I like wine. I am no connoisseur. I just enjoy a glass of red wine in the evening after dinner.
I have a couple of decanters I purchased at the Dollar plus store, a fancy corkscrew gadget I purchased at Costco for $10 bucks (they raised the price to $20 last time I saw it), some wine glass I bought at Ikea, this vacuum pump thing with rubber stoppers that really does help keep a bottle of wine for a few days and this gadget called an aerator that really rocks.
All in all I spent less than $100 dollars on my wine gadgetry. My wife figures I over spent, but, she enjoys the taste of wine after I run it through the aerator so she does not mind.
Tonight I went looking at wine glasses. I just wanted to figure out why there are so many different kinds of glasses and how they might make the wine taste differently.
Essentially I think glasses are a bunch of horse crap. Buy a set of wine glasses and enjoy them, but, it is always worth reading.
Reading.
I ain't spending $119.00 on a single wine glass.
I bought a set of 4 Waterford crystal wine glasses for a friend for Christmas. I don't mind spending money on stuff for people.
I just ain't spending $119.00 bucks on wine glasses. I will take a drive to Ikea and buy some different wine glasses and test them out. I have a couple of different style and I will test those.
There is this really kewl thing you can buy at the University of California Davis bookstore called the aroma wheel that I think rocks. It helps you train yourself to identify different flavors in the wine.
There are also some pretty expensive kits of stuff to do the same thing.
I like wine. I don't mind spending $20, maybe even the occasional $30 on a bottle of wine.
$119.00 on a glass. Not this high school drop out. I guess I am just too stupid to spend that much money on something I can buy for a buck or two.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Persistence
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ?Press On? has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
- Calvin Coolidge
The question is always who will be more persistent. Those who persist will succeed.
Is that true?
Essentially yes. The problem occurs when there is a disagreement about the feasibility of the process.
For example, Thomas Edison persisted in his work to find an economical light bulb that would last long enough to be of value and be strong enough to withstand shipment after testing.
Many scientists knew that passing electricity through a material would cause the material to glow.
Finding an economical material that would withstand shipping from the factory to the point of use and would last long enough to be of perceived value to the consumer was the problem.
Thomas Edison did not phrase it exactly like that though. :-)
In the end, it is always obvious that the solution existed.
Along the way you can bet that people argued about IF a material existed that would be both robust enough to ship, give enough light and be inexpensive enough that the consumer would find value in the purchase.
Thomas Edison believed the material existed.
Many other, very intelligent, very educated scientists abandoned the search because they had decided the material did not exist OR because investors decided that finding the material was so expensive that the return on investment would be minimal.
Thomas Edison was right. Thomas Edison's investors were right. The people who argued against "staying the course", persisting, were wrong.
Those who failed to persist lost money. Those who were persisting, BUT, did not discover the "best" material before Thomas Edison did are forgotten.
What if the job really is impossible?
President Bush was a big believer in persistence. The average person does not persist, which is why so few people achieve difficult projects. The average person will quit after trying so much.
Exactly how much is dependent on the person. Some people will try a "lot", some a "little", some will perceive one person's "lot" as a "little" and others perceive the "little" as a "lot".
Getting people to agree on what is possible is difficult. Getting people to agree on what is impossible is much easier.
Bad leaders will always default to impossibilities because so many people believe in the impossible.
Great leaders will tackle impossibilities and make them possible.
It is easier to say "Flying is impossible" than it is to build the first airplane.
I would rather persist in the face of failure than quit and believe in impossibility.
Obama is a quitter who believes in impossibility and he has built his possibilities on deriding those who persist and whom the quitting majority laugh at.
- Calvin Coolidge
The question is always who will be more persistent. Those who persist will succeed.
Is that true?
Essentially yes. The problem occurs when there is a disagreement about the feasibility of the process.
For example, Thomas Edison persisted in his work to find an economical light bulb that would last long enough to be of value and be strong enough to withstand shipment after testing.
Many scientists knew that passing electricity through a material would cause the material to glow.
Finding an economical material that would withstand shipping from the factory to the point of use and would last long enough to be of perceived value to the consumer was the problem.
Thomas Edison did not phrase it exactly like that though. :-)
In the end, it is always obvious that the solution existed.
Along the way you can bet that people argued about IF a material existed that would be both robust enough to ship, give enough light and be inexpensive enough that the consumer would find value in the purchase.
Thomas Edison believed the material existed.
Many other, very intelligent, very educated scientists abandoned the search because they had decided the material did not exist OR because investors decided that finding the material was so expensive that the return on investment would be minimal.
Thomas Edison was right. Thomas Edison's investors were right. The people who argued against "staying the course", persisting, were wrong.
Those who failed to persist lost money. Those who were persisting, BUT, did not discover the "best" material before Thomas Edison did are forgotten.
