This is more general ramblings but general ramblings that we want to show up in the slider area.
One of my favorites, to be sure.
A new species of ancient beaver that was rediscovered by researchers in The University of Texas at Austin’s fossil collections has been named after Buc-ee’s, a Texas-based chain of popular travel centers known for its cartoon beaver mascot.
I am back home after a couple of weeks in Georgia. The trip was wonderful as always and I missed my friends.
It was great to see them and get caught up on things.
I am currently in Georgia. This is an absolutely gorgeous state, albeit hot.
I’ll be here for a couple of weeks visiting with old friends.
I’m probably going to see the airline issues first hand when I go back in a few weeks.
This is from 9TO5 Mac and is extremely cool. I appreciate the effort that went into creating these. I would not have been able to afford them, but back then I couldn’t afford most Apple products.
I started off imagining what iOS would look like in classic Mac OS style. I kicked things off stylizing iOS with the platinum design and ultimately decided to meld it with classic Mac OS user interface elements. The project became a mobile version of Mac OS 9 otherwise known by its codename, Sonata. I chose to call the software “Mac OS 9 To-Go” and wanted to see what it would look like on a 90s PDA/smartphone. It led to the first product, the Newton Phone.
The rest of the article is here.
Some thoughts about the theory of relativity…
Electricity moves differently in a vacuum or with altered gravity. Does that mean that time is different or does it mean that how we measure time is different?
You could make the argument that a person on Earth shows a different time than someone in space simply because electricity works differently in space but the same measurement of time has passed for both individuals.
The only thing that changes is “how” I measure the time difference. That is why I believe the theory of relativity is incorrect.
If electricity moves at the speed of light and electricity moves differently in a void does that question what the speed of light actually is? To me, that means the speed of light is variable. Or, the way you are measuring is changing.
To me, if I travel away from the Earth at the speed of light and then return, I will have aged exactly the same as if I had stayed on Earth. Time may have been measured differently in space but my constant of measure is the Earth.
It is a theory that is extremely clear to me for some reason. I’ve always said that you cannot arm chair quarterback the universe from your chair on Earth.
I think the theory of relativity will be debunked when we start seriously traveling among the stars.
I am riding back and forth to work again on the bike. I absolutely love it.
While riding home this afternoon after it had been raining on and off throughout the day, I couldn’t help but notice how much the outside smelled. Bad.
It smelled like old socks mixed in with a little chicken shit with a side of hairy ass thrown in just in case you still have a sense of smell when it is all over.
Granted. That is not a professional opinion. I’m sure science types would say “math, math, big words, science, and suck it,” or something along those lines.
It still stinks outside. Maybe we should call the cleaning lady.
That is all I’m saying.
I ordered AirTags on Friday and literally sat on the refresh key until the Apple store came back online so I could get my order in. It is ridiculous. I own that.
There was a pretty good article that John Gruber linked to about how Apple’s M1 chip strategy is more about unity than trying to sell several variations of the same chip. The $699 computer has the same processor as the $1699 machine. I think that shows how strange it is that Intel thinks they need to have several versions of a CPU.
If they turn around and put the M1 into an iPhone, then we’re talking serious M1 strategy.
The low temperature listed for any given day is actually the low temperature of the next morning.
For example, the low temperature listed for Sunday is 48 degrees F. That is actually the low temperature for Monday morning.
It took me 15 years of biking to figure that out. It is important that I know what the actual low temperature is going to be because I have to dress accordingly.
I had the revelation a few years ago.
Today’s random thought is about Dark Matter.
As I was sitting here at my desk thinking about all of the things that we are so close to achieving as far as space exploration, I had a wandering thought.
Actually, it was more like a question.
Why do we waste so much time trying to understand something that we made up to explain something that really doesn’t need explaining?
There is air. There is space.
Can we move it along, please?
There are infinitely many more things out there that need to be analyzed, probed, and then probed again.
We are wasting so much precious time on something that may or may not exist. Some people will devote their whole lives to this and to me, that is such a waste. A waste of someone’s life.
I personally believe that if it wasn’t for all of these “side projects” we would probably already have a colony on the moon and also on Mars.
Can you imagine what the world would be like if all of the scientists were focused on achieving one goal. The could all have their roles to play but what if they were all driven towards a common goal?
