Secure Transfer of Property

I just had a problem with this. Yesterday I bought some groceries, but left some of them behind when I walked off. My mind has not been working too good recently.

Today I went back to the same store to reclaim my bag of groceries. They claimed I had never been there, and I was trying to cheat them by asking for it! I didn't lose much, and this taught me a lesson - much as you want to, do not trust people very much.

In Software, there is a technique called Smart Contracts, that enforces contracts using the Etherium language and operating system. I am learning Microsoft's implementation of that using their Proof of 
Authority product. 

But there are much easier ways of doing this  Contact the persons involved personally. or by email. And make sure, they agree to the arrangement ahead of time. Or your property may end up somewhere you do not want it to be.

Google News

I have been looking at this for some time, and enjoying it. And it is free!

It must use the same method to construct its News as it does in its Search. The product that has made it very rich!

Microsoft also has a Search product, that works nearly as well, but it cannot catch up with Google. You can see it for yourself using the Edge browser, in Windows 10. Give it a try!

Google has a huge number of computers that that crawl the Internet constantly. Indexing the links they find, as they go - and adding them to a huge database that Google can later use to lookup terms its users request.

When someone asks its Search to find something, it does a lookup in this secret database, residing in its Cloud -  and finds the result in a matter of seconds!

The News it gives you is the most popular news it finds in all the News locations it searches.

Thinking about My Problem

The doctor I saw at the hospital was pleased that she had a diagnosis for my problem. But it seems less of a diagnosis to me, than a convenient label.

This is true of most mental diseases. For only a handful, are the causes known, and treatments available. And in that way, my problem is clearly mental. But like many mental diseases, it has a strong effect on the body - it destroys my ability to walk.

I have seen this happen to other people - their mental disease makes it nearly impossible for them to walk. They may deny they have a mental disease, but their difficulty walking shows that to do have one.

I am thinking back to when I was lying on the sidewalk, face down - unable to do much of anything. I could not talk, walk, or think.

The definition of a seizure, states that abnormal activity is going on in the brain during a seizure. This has never been directly observed, but inferred from things than can be observed, in the body, or mental functioning.

It was perfectly clear to everyone standing around me on the sidewalk, that something very serious was going on. All the doctor did was give it a name.

Afterward, I had plenty of bruises - especially in my right hand. I must have put it out to brake my fall. And my thinking ability is still impaired. I bought some groceries yesterday, but left some of them behind.

It is very difficult for most people to admit, there are diseases, for which there is no cure. Such as mine.

Music that makes you Feel Good, but Changes Nothing

I ordered the All-new Echo Dot (3rd Gen) - Smart speaker with Alexa last Saturday, but it will not arrive in Miami, until next Friday. Evidently, the demand has far exceeded the supply!

The specs on this device are unbelievable - so much so, I had to order it, right away, instead of waiting until I had money in the bank. They know what kind of sucker I am, from my long record of purchases from them.

They also offered to add to my Echo (for practically nothing) Amazon Music Unlimited. That will play happy music forever - but will change nothing.

Why change things, when things are perfect already?

Constructive or Destructive?

Of all the ways to think about human behavior, this is one of the most useful for me. And also one most people avoid, because it would tell them too much about themselves and their world.

Most human behavior has become destructive, we have to face that fact. We can't waste time wondering why we have become destructive, we just have to accept that we are.

We are not that way all of the time, just most of the time. But we avoid knowing this all the time.

There is one place that is not destructive for me - the intersection of the Internet, Amazon, and Kindle. Just today, I downloaded Sally Field's In Pieces - for free. You will be surprised to learn this famous actress, is also talented and well-educated.

The world is telling me "This is the way to go!" Toward the Computer ecology - a strange place, to say the least.

Save the Photos from your Camera to Google Drive

Don't have Google Drive? Just Google for it.

It's on the Google Cloud, but you will never notice the difference, when you use it.

You can also share anything on your Drive, with anyone else - or do whatever else you want to with it.

Is there a problem with this? Your computer will still have to access the files on your camera. Which my Lenovo laptop cannot. And my Chromebook cannot either.

They heve to Want to Solve it Also

TEDx - Can we make quantum technology work?

This talk assumes if people know how to solve a problem - they will set to work, and solve it.

But something else is also necessary - they have to want to solve it. All the big problems he describes (and they are big problems, such as World poverty) can be solved, at least partially, using existing technologies.

But they are not being solved, at all.

Update on my Problems

Ray said yesterday when he looked into my eyes, he could see no one was there. Which seems an accurate analysis of my seizures. I had planned on going to Cartago to do my weekly shopping - but evidently I did not go, but did not realize this, after I fell down!

I can slowly walk around in my apartment, and do my own cooking. And my walking seems to be slowly improving. But only slowly. All my bruises are healing also.

About  Medicare. I have not been making deductions for that, and moving back to the States would too expensive for me.

The Costa Rica National Health System (CAJA) only provides basic health care, but it is adequate.

The Man of the House

This occurs commonly in Latin America, and Latinos (who got it from the Spanish and the Portuguese in the 15th Century). They expect it to happen, and it does - much to their detriment.

North America got its culture (and its Language) from England, and to a lesser degree, from France. And this made them different (and affluent) countries. Using the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment. Neither of which happened in Latin America.

Latinos would like to be affluent also - but they will not give up their backward ways/

The United States' Perpetual War in Afghanistan

Foreign Affairs

The sub-title here is: Why Long Wars No Longer Generate a Backlash at Home.

And its a worthwhile read - for those of you who are still reading, maybe 20 percent of the population.

Gerrymandering by Computer

Actually, this is about eliminating gerrymandering by using the computer, and some simple software. 

It's easy to explain. There are voting records for every voting district. And the first step is to assume each district will vote the same as in the past. The software would then looks for adjacent districts that have voted the same in the past. To build a larger voting district. This may, or may not be possible,

The end result will be a state, with a number of fairly large voting districts. But these may be separated in space. What to do next?

One solution is to have voting districts consisting of different areas of the state. Or do away with voting districts completely, and let each district vote for whoever it pleases. Politicians could still address their constituents, via the Internet, wherever they are. 

This is probably the best solution, and is in operation now in a number of smaller countries. If it would work in a larger country remains to be seen. Perhaps some way of reducing the number of candidates would have to be found.

Each of these countries, would have to reconsider how it implements democracy in its country. And that would be a good thing. 

I'm in Bad Shape

"What's wrong with you?" You will ask. And I have to say "I don't know, and no one else seems to either!"

The human body is complicated, and whatever is wrong with me, is complicated also.

But I can tell a story, of what happened yesterday. But I am have trouble doing even that. All I can remember was that I was lying on the sidewalk, with a group of concerned people around me. All they knew was that I could not speak Spanish. They call an ambulance, that never arrived.

Eventually Ray showed up, and took charge of me. I could barely walk, but I managed to get into his car, and he took me to the local medical clinic, only a few blocks away. We went through the usual routine there, but it was limited, because I could not get out of my wheelchair.

Eventually the ambulance showed up, and I got into that, sitting in one of the seats. Ray said he would meet me at the hospital in Cartago, about an hour's drive away. Off we went!

Eventually, I saw a doctor, who gave us a diagnosis. I was having seizures. But the net effect is, that I can hardly walk now. I have bruises all over me, especially in my right ribs and right hand.

As I am writing this, it makes sense - but believe me, there is nothing sensible about it!

Nacho is Not Honest

I decided to give my bicycle to Yami, with the understanding that she would give it to her son Aron.

This did not happen. She gave it to her husband instead, Nacho. who proceeded to modify the way he wanted. not the way Aron wanted. And to sell any parts left over, of which there were quite a few.

How to make Credit Cards Secure

This would be easy - every card purchase would have to be approved by the Card owner, before it would be paid by his bank.

The owner would be asked, via email, to approve every purchase. This would result only a day or so of delay, if the owner checks his email every day. If he doesn't, it would longer. But it would be completely secure.

People living with ALS share their data in extraordinary effort to end the devastating disease

Microsoft News

Microsoft is using its expertise in Artificial Intelligence, and its Cloud to solve this problem, that so far has no solutions.

As you know, Larry McKiernan, Rogene's husband, and a childhood friend of mine, died of ALS. Something that none of us expected.

It's a long article, packed with information.

