Speaking of Experience

We've always liked this quote...

Good judgement comes from experience;
Experience comes from bad judgement.

The K&E Coincidence

No sooner had I put up something about a K&E slide rule (see below) than this slide rule link was promo'ed on Slashdot, of all places.

Aaargh, the comments in that Slashdot thread make me sound like some ancient geek! Next thing you know, they'll start discussing vacuum tubes...

Guess we need a motto for this blog. How about - It's not the age that counts, it's the experience.

The Generation Gap

I've been reading Linus Torvalds's autobiography, Just for Fun. Good book. Sharp kid.

What is amazing to this old geek/nerd is that I can relate to him a lot. Different generation -- I did get my start with computers before he was born, after all -- but a sameness is there.

For instance:

• A kid with little or no social skills in school. Glasses. Didn't care for phys ed. He played with computers after hours; I played with a K&E slide rule. He and I both liked math and science and did well in them without studying.
  
• Focus. I can relate to his ability to focus on a task. You had to hit me alongside the head to get my attention if I was intent on something. Still do, in fact.
  
• Machine code beginning. Although I was 25 when I was introduced to computers while working as a tech on the bring-up floor at RCA in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, I quickly picked up machine code programming. And, with a red haired guy by the name of Chris Braidwood managed to turn the memory bank lights into a scrolling message board. (Anyone know Chris? would love to get in touch with him.)
  
• Beautiful code. Tight, elegant code has always been my forte. In the old days, you had to code that way to get it to fit. It's a habit I carry over today.
  
• The thrill of figuring out how to do something the "right" way. I always seem to spend more time thinking through the problem than most programmers. The "Eureka!" moment is a real high. The coding is a piece of cake after that.
  

It's a shame that I don't use Linux, isn't it?

Countdown is getting shorter

Gosh, only a week until we leave for a 3-week vacation in France. I'm going to need the vacation to rest up from all the activities necessary to get ready to go. :)

Be sure to watch the blog while I'm gone. I'll try to update it once (probably in a great) in a while while we're there.

Alas, no hope for me

I've been procrastinating on writing a book for years. According to this article, maybe it is a good thing.

It is hard enough to write well enough to do a book -- now they expect you to be pretty or handsome too? Does that mean the only genre available to me would be horror tales?

Achoo!

It appears that in today's economy when Silicon Valley sneezes everyone catches a cold.

According to this article, many of the Silicon Valley companies have closed for the entire week, forcing employees to take the time off either without pay or to use vacation time.

Think San Jose and you think dot-com. Think dot-com and you think of horrible online ad sales. But those poor ad sales aren't just on the web.

This week's InfoWorld is a puny 44 pages. That's half of the previous week's size. It looks and feels more like a pamphlet than a trade pub. I counted only 11 full page ads and that includes the two on the inside and outside of the back cover. One has to wonder if they contracted their ad sales out to About.com.

At the end of last year, the size of Fast Company and Business 2.0 rivaled a Sears Catalog. You could get a hernia carrying them from the mailbox into the house. Since then, they look like they hired Richard Simmons as publisher and started attending Weight Watchers every day.

There is a positive side of all this -- if you are a tree.

As I write this, it is almost like WW III outside the house. Fireworks EVERYWHERE! With nature even adding some of its own - lightening.

In Florida, only sparklers are legal. But there is a fireworks tent on every other corner. Why? Well, you can buy roman candles and goodies that rival the municipal fireworks displays if you sign a paper saying that you are going to use it to hail a train or to scare birds for an agriculture venture.

I didn't realize that we had so many farmers in our neighborhood. Funny too that they have to fire them off after the birds go to roost!


Don't get me wrong. I like fireworks. But not when they threaten my property. If that makes me a curmudgeon, so be it.

Flatulence Exposed

It is indeed true that you can find information on the web about anything!

With this site, I learned lots regarding a subject that I'd always been too polite to ask questions about.

What's Wrong with Slashdot?

The geek's favorite site, Slashdot, appears to be down again. They had a serious Cisco front end problem a week ago and haven't been stable since.

It's got to be embarrassing as hell when the geeks can't keep their site on the air.

This surely isn't some conspiracy by their corporate parent, VA Linux, to save expenses by cutting back on bandwidth, is it?

PMS

Bumper Sticker seen on car in the parking lot as we came back from lunch...

PMS -- Punish Men Severely

Stupidity Question

If you were brought into a court of law on a charge of stupidity, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Stupidity

This past weekend was my first in a long time without a deadline for creating online content for a freelance gig. So I enjoyed the time off, deftly avoided the honey-do list and spent time reading.

I finished off Sue Grafton's new P for Peril, then read Janet Evanovich's newest Stephanie Plum mystery 7 Up and Donald Westlake's Bad News.

The best of the three was Evanovich's book. I roared with laughter at Plum's antics (out loud, multiple times, which is unusual when you're reading a mystery novel). Plum's family and friends -- particularly Grandma that loves to go to viewings -- certainly puts the DYS in DYSfunctional.

However, it was one of Westlake's minor characters, an upstate New York small county judge, that gave me pause.

The judge was of the opinion that it was his job to oversee the consequences for stupidity. Two good old boys run out of beer at 4 a.m., so they break into the locked up convenience store for more. The judge sentences them to two to five. For B&E? Nah, for stupidity. Think about it: Do you really sentence someone for DUI or do you sentence them for being stupid?

Which takes us to Microsoft. (Doesn't everything?)

The appeals court slapped Judge Jackson. For bias? Nah, for stupidity. Gates's videotaped testimony was a farce and just showed the richest man in the world acting stupid. Trying to fool the judge with faked video? One word: stupid.

Microsoft didn't pull in its horns during the appeal. They're doing more of the same over and over and over. Just aggressive business as usual? Nah, just being stupid. And, eventually they will have to face more judges over their stupidity.

Makes you kinda wish that fictional old county judge in upstate New York could hear the cases, doesn't it?

That's a good question

I'm a big fan of Marilyn Vos Savant, who has a column in the weekly Parade Sunday newspaper suppliment. She is pretty, brainy (she's in the Guinness Book of Records for Highest IQ) and has a wild sense of humor.

In today's issue she published a couple dozen questions that readers had sent in that don't need to be answered, just enjoyed. Here are my favorites from the collection...

If you sank an elevator shaft through the earth from the U.S. to Australia and baorded the elevator in New York, would you be standing on your head when the elevator door opened in Sydney?

Is it true than an IQ can actually differ dramatically even from day to day? Is it also true than an IQ can drop even without having children or any other activity that causes brain damage?

I heard there is a USA Shopping Team. Where can I find out about it and how do I join?

Ahem, if you know the answer to that last one, please let me know. I'm sure that my wife is qualified and would be interested in it.