My New Nose Hair Trimmer

Amazon

I just got it, and it works!

I can now breathe easier, and keep a clean nose easier.

Maps are a powerful weapon our Military does not Use Enough

The Afganistan War has been our longest ever, but we have no good maps of this Graveyard of Empires.

We are negotiating with the Taliban, a collection of warlords, each ruling over a small area, while having no idea, what each area is or where it is at.

We teach "Know the Enemy" in our military colleges We made detailed maps of every island we fought on in WWII. But bigger countries are still blank spaces on our maps.

Our map-making should be computerized. That way the view it makes possible could be made as large or small as desired. And access to it could be denied easily.

Open Source is Big Business

But it is big in a special way, that most people cannot understand.

I looked up Red Hat on Wikipedia, this morning as I was having my breakfast and coffee. It was a long read.

The amount of money being swapped around there amazed me, Open Source is idealistic, almost to an extreme. They want to make a better world, by making better people! But at the same, they are making lots of money. 

This is possible in Software. Microsoft, for example, has produced an open-source version of its .NET software framework. And Software Developers are gobbling it up, much to Microsoft's delight!

I hardly need to tell you this is something new in the world of Business.

Buying Votes

My Inbox is full of people asking for money. Some of them for good reasons. I give to the UN Human Refugee fund on a regular basis.

But many of them are from people who want to be elected to office, and their advertising campaigns. These are focused on getting them elected, and an image (or a message) that will do this. This costs money.

But this is countered by other candidates with their own advertising and their own money.

Money is fighting money, and people get lost in the crossfire that results.

The Loss of Understanding

Humans were successful because they could think.

They could sense the world around them, like any other animal. but they could also understand what they saw, put it into an abstract context, and know how to use it.

I am using a lot of words here to describe a capability that is instinctive for people - or used to be instinctive.

A different way to describe this would be to say, they ask the question "What is behind this?" or "How can I use it?" Two different questions. The first has religious implications, while the second does not.

People also organize themselves into hierarchical social structures, with those at the top getting the most of everything.

At present, this tendency is very strong and is inhibiting most people's ability to think. People do not observe, then reason from their observations.

They first ask themselves "What am I supposed to see?" And then see (and act on) that.

How Amazon can sell Defective Products

I just learned about this the hard way - by ordering a defective product from them, going through the hassle of finding out it was defective, reporting this to Amazon, who had me report this to the manufacturer, and when they did not reply, refunded my money to me.

What happened, behind the scenes, must have been this: Amazon asked for their money back from the manufacturer, which gave them the money, because they wanted to continue to do business with Amazon. Amazon then sells more defective products from them. It knows they are defective, but it also knows most buyers will not bother to get a refund.

You gotta be tough when dealing with Amazon.

AI and UI

These are Artificial Intelligence and the User Interface; the two branches of the Software Ecosystem, that is shaping the world. The first is Machine oriented, the second is People-oriented.

Both are part of the Computer Industry that most people know nothing about - including most people in the Industry itself,  This divides Mankind into Computer-aware people and Computer-unaware people (the largest component, by far).

All this began as the Industrial Economy, which still has a big influence on us. Its machines (such as rhe Railroads) made us serve it. But now people want their newest machine, the Computer to serve them!

And for the most part, they are not aware of this conflict.

Tim Cook: ‘If You’ve Built a Chaos Factory, You Can’t Dodge Responsibility for the Chaos’

Medium

This is an easy read, give it a scan.

To Have a Strong Economy, You Have to Like People

This is obvious, I believe. People have to like each other to work together well, And working together well makes everyone rich and satisfied.

But this is not always the case, and people are not always happy at work, or anywhere else.

I just read about the life of Marilyn Monroe on Wikipedia. What a miserable life she had!

How Democracies Die

This is a book I am reading on my Amazon Fire tablet, which I just brought into the Kindle reader on my Laptop, Kindle is so flexible and so cheap!

In the Introduction, (written by two professors of Political Science) they note that the threats to Democracy are now more subtle than they were in the past. And we need more subtle ways to combat them.

This summary is entirely inadequate. and I urge you to buy the book and read it.

I am part of the Company

And this is my strength. If you are less than this, you are nothing.

This is the voice of Industrialization (or Capitalism) speaking, and we need to recognize it. Because it is being replaced by the voice of the Computer, which is entirely different.

