The vehemence and vitriol that AI brings out in some people is both surprising to me, and exhausting. I don’t remember a technology topic as divisive or polarizing.
The first code I wrote was BASIC in the mid 1970s. I was self-taught and I was privileged enough to have a father who brought home a portable terminal that could connect to his employer’s mainframe, giving me access to a small collection games that the IT staff there had created. Later he bought an Apple 2 computer, which is when I really got into programming.
As a senior in high school I talked my way into a COBOL programming class at the local community college. One other high school student was also there, the rest of the class were all adults looking to change careers.
Over the course of my career I have worked in COBOL, and Nomad (an early 4GL). I used KnowledgeWare’s ADW, a CASE tool combined with MicroFocus COBOL to generate code from module action diagrams. Later I worked with Forté, an object oriented client-server development platform. I used UML and IBM’s WSAD tooling. I’ve gotten to work with and explore a lot of fascinating technology.
Today I work as a system administrator on Linux servers, both on premises and in the AWS cloud.
I have used different editors, different frameworks, and different debugging tools. Every handful of years there would be a new project management philosophy and so I did waterfall, and SDLC, and Agile, and TDD.
There have always been tools or technologies that caused debate. Some have become set pieces: Vim vs. EMACS or tabs vs. spaces. While there may have at times been impassioned discussions, it always felt like each side could at least see the other side.
AI has brought a new level of zealotry to the table. Those oppose to it are vehemently against it. There’s no middle ground. I understand there are ethical issues, and environmental concerns. I have mixed feelings about where the whole AI craze is going. At the same time I find use, both for agentic coding and chatbots, in my work and personal life.
Having so much negative energy focused on AI, while I am using it, has created a reverse kind of “fear of missing out” or FOMO. Maybe I am blind to the evils of AI and should shun its use. Or maybe, like every other sea change in technology, it still has some rough edges and needs lots of maturing before we will know the true scope of what it brings, both positive and negative.
I am within 2 years of retiring. The technology treadmill has only gotten wider and started moving faster in the four and half decades I’ve been making my living as a programmer. Part of my is glad that I’ll be stepping off the need-to-keep-current-professionally treadmill, and only staying on the what-interests-me treadmill. I will miss the challenge of staying current and of learning new, often complex, new tools and processes. I won’t miss the relentlessness of it all. And I won’t miss at all the divide that AI has created.
At the risk of being a curmudgeon, I need to rant about tipping with regard to carry out food orders.
When we carry out from someplace that has sit down dining, where I would tip the server at the end of the meal, I add a tip to the carry out order. If it is a fast food place where I wouldn’t leave a tip even if I ate there, I don’t leave a tip.
So, Panera Bread, no tip. Olive Garden, tip.
The problem with this is the order of events. When you have a sit down meal in the restaurant, you have the entire experience before the bill comes and before you leave a tip. You can adjust the amount however you want. When you carry out the food the bill, and tip, are collected ahead of time. With the advent of curbside pickup at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, paying and tipping, before even getting the bag of food, meant you were tipping for an unknown quality of service.
Tonight, for example, I tipped for an incorrect order. One meal was correct and the other wasn’t. Thanks to summer road construction it is a 40 minute round trip. So I opted for a credit on my card, and had a frozen meal from the freezer.
My solution is to stop using curbside pickup. And I’ll stop paying in advance. I’ll go into the restaurant to collect the order, and inspect it on the spot. Then I’ll pay and tip. If the online order process forces me to pay ahead of time, I simply won’t tip.
It’d be better if American restaurants paid a decent wage and didn’t force wait staff to hustle for tips to offset the miserly hourly wage. That is a cultural change I doubt will happen anytime soon.
Last night I checked off a concert box I thought I’d never get to see. Rush.
When Neil Peart died in 2020 everyone thought that Rush was done. He was their drummer and he was unparalleled in his ability to play the drums.
