Restore phone orientation sensing

Last week, my Samsung Galaxy Light SGH-T399 phone with Android 4.2.2 stopped responding to orientation changes. When I rotated the phone from vertical (“portrait”) to horizontal (“landscape”), the display no longer rotated accordingly. In vain I clicked on the Screen rotation button.

I feared that I’d physically broken the orientation sensor when I dropped the phone the previous day.  I loaded a rotation app, but found that it was a pain to use.  Eventually I discovered (thanks, Google) that by typing an odd sequence of keys, I could peek beneath the operating system and directly examine the data streams from the sensors. When I did this, the phone’s screen rotation function returned.

Here’s how:

• Run the phone app, which displays the dial screen.
• In sequence, press the *#0*# buttons on the dial screen.
• A hardware test screen with 14 buttons should appear.
• Tap the Sensor button
• You’ll see the numeric outputs of the Accelerometer, Proximity, and Magnetic sensors
• Press the IMAGE TEST and Graph buttons for the Accelerometer. The displays should respond to movement of the phone.
• Cross your fingers
• Restart phone

That did the trick for me. Your mileage may vary.

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

We need more CO2

Next week, the Paris Climate Change Conference begins. It’s basically a waste of time and money because anthropogenic global warming is an imaginary problem. One hidden agenda is the transfer of wealth from developed nations to less developed nations. Another is the transfer of wealth into the pockets of scam artists such as Al Gore. I wish that the conference would listen to, among others, Patrick Moore and Freeman Dyson.

Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, spoke last month about climate change. Here’s YouTube’s video record of his presentation:

Dr. Moore argues that the earth’s climate has ALWAYS changed, and that carbon dioxide is good for all life on our planet. Broadly speaking, his argument agrees with that of eminent mathematician and physicist Freeman Dyson, who’s studied global climate since the 1970s, while a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

I don’t know much about Dr. Moore, but I’ve long admired the independent thought of Freeman Dyson. When he speaks, I listen (and watch):

Freeman Dyson’s observations:

• “CO2 is so beneficial . . . it would be crazy to try to reduce it.”
• “Probably it does us good; the Earth will get greener as a result.”
• “The climate models are no good for prediction.”

---

In a discussion about global warming stupidity, Professor Dyson confesses,

E-Mail 4/9/15
Dear Norman Page,

Thank you for your message and for the blog. That all makes sense.

I wish I knew how to get important people to listen to you. But there is not much that I can do. I have zero credibility as an expert on climate. I am just a theoretical physicist, 91 years old and obviously out of touch with the real world. I do what I can, writing reviews and giving talks, but important people are not listening to me. They will listen when the glaciers start growing in Kentucky, but I will not be around then.

With all good wishes, yours ever,
Freeman Dyson.

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

New movie about Alan Turing opens next month

(Originally published October, 2014) The new British film The Imitation Game illustrates the remarkable life of mathematician and computer science pioneer Alan Turing. It will open in theaters on November 21.

This 30-minute video interview with the film’s director Morten Tyldum, actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, and screenwriter Graham Moore, is worth watching. I can’t wait to see the movie. I’m happy that the screenplay is based on Andrew Hodges’ definitive biography Alan Turing: The Enigma. (Hodges is a mathematician, so if you’d like, he can walk you through Turing’s reasoning based on number theory that led to the routine decryption of messages that were encrypted by the German Navy’s Enigma machines.) Hodges’ biography is a wonderful book that I use as a reference.

Screenwriter Moore describes Mr. Turing as “the outsider’s outsider”. Director Tyldum calls The Imitation Game “a story about outsiders, those who are different.” “The mission of the movie is to celebrate uniqueness — individuality.”

Watch the movie trailer.

