Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Same song, “x” is replaced by something else. It is called “software compatibility.”

A little history in the field of computing. In the beginning, the dominant cost was hardware. Two or three programmers could occupy the most expensive computer in the world. The computer cost a million times more than the programmer’s annual salary.

Sometime in the 1970s or so, this flipped. The dominant cost  was the programmer’s salary, i.e., software. Let’s see…today I can hire a programmer for $50,000 a year in a low cost of living area of America. A powerful computer costs $1,000. Hmmm.

So here we are, software is the dominant cost factor. When you write software, you want it to run on as many computers as possible.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the computing platform that had the most users and the most computers was DOS (disk operating system) from Microsoft. There was some joke going around that if someone built a supercomputer that was a million times more powerful than state-of-the-art and fit in your pocket, someone would ask, “but is it DOS-compatible?”

Now we have such a computer (almost) that fits in my pocket. It runs iOS. Notice how we changed the uppercase “D” to a lowercase “i.” (And I still don’t know what that “i” means!) We can change the joke to be a new supercomputer than fits in the frame of my eyeglasses. Someone will ask, “but is it iOS-compatible?”

It is the same old story. Software is the dominant cost in computing. Software must be compatible with the most popular computing platform on the planet.

by Dwayne Phillips

Once again we have a controversy about who owns publicly funded research.

There is much debate recently about who owns the results of research that is funded by the public. See here for one article on recent policy statements. The simple answer is that when the public funds research, the public should have free access to the results.

Reality seldom is simple.

(1) There is the argument that no research stands alone. You may fund me for the next six months, but I am contributing ten years of other work to this research. The public may see what they funded, but not the rest. And no one can separate the two parts.

(2) There is the argument that you should not mix your past work with what the public funds. If you mix them, too bad for you.

I tend to agree with (2). I know there are severe consequences that go with that argument. Still, researchers are adults. If you accept public funds from a government agency, strings come with the money. If you don’t want the strings, don’t take the money.

by Dwayne Phillips

Reston, Virginia – a planned community – now has no bookstore. What is wrong here?

I live in Reston, Virginia. It is a planned community. It is a good community. There is a lot of educated, money-holding people in Reston.

There is no bookstore in Reston, Virginia.

Yes, we have a fine used bookstore and you can find a few books at the grocery stories and other places like that. (no idea why the photo is upside down)

Barnes and Noble closed last week. Books-A-Million closed months ago. BAM replaced another closed bookstore.

Why don’t we have a bookstore anymore?

by Dwayne Phillips

It seems odd that to purchase alcohol a person must show they have a license to operate a motor vehicle.

There are things in society that seem odd to me. One is the relationship we have established between obtaining alcohol and having a license to operate a motor vehicle. If you want to purchase alcohol, you must show that you are of proper age. The method of doing so is to show your license to operate a motor vehicle.

By now, we have pretty much established the danger of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant – it slows the reaction of the brain and body. While operating a motor vehicle, we want unimpaired reaction of brain and body.

Still, to buy alcohol, you show your license to operate a motor vehicle.

It seems that if you have a license to operate a motor vehicle, you would be disallowed from purchasing alcohol. Only those people who did not own a motor vehicle and did not have a license to operate a motor vehicle would be permitted to purchase alcohol.

Perhaps I am odd for thinking this to be odd.

by Dwayne Phillips

The government sequester begins tomorrow as does the biggest advertising campaign in the history of America.

Unless something unforeseen happens, the great government sequester begins tomorrow, March 1st. Also beginning will be the biggest advertising campaign in American history.

Those who want government to be bigger will be out telling everyone that it is no coincidence that the sky fell when the sequester began.

Those who want government to be smaller will be out telling everyone that no one can tell any difference in daily life.

My predictions:

• Both sides will be exaggerating
• Newspapers, TV, Radio, etc. will love the advertising dollars
• Editorialists from all media will join in the fray
• It will be boring to the vast majority of us

I know persons who will be hurt. They will lose their jobs and struggle to pay their bills. If you know persons like this, do what you can to help them through it financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

The recourse left to Americans is the old one:

vote the bums out of office.

by Dwayne Phillips

The rumors are that Apple is building a wristwatch. Will they learn from the experience of Texas Instruments?

