Rifle Club

When I was but a lad ... going to George Washington High School in Alexandria,VA in the early 1950s, our school had a rifle club ... and a rifle range in the high school basement. Gasp! How could this be? Didn’t the students shoot each other or turn into terrorists?

No, they learned gun safety, how to handle and clean weapons ... and marksmanship ... all Second Amendment qualities we used to cherish. And maybe helpful to those classmates who ended up in Vietnam.

Now, if we are unlucky enough to enter into another war, I doubt if we will be able to defend ourselves quite as well. Unless, of course, such conflicts are virtual ... and on an iPad.

Legally Blind

“Does it matter? — losing your sight? Thher’s such splendid work for the blind.” — Siegfried Sassoon (not related to Vidal Sassoon)

Yours truly has just been declared legally blind (20/200 corrected eyesight caused by macular degeneration). I have already been denied a driver’s license renewal and am in a state program to help me navigate the exigencies of daily life due to poor eyesight. The only reason I can write this blog is because of the magnification features of an iPad. So kind reader, if I make a typo every once in a while, you will know why ... and please give me a pass?

Small solace: I will get an extra deduction on next year’s taxes ...

Determinism

When I first started out programming computers, they were deterministic ... meaning a set of operations would always produce the same result. Somewhere along the way, I think when timesharing computers were introduced, they became stochastic ... meaning an element of randomness was introduced. (The technical reason was that processes became interrupt driven.)  Now, working on this IPad, I can perform the exact same action twice and get different results. This is maddening. We humans desire predictability. We want to know that pushing this button makes the doorbell ring and not just sometimes ... while at others, it turns on the window fan.

So, recognizing what is deterministic and what is stochastic is important in life. Controlling a nuclear reactor with a computer that was not deterministic would be quite dangerous. While saying that weather ... or climate .... was deterministic would be foolish ... there is too much randomness involved ... much more so with climate than with weather.

However, human nature being what it is, we dislike a stochastic future. So we invent soothsayers and palm readers and oracles ... and economists. We allow some charlatan like Al Gore to assure us as to what the unmeasurable global temperature will be in ten years and give him and his acolytes trillions of dollars to fix things. Of course their predictions were well off the mark ... and they are not going to give us our money back. "It's the next ten years!"

So kind readers, today's lesson is to learn to distinguish between deterministic and stochastic processes. And if someone tries to tell you that a stochastic process is deterministic, keep your hand on your wallet.

Line of Sight

"Does it matter losing your sight? Think of all the wonderful work done for the blind." -- Siegfried Sassoon

Your blogger has a confession to make -- I am losing my sight. I have macular degeneration and my vision is getting progressively worse. This probable genetic condition involves scarring of the macula, the center portion of the retina, which causes portions of what one sees to either  disappear or be distorted. Thus I must write these blogs on an IPad from which I can blow up this text to a readable size. Apparently there is no current cure for this malady and one can hopefully only slow its progress by taking certain vitamins. I have no idea how long I have ... nor do the doctors ... until I need to buy a white cane. So, if I suddenly stop producing this bloggish nonsense, you should surmise that this vision flaw has finally overwhelmed me.

Then I think that there might be a number of readers who say it serves me right for supporting The Donald ...

Complexity

I guess it may be a function of my little grey cells dying off, but I am increasingly revolting against the complexity that technology is forcing upon me.  Recently, my e-mail supplier switched to AOL and, in order to use this new service, I have had to learn a whole new user interface ... one that is clumsy and non-intuitive. And, to do my income taxes this past Spring, I spent too many days trying to decipher the insane complexity of our tax code. Why am I being led by the nose into these labyrinths of what idiosyncratic designers think is the proper way of doing things? And, to place their brand on their designs, old protocols are eschewed for newer but not necessarily better ones.

Part of the genius of Steve Jobs was that he frequently got the user interface right ... one that was naturally intuitive. It didn't require a user manual to understand how things worked. Now end users seldom have manuals to educate them on the ins and outs of a new gizmo ... an unfortunate homage to Jobs.  Features that may be neat to the designers, become a bear to figure out. So I have become a bit of a Luddite. I wont use a smart phone ... an old clam shell works just fine. I do use an IPad, but grit my teeth much of the time. I do not look forward to autonomous cars because I don't really believe that they will simplify my life. When something goes wrong ... and it will ... many of us will be at a loss as to how to fix things.

In a way I am not too unhappy that I may not be around for this brave new world of increasingly complex technology. Matter of fact, I am thinking about buying an old Chevy Bel Air to get around in ... and hire H&R Block to do my taxes next year.

reddit Gallery CCXXXIV

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Cupcake Bouquet

McLaren P1

IPad

Train Station Entrance

Solar Eclipse

Malware

Last night I finished a two day bout with a particularly insidious piece of malware, Binkiland ... as evil a piece of software that ever has been invented. It basically made my computer almost inoperable. In a way it reminded me of those parasites that kill their hosts ... not a very wise strategy for self propagation. Therefore I had to kill this monster ... which I eventually did, although it took me two agonizing days and $40.