Update, 28 Dec 2014 Mathematician Simon Singh saw the movie and quipped in a Science Friday interview that it’s “filled with factual errors, full of flaws, and in that respect it’s a terrible, terrible film” but in other ways it’s a “brilliant, great film”. According to Singh, the movie errs in dozens of details. Notable errors:

• At Bletchley Park during WW2, Turing is shown building a general purpose computer dubbed “Christopher”, which supposedly was used to decipher scrambled German messages that had been encrypted with the Enigma machine. This is wrong. Turing did create the algorithms for, design, and participate in the construction of multiple dedicated electromechanical single-purpose calculators that were used to decipher Enigma-encrypted messages. These machines were called bombes.
• In 1952, through detective work, the Manchester police discovered that Turing was a homosexual. In fact, Alan’s flat was burgled by, he suspected, a homosexual paramour. Outraged, he reported it to police, and mentioned that, yes, he had had a few trysts with the suspect. The police charged him with “lewd and indecent acts” (the same crime that had put Oscar Wilde behind bars a few decades earlier).

I view these errors as serious flaws, but I suppose that Hollywood feels a need to juice up the facts.

---

November 2015: I’m not going to watch this movie. Reviews by knowledgeable people who’ve seen it decry its many inaccuracies. Just one of many negative reviews on IMDB:

Another Weinstein production that is obvious and sad. Pushing the main Hollywood agenda of homosexuality. Sad and practically comical A very demeaning exploitation of the real heroes and suffering in WWII and woe is the lone gay guy losing the battle to the evil empire of the moral world. Save your money. The acting was made trite by the twisted story and the depth was a deep as a sippy cup. Really disappointing but of course will get tons of attention due to the publicity budget from this group. This once again confirms that you can no longer see a big name production without expecting the story to be trivialized and contain the jaded view of the liberal left who is in a ship going down.

 

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© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

“He’s a child.”

Vladimir Putin, overheard in conversation with colleagues at the recent G20 meeting, referred to an image of Barack Obama on a video screen and laughed, “He’s a child . . . he’s a child!”

Indeed.  West Africans use a simplified version of English that includes nouns that succinctly describe personalities.  I’ve already identified Mr. Obama as a confusionist.  Another apt west African tag is small boy.  (In contrast, a true leader is a big man.)

I was puzzled at first by Obama’s refusal to utter the phrase “radical Islam”, his seeming lack of empathy for the victims of Friday’s massacre in Paris by ISIS, and his insistence that the US accept tens or hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees from Syria.   It does though make sense when we listen to his own words:

The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam.

The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer.

We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.

As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.

Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.

. . . etcetera

Putin has it right.  Obama’s reign of error is that of a child — a narcissistic small boy avenging his father.  Such a neurotic character served Shakespeare well, but is unfit to be president.

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

Interval training

When a friend recently asked about my swim workouts,  I told him about interval training.  A swim champ taught me interval training in the 1980s.  It works.  It develops both speed and endurance while allowing you to concentrate on technique.  I use interval training for my swim workouts.  You can use interval training for your favorite sport.

Wikipedia has a simple definition.  About.com has a more complete explanation.

Here’s what I do¹:

I use “fixed” intervals — intervals of a fixed duration.  I swim ten 50-yard laps on one minute thirty second (1:30) intervals.  If I swim hard I can come in on less than 0:55, but then I’m knackered and can’t recover in time for the next interval.  If I swim slowly, and come in on 1:15, I won’t have enough time to rest.  If I swim at about a 1:00 to 1:03 pace (that’s about 70 to 80 percent of full throttle), I can do ten intervals, maybe even 15.  Mind you, I’m gasping for breath by the last few intervals, but that’s a good thing.  Supposedly that’s when your body really benefits.  This ordeal requires about fifteen minutes.

I like using a clock for intervals because it gives me an objective measurement of my performance on each lap.  When a 1:30 interval becomes easy, I’ll decrease it to 1:25, then 1:20, and so forth.  Or, I could increase the length of each lap to 75 or 100 yards (which would require me to increase the number of seconds in each interval).

