2013 — 12 May: Sunday
Not only was there a glorious double rainbow as I drove over to Winchester through a sharp shower yesterday evening, but the stars were out all over the sky when I returned at about 01:00 today.1 Isn't Nature grand?
"Untouchable"...
... turned out to be an excellent film. Just as well, as Mike bought it on my recommendation before either of us had seen it. My own copy is now on order. "Robot and Frank" was a bit disappointing, by comparison. Ever onward. Where's that kettle? Time for this morning's Telemann concerto, written in 1721, apparently. Meanwhile — judging by the slamming of multiple car doors on the neighbouring drive — it's time for their weekly worship ritual. Different strokes for different folks.
After my regular Sunday morning flirtation with Cerys Matthews I'm now opting for the 24-bit FLAC version of Peter Gabriel's double album "New Blood". It was a free download as my 'reward' for buying the original two-CD version.
Oops!
No wonder I'm starving. It's well past lunchtime. How about a nice slice of turkey, ham and apricot pie, salad, and microwave chips? Magic!
[Pause]
I've been grabbing a few more ancient2 radio documentaries, and I also intend to try a different approach to taming my recalcitrant Kuro plasma TV screen by hiving it off into an independent Windows desktop courtesy of this clever software. Watch this (I suspect more frustrating than strictly necessary in all probability because of the godawful HDCP protocol on top of the relatively poor support for multiple real monitors under [native] Windows) space.
I hate clever software
What's wrong with simple, relatively dumb, software that more nearly operates all the way down at my simple, relatively dumb, neuronal level? (Rhetorical question, of course.)
Having just spent the last hour exploring the dismayingly large plethora of options, not to mention slogging through all the 'help' and 'FAQ' info, I suspect I shall have to invite Len to come over to sort out how3 to treat the Kuro as completely independent from the pair of Dells.
At least I managed to banish — to whatever level of Windows hell they inhabit — the two further instances of the Taskbar that auto-sprang into existence on Dell #2 and Kuro — not to mention the oddly-truncated (and entirely superfluous to requirements) versions of the Win8 'Start' screen that I could then provoke on these two displays.
What goes around...
... generally comes around, and bites you where the sun don't shine. Over two decades ago an excellent technical journalist named Richard Preston had a series in the New Yorker (under one of their "Annals of Industry" banners) which later transmuted into the 1991 book "American Steel" that Carol managed to find for me in the days before Amazon...
... dealing with the way the Nucor Corporation embarked on a fascinating attempt to re-invigorate the American steel industry and leapfrog Japan. Fast-forward (isn't it odd how we remain steeped in the terminology of the VCR?) 22 years to my current choice of dismal (though well-written) reading:
In which I find:
Recently, GM president Tim Lee spoke enthusiastically to the Wall Street Journal about company efforts to "look at every export potential out of China." His comments led my friend Dan DiMicco, CEO of the steel manufacturer Nucor Corp., to ask me, "Just how long do you think it will be before GM cars made in China will be flooding our shores?" It's not just that Chinese companies are taking our money and our jobs. It's that American companies are making a killing by acting like Chinese companies themselves. They are responding to a Chinese government that is using its lust for profits against the United States, while America's political leadership looks on.
Recall a Capitalist is someone who will happily sell you the rope that you intend to hang him with :-)