A Saturday Saunter

Going through some photos Jo took at Wimbledon a few years back we came across this one. I couldn’t resist showing it with the caption – “Why can’t the three of them just talk to each other?”



England made it through the soccer World Cup 2010 qualifiers this week – with two matches still to go. The last time they had such a good preparation to a World Cup was in 1966. This year may have little significance to those of you in the USA but to anyone who follows soccer in England it was THE year. We won the World Cup which, that year, was on our home turf with the Final being played at Wembley.


We won Wednesday’s match against Croatia 5-1 with my favourite player, Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard, scoring two of the goals.


The English Women’s team made it through to the Final of the European Championship but lost 2-6 to the relentless machine of Germany. England played much better than the scoreline suggests and give them their due they never gave up and twice came back from being goals down. Only in the last 15 minutes did the Germans clinch the match.


On Wednesday I introduced Jo to the delights of using Google calendar. Then I had a good day on Thursday after a headachy start. For one thing the sun came out. A novelty. I did some cooking while waiting for a grocery delivery van. Then I did some blogging and caught up with some paperwork. But I’m still well behind at looking at the works of fellow bloglings – so my apologies if I haven’t paid you a visit for a few days.


Friday was sunny. That’s s-u-n-n-y. The big yellow ball in the sky was visible! It wasn’t hiding behind clouds. There was no rain in the way. So, after a brief trip to the library, I spent the morning in the garden. A major success – a whole couple of hours in the garden without an angina attack.


 

Happy Monday

I have decided that those folk who are still obliged to work for their living deserve something to cheer them up on a Monday morning. So here is the first of a series of 'Happy Mondays'.

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, 'If GM (General Motors) had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'

In response to Bill ' s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics :


1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash.........Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and re-open the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.

7. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

(and I just love this one -)

10. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.



P.S. I haven't been able to trace the cartoonist so I haven't been able to ask permission to use it. If anyone knows I shall be more than happy to seek his or her permission.
 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." - Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." - The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.

"But what ... is it good for?"
- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

"Why would any person want to use this ungainly and impractical device when he can send a messenger to a local telegraph office and have a clear written message sent to any large city in the United States?"- From the report to the President of Western Union written by the committee charged with investigating WU's potential purchase of Bell's telephone patent for $100,000

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
- Western Union internal memo, 1876

"Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires. Even if it were, it would be of no practical value."- Boston Post, 1865

"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone"
- Bjarne Stronstrup (computer scientist, born 1950)