I round out my workout by using a kickboard for alternating hard and easy kicking laps, and a pull buoy for freestyle pulls that strengthen the upper body and allow me to concentrate on breathing.  I don’t swim these against the clock.  I finish with some easy slow laps.

To get started in your sport — any sport — you can monitor your pulse after each interval.  You might see your pulse climb to 140 or more².  (The younger you are, the higher you can push your pulse.)  Let it drop to 100 or less before beginning the next interval.  This will provide an idea of what sort of fixed interval works for you, for any particular exercise.

(I suppose that variable duration intervals — that is, always resting for thirty seconds regardless of how slowly or fast you swam/ran/whatever — a “fixed rest period”  — would be better than nothing.  I think, though, that fixed duration intervals, when adjusted to suit you, ensure that you always work hard on each lap.)

During the exercise portion of each interval, aim for an effort of about 60 to 80 percent of full throttle.

Once you’ve arrived at an interval that works for you, start with just a few repetitions.  Continue this routine for a few weeks until you can do these pretty easily.  Slowly — very slowly, in small steps — bump the number of repetitions up to ten.  Stick with it for months.  Try this routine at least three or four times a week.  Don’t give up.  You will see results.

---

1. My times are pathetic compared to a competitive college swimmer.  He or she might swim ten 50 yard laps on a fifty or sixty second interval.
2. An easy way to roughly measure your pulse is to feel your heart beats on the inside of your wrist or on your carotid artery on your neck.  Count the number of heart beats in ten seconds.  Multiply by six.  Easier (but less accurate): count number of heart beats in six seconds; multiply by ten.

 

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

Which countries host Internet bad guys?

I’m impressed by the effort to take down Internet bad guys at Project Honey Pot.  Website owners can use Project Honey Pot’s tools to redirect spammers and other misbehaving visitors who appear on a blacklist to a “honey pot” page.  There, continued bad behavior is logged and the naughty visitor receives more demerits that bury him or her deeper in the Project Honey Pot blacklist.

Website owners may choose how many days of good behavior a blacklisted IP address must exhibit before he or she is allowed to use the owner’s website. This allows dynamically assigned IP addresses who behave, to eventually be removed from the blacklist.

Here’s a summary of bad guys who have been trapped by Project Honey Pot, by country (as of 7 November, 2015):

Bad guys, by country, as of 7 Nov, 2015
from Project Honey Pot

If you have a self-hosted WordPress website or blog, you can implement Project Honey Pot by using the http:BL WordPress Plugin plugin for WordPress. It’s easy to install, and works fine with WordPress v 4.3.1, even though it’s guaranteed to work through only v 3.3.2.

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

A new appreciation for Ringo Starr

I’ve referred to (recently retired CEO) Steve Ballmer as Microsoft’s Ringo Starr, because Ballmer hopped aboard the Microsoft express as it was pulling out of the station.  Ringo was hired by the Beatles after they’d apprenticed on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn and were about to conquer the world.  I’ve underestimated Ringo’s talent.

Two short videos on YouTube opened my eyes . . . er, ears. The first:

The second:

I’ve never been especially attuned to anyone’s drumming.  For decades my faves have included Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, and Keith Moon.  I guess that I’d just not listened closely to all those fab four recordings.  My apologies, Richie.

What about Steve? He retired ten years too late.

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

One more reason to hate wireless keyboards

Today, while trying to reinstall Windows XP (I know — it’s obsolete) on an old Dell Vostro 200, the setup failed after I pressed F8 to accept Microsoft’s EULA (End User License Agreement).  I thought that the setup CD was faulty,  but had the same problem with two other setup CDs.

Then I replaced the Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse with wired mouse and wired keyboard.  Installation proceeded without hesitation.

If it were my site,  I’d replace all wireless keyboards and mice with wired replacements.

• Strategy: I plan to install Xubuntu on a second partition on this PC, and allow dual booting to either the default (Xubuntu) or optional (Windows XP) operating system.

