August 22, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 22, 2022, Winter Haven, for coffee.
Five years ago today: August 22, 2018, twenty bucks today.
Nine years ago today: August 22, 2014, from 80 mousetraps.
Random years ago today: August 22, 2007, I never made Texas.

           We have one squirrel back, bit of a juvenile. He’s not figured out the feeder isn’t his snack tray. So he gets cantankerous. I notice his weight does not close the ports completely, but he’ll put on the weight soon enough. I finished the book on oil tankers, the last quarter of the chapters are full of jargon. The brand [of jargon] I don’t like, such as “goal-based construction”. I learned about fractures in high tensile steel and a bit about wave motions that set up inside the hold as larger waves pass outside. It’s pretty dry reading, no pun intended.

           Was I supposed to get any work done today? I started playing bass in the morning and it is now afternoon. All that brush is still in the back and I noticed my nice wagon has deteriorated beyond repair in the wet climate. I wonder what else I may find back there. And I still think people who publish left-handed tutorials on line should be tortured until they quit.

           One of my favorite tech news sources remains Jimmy Ruska, even if he is a raving libtard and often confuses social issues with the topics. One constant is unavoidable—that these upstart Internet companies that lowered prices are finding out the hard way that the old business model they undercut had reasons for their cost structures. The Insider points out that Ubers are now as overpriced as taxi rides and streaming media costs as much as cable. Those of you who though software as a service was a bargain? Suckers, and there are rumors the files won’t open if you try to take them off the cloud, which is about to hold your files for ransom.
           And who recalls my warnings about DropBox not being secure. They made some wild claims about security that I knew they could not keep. Well, after losing money renting space on the cloud, they reportedly pulled out of it as much as they could—meaning if you thought your files were secure, you should see them now. All on the DropBox hard drives, awaiting future charges laid against you.

           It surprises nobody that China announces they have found hidden “structures” beneath the Moon’s surface. Climate activists are on about the Jeff Bezos rocket releasing methane. Well, folks, the rock is powered by liquified methane, that is, cow farts. Are we seeing the rise of a new fad, the search for past products with enough similarity to new products to warrant a patent suit? The latest scoop on job prospects is that A.I. won’t take over, but that ten years from now those who can use A.I. will take over from those who don’t. See today’s addendum for my thoughts.
           I’ve schedules some time to study the changes in A.I. In my day, it was one topic with three branches. Now it seems like 16 separate disciplines, which makes sense in a kind of crazy way. Machine Learning and Natural Language probably have different hidden layers, though theoretically, they should not. What’s a hidden layer? Stick around, that’s what I’m looking at. I’m also trying to find the log of how Google knew I was at the Brandon Mall. This computer is set to destroy all history at every opportunity, and the VPN logs on from up to 190 different locations. So I don’t accept that an ad from that mall appeared here randomly when I logged on y’day. I’ll find it.

Picture of the day.
Weaver nests.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Multiplexing. From time to time, I read up on it, hoping one day to learn it well. No luck yet, it’s my learning curve. For example, all these years, I’ve been calling it “laser eye surgery” and this morning was told that was wrong. It is, rather, the “beginning of life’s journey toward 20/20 vision.” Well, excuse me. Note to myself: check to see if there is any delay with Caltier, the last transfer is a day late. This takes time when they do this. Their website, while accurate, is too busy, cluttered, worded funny, and difficult to use, including the really stupid log-on procedure.

           Today is Gunsmoke Tuesday though once again I’m the only one who remembered. Yeah, well put the coffee on, get on the remote and today it was Wagon Train, the “John Gillman Story”, co-starring Bobby Darin. An older actor by then, the real star was the orphan, Abigail. I’m looking it up now, standby. It says here Betsy Hale. If she seems familiar, she had a role in the Perry Mason series about a fat lawyer. There may have been a movie of the same name. She retired from acting at age 18 and today has an estimated worth of $10 million.
           She has managed to keep her life a secret, so I admire her for that. She is married but nobody knows her husband’s name. She appeared on Gomer Pyle and Have Gun Will Travel, but otherwise nothing is known, even whether she finished school. She is a dark brunette, but appears most often as a blonde. Born in 1952, she’d be 71 this month. To me, that approaches the dream life. Make a lot of money early, then avoid the drugs and booze scenes of adult pressure and withdraw to a private and by the sounds of it, fulfilling privacy.
           Looks like I’m far from the only one with John Deere tractor problems. On-line repair videos reveal the condition is widespread. Many tried what I did, replacing the fuel pump. A number of videos show a potential gas feed problem—but it isn’t the lines or the pump. It is the gas cap. It is supposed to ventilate, but it has a design defect whereby it seals the tank. After running a big, this causes a vacuum which does not allow gas to be drawn into the supply lines. I will definitely give this a try tomorrow. It explains why so many people think they’ve found the problem, yet it recurs up to 45 minutes later.

ADDENDUM

           Synthesia. It’s an A.I. program for generating videos. My interest was perked when it claimed to produce videos from text. Can you imagine how that would work with this blog? It states the process is better with increased “span of input”. I would hate to catalog the number of topics in the past year just alone. I would welcome anything that gets my hand-written blogs entered while doing a better job than DNS (Dragon Naturally Speaking). I’ve not kept up with DNS because I found the need to proofread and correct often took more time than just keying the pages in.
           But the Synthesia site just sits there. The banner page arrives, the advertising scrolls, but the little icon never stops spinning. They offer a page full of sample links, but the array of topics is truly contemptuous.

a) emotional intelligence, your EQ
b) ethical decision making compliance
c) financial compliance
d) seamless onboarding collaboration
e) diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training
f) digital transformation initiatives.

           I found the Synthesia page that says it will produce a sample video. Wrong, it pumps you for private information and then sends the video by email. I hope John Smith over at AOL appreciates the tons of information he’s been getting over the years. Anyway, it appears to NOT be a site that generates videos per se. Instead, it has an avatar, a plain-looking twenty-something Asiatic with the unlikely name of Natalie speaks the text you’ve entered. I predict a surge in podcasts, as if there are not enough already. Anyway, it’s a novel idea but not what I expected from the description.

           Don’t pooh-pooh this idea just because I found it initially corny. Instead, imagine this blog being spoken in 25 different languages with an avatar that looks suspiciously like the gorgeous Reb. The price quoted is $22.50 per month but I would not trust any millennial to keep their word on that. I believe the technology is new enough to stumble across an idea that works. It would certainly add a dimension to my daily writings, not to mention emails if it works for that.
           Then find me software that can learn to play guitar according to what I’m doing on the bass.

Last Laugh