A day of tough decisions indicate that neither Wallace or I may be able to attend Peggy’s Thanksgiving. From a combination of recent situations, we may both be on the other side of the country by mid-November. Nothing is certain except that the trip will be at around that time of year. It is a question of finances. Gasoline there and back now costs $1,200.I am back with the super computer, with around 80% of the useful software reinstalled. The new motherboard did not take the old AGP card but to our surprise, the built in video is quite amazing. I ran full speed video edits and it is faster and nicer than the specialized upgrade. Equally surprising is that the design is the one used by Dell, normally associated with entry-level equipment. The fact that it requires a full day to reconfigure things is a good indicator of the different usages this computer gets compared to average. That means compared to people who surf, check email and consider themselves “power users”.
The days are still slow here as business has not picked up. Wallace and I had planned a day trip up the coast, but too many distractions came along. Fred had to run home when his back room started to flood. There is still much to do with the Internet access that requires long hours but I have been able to successfully block a much larger range of viruses.
Fred played a video of a “keyboardless” computer. Going on sale for $5,000 to $10,000 next month, it is a flat panel that responds to touch. One effect is touching the surface makes ripples like the surface of water. Among other features, you can finger-paint on it, and simply placing a digital camera on the surface makes the photographs appear, no cables needed for download. The first users will be, surprise, gambling casinos and restaurants. The screen is around 4 feet by 3 feet. To order, touch the picture of the dish you want. Simply lay a credit card on the surface (and in the demo add a 22% tip) to pay up.
I took the evening off and watched Nova on Channel 17. Personally I hope that confirmation of extraterrestrial life happens while I’m around. Too many people these days rely on religion to blanket their personal shortcomings and lack of education. I would consider such life to completely negate every fundamental contention of Christianity. There will be no possible reconciliation on that matter. Again, I am not against religion, I just want to see how some people will react when they have final proof that Biblical accounts are false. Life away from Earth makes it a random event and will finally remove all supernatural connection to creation.
While I do not follow the stock market (unless I have heavy investments therein) it is back in the news. For the first time, as the market goes down, there is wild talk of a government bailout. That move would truly be a disaster for both the taxpayers and investors. You would pay tax so prop up those who did not invest as wisely. My thinking is there should be no political interference, yet in a sense the government already has their nose in there by taxing all gains. I’ve passed my micro- and macro-economics and I do not trust any money theory. I think credit is a horrible evil, and the 11% of local homeowners in foreclosure may eventually agree with me.
Trivia. Charles, the King of Sweden, used to walk around his palace in the early 1700s with his sword, slicing off the heads of herds of sheep, each in a single stroke. He always was a yahoo. Deeply religious, too. Probably tipped 22%.