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

A tale of two e-commerce platforms

I’ve been developing a few websites with storefronts.  I used Nopcommerce three years ago, and it was impressive in many ways, but its poorly-defined technical support steered me elsewhere.

Two attractive e-commerce offerings with better-defined tech support are Volusion and SquareSpace.  Both offer mobile-responsive templates, and both products include hosting with tech support.

Volusion is more mature, potentially more flexible, and able to handle large volume needs. If you use it out of the box for online sales only, you may not need to write any code. If you need a physical store, you will need at least some HTML, CSS, and Javascript programming skills.  If your pages contain more than just simple paragraphs of text, you’ll need to write mobile-responsive code.  Volusion provides many options for every aspect of a business’s storefront, and its 24/7 telephone tech support is excellent.

The “drag and drop” SquareSpace templates allow a developer to quickly place a rudimentary SquareSpace site into production, but I don’t recommend it for sites of more than about twenty pages or a business with complex product inventory or special payment processing needs.  One could quickly roll-out a good-looking modest SquareSpace e-commerce site without writing one line of code.  Just don’t expect to easily expand this simple site into a large complex site, and your payment processing options are limited.  Unlike Volusion, SquareSpace does not seem to offer 24/7 tech support via telephone — only via email.

One beauty of both Volusion and SquareSpace is that you don’t need to host them.  Just pay a modest monthly hosting fee and let them keep your site on-line.  An attractive alternative to both is BigCommerce, but I have no personal experience with it.

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

Gordon Welchman, Codebreaker

Gordon Welchman was an Englishman who, while working on decoding German messages at Bletchley Park during World War II, invented traffic analysis. His idea was that even if one couldn’t decipher message contents, just tabulating who messaged whom, when, and how frequently, lent knowledge about the enemy.

After the war, he emigrated to America, where he became an American citizen and taught the first computer course at M.I.T. He worked for Remington Rand and eventually for the MITRE Corporation, where he enhanced traffic analysis technology and helped develop C³ (Command, Control, and Communication) systems.

Following the publication of his book The Hut Six Story in 1982, which detailed the work of his Hut Six group at Bletchley Park, his security clearance was revoked. This killed his career in intelligence.

Today we call the information that surrounds a message “metadata”.

Snowboarding NYC, Jan 2016

Well, both snowboarding and skiing. Reminds me of water skiing. The middle east coast states received buckets of snow this weekend and these New Yorkers made the best of it. Yes, that looks like Broadway in Times Square.

A 2000 year old computer

Nova: The 2000 Year-Old Computer – Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism (first aired on American PBS television network in 2013)

“It re-writes the history of technology.”

 

The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project

Jo Marchant explains: In search of lost time

Hillary Clinton-approved email server

I love this parody.  It’s a humorous advertisement for your own mail server:

Do you run a government agency but hate complying with the law?  Then you need DC Matic, the Hillary Clinton-approved email server!

credit: Written and performed by Remy.  Video directed and edited by Meredith Bragg

What’s Hillary hiding?  Classified emails?  Sure.  Evidence of her negligence in Benghazi that led to the murders of US citizens?  Of course.  Security breaches via assistant Huma Abedin’s Muslim Brotherhood connections?  Probably.  No, the ticking time bomb in this server is bribery.  Maybe treason as well.  She’s hiding written evidence of her deals that traded State Department help in exchange for large donations to the Clinton Foundation and large fees for speaking engagements by Bill Clinton.

Putney Swope and Barack Obama

Today’s laughably corrupt Obama regime is life imitating art. Which art? Cinema. Whacked-out cinema. Farce. Namely, 1969’s Putney Swope:

Both Swope and Obama were elected to office by fools who suffer from chronic white guilt.

In 1969, Putney Swope announced:

The changes I’m gonna make will be minimal. I’m not gonna rock the boat. Rockin’ the boat’s a drag. What you do is sink the boat.

