One year ago today: September 10, 2016, jambalaya, home style.
Five years ago today: September 10, 2012, the original trailer hitch.
Nine years ago today: September 10, 2008, 27 years a chef.
Random years ago today: September 10, 2006, a generic post.
I’m expecting some damage. I just don’t have the level of protection as the building around me. They have custom fitted plywood shutters, while I have bolted sheets over the whole frame. Then again, my place is particularly well sheltered by trees on three sides. I’m too inexperienced to know if that is a bonus. The whole state is shut down since y’day, though it’s questionable that does much except inconvenience the last-chancers. No way I was going to get this blog posted or a cup of coffee. It is now 4:00AM and dead calm. No signs of what’s pending. It surprises me not how many sailing ships got sunk out there.
The media is cashing in on the storm non-stop. It doesn’t help me, I’m in a radio blind spot. All the good stations come in clear while you are twirling the knob, but go scratchy as soon as you step away. I know there is a solution on-line, but trying to find it, that can be elusive. Which got me thinking about my antique plan for a self-regulating browser. Didn’t I ever tell you about that? Sure I did, but for old time’s sake, let’s go over it this stormy Sunday morning.
The idea is a browser that, like Ixquick, piggy-backs Google, but the user is afterward allowed to rate each site. That rating mainly has to do with the number of things about the site that stink. It flings majority rule back at the Millennials because the categories concern the more loathsome practices of the Internet click-bait and youtube advertisers. It would work like a public bulletin board. Users could view how others have rated a site before they go there. The concept of this browser is to rearrange search results to sift out the liars. It would be practically unbeatable because it is based on user-input.
It would work because human nature says people are more likely to complain than compliment. Thus, if you went to a site that had pop-ups, or lied about being free, or display fake download buttons, you would simply right-click and flag that before you left as a warning to others. I feel just seven or so categories would weed out 90% of the garbage out there. Examples of unethical procedures are driver sites that install their own utility on your computer, or places like hotmail that redirect you to MSN when you issue an exit command. Or those azzholes who just don’t get it when you use an ad blocker.
But, I’ve run smack into this problem before. I cannot find a single book that teaches me how to design and program a browser. It hurts, because to start, it would not have to be that great a browser at all. The attractive feature is the user rating. And since it flies in the face of Google, I truly like the idea. I’ve been tempted to contact Ixquick and pursue the concept just to aggravate Google.
Afghanistan.
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I won’t be convalescing by guitar practice. That cuff to the rib cage cancels that idea. But I did try that old tune “Come A Little Bit Closer”. Every few years I seem to give that a whirl but the vocals are out of my range. To hit the highs, I have to start in a key that makes the rest too low. I’m looking at ways to fake it but usually that does not work. The radio says the hurricane moved further west and the arms northeast arms are just touching Naples. Any part passing over land tends to weaken the storm. But it also causes some pretty snappy secondary squalls that can involve tornadoes.
Shown around here are some pictures of the hurricane shutters I put up. They are not fancy, as outsiders may not be aware the majority of damage is done by flooding, not the wind. On the barrier islands, the storm surge is eight feet high, yet there are reports of people refusing to leave. Abandon them, I say. There’s a point you have to stop caring for the stupid or you become one of them. I ran out of wood for the front of the building, but what you see here is the carefully rebuilt 12 by 12 main bedroom. Also, the various sections where I am testing paint and undercoat brands. This area is not visible from the street.
Trivia. The office cubicle was invented in 1965 to improve worker efficiency. It was not planned for cramming workers together. When this is what it was used for, the inventor expressed regret. Or how about this one? Why is the leather on a Bugatti made from “alpine cows”? Get this, the cows are raised only above an altitude where there are no insect pests that bite and leave marks in the cowhide. That’s what you expect from a $2 million car, I suppose.
“Retirement is when
time is no longer money.”
unknown
This section is a long-winded discussion of machine language code. Thank Irma for this being the high point of the afternoon. As ever, you can always read these passages for general knowledge, since I’m not here to teach anything advanced. You will also rarely see an objective criticism of most computer languages, since it would mean hearing out the programmers themselves and they all play favorites. Myself, I have my background in programming the classic languages where code was readable by the ordinary man. It also means I make comparisons to what was theoretical in my day and how it has been implemented since then. One such language is Assembler.
Except, it is no longer just Assembler. It has been bastardized to fit the various systems onto which it has been applied. Pure Assembler is a series of simple instructions to the computer CPU and as such, has no physical existence. But what is physical is the often backward ways that people who should know better go an modify Assembler to fit their usually messed up operating systems. Worst offender is the IBM/MicroSoft dork force, er I mean work force.
