One year ago today: July 13, 2014, an English joke.
Five years ago today: July 13, 2010, the first “seismic spring”.
Six years ago today: July 13, 2009, the captain’s birthday.
MORNING
Random numbers. Computers are no good at generating them. Sooner or later, they all fall into a predictable pattern. So it is always with interest when I hear of somebody who has come up with something new. The easiest method is to have the computer start at a random time, say at the push of a button. Still, after that point, there is a pattern. Then, I hear about this device. Absolute genius.
The photo is the 12 or so microcontrollers that are on the market today compared to the 2 or 3 when I bought my first Arduino. Beware, some of them are real dogs. If the manual is more than twenty pages long, you might want to keep shopping.
You gotta love it, all those morons who just a couple weeks ago said Trump would never make it. Watch them eat crow. Complete jackasses like that Pataki, a wimp who will not say Trump is wrong, or that Trump is lying, but instead that Trump uses “one-hundred-year-old rhetoric”. Gee, Pataki, now describe the Constitution for use. What a low life. But, I have an explanation for this political correctness disorder in this country for the past four decades.
Unlike most Americans, I have worked in foreign countries that have way too much government. Any study quickly reveals that such places quickly resolve into two large political groups and several smaller parties. This, in my opinion, is the root cause of political correctness. Of the two larger groups, the one that came in second in the last election now has an ulterior motive to curry favor with these fringe outfits. Get enough of them, and you have a majority again.
Well, guys, the reason those parties are smaller is because they represent special interest groups, unpopular agendas, and minority rights. To form a coalition, it becomes necessary to sell out a little each time. If you want the queer vote, you can’t offend the queers. If you want the Liberal vote, you can’t offend the Liberals. Pretty soon, you can’t do a thing without offending someone. Sound familiar? And the end result is a bunch of wimps focused only on vote-churning to collect a fat paycheck.
You can imagine their hatred when a Trump comes along that does need or care about this political status quo. I think it is time to face the facts, and the fact is, Trump is in.
NOON
“To every rule there is an exception—and an idiot ready to demonstrate it.” ~Vera Nazarian. She’s a science fiction writer.
I took a look at the new HP Sprout, the computer that alleges to bring 2D and 3D together. At around $2,000 I’ll be cautious. That’s a stiff price tag in an era when PC sales are slumping thanks to smart phone toys. I’m not impressed with the demo videos on-line, they are like the old IBM ads that don’t mention the operator has five university degrees or the mainframe computer behind the curtain.
So I thought to relax and watch some documentaries on ancient Egypt or something. No by field of interest, but I was also wrong to think I’d find anything scientific. Nothing but one borderline psycho after another claiming he was the one who, without the benefit of a classical education, is the one who discovered the secrets of a lost civilization just this last week. And there is an endless supply of these morons, all male, all hipsters, all Millennials. Another generation of losers.
I switched back to the comedy channel, you know, the one where the media tries to cover the up how Trump is slicing through their predictions. They have resorted to cheap shots, such as clipping Trump’s sentences in half on the videos. Childish and foolish, they don’t realize they are fanning the flames. I can’t say often enough that I don’t care for Trump, but I’m beginning to outright abhor his opponents. They can’t seem to dispute him without lying or calling him racist.
NIGHT
Feeling lazy (yes, it happens) I watch some videos on the military drones. Screwy that some people still feel the need to ask if these weapons will take over. D’ya think? I’ve got to admit, the footage I’ve seen was what I imagined warfare would be like forty years ago. That is, I’m amazed they have not taken over yet. I have to admit, there is something satisfying about watching those terrorists get taken out. They fire a rocket at some civilian target, hop in their Toyota and get about a mile.
The drones are a gamers dream. In fact the “pilots” train on Xbox games. The bad guys hate the drones, as the protesters say, “Making enemies faster than we can kill them.” The Pentagon says this is against a “non-state” enemy, so it is not technically a war and since there are no soldiers crossing borders, it is not an invasion. The next generation of sensors will be worse than anyone imagines today. The new Argus drone camera has nearly two billion pixels. Wide Area Persistence Stare, I think is the technical time. It can be set to pick out only moving objects.
The picture is the “Solar Global Eagle”, which can linger in the air for years and patrol every square inch of the United States permanently. It can track individual birds flying through the forest. The potential for hackers to take over these machines is referred to as “co-opting”.
All is in readiness for the auction tomorrow. We won’t find out everything, but we’ll learn what there is we still need to know. And we can size up the competition. I’m home for the evening with nothing to read. I didn’t buy anything at Barnes & Noble y’day as they have completely taken out the robotics and electronics section. It has been replaced with dog books. I glanced at the men’s magazine section. Guns, beer, tattoos. I walked away in revulsion.
And I’ll tell you who else has kind of gone stupid lately. Maker Faire, the outfit that purports to be the champ of DIY and puts on shows. Why? Go to their site and see. Not only are the projects difficult to view (no real index or categorization system), they also make it difficult to find out when and where the next show is [taking place]. It’s one list for the whole world, so you have to read every line to find the next show in Houston. It’s November. There’s a clickable map, but it displays only gibberish. Maker Faire went full retard.
Last Laugh
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