Machines are Not People, and Never Can Be

This is about Artificial Intelligence (AI) the hottest new thing. Plenty of very smart people are sure that it is happening, it will only get better, and the sky is the limit.

But a fundamental consideration, should make them take another look at their high expectations. The fundamental consideration I have in mind is simple - Computers are machines, not living organisms.

The relationship between people and their technologies has always has always been complicated - to say the least. And this relationship has become more so. I hate to venture into this minefield myself.

But it is clear to me, exceedingly clear to me - that that what we call sanity or insanity. and creativity are mixed up with each other. And machines can be either way.

Perhaps I am wrong - the wiring can go bad in either case, and the result is dysfunctional beings, animate or inanimate. The laptop I am using right now is defective, and the company that made it, Lenovo, just dumped an app on me, that wants to show me it is OK. And they are not responsible for its problems. Lies, lies, lies.

Computers, using the many forms of AI, can do amazing things - such as translate languages, as well as any person. Any three-year old, raised in multiple languages, can do the same thing. But no one thinks of employing them - because they cannot be computers. They have human needs, as well as human skills.

They are wired by neurons, not copper wires. They have to eat, breath, poop - and eventually, reproduce.

We live in a Time Trap

For the last two hundred years - from the middle of the 19th Century, to the middle of the 21st - we have lived in a greatly accelerated period of time. That has left us completely disoriented, and violent.

Time is mysterious, our body time and clock time are different things entirely. And when the two get out of sync - strange things happen, that have never happened to us before. We are built for a slowing-changing world - and cannot accommodate rapid change.

The first huge change was caused by the introduction of the Machine, by the Industrial Revolution. Especially the Steam Engine. In practically no time, Railroads sprang up on the land, and Steamboats on the waters.

This was accompanied by the Telegraph, that could transmit messages instantly. There was Photography. And it was not long before photos could be transmitted over the Telegraph, and printed in the Newspapers! Undersea cables were laid under the oceans.

Then there was Electricity, that replaced mechanical machinery. And Electronics that made Radio,  Radar, and Sonar possible. All this happened in less than a hundred years. and was accompanied by the American Civil War, WWI, the Depression, and WWII.

The most destructive wars of all time, by a sizable margin. But the population kept growing!

What was happening to us, in our collective unconscious? We desperately wanted to stop all this rush into the future. And to slow things down. We were not conscious of this, but our bodies were. And it was important to notice what was really going on - not what we thought was going on.

What happened was that mass dictatorships appeared, in the Thirties, commonly referred to as Fascist. The worst of which was Stalin, who was an ally of the US. in WWII - and whose nation, the USSR - won the war against Hitler, and suffered enormous casualties.

America, after the War, had a boom economy, for twenty years, with loans for financing mass housing - and low tuition at the colleges. But this did not last.

Midwestern manufacturing, that produced half of the world's products - turned into a vast Rust Belt.  Americans wanted someone to rescue them - and elected Trump as President. They wanted someone to turn the time back, and he promised to do so. To make America great again!

Microsoft Learn is a Pain

I thought this learning experience would be great - but was a pain instead.

The opening presentation was like a TED talk, that give an excellent introduction to what Cloud Computing was - the best I have ever seen.

Then it got into Microsoft's cloud, Azure - and I quickly got lost. Any cloud is supposed to make it easy for you to use - but this one got me lost in the mud instead.

The end of leaning in: How Sheryl Sandberg’s message of empowerment fully unraveled

The Washington Post

Articles like the make blogging easy - you just provide a link to the article.

But the final, fatal blow to the Lean In brand was a brutally blunt dismissal from Michelle Obama: “I tell women, that whole ‘you can have it all’ — nope, not at the same time; that’s a lie,” Obama told a sold-out crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn during a Dec. 1 stop on a tour promoting her memoir. “It’s not always enough to lean in, because that s--- doesn’t work all the time.”

Television makes People Stupid

This has been known ever since it originated in the Fifties. And is why it became so popular.

The Television viewer is subject to information overload - he cannot possibly process all the information being presented to him (or her). And as a result, his ability to process any additional information is impaired.

But this is not seen as a problem by the viewers, as it induces a trance state that is pleasurable. It is not seen a a problem by the advertisers, because it makes it easier for them to sell their products.

It creates a whole culture of people who act in a strange new way. Who are convinced that what they are seeing on their screens is reality.

In America, this made Trump president! He was a TV actor, and frequently presents himself on Television - as a person bigger than life, who will solve all their problems. When in fact, he is incompetent and corrupt.

Americans, for the most part, cannot tell the difference. Their ability to think, has been so badly damaged!

There are many reasons for this, but the most obvious, is their exposure to Television, many hours a day. That has formed an addiction.

People all over the world, who barely have enough to eat - have to have their Televisions, and have to watch them!

What they often see, has been manipulated by their Government to present its point of view. But they have no way of knowing this.

User Feedback can be Easy

Every Internet Application, when it interacts with the User, in any way - should open another window, displaying the question "Having a problem with this?"

When the user switches to this window, a form will appear for her to explain the problem she is having. It will then thank her for her input. and give her a number she can later use to refer to the problem, she just submitted.

Meanwhile, the company who owns the app, will put everything the user has been doing into a database. And send that information to an expert working for the company, for their consideration. He will then reply to the user and, explain how her complaint is being used to make the app better.

None of this is Rocket Science - just Common Sense.

The Phone cannot be Used to Investigate Fraudulent Claims

I just went through a long process, using my Windows 10 laptop, to investigate two claims made against my Credit Card, with Wells Fargo Bank - back in the States. Their Web site appeared to be defective, and I am not sure what became of my inquires.

My laptop is defective also, and that may be part of the problem.

All of this would have been impossible, using a Phone - that cannot do anything this complicated.

Understanding or Destructiveness

Or a mixture of the two.

I think, the two parts of the American personality are at war, and they seem evenly matched.

This seems to be the situation now, as a Federal Shutdown has begun - and no one knows what to make of it. "A government shutdown should not be part of the budget negotiation any more than chemical warfare should be a part of war,” says veteran GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander.

But no one is interested in my explanation. Perhaps they do not want to know how bad they can be - in spite of the lessons of history, that have shown, over and over - that we can be, as evil as we can possibly be. And this contradiction was built into our Christian heritage. Where the Crucifixion is central to its theology.

Americans, however, refuse to accept this possibility. And refuse is too mild a word for their violent . dismissal.

I am not Part of a Team

I just went through the install process for Bit, and it ended by asking for the members of my team that I could share the results of my work on Angular with. Those nice people can not believe I live alone, and work alone. I don't even have a dog to keep me company.

I will have to go back to Git, that doesn't ask such a stupid question.

This is one advantage of being a Software Developer - you can chose what people to get in bed with.

People have Realized they are No Good

And because of this, they are destroying themselves.

This realization began, as a result of the Industrial Revolution. A huge event, where to put it simply - the machines took over, and ran things themselves. This resulted in the American Civil War, WWI, the Depression, WWII, and the Cold War.

These were all caused by advanced Technologies, but depleted social skills. Our technical skills got better, but our social skills got worse. And in our deepest beings, we noticed this - and despaired of it.

What I am saying here, was said by many other people, especially Karl Marx. But in the long run, this changed nothing. We had been changed, and not for the better. And could see no way out.

I am speaking of most people here. One result of this change, was the creation of the masses, with limited thinking ability, and social awareness. These fit right into the assembly lines, that employed them.

This takes us up to the Fifties, when an even more powerful technology was introduced - the Television. It immediately took over our public consciousness, and made us all the same.

People everywhere were watching their TVs - and dictatorships everywhere, were managing them. Their reality was whatever they could see on the screen, right in front of them. Nothing else mattered.

Then, in the Eighties, another force appeared - the Computer. That most people thought of as an advanced Television - that responded to their input! When it was nothing of the kind.

Another technology was controlling us - and we had no idea what it was - and didn't want to know. We took refuge in our ultimate defense - we stopped knowing anything, or being anything. If we did not exist, we could not be hurt!

My Cousin Nita

Was the oldest daughter of my father's sister, Zera. Her name was short for Juanita (little John in Spanish)

She was a dyke, and dressed the part - complete with black leather clothing. and hair cut like a man. 

She met her lesbian partner, when she was her teacher in High School, in Ft. Madison, Iowa - where she lived all of her life. Her partner lived in the garage of the family house, and after her parents died, she lived in the house, alone. She worked for the Santa Fe Railroad. 

