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{ Author Archives } Brent

QotD 30 April 2017

I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will. –Antonio Gramsci, Letter from Prison (19 December 1929)

2017 04 30 Quote of the day Comments Off on QotD 30 April 2017

If it weren’t for rocks, we’d all be surfers

This person would be an awesome climber. She gets it. I don’t surf. I wish I did, but I grew up on the ocean of the Great Plains. Climbing is like this. Maybe moreso. Everyone fails, all the time. If you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying hard enough. Unless you are Adam Ondra or Alex […]

2017 04 29 Climbing
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40 hours

“A fracture occurred” is how the powerpoint read. Meaning that working alone on a Sunday afternoon, the contractor broke the glass, leading to another check for $500k to the contractor – cost-plus, don’t you know. Proof again, that will be totally ignored, that working more hours doesn’t save you money – it costs you money. […]

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2017 04 28 Comment
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Damn you, Qualcomm!

TIL: The reason I don’t have a cellular radio in my laptop is that Qualcomm bases its supposedly FRAND prices on the cost of the device their radios are put into, not the cost of the chip. Qualcomm get more for an iPhone 7 ($1000) than an iPhone SE ($500), and would get much, much […]

2017 04 22 Rant Comments Off on Damn you, Qualcomm!

Missing the point

For years, decades, we’ve had only individual stories of cops shooting people. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Just go look. Then one reporter decided to tabulate statistics. Get numbers. Collate data. Then what did RadioLab do? Did they analyze the data, get more data, make plots, do correlations, etc.? Any of the usual data analysis techniques […]

2017 04 18 Rant Comments Off on Missing the point

Markers

Anytime I read a post in a tech blog (looking at you, /.) that talks about mining He-3 [1] or telescopes [2] <Vincent Price voice>on the moon</Vincent Price voice>, I know I’m dealing with an idiot and I can stop paying attention. I was sitting on a ski lift listening to the other people talk […]

2017 04 16 Rant Comments Off on Markers

PotD 16 April 2017

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2017 04 16 Photography
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PotD 15 April 2017

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2017 04 15 Photography
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Just what the doctor ordered

The so-called liberal MSM [1] hires another conservative from the WSJ to write op-eds. His greatest hit? Stop hitting yourself! Reason #423 in a list of thousands why the NYT will never receive another dime from me… [1] There is no such thing of course. All the Sunday newsprograms are dominated by conservatives, all the […]

2017 04 14 Rant Comments Off on Just what the doctor ordered

PotD 31 March 2017

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2017 03 31 Dogs
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Things I don’t like about the 2017 MBP

See previous, and previous, for other thoughts. It’s not an overall out-of-the-park win. Or maybe a win at all. On the whole, meh. No better than the old one. You might think that’s ok then, but up until now, every new version of the MBP that I’ve had has been a solid joy over the […]

2017 03 24 Review Comments Off on Things I don’t like about the 2017 MBP

Airplane movie reviews March 2017 Lufthansa

Arrival: Interesting enough movie based on a short story I would have thought unfilmable. Not that I generally think in those terms, but when I first read it years ago, I didn’t think “that’s shooting for a screenplay and an ‘adapted-by’”. Good cast – I always like watching Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams. Why is […]

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2017 03 19 Review
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PotD 20 February 2017

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PotD 19 February 2017

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2017 02 19 Picture of the day Comments Off on PotD 19 February 2017

Steve Jobs would never let this happen Part II

While some decisions make some sort of sense, these are a bit crazy-making: The power brick doesn’t come with the Appropriate Cable to charge the device. Despite all the posturing about USB-C being the all-singing, all-dancing wave of the future get-on-the-train-now (cough firewire thunderbolt cough), the Appropriate Cable isn’t really USB-C and can’t be used […]

2017 02 16 Rant Comments Off on Steve Jobs would never let this happen Part II