August 2011
Monthly Archive
Mon 15 Aug 2011
What’s with the prevailing attitude of this younger generation?
At the risk a a broad-brush stereotype why is the merging generation of young adults sitting around waiting for their ships to come in? It’s a tough job market. I have several peers, advanced in decades, who have lost their jobs for various reasons over the last 10 years. For the most part they have jumped in and taken whatever they could find – some even working 2 jobs at fast food and mowing lawns to reduce the impact of the reduction in income. These are men who have “paid their dues” jumping in and moving back to ground zero in the job market. They do what it takes. Most have, after a few weeks, months or in some cases years, finally found the job they were hoping for in the first place.
Then there’s this emerging generation of adults. They refuse to look at “menial” jobs. They know the one they are looking for is just around the corner. Give me a break. A year later and still not working? Why is it you’re so much better than my peers who break their backs and do what it takes? Do you deserve better?
Or have you been trained to “not get stuck in my dead-end job” and the unintended consequence of my generations training is to create and attitude of entitlement? I have observed my generation as a whole and we are pretty spoiled. We pretty much grew up thinking we should have the cars, houses, furniture of our preceding generation without the years of work it took them to get to that point. We saw credit at the answer to our dilemma and so many of us dug ourselves in pretty deeply. Why didn’t we have to pay our dues?
Guess the wheels keep turning and we get what we perpetrate. Thank goodness there are exceptions to the rule. These will be our leaders while the majority stay on their little wheel striving for the futile.
Fri 12 Aug 2011
Posted @ 9:03 am
{Click to post comment} Category:
Rants
THE PC IS OFFICIALLY 30 YEARS OLD TODAY
1981: The IBM 5150 Is Born
IBM launched the 5150 PC on Aug. 12, 1981.
It wasn’t much by today’s standards, or even yesterday’s. The 5150 featured a 4.77 MHz 8-to-16 bit Intel 8088 processor. It was less powerful than other processors available from Intel and Motorola, but those were thought to be “too powerful” for a PC. IBM also gave the 5150 a full 64 kilobytes of RAM — expandable to whopping 256 kB — one or two floppy drives (your choice) and a monochromatic display.
The 5150 was developed in less than a year by a team of 12 led by Don Estridge. The project was given the codename “Project Chess” — which we mention only because it sounds so cool — and built using off-the-shelf components.
Depending on how you configured your 5150, you’d shell out anywhere from $1,565 to $6,000 for one. That comes to $4,000 to $15,000 in today’s dollars. The success of the 5150 made the IBM PC the industry standard, and before long a whole bunch of “IBM compatibles” and clones jumped into the burgeoning PC market.
Wired Magazine – August 12, 2011
Sounds great but a bit misleading. IBM was a little late to the forray… so I did a little homework.
Was it the IBM PC?
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Bzzzt! The IBM PC was introduced in 1981. It was perhaps the first to wear the “PC” label, but that was IBM’s only innovation. They sure sold a bunch of them, though.
Was it the Apple ][?
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No, the 1977 Apple ][ was the first highly successful mass-produced personal computer, but not the first personal computer. Nor was the 1976 Apple 1, which can be considered an Apple ][ prototype since only 200 or so were made.
The Apple 1 signaled the end of toggle switches and blinken lights, and launched the interactive graphical microcomputer as a new class of machine.
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There were many other devices even before the Apple, TRS-80 and others entered the market. As I recall IBM only reluctantly decided that the market might have some potential.
So to be true, yes the “PC” is 30 years old BUT the Personal Computer itself pre-dates the PC by many, many years. As long as we’re all on the same page.
Wed 10 Aug 2011
Okay, here’s little personal bit in my journey.
Yesterday morning I felt as if I were on the edge. The edge meaning feeling completely overwhelmed with life and all it’s responsibilities, and “my wanna-do’s”. Basically picture a mountain growing up in front of you. Getting taller by the minute. Pretty soon the mountain is touching the clouds and the top is out of sight. Now, the path to the top of the mountain is not a cakewalk. As you ascend the mountain it gets steeper, narrower, more harrowing as it clings to the side of sheer drop-offs. To rest means to lean against a scrawny tree because with this level of steepness sitting is not an option. There is nothing to keep one from sliding down and getting up would be hazardous if one lost their balance.
That’s my word picture. This leads to a feeling of panic. Heart beating ever faster, hands shaking. It’s as if the body is prepared for a snake to jump out from behind every rock and prepared to jump back in the nick of time. Not a pleasant place to be and the body cannot sustain such high adrenalin for very long. I’ve been there before. I’ve been on the edge for a while but just under that threshold.
Back to yesterday. Finally, here it is. That e-mail comes in – the one that says here’s one more task for you. One more simple thing. The one that says don’t worry about me – I’m just a little straw. Instantly I recognize it for what it is. THE straw.
So what does one do when there are more things to do in a day, week, month and foreseeable future than you can do? Stop. If there’s no more time to do one more thing it’s time to take a break and spend with my God.
So… I applied all that I’d been teaching and believe and when things are too busy and there’s no time – it’s time for a God break.
I stepped out of the office, got my earbuds and took at slow 2½ mi walk to worship music. My “worship walk.” That’s what I needed when the day couldn’t hold “one more thing”. I talked with God, the music kept me on task when my mind would wander back to try to fix all my cares. By the end of the walk I felt much more relaxed and that relaxation continued throughout the day. Actually as the day progressed I found I was more relaxed, more at peace. That 1 hour walk in the middle of a day that was terribly busy actually found my day more at peace and relaxed. I got more done than I thought I could get done AND with 1 hour less to do it in.
Important lesson for me. I don’t need God a day at a time. I really need to seek His resources a task at a time.
Mon 1 Aug 2011
Here’s a quiz… can you guess who?
“Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.”
“Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose.”
“The most terrifying words In the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
“The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
“Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.”
“”I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.”
“The taxpayer: That’s someone who works For the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.”
“Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
“The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.”
“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.”
“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it”
“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.”
“No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”
“If we ever forget that we’re one nation under GOD, then we will be a nation gone under.”
-Ronald Reagan