Wouldn’t that be cool?
I grew up with sports.
I used to watch my favorite NFL football team play every weekend and couldn’t wait for the Super Bowl. I remember getting depressed after the All-Star game because I knew there would be no football until next season.
I actually liked the XFL and I loved that it filled the gap of the missing NFL. It only lasted for a season which sucked royal money balls.
I turned 50 and something happened. I’m not sure exactly what it was but I started to not care as much about football as I once did. I’m pretty sure the enormous salaries had something to do with it. I’m sure making teams change their name because someone is “offended” may also have something to do with it. I think it was the money mostly.
Right now, the Washington Redskins don’t even know who the hell they are. The people that are offended aren’t even the people that are supposed to be offended. The real Redskins (the Indians for you new people) don’t give a fuck.
When the coronavirus hit, sports because the last thing on Earth that people actually cared about and I was ok with that. I guess it took the pandemic for me to realize just how insignificant sports really is. The sports went away for a period of time and everything was ok.
This is from an article in today’s paper.
First of all, these kids did NOT lose everything last year. They are still fucking alive aren’t they? You fucking moron.
Everyone didn’t die. The newspaper was a lot more fun to read for me because the sports section (if it was in the paper at all) was only a page or half of a page.
To sum up this article…
…fuck sports.
How about your favorite coffee beverage served in a baby bottle?
No. I am not making this up.
From my daily newspaper…
I’d link to the whole story but since it’s a paywall, I’ll refrain.
…or as I used to say back in the 90’s.
Happy “would have been” Birthday Grandma!
I think of her often. She was a wonderful lady.
As I go onto Google this morning, I have to ask myself “why is this google so fucking lame?”
No traditional St. Patrick’s Day anything in this.
Well, at least its green.
Let’s face the reality. People are shit.
With that being said, it is little wonder why this story is relevant.
Researchers at Netease Fuxi AI Lab and University of Michigan have recently created MeInGame, a deep learning technique that can automatically generate character faces by analyzing a single portrait of a person’s face. This technique, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, can be easily integrated into most existing 3D videogames.
Pretty soon. We won’t even need the “real” input photo and computers will just generate characters for us. I am also going to assume that computers will also generate fake voices to go along with it.
What does that mean?
It means big movie studios will be able to make a movie without all of the overhead of the actors. I’m sure there will be labor rattling in the beginning but actors are expensive. They also can say bad things in public, hurt your brand, etc.
A computer that you control, will probably not do that.
I am surprised to see this from California.
“Cancel culture and the efforts to silence differing opinions and voices should be a growing concern for all of us,” said state Sen. Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore. “A climate of intolerance has been established and has stifled healthy and normal debate. Anyone who values their own freedom of speech should be concerned.”
I had a rather interesting thought today about why I may become bothered when I get a call or a text or an email or an instant message outside of normal working hours.
I think the answer is a perceived “give” and “take.”
For example, I am giving the company I work for 12 hours.
If anyone contacts me outside of those 12 hours, it may feel like they are “taking” or “stealing” my time.
They obviously are not. The work needs to get done and not everyone in the world is on my schedule.
I always enjoy taking a moment and trying to figure out why I might be feeling the way that I do. As I get older, it is a more practiced exercise that I enjoy.
When I was younger, probably not so much.
I just finished writing the fourth entry into my short story collection called 60 Pages.
I like this story and definitely felt like this could have easily been a novel. I even left the end of the story open for that purpose.
Here is a summary I wrote for it…
An alien fleet discovers that Earth has unlocked the powers of magic. In a universe still reeling from a previous conflict the goals are clear.
This new threat must be neutralized.
With help from an unlikely source, the humans prepare for the battle of their lives as they defend their world and their way of life from a threat light years more technically advanced than they are.
In the end, the only real question is who will win? Will the aliens save the galaxy from the new magical threat or will humanity survive to fight another day?
Since this is my website I can write about whatever I feel like writing about. Today, I’d like to say a few things about learning.
I used to have a membership to a weird little website called Lynda.com. I found it because some of the Photoshop podcasts I followed would often advertise that they had more content on Lynda.com. It was a weird name so I stayed away until one day, I didn’t.
I signed up and began learning all kinds of things. It was mostly technical and had a lotto do with work related applications but it was a place you could go and learn pretty much anything.