She did not age well, and was feeble in her old age. 

Screen Addiction: Today’s Biggest Threat to Schooling?

LinkedIn

The author works for Success Academy, a Charter School that serves disadvantaged communities.

The distractions of the digital era are upon us: Most American tweens and teenagers now have access to mobile devices and they spend an average of nine hours per day on entertainment media.

It's an easy read. 

Women who Have no Men in their Lives

The pattern is usually this - they have a husband, who gives them some children. But after they get these, they get rid of the husband.

The husband is not usually a success himself, and as the woman becomes successful herself, she does not need him.

Has Artificial Intelligence made People any Better?

The Answer is clearly "No!" And we should be paying more attention to this discrepancy.

This problem has been with us for a very long time, and is part of Human Nature. That began when we invented Language - and a rich collection of Emotions to go with it. The Emotions are usually in control, because they operate quickly, with little effort. Thinking is slower, and takes more of an effort.

Artificial Intelligence has given computers the equivalent of Emotions.  They can do amazing things (such as translate languages) but we have no idea how they do this.

We should be making AI more humane, but there is little interest in this. We have used it to make money and become more powerful, instead. To make better weapons.

People do not Want to Change

Even if the way they, are is killing them.

I remember this clearly from the five years I was married to Beth. A beautiful, but crazy woman. I was crazy too, or I would not have been with her for that long. But I was able to change - not very much, but enough to stay alive.

She had a complete mental breakdown, and was committed to an insane asylum in the Santa Barbara County Hospital. I got to see what they were like, from the inside out - and believe me, it was not a pretty picture.

She did not stay there long, but she never changed - and three years later killed herself. Nothing anyone could do, could change her.

Her story was dramatic, but not unusual. It is normal, for people to not want to change.

And it is normal for them, to take this to extremes - and not just kill themselves, but lots of other people as well.

Software is Social

It does seem to me, that the intense interest in Software marks a new era in human relationships.

I realize this does not affect most people, who have no interest in Software. They still live in a Hardware world, and see no reason to go anywhere else.

I got into it by accident. I graduated as an Electronic Engineer in the Sixties - where the technology was the Vacuum Tube, that existed in all shapes and sizes. But the move to Solid State in the Seventies, meant I was out of job. Where to go?

We weren't sure. but it seemed like High Tech was the way to go (even if we didn't know exactly what is was) because it had jobs. It was the latest fashion.

I was in High Tech, in Southern California, in the Eighties. And I saw some ruthless, predatory behavior. These was money there, and people wanted a piece of it - no matter what.

Gradually, it became clear that High Tech was all about Computers. And I moved to Silicon Valley, where Computers were being developed at an insane pace. And a whole new world was being developed along with them. A Software world.

The Personal Computer (PC) was invented by IBM. But it was still a big thing, three feet tall, three feet deep and a foot wide. To make it do anything, you had to buy Adapters, and plug them into it.

Companies sprang up that would do this for you. You took your computer to them, told them what you wanted added to it, and picked it up, later in the day.

I went to work for Adaptec, that made Adapters for SCSI Solid State Drives. But the Laptop computer was taking over, and soon dominated the PC market. Adaptec had to find another line of work - but could not

Something else had arrived, the Internet, that took the world by storm. The laptops could be plugged into it easily, and the Java programming language, made it easy to program for the Internet.

A huge boom in Internet stocks appeared late in the Nineties. This was followed by a huge bust. I turned 65, and it was time for me to get out. I moved to Costa Rica, and have stayed here.

Watching Another Culture Work

The Electricians were here again, finishing up what they should have done already.

And once again, I am forced to the same conclusion - they do not know how to plan.

I was doing the same work, when I was working for the FAA, in the Sixties. Much of what I did was simply wiring - but we did it strictly to code. Here, they have no code - and everything they do is made up in the moment, to suit their individual whims.

Everything works now, but my room is full of kludges. That I am supposed to overlook.

You have to let anyone be on your Cloud

Even people who aren't too excited about being there.

This is an important shift in Attitude, for the people who manage a Cloud. And for people almost anywhere.

They used to feel. they would only accept people who were partial to them. It has gradually dawned on them, that this is not necessary, or even desirable. Everyone can make a contribution, if only a minor one - or even a negative one. If you refuse to accept some people, you are only hurting yourself.

If you accept them, however, you have to be realistic about what your motivations are, for accepting them. This does not necessarily mean you approve of them.

Dealing with Craziness

I have written about this before, and I probably will be writing about it again - it's such a common problem, and it's such a common problem to pretend it is not a problem.

Every time I interact with other people, I have to ask myself "Is this making any sense?" And often enough, it doesn't. I also have to also ask this question when I am thinking about my own activities - which do get strange, at times.

Right now, I am trying to understand Software Development, and the latest on this, to plop into my inbox is How Your Role Changes when DevOps goes Cloud Native. And once again, I am asking myself "Does this make sense?" When I can barely understand what they are talking about. And I have to say "Yes!"

This is a very useful question, that can be used in almost any situation - once I have some time to reflect on it.

I am now Back In the Microsoft Cloud

I was kicked out of Azure, Microsoft's Cloud, once. But now I am back in it, with a free account in Azure DevOps - their latest stuff.

I don't know how this all happened, but it did. And I am now learning F# again, on the latest version of Visual Studio. A huge program, that took forever to download and install. But now I have it, why not use it?

What will the World be Like in 2100, due to Climate Change?

People will still be here, but they will not be living in what are now coastal areas - where most of them now live. This is not Science Fiction, this is a fact.

They should be planning now for this eventual move. But they cannot even imagine it happening. At some point, it will dawn on them, that this move is being forced on them - and they will have to make huge adjustments in their entire economy.

For the purposes of this essay, I will think of time in 10 year increments, beginning in 2020.

Right now, people don't have to do anything, because this change will not happen in their lifetime, of less than 100 years. 100 years later, will be about 2120. Sometime in this 100 year period, the facts will begin to become obvious. Fifty years later will be about 2070, when people will begin to wake up.

Most of the people now living will be dead and gone - but some of the youngest will still be around, and wondering why their elders were so stupid. Some of them will move to areas that will be safe from the rising oceans.

The East Coast will be the hardest hit, with Florida, Washington DC, New York City, and Boston gone completely! I cannot imagine how people will cope with this - but they will cope, somehow!

Science, Computer Science, and the Phone

People did not like Science (in 1980) they were not sure about Computer Science (in 2000) but they did like the Phone (in 2010).

In this series, the technical impact got weaker, but the confidence in it got stronger!

I welcome your comments.

Audible and the Fire tablet

These go well together - which is not strange. since they were built by the same company, Amazon.

I just downloaded the Audio book The Young Elizabveth I. which gives a well-balanced view of this famous monarch.

She took after her father King Henry VII, who committed every sin in the book, and even invented a few himself.

She was young, beautiful, and impetuous - loved to ride, and the hunt. She encouraged suitors, but made it clear that she was married to her country - that she alone made famous.

They do not know how to Plan

Our house has been rewired, and the electricians who did this have departed - without checking to see if their work was complete. Which it was not, several outlets in my room do not work. But checking this was not part of their plan.

I watched these guys work, and I could see they did not have a plan. They just did whatever they felt like, whenever they felt like it. We should have insisted, that they provide a wiring plan, and then that they stuck to it.

I had noticed this before in Costa Rica, when the woman I was living with for five years, bought a house that had just been built. The wiring did not work, and had to be done over - at her expense.

It never occurred to her, or anyone else - that the work should be checked, to see if it was complete. Something that is routinely done in the U.S.

Excessive Reliance on Intuition

This is a difficult undertaking, but it must be attempted - again.

The question was simple - how do we make the basic decisions in our lives? How is our world to be organized?

The basic Enlightenment idea was simple - by the use of Reason. But this idea perished because of French Revolution - and the Industrial Revolution. Two irresistible forces, but the second one, Capitalism, was more powerful - and still faces us today.

And the question now is "How do we make Capitalism better for the People, who are in it?" Instantly, the question comes back "Which people?"

And for many people, the answer was simple "Us." And they voted for those who supported them. And in the U.S. this resulted in the election of Trump.

This can be seen as The Rise of the Masses, an idea of Ortega y Gasset - who took it nowhere.

We need to go back to that time, the Thirties, put ourselves in its shoes, and come up with a different solution to its problems. An effort, however, no one wants to make.