This is easiest to understand if we concentrate on Money or Capital. Which is undergoing a profound change,

This began a century ago with Hollywood and the Movies. That was creating a new Reality, with a lot of wealth attached to it. Its sex symbols (Marilyn Monroe) become international symbols and the American Dollar controlled the global economy.

This is changing rapidly, as this article in Bitcoin.com relates.

Ledger Live

The first step was easy: I selected Ledger X as the device I was setting up.

Then the screen on the Device indicated that the battery needed charging - so I charged it up, and clicked the right button.

It then said Power Off. I clicked the right button again.

It then it said Close - Exit control center. I clicked the right button again.

I was back to the Battery display again. The Ledger Live now wanted me to enter a PIN code. I pressed both buttons, but nothing happened.

The Ledger S wanted a different connector, but I did not have one to fit it,

The Bad Effects of the Computer on People

In 1980, the transistor was invented, and my career as an Electronics Engineer was over.

But something else immediately replaced it: the Computer. It took a while for us to realize this: 10 years, in fact. We knew something big was taking over the world, but we weren't sure what it was.

I had become a Tech Writer and got to see the destructive shenanigans that were going on, in company after company in Southern California.

Southern California and Arizona had been the scene of intense aircraft manufacturing during WWII, This what made Los Angeles: Aerospace. Computers were something different, but we were not sure how they were different. We just knew that whatever they were, they attracted a lot of money. And a lot of people, like me.

Aerospace had always attracted the most ruthless people, but the Computer made them even worse. The focus was on the money and nothing else.

IBM had invented the Personal Computer, and company after company busted its balls trying to improve on that. Huge amounts of money went right down the drain.

The Operating Systems of the time could not support the demands that we being made on them. And the Computer scene (and myself) moved Northward to Silicon Valley. The Nineties had arrived, and the Internet Boom took off. 

This when the Computer made things bad for People. It got so much attention (and money) that people were forgotten. In fact, they ceased to exist.

Let me repeat that: People no longer existed - the worst thing that could happen to them.

Now, thirty years later, the Computer Industry, is beginning to realize that people make computers, they do not make themselves.  And they better take care of them.

This was a difficult realization, made more difficult by the arrival of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrencies.

In the middle of all this, people still cease to exist.

Marianne Williamson

Gen

This took me back to the Seventies and Eighties in Southern California, Colorado, and Arizona. Despite the vast distances involved, they evolved similar cultures.

It made me look up Goop (company) in Wikipedia:

Goop is an American natural health company owned by actress Gwyneth Paltrow. It was launched as a "lifestyle brand" by Paltrow in September 2008, beginning as a weekly e-mail newsletter providing new-age advice, such as "police your thoughts" and "eliminate white foods", and the slogan "Nourish the Inner Aspect".[3] A lifestyle website was later added, and then Goop expanded into e-commerce, collaborating with fashion brands, launching pop-up shops,[4] holding a "wellness summit",[5] launching a print magazine,[6] a podcast,[7] and a docuseries for Netflix

I was involved in Gestalt Therapy, which was similar, and involved plenty of sex. 

Andrew Yang

Gen

Andrew Yang, the long-shot presidential candidate who has now outlasted several prominent contenders in the Democratic primary, is the son of immigrants. He was born in Schenectady, New York; studied economics and political science at Brown; and got a law degree at Columbia. After law school, Yang worked at a prestigious law firm, then a few different startup firms, and then at a test-prep company called Manhattan Prep. Yang eventually became the CEO of that company, walking away with millions after it was sold.

Living in a World that Does not Work Very Well

The most popular way of dealing with this is to ignore it, and hope that makes the problem (or at least part of the problem) go away. This sometimes works, but not very well.

A better way is to analyze the problem, and select part of it to work on. This puts us in charge, and not the problem.

As someone who is trying to understand his world, I cannot help but notice that this world is getting harder to understand, in many ways. And the people in it are not very helpful.

Why is this? Is this even a valid question? I think not, Why questions imply something is wrong with the questioner, and this almost always makes them defensive.

We have to reassure them that the problem involves nearly everything. That we are in this together.

But this goes against our Christian heritage and our belief in a benevolent God. And brings up the question of the existence of Evil.

But even more than that - they do not like to think. They like to feel instead.

