Bad engineering / Beware of Mao, part 2 / Beware of Mao / A plan, a note / High price…

Sometimes I seem to see a difficulty, but then again I don't see it. Gottlob Frege

Bad engineering

It really seems, that most so called software engineers, who are designing web-services for rental car agencies, Verizon, etc are totally incompetent. The response times of services are outrageous, the process flow counter-intuitive and error handling lousy at best. I think the main reason is that anyone who can pronounce Java and spell HTML can declare himself or herself software engineer. I just hope they will outsource all this work to India, where it is easy to find decent and professional and educated software engineers. This current bunch sucks big time.

Beware of Mao, part 2

I may have jumped the gun. The whole thing may well be a hoax. Let's follow it and see whether I am a fool. As if there would be some doubts about that...

Beware of Mao

According to an article, just borrowing Mao's little red book may earn you a visit by the federal agents, and you will not even get the book. I am sure using federal agents in this way is making everyone much safer. And sacrificing some personal freedoms (like borrowing books without the FBI getting to know it) is a small price to pay for the fact that the terrorists are not going to find out what Mao's said in 1950s or so. Of course, the terrorist are stupid enough not to look here or elsewhere in the net. Oh, who are those men in sunglasses in outside MIT's Hayden library?

A plan, a note

Since I am short of time and my main goal in life is to learn as much as possible, I have to cut down drinking. Not only is drinking quite time consuming, it may also have negative effects on brain. Feynman quit drinking for similar reasons - maybe I should follow his example, but not quite; just not bingeing would be fine and enough for me.

High price of all those clothes

Madeleine Bunting has written an interesting article on how clothing has become almost disposable. By 2002 USA was importing 48 pieces of clothing per person per year, mostly from China. According to Bunting this and other rivers of clothing from China and India to USA and other industrialized countries and further to African second-hand markets has some social and environmental negative side-effects: high level of herbicide use, destroying industries, use of maybe too-cheap (slave like) labor, etc. I think just buying the clothes one really needs and not following any fashion trends, which would require wardrobe renewal up 8 times a year, is a good and civilized way to do. Maybe I should start also fixing broken clothes more often.

A plan

Since the odds are that I may not live past 50, I will try to accomplish more than most do before 80 by 50. Furthermore, I do not count hierarchical advancement in the corporate ladder as accomplishment. I only count amassing more knowledge and understanding, and some academic credentials. That's the plan! The only reason to work is to get money for spending on academic joys. Like books and tuition. And as pointed out by an anonymous reader, traveling and other similar experiences surely count as accomplishments. But traveling requires being somewhat healthy, thus I cannot wait until I retire.

Change of plans

We did not get the free flight (using the frequent flyer miles) to California. And all cheap flights have been sold out as well. Thus, change of plans in necessary. The next idea was to rent a car in New York and drive it to Miami and eat some key lime pie over there. But it takes a bit too much stubborn driving spirit to accomplish that. Not for me, actually. So, scaling back and smaller: first NY, then meeting with the president at Washington DC, and seeing some space ships and memorials of dead heros and later traveling somewhere closer to Boston, in MA. Or just walking down to Tremont Street could be brave enough for us.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs December 2005".