Consumer Technology Shifts

Over the years it has been exciting to buy the new TV with the latest technology. Remember when color came to TV?  In was in the ‘60’s. By the ‘70’s it was much more prevalent. By the ‘80’s everyone had color TV in their homes. By 2000 there was a color TV in nearly every room of the home.


Computers were those funny little keyboards with program cartridges you slid in. Hooked to a small portable TV, you had a computer terminal complete with monitor! At first it was games for the kids. Pac Man and such. Later we adventurously attempted to write programs that would inventory our record or cassette collection.  


Later still the Personal Computer came into being – the PC. We wrote some small programs to serve personal use, but mainly we bought programs that we could readily use. Database managers for one; word documents for another; and still more games.


As PC’s entered our office spaces we became more used to their presence and utility. Eventually personal computing and work applications merged. We were processing all sorts of things, still mostly documents, files and replacement of electric typewriters.


When the Internet came into being we were connected to the world, or so they said. Yes, that was true; world connectivity became a reality and by 2019 we are loaded with potential connections everywhere to the point of exhaustion.


Parallel to these developments, music collections morphed from LP records, to 8-tracks, cassettes and CDs. Now we are shifting to records again, but on-line music files and selection have made most sound technology obsolete. Amplifiers, speakers, CD players, turntables, TV connections, surround sound and all the rest. A dizzying array of products and services to please the ear and the mind.


These same technologies became wedded to our automobiles. CDs, sophisticated stereo systems, GPS navigation, all were heaped into our cars using countless tiny computers hidden behind the dashboard. Now our cars talk to us, we converse with them, and the brakes, steering, HVAC and sound systems coordinate with one another for a rich driving experience. Or one of horrendous distraction and crashes!


And then there is Wi-Fi. Cordless connections between devices. Convenience magnified by a factor of 10. And voice activation as well.


And the complexity. What we thought was mind-bogglingly complex, became even more so.


Now add age of the user. We used to crawl along the floor, near baseboards and dusty corners to connect one device with another. Plug-ins for this channel and the other, stereo and video inputs, and outputs, and all the rest. Speaker not working? Check the cable connections. Switch plug-ins.

Consider the permutations available, and try each one.


Finally, we crawled back a few feet, tried the switch again, and…nothing. Maybe some static; but not the music or the TV image wanted. Back to the baseboard and dusty back of equipment. Try more plug-in alternatives. Read the tiny script of what is what and where is where. Follow an outline of the wiring diagram in your head. Think through the circuitry required. Check that plug-ins mirror this diagram. Have I missed anything? Ah, yes. Now try it.


Back to the front of the equipment array and switches. Flick the power switch on. Suddenly music pours forth, and all from the correct speakers. The channels are aligned and so is our surround sound. So are my TVs, computers, wireless headphones and what not. The only thing left to do is figure out which remote control controls which device, then keep them separate. And yet conveniently placed for rapid access.


We don’t get on the floor anymore except by accident. We cannot get up from the floor very easily. We must huff and puff and pull and push to get upright again. This makes arranging wires and plug-ins impossible today.


Later this afternoon a member of the Geek Squad will visit for the first time. We will tell him of our audio needs and wants. We have the equipment. It just isn’t set up correctly anymore. Too many add-ons of newer equipment over the years. Too many new technologies vying for dominance among the older ones. Connectivity, intermingling and appropriate integration is needed. Can this young man make this happen?  [Note I am assuming a young man!]


If he can, we will have our stereo system back. And our CD player. And our surround sound. Wow!


I’ll let you know how this works out. Meanwhile, we will have fun watching him bend, stoop and crawl where we no longer can go.


August 9, 2019

PS: It worked out just dandy. In less than an hour he had everything set up right, even had time to teach us how to use it all. Tomorrow will be fun getting back to some great Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and all the rest of my old friends.

Insanity II

We covered the dumb handling of the gun issue yesterday. Now the economy.


You don’t cut interest rates as the economy is doing well and threatening inflation. Lowering interest rates usually is the spur for higher prices, inflation and a whole lot of grief. When the economy is doing well, you keep interest rates stable. If the economy is running toward a bubble, you raise interest rates to dampen economic activity. That’s the way this works. Has since the Federal Reserve was created.


Expecting it to work differently to encourage different results, is another definition of insanity.


