- yes we're basically fine - the 'stay-at-home' order does not
'materially' affect us - since we're basically 'semi-retired-ANYWAY' -we
were already pretty-much a 'stay-at-home' couple.
We are having bi-weekly (grocery) deliveries from Aldi and Publix
and we buy fresh-veggies at the local-produce-veggie-stand and about once
every 2-3 weeks. We have a mango tree that at least from some
viewpoints 'seems' confused, however it got 'rain and heat and sunshine'
in appropriate doses - so now we have about 50 a week mangos that are
smaller than a golf-ball, but we are also getting "enough" regular sized
mangos that we have NO PROBLEM with Vitamin C -might even get an OverDose
- but - well - they are TASTY!
And SOMEONE keeps mowing the yard - wonder who that could be - and with
all the YARD WORK (what else you going to do on an acre-lot (our Hong Kong
friends are jealous)) when you're stuck at home...
We do 'other' errands (went to the bike-shop yesterday to get a new tube
for Ms. May's tricycle)... -- I've cycled to the bike shop, also for
some oother parts - they, are one of the few businesses we know of who are
doing pretty-well - they'll meet their 12 month sales goal about 7 months
early at the end of this month... So SOME GOOD will come from this
'epidemic'?
I have an ever increasingly large list I'll probably take to Lowe's next
week some time for 'odds and ends' - (thankfully this 'forced' me to learn
something about Apple's "Notes" application - and I don't claim to know
everything but I have, now, a more love than hate relationship with the
Notes application and it is VERY NICE to be able to edit on one platform
and have it show-up on my iPhone when / while I'll be in Lowe's...
Mr. Bill tends to eat some cereal with fruit, then tricycle in the early
morning(s), then do some yard-work, then putter in the shop or with Python
or other computer things in the afternoon, then read e-books at night...
Ms. May tends to get-up while I'm cycling - eat breakfast, then do
gardening, pianoing, then lunch, then reading and such the rest of the
day. Some days she'll tricycle in the late afternoon - then read at
night...
we have, of course, friends and relations all over the world and are
avid (maybe more so because of the Virus) e-mail fans as it keeps us in
touch with everyone we know all around the world
SOMETIMES the US news-media blows
things way out of proportion, but we read the UK-based "Economist" every
week and between it and the people that we can e-mail to in many parts of
the world - we keep-up-with what is going on here, there, everywhere...
I suspect that (MAYBE) Politicians will LEARN something from this
episode in our history and that what they learn is WE HAVE TO LISTEN TO
THE EXPERTS! - they are NOT all 'drips under pressure'? - I've learned
from mothers on 3 continents that this 'remote' paradigm for educating our
young has some costs but that once both the instructors and the students
learn to use the medium / media - that maybe the education of our young
will be GOOD again! - it seems to be faltering now?
Opening
Picture(s) - hope to have at least one each month...
YES YES
YES - this is me - 'foiling' on our new board (with the wing
(which you can NOT SEE) and 'foil-mast' (that you CAN SEE) up in Cocoa
Beach on Thursday, 7 November... - YES - I was being 'pulled' by a
SeaDoo with Ms. Ashley driving and Ms. May was riding on the SeaDoo (and
then Ms. May was foiling and I was riding...)
YES YES YES - we already had 5 sailboards - so the 'logical' out there
will ask, "Why the hell buy another board when you already have five?" -
good question - if you look at this picture - and 'think like an
engineer' (I know it's hard but some of us are afflicted with this
cursed disease) - you'll recognize that the forces / weight /
strength is ALLLLL where the 'foil-mast' attaches to the sailboard in
the 'fin-box' area... - ALL of our boards are well over 25 years old -
and one of them has it's 3rd skeg-box - and, so, well, - we didn't want
to break the back-end off of one of our existing 5 boards - so we bought
a sixth...
I've tried several other times - none 'hugely' successful, but I'm
Getting There... slow but progress - given time it will 'get
better'...
we
were in Hawaii in January to build a pottery-kiln; when there we went
to Maui for a few days and did a LOT of WATCHING, Learned a LOT...
-
which is, in essence, a board sailing 'sail' with no 'hard-parts' - no
mast, no boom, no universal joint -
Late
February Update and Mr. Bill does 'not so well' (two separate
tries on two separate days) on / with "Wing Sail" ( http://www.ozonekites.com
)
but
he's put-in some time with his 6.0 boardsail,
and has confidence when the wind speed and direction are 'RIGHT' that
he'll do well.