I think I infected my computer with this malware when I saw a pop-up advising me to update my Adobe Flash Player. Stupidly I clicked on that fatal button and sunk into a funk of losing one of my best of friends and confidents ... my computer. The first manifestation of Binkiland is that it takes over your browser and throws all sorts of irritating pop-ups into whatever you are trying to do.

At first I tried my standard virus-fighter ... Avast ... which was not up to the task. It advised me to use a rescue disk and re-format my computer. So I called the Geek Squad at Best Buy and they gave me the number of where I could order one from Acer. Unfortunately every time I called this number I was told to call back later. So I went on my Ipad and searched "Binkiland" and found a few references on how to get rid of same. The first one was so technically detailed that I gave up. But then I found a recommendation to use Spyhunter ... which I downloaded and ran. It seemed to be doing the job, but wanted $39.95 before it fixed things.

I was desperate so I paid the money and took my chances. It worked! However it took the better part of a day to do its stuff. So, if you follow my lead, be patient.

And, for the developers of Binkiland, may you rot in hell.

Afterward: I sometimes get the impression that our federal government is infected with malware ...

Taboo

A reddit-er posted this picture with the caption, "Please don't do this at concerts!" Well then, explain to me ... how did this bozo get this picture, huh?

A Lesson in Obsolescence

The problems that are plaguing Research in Motion (see: Battered Blackberry Maker) have got me thinking about obsolescence.  Why do some products die quickly while others seem to prosper with facility?  Often the answers are not obvious.  For instance, the rapid growth of the iPhone and iPad technology can be attributed to the sexy new user interface ... using touch-screen swipes to quickly get things done.  However, this may not be the primary reason.  I had another thought tonight that I would like to pass on ... and I hope my lack of user experience on this new i-interface doesn't make me look foolish.

The classic Microsoft/PC interface which still dominates the Internet world has an Achilles heel.  That is the requirement that users constantly perform utility clean-up operations to maintain the integrity and speed of their systems -- antivirus scans and updates; registry clean-up operations; defragging of hard-discs; and purging of file clutter (temporary Internet files, shortcuts, cookies, usage-history, etc.).  One need only see the repeated TV-commercials for companies that offer these services to realize what a pain this overhead has become.  And I repeatedly run into people whose PCs have become doorstops because they haven't realized that they must perform such nagging periodic maintenance.

Now, I don't believe that this same syndrome is suffered by iPhone and iPad users (Droids too?).  If in fact this is the case, then Microsoft need quickly emulate the genius of Steve Jobs in revamping their operating system and user interface ... or in a few short years they might well walk the same plank that Research in Motion seems to be currently trodding.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to do a Registry clean-up.

What's NeXT?

One of the premier examples of the extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit in the United States, Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. has just sadly stepped down as its CEO yesterday.  An original founder of Apple Computer in 1976 (see Apple Computer.), who pioneered the Apple 1 computer kit, the Apple II, and the Macintosh with its innovative Graphical User Interface (GUI).  Jobs was ousted in 1984 and went on to found NeXT Computer (see NeXT Computer) with enormous financial backing ... including Warren Buffet. 

The 1986-released NeXT computer was not a commercial success, primarily, in my opinion, because it did not include a floppy disc drive.  Steve Jobs, in his typical visionary way, was years ahead of his time, substituting an early version of a CD-RAM for both a mass storage device and input/output (I/O) device.  This was one of the few mistakes Jobs ever made in his technical career ... primarily because it became difficult (and expensive) to move data and applications from the rest of cyberspace onto the NeXT computer and the data-access rates of this device were snail-slow.  Today, 25 years later, CD-RAMs are often the primary hardware I/O devices on personal computers ... and mass data storage is rapidly moving off of its miniature hard discs and onto static-RAM memory (such as flash drives).  Here, Steve was just a few years too soon.

But Jobs can easily be forgiven this one technical hiccup for, after returning to Apple in 1997, he went on to lead the creation of the IPod, the IMac, the IPhone, and the IPad (with its GUI on steroids) which have fostered enormous worldwide markets for American technology.  Even the Apple Store is a technology marketing innovation which can be partially attributed to Jobs.

Now, Steve Jobs is leaving and the future of Apple Inc. is in question.  One has to echo all the kudoes being lavished on Steve Jobs.  In fact, they may not be lauditory enough.  So, when The Barry gives his early September address to the nation with the shibolith "jobs, jobs, jobs," my mind will certainly wander to that health-plagued founder of Apple.