Another form of insanity is using words that mean one thing and trying to make them mean something entirely different. Like truth and fact. Asserting something not in evidence by provable fact, is not truth. It is empty assertion. Saying it over and over again does not make it any less false.  This is the tactic of the propagandist.


Saying we have an invasion of our southern borders accompanied by a surge in criminal activity, simply is not supported in fact. Saying otherwise repeatedly doesn’t make it true. It is still false.

Saying Mexican and South American immigrants are eating up free services paid by American taxpayers doesn’t make it true. The facts are the exact opposite. Studies show Mexican immigrants pay taxes of $70 billion annually into the American economy. Yet as noncitizens, they are not eligible for social security, Medicare or Medicaid. They may receive free food handouts from charities, but they don’t get benefits from government paid programs. Saying otherwise is still not provable with facts.


Claiming global warming is a hoax does not make it true. Facts have established global warming to be present, steadily so on an upward scale of temperatures. The cause is a flood of CO2 gases. From burning fossil fuels, from forest fires, brush fires and chemical imbalances all caused by mankind’s wanton use of such. These factors have been studied for many decades and the cause/effect relationship well-established.


Violence arises from many causes: fear, emotion, anger, revenge, resentment, mistrust, greed, hate, etc. There are means to dampen these causes; and there are means to heighten them, too. Speeches, rhetoric, blame, and language of disrespect towards others who are ‘different’ from us. Saying otherwise doesn’t make it so. Rhetoric has effects; we need to understand that and dampen the harsh words. And yes, 'white supremacy' is a palpable canard that is fear based and mongered by propagandists. It is not a hoax. It is real and dangerous.


Civility helps people get along. Politeness matters. It keeps heads cooler. Hot reactions are fewer.

The debate over immigration and melting pot dynamics is a rhetorical war, not a debate. We must see ourselves as what we are – a blend of many cultures, bloods, ethnicities, and skin color. We remain humankind, the common call of our identity. Not better than, but different. Different, not lesser.


Insanity builds from poor understanding. This leads to conclusions that make no sense. Accepting false conclusions without proving them, is another definition of insanity.


Which are we? Sane or insane?


August 8, 2019

Insanity

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.


At some point, sane people figure out what to do that changes outcomes. That means we are learning how to cope with our world and make a difference. Allowing gun ownership to expand beyond one gun per person living in our country (330 million guns versus 325 million population) and then living with mass shootings where someone brandishes a gun in public, then uses it to kill anybody and everybody around him. Killing the shooter or sending him to prison for the rest of his life does not solve the problem.


Grabbing all the guns in the nation will not solve the problem either.


However, making gun laws that are so weak they are generally uneforceable, is nothing but cover for the gun industry and its asinine lobbyists and gun owners. No one is taking responsibility for the outcomes decried by everyone.


So, at least we can agree on one thing: we want and need a reduction in gun violence. That is the objective. Focus on that.


Now for the solution. We don’t truly know enough to solve the problem because it has become so overwhelming an issue. What do we do about that? We study the issue, research it, and come up with commonsense approaches to solving the problem.


Trouble is, the gun lobby asked and received support from Congress not to study the issue; no research; no government funding for the research. It is a banned subject. In spite of the need for it, a wall of denial has been built. It appears to be more effective than any wall we shouldn’t build on our southern border.


My position on gun violence has been to request gun owners to come up with a solution. Allow them to participate in finding the solution. Include them in the process so they believe in what is getting done.


If they and their lobbyists shrug off this responsibility, the next solution is simple: confiscate guns by category of violence.  AK47’s? Melt them down if they are not owned by the military or police department. Handguns? Same solution.


Now, I don’t want this to happen. Responsible people owning guns is OK. For sport or hobby, I don’t care. For protection I do care. To maintain a well regulated militia I think is OK, too; however, be reminded every state has its own National Guard Units, and we have well equipped police and sheriff departments across the land; and lastly, we have the US Military.


Doing anything less and expecting the desired result is insanity.


Another instance of insanity is imposing tariffs on friend and foe nations around the globe. Expecting them to wage no retaliation is foolishness.


Fair trade, fair pricing, fair commercial operations can only be expected as the result of sincere and meaningful discussions and negotiations. Shooting the enemy first, then asking for his help is not only unreasonable, it is too late. The victim is dead.


So will our nation and its economy be dead.


Congress, do your job. Courts, do your job. The Constitution demands it. And We The People expect nothing less.