-
but it's now LATE May
ONE
Limitation for the foiling thing - is that there is (ESPECIALLY WHILE
LEARNING - another couple of 'variables' that one has to deal with -
over and above the variables that come with sailing, boardsailing,
kiteboarding, swimming, etc. etc. etc. - NOW I have to
add-in-to-the-equation the depth of the water - and is it a rocky or
sandy bottom (sand at high-speed probably won't hurt your foil, but
ROCK surely will - and there is also the wind-direction, which MAY be
a much harder thing to deal with UNTIL I / we get ourselves
'organized'?! - so - LOTs more variables to deal with!
something that came
to me from 'somewhere else' but I think it is well worth 'publishing'!
Index to the rest of
the web-page:
- click on one of
these 'section-titles' to go directly there...
This is a
'concept' that - perhaps does not 'strike the hearts of many' but it
does tend to 'bother' me... Think about what you KNOW and what you
PERCEIVE about software that 'takes input from 'SENSORS' ' (temperature,
pressure, proximity, GPS, salinity, blood-gasses, etc. etc. etc.), runs
those 'numbers' through some algorithm, and then 'takes charges' (or
takes control of (airplanes, cars, human bodies (Medical software /
equipment), drones, telephone conversations) based on what it sees /
hears / "senses") -
There has been a
"public outcry" about sensor based software and the 'perception' that
because of it's decisions -that people have died (will die?)
Boeing's '737 Max' airplane is a 'good example' of this issue;
self-driving / autonomous cars are a 'current' example of this
issue. - Think also of 'drones' flying around with who knows what
software in them. Think about medical equipment - luckily for us - MOST
(though not ALL) medical equipment, though complex and expensive 'reports'
the status of sensors but MOST medical equipment does NOT actually 'keep
the body alive' - most medical equipment merely reports the status of the
sensors and it is up to the medical staff to understand what the numbers
mean and how the patient (and medical staff) should respond.
HOWEVER, as time goes
by and as "AI" (Artificial Intelligence) becomes more commonplace in
equipment and software, the future may be a society in which many
decisions are made on our behalf, - do we really (REALLY) want to have our
lives depend on AI?
BUT - in the
short-term - we could probably have (AI / Smart / Autonomous) cars
tomorrow - if we didn't have to go through this 'stage' of development
where human beings (texting, putting-on-eye-shadow, shaving, eating
breakfast, talking to kids and other passengers) - THOSE are the PROBLEMs,
not the algorithms (that don't do any of those things (much less get lost
and have to figure out where to turn, next?))
If we (as a society)
didn't have to go through the 'transition' stage with "humans" in the way
- maybe we could do all this tomorrow.
AND - YES - we've got
to fix a number of things - like the FACT that ALMOST ANY "Company" who
has software in their product is going to tell people / governments /
regulatory bodies that the software is 'Secret / Proprietary' - so
there will be no 'option' for someone to REVIEW that software before it
kills someone? - and this whole 'for profit' concept in the mind of a big
company will NEVER go away as long as there are companies who feel more
responsible to their shareholders than to their customer's lives...
AND there is
apparently someone who teaches at MIT who has picked-up this 'theory'
(that there could be software that kills people) - and she's focusing on
'safe software' - and has a LOT of papers that are devoted to safety in
software: http://
sunnyday.mit.edu
There is / are a
whole bunch of documented cases in the 'space-programs' arena where
software (sensor-based) might have caused some problem(s)?
Video
things (movies / series / other 'visual' experiences):
If this doesn't scare
you to death - then you're sleeping: "Project Dark Chapter"
- by: Alex Ryan - about - ultimately - how 'safe' are 'e-books'! - ! - !,
and if it wasn't bad enough that Alex Ryan wrote a book about this (very
generically oriented) but in the recent issue of 'Communications of the
ACM (issue of 05 2020 - page 68)' (ACM = Association of Computing
Machinery ( the 'premier' computer-oriented organization)) - has written
an article all about Kindle / Amazon and their collection of personal
information - a pretty sobering article if you use a Kindle (or any other
e-reader) device or application -
the other impressive
thing that is pretty 'stunning' (if you REALLY THINK ABOUT IT!) -is how
can we manipulate our own dream-scapes - let alone how can we manipulate
other people's dreams - and - then - further - capture the 'brain-cycles'
in dreams and in dreams of dreams (and so-on and so-forth) - pretty good
movie - has Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page (who's AWESOME!) Movie is
called "Inception" - directed by Johnathan Nolan (who's
brother Christopher Nolan was a key person behind "Person of Interest"
(we are all just 'bad code'!)
