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In the upper midwest, daylight savings time generally gives way to tractor-mounted LED time as contracted harvesting companies switch into high production to beat the late-fall rain.
Butter. Yessir.
These kind of stories always make me chuckle. The Boston Dynamics videos always show the humanoid robots running through debris, dancing to the latest music, regaining balance after being assaulted, ever at the ready, ever the obedient servant.
Sort of "join the army see the world" kind of stuff.
The reality is however, pushing a parts cart to the other side of the factory, returning and doing it again. 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, with time-off to recharge or possibly re-oil.
I sincerely hope they're not sentient and unable to communicate it. It would certainly account for the blank stare coming from behind the tinted lenses.
Michael Swaine tried to restart a few years ago as well. Not easy being the same you 20+ years later.
Same skill, same desire, same willingness. But the same energy is difficult to find.
Operational efficiency and care for the elderly will never have mutually beneficial outcomes. Nor will the expectations of the participants on either side of the transaction be compatible.
I fear the objectives of both will always be mutually exclusive.
The Straight of Hormuz is open to any country willing to pay $2M per voyage. Any country except the U.S. and Israel.
The most important aspect of the "toll" is that Iran prefers payment in yuan, not dollars.
If Iran succeeds in nationalizing the Straight and is successful in enforcing the toll, it represents a very serious threat to the dominance of the U.S. Dollar as the world's reserve currency for trading energy.
Not mentioned but very important was the number of inbound telco lines installed. Equally important was making sure the local phone company properly configured the hunt group for those lines. Without a properly functioning hunt group it would be very difficult to optimize the allocation of telco connections to all the users connecting and disconnecting.
Also, it was unusual at the time for a local phone company to receive a request for 25 lines (or more) to be installed in the basement of a residence. They would generally push back thinking you were running a bookie operation or some such.
I'll give you props for studying the systems manuals and not the handmade Adventure maps drawn on green-bar paper and hidden behind the back of the last 3270 at the far end of the row of tape request consoles.
I was on the DEC side with an amber VT220 and always thought it was cool that the 3270 could scream "mount me now dammit!" in flashing red block letters while the operators weren't sure if they should drop the keys or pick up the lantern.
The President sits at the top of the classification hierarchy.
Constitutionally, and in theory as Commander-In-Chief, perhaps. But in practice, it does not seem so. Worse yet, it's been reported the current President doesn't even bother to read the daily briefing as he doesn't trust it.
Have to recommend TryAlly. He makes it look easy and straightforward. It's not.
It's been five years since key lawmakers deftly navigated the market implications of covid-19 after being briefed in a closed-door session [0].
It's one thing to use insider information, it's another to be blatant and unapologetic.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_congressional_insider_tra...
Kirsten did a nice job on Forestiere Gardens in Fresno, CA.
Anyone who has ever worked with legit 10-key operators understands why many companies were loathe to migrate to modern graphical interfaces.
Some of the fastest manual data entry I've ever seen was by operators entering claim information into a medical billing system based on MUMPS.
Keep all hands and feet away.
I tried to search for what the acronym "Neo" is based on but no luck. Maybe it's a cinematic reference that got assigned in development and stuck. I don't know.
But it did remind me of my friend Ben Skora and his robot AROK. Fabricated in his garage using sheet metal (Ben rebuilt cars), power window motors, dryer vent pipe for arms, a Richard Nixon halloween mask inside a motorcycle helmet, two car batteries and wheels as shoes, bicycle brake clamps covered with rubber gloves as hands, a front panel of lights that blinked, and miles of wiring that never worked 100%.
The whole system was analog. Tones from two princess phone keypads controlled the motors and he could talk and listen remotely (20 ft away) using a hacked set of walkie-talkies. Don't ask me how.
AROK was built in ~1971-1973 and now resides inside a glass case at the Moraine Valley Community College Technology Building. [1]
He built AROK to help around the house, do chores, walk the dog, etc.
[0] https://cyberneticzoo.com/robots/1975-arok-ben-skora-america...
[1] https://www.morainevalley.edu/news-story/arok-the-robot-roll...
Not sure "Cargo Cult" is an apt description. Feynman's description of Cargo Cult Science was predicated on the behavior of islanders building structures in expectation it would summon the planes, cargo, personnel, etc. that used the island during WWII.
Without a previous experience they would not have built anything.
There is no previous AI experience behind today's pursuit of the AI grail. In other words, no planes with cargo driving an expectation of success. Instead, the AI pursuit is based upon the probability of success, which is aptly defined as risk.
A correct analog would be the islanders building a boat and taking the risk of sailing off to far away shores in an attempt to procure the cargo they need.
