 | 2 Comments

 

Edison

1963: “Teacher, how does a light bulb work?”

What an excellent topic for Science class today. Several inventors had built light bulbs, but they didn’t last very long. Thomas Alva Edison figured out how to make the first practical light bulb after years of research. He was a prolific inventor with over 1,000 patents including how to record sound and motion pictures.

For the light bulb he figured out that he’d need a filament – that is something that glows – and it needed to be in a vacuum so it wouldn’t just burn up. A glass bulb would maintain a vacuum and let the light shine through, but the filament was a problem. He tried all types of exotic metals, including silver, gold and platinum, but eventually settles on carbon. One story is that he carbonized a piece of cotton thread for the filament.

Today we use tungsten for the filament, but the rest of the design hasn’t changed much. They’re reliable – in fact there are several bulbs that were installed at the beginning of the twentieth century that are still burning today.

2003: “Teacher, how does a one of those curly light bulbs work?”

Well, let’s Google that. Hmmm, it was invented back in 1976 by George Hammer who worked for GE , but they didn’t want to spend the money to manufacture them. Eventually, the Chinese started making them.

They use less electricity than incandescent bulbs but the light is kind of funny colored. They’re supposed to last for five years, but around my house they seem to last about half as long as the old style light bulbs they replace.

They’ve got mercury in them, which is a hazardous material. The expression “As mad as a hatter” referred to the fact that hat makers used mercury and as they absorbed it through their skin, they exhibited erratic behavior, so if you break one, you have a problem.

There’s a phosphor inside that glows. That’s about the best I can do to explain it.

2013: “Teacher, how do light emitting diode – LED light bulbs work?”

Ooops, we’re out of time for science. Put your science books away and get out your social studies books so we can learn all about how Congress gets things done.

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Conspiracy du Jour

Posted on January 10, 2013 | Leave a comment
Stephen M. Katz | The Virginian-Pilot

Stephen M. Katz | The Virginian-Pilot

I am not one to jump to conclusions. For example, I don’t believe that Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa were taken by aliens or that the automakers can make a car get hundreds of miles to the gallon but refuse to employ the technology. Everyone knows that it’s Big Oil that has destroyed those secrets.

Dave Austin fans will be relieved to know that I don’t believe that pigs live in trees, and I think Rover is just a faithful puppy sitting by the doggie door.

However…

There have been odd happenings, some very close to home.

First, Old Dominion University here in Norfolk, VA has a lion as its logo and mascot. A resident in the area near Old Dominion called 911 and reported that a lion was loose in her neighborhood. Old Dominion officials checked to see if one of their lions had escaped, but all were accounted for. Come to find out, it was a dog – a labradoodle – with a weird haircut. (Virginian-Pilot Story here)

Add to that the fact that in Virginia Beach, while its owner was gone another dog managed to turn on the stove, setting fire to the house.

It just so happens that these – and other strange events have occurred right when the asteroid Apophis passed by earth. This so called “Doomsday Asteroid” may someday smash into the earth ending life as we know it, or at least becoming “Breaking News” on cable news.

Dogs impersonating other species? Dogs operating major appliances? A killer asteroid passes near earth? Coincidence? I don’t think so.

If you’re not convinced, add this fact. As I write this, the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) – a trade exhibit of the latest in gadgets is being held in Las Vegas. It’s a geek and engineer event. So?

Today ABC News ran a story today with the headline “Snooki Brings Her Style to CES”.

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Gravity Wells

Posted on January 9, 2013 | 2 Comments

 

I find that there are days during which I seem to disrupt the force of gravity in my immediate vicinity. Although I could afford to lose a few pounds, I don’t believe that I approach the amount of mass to exert such force.

Nevertheless, at times I open the closet or pantry door and things spontaneously begin to fall. Cans and boxes of food drop. Tools jump off my workbench. Papers fly off my desk. I was beginning to get some type of deep emotional complex with the associated scars.

However, I am an avid reader.

Lately, I’ve been reading how astronomers and physicists have been making all kinds of exciting discoveries about black holes.

Then it hit me.

I must be generating my own singularity – my very own, personal black hole.

It explains a lot.

The only problem is that now I’ve discovered this, everyone is going to want their own black holes.

Then I won’t be special any more.

