February 18, 2014

           Here’s a snap I call the Florida navy. This is one typical marina and not a particularly large one. It is larger than the navy of most foreign countries. Sure, they have harbors, but the difference is these are not fishing boats or tugs. All pleasure craft, and I don’t mean deep sea diving. The tall building in the farthest background is the last big project I did payroll for previous to my heart attack. It was, at that time, the tallest building in Miami Beach. I drove through there on my way home y’day. Miami Beach remains the same touristy and characterless dive it has always been. In fifteen years, I have never met anyone from Miami Beach.

           America needs another Roswell. It’s not so outrageous a thought if you read my recent post concerning the surge of non-German-defeat-based scientific inventions concerning space travel that appeared after the Roswell incident and before the space program ten years later. Something other than consumerism motivated the huge growth in American wealth that began at the same time. If you ask me, it was that rash on scientific innovations that jolted the economy upward. Since then, America has reverted to its normal rate of inventions and discoveries. If you have time, here is a lengthy article that claims it isn’t the scientists, it’s the jobs that are in short supply.
           The US military conducting trials on lasers and rail guns. The laser smacks of a response to the inflatable boat attacks in the gulf. That’s where a low-tech army sends a swarm of attackers to overwhelm the firepower of the target. It works because once you get close enough to a ship, it cannot depress the cannon barrels enough to hit close-in. And the rail gun works at Mach 7, so you don’t hear it coming. No word on the range of these weapons, but two aspects to note is that they are each operated by one man and they are extremely cheap compared to conventional shells. For example, each shell for an Abrams tank costs $650. The rail gun probably costs a couple of dollars, tops. It is a slug of depleted uranium with a steel sabot. And it blasts through a 70 ton tank like it wasn’t there.

           The Herald reports today that in protest to a law prohibiting the import of lingerie with less than 6% cotton, thirty Russian women were arrested. The Herald, in an uncharacteristic move, carried no photographs the women marching with lace panties on their heads, shouting "Freedom to panties!" It will not be the last time that Eastern Europeans have got those two ends mixed up And to anyone who says I copy and paste certain material from Craigslist to this blog, phooey on you. It is the other way around, I advertise on CL, so the posts are my own.
           Also, my blog watchdogs point out that the Internet kill switch is outdated, because it still uses Registered Jack 45 cables. (RJ-45). Most connections these days have USB ports. This is true, but not for routers. And I use only the oldest model routers I can find, ones that have no Internet capabilities unless you physically connect Internet hardware. True, a USB kill switch could be made, but robot club wisdom says if you have ever tried to work on a USB cable, you will never do so again. And besides, there is always an adaptor from Sonitek, USB to RJ-45, the SN-U206.

           Remember the old A: disk drives? Mine is getting a reprieve. These use the once-ubiquitous 3-1/2” floppy disks, capacity 1.44MB. It is a technology that worked, and thanks to my return to QBASIC, they are back in service over here. The disks have a shelf-life for data, but once reformatted, the clock is reset and you have files that almost never crash. I’ll keep you informed of any progress. As luck would have it, I kept all my old DOS programs and roughly 2,000 of these floppies, all in pristine condition. Folks, this is the future of private computing. Why? Because I saw first-hand what Google put on my home computer before I caught on. E-mail tracking software and I don’t even use gmail.

           Here is a photo from the past that I found on one of these old disks. Nicknamed “The Trip Planners”, it is a staged photograph. This was the Hippie and I on a road trip ten years ago, think we went to North Port. We are at a road stop in that town south of the Clewiston turnoff south of Lake Okeechobee. It is a good indication of how opposite our views were on just about everything. We’d go to a bookstore, I’d head for the texts, he’d head for the New Age section. We eventually had a falling out over his lack of band management skills. He thought he had them. Never once did we ever discuss the duo arrangement of a single tune. I doubt he knew it could be done.

           As I inventory what I kept, it is a real education on how little has changed in computers since the early days. I’ve got software for PC links, Telecom, Form Setup, Worksheets, and database items for everything from addresses to games. But some of the disks are indeed old and won’t take a format. And that inventory is amazing. I have disks from 1992 that show how close I came to personally suing certain people at the phone company. I did not socialize with anyone from the company except a few select and truly single ladies, but that is no reason to blacklist and slander me. I hacked into records that the phone company should never have put in writing. The issue was shift work. I had agreed to do shift work—but only on the premise that everyone else had also agreed to it. We all shift or nobody shifts. I never agreed that I would do shift work and not anybody else.
           I later learned it was because another employee had been caught working two jobs, which is another thing you agree to not do when hired. Also, I had between 1984 and 1991, utilized the phone company course reimbursement program to essentially train myself to be an accountant. A few people took this in entirely the wrong light. Because when they threatened to terminate me for posting the inequality of shift work (some of the supervisor’s relatives in my own department were not required to do shift work), they concluded I wasn’t too worried. They don’t like it when they can’t worry you. But one thing I can see for certain is that back then I was one fantastically well-educated individual. That’s what ten years of university and college does for you, the records read like legal drafts.

           I also discovered how little has changed. The old disk A: uses the same IRQs as the new SD card readers. And the simplest “flat file” databases are the easiest to encrypt, they become uncrackable in a split second. There may be a time shortly when having encryption on your computer is illegal. And if your computer is on the Internet, well, you do the math. If they can’t read it, you are in trouble. If they can read it, you are in trouble.
           And I apologize for basically doing nothing today. That kind of thing makes for boring men and boring blogs. I don’t really mean I did nothing-nothing. I searched high and low through those old disks to find a database that did not use any Windows components, and I found one. Good old FE, “File Express”. Works great with QBASIC. This becomes part of my cornerstone system that will be Internet-proof. The files won’t even work on the same principles once I’m done with them.
           Incidentally, that picture of the Hippie and I is summertime of 2003. Before I began to gain weight leading to the fateful heart attack. It is hard to see, but bald or not, I was still a blonde. I also found some unpublished blog entries from 2005, which I will post if they are not there already. It is clear that I wrote differently when I was dog tired from working for a living. I tended to talk about things more cryptically, as if people understood where they came I was coming from. But all I can about it now is shrug my shoulders.

ADDENDUM
Some interesting videos.
           Everyone knows about Mars Curiosity, but how many know that it has yet to match anything done by Rover. You see, Rover has been there ten years and still working. Here’s a video of Rover. Take three minutes and watch this. How sad we never really followed up on it.
           Metal music, no it isn’t just noise. The reason for that reputation is the same as for rock and roll—most guitar players are really lousy. And to me, the lousiest are the ones who won’t learn new music. Can’t learn, won’t learn, same thing. So take another break and watch a real metal artist play Benny Hill. This guy knows what he is doing.