South America (Day 10, Part 2)

Uncategorized 5 Minutes

May 24

If the automobile had followed the same development as the computer, a Rolls Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year killing everyone inside. ~ Robert Cringely

With few ambitions, most people allowed efficient machines to perform everyday tasks for them. Gradually, humans ceased to think, or dream… or truly live. ~ Brian Herbert

December 29

There is unexpected beauty hidden everywhere in this world — one just has to be open to seeing it. Remember that the next time you sneeze on your monitor. ~ Nathan Walton

[Continuing our tour of Palacio Sara Braun in Punta Arenas . . . ]

I can only imagine the deprivation and loneliness you will feel from a lack of human companionship when your 1000 free AOL hours run out. ~ Nate B.

[The previously aforementioned Supervisor as an art photographer . . . ]

OK, so the computer has understood, but what about me? ~ Eugene Wigner, about numerical simulations

[The aforementioned Sara Braun . . . ]

It took me many years but I have gained access to the root account and have removed the user God. ~ Saros (Jeff Batten)

[What’s more fun (and dangerous) than a spiral staircase . . . ]

Crap… Someone knocked over my recycle bin… There’s icons all over my desktop... ~ billiam

[What, another selfie?]

I don’t care if you ARE getting a PhD in it ! Get away from that damn computer and go find a woman! ~ Paul Tyma’s dad

[Muñoz Gamero, also known as Plaza de Armas, a public space located in Punta Arenas. The square was declared a Typical Zone in 1991 by the National Monuments Council. In the center there is a bronze sculpture that was inaugurated in 1920 and represents the navigator Hernando de Magellan (Wikipedia). Photo taken from Palacio de Armas . . . ]

You know you’re a geek when… You try to shoo a fly away from the monitor with your cursor. That just happened to me. It was scary. ~ Juuso Heimonen

[Walking out and around Palacio Sara Braun, across the street from Plaza de Armas . . . ]

Procter & Gamble, for example, uses an SGI system to study the aerodynamics of Pringle’s potato chips! ~ From a ZDnet article

[The Sara Braun restaurant in the glass enclosure in the above photo . . . ]

Software suppliers are trying to make their software packages more user-friendly… Their best approach, so far, has been to take all the old brochures, and stamp the words, ‘user-friendly’ on the cover. ~ Bill Gates

[Magallanes Intendance building . . . ]

The ultimate metric that I would like to propose for user friendliness is quite simple: if this system was a person, how long would it take before you punched it in the nose? ~ Tom Carey

[Some really big (and old?) trees in the plaza . . . ]

The Internet? Is that thing still around? ~ Homer Simpson

 [Catedral Sagrado Corazon in the background . . . ]

I get mail, therefore I am. ~ Scott Adams

[Ruthie approaches Ferdinand Magellan in the center of the plaza . . . ]

The Internet is the end of civilizations, cultures, interests and ethics. ~ Official Iraqi government statement

[And here he is in all this glory . . . ]

Any idiot can put up a website. ~ Patricia Briggs

Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is nothing like Shakespeare.  ~ Blair Houghton

Every operating system out there is about equal… We all suck. ~ Brian Valentine, Microsoft senior vice president, the state of the art in OS security, 2003

[Magellan as seen through one of the big (old?) trees . . . ]

I wonder what Jesus would do if He had to reload Windows 95 for the eighth time today? ~ Mirabour Gilbride

Microsoft is not the answer. Microsoft is the question. NO is the answer. ~ Erik Naggum

[Foot fetish?]

Man is a slow, sloppy, and brilliant thinker; computers are fast, accurate, and stupid. ~ John Pfeiffer

Microsoft went into orbit because it had a booster rocket attached to it called IBM. ~ Bill Gates

[The Super supplies perspective . . . ]

Brilliance is typically the act of an individual, but incredible stupidity can usually be traced to an organization. ~ Jon Bentley

Windows95: It’s like upgrading from Reagan to Bush. ~ Andy G. Ihnatko

[When a new perspective is needed, old so-and-so leaps into the fray . . . ]

They say if you play a Microsoft CD backwards, you hear satanic messages. That’s nothing, ’cause if you play it forwards, it installs Windows. ~ Alluvium