What if the job really is impossible?
President Bush was a big believer in persistence. The average person does not persist, which is why so few people achieve difficult projects. The average person will quit after trying so much.
Exactly how much is dependent on the person. Some people will try a "lot", some a "little", some will perceive one person's "lot" as a "little" and others perceive the "little" as a "lot".
Getting people to agree on what is possible is difficult. Getting people to agree on what is impossible is much easier.
Bad leaders will always default to impossibilities because so many people believe in the impossible.
Great leaders will tackle impossibilities and make them possible.
It is easier to say "Flying is impossible" than it is to build the first airplane.
I would rather persist in the face of failure than quit and believe in impossibility.
Obama is a quitter who believes in impossibility and he has built his possibilities on deriding those who persist and whom the quitting majority laugh at.
Friday, October 16, 2009
AT&T Sucks
When cell systems were developed industry had to develop a priority system to make sure that first responders and national security (politicians and their significant others) had priority access and could get calls through during peak usage times.
TDMA and original CDMA technologies did have this prioritization technology.
GSM, Iden and current CDMA do use a prioritization technology.
So why does AT&T suck?
Simple, essentially when a different phone company leases use of one phone companies towers the users are both in the same technical priority group.
But AT&T has a problem, 3G networks and the iPhone.
To keep primary customers happy AT&T has resorted to prioritizing their customers over their competitions customers in violation of FCC regulations.
Why?
Because the data connectivity of AT&T customers is clogging the system. If AT&T gives the same priority to T-Mobile that it gives to AT&T the AT&T customers would get a reduced level of service so AT&T prioritizes their customers communications over the competition which means if you are using a non-AT&T system, or even a pay-as-you-go AT&T system, you are hosed when you live in an area where AT&T controls access.
These guys were busted up once for unfair business practices and here we are again, forty years later and the morons are doing the same thing over again with a new technology.
Total morons.
I would watch the news, sooner or later the evidence is going to surface that AT&T is taking advantage of the Priority Access Dialing and the Cellular Priority Access System to improve their profits at consumer expense.
When that hits I would short sell AT&T (long term) and buy stock in competitors since AT&T is headed for another break-up and this second time around time people are going to be so pissed that the name AT&T will probably be outlawed.
You can't fix stupid and morons never learn.
TDMA and original CDMA technologies did have this prioritization technology.
GSM, Iden and current CDMA do use a prioritization technology.
So why does AT&T suck?
Simple, essentially when a different phone company leases use of one phone companies towers the users are both in the same technical priority group.
But AT&T has a problem, 3G networks and the iPhone.
To keep primary customers happy AT&T has resorted to prioritizing their customers over their competitions customers in violation of FCC regulations.
Why?
Because the data connectivity of AT&T customers is clogging the system. If AT&T gives the same priority to T-Mobile that it gives to AT&T the AT&T customers would get a reduced level of service so AT&T prioritizes their customers communications over the competition which means if you are using a non-AT&T system, or even a pay-as-you-go AT&T system, you are hosed when you live in an area where AT&T controls access.
These guys were busted up once for unfair business practices and here we are again, forty years later and the morons are doing the same thing over again with a new technology.
Total morons.
I would watch the news, sooner or later the evidence is going to surface that AT&T is taking advantage of the Priority Access Dialing and the Cellular Priority Access System to improve their profits at consumer expense.
When that hits I would short sell AT&T (long term) and buy stock in competitors since AT&T is headed for another break-up and this second time around time people are going to be so pissed that the name AT&T will probably be outlawed.
You can't fix stupid and morons never learn.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Popular authors determining US political policy
As amazing as this sounds the worst of the propaganda distributed to the world is not in the form of news papers, television shows or internet blogs.
The worst is in the form of books.
Many people in this world prize books. Among many there is a reverence for books and the "knowledge" they contain. This is especially true among the pseudo intellectual crowd.
Books like Chariots of the Gods become reference tools for the next generation of pseudo intellectuals building their propagandized non-knowledge.
Today our Commander in Chief is reading tripe about how the military and the military industrial complex plunged us into Vietnam without understanding what the goals were and how to win the war.
This is a common propaganda.
Military commanders do not start wars. Politicians do. If military commanders and business leaders provided influence to engage in the Viet Nam conflict there is no evidence of it.
Essentially the very idea is really the politicians of the age refusing to take responsibility and blaming their problems on some huge mili-wing conspiracy.
Total tripe, but, the uneducated proletariat fall for this tripe and tomorrow they will be using it as a reference tool just as Chariots of the Gods has become a reference.
Sometimes propaganda and stupidity make me physically sick and knowing that Obama could base his policy decisions on a book that makes as much sense as believing the Illuminati are controlling the world financial markets or aliens crew big pictures in the ground is one of those times.