In 2008, Barack Obama bragged:

. . . we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.

Mr. Obama is trying to transform America, alright. Transform it from a prosperous capitalist economy governed by a constitutional republic to a bankrupt socialist economy governed by a corrupt tyrannical dictatorship. Barack is following Putney’s credo, “What you do is sink the boat.”

YouTube subtitle humor

Here’s a funny video that’s supposedly an Iranian negotiator recounting the stupidity of Messrs Obama and Kerry:

The sardonic subtitles were added by Madison McQueen. (She apparently is the granddaughter of actor Steve McQueen.)

The best line:

I’ve had tougher negotiations over a falafel sandwich!

I first saw this sort of humor in a video clip taken from a biography of Hitler: United broke Hitler’s guitar, too!.

I like this sort of humorous subtitling. And I like its message: Obama and Kerry are fools.

Wanna see jitterbug? Wanna hear rock & roll?

Check out this video:

The tune, “Slow Down”, is performed on piano and sung by its composer, Larry Williams. He was from New Orleans (of course). The tune, ringing with ninth chords, was released on disc in 1958. I think that the dancers are from a 1950s Hollywood rock & roll movie. Larry also composed Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Bad Boy, and Bony Moronie — classic rock tunes, all. He was born in 1935 and died on this date, January 7, in 1980.

In the mid-1950s, Williams inherited star billing from Little Richard (who’d forsaken rock and roll for religion) at New Orleans’ record label Specialty Records.

While Williams was alive, the Beatles paid their respects by admirably covering Larry’s Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Slow Down, and Bad Boy. I’m amazed that Larry Williams isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Extra credit assignment: Compare and contrast the Beatles’ cover of Slow Down with Larry Williams’ original. This clip includes the fab four wailing in Liverpool’s Cavern Club: (If YouTube has taken down this video clip, you can hear the same recording with groovy rock and roll clips (sorry — requires Flash) from 1950s America and early Beatles. Sorry for the Flash format.)

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

Joni Mitchell, Jaco Pastorius, et al on YouTube

I’m delighted to discover that the video of Joni Mitchell’s classic Shadows and Light concert (1980) can be viewed in full (1h 13m) on YouTube. Supporting players are Jaco Pastorius on bass, Pat Metheny on guitar, Michael Brecker on sax, Don Alias on drums, Lyle Mays on keyboards, and The Persuasions. It’s among my favorite videos of a concert performance.

Jaco Pastorius

Jaco was a Fort Lauderdale kid who began playing in rock bands around town in a variety of clubs: She, The 4 O’Clock CLub, The Village Zoo, The Flying Machine, The Button, Bachelors III, Ocean Mist . . . When I first heard Jaco in the early 1970s, he was playing bass for straight-ahead local rock bands. He graduated to more jazz- and fusion- related music and put his unique fretless Fender bass stamp on Weather Report. I’ve heard bass players tell me that they tried to imitate Jaco’s technique, but gave up trying; they claim that Jaco changed what it meant to play electric bass guitar. Jaco’s friend Pat Metheny, who plays a beautiful lead guitar in this concert, is a University of Miami music school graduate.

Jaco seemed to still have his act together when he played this concert. Wikipedia has a good Jaco biography. He had a rapid rise to the top followed by a quick ride back down again. I had musician friends c 1984-87 who were torn up watching their friend Jaco dismantle his life. This Warner Brothers recording artist and Down Beat Hall of Fame member was sleeping on park benches and shooting baskets in a local public park.

Michael Brecker and Don Alias died a few years ago.

This is a classic performance by master musicians who were at the top of their games. Too bad it couldn’t last forever.

FCC may fine NBC for Miley Cyrus “Bangerz” show

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the FCC is considering disciplining NBC for airing an indecent performance on July 6, Miley Cyrus’ “Bangerz Tour”. I watched it. It was provocative, but artful. Bertolt Brecht would have loved the production: live dancers against rear-projection oversized animation with creative costumes and lighting. I loved it. Some of the images, such as Miley riding a giant “Mr. Wiener”, were sexually suggestive.

