Another massive, expensive, and painful IT failure was reported in the IEEE Spectrum of 24-JAN-2018, this time, it was the MIDAS Unemployment system in Michigan. Not only did this system fail to deliver, its managers refused to admit that it failed. The system was to replace the legacy software used by the State of Michigan … [Read more…]
Reading the Healdsburg Enterprise of Feb. 21, 1878, I came across a feature article titled “The Legend of the Geysers”. It is a story about how the geyser area east of Healdsburg between there and Calistoga was discovered by the local Indians. You can read the article here and, for another take on the same … [Read more…]
A post in the New York Review of Books by James Kirchick sums up Trump’s penchant for the weird (conspiracy theories) and his far-right beliefs. We can read it here.
I love stories about IT screw-ups and this is another that boggles the mind. Imagine a group that has access to every email, phone call, and text message sent today, “accidentally” deleting data. Credibility? Trust? Expertise? None in my eyes, read about it here in Politico. “It’s really disappointing,” said David Greene, an attorney with … [Read more…]
Today was a lovely day between rain storms. A quick call to my friend Jeff and we decided to meet up at Salmon Creek Beach South to pick trash for a couple of hours. When we arrived at 13:30 it was calm with a misty sun, high tide was at 14:00, about 4 feet, which … [Read more…]
In the December 1st New York Times, this opinion piece on Trump’s mental health: To the Editor: I am the editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.” We represent a much larger number of concerned mental health professionals who have come forward to warn against … [Read more…]
An analysis from the Guardian (11/19/17) on “Why are libertarians lining up with autocrats to undermine democracy?” is found here. However, the long-term corrosive effect of Russia’s use of disinformation to break down trust in western institutions is hard to measure and may be unmeasurable. What is clear is that it is continuing with the … [Read more…]
From the Guardian – Wednesday 15 November 2017 The inventor of the world wide web remains an optimist but sees a ‘nasty wind’ blowing amid concerns over advertising, net neutrality and fake news Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s optimism about the future of the web is starting to wane in the face of a “nasty storm” of … [Read more…]
In the NY Times, a review of a study from by Adam Lankford, a professor at the University of Alabama, found that the enormous number of guns owned by Americans was the major correlation in mass killings. In rankings, Yemen is second to the US in both mass killings and gun ownership. Why are we … [Read more…]