W2W Attachments

This something men have to get used to - women forming close attachments to other women.

Men have formed such attachments for a long time, and our earliest literature is full of them. Abraham Lincoln, for example, preferred sleeping with men. As did a number of Civil War Generals.

In the little town, I live in now, in Costa Rica, the women here form new attachments frequently.

As an innocent observer, I am astonished.

When a Young Woman from a Poor Country brought Our Family into the American Economy

My grandfather's family on our Mother's side was living in Nova Scotia, where they had been ever since America won its independence from England.

They had been Loyal to the Crown and lost all their property as a result. They were rewarded with property in Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia economy remained poor, but the American economy took off.

One young woman in the Sanford family married into a wealthy family in Boston (the Fishers), they owned a Business College, and this made them wealthy. She brought down her brother from Nova Scotia, who learned Shorthand and taught Shorthand in the Business School.

He was able to buy a new house in Summerville, a suburb of Boston, and married one of the Business School students, a recent immigrant from England. They had three children, two girls, and a boy, the second girl was my mother, Mildred.

Self-Destruction

The most destructive act in human history was WWII. And everything that happened after that was related to it.

In Europe, the EU was formed, with its own currency, the Euro. But the UK has decided to leave the EU, for reasons that go back to WWII. It was the head of the British Empire before the war, and it wants that back.

It is determined to turn the clock back. And the US is determined to do the same thing. It came out of the war, the strongest nation in history, and now it wants that greatness back.

But time only runs one way, and this cannot be done. What is happening instead is self-destruction.

How does this work? Why do people turn against themselves? They can see they are not as powerful as they once were, and they blame themselves for this.

You will object that this oversimplifies the situation, and this is a valid objection. I am only saying this theory explains many of the world's problems.

Too Many Responsibilities

You have heard of the problems facing us - but not this one, which in my opinion, is fundamental to them all. We have too many responsibilities, which are global in nature.

If we are dying, this is a person problem that we can all deal with, whether we want to or not.

But if we are told the planet is dying (which it is) we are dealing with a global problem. And we should have a global response for it. But we do not. If fact we have no response at all.

Our ability to respond to life's problems has been destroyed by our having too many of them.

Instead of dealing with our big problems, we dramatize our small ones.

This not a idea of mine, it was proposed as a explanation for Brexit. And will probably be used to explain the global problems the US is in.

Americans are watching the presidential debates (which interest them somewhat) where no one speaks of global warming.

A big problem is the War in Afghanistan, a small one is the Impeachment process. People are being killed in Afghanistan, but the Impeachment only keeps the TV cameras busy.

Science Confirms That the Vagus Nerve Is Key to Well-being

Elemental

Take a deep breath. Hug a friend. Reach for the ceiling and stretch your limbs. Each of these simple acts bestows a sense of calm and comfort. And each works its soothing magic in part by activating a complicated system of nerves that connects the brain to the heart, the gut, the immune system, and many of the organs. That system is known collectively as the vagus nerve.

It is also involved with Chronic Pain. 

Learning Angular

This is a personal interest of mine you may not be interested in, if so, do not bother to read this.

Angular is a software framework, that is very popular. And I decided to be one of those who understand it. I am taking an online course from Edureka that I am satisfied with. But when I read their explanations, my mind draws a blank: I can read the words, but I don't understand them.

The ideas there a so different, they do not register. After sleeping on this problem overnight, I decided to concentrate on what I was reading, one new idea at a time. My progress will be slow, but certain. I am absorbing ideas that took 40 years to develop - from the Eighties to the Tens in Coastal California.

Today, I am concentrating on the Command Line Interface CLI. And my old brain is beginning to understand it.

The Razor Blade

I went to the Barber yesterday. and he did his thing - using a Razor Blade.

First, they use an electric clipper to trim away any extra hair. For some young men, this is quite a lot, but for me, it is only a little. This is the easy part.

Then they unwrap a razor blade. A new one gets used for each customer. And he sets to work, holding the blade firmly in one hand. All the edges are carefully delineated, and all the hair behind them gets shaved off.

You end up with half the skin removed from your face. This is not torture, but it is painful.

You end up looking like a different person but satisfied with the result.

The Interface Between People and the Computer

This is very important. but something most people do not want to know about.

This is understandable because this new knowledge is so difficult for most people (99 percent of the population) to understand. But the remaining 1 percent take to it easily - because they invented it, and are still inventing it.

