Rubber Bands On Your Wrists and The Glorious 1950s (not for women)

A while back, I was talking to a friend, a retired IBM computer scientist, at my local book store and he pointed at the rubber band on his wrist and said "You know what this meant, don't you?" I said "Sure, it meant you worked with punched cards" (we had both been programmers at stages of our careers) ". You always had spare rubber bands in the event that the ones around your program deck broke". The rubber bands were more representative of a computer programmer than the nefarious "pocket protector" (I never had one or knew anyone who did).

I was reminded of that nostalgic trip back the other day when, talking to another friend, I mentioned that the society had not always been good to women in the work place and she said "it makes we shake my head when people wish for a 'return to the 1950s'".

I grew up in the 1960's work place and, while the sixties were considered the "sexual revolution" and the era of "women's liberation". it wasn't that way in the workplace. A man could be judged as nasty -- "a rotten son of a batch", "a real bastard" - but nastiness in a woman always had sexual connotations -- "She must not be getting enough", "It must be that time of the month". The comments were usually followed by smirks -- but nobody smirked about the "real bastard".

Likewise, a sharp man on the move was "aggressive", "a real go-getter" while a woman with the same attributes had "balls" -- who in their right mind would want to be a woman with balls or would use that as praise for a woman? Do we speak of a caring, warm man as having a vagina?

All this coming twenty some-odd years after World War II when "Rosie the Riveter" had helped defeat the Axis!

In recent years, things have changed certainly in relation to gender (and race) tolerance but we still have a way to go. Any woman that I have ever discussed this with has had some story of gender discrimination -- hopefully, our grandaughers will not have such stories.

Ancestors and God

This morning on Facebook,I saw a posting from a friend, "Today I am thankful for my home and the presence of the Lord in my life." Someone else, thinking it was a nice thought, replied "What a wonderful way to start out a Monday morning. Enjoy your day. (:D)".

To me, with all respect to the original poster, it seemed like a platitude -- however, that is "to me"; I'm sure that she lives a life of belief.

The posting raised other thought in my mind. So I replied "A nice thought -- and we should be grateful for whatever benefits we have. We were born in the US (me to a family that valued education) from a line of ancestors that all came from some place else at some time -- they chose a path that brought us here, Has they not, we could have been killed in a religious war in Europe, staved in Ireland, flooded in East Africa, been on the wrong side in WWI, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, or Iraq. Instead we were lucky to have gotten here -- to an imperfect society that still seems better than any other that I know.

In many cases, we don't know much about these ancestors -- their reasons for abandoning some homeland for what they saw as a better choice. All we know is that we owe them!

So we can thank them as well as a God....

Have fun"

I am confused about God -- but I know that I had ancestors (in my case, four grandparents -- of whom, I only knew one) who, for whatever reason, chose to come here. They met, married, and had children and their children met, married and had children -- and I am one of two. Was this God's plan or is it a genetic accident?

Have We Lost Common Sense When We Talk About Job Loss?

The most recent unemployment figures show over 10% unemployment. While analysts bemoan this high rate, they find solace in the fact that the number of “new unemploys” has slowed. They see this as an evidence of a turn around, albeit a slow one, They further point out that a decrease in unemployment always trails other indicators in a recovery.

Flash – one of the reasons that less people were laid off is that many employers have already laid off as many folks as they can. The latest layoffs were either incremental or the result of new business mergers or failures.

A more important point is that many of these jobs are NEVER coming back, no matter how robust the economy becomes. Technology eliminates jobs forever every day. Every bill paid on-line means that an envelope is not opened, checks are not batched for deposit, and data is not entered by an employee into an accounts receivable system. Every book downloaded in a Kindle, Nook or other e-book reader means one less book being printed, shipped, and sold through a retail store. Any item purchased online eliminates steps in the retail process and, as the percentage of goods purchased on-line, jobs are lost.

