This would be that kind of day called eventful. I minded the shop and the long missing video security people finally came back. I correctly guessed they had scored a big contract but were now between jobs. That type of thing happens when you don’t have someone like me lining up the work. They had to buy stock for the display, a good sign of commitment. That 47” x 80” space is the 2009 zone of fate. For the record, twenty-four days from now I will have been without a job in five years. (This does not state I have not worked in that time.) May I safely conclude that I will be able to survive on my investment income in another 38 months?I’ve been toying with the software cam system I described recently and it already caught or prevented the first theft. I had propped up my recorder near my on-line work and was serving a customer. A gypsy type came in and pretended he was looking at the screen and grabbed it. Then he spotted the video and tried to pretend he only took the recorder to show me the type of plug he wanted. I told him if he ever touched anything in this shop ever again without permission, it would be his last time. What a drift-bag.
It was an afternoon of music and some of my students had the flu. I’m certain not to be jinxed but the recent tally is un-nerving. Arnel is recovering, and who remembers Dawn? She was hit and run and now has both legs in a cast. On top of that, the Bingo game was wiped out tonight. I done said how everyone spent all their money at the Thursday benefit, so we had five players instead of twenty-five. On the other hand, we’ve learned we can have a great game with that few. The Powerball is up to $52.
There was a new guy in the room who, every time he got a number, could say with a perfect accent, that famous Austin Powers line, “Yeah, baby, yeah”.
On the way through town, I went to grab a coffee at the Italian place and I hear a familiar strum. It was the Hippie playing at a bakery on Harrison. After an unusually amicable greeting, he mentioned the 30th anniversary of Churchill’s. This is the pub Wallace first visited way back in 2001. In those days, the staff included Enzu, Barbara and Honalee. The Hippie was playing there later but I had too many commitments, although it would have been a great reunion. Mike the Spike is still selling the place, for what, ten years now?
The band from Boynton has written back again. They certainly have a deliberate and profession way of recruiting, making me think they are full time musicians. I’m unsure of the best way to proceed but I cannot simply pretend that my deadlines here will change just because Eddie and I are not ready. As soon as Boynton gives me a band name, I’ll use it, since the 15 year rule does not apply to non-people.
Trivia. New stats show that over 60% of Americans can’t last between paychecks. Up from 42% five years ago. That translates to them racking up credit card debt or cashing in their IRAs. Gee, who’d have predicted such a thing? I wish I’d kept some of those middle-class pamphlets from my college days. Remember those geniuses that gave advice on how to get ahead? Like if you were dirt poor and needed to raise $100,000 for a franchise, you were supposed to sell some of your old jewelry or that upstate subdivision dad gave you that you "weren’t really using".
A little more trivia. I’ve been trying to find a clear definition of this term “virtualization” that is supposed to be the next computer wave. I take it to mean that all programs and systems will be transparent. It also means centralization of the data, a dangerous thing. Anyone who doubts that authority will abuse databanks probably doesn’t understand what true logic behind a driver’s license. Consider the qubit computer, short for quantum bit.
Computers as we know them have reached their electronic limits, so time to move it to the subatomic level. These qubit (say “cube it”) processors have strange capabilities. The driving force behind their development is not scientific research. Their purpose is code-breaking. Not spy codes, but private key codes. This is ordinary software you can get at Best Buy to design a code that would require 3 million years to crack.
A qubit computer will do it in seconds. It should also be obvious that any entity that desperate to read your email cannot be trusted. In the face of this, even the most gullible Bambi out there has to question why the stop-at-nothing frenzie to get at your personal correspondence. The most powerful government agencies are not funding qubits just to discover you are such a sweetheart you have nothing to hide.
Consider the counter-measure. If qubits arrive, the so-called bad guys will buy their own qubit to generate the next level of code. Those in power know they can’t catch the bad guys, so why do they still want the system? Right. Now you are thinking.
[Author's note 2015-09-19: I missed this call, along with just about everyone else. Computers did not evolve to the subatomic level, they sunk to a different kind of level. "Social networking." The computer stopped progressing and fell back to a the most primitive of pastimes, although that means something different to pretty women than to average men. In fact, by 2013, it became almost impossible to buy a quality computer as communication toys began to take over the market. I wisely kept all my old units in tip-top shape.
My favorite dumb commercial today? Crest, where the lady says she is challenging her husband. So lady, how long has your husband been challenged?
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