One year ago today: November 23, 2014, they is programmers . . .
Five years ago today: November 23, 2010, I buy a scooter
Nine years ago today: November 23, 2006, out of gravity?
Random years ago today: November 23, 2008, a shadow ship.
MORNING
Anniversary. It was 34 years ago today I made the decision to go to work at the phone company rather than plunge deeper into the student loan pit. Dozens of Florida colleges are being fined for predatory loan practices, usually telling students there are high-paying jobs awaiting graduates. At least I never fell for that, even in my twenties. Lookie here, it’s sunglass city.
This was confirmed this morning. Because of confusing instructions, I had arbitrarily chosen one type of motor, the unipolar stepper. Separate one motor from the herd and tame it, I said. Each test was isolated, the conductor was allowed to use any resources to get it working. All failed despite this morning’s cross-referencing that showed in each case, the directions had been properly followed. My major source is the book “Physical Computing”, but I read probably a dozen sources.
What? You want to know about the picture? Easy, the club provides free sunglasses. Why? That’s easy, too. If you try to get people to wear safety glasses, ask any employer how well that policy works. But, if you advise people they should, at all times, look cool, you get avid adherents. Are these all safety glasses? Dunno, because any glasses are better than no glasses.
Myself, I rigged up a stepper sequence on the Arduino. Nothing. So I downloaded tested code. Nope. I even went line by line through the code and it, too, checked out. Then I installed LED indicators to prove the signals were proper, they were. Then I tried different motors. In the end I had attempted every scientific test that the others had between them, to no avail. Now, I will build an independent test apparatus to spec.
This photo symbolizes, to me, the way those goofs think. These are candy canes packaged to look like crayons. Now, believe me, this idea was around long before I was a kid, but people were responsible enough to recognize the dangers of putting such things in the hands of children. But along came the “greatest generation”. Crayon candy canes makes about as much sense as candy scented markers and fruit flavored crayons, I suppose.
Meeting outcome. Hence, I will resort to near-machine code, where every step will be scrupulously broken down into discrete steps. At this level, no C+ command is to be trusted. I’ve nagged before how C+ is “fall-through” code, where lazy programmers don’t spell out a process, rather let code “fall-through” to default behavior, always a foolish choice. Example, has anyone noticed when you open a Windows 8.1 file, the default message on the screen while the system is looking states, “There are no files in this folder.” Stoopid or what?
What I have to do involves a subtle grasp of how the machine code performs a task. When a pin is used for one task, it is cleared of that taste, where modern programmers are told to simply over-write the pin with a new function. In my day, that was cause for failing the course. I estimate it will require four days to set this hardware and software up. There is always the hope I will stumble across the answer right away. But hey, this is why you keep reading this blog. It is reassurance you are not the only one who sometimes wants off this planet.
NOON
The new library at Aventura, that was my trip this week. I came out with mixed signals. The place has taken the final leap to the “Me!” generation by arranging the books by author’s last name. Fine, I supposed if you got nothing better to do than memorize names. Fortunately, they left the research section alone, and all the books are spanking new. As for wastes of money, the bookshelves are now all four feet high so the handicapped can reach them. At phenomenal cost, since the square footage has tripled without any increase in book space.
That should be nice. Gee, one day they might open a big bookstore with a coffeeshop on the premises, ‘ya think? Okay, you expect trivia if I’m fresh from the library. Alrighty, did you know there is a link between dumb and pretty? Studies show that the dumber people are, the more they like shiny objects. I’ll let you look that one up on your own. And 2,000 people a year die in the Rocky Mountains mainly from getting lost. Oh, and the percentage of people who, without taking distant landmark orientations who wind up walking in a circle? 100%.
More trivia, pigs are intelligent enough to recognize themselves in a mirror, one thought to be a human characteristic. Normally I would wonder how in blazes they determined this, but then I remembered Patsie. There was also a guy firing .410 shotgun shells out of a .45 caliber pistol. Sounds plausible, but not until I see somebody else pull that one off in person.
The [library] washrooms are spotless, but the place is also brand new. Get a load of those fancy “wavy” tiles. And so clean, I propped by notebook on the sink. Come to think of it, those notebooks are getting hard to come by. They are an Office Depot order item, although sometimes you can find a branch with one or two. You want the quadrille 5 squares to the inch, although I’ve in the past settle for the less suitable 4 squares to the inch.
What’s this? Trump tells a protester to get the hell out? I’ve waited a long time to hear a politician have the guts say that to these jerks. If you don’t like his meetings or his stance, what are you doing there? Thousands have come to hear Trump, not troublemaking oaf. And you watch the rotten media jump on him, comparing it to the Nazis. (Actually, the Nazi set up the squads precisely to stop the communists from disrupting their meetings, not the other way around.) Good going, Donald. Throw the bum outta here!