Further, the persons losing these jobs are neither academically nor, perhaps, intellectually prepared for the jobs that are in-demand in the new global economy – electric engineers, systems engineers, scientists, monetary experts – jobs for which the Chinese are preparing hundreds of thousands.

In short, no matter how rapidly the economy responds, the prospect for job recovery is dismal. A radical re-definition of work may be called for – one in which public service, presently accomplished through volunteerism (such as Little League coaching, Girl Scout troop management, etc.), becomes taxpayer funded. Whatever the necessary changers, anything radical will be foreign to many of us and, therefore, threatening to many.

We must be prepared to accept radical changes; more importantly, we must be looking for whatever alternatives can be found to our present employment situation.

A Poem With An Ending

A Poem With An Ending
By johnmac The Bard


Philip Levine wrote a poem,
a rather long poem,
”A Poem With No Ending”;
it was published in the “Paris Review”
(and in the “Pushcart Book of Poetry”
where I read it). It is, in my judgment,
a very good poem and I recommend it.

The title got me thinking – everything
that we know in this world has an ending
(“in this world” is a gratuity to my co-religionists).

Life is a poem
with irregular meter,
strong, soft, and profane language
infused with deep-felt emotion
and it evolves to become
the story of our existence.

And the end, the last line, is death.

Copyright 2009 John F. McMullen

The Best of All Time

It is always hard to call someone or something the "best of all time", whether it be is sports, the arts, politics, etc. There are always thing to dispute, times to consider, the competition to evaluate, etc. These are items of debate that go on into time immemorial -- Shakespeare vs Chaucer vs O'Neill; Ruth vs Cobb; Mailer vs Hemmingway; Brown vs OJ; Magic vs Jordan vs Oscar; Burton vs Gable; Washington vs Lincoln vs FDR; Sinatra vs Caruso vs Robeson; etc.

It is hard to ever be sure -- different times and circumstances require different skills and strengths and just this factor often makes comparisons meaningless. Yet, if we are ever fortunate enough to witness a person who is clearly the best of all time at what her or she does, we are lucky, almost honored.

I am that lucky -- I've been following baseball for over sixty years in person and know more about baseball history than most Americans know about the history of their country or members of a religion know about its precepts and I have and continue to witness the, without question, greatest relief pitcher of all time, Mariano Rivera.

K. A. Shott's "Bridal Mysticism" -- Wow!

I just read K. A. Shott's "Bridal Mysticism", available both for purchase and as a free PDF download (Do Both!) from her web site, and was blown away -- it is deep, beautiful, and incredibly sensual.

Shott's other work -- a wide range -- fiction, non-fiction, and poetry -- is also available at the site.

At ... Or Almost At ... 70

At ... Or Almost At ... 70
By johnmac the bard

I’ve been reading
“The Book Of Seventy”.
a collection of poems
by Alicia Suskin Ostriker,
published in 2009.
two years after she turned seventy.

The book has particular meaning
for me as I am but five days
away from that milestone.

When my friends and I were teenagers,
we thought of seventy-year olds
as either feeble or dead.

I am neither
although many of my friends are dead
and I don’t run up and down a
basketball court any more.

I’m in relatively good health –
a life time of asthma and fifteen years
of diabetes haven’t really slowed me
nor have the basketball ankle, knee,
finger arthritis, and other pains.

I’m still a big kid.
I ride a motor scooter, often eighty-mile
round trips to-and-from the college at
which I teach! I have a gaggle of cats
(and want to add a small puppy) and
I delight in new books, new tech toys,
and on-line connections.
In short, I love life.

I’ve been lucky all my life.
Great interesting jobs;
two marriage;
two great children;
always luckier than I deserve.

Yet, at this age, the question
lurking is always “How long?”

How much time is left?
There is so much to do!
A novel to finish;
Poems to write;
New technology breakthroughs
to experience;
More students to teach;
and more time to enjoy my
family and home.

Some, at this age,
blindly trust in God.
Others become bitter
as they deteriorate …
… and others just
go along.

Which will I do?
How the hell do I know?