Too much time has gone by, and the world has changed too much, for this to be a viable concern. People want to know "How does this affect me, now?" And they want a simple answer, to this complicated question.

Which some of their leaders, are willing to give them "Just follow me!" The same solution Fascist leaders made in the Thirties.

Social Insanity

This has been a problem for a long time. We are not only prone to insanity, as individuals - but as groups also. where it usually gets worse.

We were made to operate in small groups - of 100 people, or less. And in this social setting, we functioned well. But this ended when we became Civilized, and lived in much larger groups. When this happened, we were faced with a huge problem - how to live with all those other people?

We should realize we still have this problem, and always will. But we keep forgetting this. We think we have somehow solved this problem, and can now work on easier problems.

But right away we run into a problem. People can say they have no problems (or not too many of them) in the small world they live in, and which they know very well. But if they look at the larger world, they can easily see problems, and a lot of them.

And these can drive them crazy. Or they may just shut down, and do not see anything. In either case, they lose their self-respect.

Google doesn'tI have to Ask the Banks for Money, because it owns the Banks

Does this sound a little strange to you? It sure does to me!

But if you do the numbers, about how much Google is worth, and has in the bank, right now - you will see what I mean.

Our House is being Rewired

Because Ray is buying our house, he had to get it inspected. And the inspector decided the house would have to be completely rewired, a huge job that had delighted the Electricians.

Was this necessary? No. The existing wiring was adequate - but this did not matter. That was the Law!

The Electricians had to remove the corrugated sheet metal that formed the roof. What a racket they made!

And we now have extension cords that supply the electricity for the entire house - including the Computer. I am using right now, to write this posting in my Blog.

The End of America began in the Fifties

America made work in its factories less intelligent all the time - with the Assembly Line and Piece Work - but kept its emphasis on making money, at whatever the social cost.

As a result, it moved overseas where labor was cheaper. And the Working Class at home became less  intelligent - but just as numerous, and remained in control of its Democracy. Without having any jobs!

This theory of mine, puts a lot of emphasis on Intelligence, and the lack of it. But I think this is appropriate, and useful.

This trend continued with Television, and then the Computer. Both of which, made most people stupid, and inclined toward Fascism.

The same thing has happened in the UK.

People that Hate People

This is why I did not like Silicon Valley - it did not like me.

And I had to get out of there, and I decided on Costa Rica. When I was taking a taxi from the airport, there, I could feel it was a friendly place, and I told myself "This is the place for me!" And I am still here.

This was my personal decision, however - and lots of Americans have stayed for awhile, and then gone back. And lots of Americans, and Canadians - who have stayed here, have serious mental problems.

What to make of this? Damned if I know.

There is a lot of the world - probably most of the world, that cannot be explained or understood. And we are just beginning to understand this.

An Ear Person, not an Eye Person

Info Q

I am drawing on McLuhan's insights here - where he noted, that after we invented Language, we used it constantly, and lived in a world of the Ear - our primary mode of communication.

The next big change, was this huge change we now call Civilization, where language was written down. And the Eye became more important, because it could look at language someone else had written somewhere else, and in another time. The Ancient World had begun.

This trend was greatly accelerated with the invention of the Printing Press - which ushered in the Modern World.

I first read the transcript of this talk, but this did not work for me, and I switched to the video instead. Which was much better! Their streaming video server is different however, and you have to get used to it.

I could sit back, and watch it (and its slides) easily. You do need a laptop, however, with its much larger screen. And a mouse helps too.

What I was Told, as I was Growing Up

What I was told, it, is now embarrassing for me to relate, was simple - you had to be like everyone else.

Which seemed reasonable, at the time. Why wouldn't adults know what was best, for everyone? It never occurred to me, they never had a clue.

Now, after half a century of bumbling along, I wish I had done things differently. I wish I had put myself first - not everyone else.

But, let's face it - this was impossible.

Like any teen-age boy, I wanted to be like my father. I could not see any further than his limited circle. I certainly could not imagine that his way of life would soon vanish.

Which it would. America after WWII would be gone thirty years later. And Americans would do their best to ignore this.

What would they become? I wish I could give you a straight-forward answer. But whatever they became, they would not remain simple humans - but humans augmented by amazing new technologies. Foremost of which was Television. And then the Computer.

It's hard to imagine this state of affairs. People as animals, basically - and people as advanced technologies. It's as if these technologies existed somewhere else - until they discovered people, and took control of them.

This is seen most clearly in the case of Television. The medium demands the devotion of its viewers. They must spend many hours viewing it every day - and letting it dictate the fashions of their lives.

Love Is Not a Permanent State of Enthusiasm

New Yorker

Esther Perel is an amazing person. She is also a psychotherapist, and an effective one. And she is smart, as this article shows.

When I was working in Silicon Valley, in the Nineties - I had quite a variety of therapists myself. There are probably more therapists there than anyplace else - with the possible exception of New York City, where she works herself.

All Night, I had no idea Where I Was

I knew I was lying on the flour, but could not orient myself in the room,  I had no idea how to get back on my bed again, and get my covers over me. I was shaking with the cold.

When I woke up, I was so weak, and could hardly walk around. I had to lie on my bed for a while, while I got my strength back.

I had also shit in my pants, and this morning I could trace where I had been during the night, by looking where all the poop was. I will have to clean my sheets this morning, and clean myself in the shower.

We have to Train Ourselves to Like People

TED

This TED talk is about AI - and he says we have to train computers using AI, to like us, and treat us fairly. Otherwise they will only take care of themselves, and ignore our needs.

When I went to High School, most of our the teachers, did not like us. And the results of this "education" were not beneficial.

Our parents should have been upset about this - but they were not, because they treated us the same way. As deficient beings that had to be disciplined severely. Not as children that have to be loved and protected.

And I can get even more personal - do wives love their husbands (or their children)? Usually not.

We spend most of our adult lives in Business, or to use a more recent word - in the Enterprise. Neither of which are friendly to People - but are obsessed with making money. As if that was the most important thing in the world. 

I am not against Business - I go shopping every day, and I like most of the things I buy. And I take three pills every morning, to keep my body in good shape. 

In the Valley of Fear

NY Review

My interest in this article is unusual. Because it relates to my family's religion - Mormonism. And a peculiar kind of Mormonism at that - the RLDS church.

This church was organized by farmers in Illinois, but they were active in Iowa and Missouri also. They had little interest in California, even thought some of its most active missionaries, came from there - including some of my own family. Who were active in Australia.

This was in contrast to the dominant form of Mormonism - the LDS church, who had many Latino members. And were active in California.

The Milkman

Amazon

This was reviewed in the NY Times, and because of that review, that I bought the Kindle version.

The writing is brilliant - a first-person account of a young woman's problems in an unnamed location in the Middle East - written in American English!

This is How Google will Collapse

Medium

I got this from the NY Times, that continues to lead the pack, although Google News is not far behind.

The Internet is full of links, and these links lead you anywhere, you could possibly want to go.

How to survive, and make money. in this free space - is a big problem, that no one has solved very satisfactorily, yet.

People are Ashamed by What they have Become

This is what I see people feeling, but not what most people feel. What do they feel? Hard to tell, but it is not shame. At least not consciously, but unconsciously - I am sure that is what they feel.

What else can they feel, when they are being honest with themselves?

"But they are not being honest with themselves," you may be saying. "Realizing what they are, would be too a painful experience, for them to be aware of. So they are not aware of what they are feeling!"

I think you are right.

Allow me to draw a parallel to my awareness of my financial situation - a sore subject, I can assure you. I have to live on my American Social Security retirement income - of $1,400 a month. I am not doing a good job of this, and I am ashamed to admit it.

But I have come up with a plan. I will log into my bank account every day, and plot my account balance, on graph paper - day by day. But this will not be enough, I need to tell if my spending is within the proper limits, as the month progresses.

I can predict some of my expenses easily, because they are the same every month. My rent payment, for example - and my medical insurance.

What I cannot predict, are the many online payments that keep showing up. I support some American politicians, and their parties - with small recurring payments ($5 or $10 a month) and I intend to keep doing this. And I will continue to support other charities also, such as the United Nations Refugee Fund.

But once other organizations discover I am doing this - they want my support also. And they are clever, about how they do this. Once I show an interest in one cause, other related causes want my support also.

