Panglossian

New Year – came and is one which our family can never forget. It’s daily that memories of Marin creep into thought, talk, and events. And yes, I do understand fully that time will play a part in the healing process.
Nevertheless…

Then there is the fall and subsequent hip surgery Marcia underwent. Now home, but with movements severely restricted means we’re all affected. She’s healing and yesterday the Physical Therapist swung by, evaluated, and got her going on a series of exercises.
Nevertheless…

At heart, I am of a Panglossian mindset – that being that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
Nevertheless…

Nevertheless… for those of us with a faith that there is more including that during every time in our lives there is hope. Hence the Panglossian mindset. This weekend will be the birthday of the iconic Dolly Parton. This, her song, appropriate for our family at this time.

Marcia just got up — and after a quick stop crawled back into bed. I’ll hold off on the coffee until she’s up for the day. Over the holidays I swung by Jungle Jim’s International foods and purchased some Dutch Douwe Egbert coffee. Yesterday was the last pot brewed from that batch.

Luckily, over the holidays George brought a bag of Don Pablo coffee (available in their Costco but not ours) so today it’ll be a great mug of Don’s finest. Thanks George.

A Disaster that wasn’t – What all the misery brought this New Year’s did bring to mind another New Year, this one a debacle from 26 years ago.

That debacle-that-wasn’t had me quite busy. For those too young or too old to remember, here’s the scoop. Space on hard drives in computing systems was always at a premium. To save drive space, many programs used just two digits for a year, i.e. ’16 for the year1916.

As the Century turn crept closer bit of a national panic set in, especially businesses, transportation, power grids, and government with fears that in place of recognizing ’00’ systems would misread; that the systems would interpret the ‘00’ to mean the year 1900 rather than the year 2000. Fears that lots of bookkeeping would figuratively ‘blow’ up and fail.

To cover backsides software companies ran test after test and created thick manuals to distribute to their users (all to prevent /minimize lawsuits). It cost $300B to $500B to discover that there was minimal screwing up.

By the way, my company’s software and the systems I was marketing used the Julian Calendar and thus we were fine (but still had to document all our documented work to satisfy our customers).

But wait! There’s more! — The next apocalyptic event will hit in 2038. 2038? This time it’s because back in 1970 the older 32-bit systems stored time by counting seconds. They paid little attention to the fact that on January 19, 2038 that number maxes out and those systems will reset to 1901.

Good luck getting through that piece, I’ll be smiling from somewhere.

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

What is the explosion at the end of a star’s life cycle called?

1) Aphelion
2) Neutron star
3) Event horizon
4) Libration
5) Pulsar
6) Supernova
7) Nova

Last week answer – #3 & #6, “Ate and left no crumbs” & “Air Jail”