And then LinkedIn, a site that I didn’t really like although I can’t remember why bought Lynda.com. I was almost devastated but I quickly got over it as the site kept the logo and all was good. It did hound me to upgrade to LinkedIn Learning which I ignored for a very large amount of time, until I didn’t.
I am using LinkedIn Learning now and I really like it. I exceed my goal of 120 minutes of learning time every week. One week, I ended up with over 400 minutes.
This isn’t a paid advertisement but if you are so inclined. I would recommend them.
I uninstalled the Adobe suite this morning on my M1 MBP and I’ll tell you why.
It was consuming mass amounts of my CPU time. It wasn’t a fair amount. Yesterday it clocked the CPU at nearly 100%. Why? That is a good question for an app that I wasn’t even using.
I wasn’t using Photoshop, Lightroom, or Bridge. According to my monkey brain logic, that means that Adobe should not have been using any of my CPU. Even if you are checking for updates, you don’t need to check that often and you most certainly don’t need to keep phoning home about it.
The programming is ridiculous and I can’t believe that more people haven’t complained about it. I have 16 gigs of RAM and it was still an issue for me.
There are other apps on the market besides Photoshop. I don’t use it very often anyway.
Well, that is why I decided to remove it. I’ll spend some time today trying to find something that works close enough that I can continue to create the banner that I use it for.
Bye Adobe. No. You can’t have all of my CPU.
This is my #1 reason why I think aliens will have an easy time of conquering our planet should the need arise.
A vast majority of the human race whole heartedly believes (sights unseen) in completely made up and imaginary things. That makes them gullible as a species and deserving of eradication. Humans are simply too stupid to exist in the grander universe at large.
The #2 reason is that the human monkeys kill each other. It is difficult to say which should be #1 and which should be #2. They are both just as bad.
People say that we should focus on the good things about humanity. To me, that is like asking the same thing when talking about a serial killer. For example “sure, he killed 15 people but he donated to charities.”
As I was searching for a picture for this post, I found this…
In conclusion, aliens should invade and conquer us at their earliest convenience or at the very least, hurl a huge asteroid our way.
Thank you in advance.
Today feels like…
…we’ve been chased around the neighborhood by a bully who has a large super soaker. He is shooting everyone he finds.
Everyone is wet and no one is happy.
Then, one morning the old man down the street sticks out his leg as the bully runs by. The bully trips and falls and breaks both legs.
In fact, the bully becomes paralyzed. He can no longer run around terrorizing anyone.
Everybody is relieved that they will no longer be soaked by the bully.
The old man is a hero.
The inauguration today. It’s like that.
I am not watching Wonder Woman 1984.
It’s not that I don’t like the franchise. I think Gal Gadot is perfect for the role. I loved the first movie.
I’m not watching Wonder Woman because I can NOT BUY Wonder Woman. I don’t give a fuck about HBO Max and I’m not signing up just so I can watch one fucking movie. It is fucking ridiculous.
I was completely shocked that for the first time in a very long time, I couldn’t just BUY a movie.
Fuck you Hollywood. If that is the business model you want to go with good luck with that.
I will always gladly either watch or rent a movie but I sure as fuck won’t be made to use a service that I wouldn’t otherwise piss on just to watch a goddamn movie.
Warner Media can eat a bag of dicks for all I give a fuck. They completely ruined the experience for me.
You want to vindicate yourself?
Let people buy it. You fucksticks.
I’m not bitter. Just have a strong opinion on this one folks.
This is a pretty good article about why we should not create super intelligent AI technology.
Good article about something that hasn’t happened yet and may not happen. Written as a doom and gloom document, I don’t think there is any doubt about what this article says. I believe it.
Unfortunately, unless we address the population issues there is nothing we can do about any of this. You can’t have it both ways. You cannot keep increasing the population and stop the environmental impact too.
This article gets it right in that it presents the problem. I would also like to see articles like this propose a realistic solution.
Today, I thought I would just do a quick dump of the news stories I found interesting and added via Instapaper.
Coffee and lower prostate cancer
US West pollution was mostly caused by wildfires. Shocking. I know.
Exawatt class lasers – I picked this story because it has the word laser in it. Duh.
This is a small fraction of what I read but they are good stories, nevertheless.