Since these are credit card charges, I can ask my bank to refund them (these are called charge backs, and they are not hard to do, but they are a nuisance).

If you want to control your bank account, you have to be aggressive about doing this.

People can only See Things, they are already Familiar With

And by seeing, I am using the word in its broadest sense.

Take Mormonism, my family's religion. They were called Mormons, because their founder, Joseph Smith, wrote the Book of Mormon. When missionaries took this to England, the people there could see it was of divine origin - and that mean he was a Prophet of God! And they crossed the Atlantic Ocean, in vast numbers, to be with him.

No one bothered to count them - but there were a lot of them.

Their fellow-Americans did not bother to count them either - but they knew there was a lot of them. And they were different. And they did not like them.

As result, he was murdered by his fellow-Americans.

Religion in the Public Schools in Costa Rica

This is a photo I took in the Grade School in Orosi, where I live. It is the Divino Nino, in Spanish
or the Christ Child, in English.

Costa Rica is officially a Catholic country, and religious events are considered political
events also.

The nearest large town of Cartago, is also the shrine of Costa Rica's patron saint La Negrita
one of the worlds many black saints. Once a year, people from everywhere, walk to Cartago,
some them pushing baby buggies.

Democracy Shouldn’t Be About Brand Recognition

Medium

This comes immediately after my last posting Michelle Obama’s New Reign of Soft Power that says she is important because she is so familiar - a brand name, in effect.

This is looking at the same idea, from opposite sides of the equation.

Michelle Obama’s New Reign of Soft Power

New Yorker

During her time in the White House, Obama grew into a symbol for rejecting the cool distance inherent to symbolism; she was the first First Lady to court an air of “relatability,” and she retained it even as she became one of the most popular Americans in history. Now “Becoming” is the heralding of her second coming, as an unprecedented, potentially billion-dollar American brand.

It is worth noting, that she grew up in the black slums of Chicago - and become a success as a lawyer, before she met her husband. 

Incompetent we are, and shall Remain

I am reading Open Democracy this morning, and here is a quote from that:

Brexit has caused many surprises, but it should not have come as a surprise. The UK Government has shown a scale of incompetence unprecedented in recent times. Leavers have had a cavalier disregard with coming up with a feasible plan for leaving, while the Labour Party has been too often posted missing in action without a Brexit policy worthy of the name. And to cap it all, Theresa May and her Tory Government have managed to lose three Brexit parliamentary votes in a single day – including for the first time having a UK Government held in contempt of Parliament.

Does this sound familiar to American ears? It does to mine. 

We got our culture from England, including its most important  export - Industrialization. We acquired English faults and expanded on them. America is Britian written large. 

We also borrowed a lot from the French - many Founding Fathers, including Benjamin Franklin, spent much of their adult lives there. 

We also had many German immigrants, and absorbed much of their culture also. 

This should have made us the most competent nation in the world. And indeed, we started out that way. But, like Britian, we lost our way. And have shown little interest in recovering from our mistakes. 

My New Chromebook

My Lenovo Windows 10 laptop was giving me lots of problems. I needed another laptop, but it had to be inexpensive. Amazon had a Samsung Chromebook 3 for $150. That was cheap! I decided to give it a try.

For must people, who use a computer (or a Phone) mainly to do their email. This Chromebook will be entirely adequate, and has a larger display. You can use My Drive, Google's drive in the Cloud, to transfer files easily between your computers.

Gmail comes with the Chrome browser. I can also use the Blogger app, the same as before. But you cannot use Microsoft apps, some of which are very useful.

The Character Map, for example. Which has the characters used by every language in world. I use it manly to insert Spanish characters my English documents, such as the titles of photos. There is another app, to make online currency conversions - such as between the Costa Rica Colone and the American Dollar.

The first thing I noticed was that the trackpad was hard to use. So I plugged in a wireless mouse. That used up one if my two available USB ports but it did work much better. The other USB port is used for a Headset, so I can hear and talk on the Internet - or on apps, such as Skype. 

And I learned somethings else, that was something of a shock - the Chromebook was not designed for Software Developers, that have to work with many files, all the time. Since I do this, as a hobby - this was a big drawback.

Being Important is Better than Being Good

This problem must have existed for a long time, but seems to be getting worse.

I am now reading Leading from the Emerging Future, and once took an online course on this.

But he overlooks one important point - most people don't care! They live in their own small world, and don't want to be bothered, by anything larger than that.

This makes sense. We were part of small communities for millions of years. We are part of a Global World now, but our minds (and our bodies) have no way of relating to this.

The code I’m still ashamed of

freeCodeCamp

More and more, coders are becoming concerned with Ethics. And this guy is one of them.

He can also write.

Bizarre ‘dark fluid’ with negative mass could dominate the Universe

The Conversation

I found this article by reading Google News.

The author, Jamie Farnes, seems like an ordinary person, with bizarre idea. A very common combination.

The reaction of most people, is simply to rule him out. Anything they have to think about for more than six seconds - doesn't get thought about. Any ideas have to be simple, very simple.

He tries to make it simple, but people can spot simple ideas that are really complex - from mile away. And they will have nothing to do with it.

The Saturn five had eight Million Moving Parts

Amazon

I got the Kindle version of this book, for free. And am now viewing it on my Fire tablet.

Once again, I am impressed by the technical developments in the Sixties, in America and in the Soviet Union,

And by the fact, that soon after this, Kennedy was assassinated. And the Soviet Union disappeared.

Too much was happening in the second half of the 20th Century, and the Human Race did not meet this challenge gracefully.

Bad things happen, because Bad People made them happen

And they must be punished for this.

For example, factories once employed lots of people. And as these factories closed, as they did all over the Western world - when these factories moved to China, because they could make things cheaper. People did not see this happen, but all kinds of other things happening.

Americans came up with their own theories to explain this - and as a result, threw record numbers of people in jail.

They were obviously Bad People.

Latest Skype for Android update

Microsoft

You guys who have Android phones (and who doesn't?) can have Skype also. And make calls anywhere for a lower cost.

My Vietnamese Students in California

When I was working in Silicon Valley in the Nineties, I decided I would teach English as a Second Language. I took Adult Education courses, that taught me how to do this.

I worked for Catholic Charities, a fine organization, that was try to help some recent Vietnamese immigrants adapt to life in America. l agreed to teach English to a Vietnamese family.

I found their address, and they were waiting eagerly for for me. But the person from Catholic Charities never showed up. Fortunately the family had an instruction book I could teach from, and we started on that. The family consisted a mother, two boys, and a girl - all adolescents.

I never saw the father - who was off somewhere with his Vietnamese friends, living off the income the Federal Government had provided them. They had been the Vietnamese during the war, who had assisted the Americans, who were fighting the Vietnamese. They were criminals, and were thrown in jail, as soon as the Americans had departed.

For some reason, the Americans decided to take them out of jail, and accept them, and their families as legal immigrants. This was the family I was teaching. Not ideal students.

I was soon teaching this family, in their apartment, and also teaching a class at another location, In a classroom, with many students.

I was assisted by a Vietnamese man, who was a professor at San Jose State, located in the middle of the town of San Jose. He had immigrated long before, and was fluent in English, and well as Vietnamese. At one point, we were trying to teach our students, how to answer multiple-choice questions. We could not. Those kids would just sit there, with blank looks on their faces.

They had never been to school in Vietnam, where you learn how to take tests. They were only interested in one thing - making money, as fast and easily as possible.

They were not interested in learning anything.

The Prophet of Envy

NY Review

René Girard was unknown to me, but after reading this review, I consider him a very important person - in the fullest sense of that phrase. And I am keeping this article in my online stash of important writing.

His books that have been translated into English are available as Kindle books - if I ever decide to understand him in depth. But I will be satisfied with this excellent introduction.

Leslie Jones Swears Off Sex In Her Latest ‘SNL’ Rant

UPROXX

She also said she’s at an awkward age. “Who am I supposed to even date? A guy in his 60s who possibly might die on top of me? Or a guy in his 20s, so I’m a child molester now? I have to put out milk and cookies and a Playstation to have sex. NO!”

Arend Hintze

The Conversation

This is another fine collection of articles about Artificial Intelligence. A subject that has preoccupied many people - including myself.

AI has attracted many people to it. And has taken the place of the Computer Craze of the Nineties.