This has created a gap between those who know, and those who do not know. With those who know, getting richer rapidly.

To the rest, this is not fair. Why should they get so much for doing so little? And they set about punishing them.

This is most easily seen in Crypto. Facebook has invented the Libra currency, and Congress (who is funded by the Banks) is very upset about this but can only order Zuk to cease and desist!

This makes him even richer.

Coping with the Corporation

This morning. two articles about the Corporation popped into my inbox. The first was full of fight and considered the Corporation to be the Evil One.

The second was a keynote at a Software Developer conference, It told the attendees "Mind Your State for Your State of Mind".

The talk concluded with a set of actionable takeaways including "Different applications demand different behaviors from the durable state." So ask yourself, "Do you want it right ("read your writes") or do you want it right now (bounded and fast SLA)?" SLA in this context means Service Level Agreement. This is a sophisticated approach. 

The first spoke from outside the Corporation, the second from inside it. The first is Righteous Indignation, the second takes a Share the Greed approach. 

Both are necessary.





s

Hallmark and the Buena Fe

New Yorker | How Hallmark Took Over Cable Television

Hallmark, in Kansas City, supported La Buena Fe (the good belief) a medical mission in Honduras.

I was married to a daughter of the family who ran the place. She later killed herself and her two brothers are permanently institutionalized in a mental establishment.

But Hallmark is still going strong, as this article relates.

Irish Cream Coffee

This has a terrific odor. The taste is good too, especially when enhanced with Splenda.

And it is cheap, shamefully so.

Merry Xmas from Costa Rica!

Competition on Online Learning

There are plenty of organizations here, all trying to climb to the top.

I just got a notice from Udemy this morning saying they have a new course on Angular (they already have one with a different instructor). I paid my 10 bucks and signed up!

I wish I could tell you how easy my life has become. But I won't lie: I am still lost in the weeds. What is obvious to my instructor is not obvious to me.

What I am looking at was recorded somewhere else by someone who cannot imagine what a mess I am in.

A real class (with a real teacher) is still better, even if they cost much more.

A Cockroach drowned in my Coffee

I left some coffee overnight on the desk next to my computer. This morning I finished it off, and then went to the kitchen for a refill.

I noticed a lump in the bottom of the cup, picked it up, found it was a dead cockroach! They do not swim very well.

There are lots of these fellows in my apartment, but this the first time one got in my coffee.

Crypto makes Social Improvements Unnecessary

I too have been bitten by the Crypto bug. Which promises to make us better, in spite of ourselves.

It might even work (in some areas).

The existing financial arrangement seems to think so, and is fighting it tooth and nail.

To be a Better Software Developer, you have to be a better Person

Actually, this is true of any specialization. But Industrialization made us unaware of this.

If I have any special gift, it is this: I am aware of this problem, and how it has morphed with the advent of the Computer.

For most people. this increased awareness has not happened, but its opposite has occurred: a drastic lack of awareness, to the point of insanity.

I will state this plainly: the Human Race has become insane - something many people have noticed in various ways.

One result of this is very serious, you cannot talk to an insane person about their insanity. But you have to accept them (and talk to them) as they are. What to do?

I will end this posting here. Hopefully, it has made you more aware.

$100 Impulse Buy

Amazon

It's a Fujifilm Instax Mini 9

Phones and Smartphones

Phones were originally cell phones.

Each cellular network had a number of towers that provided coverage over the area around it, called a cell. Each phone and each tower had a radio transmitter and receiver tuned to the same send and receive frequencies. They worked together. These were all low-power devices and could only communicate over short distances of about 50 miles.

Each network had a central computer that kept track of where each phone was, and who each phone wanted to talk to on the network. It kept track of all these conversations and kept them separated. Quite a job, but the Computer could do it easily!

The cellular network did not exist before the computer existed. After it was there, some smart computer people thought up the cellular idea, which made a lot of money for them. Users could travel between cells, and not be aware of all the switching being done for them by the network.

At the same time, the Internet was invented and became very important. It became obvious that the two networks needed to work together. So the phones were modified to do this and became smartphones!

The whole world became one network, and phones became cheap.

Why Bitcoin Is Still so Confusing

Medium | The Startup

This will not interest most people, because asks you to think. If you can do this without too much pain, venture on.

