Sunsets, Stars, West, Wind
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/02/technology/comcast-time-warner-cable-modem/
I guess I’d better scrutinize my Time Warner bill this month. And maybe start pricing cable modems.
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http://io9.com/syfys-ascension-jumps-the-shark-in-its-very-first-episo-1671860541
Meh. I don’t need another police procedural in a fish bowl. Ugh.
I began to suspect something was extremely fishy within the first couple of minutes.
If it was really early 1960s, then the examining doctor would not be wearing blue latex gloves.
Once we the audience ‘knew’ Ascension was a spaceship, my first thought was the microgravity problem. No spinning section yet people are walking around and using elevators like it’s a skyscraper.
And when a prisoner is locked in a cell it included a very modern shiny stainless steel sink and toilet combo.
The ‘Big Reveal’ arrived in the last minute, and sealed my dislike for this show.
Where are the explorers and scientists?
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Update Mid-Afternoon: And this show gets negative marks for the role of women in this ‘society.’ I find it extremely hard to believe that a society would be so locked in time (early to mid 60s) and not change little if any in fifty years. For better or worse, some change would occur. And there would be considerable wear and tear on the physical media: books, magnetic tape, film, vinyl, etc. Most spaceship environments are also quite damp, which would have caused mold and mildew issues. I wonder home many cathode ray tubes had to be provisioned as well as vacuum tubes.
Quotable excerpt from middle of Modesitt’s blog posting:
The consequences of such absolutist beliefs have always been deadly, and usually terrifying, and that hasn’t changed, either. That was a lesson the Founding Fathers understood, and understood well. Because they didn’t want an absolutist government, they did their best to come up with a system that required a certain amount of compromise to work.
Well… now no one wants to compromise, and guess what… the system doesn’t work. What about that, exactly, is so hard to understand?
But I will have to part ways with some of his thinking, at least as he sums it up in the last paragraph. I do agree that driving at high speeds, while drinking, texting, sleepy, distracted, etc. is a very bad thing, and in most of the United States is illegal, I can’t agree with his stance on guns. A gun is a tool and won’t fire itself. Any harm done by a gun (or any other weapon or bomb or poison or … you get the picture) falls clearly on the person wielding said weapon.
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http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2014/11/18/the-non-integrated-society/
Couple of good excerpts from Modesitt’s latest blog item (link above):
According to poll after poll, around 90% of all Americans are displeased, if not furious, with the American Congress. Yet in the last election, over 96% of all incumbents were re-elected. A little bit of cognitive dissonance there?
***
As I’ve noted more than a few times, all too many businesses seem unable or unwilling to integrate data and events that indicate that the insistence on higher short-term profits puts them on a long-term course for disaster and lower profits. GM’s faulty starter switch was a perfect example. Saving less than a dollar a car by installing substandard switches in roughly 30 million cars for more than ten years “saved” GM something like $30 million. GM has already paid the National Highway Transportation Board more than $35 million in fines and faces more than one billion dollars in costs, not including additional lawsuits by almost a thousand claimants.
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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/15/spies-plane-surveillance-us-marshals
I first saw this latest revelation of our own government’s continued disregard for our privacy late last week. I agree with this article’s closing question:
Why are my Senators and Congressmen silent on this issue?
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Windows 10 Technical Preview Gives Microsoft New Shocking Spying Privileges
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/10/06/windows-10-spying/
Wow! Yet another reason I prefer open source operating systems.
Be very wary of M$ OS 10 and read your EULAs and Privacy Agreements very carefully.
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Why women leave tech: It’s the culture, not because ‘math is hard’
http://fortune.com/2014/10/02/women-leave-tech-culture/
Another article that my experience in tech proves out. Apparently, I am too stubborn to quit though.
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The No-Inflation Con Game
http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2014/09/30/the-no-inflation-con-game/
My own experience over the past 10-15 years confirms Modesitt’s observations.
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Academic Bureaucracy
http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2014/09/23/academic-bureaucracy/
… has little or nothing to do with excellence in teaching or improving learning for the student.
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California law says companies can’t punish customers who post negative reviews
Huzzah for California consumers! Hopefully the other states in the union will quickly follow suit.