Having a Native Wife

Having a wife, that is part of the native population, is not difficult to arrange - and is relatively inexpensive, by American standards.
,
She keeps some measure of control, as wives do anywhere. If she is satisfied with her situation, she provides love - if she is not, she does provide this. She is not treated as well as an American wife, but she will be satisfied with what she has acquired by her marriage (formal or informal) to an American.

This is made much easier, if the American is fluent in the native language. But that is not absolutely necessary,

Mankind has become Destructive

They have noticed (correctly) that the world is not good for them, and for that reason - are destroying it.

Let me examine the first part of that assertion - that the world was not good for them. This was the inevitable result of the Industrial Revolution.

We become more interested machines than we were in people. Because machines were making us rich! Or at least they were making those at the top rich. They made those at the bottom, poorer than they had ever been before.

In America, this was taken to an extreme with the institution of slavery in the American South - the most influential part of America, at the time.

This resulted in the Civil War - the worst war, with the most casualties, the world had ever seen. The North won this war, because it had industrialized, and didn't need slaves in its factories or farms.

About this time, from the middle of the 19th Century to the middle of the 20th, a fundamental change in society took place - machines became more important than people! And the people involved, were not aware of this change - and remained unaware of it, to this day.

This set up the situation today - most people are socially unaware, and determined to remain that way.

Superficially, they feel everything is fine. But deep down, they know it is terrible. And they are destroying it.

Typhoid Fever

My father nearly  died of this when he was a boy.

This illness is caused by polluted water, and nothing else.When he was a boy in Ft. Madison, Iowa - every house had its own water pump, and its own outhouse - and they were right next to each other.

It wasn't long before they installed City Water - and these pipes contained healthy drinking water.

A DARPA Perspective on Artificial Intelligence

YouTube

DARPA is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.

Thinking Fast and Slow

This book is telling me something I already knew - people do not like slow thinking, and will do almost anything to avoid it, and revert to fast thinking instead.

Most of the book is about this - the many ways we do not think, but remain firmly convinced that we are - and not only that, but thinking perfectly. 

This has been known for a very long time, but he makes it explicit - by describing all the ways this happens, in some detail. 

The condensed version I have, that I got for free, also has something else - text to speech, that works almost perfectly. You can read or listen, either way. 

I find looking at the text, while it is being spoken, helps me to learn better. 

Santa Cruz

This is the name of a brand of refried beans, that I am eating for lunch.

The name can mean holy cross (the cross Jesus was executed on) or the name of location (such as Santa Cruz, California) - or, as I have indicated, a brand name.

The last one is the most common one in Costa Rica - it says "Buy me. and eat me!"

Artificial Intelligence: it will kill us

YouTube

This is also a TED event.

This guy does a good job of explaining the dangers inherent in Artificial Intelligence (AI) - when its intelligence goes wrong.

He does not say so much about when it works fine - such as the Stock Market example. Technology is a double-edges sword, and always has been.

But the latest technology, is not just smarter than we are - it has created a new reality, that operates independently of our own. And is grabbing much of the money in our reality.

We cannot complain, and say "Keep you hands off, that's our money!" Because it cannot hear us.

The Powerful Appeal of Not Being

It is powerful, because it is so easy, and because you cannot be blamed for anything bad that happens.

You can simply say "I was not there!" When bad things happen. And take credit, when good things happen.

This is better than just being invisible, and idea that has been around for a long time. It lets you be invisible, or visible - depending on which would do you the most good.

This implies two versions of the Self - (1) a Self that exists, and can be referred to, and (2) a Self that does not exist, and cannot be referred to.

The Internet world is full of links, or references. If you cannot be referred to, you do not exist in that world!

Which is fine, for many people - because they do not want to be there.

The Land That Failed to Fail

NY Times
.
This articles shows how the Times has kept its lead in Global Journalism.

It uses some advanced formatting, that is amazing. 

If you want to keep up on the world (and many people do not) - read this.

STDs in Sri Lanka

WIRED - the Era of Cheap STD Treatment is over

This story happened when I was living in Sri Lanka in the Seventies. I knew nothing about Sexually Transmitted Disease, but I was going to find out for myself - by getting one.

I was a young man who was eager to have sex, with anyone - and I knew nothing about safe sex, No one had ever told me about that.

I had sex with a woman, who must have had a number of STDs, and I contracted one of them from her. I saw a number of doctors in Sri Lanka, and they had no idea what was wrong with me!

So I returned to New York City, and visited a clinic there. They knew what was wrong with me, and gave me a shot to take care of it - for free!

This did not fix the damage that had already occurred to my left knee, and I had to live with that.

Three Time-saving Tips for DBAs

This email plopped into my inbox this morning. This is what it said:

In today's complex data landscape, DBAs must manage a wider variety of databases and platforms in their organization's environment, from basic performance to security and backups. They may be inundated with numerous emails and alerts regarding the database operations that need to be screened through to find the real issues.

Having a tool that simplifies your management of multiple databases and automates your day-to-day tasks can improve your productivity and free up time to focus your attention on more important tasks. Join IDERA's Patrick O'Halloran to learn how DBArtisan can address your multi-platform database administration and management tasks more effectively, including managing changes for multiple databases, refreshing non-production systems with production data, and automating and scheduling jobs.

Heaven's help the poor Database Administrator, whoever he or she may be! 

The Conflict between the Good and the Bad

Awareness of the Good and Bad is built into the Human psyche. And the conflict between the Two is killing millions of people.

You probably read these statements, without being moved by them. And said to yourself "So what? These are only abstractions, and have nothing to do with real life."

If you feel this way, you are entirely normal. Most people feel this way. And most people, you feel certain, cannot be wrong.

I can feel this way also, easily. But deep down, inside me - I know differently.

This conflict peaked out in the Nineties, when I was working in Silicon Valley. All of us there, knew something was terribly wrong. But we did not know what it was. And we were strongly encouraged not to know, what it was.

I had many therapists there, there were all kinds of them, and a new kind was invented every month, But none of them would state the obvious - that Silicon Valley was Bad. They were afraid of saying this - deathly afraid.

Why? Because anyone who felt this way. was unemployable. And without a job, you might was well be dead.

The first thing everyone wanted to know was "What do you do?" And everyone was ready with an easy answer.

Bigger is not necessarily Badder

I'm sure you can see my point, but let me elaborate on it.

The first move toward making things bigger - was in what we now call Civilization. People quickly learned, that the powerful could take from the weaker. And larger cities could have larger (and more powerful) armies.

That was not enough however, they had to be better equipped, and organized. And better organization was critical.

This trend towards ever bigger empires, culminated in the Roman Empire. And when it collapsed, a thousand years elapsed before the Modern World could be developed.

But organization could be overdone, as it was in the middle of the 20th Century. The Movies, and then Television created millions of people that acted as one - the Masses, who were not very bright, and wanted a strong person to lead them.

Very recently, in the last 20 years, or so. The Cloud has appeared - where large numbers of computers can be organized in a large numbers of ways - and rented to anyone. The blog I am using now, is stored on a cloud so efficiently, it is free! And so is YouTube, offered as a free service by Google.

Google can do this, because it is so big - and getting bigger all the time, because it is educating its users, and making them smarter, technically.

But they are not any smarter, socially.

This contrast between technical intelligence, and social stupidity is amazing - and so far, no one knows how to overcome it.

TED talks about about Imagination and Knowledge

TED

I got this from Carlos E. Perez, whose mind seems to be in overdrive.

The videos are provided by YouTube.

FDA approves ‘precision medicine’ drug for different cancers with same mutation

Washington Post

The price for the breakthrough drug is high. The drug’s manufacturer, Loxo Oncology, Inc., and its partner Bayer, announced Monday night that the wholesale acquisition cost will be $32,800 for a 30-day supply of capsules for adults. The cost for the liquid formulation for children will be based on the patient’s surface area but will start at $11,000 per month.

The only way to find the mutation is through much broader genetic tumor testing. But while patients at academic medical centers with advanced cancer typically are tested, many people do not undergo genetic tumor testing in the community settings where 80 percent of cancer patients receive care. And while Medicare covers some genetic testing, private insurers are much less likely to pay for it.

Any Law, hundreds of pages long, cannot be Good Law

I assume this is obvious to you. The Human mind cannot comprehend this much verbiage.

I suppose this is why it is used. It hides many facts - so that everyone can agree to it, on the surface. Many people have to agree, and they all they want something that satisfies them.