The worst is in the form of books.
Many people in this world prize books. Among many there is a reverence for books and the "knowledge" they contain. This is especially true among the pseudo intellectual crowd.
Books like Chariots of the Gods become reference tools for the next generation of pseudo intellectuals building their propagandized non-knowledge.
Today our Commander in Chief is reading tripe about how the military and the military industrial complex plunged us into Vietnam without understanding what the goals were and how to win the war.
This is a common propaganda.
Military commanders do not start wars. Politicians do. If military commanders and business leaders provided influence to engage in the Viet Nam conflict there is no evidence of it.
Essentially the very idea is really the politicians of the age refusing to take responsibility and blaming their problems on some huge mili-wing conspiracy.
Total tripe, but, the uneducated proletariat fall for this tripe and tomorrow they will be using it as a reference tool just as Chariots of the Gods has become a reference.
Sometimes propaganda and stupidity make me physically sick and knowing that Obama could base his policy decisions on a book that makes as much sense as believing the Illuminati are controlling the world financial markets or aliens crew big pictures in the ground is one of those times.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Google Gadgets, Hot Air and News
I just deleted Hot Air from my iGoogle.
I have been reading Hot Air since it started. The columns are not bad, but they are not that good either and they don't let you post comments unless you know someone. Hot Air claims they only open registration occasionally but I have been a regular reader for the last couple of years and have never seen registration opened.
But my post is not about Hot Air, it is about iGoogle gadgets. I love them.
Getting rid of Hot Air was as easy as deleting my iGoogle gadget. No more outrageous and poorly researched articles, Hot Air has gone the way of CNN, the AP and Reuters. All crud news services that I have deleted because of over propagandizing issues and failing to report accurately and objectively.
Looking at my iGoogle I have Car and Driver, Fox News (becoming a terrible propaganda machine and likely to go soon....), Bodybuilding.com, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC still informing me on important events.
So what will I do when I kick Fox news from my iGoogle for being a propagandist and inaccurate yellow sheet? I will run a search and install a new gadget.
Simple as that.
For some reason the majority of news service managers believe that to make money and gain readership they have to become propagandist and inaccurate. I believe this is why so many news organizations are going out of business.
These morons are focusing on the small vocal minority that read their garbage and leaving the rest of us without news.
Prado. 80% comes from 20%. News services are focusing on propagandizing for that 20% and the rest of us are hunting for good news sources.
Thank God for Google Gadgets because they make getting rid of propaganda and testing out a new information source only a mouse click away.
Sure, the 80-20 rule applies and I will only really like and get 80% of my information from about 20% of the gadgets.
That is okay, The world is not going any where and I can catch up on anything I miss in the first 5 minutes of the story.
P.S. Readers unfamiliar with me might not recognize the sarcasm in my last sentence. The world is not going anywhere AND no one can understand any issue watching 5 minutes of any story. It takes multiple presentations from multiple sources as well as returning to original informational source material.
I have been reading Hot Air since it started. The columns are not bad, but they are not that good either and they don't let you post comments unless you know someone. Hot Air claims they only open registration occasionally but I have been a regular reader for the last couple of years and have never seen registration opened.
But my post is not about Hot Air, it is about iGoogle gadgets. I love them.
Getting rid of Hot Air was as easy as deleting my iGoogle gadget. No more outrageous and poorly researched articles, Hot Air has gone the way of CNN, the AP and Reuters. All crud news services that I have deleted because of over propagandizing issues and failing to report accurately and objectively.
Looking at my iGoogle I have Car and Driver, Fox News (becoming a terrible propaganda machine and likely to go soon....), Bodybuilding.com, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC still informing me on important events.
So what will I do when I kick Fox news from my iGoogle for being a propagandist and inaccurate yellow sheet? I will run a search and install a new gadget.
Simple as that.
For some reason the majority of news service managers believe that to make money and gain readership they have to become propagandist and inaccurate. I believe this is why so many news organizations are going out of business.
These morons are focusing on the small vocal minority that read their garbage and leaving the rest of us without news.
Prado. 80% comes from 20%. News services are focusing on propagandizing for that 20% and the rest of us are hunting for good news sources.
Thank God for Google Gadgets because they make getting rid of propaganda and testing out a new information source only a mouse click away.
Sure, the 80-20 rule applies and I will only really like and get 80% of my information from about 20% of the gadgets.
That is okay, The world is not going any where and I can catch up on anything I miss in the first 5 minutes of the story.
P.S. Readers unfamiliar with me might not recognize the sarcasm in my last sentence. The world is not going anywhere AND no one can understand any issue watching 5 minutes of any story. It takes multiple presentations from multiple sources as well as returning to original informational source material.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