I have, and I now have an expensive hardware wallet I cannot use because I have no way to connect it to my Laptop. I will go to a handy computer store in the nearest large town tomorrow, point to the end of my wallet that I need to connect to and get a cable with the right connectors on each end.

I am still being educated, at a rapid pace by the crypto community. I got this, this morning: How SLP Dividends Can Tokenize Anything, Including the Stock Market.

Crypto is the biggest thing ever, but it is going to take some time for it to take over.

Stages of Cancer

My sister Linda Holder had an operation to remove a lump in her Right Lung.

This was a serious operation and she spent some time recovering in the hospital. Then she went home to finish her recovery. 

Recently, much later, she had an interview with an oncologist, who told her she had Stage 1 cancer.

I looked up Cancer Staging on Wikipedia, which does a good job of explaining this.

My Fear of Software

I have a deep fear of Software, and I think that is normal. It is creating a new Reality which may not be good for us.

This has been a problem with any technology, but Software poses a much greater threat because, with Artificial Intelligence, our Computers are becoming like us.

We should be aware of this problem, but we are not. Indeed, our previous technology, Industrialization, destroyed our awareness.

We have to regress in time and fix its problems before we can move on. And indeed, this is what we are doing, but we are not doing a very good job of it.

I repeat: we have to regress for a few hundred years, and then start over. We should be able to do this if we know this is what we are trying to do.

We have to notice that what we are doing now is not working. And then fix it.

If we don't do this, we are doomed.

The Age of Instagram Face

New Yorker

To research this. Jia Tolentino took a plane to LA. 

I have been impressed by its ugliness, but people here in Costa Rica tell me it is beautiful, and they wear its clothes most of the time. 

For them, anything American is beautiful, and imitate its worst aspects. The traffic in any large city in the developing world is the worst, but more people come there all the time. Even though they can hardly get around. They must feel if everyone else wants their lifestyle it must be better.

They take any popular TV program and copy it, changing the language to Spanish. They haven't copied Instagram yet, probably because it is too American. 

The Floating Utopia of Salesforce Park

New Yorker

Reading this made me feel dizzy. Where was I?

The San Francisco I had been exposed to when I was working in the Valley in the Nineties, was on the way down. This place is in the Stratosphere. 

I had to look up Salesforce on Wikipedia to see what it was. It's the latest force in the money game, that is still blasting along, and San Francisco is, once again, part of it.

The Crypto scene is part of this, but it will take a while before this is apparent.

I feel sorry for all the folks I left behind in the Midwest (most of the population) who haven't a clue what is going on.

Everyone who has power Abuses It

This is why the impeachment process will fail. Everyone knows how power works, and they know the President is following the rules. He is a little crazy perhaps, but extreme power often does this, and has to be tolerated.

There are exceptions of course: we are now less tolerant of sexual misconduct in the workplace. A few years ago, Marilyn Monroe could climb to power by satisfying the sexual desires of movie executives, other important men (including the President), and millions watching the Silver Screen.

This abuse still exists, but it is subdued. We now have other forms of abuse, that are more entertaining.

Starbucks and Chicharoni

This makes an excellent breakfast.

The Starbucks you can get anywhere. but the Chicharoni is a Latino specialty. I'm not sure what animal it comes from, but it is sure tasty.

Patecito

This is a brand of Pate made in Costa Rica. The "cito" ending was added to make it more Costa Rican. I have no idea what the contents are, but I like the taste of it.

Understanding Code

Code is a language a computer can understand.

This was my first attempt at a definition, but after looking at some code this morning I realized it is inadequate. People use Language, it is one of their unusual accomplishments. But nothing else can use it.

Scientists have worked hard at trying to get dolphins to use a language, but they have failed. Dolphins make a lot of social noises (that we cannot understand) but they are not a language.

Computers cannot use a language either. They are just a machine that uses Software, but that is not a language. What is it?

To answer this I would have to go into the history of Computers, and the invention of Software by Ada Lovelace.

Computers and Software just happened, and we have had to live with them, for better or worse. You have to pick one programming style and use it until that becomes too painful.

This is like our use of domesticated plants and animals. We use them, but then replace them with a better model, when one becomes available. This process only takes a year or two in the case of Software.

The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto

bitcoin news

This is heavy stuff but gives you a feel for what is going on in the Crypto world.