We already know the chief executive is out of control and part of the problem.


August 7, 2019

Freedom from Fear

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is what our form of government guarantees we the people.


Everything the government does – whether in the nation’s name or by each of its several states – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is a right we each have. It's inalienable.


Anything that restricts rights to those ends, is subject to control, regulation or elimination. Anything.

I am here to state that unfettered gun ownership is a clear and present danger to each of us. Therefore, some form of control or regulation is needed to restrict gun ownership to we the people. Acting in our name are law enforcement agencies and military institutions. Those should be exempt from elimination of arms. The we the people, however, are not exempt. If we do not govern gun use in our nation, then each gun is subject to removal from harming people.


That’s the simplicity of the law. The Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms to support a well-regulated militia. Where police or militia institutions are absent, we each have the right to bear arms. To what end? Well, to protect ourselves and our property from others who would take it from us. And to protect ourselves and families and communities from groups or nations bent on taking our freedoms from us. That’s it.


There is no guarantee to own guns for hobbies or sports. To preserve and protect, yes; to have fun with, no.


Middle ground is broadly available to find reasonable regulatory action with respect to guns. We don’t have to outlaw private ownership of guns simply because we have a social problem in which some people – a small minority – cannot control their actions and use guns to kill and injure others.


Having said that, we have a problem with gun violence.  If we are to continue to experience gun violence at unacceptable levels, then those who own guns have to figure out a method of reducing gun violence. If they don’t, we take the guns away.


Pretty simple. I don’t want your guns. I don’t think you want to shoot me. But I don’t own a gun and don’t contribute to the violence. Your having a gun creates the tension that leads to gun violence. Figure out how to keep others from running amok with guns, and you can keep your guns. Otherwise, no.


This is a root to freedom from fear. And that, friends, is also guaranteed by the Constitution.


August 6, 2019

Witness

An experience that sheds meaning on my life is a good thing. Understanding the fullness of the meaning is another good thing, related to the first experience. With the expanded understanding, other things in life become more known and understood. That’s what I mean by witness. Seeing, hearing, experiencing.


Now, in religious life, we hear of people ‘bearing witness.’ Usually that refers to a church person standing up in their congregation and telling others that he or she experienced an event or happening that brought him/her closer to God. Perhaps it was feeling or sensing Christ in some way that made it very real. Perhaps they wished to describe a ‘calling’ to action that came from a religious conviction.


I suppose a part of my term of ‘witness’ derives from the previous paragraph. However, I feel compelled to expand that meaning. For example, Rocky’s recent pre-surgery circumstances questioned whether he would survive the surgery. We feared surgeons would encounter a situation once they opened him up that was hopeless. They warned us of this happening. If it did happen, they would make him comfortable but withdraw from further surgical intervention. His prognosis would likely have been one to two months to live.


That didn’t happen. The surgery was not only successful, but the circumstances were better than they had hoped and 3 of the 8 surgeries planned that day were avoided. That sped up recovery and quality of medical condition. Rocky survived the surgery and has an excellent prognosis. A lot of things have to happen, but long-term he has multiple years of future life ahead of him.


We went into surgery with more than 100 people saying they would pray for him. The results were very good. I infer from that – no, I learned from that – prayer works. Good things can happen as the result of prayer. I believe that. I don’t think this is hocus pocus. I accept the power of prayer.


Now, that does not mean I believe that we can pray for wonderful things and success in all things. In fact, I now realize that life contains many simple wonders that we often do not recognize. Sometimes, serious things survived provide appreciation for the little things in life.


I have come to love early morning: early light, threads of sunshine beginning to light the landscape, fresh smell of humid air of the day, awakening birdsong gladdening our surrounds, even the gladdening. That alone is a little thing that is not little.


The little things are big in and of themselves. They amass to a wonderous presence of good in the world.


We miss much of this because of aches, pains and irritations. Newscasts are irritations mostly. They tell of negative things, awful things, harbingers of more bad things. We become engrossed in all this negativity and the good is masked, covered up, not seen.


Witness is an intentional act of telling others of what you notice that matters.


It matters to me that I can smell plants growing, that I hear the tiny rustle of budding breeze in tender, young foliage. I see droplets of dew on the edges of flower petals. I smell sweetness of blooms. I taste butter on my toast, in my eggs, in a pastry. I know butter is there; its distinctive taste tells me that. It is a blessing of life. You are a blessing in my life.