"Speed of Thought"
- can't remember if this is Netflix or Amazon Prime Video - but it is
pretty good - reminds me a lot of Carolyn O'Doherty's Rewind and Unleased
stories
Two more 'movies' (or
series, I guess (I'm beginning to lose perspective?) - both with female
leads, both of whom I think were extremely well cast: the two movies are:
"American Odyssey with Anna Friel - the other is "CLOSE" with Noomi
Rapace - both are extremely well done and one is a movie (CLOSE) and
the other (American Odyssey is a 'series'
A Netflix 'Goodie' is
something called "Pine Gap" - the 'real' name of a joint
(Australian and American) intelligence-gathering-station near a
place called "Alice Springs" in 'mid' Australia - if you read-down the
web-page-here you'll see about my recent Mac OS "X" problems - and
at one point I needed something streaming to run in the 'background' and I
picked this TV series (six episodes) - and it is (VERY) good... - you
might like it - I certainly did - and it really brings-out the
human-element of what goes on in an intelligence gathering station - very
(VERY) interesting and entertaining!
Another from the
Amazon Prime Video is something called "Our Girl" - about a young
lady who decides to enlist and train to be a medical expert on the
battlefield. -though the leading-actress changes from one season to the
next - I particularly liked the lady who played in the first season, Lacey
Turner
Books
- MOST of the books I read are "e-books" on my iPad, but every once in a
while I find a 'printed-paper' book that I really like:
E-Books: - do you read with an 'e-book-reader' either a dedicated piece
of hardware, or like me with some piece of software on your iPad?
E-books are - no question a 'good' way to go - BUT: - here's a few things
about e-books that might change your mind?
a link from a Computer-Magazine I read (make sure to
'struggle-through' the part about the "Panopticon" - it seems irrelevant,
but it is not - but you may have to 'stretch' your imagination to
understand the 'similarities'...???):
book by Alex Ryan: 'Project
Dark Chapter' (yes - it IS AVAILABLE as an e-book) and
yes you have to 'wade-through' all the 'social and romantic 'stuff' but
the bottom-line is something that just might scare you - especially if you
read the link just above first
And YES - there's MORE to this 'issue' of who is collecting what data
about what we read and how and WHERE we read it - and who might be putting
something into / onto our e-readers and when and and and extrapolate - see
where your thoughts take you?
""Hill
Women"" by: Cassie Chambers (think lawyer) - this lady
has written a book documenting her rise from 'born-poor' to Harvard Lawyer
and her career attempting to help impoverished women in Appalachia
(Spelling?) - anyway - EXCELLENT BOOK about a lady who's goal to be
educated drove her to do things and see places that others couldn't even
fathom - an EXCELLENT READ - I found it as an 'e-book' but it is also on
audio-books and I"m guessing also in print - I found it through a library
- but your mileage may vary...
Try this one: "Permanent
Record" by: Edward Snowden - a VERY GOOD book -
especially since I'm somewhat of a computer-geek, and what he did / does
makes a lot of sense. He couldn't get his management to listen - but
there are a LOT OF OTHER THINGS in this book that should be interesting!
JUST Finished, "_The_Unexpected_Spy_"
by Tracy Walder - just exactly what it says - a USC student and sorority
sister goes into the CIA in the early 2000s and then goes into the FBI...
VERY ENGAGING, Interesting, enlightening -
some e-books:
Girl, Stolen
by: April Henry - this is a very interesting book about a guy who steals a
Cadillac Escalade in a mall parking lot, but like a lot of people who
steal cars, isn't terribly bright. Turns out there is a GIRL in the
back of the Escalade - and he didn't know this - and - well - interesting
stuff.. this same author wrote "The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die"
- a very interesting book about exactly what the title says... - these two
are part of a number of books by this same author... The author is
from Portland, Oregon
Some older books -
these you may have seen before:
- "Skinny
Dip" - by Carl Hiaasen (who is also a reporter for the 'Miami
Herald'(I think?)
