One year ago today: June 30, 2025, I didn’t say wrong.
Five years ago today: June 30, 2021, WIP
Nine years ago today: June 30, 2017, WIP
Random years ago today: June 30, xxxx, WIP
Am I in Tennessee? We won’t know until I get to library in this new town. I do not know Franklin. I’ve driven around a couple of times. Everybody except me is filthy rich. There is no computer for me at the new place, so if the library is not user-friendly, I may have to drive all the way to Hermitage. You’ll know if you see pictures. Scenery has become integral to this blog. Did know nearly 100% of the photos (excluding graphs, memes, and obvious borrows) you see here are originals by the author? Not bad for a Boomer. Or a Zoomer, even. Aha, we have photos. But I cannot edit them. I'm old enough to remember when Apple was a good computer company. I triee a few like "Capto" and "Cleanshot" but the very fact there were 24 options told me not to waste my time. We'll the library asap.
What's getting difficult is renewing ATM cards. I aslo discovered it is almost impossible to leave money to a minor, or leave it for a minor now, but not payable until they are over 18. I was hoping to establish an account for our youngest club member. Just check in later, as in a month, and we'll see if there are any workarounds. Meanwhile, hurry up and wait, I'm very busy this trip. Somehow I managed to get here with all power cables, no data transfer models. I think when Europe mandated all deviced must use a USB-C cable, the market has become flooded with models that are power only. I ran into this problem months ago. Now it seems the majority of cables are power only--and there is no way to tell just by looking. If you can see any photos, then you'll know. I tried several dollar store USB-C and none of them worked. I donated them to the library, telling them the problem, which I take it they were having troubles over long before.
[Author's note: Upon arriving in Tennessee I see nobody here appears to be even aware of the USB cable problem. Allow me to elaborate. The European Union passed a law that all power charges must use the same end, a USB-C. The market was soon saturated with power cables, but not data cables. They are identical, the only way to test them is to make a connection with a known good device. Like your camera. If it is a power cable only, other than a red power indicator light, nothing will happend. If it is a data cable, and your computer and the device are both powered up, the computer will recognized the camera as a new device. Also, many cameras will display a data transfer screen, and good quality units will automatically open the correct path to view the files. I've mentioned this to a few people already, but do be careful. You get a lot of gamers and other such weak-minded users who "won't believe" you. That's happened here, too. What do old guys like me know about computers if I don't play "Game of Thrones" till 3:00AM most weeknights? I know this one guy who told me could use spreadsheets, so I let him update a real estate price list. The bastard actually went in an overtyped all my formulas, then informed me the software didn't work.]
I was in the bank quite a while, my conclusion is that there was enough resilience built into my investments to absorb the recent inflation, which for my consumer items was over 60%. But if another bad government takes over, that isn't going to suffice. Thus, a new ten-year plan is in order even I don't make it that long. This theme will probably recur, same as Caltier did for so long. It is a learning experience that had to be taken simply because there was no way to get a straight answer. It's a real ass-clown situation, these on-liners with their invented vocabularies. They know exactly what information you want but fancy themselves clever. And stand ready to be offended at any hint otherwise. This isn't as much of another start-over because we now have experience dealing with these people.
3D topographical print of Ireland.
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This afternoon was all business, but we made a mini-visit out of it by having a bit of fun. First, we decided on some pro photos, considering how close I came to posing for the last time. Chooks is old now and indifferent to most attention. He wags his tail and comes over when I call, but I think his energy lives must be about the same as mine. Since his now a registered support critter, we took him along to the sushi place. I'm not that much into squid, but they always have Thai on the menu. And what a menu it was. Not a tablet, we've seen those around a while. But a real almost paper-thin menu display. If you ask, the meal was $86.
We had a lot of business to go over and have decided to go ahead with the ArriveD account or something similar. The experience with Caltier reinforces my contention that despite all their wild claims, the best way to learn how the software works for a given "e-business" is to wade into it yourself We also kicked around the license to publish from the twins back a couple years, but we never followed up. The license is good for life, so I will take another look to see if A.I. has made it worthwhile. I'm saying I'd trust A.I. to generate a book long before the ghost writers the original plan suggested.
~ ADDENDUM
It’s been fifteen or more years since I’ve assembled a computer from parts. But today I discovered most Win 11 computers will not play a 3.5” floppy. Who would want such a thing. That’s easy, anybody with a brain that knows the world ran on those things before Millennials turned the computer into a plaything. Here is a history lesson the kind you won’t find in the books, and I was there. I hold computers responsible for the sad, almost deplorable state of colleges today. Sit down and listen.
I repeat, I was there. By 1995, I had been familiar with how proper programmed was done for over 20 years. By 1985, I had many qualifications based on courses I had challenged. You still had to pay for the course, but just show up to write the final exam. The schools did not like that, they began to track attendance and pile on pre-requisites. They also began to not recognize identical courses from other institutions. More than once, I had to repeat courses I had already passed with honors, just to be allowed to attend an advanced class required for a degree.
Now you multiply that out to today’s price-gouging low-standard schools, and you see there is a connection. They do not care if you learn anything because computers have changed their fundamental business model. Notice carefully, you now needed the degree on the wall regardless of whether or not you actually knew how to program. I wound up with two senior degrees part-time over roughly nine years. (Part of the delay was the company putting our department on rotating shift work in 1991.)
Already a programmer, I had to return to get those degrees, which as I just explained, became an expensive and tiresome process. I avoided university, having made that mistake once, and went to a top-notch trade school. It was during those nine years that I witnessed the downfall of the programming profession and decide it was not for me—but I still loved the subject and still do today.
I’ve said before how 213 of us began in this then-new faculty. Nine years later there were 7 left. It was a small graduation party indeed. Toward the end, I shifted away from computers only toward accounting, which I use mostly today to lead a pretty darn good life. I’ve worked accounting jobs, but I’ve never been an accountant. I abhor the way schools are run these days, they should be fined for false advertising. Standards are so low you never hear of anyone failing to learn coding, though it probably happens.
Return tomorrow to see how this ties in with 3.5” floppies.
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