Tag: oldblog

I was watching something on TV the other day where a guy was accidentally sucked into something like a Einstein-Rosen Bridge and woke up in 1970 something. This got me thinking a little (it happens sometimes). If I were an engineer (I am) in approximately 1970:

• I would not be typing this on my nice shiny Linux box for you to read over a global computer network.
• I would not be using e-mail to communicate with people.
• I would have to use the library a lot more than I already do.
• I would have to be much better with a slide rule than I am.
• I suspect that I would have more free time.
• In the USA my standard of living would be higher than it is today (a sad fact supported by data).
• I could still live in the house I live in today, it was built in 1918.

So, my question is if you could choose a decade to spend your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s or whatever, which decade would it be and why? Would you choose the place you currently reside, or would it be in a different city, state, country, continent?

Not much new with me. I have been tied up on a few things lately and have not had much time left over to read or add anything here. I have been working on some software in java. JTables are a real PITA and frustrate me. Like, so many other things in java, they work really well as long as your application falls into the 80% usage statistic that they were designed for. If you fall into the other 20% it will be difficult. Somehow, I always manage to fall into the other 20%.

The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent – John Maynard Keynes.

I have too much stuff to read. I currently have subscriptions to the following:

• The Wall Street Journal (Daily)
• IEEE Spectrum (Monthly)
• IEEE Controls Magazine (Quarterly)
• Money Magazine (Monthly)
• National Geographic (Monthly)
• Smart Money (Monthly)
• Wired (Monthly)
• AIST Iron and Steel Technology (Monthly)
• This Old House Magazine (Monthly)

This is more than I can keep up with. When I was traveling all of the time it was different, I had time to kill on flights, between flights, etc. That is not the case now. Some of these I receive as part of a professional membership (IEEE, AIST). I would not have subscribed to Wired but received it for free for buying stuff at Amazon (It is an excellent mag, don’t get me wrong). I don’t read the National Geographic much, I just feel like it is a classic American publication and want to support it.

I just received a notification from American Airlines that some of my miles would be expiring and that I could use miles for magazine subscriptions and it would make my account current (how convenient is that). So, having no choice, I used miles to subscribe to The Economist, an absolutely outstanding (as I have noted here before) weekly publication. There is no way I am going to be able to keep up with it.

A jug fills drop by drop – Buddha.

Sorry for the lack of activity in the last week or so. I have been kind of tied up working on something for a client, working on business development, doing some research, etc. Not much is new.

I watched American Pickers last night for the first time. Someone suggested that I check it out. It didn’t sound very interesting to me but I guess it was ok. I found out that their shop shop is just down the road from me in LeClaire Iowa, about 30 minutes away.

It is hard to believe that there is so much “stuff” sitting around out in the middle of nowhere, and that the “stuff” actually has some monetary value.

Change hurts. It makes people insecure, confused, and angry. People want things to be the same as they’ve always been, because that makes life easier. But, if you’re a leader, you can’t let your people hang on to the past – Richard Marcinko.

Feijoada is Brazil’s national dish, and one of my favorites. I haven’t had it in quite a while and was looking around for a recipe. The last time I made it at home it didn’t turn out so well. There is a good looking recipe for it here in both Portuguese and English. Some of the ingredients may be difficult to find depending on where you are at.