When it is implemented however, people will not refer to the law they agreed on - but look at how it is enforced, instead. And then do, whatever they can get away with.

A New Capability Maturity Model for Deep Learning

Medium

This was written by Carlos E. Perez, who is holding my hand, as we explore Deep Learning together. His thinking on this subject keeps getting better - as you will see, as you read this.

I don't mind telling you, that I have followed this policy all my life - of following someone else. It's, not a foolproof policy, and sometimes I have abandoned a leader, or they abandon me. But letting them break trail, is easier, than doing the work myself.

Weapons of Math Destruction

I just bought the Kindle version of this book, following a tip from DataCamp. And I must say, I like the author, and I think you will too.

It's amazing how much you can learn by surfing the Web, if you don't mind getting into dangerous waters -  where you might learn something.

On Being Fulfilled

My first sexual partner was crazy. I might as well say that, up front.

I was a young Electronic Engineer. She could not hold a job - and was trying to get pregnant by me, so I would support her financially.

In one of our conversations, I was describing something about my job, that paid very well. She interrupted me to ask "But does it make you feel fulfilled?"

If I had been smart, I would have left her, right then, because there was no future in our relationship - as the future soon showed.

You may ask me "What happened to her?" I have no idea, although I sometimes ask myself the same question. I never went back to her part of the country, which is probably just as well.

Whatever happened to her, it was just as well, I did't know about it.

One of the fathers of AI is worried about its future

MIT Technology Review

Yoshua Bengio is a grand master of modern artificial intelligence.

Alongside Geoff Hinton and Yan LeCun, Bengio is famous for championing a technique known as deep learning that in recent years has gone from an academic curiosity to one of the most powerful technologies on the planet.

Deep learning involves feeding data to large neural networks that crudely simulate the human brain, and it has proved incredibly powerful and effective for all sorts of practical tasks, from voice recognition and image classification to controlling self-driving cars and automating business decisions.

Bengio has resisted the lure of any big tech company. While Hinton and LeCun joined Google and Facebook, respectively, he remains a full-time professor at the University of Montreal. (He did, however, cofound Element AI in 2016, and it has built a very successful business helping big companies explore the commercial applications of AI research.)

Family Life can be Painful

NY Times

We are finally beginning to notice this. And this woman's family is no different.

My family is no different either, but we have not faced our pain, as well as she has.

I do wish more people would read this - but most people do not do much reading at all.

Reading is an advanced skill, that has to carefully nurtured, and takes time to learn.

Opioid Nation

New York Review of Books

In 1982 I wrote an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, which began, “Few things a doctor does are more important than relieving pain.” I still believe that. I ended with these words: “Pain is soul-destroying. No patients should have to endure intense pain unnecessarily. The quality of mercy is essential to the practice of medicine; here, of all places, it should not be strained.”

As long as this country tolerates the chasm between the rich and the poor, and fails even to pretend to provide for the most basic needs of our citizens, such as health care, education, and child care, some people will want to use drugs to escape. This increasingly seems to me not a legal or medical problem, nor even a public health problem. It’s a political problem. We need a government dedicated to policies that will narrow the gap between the rich and the poor and ensure basic services for everyone. To end the epidemic of deaths of despair, we need to target the sources of the despair.

I want to add my own editorial, about a more general problem. The trend to avoid thinking, and avoid reading. There are many excellent articles, such as this one, but too few read them. 

Khloe Kardashian, and what she claims to be

MailOnline

This woman lives the fast life, but in many ways a common one.

She cycles through this sequence

• Have sex, and get pregnant
• Have baby
• Get tired of baby, and give it to the father of the child

When she is not doing this, she is a Television personality, presenter, socialite, businesswoman, and model.

Wikipedia states, that a sex tape, the reality TV series and her sister Kim's popularity led to the Kardashians being able to cash in by endorsing products. These include waist-slimming pants, beauty products and Coca-Cola, for which they are paid (as of 2016) $75,000 per post on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Before you launch your machine learning model, start with an MVP

VentureBeat

I can just barely understand this - but maybe you can, much better.

In any case, you can tell easily enough if this is not for you - and you can move on.

Dat

Dat documentation

Dat is a modern version of Git. I cannot used Git on my Laptop, but I can use Dat, with no problem!

It is now one of the many things I cannot understand very well - but I can use anyway.

They are Nothing, but think they are Everything

This makes me sound like a antisocial freak, I know. But I intend it as a plain description of fact - this is the way most people are.

And the rest of us, who can see what is going on - have to take this into account.

The practical consequences are far-reaching. When I email with my siblings, for example, I have to take into account, that they will distort the facts to suit themselves. And not get too upset about this.

ISO 9126

Wikipedia

I discovered this by accident, and don't know what to make of it.

The fundamental objective of the ISO/IEC 9126 standard is to address some of the well known human biases that can adversely affect the delivery and perception of a software development project. These biases include changing priorities after the start of a project or not having any clear definitions of "success". By clarifying, then agreeing on the project priorities and subsequently converting abstract priorities (compliance) to measurable values (output data can be validated against schema X with zero intervention), ISO/IEC 9126 tries to develop a common understanding of the project's objectives and goals.

This is about projects, something discovered in WWII, and used ever since - usually by self-appointed project managers. who have no idea what they are doing.

Its different criteria are ililties - Analysability,  Changeability, Testability, Stabililty, and so on.

In my twenty years in the Computer Industry (1980-2000) I never saw this used. But all of the companies I worked for went out of business - so perhaps it is being used by the survivors - Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft. But even here, it is not used very much.

The usual focus is on stock price, not product quality. Upper Management assumes (correctly) that the stockholders have no idea what is going on, and can be easily managed.

Yunnan coffee is culmination of years of partnership

Starbucks Newsroom

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China. And Starbucks is proud to be there. 

Lots of companies claim they are ethical - but Starbucks walks its talk. 

Coffee was First an Islamic Beverage

I am taking the Udemy Coffee Cred course, and this image is part of its history of coffee.

Note the huge turban on the lady on the left - indicating her superior status/

No One Understands Donald Trump Like the Horny Narcissist Who Created Dilbert

Slate

He arrived on the pundit scene with a splash: He announced way back in the summer of 2015 that Trump was going to win the Republican nomination. He came to this knowledge not via fancy polling models or sophisticated political science analyses, but just by watching the election unfold through what he calls his “Master Persuader lens.”

Good Coffee smells Good

The last time I bought my favorite coffee (Rey Selecto) I made a mistake and bought the whole grain coffee, instead of the ground. So I took it to the local Coffee Store, and asked the owner to grind it for me.

He opened the bag, and carefully sniffed it, several times. And told me (in English) that it was good coffee! I was impressed, because he judged my coffee to be as good as his coffee. Even though it is mass-produced, and cheaper.

When I last visited the States, I went with my cousin to Starbucks store, I noticed he was unhappy going there, because we had to walk there, and not use a drive-in - which to his way of thinking, was the right way to buy things. I also wanted to taste their latest blend - and that was not what he was interested in either.

For him, other things were more important than the taste of his coffee. What these other things were he could not say, and did not want to say - but he knew what they were, instinctively. They were part of what any successful American knew.

To be fair however, I must also say. that many Americans are very knowledgeable of the coffee they use. Udemy has a course called Coffee Cred, that will make you an expert on this. And I am taking this course.

We Cannot Amuse Ourselves to Death

Medium

This article is about Neil Postman, one of America's unsung heroes.

Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas; they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities, and commercials.

I am not sure this is all the accurate anymore. People have gone one step better - they do not exist, and they do not argue. 

A Chronicle of Life and Pain in Upstate New York

NY Times Magazine

This story reminds me of life in my hometown of Ft. Madison, Iowa. They were both Industrial cities that lost their industries. But the situation in Troy, New York was much worse - half the town ended up in jail.

People will ask me "Why are you so interested in this horrible stuff?" All I can say is "Because that is the dark underground current, that is running our society. You have to look at the lower layers of iceberg, not at what is showing at the top."

I first viewed it on my Fire tablet. But I could not zoom there, which make it useless,

I downloaded it for display on my Kindle for PC app. This gave me a full-screen display, and allowed me to zoom vertically, but the right side of the zoomed display was not visible. All in all, it was a big improvement, and I spent hours looking at it.

Deep Learning is helping Some People learn Better

I am still reading The Deep Learning AI Playbook: Strategy for Disruptive Artificial Intelligence, and learning a lot from it.

