Hello

hot dog stand

Well, I guess it's been a while but I am still alive. 

This headline from the LA times got my attention.  "Two-Michelin-starred chef Josiah Citrin opens another hot dog stand at Staples Center".  I'm always alert to spin reporting of normal things but this set me off.  Does Michelin really rate hot dog stands?  I guess if there's money in it then any rating/awards organization will do pretty much anything.  There is no class anymore.

Speaking of spin, SpaceX, an Elon Musk company declared a disastrous explosion on landing of their rocket as an almost success.  Great to hear the spinners make a positive out of such a firework.  And the barge that was simply placed in position by regular old tugboats was declared a "drone ship".  I'd rather not take that vehicle on my space fun ride, thank you.  You can look up the money that NASA has contracted with these guys for taking loads up to the Space Station.   

Shirley Temple died this week, and maybe a lot of us didn't notice.  But I did.  After her movie career and who knows what else, she became U.S. ambassador to Ghana.  That's where I was at the time.  In particular on July 4th, 1975.  I had gotten my Honda 125 at that time and took the long drive along to coast to Accra for the big shindig.  She had hotdogs and some American beer flown in for the occasion and setup a great party.  A softball game erupted much to the enjoyment of us and the locals. (maybe except for the ones who were used to using the field for soccer).  I remember her as a gracious and personable lady who enjoyed the day with us.  Thanks for all, Shirley.

Suppose I wanted to know the outside temperature, like to decide if I should go on a bike ride or just take a walk.  I'm not inclined or equipped for cold weather biking but I do like to get out and do something.  Just at the cusp of internet weather taking off, I got an outside thermometer with an inside readout as a gift.  It still sits in the kitchen junk drawer awaiting deployment, like never.  The pool system has a pretty accurate measurement and there's always dozens of different internet displays, mostly from the same sources so there's no difference anyway.  Right now it's 53F (internet) and although other parts of the country will smirk at us as real wimps, I did have a very nice walk and thank you very much.  Maybe I'll even get out later to pickup the mail.

Last night mailboxes all along our street were opened and contents removed (stolen).  I do live in a place that is rural enough to have mailboxes out at the end of the driveway next to the street.  When we moved here, the locals advised and we got a locking mailbox, matching too, didn't want to stir things up. 

So this morning as I drove along there were many boxes open and little piles of mail on the ground.  Very sad since it's been raining and the little lumps of wet mail were just there sitting.  Being a good citizen, I called the PD to let them know.  After a brief argument about the location of the city limits the dispatcher assured me that some officer type person would drive by and check out the situation.  Also, she assured me that "if it's not ours" (meaning outside of the city limits) then they will notify the appropriate authorities.  Well, thank goodness for that.  I didn't mention to her that in fact I see the Sheriff's patrolling a lot more than the city cops but just let that lay.

My locking mailbox still contained all the junk mail that I normally receive and thank goodness for that!  I wonder if those scratches near the lock mean anything?  It should mean that I pick up the mail everyday which is now difficult since the delivery guy/gal only puts is in the box after I've gone to bed, but anyway I'll do my best to avoid the pictures with the circles and arrows on the back and enjoy suburban life, ask Alice!  

Hour of code, completed

My 10 year old grandson had grabbed me the other day to help with this "hour of code" thing.  He was pretty far along but was confused about the repeat block.  I didn't really get it either but in proper Grandpa mode just fooled around a bit until he figured it out himself.

So I tried it myself just now, I figured with more than 30 years of coding under my belt, I could probably learn something too.  Despite the annoying image of that Zuckerberg clown and information about how many billionaires donated to this project I dove in.  The idea is to put together by drag and drop some "blocks" to get the angry bird to his target through a short maze like path.  More annoyance was the declaration that JavaScript is the worlds most popular programming language.  And so what if it is?  It still sucks in so many ways.

I got the "move forward" block and then advanced to the "do until done" directive and then the "if path to left" conditional and graduated to the if/else logic.  It reminded me of the Logo language created in 1967.  I never could get my kids interested in that.  I think they were more involved in fighting over what to wear to school.  But is was nice to see Grandboy getting interested.

But it's a tough sell when compared to building forts and staging battles in "Clash of Clans".  That's much more exciting than "move forward" and crashing into walls if the number of steps is wrong.

