ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:
AI is just the current media bogey-man
to scare people and get them to watch the news.
The 'AI' that the media are talking about
is just very clever programming, it is not true AI.
It really depends upon your definition of 'Artificial Intelligence'.
The definitive definition of AI is that the computer program
may rewrite itself; under normal circumstances a computer program
is forbidden from writing to the memory location in which it resides.
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RECOVSTICK and PHOTOSTICK
are both just dumb USB memory sticks,
with a reference to a smart-phone app that you download.
Their advertising does not tell you that.
This is dishonest advertising and a rip-off.
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Roses, Watermelons and genetics:
Long ago, as mentioned by Shakespear, roses smelled good.
But roses were then bred for disease resistance, insect resistance,
the ability to stay fresh longer after being cut, etc.
Somewhere along the line the good smell of the rose
got bred out of them while these other attributes were being bred in.
I believe that the same goes for watermelons.
In the 1950s and 1960s watermelons not only tasted far better
than they do now, but also had better 'mouth appeal'.
Unfortunately, young people will never have the chance
to know how good watermelons used to taste.
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DVD ROT:
Two DVD's of my Stargate Atlantis Season 1 quit working.
The Main Menu will come up, but no matter which video
you select, only one of them will play, always the same one.
I tried 5 different DVD players, and cleaned the DVD's 3 times.
I researched DVD rot online and found that certain factories
or certain companies were more likely to suffer from DVD rot;
my DVD's were not listed;
these are the first DVD's that I ever had trouble with.
I noticed that the DVD case was clear plastic, very soft,
as opposed to the normal hard black plastic case.
My thinking is that the plasticizers (solvents) in the soft/clear plastic case,
(put there to make the plastic soft), evaporated from the case
and migrated into the DVD silver side that was facing the case.
At first I put the remaining DVD's into paper sleeves
to see if that would stop the rot,
but it may take years to prove anything.
So I put them back in the original cases
but turned over each disk so that the label
side faced the clear plastic case,
and the silver/data side faced another CD;
in order to minimize the direct migration of the plasticizers
from the case to the DVD.
Next step: Contact the manufacturer, if possible.
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DRIVING YOUR CAR:
If you do not know how to use your directional signals,
what makes you think that you know how to operate the rest of the vehicle ?
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TV SITCOM 'LAUGH TRACK':
If a TV show has a 'laugh track',
it is, by definition, NOT funny;
if it was actually funny,
it would not need a 'laugh track'.
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GLUE TRAPS: Catchmaster, Tomcat, etc.
Put the glue trap in the freezer for 7 to 10 minutes
before you peel off the wax paper,
and the wax paper will come off much more easily.
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Learn from the mistakes of others,
you will never live long enough to make them all yourself.
Unknown Author
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Standard telephone greeting these days:
"If you are experiencing a medical emergency,
please hang up and call 911."
(because you will be dead by the time that we answer the telephone !)
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Companies CHANGING the LABEL:
Let me use Campbells soup for example.
It cost money to design a new label, box, etc.,
and change the machines to print it, etc.
And then, being an old, inflexible fart,
I can no longer recognize it/find it on the shelf !
Therefore I no longer buy it.
Why do companies do this ?
Is it that the young, who always want something new,
have more buying power than the old,
who prefer to keep buying the same product ?
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GRANITE COUNTERTOP and UNDERMOUNT SINK In my previous house I had a poured countertop, (fake Corian) with an overmount stainless steel sink. The countertop material was soft and scratched easily; but no maintenance was required. There was one large scratch (created from pulling out the microwave to clean behind it); the scratch was easy to feel, but very hard to see. There were also tiny scratches that you could not see unless you shown a light across the countertop and looked for them. When I moved to a townhome, I had a granite countertop with an undermount stainless steel sink. I hate it. Granite is a very hard rock, and requires sealing every year. If you bang a glass or ceramic item on the stainless steel OVERmount sink edge, it bounces. But, because it is an UNDERmount stainless steel sink, there is no stainless steel lip around the sink, there is a hard rock granite edge around the sink; all my glass and ceramic items are chipped or broken from banging them on the edge (yes, I am clumsy). And big items, like our 13" x 9" glass Pyrex baking dish, are even worse, they cannot be maneuvered without banging on the rock. We have place mats and pot-holders all over the granite countertop to prevent banging any hard items on the granite. So, in my humble opinion, Granite countertop plus undermount sink: sucks. Also, sealing the granite countertop every year may keep water stains out, but it does not keep oil stains out !
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CONGRESS ACTUALLY DOES REPRESENT YOU !
The typical human is short-term greedy, and wants it NOW.
Congressmen are the same, they want your vote NOW,
and will do any immoral, unethical, or wrong thing to get it.
Let us say that two parents represent congress,
and 3 children get to vote who are their parents.
The children want sugar bombs for breakfast,
candy for lunch and ice cream for dinner,
and they do not want to brush their teeth.
We know that these things destroy their teeth, brains, and body,
but if you want to get voted in as parent,
you have to meet their demands !
This is why Congress (and the President) have done so many
wrong things to the citizens of the United States of America.
Sadder is that the majority of greedy constituents do not recognize it,
they complain about prices, wages, jobs, inflation, etc.
without realizing that they voted for this !
Even more dismaying to me is that the Europeans (who criticize us greatly)
have copied our short-term greed and stupidity !
The President and congress should be doing what is long-term good
for both the people and the country;
but then few people would vote for them.
In conclusion: You got what you voted for, Quit yer bitchin'.
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MICROSOFT:
If you could not fix simple bugs in Windows XP (and prior)
and you dragged those same bugs along to Windows 10,
plus added more bugs along the way;
why should I think that you can do Windows 11 right ?
Imagine how good Windows could have been if it had
been written by programmers instead of hackers !
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APPLE:
I was hoping that you would improve on Microsoft;
no such luck; proprietary formats, etc.!
No 'back' button on the iphone!
Impossible to put my own files onto the ipad !
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Nature does not know when to stop messing with our genes !
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