They want huge changes, and they may get them!

There are also many interesting articles in the right column.

Understanding Software Development

We must start with a basic fact: most people do not want to do this. They know software is important, and a lot of money is there, but understanding it would change who they are.

They will continue to use their computers (especially their Phones) but they don't want to understand them.

This understanding is not easy, it is hard work. I am learning Angular, and this is an introductory lesson. See what I mean? There is a lot of learning here, but you can probably learn it if you take your time.

People will say "I know Software is important, and I should know how to program it but learning how to do this is too damn hard!"

Actually, they will not say this, they will not say anything - but avoid learning about Software Development, with all their strength.

We have the strange situation of a technology changing the world, but the people in this world, avoiding knowing this!

And avoid knowing about this avoidance.

Mental Ability

This can be contrasted with Mechanical ability. This contrast developed in the 19th Century, with its abundance of machines. But developed further in the 20th Century, with the addition of Radio and Photography.

The result were people far different than they had been a few centuries earlier, Mental skills were now required, and many people did not have these.

Some people had the ability to control other people (such as Hitler) and they went far.

The 21st Century saw the addition of the Computer that required exotic skills never seen before. The gap between the skilled and the non-skilled made communication difficult.

This made most people demand a return to a simpler life that they could understand and control. They elected simpler (but dictatorial) people to high places.

This was not very smart.

What to do with Evil People?

The simplest solution for this is to get rid of them, to kill them. When they are gone, evil is gone! This is the approach used by Americans against Terrorists. The problem here is determining who is a terrorist.

This is an easy solution to this problem in a totalitarian state: the bad guys are whomever the powerful ones dislike.

But even as I write this, it doesn't sound right to say bad things happen because of bad people, and nothing else. There must be things making them bad.

I will use myself as an example. I worked hard to become an Electronic Engineer (U of Illinois, 1959) and after I became one, I specialized in Radar. I helped build the largest Radars (and most expensive) ever built. They were to detect Soviet Nuclear Bombers that never existed!

Later, I helped design a Bomb, so the Army would have one to compete with the Air Force.

All this was part of the Cold War, where immense sums were wasted by the US and the USSR. To the detriment of both countries.

Looking back at it, this waste of resources was evil. But no one saw it that way. We were just showing off our wealth, and there was nothing wrong with that! 

We did end up being poorer collectively, but we successfully managed to overlook that.

My personal conclusion: People can be good or bad, or nothing at all.

They help People with Problems

I went to the Post Office today to pay for my box rent. When I got there, there was a long line, waiting to be served. I decided to come back another day. This was not an life-or-death matter, and it could easily wait.

But another woman, who I didn't know, asked me what I was there for (in Spanish). I showed her the form asking me to pay the rent. She then said I should be in another line, and showed me where to go.

I did as she suggested, and I presented my form when the next window opened up. The clerk seemed startled by my abrupt appearance, but no one else in the room complained, and she proceeded to process my request. Everyone could see I was suffering from old age, and they wanted to help me out.

I noticed the computers were slow, and this was slowing everything down. Ticos are friendly to people (something I like very much) but they seem to think computers are people also and must be deferred to.

The Business of War

WWII made our family's fortune, and the fortunes of a whole generation of Americans, including mine. My Parents made theirs in Real Estate, selling their home for a lot of money.

As an Electronic Engineer. specializing in Radar, I made lots of money during the Cold War, working for the Military.

The Cold War was a conflict between the US and the USSR, to see who could waste the most money. The US won because it had the biggest economy.

But it continued to have wars: the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Then the Iraq War, and the Afghanistan War, which is still going on,

We are beginning to realize that endless war is not such a good idea, but letting go of it is hard.

In 1980, my career as an Engineer ended, because Solid State made the Vacuum Tube obsolete. So I switched to Computers, working as a Technical Writer. This work was not focused on the Military, at first. But lately, it has moved in, with some very lucrative contracts that the Computer Industry could not ignore.

You can read about this in Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech.

Americans have frequently been at war, and today is no different.

Everything in a Crypto Economy is Software

The impact of this cannot be overstated, even though we have been moving in this direction for some time.

Every country has its own economy and its own currency. In the US it is the American Dollar USD. In Costa Rica, it is the Costa Rican Colone CRC. And these can be traded with each other, at conversion ratios that change by the second, just like the Stock exchange.