Click to stream or download full 862 Megabyte video performance

The concert (recorded in Barcelona) reminded me of Madonna’s shows twenty-five years ago. Both performers have acceptable contralto voices, energetic dance skills, and assemble exciting Brechtian spectacles. I love the costuming and choreopgraphy. Shocking? “Bangerz” pushed the limits on prime-time American TV, I suppose. But that week on television, the atrocious performance by the Brazilian football team was truly shocking.

I’d prefer that the FCC take no action on this. They have enough serious issues on their plate already. Censoring art is, in my opinion, a slippery slope for any government agency . . . and I think that this production can be labeled “art”. Here’s the full show (862MB H264 1h 25m mp4 video file, 720 x 404 pixel) for download or streaming:

Click to stream or download full 862 Megabyte video performance

You’ll need a fast Internet connection to smoothly stream this. You might be better to download the file and then play it locally with a good video player such as VLC.

Is it Miley’s performance or just modern low distortion recording technique that for the first time makes John Lennon’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” lyrics (at 44m 35s) sound so . . . so . . . clear, logical, and complete?

What do you think?

How are modern integrated circuits manufactured?

I’ve worked with integrated circuits (I.C.s) since the 1960s, but haven’t been involved in their manufacture — only their application.

Intel Haswell wafer with a pin for scale
photo: Intel Free Press

Today’s integrated circuit manufacture is a high stakes capital intensive business whose players use trade secrets to maintain their market advantage. I’ve never been inside an I.C. “fab” (factory), so it was a treat to find an hour-long presentation by an industry manufacturing engineer on YouTube. The technologies used at nano dimensions are mind-boggling.

Here’s the excellent presentation, in full:

The speaker mentions that lithographic imaging of the mask is now being done at 193 nanometer (nm). As you can see, we’re well above visible light and on our way to x-rays(!). Here’s the electromagnetic spectrum in that region:

Click for full-size
graphic by: Shigeru23

The presentation is aimed at the layperson and is filled with surprises. For instance, one gigabyte of semiconductor memory can be produced on a flat substrate within the diameter of a human hair. I give it two (gloved) thumbs up.

Technology and Politics

“The price of avoiding politics is being ruled by your inferiors.” — Plato

Henry Ford’s comment on confidence

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

Henry Ford

How to program, lesson 1

Good programming advice:

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop. — Lewis Carroll

Infinity

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. — Albert Einstein

Steve & Jimi on choices

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. — Steve Jobs

I’m the one that’s gonna have to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to. — Jimi Hendrix

Albert Einstein liked simple language.

If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

— Albert Einstein

Both aphorisms have been attributed to Dr. Einstein. I mentioned in Plain English that,

In my experience, the best scientists and engineers explain complex concepts by using simple words in simple sentences. Dolts, on the other hand, make everything sound complicated.

I’m glad that Dr. Einstein agreed. (After watching his video biography, I now think of him as “Uncle Albert”.)

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Those who dare, risk failure.
Those who don’t, ensure it.

Walt Mossberg, WSJ Tech Critic

I just listened to an excellent interview with Walt Mossberg, who since 1991 wrote a weekly computer industry column for the Wall Street Journal. Walt’s now retired. Leo Laporte, an industry podcaster, coaxes some great stories from Mr. Mossberg. 

Walt’s perspective was always that of a user — not a tech freak. Most industry reporters are techies who don’t appreciate that most of us don’t care about the inner workings and secret mechanisms of computers.

Walt speaks a bit about his long relationships with both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. (Walt sat in the passenger seat as Gates, frustrated by traffic, drove his Lexus for miles on the road’s shoulder.)

It’s a pleasant and informative hour-long conversation. 