Apple is supposed to be building a wristwatch. Some call it the “iWatch.” Here is just one of hundreds of posts about it.

This has happened before: a really smart, really successful tech company enters the world of wristwatches. Decades ago, Texas Instruments or TI tried this. I call that episode the great digital watch fiasco.

It is a simple story. TI knew how to make these new-fangled integrated circuits. They designed a chip that would drive a watch. They started pumping out the chips. Make a million or two and the per unit costs would be ten cents or something. Flood the market with digital watches and make a zillion dollars.

I bought one while in college in the late 1970s for less than ten bucks. It worked just fine. Actually these digital watches worked better than all the expensive mechanical watches. TI had a gold mine. A few years later McDonald’s was giving away these TI watches free in Happy Meals. TI lost money on the deal.

What happened?

There is a simple fact known by everyone who has been in the watch-building world for any length of time:

A watch is a piece of jewelry, not a timepiece.

What?

Sad but true. It has to look nice or look fashionable – whatever or whoever “fashionable” means this week.

So, now Apple is supposedly building a wristwatch. If the rumors are true, it will be a great timepiece. It will probably have a camera and a music player as well as lots of other neat iOS features. The question that will determine its success or failure has nothing to do with any of that. The question is:

Is it fashionable?

Apple has succeeded in the past ten years with fashionable products. Maybe they can do it again or maybe they will flop just like TI did.

by Dwayne Phillips

People on differing sides of the gun control issue are separated by knowledge. Without education, the sides will probably never come together.

Gun control legislation is a hot topic in America today. It is almost impossible to have a rational discussion of the issue. The core problem is:

knowledge

This comes about from a lack of knowledge on

vocabulary

Some people talk about things like

• assault weapons
• assault rifles
• high-capacity clips

while other people snicker at the ignorance. And then there is that pesky little document known as the U.S. Constitution.

Something will happen this year. (The absence of legislation is something, and that is what may happen.) Few will be happy with what happens.

Education would be a big help before discussions begin. That takes time, so it is unlikely.

NOTE: I do not consider myself an expert on firearms. I am, however, a certified firearms safety instructor.

by Dwayne Phillips

Hurray for the engineers. We are the new champions of civil rights. What happened to the lawyers? What happened to the justice system?

There is a new champion of civil rights: the engineers. We understand the flow of information on the Internet and everywhere on earth. We see denial of basic human rights and we twiddle the bits so that rights return.

This is great.

On the other hand, what happened to the lawyers? They have become like used car salesmen – slick hair, slick suits, and nothing behind the posturing.

What happened to the justice system? They are still arguing about ink and paper.

by Dwayne Phillips

How clever  – pop up windows have replaced the red x with “no thank you.”

I’ve noticed this the last week or so. Those annoying pop up windows – instead of clicking on the red X in the upper right corner, they have a “no thank you” box at the bottom of the window. How clever can they be?

Still annoying.

by Dwayne Phillips

One last round on weight loss. This post addresses the statement, “you should feel good while losing weight.”

I have been told by many people that,

you should feel good while losing weight.

Consider that you want to lose 20 pounds and you have already lost 10 pounds.

• You feel better when you dress because your clothes are not as tight.
• You feel better when you exercise because you weigh less.
• You feel better while sleeping better because you weigh less.

There you have it; you feel good while losing weight.

Now to the other side of this thought. When meal time and (what used to be) snack time comes, you don’t eat what and as much as you want. You want pizza, but don’t eat any. You want ice cream, but don’t eat any. You want another steak, but don’t eat it. You feel terrible.

But, but, but – no “buts.” You hate losing weight; you hate your unsatisfied cravings. I do everyday. Then again, I am “skinny” (see prior two posts on this topic) while most Americans are not.

I hope these three posts on diet and losing weight provide some useful information. They are my experiences. If I have caused you to be angry with me, please be so, but only for an hour.