The one thing that really bothered me about this hour of code programming was that after each exercise it reported something like "that's correct but you could have done it in fewer steps".  A program can always be done in less steps, but is that the only criteria?  NO.  It's probably the least important thing.  I learned long ago from Fred Carter (thanks, Fred) that the compiler optimizer is going to rearrange everything anyway so just write it clean and easy to understand then let the machine do it's job.  As I write this I get more angry about this attitude.  It's just a little boy "I can do it better" thing that doesn't belong in a production setting.  But that's why we have so many stupid bugs today isn't it?  That recent DNS problem was caused by a programmer clown thinking he understood the default path in some if/then/else code instead of writing it all out so it would be clear and correct. 

Enough for now, regards.

Why is it so hard to post anymore?  Sure it's been a year, but hey that might be more or less depending on the 20 something kids down in Googlevile.  I login and don't find the post icons that I guess you call them but that's your language and not mine.  Let's see how this works.

Well it's been more than a year, but I am still alive and thought I could post a few things.  So lets try this out. 

Marketing newspeak

Yesterday while looking for something else, I walked by a pet store in our local mini mall.  I noticed a display for rawhide dog chews.  The caption "Free range grass fed bison".  Aren't these terms just becoming a little meaningless? 

In the local paper this week they had the requisite list of gifts for the person who has everything, which is code for ridiculously over priced.  One listed item was a wooden child's toy that was made from:  "Postindustrial recycled wood residuals".  Don't you just mean scraps?

 Not to worry though, all the items on the list are: "local, sustainable and artisanal".  So how come no one is blaming the huge increase of sardines in the Monterey bay on "Climate change"?  The whales and seals and dolphins are certainly enjoying it.  

And I am very glad that my sliced pastrami is "gluten free" thanks to Costco.

Whoever is making these code words as triggers to make me buy, it's just not working.  I know there's no gluten in pastrami and I don't give a damn that my dogs chewy thing came from a free range bison.  So knock it off, you're making me crazy, in a sustainable way, I'm sure. 

Maybe I understand Zombies a little bit

My daughter lent me her kindle so I could read "World War Z".  I was pretty reluctant but now I think I'm getting the whole zombie thing at least a little bit.  The Zombies represent the worst of the government/politicians/police/generally stupid people that now are in charge of everything.  The people who actually do something are the ones fighting them off.  When the final battles are taking place, people are put into categories as far as being useful or not.  Not useful include casting directors, HR managers, executives of all sorts, politicians.  I think you get the idea.  Useful people include maids, mechanics, the people who actually do something. I wonder if the useful people will win out in the end, or even soon.

The best line in movie history

Graham Stark, long time Pink Panther co star died today.  He was in several of these films as Peter Sellers assistant or other related roles.  In "The Pink Panther Strikes Again"  he uttered these immortal lines:

"I thought you said your dog did not bite?" says Clouseau, to which Stark replies: "That is not my dog."

All this while Clouseau is trying to shake the little beast off his ankle.  RIP Graham.

Signal of the decline of civilization

I was thinking today about a marker for when civilization started going down the tubes. I decided it was when cars started to get antenna retractors. They got them of course because people were breaking off the sticks but why? It’s not that there was something worth stealing just a hatred that made someone want to just snap off the thing. The reaction from the car makers was to invent retractors. And we car buyers have been paying ever since for that meaningless hatred. And we keep paying more and more for these protective measures. Think about how much you pay for all this stuff that would not be needed in a different society?

Doctors advertising

Ran into this site from an outfit named "vitals" that rates Doctors based on patient feedback.  Sort of like a Yelp except for something important.   In this case it was Oncologists,  You know, cancer docs that you see when faced with imminent death.  Do you suppose dead patients will give out bad rankings?  Do you suppose people who just got lucky and survived will be more likely to give a good ranking?  The whole thing stinks.  I've noticed even TV ads for the "Cancer Center" in Arizona with nice looking rooms and happy people and hope for anyone stupid enough to give them a bunch on cash.  Sort of like the Malibu based "recovery center" where you can spend a weekend and get rid of all your problems.   This whole medical advertising thing is very very wrong.  It depends on stupid people, like the ones who watch TV all day, which is where these ads often are to fork over their bucks to the charlatans and they will get nothing in return.  Except occasionally someone will recover and then we can hear all about it.

BTW, why is my spell checker offering centre?  Didn't we win that war and kick out the Brits? 

Library furnishings

Rumours have abound about the extravagant furnishings in the library.  Two persistent  items have been:

• The chairs, supposedly $5k for Knoll Womb chairs.  Gee, they could have gotten fakes for only $800.
• The sinks, supposedly $5k for a pair like this one. 

I certainly feel cleaner using a sink like that.  I wonder how much these would have been.   

How much was the library going to cost

According this document, from the state, a 45k sq ft Walnut Creek branch library was needed before 2011 at an estimated cost of $25m.  You can check it out at the link here

We all know that the government lies all the time about costs, but I thought it would be fun to stare here.  Let's put a stake in  the ground at $25m and see where it leads to.