Copyright 2009 John F. McMullen

Disruptive Technologies

The following links must be checked out (click on them):

* Sixth Sense
* Did You Know?

They will help makes sense out of how difficult it is to keep up:

· Moore’s Law – “The number of transistors would double ever two years without increasing the cost to users” – which means that every eighteen months, the processing power of computers doubles while price holds constant (Gordon Moore – “Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits, 1965)

· Metcalfe’s Law – “The Usefullness of a Network is the square of the number of users connected to it." – Value expands exponentially”

· Law of Disruption – “Technology changes exponentially, but social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally” (Larry Downes – The Laws of Disruption; Basic Books, 2009)

johnmac The Bard

“johnmac The Bard”
By johnmac

I just bought a book of poetry,
“In A Mirror Darkly”.
I enjoyed the poetry and it
was also illustrated very nicely.

I am rarely jealous of another’s writing,
being of a sort who admires good work,
and I certainly don’t envy the art
because I know it’s something
I could never do.

What did bring out one of the
seven deadlies in me, however,
was the poet’s name – his moniker:
“Sullivan the Poet”

Damn!
That’s a great name – and he grabbed it
before I even thought of it --
-- or of putting it on a business card.
(Not “Sullivan”, you dimwit; “the Poet”)

I told my wife of the envy
and she, as she oft does,
immediately had a solution
“You should be ‘johnmac The Bard”

“johnmac The Bard”? hmmm ..
I like the ring of that!
And it can tie into readings:
“Poetry Readings Tonight by
johnmac The Bard”

Ok – print the business cards!

Copyright 2009 John F. McMullen

The Law of Disruption -- Two Poems

The Law of Disruption - I

By johnmac

Larry Downes, in his book,

“The Laws of Disruption”,

states the law:

“Technology changes exponentially,

but social, economic, and legal

systems change incrementally.”

Wow!

Think about it!

If true (and it is), this means that

the world, as we know it, can’t keep up.

Borders crumble, copyright laws

change or become meaningless,

retail businesses implode,

sources of taxation disappear,

current job skills become unneeded

while new needed skills are in short supply,

and, for the long range,

Facebook and Twitter

are more important than

Osama and Obama.

And that is scary,

very scary.

Must every new generation

be afraid? I think so.

Copyright 2009 John F. McMullen

---------------

The Law of Disruption - II

By johnmac

If there is to be constant

exponential change,

who will keep up with it?

Very few of us.

It will constantly be the

young who grow up

with the new technology

who will “get it”

and it is the middle-aged

and the “mature” who

won’t get it

(just as the majority of

my contemporaries don’t

get Twitter or Facebook).

Further, the time slices for

each new technology will

get smaller and smaller --

meaning that, unless we

are able to adapt constantly

(something we don’t do

well now, the useful

work cycle of each generation

will get smaller and smaller.

and it will become more and

more obvious that we are

simply fodder for the evolutionary

process – pieces in a game plan

which we don’t understand.

Copyright 2009 John F. McMullen

"The Most Important and Powerful Word In The English Language"

So saith Lewis Black, referring to the magic word "Fuck" in his Forward to "The F Word" by Jesse Sheidlower (Oxford University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-0-19-53911-8). Before you dismiss this work as some sleazy pornographic book, note the publisher -- the Oxford University Press -- and note further that the author is the Oxford English Dictionary's Editor at Large.

This is a serious book about a word that has been around since the fifteenth century. Following Black's well-written forward, the author provides a forty-one page essay, both explaining the format and rationale of the book and providing a history of the uses of the word through the ages, its appearance in dictionaries and newsprint, and related court cases. The main portion of the book comes next -- a two hundred seventy (270) page dictionary of various fuck-related terms and abbreviations.