Yes, you, known or unknown, you are part of the ‘we’ of community life. That is a blessing for certain. Knowing what to do with this blessing is entirely another matter. So let’s remain with the simple, the blessing itself, the spying of it in our midst.


Witness tells me I am alive and notice things. I am not so busy living that I miss what living is for.


Allow this to happen in your life. Give it a try. Or just let it become.


August 5, 2019

How Much Time?

Great question! Can be used in many settings, for many people, on millions of topics. "How much time does it take…? How much time do we have left before…?" And so on.


A quick scan of the news this morning: first interest rate cut by Federal Reserve since 2008; time is melting away until a climate change cataclysm; too much to do with the time available; when’s the next Presidential election? How much time does each democratic candidate have to make his/her point before they run out of steam with the public?


You get the point. Time is a constant in all we do. It is the marker we live with consciously or not; time passes. The past is behind, the present is now, and the future is ahead.


The point is, what we do with the time available? Or what others did with the time available for them sometime in the past? Or still, what will we do with our now time to do what others did not do when they had the chance?


Managing the economy is such a topic. Interest rates go up and down; the market mechanism usually does this for us, but at times the Federal Reserve is the actor-in-chief. If the economy is stuttering, interest rates are lowered to give people a reason to go into debt; this boosts economic activity and saves us from a recession; or so the thinking goes. If the economy is doing too well, then interest rates are raised to give borrowers a second chance to consider if they should go into debt or not, and if they don’t, economic transactions, manufacturing and retail sales take a dip, slowing the economy and averting a disastrous inflationary period.


Time. Monitored by interest rates. Time pricing the value of money and financial activity.


Election cycles. Time urging people to decide on who to vote for or against. Time to get the message out so voters make an informed decision.


Events come and go. Time. Do we attend or not? Do we have other demands (on our time) that keep us from frivolity? A sick relative. A death of a loved one. Interruptions of busy lives that force a change in how we use our time.


The Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church takes time to look at time – how did the creator create the universe? And in how many days? They say it took 6 normal days for God to create the world; and on the seventh day he rested. The Bible says so.


The rest of us scoff at this. Metaphor or not, a day is not 24 hours in Biblical time; it is most likely millions of years. No one knows. We are left to consider the possibilities and the science of such things.


Yet a sect of a major Christian denomination chose to spend its time and energy on this biblical reference rather than focus on the problems that threaten the continued presence of the world itself. Climate change may very well destroy the earth and all of its inhabitants. In just a few years. Yet they recycle the old, tired question in how many days did God take to create the universe?!


Folly.


Some of us are focused on serious issues. We don’t spend our time toying with fun, frivolity or fiddle-faddle. We consider fate, faith and family.


Where do you spend your time?


August 2, 2019

Getting Back to Normal

After four weeks of hospitals, rearranged household chores, logistical challenges and all the worry, there is a glimmer of finding a routine, a new normal, and what’s ahead for the next few years. That statement alone, is the bridge to tomorrow.


For some it is a bridge too far. For others it is painful, disappointing, and crushing.


Flip that image upside down and the bridge appears.


Step onto the bridge. From wherever you are, feel the new and different surface of the bridge. Feel for its heft and stability. Does it shudder when you stomp your foot? Does it swing back and forth? Or does it hold firm and promise a steady path forward?


Usually the latter. A connection to what’s yet to be. A future of…possibility.


The future is not known. That’s what makes it the future. We can wonder about it. We can estimate it. We can dream it. But only stepping into it will we come to know it.


And what it will do for our life.


I don’t know how I will react to the changes. I can’t know how I will understand the new, incorporate it into my life. I can try it and live it moment by moment and experience the freedom I have in getting to know it. What does this new world mean? What does it mean specifically to me? How will it affect my life going forward? Will I discover new strengths and talents? Will I know what to do and how to make the most of it?


Or will I cower, duck and avoid? Will I turn around and get off the bridge where I first got on? If I do, what will my life be like then?


Possibility is attractive to me. Possibility holds excitement, wonder and promise of things I will learn to cherish and enjoy. The past life and its routine are now gone and the new beckons. It is the promise of possibility that makes the transition a worthy enterprise and attractive.


After life-changing events, there is no getting back to normal. It is only a getting to a new normal.

What it holds is the possibility and the promise. It won’t be easy, but it will be interesting.


What delights await my discovery? And ours?


August 1, 2019