Category: Technology

WESTWARD HO!

JULY 20, 2024 – Yesterday we earthlings woke up to the news that a multi-billion company few of us had ever heard of was responsible for a widespread snafu affecting computer systems the world over. In dual irony the company—CrowdStrike—produces cybersecurity software. A glitch in the way updated code interacted with Microsoft Windows is what …

TODAY’S SAGA

JULY 11, 2024 – The saga continues, but before I provide today’s installment, I have to comment on the word “saga.” It’s an old hardy Scandinavian word that has survived wars, plagues, famines, volcanoes (think “Iceland”), and modernity (so far). It means “story,” in old Norse, modern Scandinavian languages, and English, of course. In the …

A ROTTEN APPLE

JULY 10, 2024 – If you read my immediately preceding post, you know that at yesterday’s close, I was in a celebratory mood. Despite Sisyphean odds, I’d managed to drag my MacBook Pro up a steep hill of technological glitches all the way to the summit of technological fixes. From that vantage point, the seemingly …

SEQUEL TO LEMONS AND LEMONADE

JULY 9, 2024 – I concluded yesterday’s technology episode on a positive note—specifically, the likely prospect that I could jawbone the manager of the MOA Apple Store to reimbursement me for the hefty cost of data recovery. Once I’d cinched that deal, I figured I’d ship the device straight away to the data salvage outfit. …

TURNING A LEMON INTO LEMONADE

JULY 8, 2024 – Among the innumerable micro-adventures of modern life is the smartphone, laptop or kindred device that up and dies—which is an odd idiom, since what thing, animate or inanimate, goes “up” then dies? I can think of things that either go down and die or die in place, but I’ve never heard …

MY EXPERIMENT WITH ChatGPT

DECEMBER 2, 2023 – In my search for new direction (see yesterday’s post), this morning I checked Bloomberg.com—my go-to news source—glanced at a few headlines, then clicked on “AI.” Whenever I see “AI,” I still mistake the “I” for an “l,” as in “Hal,” without the “H.”  Hal, of course, was the computer-gone-rogue aboard the …

THE ALIEN’S DOWNLOAD

JANUARY 22, 2022 – Periodically, I play a mind-game in which an alien lands next to me to inquire telepathically about life on earth. Always within two minutes I’m in royal trouble trying to explain matters—as I understand them. Invariably, the alien stands in silent confusion. In the middle of yesterday’s extensive treatment sessions, the …

NUANCE VS. PRECISION

NOVEMBER 19, 2021 – Simon Winchester wrote a book entitled, The Perfectionists, an interesting work about precision engineering. In the world of machines and micro-machines, precision to the nth-degree marks the difference between function and failure. Perfection applies with equal force to many fields, from music to medicine. It even rules in the practice of …

UNIMPRESSED AND UNINSPIRED

JULY 12, 2021 – Yesterday, British billionaire Richard Branson made a suborbital space flight. Media outlets made a big deal of it, thanks to the fact that Branson himself—self-promotor extraordinaire—made a big deal of it. The hoopla left me unimpressed. First, Branson wasn’t at the controls.  He was a passenger—one of six. Second, although the …

PROJECTLAND

MAY 8, 2021 – When our neighbor John wandered over to the Red Cabin last weekend, my wife asked him if he was keeping himself busy. After a deep sigh, he said, “I’ve probably got over a hundred projects underway.”  For John, that was no exaggeration. After chatting awhile, he jumped back on his trail …

A TURTLE’S DOCK

MARCH 15, 2021 – The shoreline of Björnholm, our family’s retreat in northwest Wisconsin, presents an engineering challenge. After years of fighting the steep embankment in front of the cabin, Dad and Grandpa moved the dock and boatlift to more accessible terrain down the shore. Years later lake ice re-arranged that location. Over time, Dad …

THE ANTI-SOCIAL DILEMMA

MARCH 6, 2021 – PING! I checked my phone—a message on WhatsApp. Since I’m connected with only three people on that Facebook-owned app, by easy deduction I knew the text was from our son Byron. “If you are looking for an interesting documentary [. . .],” it read. “Yes?” I replied “The Social Dilemma[.]” “Netflix?” …