This evening I rode my bicycle over to the new "New Tung Kee", a restaurant quite similar
to the "Tung Kee Noodle" I mention frequently and described previously.
This just-opened branch is about equidistant from the other one I visit, in
downtown Mountain View; the inside accoutrements and decor's always identical and the menus are very
similar, but the branches with the "New" prefix aren't listed on the other's
business cards, and they additionally carry a few Thai items, like Pud Thai
noodles, which is what I got. Another new establishment in this group of strip
malls (it's near Tower Records) is called "Grateful Head" - I rode over expecting
a smoke shop but instead found a hair styling emporium! After eating I checked the
Super Crown for this new science fiction history/critique by Thomas Disch called The
Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of. Yes they had one so I got it at a slight discount. (Patronize
'em while you can; competition from Borders & Noble is hitting Crown hard, and many of
their stores are closing.) Earlier, on my way home from work as I acquired some produce
at the Safeway, "Free As A Bird" came out of the store's sound system - not the first
time I've heard it there. <1> As
often happens when I hear that song, I got a little emotional.
Finished reading through Kristi's
Japan travelogue - makes me eager
to return. She can get annoying; her travel complaints flirt with the Ugly American
syndrome at times <2>. Nihon may
be a desirable and adequate travel destination for next year - it's fun fantasizing
about going all the way around the world, but in my heart I'm thinking I'm not serious,
the hassle will far out-weigh the pleasure. (Plus it would probably conflict with my
family's planned beach vacation.) But Japan again - this has been under back-burner consideration for some
time, and the exchange rate now is favorably inviting. I'd
probably skip Tokyo this time, flying instead to the new Osaka aerodrome, and
spending the bulk of my journey in and around Kyoto. Oh, so much to see and do!
Y2K Spotlight
Heard a report on the BBC last night which
said two tests have been run recently at power
plants in the UK where their internal date was
set forward, and as the Y2K rollover occurred the
plants shut down. A lot of dire predictions
were condensed into a simulated 1/3/2000 news
broadcast of overlapping reports of
civilization's collapse, which terminated in
a wash of static. Like many news stories on
this topic, some mild, mocking jest was then
made of the situation, followed by discussion from
a panel of experts. One voice declared that panic
will ruin everything <3>,
that the problems can be fixed in time, but
those who can must do so, instead of being frightened
off to their survivalist redoubts. Another quite
sensible sounding voice declared that not every
computer needs fixing, that it was a management
problem to allocate the inadequate technical resources
logically. The example he used was clocks in microwave
ovens, although much larger systems are the real issue.
I couldn't agree more - this is the crisis that
should and will kill off obsolete old mainframe
technology, but we'll all suffer as it's going
down. I think that triage is absolutely necessary,
but the status quo is such that it won't happen - in
fact the reverse will occur - management won't be able
to declare anything non-critical - in fact,
more effort will be put into saving the unnecessary.
I base this upon my own mainframe experience - six
years through the early 80's (space agency tracking
system), and three months last year, on an Air Force
project from which I fled in disgust. Updates to these
systems, done the government way (which does
work) are incredibly labor- and time-intensive. And
as the beast has grown, more and more layers of
bureaucracy have been added to that process,
simultaneous with the attrition of creative,
enlightened people; leaving behind the most sluggish,
dogmatic, and least capable workers. Yet many of
the systems they maintain are critical, and the lack
of organizational enlightenment means no contingency
planning is possible, is even imaginable by
those that control these dinosaurs. We'll be better
off without them, but no alternative is in place.
Hence, stand by for an Atlas Shrugged-style
transfer of these old systems into the dustbin of
history. The systems I'm thinking of: Transportation
logistics and control, Treasury and the IRS, and global
telecommunications & local power generation control.
Admittedly, I've never worked in any of these
environments, so I don't know what I'm talking about.
(If you want more information check the
latest
news stories from Yahoo.)
Odd Hollywood factoid I learned today (courtesy of the
IMDb) - when Buzz went
over the cliff in "Rebel Without A Cause" he didn't die - instead, when
he grew up he became the director of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"!