October 27, 2014

MORNING
           ID magazine (no link) also just called ID has published a major article on the danger and intentions of Google corporation. It contains major warnings about the intentions of this intrusive but unregulated giant, which among other things, has bought up all the smart thermostat companies likely to install these devices in your home, and all the major robot plants in the world. Google is indeed a sinister operation, but all you had to do was read this blog six and eight years ago to be informed of the danger.

           My major predictions stands that someday shortly you will be informed that to continue to use the Internet, you will be required to produce identification to get a “google account”, one user per computer. So much for intellectual freedom, but then again, we know that situation does not bother those with “nothing to hide”.
           Here is today’s top picture, a rack of bestseller books. That is, books that have sold more than 10,000 copies within 21 days of release. I think, because the parameters keep changing. It might now be within the first month. Anyway, there were 16 “bestsellers” on said rack.
           Anyway, those who have followed production costs and the complete takeover of the printing industry by word processors would logically conclude that books are going down in price. Not so, this array of paperbacks sell for an average of $26 each. Instead of competing, it is as if authors have formed a pact to keep prices high. I mean, would you pay $25 to read something by Tom Clancy? I remember when movie tickets and pocket novels cost the same. Now we are to believe it costs twice as much for the book as the movie? Something in the publishing industry is starting to reek to high heaven.

NOON
           Firstly, here is the setup of the new welder, testing on a scrap piece of metal that is around the same thickness as most bicycle and light car steel. I waited for Agt. M to arrive, that is, I did not trust myself to try anything on my own. I could be that article I read thirty years ago that welding was the most dangerous of industrial occupations. However, the welder is a contentious issue. See this evening’s section.

           To the library. It was a perfect day but the weekend left me tuckered out. I stopped at the clubhouse but nobody was around. So I went for coffee and thought to do some reading. Good news, those ass-clown voter registration people have finally been banned for fifty feet from the library door. Good, they are ridiculous to the point of disgusting. All of them too small-minded to figure out voting has been totally debased as a means of governing this country.
           I was after some recipes that did not use corn products. There are lots of sources, but not enough are careful to avoid indirect corn derivatives, like maltodextrin. For my European readers, the product in America is made from corn starch, not wheat starch. There is no warning label. And much of what I found without frankencorn was for canning and preserving, not short term consumption.
           A high-school pal of mine is traveling to Mexico and I’d like to tag along. He speaks zero Spanish and doesn’t like hot weather, but other than that we’d be fine. Except for the tourist and ex-pat enclaves, Mexico continues its downhill slide. But you know what I would do if I was in charge? We all know the Americans have turned air travel into a hellish experience. I’d build a huge international airport just outside Jaurez and give Americans who want to depart from there three things.

                      1) A valid Mexican passport, temporary
                      2) Free bus rides across the border
                      3) Guaranteed secrecy of travel upon returning by destruction of travel documents and files

           [Author's note 2015-10-27: That isn't clear. What I'm saying is Mexico would be smart to build an airport just across the border, so Americans who disagree with government record-keeping of their travels could land there and switch airplanes anonymously. Then travel back there for the last leg back into the States. It is clear in the American Constitution that the federal government has no right to spy on its own citizens. To those who say the Constitution does not forbid spying either, read the Tenth Amendment. Where the Constitution is silent, by default, a given action by the federal government is illegal.]

           I’m not against airport security, I’m against the government wasting billions to shake down ordinary travellers under the excuse of finding a few bad guys. And then lying to us about it--because they already know who the bad guys are. For instance, they should focus on only those of Arabic descent and see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't then look at alternatives, but try focus first. If that’s tough on the innocent Arabs, maybe those Arabs should unite themselves against the bad guys and quit saying it is America's fault. All my policy does is make it their problem instead of ours. And it is controversial, which some people really like.
           Here is a bit on trivia related to this blog. Of the total pictures taken, what ratio finally get published here on this blog? There are two answers. One is “regular” photos, the other is for “personal” photos. Of regular photos, about 1 in 6 is used, generally taken specifically for publication here. Of the personal photos, only 1 in 55. So, if anyone could hack into my main computer, yes, they would find 55 times as many pictures of pretty women as ever seen here.

