Posts by DCA 19 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2013
I read that article elsewhere, then I noticed the Tr7mp quotes here.
I have found a goldmine of material to break chatbots!
I am also imagining a desk covered with magnets, gold magnets, gold is the best magnet, stronger than other magnets, you have never seen such a big pile of magnets.
*Dang* I just do not know how to be as incoherent!
Wrote a script to get a computer to call modem equipped fish plant machinery and download statistic data. Seemed to work well, recognize busy signals, phone company disconnects (after the line rang without answer)...everything going well.
Slightly after the end of Friday office hours in Alaska the system called Alaska. They did not have the modem connected to the equipment correctly. Still rang the bell though. There was no one there to answer.
Couple of quirks about calling Alaska by LD back then: 1) they did not disconnect if left unanswered. 2) upon answering they were billed from the start of the phone ring - not when the receiver was lifted.
So early on Tuesday morning (long weekend) a janitor walked in picked up the handset and an instant 83 hour and 27 minute LD phone bill was generated at the peak 4:59 pm billing rate when the ringing started.
Everytime I read one of these stories I find myself curled into a tight fetal position on my office chair rocking slowly back and forth. I am trying to take comfort from the fact that American voters are "special". It can not happen here. Here our voters are different, they are educated and not prone to misinformation. It can not happen here. We have checks and balances. Sure the USA has judges and a 'Congress", but they only get away with ignoring their responsibility in the USA? Right? The USA is "special"! I consider while rocking back and forth if sucking my thumb will help. Wondering where I can move to where the voters are not "special"...anyone want to go partners into building an O'Neil cylinder with a fusion drive? (Nobody "special" need apply.)
I think the craziest thing is what I have found in the Canadian building industries.
Here, the university educated architects design in metric.
The trade school educated erectors insist on working in feet and inches.
The beams and column drawings for the cutting and prefab shop are done in metric.
The site layout drawing has elevations done in metric.
On the same drawing the location of the beams - it is done in inches.
Don't even get me started on the 'standard' distance tolerance over the length of a 20m steel beam being +/-1/16" on the site layout. It would start a whole new argument as to whether the reference temperature should be the 20C of the architects office or the balmy 45F of the site.
Simple solution: Went into my office. Set up a 360 camera and took a few shots of office with various house plants in different positions and trimming. Now whenever I am in a meeting I am "in" the office. Set up a small webcam and a post-it note on the back of the monitor: "In a Meeting on the fifth floor!" That way I can monitor if someone is looking for me 'in' the office so I can call them up and meet with them "in" the office.
It would seem there is one problem I am going to have here. Every morning I take a walk to the local duck pond and feed the ducks. There are these three sisters that come running up to me to be fed and I often send people pictures of the ducks. In fact my social media page is a close up of a duck's head with my reflection in the eye.
So now, every time I send one of these pictures, post one of these pictures...the recipient is going to think I did not send them a duck picture!
I have flown to Germany twice. Each time with luggage packed with EPROM burners, Z80 boards, wire, transformers....
The first time was November 9th 1989. Yes the Wall fell while I was in the air.
As I went through customs I was greeted by a nice German with a nice German Shepard and a nice machine gun. Seems my luggage was "of interest!"
I did another trip to Germany with roughly the same luggage roughly two years later. My luggage was of interest again.
Since then I have made a point of landing in Paris and driving to Germany.
It can get crazier than that. A few years back I was an owner at a company that provided services to the US Department of Energy. When the "Buy America" stick was started we were asked by the US gov to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in the glorious USA. We did. So now we had a US registered company but no employees and no facilities. So the logical thing to do was to fly to Chicago, lease an office and hire some US citizens to work there.
I am fish-belly white, born in Canada, english speaking, have both Canadian and US security clearances, had a business, house and family in Canada which should indicate stability, and in any case I am in the 1%. As the final icing on the cake I had the hard copy of the letter from the DOE asking us to set up a business in Chicago and the resumes of the US citizens I was going to hire.
I was denied entry. The reason: "I believe the purpose of your trip is to try to take jobs away from americans. Why did your company not send an american on this trip?"
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