[From a city overlook, Le Yegua Loca (Crazy Mare), boutique hotel and restaurant, where we would dine . . . ]

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. ~ Ray Bradbury

[From here we could see our boat . . . ]

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy. ~ Joseph Campbell

Don’t explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly. ~ Roger Ebert

No one messes around with a nerd’s computer and escapes unscathed. ~ E.A. Bucchianeri

[The Super beginning our switchback stairway to the restaurant . . . ]

now it’s computers and more computers, and soon everybody will have one, 3-year-olds will have computers, and everybody will know everything about everybody else long before they meet them. nobody will want to meet anybody else ever again and everybody will be a recluse
like I am now. ~ Charles Bukowski

[Unable to find in the vast bowels of the internet?]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary numerals, and those who don’t. ~ Ian Stewart

[“It’s this way!”]

Now, 75 years [after “To Kill a Mockingbird”], in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. ~ Harper Lee

[The crazy mare greets entrance to the restaurant . . . ]

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila. ~ Mitch Ratcliffe

[A lovely setting, darned if I can remember the bill of fare . . . ]

I am convinced that grandkids are inherently evil people who tell their grandparents to “just go to the library and open up an e-mail account – it’s free and so simple.” ~ Scott Douglas

[Our escape from the Falklands . . . ]

I really didn’t foresee the Internet. But then, neither did the computer industry. Not that that tells us very much of course–the computer industry didn’t even foresee that the century was going to end. ~ Douglas Adams

Asked about the fact that Apple’s iTunes software for Windows computers was extremely popular, Jobs joked, ‘It’s like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.’ ~ Walter Isaacson

[And now on the “road” again . . . ]

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity ~ Albert Einstein

I am not the only person who uses his computer mainly for the purpose of diddling with his computer. ~ Dave Barry

The best computer is a man, and it’s the only one that can be mass-produced by unskilled labor. ~ Wernher Von Braun

Up Next: Day 11 . . .

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Published by tomobert63

The Journey Begins Thanks for joining me! This is the follow-up to the original, “alexandriacardinals.wordpress.com,” which overwhelmed the system’s ability to handle it any more. Thus, this is “Part 2.” As the original was initially described: 10-26-07-4 “It all began in a 5,000 watt radio station in Fresno, California” . . . wait a minute, that was Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show! Let’s see . . . oh yeah, it all began in 2003 when retirees, i.e., old people, in Alexandria, Minnesota, who had no desire to become snow birds, went looking for mid-winter entertainment here in the frozen tundra of West Central Minnesota. We discovered girls’ high school hockey, fell in love immediately, and it remains our favorite spectator sport to this day. Initially, and for several years, reports on these games were e-mailed to those who were actually snowbirds but wanted to keep abreast of things “back home.” It was ultimately decided a blog would be more efficient, and it evolved into a personal diary of many things that attracts tens of readers on occasion. It remains a source of personal mental therapy and has yet to elicit any lawsuits. ~ The Editor, May 9, 2014 p.s. The photo border around the blog is the Cardinal girls’ hockey team after just beating Breck for the state championship in 2008. It’s of the all-tournament team. The visible Breck player on the left is Milica McMillen, then an 8th-grader – she is now an All-American for the Gophers. The Roseau player in the stocking cap I believe is Mary Loken, who went on to play for UND; and the Cardinal player on the right, No. 3, is Abby Williams, the player we blame most for making us girls’ hockey fans who went on to play for Bemidji State. *********************************************************************************** Photos contained herein are available for personal use. All you have to do is double click on any of the photos and they will become full screen size. You can then save them into your personal “My Pictures” file. They make lovely parting or hostess gifts, or holiday gifts for such as Uncle Ernie who wants to see how his grand niece is doing on the hockey team. If any are sold for personal profit, however, to, for example, the Audubon Society, National Geographic, Sven’s Home Workshop Monthly, Curling By The Numbers, or the World Wrestling Federation, I only request that you make a donation to the charitable organization of your choice. You have two hours and fifteen minutes. Pencils ready? Begin! **********************************************************************************

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