- 'Think
before You Like" by: Guy Harrison - might
want to read this as a user of Social Media - amazing the statistics that
are quoted here
- "Moby
Duck": by Hohn - 2012 - 28,800 something rubber-bathtub-ducks
lost at sea - you can not imagine the shores upon they washed-up...
- one of my
favourites: -"The
Kraken Project" - by Douglas Preston -- just read this again -
VERY GOOD!
- "Blue Moon"
- another "Jack Reacher" novel by Lee Child
- "
Miscellaneous: Other INTERESTING things...
PROTECT your Address Book in your PC or your Macintosh... - One
thing many do NOT KNOW about getting your computer 'hacked' is
that when that happens and someone 'steals' your e-mail address
book, that YOUR address book is then 'in the public-domain' - and
what you may NOT KNOW is that MULTIPLE PEOPLE in your address book
will get all sorts of 'private' e-mails that you may not want in
the 'public domain' - things about your finances, you parent's
finances, etc. etc. etc.. THINK ABOUT THIS, THOUGH, - you
have supplied YOUR e-mail address to SOMEONE ELSE - if that person
gets 'hacked' and their e-mail address book is 'stolen' then -
generically - YOUR
E-mail Address can be used to send 'iffy' e-mails and the
recepients will believe those 'iffy' e-mails came from YOU! - - so
- you MAY or MAY NOT want to 'share' your
e-mail address with others?
SO PLEASE BE CAREFUL with your COMPUTER FILES - once stolen -
EVERYONE in your address book is 'fair-game' for ANY e-mail you
send -
Ingress Prime: trying
to learn Ingress - but not doing as much as I want to?
on Friday (Valentine's Day) I went to
Lake Okeechobee with my friend John, and we had a spectacularly
great day - overcast (so not much sun) - foggy - which was
interesting, but it was one of the great rides, no question...
AND AND AND - if you want to 'witness' the gorgeous sun-rises
some mornings from tricycle rides - check out my sunsrise blog,
here:
One thing I've been doing more of is 'generic' Python
programming, not as much oriented towards the Rhino3D thing as just
learning new Python things... ' and the 3.x stuff is becoming
'dominant' -- this really helps me - because most of what i do is now
3.8 - except for my Rhino3D scripting which is 2.x based...
BUT PLEASE NOTE: _ Rhino6 is now available on
the Macintosh (HURRRRRRRAAAYYYY!!!!!!)- and Rhino7 for Windows
is being worked-on - so I'm Rhinoing also - as well as
Pythoning - but using the two separately, for the most part...
HOWEVER, there is, also, the differences between Active-State
Python, CPython
and IronPython
(Microsoft) and 'generic' Python
, and then to confuse you even more there is something called IPython
(really just an IDE)... - and - the Rhino people use IronPython
(because of their 'ties' and 'background' with Microsoft, but I use
something called "Entropy Canopy" (which is going away soon!)
and it is based on CPython, and then there's Python 2.x and Python 3.x
and all of this stuff continues to 'complicate my life' - but - well
everything in life has a 'trade-off' - and in the Python world - this
is it... BUT - I may go to Ubuntu for all my Python stuff,
but I may just buy another Macintosh - since it has 'native'
Python installed when you get it -
BUT BUT BUT Catalina 'changes everything - and there are a couple
things (actually WAY MORE than a COUPLE) that I really REALLY do NOT
LIKE about Catalina - I may give-up Macintosh, entirely and move to
Ubuntu - the jury is still out but it is NOT
looking good for Macintosh...
BUT - I'm trying to learn how write 'generic' Python,
and sometimes I do better than other times (probably, though,
percentage wise I do better with Rhino3D-Python than 'generic' Python,
though now I'm moving into 'big data' and though my six year old
laptop sometimes 'chokes' on 4 GIGABYTE files - sometimes it does
quite well
when I can keep the file under - say - 100 MEGABYTES -
but - size does not ALWAY MATTER?
