Rambling -- October 20, 2024

Locator: 48609ARCHIVES.

Fireworks: Netanyahu's security council convenes tonight. NSA / CIA will monitor Domino Pizza traffic at the White House tonight just to make sure they're in the loop.

CNN: "highly classified" US document discussing US monitoring Israeli intentions leaked. The big question: who leaked the document? Answer: whoever had most to gain from that document being leaked. The CNN story has a very, very big "tell." Link here. Hint: the document was not all that highly classified. LOL. But great headline story for CNN.

Biking: I got out of the habit of biking to Starbucks / Barnes and Noble / Apple, Southlake, TX, from home almost every day of the week when things were shut down during Covid. I keep planning to re-start that daily fitness plan but I'm getting older and lazier. And besides, I love watching Cramer / CNBC on the big screen at home. But I guess I can do that on my laptop -- or tablet.

About 15 miles round trip:

At Barnes and Noble now. Stopped at Apple on the way -- stayed about two minutes ... way, way too crowded -- shoulder-to-shoulder. 

But I did get to look at my blog on the M4 13-inch iPad Pro at the Apple store. Absolutely incredible. Fast and incredible resolution. Unfortunately I simply don't need to upgrade yet. But it's on my list for 2025. Depends. I was surprised how busy Apple store was today. Absolutely shoulder-to-shoulder. The laptop I'm using is an M1 MacBook Air.

I know it isn't -- or it shouldn't be -- but the wi-fi at B&N seems faster than my wi-fi at home (Spectrum). 

I had planned to visit the Southlake (Texas) library for the afternoon but it's closed on Sundays. Maybe it's always been closed on Sundays but I vaguely remember going on Sunday afternoon years ago. Covid changes?

Matein backpack. Best backpack I've ever had for short, local biking trips. It's hard to believe I lived out of a similar -- though slightly bigger backpack -- for a full summer hitchhiking across the US and spending the summer in Europe. Back in 1973. But I digress. I forget what i paid for my Matein backpack. Curious. Link. OMG. On Amazon. Again, 20% off. Prices falling faster than many expected.

Deflation / disinflation: see previous paragraph.

Sports: no Dallas game today but I'm missing NASCAR. Round of 8, I believe, but I've long lost much interest in NASCAR. Watch it occasionally.

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TECH

Point (this didn't age well, see Beth below, posted April, earlier this year, 2024:

Counter point (link, Beth):e

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Jargon -- Used Interchangeable By Many

The acronyms / the jargon:

• AI: Artificial intelligence.
• AI: Apple Intelligence.
• HPC: high-performance computing.
• LDC: large data centers.
• HS: hyperscale; hyperscalers.
• HSC: hyper-scale computing.
• NVDA: IYKYK
  

Remember those "denial-of-service attacks? When there were coordinated attacks to bring down a particular website, or when a website simply couldn't keep up with legitimate demand (the "Taylor-Swift phenomenon")? We shouldn't be seeing those events any more. But systems still crash (the "crowdstrike phenomenon") which has/had nothing to do with the size of the crowd). 

Speaking of which: name three "things" used for printing money. Answer below.

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Daily Quiz

Name three "thinks" used for printing money.

Answer:

• US Treasury printing presses.
• Nvidia.
• ASML.