Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

The Babbage ‘Difference Engine’ Works

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Charles Babbage, long regarded as the father of modern computing, was not able to put his ideas into action during his lifetime. Faced with continual funding difficulty in building his ‘difference engine’ and, later, ‘analytical engine,’ his groundbreaking ideas were left unimplemented when he died in 1871.

Strangely enough, although Babbage has been well regarded for his ideas and is often listed among the ‘founding fathers’ of computing, nobody ever actually built his machines and nobody really knew for sure if they would work.

Well that’s changed. Almost 140 years after his death, we now know that Babbage’s ‘difference engine’ works. Using the original plans (correcting for a few minor errors) and using material and techniques that would have been available during Babbage’s lifetime, two ‘difference engines’ have been built and work exactly as intended.

Check out the video at the link. This thing is great.

Unlimited Means Unlimited

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According to several technology media outlets, AT&T is looking to ‘encourage’ high-usage wireless customer to rein-in their data usage. According to the company, 3 percent of smartphone users eat up 40 percent of AT&T network bandwidth.

Let me put this in plain English for AT&T: If your network can’t handle a minuscule 3 percent of your users utilizing something you call unlimited data service, then improve your network (preferred) or stop selling unlimited data service. As long as you sell unlimited data for your phones, some people will use it. You have no right to try and get them to stop. You sold it to them as unlimited. Unlimited means unlimited.

I haven’t had too much trouble with AT&T really, despite their being slaughtered in the media for various transgressions (real and imagined). I live in a 3G area and get pretty good 3G signal during most of my day-to-day activities. Granted, coverage isn’t as good as Verizon, but when I switched to AT&T [then-Cingular] they had a much better selection of available phones and other benefits over the competition. I’m giving consideration to switching back to Verizon or to another carrier when my contract is up, but haven’t yet made a decision.

If AT&T starts playing games with what unlimited means, or stops offering unlimited data plans, they’ll pretty much guarantee my next phone will be on a competitive carrier.

Pandemic Emergency Fizzles

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If you are a regular reader, it should strike you as no surprise that the pandemic, national emergency H1N1 ‘swine flu’ is no worse than the regular flu. I’ve been saying that all along.

Well, after spending the better part of a year blathering on about how we’re all going to die despite any evidence whatsoever of this flu being any more dangerous than the regular flu, it seems that the scare-mongering officials are finally sheepishly admitting their mistake [or deception]: this ‘pandemic’ is shaping up to be the mildest on record, and this flu has been less virulent and less deadly than the regular seasonal flu.

The cynic in me is so very, very tempted to declare this year of ‘swine flu’ hysteria to be a fabrication. Perhaps it was intended to get us all to go along with an ill-advised socialized health hare system. Perhaps it was designed to dump federal dollars into pharmaceutical and household product [i.e., hand sanitizer] companies without having to call it a ‘stimulus’ or ‘bailout’.

Is my inner cynic right? Who knows. All I know is that I said in August that the government owed us an explanation. I’m still waiting for one.

EPA: Everybody Stop Breathing!

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared carbon dioxide (CO2) to be a public health threat, and thus subject to administrative action by the agency. If you buy into the argument that human activity is causing ‘global warming’ or ‘global climate change,’ this sounds really good. After all, these terrible carbon emissions are messing everything up and need to be reined-in, right?

There’s a problem though. You see, most chemicals regulated by the EPA as public health threats are . . . you know . . . dangerous. They’re poisons, pollutants, and toxins. CO2 is not; it is a natural byproduct of animals breathing. You produce CO2 every time you exhale. CO2 is also very important for plants, which take it in and produce oxygen. Plants thrive in CO2-rich environments.

So let us accept, for a moment, the argument that CO2 is a ‘greenhouse gas,’ is causing a rise in global temperatures, and that all this is a bad thing. There are all kinds of problems with this argument (which I will get into some other time), but let’s accept it as fact for a moment. Even if this is true, the idea that CO2—a naturally occurring chemical essential for life on this planet—is a grave public health threat is just insane. Why don’t we declare oxygen to be a threat too, since it’s explosive in its pure form. How about water; people can drown in water. I think it’s time that the EPA stepped in and did something about water.

Read more . . .

Stuff From Today: Hiccups, Snow, Penguin

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This morning, I had to take Melissa to an art show in Falls Church. It was raining on the drive, but nothing too bad. As I loaded her stuff into the show, I came down with a terrible case of the hiccups. I absolutely hate hiccups and all of the supposed remedies—holding breath, drinking water, etc., etc., etc.—never seem to work.

So I did a Google search from my phone and  the first result was a site claiming it has a 30-second cure for the hiccups. I was completely skeptical but, much to my surprise . . . it worked. It worked instantly and the hiccups were completely gone and have not returned. If you come down with the hiccups, give it a shot and see if it works for you. Your mileage may vary.

On the drive back to the house (around 9:30 a.m.) the rain began turning to sleet, and then quickly to accumulating snow. We got about 2 or 3 inches by the end of the day. I absolutely love snow, so it was a good day for me. It was also my first chance to try out the Subaru in snow, since we haven’t had hardly any winter weather since we got it. I was very satisfied with its performance.

Aside from the two snow pics (1st right when it was starting to accumulate, and 2nd later in the day), I’ve also included a really scary penguin we saw at Target. Enjoy!

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.