Today I do a marathon read on networking. I see I have several courses I took in the early 1990s on the subject, but that was at the phone company. They never explained why or anything, and they certainly never covered what the phone company’s roll was in networking. Just take the course and that’s it. I don’t recall any of it. Hopefully it will come back to me but that is not usual in such circumstances in my experience.
Let me write my thoughts after reading 50 pages, to see how close I get. This networking is expensive, and pays well. I should concentrate on one aspect or system, and the decision is important. A big system means work for a big company, a small system means independent contracting. I see the advantages of both. The roofers are here and I had to close all the windows since they are steam cleaning the walkways also.
Steam cleaning can be a noisy event. I read some of my Business Week, and the cover story was blogs. Again, the author goes on about what it can do without defining it. A blog seems to be nothing more than an e-mail that is broadcast. The article mentions blogging from five years ago, so it is not new. Yet, what is a blog? There are dozens of examples, but no definition. I gather it acts like a bulletin board to which anyone can link and read. If so, the big deal could simply mean that more people are tired of standard internet fare, which I long ago predicted. I’ll try to research it a wee bit more, but one thing I see wrong with it already – it seems to be very difficult to publish anonymously. To me, that is the only way you will get to the real truth. Now, once something is published anonymously, they would need a method to be paid anonymously. That, my friends, would be a truly novel computer idea – a service that allows (and assures) anyone to be paid without a paper trail, or if that runs afoul of tax law, at least a system that ensures the trail cannot be looked at without the prior knowledge and consent of both parties to the original transaction.
I talked to Hippie, who says the blogs are an ongoing journal with entries that never end. So how is this different than a web page? What is persistent about the blogs? He also says you can publish anonymously, but the Business Week article makes it quite clear that you can be held responsible for what you publish, something that is clearly not possible if there is true anonymity. I asked him for some examples and he says to just check Google for blogs. He also reminded me that we are leaving town on May 6 to North Port again. The event for me is a pagan festival. We would be gone overnight Friday and Saturday, to return on Mother’s Day.
There is another article about ‘fabs’. This, I also predicted twenty years ago when I saw a computer operate a lathe that turned out a 3D plastic prototype. My exact prediction was that computers used in this fashion could return the world to a cottage industry type era. I’ll make it for you, because the specialty is not a huge and overpaid workforce and a taxable factory, but my skill at programming which is very hard to synthesize and regulate. And I want to be paid in cash.
Hippie said there was some modern dance going on at the club (where he volunteers) so I chose instead to walk around Aventura Mall. The mall bunnies were there if force. How some people have enough money to shop for sport is a good enough reason for anyone to advocate revolution. The good part is there were dozens of babes there that blow away that funny looking Paris Hilton, which is a good thing. The only new thing I saw was an outdoor shower made of wood. It attaches to your garden hose.
I tried to get a picture but this ugly middle-aged store clerk picked up that I was going to take the picture and started hovering around me. I wanted to say, “Look, you stupid bitch, this is a public area …”, but she was not even worth that. I just walked out. It was incredible for a while there, the way she watched every move I made because she knew I wanted something and there was no way she was going to let me get whatever it was for free. Typical crow-woman. Didn’t have to know what I wanted, only that I wanted something, and that was enough for her to do her number. One of her hands was on the security phone. This was at that store “Historical Renovations” I visited just after Xmas. It was impressive, but that ugly woman sewered it for me. Damned if I’ll ever spend any money there.
Also, I went in to Radio Shack to price a power inverter, and I see their staff now jumps on you. They are like cops, never there when you want one, but always there when you don’t. Yes, all you sales people can help me – by keeping your distance until I call for you. Aggressive salespeople make it hard to browse. Years ago, I had some sales training and had to quit because it was so phony. Filling a need is one thing, but playing on emotions to create a false need is another. “Can I help you?” is the lamest and most abused line in American retail. They have no intention of helping anyone but themselves. Between those two scumbags, I did not have a good experience, so I left and went over to Borders. On the way out, I watched the fountain. It sprays water some sixty feet in the air at time. Look near the south end of the mall. Also, the inverter was $129.99, or over $110 more than the one I bought, and mine had a higher wattage. The other Radio Shack prices were equally shocking. They are really shafting themselves trying to play the upscale stereo store instead of sticking to what made them a success.
I’d intended to have a late Friday coffee, but wound up reading in the aisles until late. There were some promising looking women in the bookstore, but they were Miami-grade. Even today, I need some encouragement, if only a slight smile, to break the ice. Not these ones, not the Miami ones. Only a ravishing appetite got me back home, where I made a carefully planned 400 calorie supper. Shrimp soup, rice cakes and cheesecake pudding for dessert. I always make it (lo-cal cheesecake pudding mix) too lumpy since I lost my wire whisk. I watched the video movie “Up Your Anchor”. I thought it was a sequel to “Up Periscope” but no relation at all. I think this was made in Israel. For 1985 it had plenty of nudity and simulated sex between older women and teenage boys, who acted or appeared to be about 15. It would be rated differently here I’d say. How did that one get past the censors? It was a comedy only in that it was light-duty scripts.
I still cannot find the method to activate the sum field in Excel. The Excel help feature has just as bad a search engine as regular Help, and of course, Microsoft would never make your day easier by calling something what it is. I suppose the only way to find out is to locate a computer running MS Office 2000 and work backward from there. What a pity to have to resort to such tactics. It is the little rectangle on the bar above the task bar (can’t find that name either) that shows the total of any cells you highlight. It has disappeared on Office 2003 and not to be found. It will be curious to see what they call it. Imagine, the richest man in the world cannot do better than to use an alphabetic help list for a graphical interface.
Yes, as a matter of fact I do have solutions to these, and many other computer problems. But nobody will listen to me, as usual. (Fifteen year lag time.) As I said in 1975, the computer keyboard is missing five or six very important keys, and a dozen less important ones. For example, where is the multiplication key? (No, that is the asterisk, I asked about the multiplication key, bozo. Okay, now are you ready to shut up and listen, maybe learn a thing or two?) Another severe oversight is the “Save this file where I can always find it again” key. The “Print exactly what I’ve highlighted on my screen no matter what program I’m running” is also nowhere to be found. Also, the disk “tree” directory is outdated and that indenting scheme is hard to use. The directory should display as an organization chart with default settings such as create a new folder every Monday type of thing. There is plenty more where that came from, but I’m tired already. How about the power supply? You should have a battery running the computer, not a transformer. Why is the UPS still not built in after 30 years of experience? Furthermore, the UPS battery should be hot swappable and have a built in gauge that shows how well it is holding up, and a LOUD alarm when it has crystallized. (This is what causes NiCad batteries to build up charge resistance, sometimes called ‘memory’.) The surge protector should also be built in to the computer case.