Last year Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson announced they were going out on tour again. They had found a touring drummer named Anika Nilles. There was a lot of speculation and anticipation as the opening dates in June approached. The tour, in a word, has been tremendous. The support of, and acceptance of, Anika by the Rush fans has been overwhelmingly positive. She embodies the spirit of play that Neil had, and presents the iconic drum fills with power and grace and enjoyment.
I’ve watched the videos on YouTube but nothing prepares you for actually being in the arena enveloped in the sound. Everyone on stage was having fun. Geddy and Alex had big smiles on their faces, obviously enjoying playing their music live once again. Anika simply owned the drums. To coin phrases from Rush lyrics, “She has assumed control” and she was “grace under pressure”. I cannot imagine anyone else capturing the support and love from the fans as she has done, nor can I imagine anyone out playing her.
I am privileged to have seen the show in Chicago with my oldest friend. I am doubly privileged to get to see them again in Boston about six weeks, again with my oldest friend.
Sometime in the early 1980s I discovered the David Eddings books in the local bookstore. There were 3 on the shelf that appeared to be a trilogy. So I bought them. Imagine my dismay to reach the end of book three only to learn the story would be continued in book 4, and then book 5. I spent a couple of years hoping the author didn’t wander in front of a moving bus.
I have on my shelf two incomplete series that I fear will never be completed. George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice”, and Patrick Rothfuss' “Kingkiller Chronicles”.
I believe that the HBO show “A Game of Thrones” took the wind out of Martin’s sails. It has now been longer since he published that latest book in the series than it took to publish all the previous books.
The “Kingkiller” books are fantastic. Both the first two of the trilogy, and the shorter books that are offshoots of the main story. However, while Martin does insist he is working on the next Song of Fire and Ice book, Rothfuss has gone silent.
Maybe I should have a shelf on my bookcase for really good book series tha unfortunately will never be completed.
I am probably not 100% neurotypical. There are places in my life where my atypical traits show more than others. One such place is book covers.
Specifically book covers for a series. Iain M. Banks wrote 9 “Culture” novels. I have 7 of them published by Orbit books, that all use the same color palette and same overall design. The last two, even though they are from Orbit, not only have a different aesthetic, they are a different size too. I know this is a small thing, but it bothers me.
Makes me wish there was a way to order books with a specific cover/jacket design.
On a similar note, I’m glad I bought “Wool” long before the Apple TV “Silo” television show. My cover is the original, and not one inspired by the show. I’m pleased with the show’s interpretation of the story, but I don’t need marketing/branding on the cover of the book.
The WiFi icon in my menu bar has been gray for sometime now, regardless of signal strength or connection. Some glitch in the Matrix no doubt. The solution I found is to restart the “ControlCenter”, i.e., the right-hand end of the menu bar.
killall ControlCenter
At least for now, my WiFi icon is working as expected.
On July 20th I’ll be in Chicago to see the Rust “50 Something” tour. I never had the opportunity to see them with Neal Peart. All the reviews of the 50 Something tour have been good, so I am excited to see them. In September I’ll be in Boston to see the same tour a second time. I’ve only done that once before; in the 1980s I saw the same Genesis tour twice.
Here, in order of concerts attended is my list of shows seen.
| Artist | Concerts |
|---|---|
| Genesis | 6 |
| Peter Gabriel | 5 |
| Rush | 2 |
| Phil Collins | 1 |
| Yes | 1 |
| Kansas | 1 |
| Foghat | 1 |
| Blue Oyster Cult | 1 |
| Heart | 1 |
| John Melloncamp | 1 |
| - | - |
| Yo-Yo Ma | 3 |
| Itzahk Perlman | 1 |
| Yamoto Japanese Drums | 1 |
There are two broad categories of music instruments: fixed intonation and variable intonation. Fixed intonation instruments are keyboards, fretted string instruments-anything where you cannot play out of tune.
Variable intonation instruments require the player to not only master playing the instrument, but also master producing notes, music, that is in tune.
