Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Every now and then we need a new scapegoat, i.e., something that receives the blame for all the faults and mistakes of society. We have one. Ah, the datacenter. It is big, noisy, ugly, and raises my electric and water bills. I hate it. It is the cause of all ills in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Does panic create focus? Perhaps. Perhaps some of us would just rather avoid panic. I saw something silly this morning on some society media site. It read: I don’t procrastinate. I simply wait until sheer panic improves my focus, It’s a highly refined strategy that I have been perfecting for years. I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I like to plan my work and work my plan. Sometimes, however, thoughts hit me and that plan gets all jumbled up. Plan for, “I just thought of something.” I like to plan and work the plan. I like process. I like procedure. Let’s do this before that. Why? The past has […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One of the oldest phrases in computing is still true. Rats. Some folks thought AI would fix this. If I meant to find the sum of 2 and 3 but typed 2+4, I would have the wrong answer. Rats. Inputing the wrong information produces the wrong output. So said Charles Babbage some […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Revisiting an old post in a new era. The idea is pretty good now more than ever. Way back in 2009, I wrote a little post about the magic words, “Up until now.” These words imply that, while I have always lacked something or other, I can change my future and not […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes success brings failure. Sometimes success brings anxiety. Note Wikipedia as an example. Back when Wikipedia was young (I am old enough to remember that), it was fun. I would write articles for it. I would put photographs in it to add some depth to some articles. Joy. Experiment. Learn. Then Wikipedia […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Just because something could go wrong doesn’t mean it will. Perhaps we should let well-meaning try it. Look what is possible with the new AI, robots, machines, chemicals, etc. Yes, but, I have found a way to turn the good possibilities into bad possibilities. I have devised a test that the new […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes some person has a significant achievement, but the resources weren’t approved, so it was all quite embarrassing. This is a true story that occurred in the last century. A person at work had a neighbor who worked at a different government agency. The other agency had a colossal failure with some […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We have emotions. That is fine. Feel fill-in-the-blank fully and deeply for ten minutes. Get over it and move on. About ten years ago I was writing proposals for a company. The day before I had finished a couple of pages for a proposal. New orders came down. “We decided to change […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Excellence is an exception. It is also a pleasant surprise. Enjoy it. Sometimes I am surprised in that I walk into a new situation with a new group of persons and, WOW, they are doing things well. Best practices, best tools, high expectations, high satisfaction. It is all here. They are well […]

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