It’s easier to pick things up off the floor and put them back on the shelf when you believe it’s because you’re special.

Oh, well.

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EsrevinU

Posted on January 8, 2013 | 2 Comments

My life is fairly typical. I go to work. I come home.

On weekends I putter around the house.

A ten minute repair job can take me an hour because I spend at least 50 minutes looking for my tools.

I’ve gotten to the point that I freely buy one more pair of pliers, one more screwdriver, or whatever. My friends tell me how their kids borrow their tools and eventually they find a rusted mass of metal that is vaguely pliers shape out in the yard.

Not me.

My tools just disappear for long periods of time then magically re-appear.

Go figure.

uni

Flashlights are even worse. I think my son uses them to find his cat, who likes to play hide-and-seek with him by hiding under my bed. In any case, flashlight after flashlight disappears.

One day my wife suggested that there was a parallel universe and between myself and my alternative counterpart, we had to share things. She indicated it made sense because socks followed the same pattern. They’d disappear in the drier. Weeks later they’d show up. Of course I thought she was crazy.

I stopped at Wally-World and bought a handful of additional flashlights. One by one they began to disappear. I told my wife I was going to use my label maker and mark them with “This is Dad’s flashlight! Do not touch under penalty of death!”

They all disappeared.

This morning there was a flashlight on my nightstand. The side was marked with a label that said, “!htaed fo yltanep rednu hcuot ton oD !thgilhsalf s’daD si sihT”

I thought about it all day.

When I got home, I opened a bottle of wine and brought 2 glasses into the family room. I poured a glass for my wife and said, “Please, tell me about this parallel universe idea of yours.”

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Posted in Communications, Culture, Energy, Fiction, Humor, Media, Philosophy, Politics, Science, Space, Technology

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Passwords, Activation Keys and Other Annoyances

Posted on November 27, 2012 | 1 Comment

Software companies invest time and effort into their products. They then try to sell them for the maximum price “that the market will bear.” I have no problem with profit, but when the profit is very lucrative it creates a major market for pirates, bootleggers and other ne’er-do-wells. The software industry‘s response, install special keys and filters so that copies can’t be used.

There’s a flaw in that theory.

Certain large Asian countries that do not honor our copyright laws reverse engineer our hardware, software and everything else. Hackers laugh at “your paltry little schemes!” They then share their tools and techniques freely on the internet and people happily install copied software with hacked activation codes or passwords.

In the meantime, honest people (well, even the dishonest ones) have computers crash and need to reinstall the software. This is a long and painful process even if you backup your data regularly.

It is even more painful if you can’t remember where you put the original disk with the activation code.

I upgraded the version of Windows on a computer that had come with a prior version of Windows installed. The motherboard (the main board into which everything else connects) failed, so I replaced it with the identical board from the original manufacturer.

Except that the folks at the computer company, which I won’t name, but the initials are H & P, had added one itty-bitty-tiny bit of code to the BIOS chip (the program that starts up the computer.) When I tried to reinstall the new version of Windows it wouldn’t accept that it was an upgrade because that code (called a tattoo) wasn’t there.

Customer service at Windows response – “That’s the way it goes.”

Fortunately, those who do not study the past are doomed to repeat it. The software companies are not studying history.

Remember when VCRs were new? (If you don’t, ask your parents or grandparents.) Movies on tape sold for nearly $80 a piece – thereby spawning the video rental industry. Remember Hollywood Video and Blockbuster? (If you don’t, ask your parents or grandparents.) The movie people soon realized that the people who were making the profit were the video rental stores. Their eventual response – make the price of a movie attractive enough so that people would be willing to buy their own copies.

Now people pick up movies by choice or even as an impulse purchase. I’ve even purchased a favorite, “Just in case I don’t already have it.”

The movie industry is going through another evolution as people shift from buying a movie on tape, then buying the same movie on DVD, then buying it again on Blu-ray. Now they’re streaming video through a service like NETFLIX and watching their favorites that way. It’ll be interesting to see how that develops; it’s great at home, but if you want to have a movie for the kids to watch in the car during the trip over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house, you need to purchase the disc.

I wonder if the software companies are studying this, or just planning on doing more of the same.

Just thought you’d want something to think about.

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Posted in Business, Communications, Culture, Future, History, Management, Media, Science, Technology, Uncategorized

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