The violoncello, or cello, falls firmly in the variable intonation camp. Playing something, anything, in tune is astonishingly difficult. Over time you develop muscle memory of where a particular note is. Unfortunately, if you don’t pay attention, you may develop muscle memory that is out of tune.
I struggle with maintaining correct intonation. There are two axis for left hand movement on a cello. Across the fingerboard, from one string to another, and up and down the fingerboard to different regions of the strings. The sideways, or horizontal changes are easier for me to maintain good intonation. “Easier” being a relative term. You have to maintain a good hand shape, and move perpendicular to the strings, not slightly diagonal, and you need to be aware that while playing your strings will drift from being in tune. Meaning the note that should be a perfect 5th above or below its neighboring string, may in fact be out of tune, requiring you to adjust ever so slightly to stay in tune.
Vertical movement, or shifting, adds a new layer of complexity to intonation. You can no longer use your left hand thumb as an anchor, you have to move everything, and land on the correct note. In tune. Oh, and the farther from the nut (top of the fingerboard) you get, and the closer to the bridge, the closer the individual notes are to each other. The finger spacing in 1st position is much wider apart than in 4th or 7th position.
Intonation can be altered merely through more or less pressure on your finger. More pressure compresses the flesh on your finger tip, making it wider, altering the pitch.
I’m not trying to make excuses or complain, I’m acknowledging that intonation is a difficult, fundamental skill on the cello. One that requires daily care and feeding.
This summer I’ve been trying to rebuild some of my weaker foundation skills. Playing fast being the principal goal, and intonation being the other goal. A day or two ago I decided to play a one octave scale. Using my tuner, I didn’t allow myself to go past a note, until I could play it in tune. If I missed, I had to start over, or at least start from the previous note again.
A one octave scale employs two strings (setting aside one string scales). Two strings gives you two in tune notes for free, assuming your cello is in tune. Starting a C major scale on the C-string, after ten minutes I still couldn’t play all eight notes in tune, one after the other.
So now I am starting each practice session with 10 minutes of dead slow scale work, aiming to play all eight in a row, in tune. Once I can do the scale ascending, then I’ll add descending to the mix. My goal is twofold. First I want to retrain my fingers where the correct pitch is. Second I want to learn to hear what the correct pitch sounds like. Not “close enough” and not “I’ll fix that later”. Correct or start over.
I resume lessons in about 5-6 weeks. Call it 35 days. I wonder if in 350 minutes of focused practice I can learn to play a scale in 1st position accurately.
When you’ve got rid
of all the mosques
But the costs
of life still rise
and you’ve built
your fortressed borders
but the NHS still dies
and the Muslims are all gone
and your town’s a wall of white
but corporate vultures
are still pillaging
every facet of our lives
who will you blame then?
What will you have gained?
A badge for barbarism
against a backdrop of decay
Andy Weir’s “The Martian” was the first book I ever read twice in a row. Andy Ihnatko recommended it on Twitter (remember when Twitter was good?) and so I checked it out from the library. I could not put it down. And I reread it immediately after finishing it.
“Artemis”, his second book, is good, but it suffers from having to follow “The Martian”.
“Project Hail Mary” is superb. I don’t think it is better or worse than “The Martian”, it is as good in different ways.
The movie version of “The Martian” is one of the better book-to-movie efforts. Like all movies, a certain amount of compression has to happen to fit the book into roughly two hours of movie. It is one of my favorite movies.
I saw “Project Hail Mary” a couple days ago in the theater. It is as good as everyone says. I think the movie is as good a representation of this book as “The Martian” movie was to its book.
In the words of Rocky, amaze amaze amaze.
Tonight while we were having dinner Sibylle showed me on her phone that you can now buy or rent “Project Hail Mary”. Guess what we watched this evening?
For all the space and technology and science in Andy Weir’s books, the humanness of the stories are the real draw. Go see “Project Hail Mary”, or rent it, or buy it, and you too will say amaze, amaze, amaze.