Some of theses terms are well known to most and some are a tad obscure -- I found them interesting and often humorous. A few follow:

• Feck - a "less offensive" term used in Ireland to replace fuck without losing the meaning. "Feck off"
• Fug -- another term for the same purpose, used by Norman Mailer in his great war novel, "The Naked and The Dead" when his publishers wouldn't let him use fuck (Legend has it that when the outspoken Talluah Bankhead was introduced to him, she said "Oh, yes. You're the young man who can't spell fuck.")
• HMFIC - "Head Mother Fucker In Charge"
• FIGMO & FUJIGMO -- "Fuck It, Got My Orders" & "Fuck You, Jack, I Got My Orders"
• Fiddler's Fuck -- Doesn't Make a difference -- I don't give a fiddler's fuck.
• Fuck Off -- Get Away, Go to Hell
• FOAD - "Fuck Off And Die"
• Fucked By The Fickle Finger Of Fate -- thwarted or victimized by bad fortune
• FTW - "Fuck The World"
• BFD -- "Big Fucking Deal"; who cares?
• ASAFP -- "As Soon As Fucking Possible" -- an example of how an "F" can be stuck in anywhere (and not as blasphemous as OMFG)
• SNAFU -- "Situation Normal, All Fucked Up"; originally a US Army term, it spawned TARFU -- "Things Are Really Fucked Up" and FUBAR -- "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition"
• RTFM -- "Read The Fucking Manual"; a directive normally over the Internet to someone asking trivial questions.
• WTF -- "What The Fuck?" (or "Where The Fuck" or "Who The Fuck").

A fun book about an interesting word.

T-Mobile's Sidekick Outage -- and Barbara McMullen's experience II

T-Mobile's Sidekick Smart Phone Service, powered by Microsoft's Danger Data Service has been out of commission for over a week and now the users are warned that their data, stored on Danger's Servers, may have been lost and that the data that remains on their Sidekick devices is at jeopardy, putting customers contact and calendar information at risk to disappear.

Some johnmac comments:
1. There was never a problem like this prior to the Microsoft acquisition of Danger.
2. There has been little media coverage of this problem although I suspect that multi-thousands of users are affected.
3. It would seem that, given all of its technical expertise, Microsoft could come up with some way to replicate the original Danger SideKick to Danger backup. Failing that, it should be able to provide a USB backup to Outlook.
4. Perhaps Google can jump in witha Sidekick to G-Mail, G-Calendar, etc. If so, game over and a lot of Androids get sold.

-----------------------
The latest missive:

Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.
Updated: 10/10/2009 12:35 PM PDT
T-MOBILE AND MICROSOFT/DANGER STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA DISRUPTION
Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:
T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies regarding the recent Sidekick data service disruption.
We appreciate your patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on maintaining platform stability, and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.
Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device - such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos - that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low. As such, we wanted to share this news with you and offer some tips and suggestions to help you rebuild your personal content. You can find these tips in our Sidekick Contacts FAQ. We encourage you to visit the Forums on a regular basis to access the latest updates as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption.
In addition, we plan to communicate with you on Monday (Oct. 12) the status of the remaining issues caused by the service disruption, including the data recovery efforts and the Download Catalog restoration which we are continuing to resolve. We also will communicate any additional tips or suggestions that may help in restoring your content.
We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts have been focused on restoring our customers' personal content. We also are considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your content to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer.
We continue to advise customers to NOT reset their device by removing the battery or letting their battery drain completely, as any personal content that currently resides on your device will be lost.
Once again, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger regret any and all inconvenience this matter has caused.
Service Disruption FAQs| Disruption Credit FAQs| Disruption Discussion
Password/Sign-in Text Message FAQs | Password/Sign-in Discussion

Obama As Nobel Laurete?

Let’s get this straight
right from the top --
-- I like President Obama.
I voted for him.
I support heath care reform.
I respect him as a person and
think that he is the most
articulate president since JFK.

But the Nobel Prize For Peace??
A prize which he was nominated
for two weeks after his inauguration?
Absurd!

NBC pundit David Gregory
put it in perspective, saying
“They’re giving him the Cy Young
Award this afternoon” (The Cy Young
Award is given annually to the best
pitcher in each Major Baseball League
-- it is given at the END of a season after
the pitcher accomplishes a lot).