While at the same time, dealing with people who cannot learn much of anything.

What does this mean for the future of all of us? Not much, because there is no all of us.

The World has gotten Worse in my Lifetime

While its Technology has gotten better. It has gotten better for Things, but worse for People.

But the People do not realize this, They are well-adapted to a World that is not good for them. So well-adapted, they do not realize what bad shape they are in.

Is this the end of the world? No, it is only a world gotten worse. People still muddle along, making the best of a bad situation.

And as the world overheats, they will be in a worse situation yet.

A World that is Good for Everyone is Not Possible

Because there are simply too many people - and more are being made all the time.

We have to ask, instead - how many people can Planet Earth support? Each one equipped with a Laptop and a fast Internet connection. That will cost about $500 each.

The women will have to be provided with adequate birth control - and strongly encouraged to limit the number of their children.

All of this is possible, theoretically. But impossible practically.

Most people (but not everyone) do not want to live in a good world, but in a bad world, instead!

The Cloud is a Big Deal

It is changing our world, in some fundamental ways, that most people are not aware of, because this is happening in a virtual world, they are not aware of.

For them, if they cannot see it, smell it, or taste it - it doesn't exist. But, they have to admit, it does attract a lot of money! Why, they have no idea.

I was part of this crowd, in Southern California, in the Eighties. It attracted the worst kind of people, as new technologies always do, Hundreds of companies sprang up, and then died - like mushrooms growing on manure.

This craziness also produced the Internet, and the dot-com boom. The net result, was that most of these companies died - to be replaced by only a few - Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

And the Cloud, that they all used, that made them more efficient and powerful.

The only thing that some people noticed, was that the good jobs were now Computer jobs. And most people did not notice that - or much of anything else.

The Computer became smarter, but most people became stupider.

This is Illiberal Democracy, and it exists almost everywhere/

My Legs are Giving Out

Being old is no fun! Modern medicine lets us live longer, but cannot stop the decay that inevitably sets in. I take my pills every day, but they can only do so much.

I can no longer ride a bicycle, because I have lost my sense of balance. I go on a walk every day, but I cannot go very far.

The latest thing to go are my legs. I can hobble around, but the pain in them is building up.

The one thing that has improved is my depression, that was severe when I was working in the Computer Industry, in California, from 1980-2000.

That was a life, I would not wish on a dog. But the people there, can see nothing wrong with it They have developed a strange immunity to that kind of pain.

People like to Go Crazy

This certainly applies to me - I have been crazy all my life. And I have just realized this is a common condition.

People can solve the little problems of their lives, but not the big ones. And don't seem to want to, because going crazy (for any reason whatsoever) is so pleasurable, and socially acceptable.

How can you tell when a person, or group of persons, is acting crazy? Mental health professionals have trouble defining the many kinds of mental illness, and curing them, so how can anyone  else?

The answer is simple - the ability to judge the sanity of other people is one of our intuitive skills - without which we could not have survived, as a species.

If this skill degenerates (as it has, recently) we are in big trouble.

The Cloud is Real

And I am paying real money to learn about it.

Google not only has their own Cloud Platform (GCP) but also has a course (on Coursera) telling people how to use it. They are a technical company and also an educational company!

The course is carefully paced, so anyone can use it. If you want to be part of the ecosystem created by the Computer, this course is for you.

The Vanishing - The plight of Christians in an Age of Intolerance

Harper's Magazine

This is not an easy read, but it is an important one.

Christianity is vanishing  in the Middle East - because they are being killed in vast numbers.

Some of them are fleeing to an America, that does not understand their complicated history.

A Nervous Splendor: Vienna, 1888–1889

Amazon

This book is about the final days of the Hapsburg empire.

This is what the publisher says about it:

A Nervous Splendor deftly tells the haunting story of the prince and his city, where, in the span of only ten months, “the Western dream started to go wrong.” Other young men with striking intellectual and artistic talents, all as frustrated as the prince, moved through Vienna during this period—among them a young Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Theodor Herzl, Gustav Klimt, and the playwright Arthur Schnitzler, whose La Ronde was the great erotic drama of the fin de siècle. In this book, the bestselling author of The Rothschilds and Thunder at Twilight creates a portrait of a time and place that is “as lush, beguiling, and charming as an emperor’s waltz".

The Developers and the Users

This is about Software, and the two categories of people in it - the Developers and the Users.

I was with the Developers, when I worked in Silicon Valley in the Nineties. And I was shocked by their attitude toward the Users. They were much better than them (they thought) and they could use them as they pleased.

There was no ethical requirement, that they treat them fairly. The Developers were on the top, and the Users were on the bottom - and they had the right to make more. Even if they delivered lousy products.

That was in the Nineties, since then most of the companies these guys worked for, have gone out of business. Thank heavens!

The handful of companies that remain, have become user aware (that's why they survived). But they still struggle with ethics, and don't know quite what to do about that.

The Huge Change in Housing

In the 19th Century, a house was just the material it was made of - bricks, stone, and lumber. It had no wiring for electricity, pipes for running water, garages for its cars - or insulation to keep the heat inside or central heating.

All these would be added in the 20th Century. And the lack of any of these, greatly decreased its value. Insulation would be critical, because it could not be added to an existing structure. Everything had to be designed, and built into a modern house.

Our parents were not aware of these huge changes, and thought they could buy a fine old house for much less, and live with its disadvantages. I grew up in one of these old houses, where only a few rooms were heated, and we froze most of the winter.

We made sure we would live in better housing - and we did.

Our Technology is Depleting Us

It is taking more from us, than it is giving us. And this imbalance was greatly accelerated by Television, that made extreme demands on us. It insisted that we be, what we could not possibly be - the perfect consumer.

And the Computer continued this trend - by making us better consumers of nearly everything.

The attitude of a consumer is simple "Gimme more!" It assumes we are empty, and need constant refills - of everything.

Are we really this way? I don't think so.

Our basic needs are simple, and easily met. We have to pay attention to them, and resist the blandishments of advertising.

We have to be more socially aware, and more aware of the social effects of our technologies on us.

Women are Destroying Men

This is now so common, most people do not notice it. And to make it even worse, they deny it is happening. It is happening alright, and it should not be ignored.

If someone asks women why they are this way - they are surprised by the question, and simply say "Everyone else is doing it, why should I be any different?"

I think they are reacting to the suffering men have imposed on women for thousands of years. But they are overdoing it - and are treating men, the same way men had treated women. Never stopping to think how unnecessary all this is.

This is part of a package, where everyone treats everyone else badly. And considers this perfectly normal. Somewhere along the line, their values have flipped - and become the reverse of what they were before.

This change has extracted enormous costs - both mental and medical, on the persons it effects. They may have to use two canes to walk around. Or undergo painful, radical surgeries.

The Few at the Top, make the Most

This is so common, few notice it. But they should. Because this determines how much is left for the rest of us.

Still, the rest of us are reluctant to ask the important question "How much are you grabbing for yourself?" This is not a question they are supposed to ask, and they take a big chance asking it. They are supposed to take whatever they get, and not complain about it.

What happens in any company, or any other organization, in our Capitalist economy? You know the Golden Rule - "Those that have the Gold, make the rules."

This also applied in Communist countries. Stalin, for example, not only got everything - he send anyone who disagreed with him to the Gulag.

The few at the top, are the same everywhere. The only question we have to ask is - how many of them are there? Compared to the rest of us.

This is an easy question to ask, but a hard one to answer. In America, for example, how many are at the top? Impossible to say, because they take care to be invisible. And because the few were difficult to define - just where do you draw the line?

Those at the top take care to blur the boundary, by promoting a few who are not really them, but close to them.

A National American Digital ID

Everyone should have an ID, that can be easily used for one person only, and cannot be faked.

A system like this, has already been used by the American forces in the Iraq War. It involved Retinal Scans to identify persons leaving from and returning to controlled areas.

If this had been used in Afghanistan, killings by persons, who appeared to be friendly, but were not - could have been avoided.

Inside the US, this could be used to sort individuals into special interest groups, for voting purposes. Individuals could declare which special interests they are interested in, and could vote for candidates who support, or disagree with, that interest. These preferences could be stored in a National database.

This would be more efficient, than lumping everyone together, that live in the same voting area.

I am listening to WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH FLORIDA? that goes into this problem. Florida contains many different kinds of people (I know a few myself) with very different interests.