While the theory has no shape, the way the human mind best comprehends many things is in a physical, usually left-to-right format. You’ve heard of registers in your computer? They can normally be interpreted left-to-right in a long string of digits, normally written in hex, a type of binary shorthand. At one time I used these back when the registers were 8 and 16 bit. These locations had limits on the size of the numbers they could hold in binary notation. Now, with 32 and 64 bits common, I’ll suppose it is more of the same. These strings had a format, a regular set of “fields” were position means something. I recall on a double precision number, the first four bits were the sign, positive or negative.
What screws things up is people who look at binary arithmetic and spot relationships that are based on position rather than logic. You may have trouble envisioning that, but try taking my word that the computer is nothing more than a really rapid adding machine. When you add 1 + 1 in binary, the answer is 0 with 1 carry. This causes a lot of interesting patterns to emerge. I can’t quote any off the top of my head, but you get items like multiplying a number by 2 is identical to inverting all its 0’s and 1’s, I think you get my point. Why use logical processing when you can develop a far simpler set of “rules”. Some sources publish lists of these, which can be memorized without being learned. Danger, Will Robinson, danger!
It’s easy to imagine how somebody who knows the rules can make the thing work, but they will lack any insight into what is really going on. Now don’t blame them, we all do this. Most of us have memorized that 2 + 2 = 4 without much of a clue what is really going on. But my point is, most of us are not programming computers, either. There is enough needless pain caused by people who can’t add small numbers, but computer programming takes the potential for disaster to whole new levels. I’ve delved into binary and numbering systems for decades and still don’t have it unraveled. So the last thing to expect is that I would ever trust your average millennial programmer with anything important.
Assembler is computer instructions that act on memory. By shifting and copying the contents of memory locations, Assembler can accomplish almost anything a computer can possibly do. Mind you, the effort would be indecipherably difficult. At its heart, Assembler is series of simple commands. For instance, when it sees the number 146 in a certain location, it will take the number stored in the A register and interchange it with whatever is in the B register. This is actually a good example of where things go wrong. To the person who memorizes the rule book, the operation is straightforward. To the person who who is thinking, he’ll see the need for a third register to get involved. If you can imagine why, you are already better qualified to program than most of the class of 2008.
This is often why you’ll here some backtalk when MicroSoft announces a change in its operating system. Each time they do that, the companies that work with Assembler have to revamp the way they do business. Every CPU brand is unique and changes mean the workforce has to be retrained. This is another example of how the people who make these things have never gotten together on it. What I’m doing is reading several tutorials on contemporary Assembler so I can compare how effectively they’ve been implemented. I’m not expecting much.
And not much is what I got. The worst of the lot appears once again to be MicroSoft’s versions. They would convert the whole world to their C+ format if the world would let them. I still hope something comes along in my lifetime to throw MicroSoft out the back window of the history outhouse. I disliked it for the same reasons from the day I first saw it. DOS always was a rush job and even when the corporation moved away from DOS, they took all the bad habits with them. MicroSoft made programming difficult and error-prone. The only thing that comes close for being an operational shambles is HTML.
By 6:00PM, there is constant rain with mild wind. Watch out for these local storms, they can dump five inches of water on a few blocks and be reported as a few inches over the whole county. It is eight hours before the storm is due to hit, I’ll let you know if anything unusual happens. Like my roof disappearing or anything.
ADDENDUM
Myself, thanks for asking, I’m in recovery mode but last few days hav thrown me off balance. Examples are what happened to my shoes? The camera I thought for certain was in the suitcase was laying right here on the shelf. The money I totally remember JZ laying on the table is still in the bank. He says it was just a few dollars he owed me, while I thought it was the entire green bank deposit. And the $800 on me was from the blue bank. I just do not make mistakes like that. The toll bridge papers and my Florida ID are missing. I must have really panicked, but then, I was on fire. When I tried to make up a list of what must be missing I got nowhere. Give it a couple of days because today isn’t helping—I woke up with a ringing in the old ears, another thing that never bothers me.
Nor do I have recurring visions, but several times overnight I was jarred awake by the push of that flaming gasoline. I dreamt it so vividly, I felt it. How did I get way over to that fence? I was angry because the guy who hit me kept going on about how he felt, how he was sorry, etc. But how can I be sure about anything? I was sure my ID was in my pocket and now that’s gone. I thought I was lying down but the ambulance people said I was standing up the whole time. Aren’t I in great shape? At least I will always remember Hurricane Irma. Double that if it knocks down my cabin.
Last Laugh
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