One year ago today: July 22, 2015, Libtards: Trump is finished.
Five years ago today: July 22, 2011, early robot thinking.
Nine years ago today: July 22, 2007, fans do not cool.
Random years ago today: July 22, 2008, porcupine cake.
MORNING
This morning I had a more than pleasant coffee with a young lady. Yes, the pretty gal from Starbucks, but that isn’t the point. What’s important is that she has the same intellect as I did at that age. This can be a good thing or who knows. Because at that age I had nobody from whom I could get a straight answer on anything. We spent two hours chatting, long enough to learn we share a lot of the same outlook on the system. We certainly have the same views on people who don’t work for a living.
What she said most that I could identify with was about peer pressure. Only once we talked did she express how relieved she was to learn she was not the only one to disagree with certain concepts and codes of conduct. It is perfectly okay to notice the crime rates in our streets do not match what is broadcast on TV. It is quite normal to detest single women who get pregnant while collecting welfare.
Now for a topic that is completely unexpected. Ready? I’m watching a movie, just another movie from the early 2000s. The hero goes around defusing bombs. I could never do that, I’m not that cool under fire. I’ll tell you how uncool--I got rattled by a movie prop. The equipment shown in these movies are nothing but props, right? No, not right. I looked and had to look again ths time. That unsuspecting actor was defusing a for-real countdown mechanism. I’m absolutely not going to tell you what movie, but even with my limited knowledge of robotics, it was unmistakably a workable detonation circuit. I’ll explain.
The countdown mechanism is in binary. It has to be timed to pulse in a predictable way. From then, the electronic circuit has to control a binary circuit. That binary circuit has to be wired to another chip that converts the signals from binary to decimal. From there, the correct pins must run to a compatible LED display which is readable by the human eye. There are a limited number of chips that perform these duties and they fit into easily identifiable “families”.
For the record, the example circuit portrayed above is a not a timing circuit.
It’s known as the “K6”.
NOON
Looking for my Friday afternoon war movie, I blundered over “Tail Gunner Joe”, which I found a novel premise. It concerns a reporter who did some research on Joe McCarthy, the commie-baiter of fame from the 1950s. It tweaked my interest when he, as a non-member of the press, refused to reveal his sources. This movie is interesting for what it represents.
At any rate, I despise judges and committees that try to define “the whole truth” into something that suits their prosecution. Joe promised to tell the whole truth about the letter, not about where he got it from. Joe’s answer made me wonder if Martin Shkreli had seen this movie. I would never agree to tell the whole truth unless the questions were confined to the matter at hand.
Having the time, I chased down all the infestations of GWX. That’s the Get Windows Ten malware that Microsoft sneaks into your computer as update KB3035585. Last day I turned off the notice. Today, I went hunting for the hideout. It has been over ten years since MicroSoft announced its kill-off of XP, but XP remains in widespread use. There appears to be no way to block specific updates. Fortunately, Microsoft does not have the brains to bury the GWX malware in with software you absolutely need, so the trick is to delete the GWX directories.
There is usually one in the System32 directory, if it does not show, use regedit to find and delete it from the system registry. And use control panel to hide the notification. I do not yet know if this prevents re-infection when you eventually reboot your computer.
Bruno Grossi: Biology, 2015. A Harvard graduate, Bruno was part of the team that showed you can make a chicken walk like the dinosaurs supposedly did 165 million years ago. The trick is to tie a heavy stick to the chicken’s ass. Says Bruno.
NIGHT
Come on, now. What did I tell you I was waiting at home for? Sure enough, at 3:06 PM came the knock on the door. Talk about a qualified buyer. The lady knows the owner and already has four units over on the north side of the court. Plus, she has money because she just sold unit 112 for $17,000. She inspected the place and is very interested indeed. The deal is simple. If she shows up on Monday with the cash, I’m out of here in 48 hours. With my new Keeway motorcycle.
It has been rated 78.9/100 overall. The sole purpose of this bike right now is to replace the aging 150cc red scooter with something that can reliably get me back to Miami in less than four hours using Highway 27.
Now, the chip mentioned above attracted my attention to robots, and I happened across the Dallas “robot kill” that took out the five police. I wonder what his side of the story was, since killing police is a completely different motive than terrorists targeting civilians. My interest is solely the robot, because it was not a robot at all. Think more of a remote control sled of sorts. But definitely not any kind of robot.
Now just you watch. The authorities will co-opt the term "robot" to bring in a whole mass of legislation that, in the end, does nothing but take away rights from the public and increase the power of the state. And ensure that the next generation of activists are even more violent. Mark my words. In America, the police have too much power over citizens and not enough over criminals. Like Trump pointed out, we build million dollar soccer fields for terrorists while our roadways are falling apart.
Then again, he didn’t exactly address the greed of the contractors who respond to any government bid to build anything. They love to overcharge the state and the state loves the kickbacks.
Now some trivia. How important is the right time in celestial navigation? One of my favorite books remains “Voyage of the Beagle”. The correct time [GMT] is utterly important for accurate navigation. A chronometer is a very finely tuned clock. The trivia is that the Beagle carried 22 chronometers.
Last Laugh
(The toy is a razor blade.)
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