[Triangulation (MP3)] Triangulation 310: Walt Mossberg

http://podplayer.net/#/?id=39772523 via @PodcastAddict

ABBA reconsidered

In the 1970s and early 1980s, I loved ABBA’s music. I was pleased to discover this recent critique, in both spoken and written form. I didn’t realize that ABBA were considered politically incorrect in their home country.

The world according to ABBA (audio clip)

Intelligent Life magazine‘s Matthew Sweet observes that ABBA’s songs progressed from naiveté through sophistication to melancholy. As Matthew says, “Many of their songs are about accepting the failure of relationships”.

Here’s the companion article, Thank You for the Music, by Matthew Sweet, from a recent issue of Intelligent Life. Both the article and the audio clip stem from his visit to Stockholm’s ABBA Museum.

Truths about swimming

These observations will help you get the most from your swimming. (They’re from Australian podcast Effortless Swimming). Each is a short audio clip of less than ten minutes.  (The first truth is that one or two swim workouts a week won’t cut it.)

  Part one

 

  Part two

 

  Part three

I enjoy listening to all Effortless Swimming podcasts.

Taking Back the English Language

I listened to KERA’s Krys Boyd interview author Steven Pinker about one of my favorite topics: plain English. Mr. Pinker authored The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. He claims that education often interferes with a person’s clarity. He refers to this wordy English dialect as academese, which is similar to corporate hack boilerplate.

I agree. Most academic papers are terribly written, as is the text in many corporate websites.

Both dialects employ the passive voice and zombie nouns: nouns created from verbs. For example, instead of appearing, there is an appearance. Instead of cancelling, there is a cancellation.

Mr. Pinker closes with the “prime directive” of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style:

Omit needless words.

Why not a movie about Ada?

Now that not just one, but two movies (Breaking The Code and The Imitation Game) have been produced about Alan Turing, it’s time we had a movie about Ada Lovelace. She seems to have possessed an unusual combination of precise reasoning and imagination, strong will, and feminine charm. Plus, she was in the middle of a tug o war between her feuding parents, poet Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella.

Why is Ada important? She’s acknowledged to be the first computer programmer (c 1840!). Like Mozart and Turing, her life was tragically cut short at a young age. I propose this biopic today because it’s Ada Lovelace Day!

BBC Great Lives 28-minute audio portrait of Ada Lovelace.

Visit my website: http://russbellew.com
© Russ Bellew · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA · phone 954 873-4695

While verifying quotation authenticity, I found a useful — and delightful — website, quoteinvestigator.com, which tries to chase down the origins of quotations.

W.C, Fields in 1935

The most recent entry quotes an aging W.C. Fields, when discovered reading a Bible, explaining,

I’m looking for loopholes.

.

New and Improved Method

If you’re using Windows 7 or 8.1, and you’re sick of being nagged by Microsoft’s pop-up to upgrade to Windows 10, go to the Ultimate Outsider website and download and install their GWX Control Panel. It’s received rave reviews. Cost: gratis. Here’s the full description.

Microsoft Strikes Again – How to NOT Upgrade to Windows 10

 

Update, April 3, 2016: Steve Gibson, founder of GRC (Gibson Research Corp), has written a great little freeware utility that also blocks upgrades to Windows 10. Steve writes most of his code in assembler, so his utilities are tiny. He calls this newest utility Never10. He’s created a page dedicated to Never10, where you may download it for free. It’s only 81 kilobyes in size and doesn’t require installation on your Windows PC.  You need just run it once to turn off upgrades to Windows 10, and run it again to allow upgrades to Windows 10. Short and sweet, it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Save time when installing application programs on a PC.

Installing two or more application programs on a PC can chew up your time as you wade through web pages, download prompts that don’t always work, and questions and answers. Now ninite.com (http://ninite.com/) does this tedious work for you. I’ve tried it on a few PCs and it’s worked flawlessly. Install everything in one easy step on your brand-new Windows 7 PC!

 

Thanks to The Real Deal podcast for this tip.

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