The ability of a country to manage its economy varies widely, to say the least. And is frequently the cause of riots where hundreds are killed.

The latest practice here was the use of paper money with nothing valuable to back it up. It is called Fiat Money and works fine as long as the country's economy is strong.

Which brings us to Crypto. Which is based on Blockchains which only exist in the Software that forms each chain. These are often used to form cryptocurrencies.

The contents of every block contain the same kind of numbers but must include a cryptographic hash of the previous block. 

It will not attempt to explain what a hash is, but all you need to know is that it works. And the people in the banks that it is displacing are terrified of it.

Banks Are Cutting 75,700 Jobs Worldwide

Bitcoin

Bitcoin.com sent me this notice. It probably feels this shows the growing power of crypto.

I have mixed feelings about this myself. I think crypto will eventually prevail in some areas, but this will take a while.

Any kind of money will have to be regulated, but how this will be done for cryptocurrencies remains to be seen.

Living in the Computer Reality

I am working at this, and it is quite a job! Because it is entirely different from the Reality I am used to.

This is not easy. This morning I am looking at my copy of the ng-book (about the Angular framework) while sipping on my Britt coffee. I'm going to need all the stimulants I can get.

Most people avoid this new world and avoid knowing they are avoiding it. They don't know it exists.

Knowing how to use a computer (something anyone can do) will not teach you how to control them. For that, you have to outsmart them, and most people cannot do that.

This is the sad truth: most people are stupider than their computers, and can only do what they want them to do.

Learning is Hard Mental Exercise

But an exercise that I enjoy.

I am learning Angular now, and Google that invented it is also helping me understand it, with Angular.io,

They make this learning as easy as they can, but my 83-year-old brain has to work at it.

Most people, however, are not interested in learning. and find not learning more enjoyable.

I find this hard to understand.

Insanity is part of the Human Condition

We have a remarkable mind that can do things no other animal can, but it can get out of whack in remarkable ways also.

We need to keep this carefully in mind and consider this possibility in all our interpersonal dealings.

A case in point is President Trump, whose craziness helped elect him. The Democrats who are now trying to impeach him. carefully avoid discussing the subject, because they don't know how to deal with it.

Consider the SmartWatch. or Fitness Monitor (FitBit). Objective tests, involving thousands of people, have shown that they do little good. But they continue to sell in large numbers.

I consider this mass insanity. A mild form of insanity, but a form beloved by corporate market makers. In a more virulent form (the urge to get more) it is the cause of many wars,

War is an important subject and is clearly a form of mass insanity.

People can be crazy in complicated ways, some of them involving Money. Any Church knows this and is very concerned with getting enough of it. When it runs out of money, it dies.

Money, as we all know, can easily drive us crazy. We can't get along without it, and we have a hard time getting along with it.

Ethereum has Vitalik

YouTube

And he is very smart and highly visible. Bitcoin, by contrast, has none of these and is going out of control. Much to the delight of its investors. They want a lot of money right now. Vitalik is thinking of the long term. I am investing in him.

I am investing in too many things in fact, and have nothing in the bank. Tuesday I will get my Social Security ($1400) and get some new things, including a nose hair trimmer and a course on Angular, that I will be using to design Web Pages.

Workers in the Computer Ecosystem

The Computer economy succeeded because it had jobs. Just as the Industrial economy before it.

My ancestors came from Europe in search of those jobs. And felt privileged to get them.

Much later, I went to college and became an Electronic Engineer in 1959. But Solid State made my job obsolete in 1980. I needed a job.

I became a Technical Writer, a job that paid well and I enjoyed it at first - helping users understand the products that they bought. But gradually it shifted and I became part of Marketing - making the company, and its products, look good. Whether they were good or not.

In the Nineties, the Internet arrived and disrupted everything, Eventually, the Industry stabilized with four large companies: Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. But for twenty years, things were very unsettled. During that time I moved to Costa Rica.

If I had been smarter, I would have become a Software Developer, programming in languages such as Java. I would have become a member of the Technical Upper Classes, making a lot of money, and working wherever I wanted.

As it is, I can only watch this happening on my Laptop, in my bedroom.

I can see there are no workers in the Software ecosystem. And I can see no one understands this.

You have to be part of that strange world before you can understand it. I was part of it but didn't move fast enough to become completely part of it.