The president deserves credit for
stating “I do not feel that I deserve
to be in the company of so many
of the transformative figures who've
been honored by this prize, men and
women who've inspired me and
inspired the entire world through
their courageous pursuit of peace.”

He’s right!
Nelson Mandell spent years in jail;
Martin Luther King, Jr. was hosed, arrested,
jailed and defamed;
Lech Walesa was beaten and arrested;
Mother Teresa spent a lifetime working
with those in abject poverty;
and Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin
ended a lifetime of hostility.
and Barack Obama got elected!

Certainly, his election was a major
accomplishment and his words are
eloquent and inspiring but his only
real accomplishment to date seems
to be not being George W. Bush.

It the Nobel Committee was looking for
an American President who had made
significant contributions to peace.
it only had to look no further than
Bill Clinton.

Clinton’s use of troops stopped killing
in Bosnia and his use of George Mitchell
(another possible honoree) brought
the peace process to Northern Ireland.
So, Clinton seems very deserving based
on real accomplishments unless
adulterous blow jobs are dis-qualifiers.

Let’s hope that President Obama
grows into the honor – he well may
but, right now, it’s like giving the
Heisman Trophy to a college football
player before the season starts.

Copyright 2009 John F. McMullen

Lucky, Not Proud -- a poem

Lucky, Not Proud
By johnmac

I’m not proud to be an American;
being an American is not
an accomplishment of mine.
I didn’t fight for its independence.
I didn’t even choose to come here.
My grandparents did – and I will
be forever grateful to them
for their courage in coming here.

I am very lucky to have been
born an American.
I could have starved to death in Biafra,
been butchered in Cambodia,
gassed in Auschwitz,
sent to a gulag in Russia,
bombed in Hiroshima,
slaughtered in the Congo,
drowned in Indonesia,
blown up in Jerusalem,
or enslaved in the Sudan.
Instead, I was born in
the United States of America
and get to sit here and muse.

I am truly lucky as are my co-citizens.
Shouldn’t we do whatever we can to ensure
that you don’t have to be lucky not to be
starved, butchered, bombed, slaughtered,
drowned, blown up, or enslaved?
Or is it sufficient just to be jingoistic and
be proud of something we neither earned
nor even deserved?

Copyright 2009 John F. McMullen

NYC Computer Organizations

To Monroe IT Students, Alumni, and Faculty

NYACC (the New York Amateur Computer Club, NYPC (the New York IBM User Group), ACM, 2600, the NYC Chapter of ACM, and NYC Wireless (The New York City Wireless Group) all warrant your attention, both to learn from experienced people and to make professional contacts (NYPC and the NYC Chapter of ACM are the best for this, while national ACM has many courses with certificates) -- they are all resume items, providing you become a member and all, but national ACM, have regular local meetings -- go to the web sites for more information (NYACC's October Meeting is tomorrow night, Thursday, October 8th and the subject is "Internet Fraud".

Please point students and other interestested parties to this notice

Reading Mike Sharpe -- a poem

Reading Mike Sharpe
By johnmac

“Thou Shalt Not Kill
Unless Otherwise Instructed”
By Mike Sharpe, 2005
ISBN: 0-7656-1722-6

The poems in Sharpe’s book
hit me like a hammer.
Short, clear poems –
beautiful in their power,
tough in their thrust.

He puts me to shame and envy
-- shame because he speaks out
loudly on the awful tolls of war
-- and envy because he writes
better than I do.
But mostly admiration because
this is a wonderful book.

In the poem “Thou Shalt Not Kill”,
Sharpe has God admonishing both
Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush.
Their answers:
‘I think you’re out of touch, said
Osama bin Laden.”
“I’m afraid you’re out of touch as well
said George W. Bush”.

This book deserves to be a success;
more important, it deserves to be read;
and, most important, it deserves to
be thoughtfully considered.


Copyright 2009 John F. McMullen