Some Python help web-sites:
http://www.socratica.com
" - they are very good at what they do - a lot of science
and other subjects for students. - the lady who presents the Python
stuff is " Ulka
Simone Mohanty " - and she's a very very good presenter... - the
other presenter of note is Lilianna de Castro and she does some things
with abstract
algebra that are quite good... the people that own
Socratica and do the video and the editing and the putting-together of
all the 'parts' are REALLY GOOD, - they present VERY VERY LITTLE of
what they produce, themselves, but they have people to present the
material on-camera that are excellent at what they do...
http://www.tutorialspoint.com
" - they, though, lump python with the other 'scripting' languages, so
you won't find their Python stuff with "Programming" you'll find it in
'Scripting Languages'...
there are other web-sites that do pretty well, " http://www.lynda.com
" is quite good and there are plenty of others.
The nice thing about being interested in Python to
'grow my skills' is that Python has been around for nearly 30 years in
one form or
another and so if you can't find what you want here,
or there, there is always some place else to look for good information
and lessons.
YouTube.com things you might be
interested in...
And a NEW SECTION: - YES - I've known about
'youtube.com' for YEARS
Some new music things you might find interesting - go to
YouTube.com and try these artists:
I have one question, and ONLY one question about
this Young Lady: -
HOW (where did she buy her memory
chips)
HOW does she keep all the music for
all these songs in that tiny, 11 year old brain?
more coming to this section - if / when I have the
time - and with the 'global lockdown' I guess I'm going to have
a LOT more time - as we head into our 9th week?
MORE stuff to come, here, as I come across it?!
Here's another excellent, young, violinist street
performer: Sandra
Cygan
for years and years and years I've had this 'obsession' about
having a work-surface LEVEL (front to back and right to left)
for years and years and years I have not
had the facilities to do that - (except to put a little 'shim' of this
or that under the leg of this or that... that will (especially if it
is 'OUTSIDE' (meaning it gets RAINED ON) ) will either rot and
loose it's effectiveness or sink-into the ground and then what do we
have - UN - LEVEL... -
WELL - NO MORE!
NO MORE OF THIS FOOLISHNESS.... now that
I have a TIG welder (for nearly 2 1/2 YEARS (call me LAZY!)) and
I am, to some extent (notice the word "SOME") becommmmmming proficient
at TIGggggggging, I've made up about 5 sets of 'levelers' and started
to put them on everything (sink, tricycle-work-table, work-bench,
welding table, sewing table, welding-fixture-table this, that, the
other...) - pictures to follow - - -
Kiln Building:
We (re)built yet another kiln in Honolulu (a couple of VERY LONG
Plane Rides away!) - - it was an 8-day 'ordeal' but it is, I guess,
something I do 'well' or they wouldn't keep asking me to go back and
do it again.. The next one appears to be October - in
mid-north USA - but - well - we don't know YET - and with the
'Lockdown' it may be later rather than sooner - who knows, we
certainly don't know - stay-tuned for updates - if / when....
- have you ever thought about this: - We (as a society or as
Earth-Dwellers) can not 'populate the galaxy', or settle other
'worlds' UNTIL we can solve / re-solve two issues:
faster than light-speed TRAVEL for humans and etc? (black-holes /
worm-holes MAY help with this - but there are "RISKS" - we've all
heard of 'warp-drive' - how to 'warp' space-time so that we can get
from 'a' to 'b' in less time than 'real' travel
-
some science fiction writers have used the term "Ansible" (for the
communicatios device-system) - Ursula K. LeGuin (Wikipedia-link)
was the first to use this term - but it is a REAL PROBLEM - as is
brought-out in the above listed novels 'Saturn Run' - as well as in
"The Kraken Project".. .
think
about this, also - (yes - I might be accused (yet AGAIN)) at 'making a
'connection'' where none is warranted...???
Think
about THIS:
Most Sci-Fi movie and book 'authors' or
'creators' BECAUSE they 'ignore' the FACT that ansibles and/or FTL
travel or communications is not POSSIBLE - in most Sci-Fi movies and
books , this 'failure to accept' that FTL is not possible, the earth's
scientists and mission commanders become the 'default'
decision-makers? - rather than allow 'intelligence and wisdom' to be
resident on the space-shuttle-travel-pod-whatever, the writers /
creators 'assume' (probably irrationally) that the people on earth are
smarter than the people on a remote planet or on a remote
space-station or travel-pod.
THIS PUTS the scientists / mission
controllers on earth in an odd situation - but doesn't allow the
people CLOSEST to the problem to solve it ????
for those of you out there who have
nothing better to do (and lots of money to spend doing nothing): -
Let's get our minds wrapped around this problem and SOLVE it NOW...???