Where did the money go?

This is this first of maybe several entries about the state of my city's  finances.  First of all, the library.  Built for a reported $39m for 42,000 square feet.  I thought it would be interesting to compare to other similar constructions.

In 2000 the state's electorate passed prop 14 which established a $350m bond issue for building/upgrading libraries around the state.  Localities were able to submit grant requests to grab their share.  Walnut Creek's application was rejected, more on that if I can find out why, but in the meantime Look at this:

State's site on this process: http://www.library.ca.gov/grants/lba2000/

it is being administered by the state librarian.  I have yet to find Walnut Creek's application but I did find this interesting bit.  Look at what other libraries cost for similar square footage:

http://www.library.ca.gov/grants/lba2000/docs/CAPubLibBldgConstCosts.xls

Just picking off a couple obvious examples, I see:

•  Alameda main : 48k sq ft for $25m
• Camarillo main: 65k sq ft for $27m
• San Mateo main: 93k sq ft for $55m

I guess the San Mateo figure shows that people will spend a lot but the Alameda numbers are nearby and might be a better comp.

So why did the Walnut Creek library cost $39m?   And why did their application get rejected which lead the city to pay for it?  And where did they get the money. I'm looking.

How does it feel?

I just saw a TV commercial explaining that the important thing about a product is "how does it make you feel".  Yes, it was a commercial for Apple.

I've noticed recently in the product reviews that I read this progression,if you will, from how does it work to how does it feel.  Do you feel an emotional connection to the product/brand.   It's the next step I guess from concentrating on the customer experience to this.  I see surveys asking me if I feel emotionally connected to a certain brand.  Am I excited about this brand?

No.  I am not excited about the Gap/Apple/Microsoft/Ford/Chevy/etc...  I wonder about people who are.  Is this any way to run an economy?  If you are excited about Apple's new product, I guess you will buy it in the millions but why?  At least you will have something to hold in your hand, but consider then a company like Zynga.  If you are excited about their games and buy them by the millions that might be good for the economy for a few minutes but then what?  You become bored with the game and the company goes under. 

I am not connected emotionally with my pants.  I need them to fit and cover my body.  That's it.  The people who need a relationship with their trousers will hopefully learn something more useful in the future.  Maybe from Web bubble 2.0.

Zimbabwe orphans

On my walk today. I see the local school is collecting money for "Zimbabwe orphans". So great a real feel good cause. I'm typing this on my phone so bear with me. Anyone remember Robert Mugabe and the millions he is still looting that country for?  How many expensive birthday parties he has given himself?  Yet some silly suburban kids and their teachers thing a bake sale for Zimbabwe orphans is a good idea.

How about burning down their embassy?  Too bad it's so far away. In the mean time get your clueless representatives to stop sending them some money. Let Mr Mugabe have his own bake sale next time his birthday comes around

I've been looking at some marvelous pictures from the Hillary expedition up Mt. Everest.  I think they summited in 1953 making this the 50th anniversary.  Great shots from the days before tourist climbing of the world's highest peak.  Clicking through to the last picture of Hillary on top holding various flags on his ice ax.  Then my browser hangs waiting for www.linkedin.com.

Sorry, but I'm not interested in linkedin's services right now.  I'm trying to enjoy some great images of a historic event.  I see this sort of thing all the time.  Between google analytics and linkedin and facebook and twitter, I apparently have to connect to everything in order to to see what I want.

All you advertising  vendors and personal information gatherers can, well, just go to hell.  If you want to see the summit photo, please use this link.


Jim

What's wrong with America?

I've started a house painting project, inside, and am at a loss for the things I need. 

• Newspapers - nope.  I haven't taken one for years and so I don't have anything to cover the floor.
• Coffee can - it's always more convenient to put a smaller amount of paint into a container that can be easily handled.  Used to be there was always a coffee can available for this.  Haven't bought coffee in a can for years, do they still sell coffee in cans?  So don't have any of those.
• Frozen O.J. can - also haven't seen one of those in years.  Very handy for smaller things.  I think there is a many year old lemonade can in the back of the freezer but should I really open it up to throw away just for this project?
• Baby food jars - these may still exist, but I see baby food now comes in "pouches".  Wasteful and perhaps toxic.  I'm holding onto my stash that hold the small screws and nuts etc. in the garage.

Sigh...  I guess I'll just have to muddle through.  But really, all those reusable glass and metal containers were such a blessing.  Maybe another time we can discuss all the small plastic containers that have replaced them and the waste they create.