The real shame in all of this is the fact that buried deep within the 100k are workers who actually know a thing or two about how things actually work, have the experience and knowledge to get things done, have a pretty good idea how to improve the processes and policies, have chosen to do their assigned duties correctly, but have probably had limited success trying to change things.
So they're getting out because "it's time I guess. Not much else I can do."
The price of gold fluctuated significantly in 1979 due to concerns over whether inflation could be brought under control. It started the year at ~$250.00 per ounce and ended the year at ~$850.00 per ounce.
It was a presidential election year and consumers were getting squeezed hard by rising energy prices. Russia invaded Afghanistan, Carter suspended participation in the Olympics, and there was a general feeling of concern.
Using Wolfram Alpha to compute gold's price in 1979 relative to 2025, "850.00 1979 dollars in 2025", the result is $3,663.84
Gold closed today at $3,858.60.
Just like 1979, 2025 has a long list of international concerns making investors nervous.
George Carlin: Germs, Immune Systems
Our findings establish a new paradigm for bio-integrated, cement-based energy materials, paving the way for energy-autonomous infrastructure.
"You see what I did there? Paving. Get it?"
Right. Now unleash the academic peer review puns. They've given permission.
I was young, with all of it yet to unfold, but I have to say, the summer of 1969 was a helluva thing.
Stand! For the things you know are right It's the truth that the truth makes them so uptight
2,000,000 miles of roads @ $1,000,000 per mile.
Think of that the next time you drive through Arizona on I-40, avoiding the potholes, debris, and life-threatening disrepair.
I-40 runs a scant 2,556 miles from Barstow, CA to Benson, NC.
Are you declaring first use?
Creating the most abject chaos imaginable, grabbing all the floatation devices while those around you tread turbulent waters, is by most definitions, diabolical.
Nice to see Monte Davidoff's name included at line 69. Already the hierarchy tho'.
I picture he and Paul discussing the code he had just written when Bill walks in and asks "Are you done yet?"
Saving $2.1B to $3.6B means the 13,834 management positions pay between $150,000 to $260,000 per year. Plus benefits and other incentives I suppose.
These are not the workers who travel from warehouse to warehouse living in their RV's.
It makes me wonder if Amazon's AI implementations are starting to move up the food chain as was generally predicted for the U.S. economy 5 years ago.
To get a good insight into the problems faced by nations in West Africa and Southwest Africa as they try to implement electricity-based technologies to their populations, I highly recommend watching Season 7 of Itchy Boots on YouTube [0].
Her experiences as she "adventure rides" through this region tacitly documents the true nature of "life as it is lived" by the millions and millions of human beings residing there.
It is stunning to consider and is an Africa I never knew existed.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8M9dV_BySaXNvQ_V1q4U...
Your page-swap analogy is apt and razor sharp. Well done.
Diskettes inside the book as I recall.
We were running Oregon Pascal on a PDP/11-44 (later upgraded to a VAX 11/780) that cost thousands. To have access to Pascal for $49 was too good to be true. Kept thinking it had to be deficient somehow, but it wasn't.
The paradigm shift was underway right in front of us.
A couple of observations to give insight into the USA's political sentiment at the time:
1. In 1976, Ford carried California, Illinois, Virginia, and every western state except Texas. Carter carried Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio and almost all southern states including Florida.
2. When Carter won the country was still coming to terms with Vietnam, was completely dismayed by the Watergate scandal and subsequent pardon, was witnessing chaos in Iran, was living under the threat of mutually assured destruction, was experiencing rampant inflation, rising oil prices, a stagnant economy, and possessed a large group of rebellious baby-boomers kicking at the stalls but not quite ready-for-primetime.
The USA needed Jimmy Carter's southern sensibilities, humility, and values in order to take a deep breath.
Rest in Peace Mr. President. Well done in retrospect.
In December 2021, the American Hospital Association issued the following statement regarding United Healthcare's plans to closely scrutinize medical claims for ER visits. [0]
UHC subsequently reversed itself and delayed the plan for 6 months. That was in 2021-2022. It's now 2024-2025.
Around that time many insurers, not just UHC, began implementing AI-assisted claims adjudication. It was a bumpy ride with a steep learning curve and probably took a couple of years to fine-tune the algorithms and learning models.
Especially as the Covid-19 claims tsunami subsides.
No matter tho', every claim paid is considered a loss by insurers. Every claim denied is considered a small step towards mitigating those losses.
In the U.S., medical reimbursement is a push and shove, shove and push battle fought inch by inch with high-speed data systems. It has been that way for a long time.
[0] https://www.aha.org/special-bulletin/2021-12-29-aha-expresse...