In the wake of yesterday’s terrorist bombings in Brussels, Presidential candidate Donald Trump has revised his controversial fence policy. He sat down with editors of the New York Herald Tribune for an interview.
Month: March 2016
Trump’s Leaked Medical Records
The New York Herald Tribune reported today that it had reviewed the leaked medical records of Donald Trump. It appears his personal physician, Juan Diego de Hernandez, inadvertently left these records on Seat 9c of Aeromexico flight 93 from JFK to Mexico City. According to the Herald Tribune these records indicate the following:
WSJ Book Club – Twain’s Life on the Mississippi
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting Q&A with author Adam Hochschild, who they tagged to make the first selection in their Book Club. His selection: Life on the Mississippi. Mr. Hochschild makes the point that Twain’s writings were sometimes erratic and that readers can (and should) skip many of the chapters of the book. Of course he’s read this book five times, so perhaps he came to that conclusion after read #3. For the rest of us it’s we simply take the good with the bad. Clearly much of Twain’s writings was meant to fill up pages (for many of his magazine articles he was in fact paid by the word; his novels were usually illustrated also) but I’ll wager this: even his filler content is superior to what passes for literature these days. Read the article here: WSJ
Continue reading "WSJ Book Club – Twain’s Life on the Mississippi"
Orlando and the 8th Circle of Hell
I ascribe to the alleged Tennessee Williams’ dictum:
There are only three great cities in the United States: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. All the rest are Cleveland.
Alleged because it’s not clear that he actually said it or who did. But the sentiment is right on. Yes, call me bigoted. I was born in NYC, went to college in NYC and lived in the area for 25 years and now reside in San Francisco. New Orleans: yep, been there a couple of times: it’s gritty, authentic, decadent; it’s got great food, great music, great history. It’s where adults and derelicts go for fun.
Radio Frequencies, Spectrum and 5G
My apologies to radio engineers, IEEE members and others of a sufficiently technical bent who might be offended by the primer about to follow.
Wireless equipment (smartphones, over-the-air TVs, WiFi access points, GPS, RFID etc) owe their existence to the good old radio and the physics of electromagnetism. With a couple of Google searches you can discover the nuances of transmitters, receivers, frequencies, amplifiers, amplitude and a host of other esoteric terms. All of these devices either transmit or receive (or both) waves across the radio spectrum. Within the radio spectrum there are slices or bands called frequencies. These radio frequencies are essentially the specific highways over which individual radio waves travel. Frequencies have their own characteristics: for example, lower frequency radio waves can typically travel farther than higher frequency radio waves given the same amount of power.
Debate, really?
Last night’s Republican “Presidential” debate looked more like an episode of American Idol than a serious discussion of this country’s many ills. A couple of observations:
- Megyn Kelly looked like she’d spent nine hours in the makeup chair. The only one with more makeup on was Bret Baier. I must have missed the segment where they actually asked policy questions because it looked to me like they lobbed a couple of softballs up and then pulled out the Tim Russert “I’ve got you” pop-ups.
- Penis jokes, really?
- Have any of these jokers ever read the Federalist Papers? Is it possible that any of them even know what they are?
- Have we become such a superficial society that this quasi-reality show, made-for-TV free-for-all is what passes for serious debate? I wonder if this is how the Lincoln-Douglas debates went down?
Frontier Assertion re Internet Speeds
Interesting comments by Frontier Communications CEO Dan McCarthy at a J.P. Morgan conference – specifically: 40% or so of perceived Internet slowness is really due to a customer having a WiFi router that experiences interference from his neighbor’s WiFi router. When I say interesting I really mean bizarre. Mr. McCarthy is correct in asserting that WiFi channel interference impacts customers. The real issue, though, is why Frontier and their cable and telco brethren continue to install routers with substandard WiFi functionality. The big boys in the business, like Ruckus Wireless, figured out years ago that WiFi access points needed channel and power agility to prevent interference. Most home routers still lack this basic functionality. Continue reading “Frontier Assertion re Internet Speeds”
SEO Junk Email
Back in the early days you’d get junk mail in your good old mailbox. With the Internet we know have junk email. One large offender that somehow slips through my spam filter: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) trolls. Yes I know you create great websites and you’ll make sure my company shows up at the top of every Google search. You’ve developed breathtaking websites with blah, blah, blah. Here’s one I just received with my comments in parentheses. Continue reading “SEO Junk Email”
Mark Twain Project Online
I’ve been a Mark Twain fan my entire life. Frankly, if I could get paid to simply read his books I’d probably be happy with the minimum wage. I’m currently plowing through Albert Bigelow Paine’s biography of Twain. It’s a little dated and doesn’t stand the test of time. I’m about 60% through and would rate it simply “OK”. I have to believe that Twain’s bankruptcy due to his involvement with the Paige typesetter was a much more psychotic event for him than Bigelow suggests. His depictions of Livy and the children also leaves a lot to be desired. His infant boy’s death gets barely a mention – I believe the kid was 2 years old or so…not a 2 month old. Anyway, these are some preliminary thoughts from an admitted rank amateur. Continue reading “Mark Twain Project Online”
Thomas E. Doyle - Personal Blog 