NIGHT

           The welder is installed at the clubhouse, I don’t have room for it here. I am still hesitant to touch the thing, but Agt. M reports it is “dandy” for light work. I learned to bead long pieces, to weld up the seam instead of down, and how to do butt welds—in theory. And I examined very closely how the process works. There is one right way and fifty wrong ways, I don’t have to get electrocuted to see that from back where I’m standing, in relative safety.
           I don’t get the MIG, the metal inert gas part. It is a piece of carbon steel wire, it feeds out of the nozzle and melts or fuses itself to the pieces. What gas? And there are still a lot of sparks. Agt. M has done it before, so we had the pail of water handy, but I’m opting for a welding apron before I get any closer.
           We inspected the joints and I see this takes practice. Lots of practice. M is great for welding something and taking a grinder to it afterward, as shown here. Myself, I not much care how it looks if it isn’t a part that shows. I said the welder is causing a disagreement, which I will now describe.

ADDENDUM
           M is not a member of the Nova group, he is a member of our private robotics club. I view the welder, which by the way I picked up with a coupon for $99 as a learning tool. There was never, except by accident, any intention of using it for any kind of real work. Agt. M immediately began using it for fixing things and is concerned if others use it, there is potential for damage. You see, if I learn how to weld, I would quickly find out if anyone at the Nova group wants to pay me to teach them the right way.

           And this elusive "right way" is the contention. The premise on which I purchased the welder, with bingo money, by the way, was [that] I did not want to undergo another painful “Internet” learning experience. That’s where all the so-called experts waste your time. Agt. M is a natural negotiator, always adopting the middle road, always trying to bring two extremes to some sort of common ground or point of mutual agreement.
           Myself, I have the attitude that you will never live long enough to experience success with that strategy. Reconciliation always rewards the bad guy to some degree, he comes away with less that he wanted, but always with more than he started with.
           Myself, I’m usually. I said usually, okay with most people up to the [first] point they lie (Wallace), try to get away with something (Theresa) or stick their nose where it does not belong (Patsie). Anyway, my intention is not to become an expert welder, but to learn enough to impart the basic knowledge to others.
           Here is where we differ. Agt. M says I can do that by going on-line, that there is no need to risk the welder in the hands of students. I say I’ve been let down too many times (on the Internet, wasting money on textbooks, etc.), where M says I’ve been asking the wrong people the wrong questions. See what I mean, he is not taking sides when he should. He maintains I should have known the guy was not an expert; I’m saying there is no way I could possibly have known such a thing when I started. It is not easy to extricate yourself when you've already followed some of the faulty advice.
           M says I should keep going back [for more] to the same person, explaining what I found, and finding out why his advice did not work. A kind of back and forth that allows the other guy to save face, always the poor, poor "other guy". Hey, what about poor, poor me once in a while? I'm running a robot club, not a half-way house for failed liars.
           I say no, that above a certain level, bald-faced lying and being plain wrong have the same net effect. Both are stupid, just stupid. There’s a point beyond which the “expert” is a jerk who should not be holding himself out as a professional. And I would have no qualms about letting them know it or asking for my money back, as it were.
           The supreme and prime example [here, for these purposes] would be [to point out] the four long months required to find out whether the transistor was a switch or an amp. In the end I finally found out on my own, it is a documented fact every professional [contacted] either lied to me or gave an incomplete answer--and in the end the correct answer was only twelve simple words long. Agt. M would still be busy making friends with such people. Not me.
           Anyway, that is typical of the philosophical conversations we have at some meetings. I understand his methods, but [simply] can't agree that I am somehow managing to pick only the bad persons off the Internet and subconciously asking them wrong and/or vaguely-worded questions 100% of the time. Therefore, I intend prefer to waste my own time learning to weld rather than have any self-professed teachers waste it for me. If the welder does not survive, that’s too bad. We are no worse off than before and minus being led astray by idiots. I learn vastly more from my own mistakes than those of others.
           That’s where we left it. I say real life is not some sandbox where a schoolteacher (who is not even in the sandbox) can smugly lecture the kids about getting along. M says yes it is. And that’s why I will build a robot and M will help me a bit. Don’t say I said that, but after all, in reality it is my welder. Ahem. The noise, the confusion, my God man, the people. Now tell me again that I can't choose the right words to make my point.