And have you seen the latest? Criticizing Trump, even if you are right, can knock you down in the polls. Just ask Rand Paul, “the curly-haired disrespectful midget” who I keep calling Paul Rand. Folks, Trump has not even toughed up yet, and he’s going to slide right into that White House. Because you Liberals have sold the country down the river. It is one thing to love refugees, it is another to force that view on others, or to call them filthy names for trying to protect their way of life. I’ll wager Trump could, right now if he wanted to, force through his policies even before he is elected.
Simply tell people to compel their “representatives” to start representing them. I’d love to see it.
AFTERNOON
Having noticed on my Android tablet that the power cable was one of those mini-synch types, I drove over to Big Lots and bought a USB charge cable with the same mini-end. Some of you may laugh, but no, I do not “just know” this stuff. And neither would anyone else who uses a computer as a tool instead of a toy. Tablets are strictly toys and I cannot be expected to know a thing about them. My reasoning is if will synch, then I should be able to use the computer’s controller to view the memory contents.
The microphone is oversensitive and tuned to pick up near sounds. When set back five feet to make a video, it picks up traffic noises, the ceiling fan and tries to equalize everything. That includes bass notes that should not be equalized, but I’ll jiggle around with the volume settings, see if I can work around that.
I’ve also checked the calendar to determine that female mouse I had to dispose of was living here past the gestation period. So to be on the safe side, I’ve set up a whole series of traps along the baseboards. This is important, gang, because where mice go, rats will follow the scent. You don’t want a rat problem in Florida. We already have enough in every sense of the word. Aha, did you hear that? Whatever it was, it got away. And one of the small mousetraps was tripped. It’s a rat, and I’ll get him. Me mighty hunter.
I was going to tell you about the scooter. It now has 17,410 miles on it. The odometer quit working at 16,410 and it is no longer worth repairing. However, I know that every 26 weeks, I log 1,732.9 miles on that vehicle, and that is very historically accurate. It’s 66.54 miles per week on average. It remains 1/7th the cost of operating a car for the same period and same distance. Overall, the total cost of ownership and use of the scooter, which includes all repairs and gasoline, works out to 91.1¢ per day. That sounds exact, but it is an estimate. I’ve owned that scooter for 1,828 days.
So put another way, I drive an average of 9.52 miles per day, which is very close to 66.54 miles per week, you can do all this arithmetic to check up on the accuracy of my record keeping. One raw calculation is that overall, it has cost 10¢ per mile total. Compare this to sources that say a car costs 59.2¢ and you may conclude what I do: That car people are lying to scam you into buying a new car.
Time to point out that 100% of my scooter driving would be, in a car, the most expensive type of mileage. That is, short range city hops. If a car was used exclusively for that, as is my scooter, the costs easily soar to over a dollar per mile. My Taurus ate 76¢ per mile and even that was kept low by the occasional trip to California.
Jump to a different topic. I ragged on this William’s Farms cream flavoring, but closer inspection shows the fine print does not stipulate the quantity to be used. Being a cream subsitute, one such as myself would conclude to use a similar quantity. In fact, nearly three times that is the proper dose. So, I will give this product a another chance. But my, what a dumb mistake they are making on that count.
NIGHT
Here’s a tale from the trailer court. Stuff you don’t need to know. That guy who I give the sports section to, you know, the man who sells shoes? There is something special about the Friday sports, I think because I have no idea. He can be absorbed with the Friday edition, so he gives me Lebanese food and if he does not have that, he gives me Corona beer. Which accumulates in my fridge. Are you still with me?
I kind of like Carona, so minding the best-before dates, I got into the stockpile tonight. I can explain. One aspect of free-for-all computing is that there is often no central repository where more than often there should be. The one that most affects me is Arduino code. It’s out there, but unless you know where to look, you may be out of luck. Four or five Coronas later, I’ve got some blurry conclusions about that, and two pages of scribbling. Would it not be nice if some swell fellow devised a registry whereby an Arduino coder could pick an available number from a list and assign it to his working version?
User self-policing feedback would halt anybody from grabbing a non-alpha number (you may have to think that through) but a simple list would work. The fields would be a unique number, and a quick description of what the code does. Right now, you would pretty much have to search Jameco, Adafruit, the various Arduino sites, and what-not to find out if anyone has already written something you need or similar. Such a slip-shod system would have immense appeal to C+ people, where blame for mistakes can’t really pinpoint anyone.
Well, I have enough experience to set up a blog that could function effectively for this task. A blog because it is free and responsibility can be delegated. The concept is inchoate, mainly because I relish any opportunity to use the word “inchoate” in a sentence. I suppose and guess it would be a gem of a list and maybe I should take an hour and set it up. How sad that I have nobody to discuss these things with. Maybe you don’t either, but I have a blog, har-dee-har-har.
Last Laugh
(Didn't you used to date this one?)
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