Sunday, May 30, 2010

Thursday, May 20, 2010

What should we REALLY be afraid of ?

This is part of the “Back Story” in the Newsweek Magazine of 24 & 31 May 2010:

WHAT SHOULD YOU REALLY BE AFRAID OF?

Using the most recent U.S. data available, (here is) a list of unsettling threats and their far riskier counterparts.

Murders (2008) - 14,180
Suicides (2006) - 33,289

Children abducted by strangers (1999) - 115
Children who drown in pools (2006) - 288

Burglaries (2007 - 2.2 million
Identity thefts (2005) - 8.3 million

Shark attacks (2009) - 28
Dog bites (annual average) - 4.5 million

Americans killed by terrorist attacks around the world (2008) - 33
Americans who die from the seasonal flu (annual average) - 36,171

Deaths by allergic reaction to peanuts (annual average) - 50-100
Deaths by unintentional poisoning (2006) - 27,531

Women who die from breast cancer (2009) - 40,170
Women who die from cardiovascular disease (2006) - 432,709

Fatal airline accidents (2005) - 321
Fatal car crashes (2008) - 34,017

Americans audited by the IRS (2009) - 1.4 million
U.S. Deaths (2007) - 2.4 million

Saturday, May 01, 2010

master and commander of the far side of the world

Movie we watched tonight. Love the history.

Flash on iPhone

There are two parts to this emerging discussion. One focuses on the format, the deliverer.

The other is content delivered.

The first discussion is like not wanting to eat the food on your plate because you dislike the plate it is on, while the second might be more important if you are hungry.

One trove of Flash content is the library of interactive safety training materials maintained by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). Are people really arguing that this information should just disappear? Or that people who use iPad are somehow too advanced to need it? !???

How about this one? http://ecodazoo.com It's Flash.

It's the content that matters. We don't know what we're missing when chapters and presentations and summaries are replaced with a cryptic [?] icon that just doesn't work.

People focusing on the technology will be groaning when they see this, but I am watching for the day that all the human knowledge stored in "obsolete" code (Commodore 64, TRS-80, Amiga, HyperCard, Apple IIe, now Flash) is given new life because somebody puts the operating systems in the "cloud." After all, the entire TRS-80 operating system was only 16K, so to attach the operating system to the program code is miniscule compared to attaching a picture to our email messages.

A profession for the future. Code archaeology.

And, yes, in my experience, inability to access Flash and java on iPhone is a BIG lacuna. (Not to be confused with the big kahuna.)