Inside the Hidden World of Legacy IT Systems
Inside the Hidden World of Legacy IT SystemsHow and why we spend trillions to keep old software going By Robert N. Charette IEEE Spectrum
Finanace
Billionaire Chuck Feeney gives away his fortune
In the Guardian, an essay on the goal of Chuck Feeney, who gave away around $8 billion during his life. Still with us at 89, Mr. Feeney lives in San Francisco in a rented apartment. Billionaire Chuck Feeney achieves goal of giving away his fortune Rupert Neate Sat 19 Sep 2020 Irish-American mogul’s philanthropic foundation … [Read more…]
How a Plan to Save the Power System Disappeared
A federal lab found a way to modernize the grid, reduce reliance on coal, and save consumers billions. Then Trump appointees blocked it. The Atlantic Story by Peter Fairley
Republicans are hypocrites. They happily ‘de-funded’ the police we actually need
The Guardian, again, hits the nail on the head with this spot on essay “Republicans are hypocrites. They happily ‘de-funded’ the police we actually need” by David Sirota: After two weeks of police violence and protests, Republican politicians have been pretending to have a fainting spell over the phrase “defund the police.” “There won’t be … [Read more…]
The NEWS you may not have read …
In the Columbia Journalism Review is an essay The bad news quietly buried during the pandemic by Zoë Beery: With the world’s attention glued to the coronavirus pandemic, news about anything else has been slipping farther and farther down the proverbial front page. But that doesn’t mean nothing’s been going on. Whether by design or … [Read more…]
Big Oil Finally Runs Out of Gas
Over at the New York Review of Books Daily, Bill McKibbon writes about the how big oil is losing its “big”. Read it here, from May 12, 2020. A study published this week in the journal Nature by economists at the Beijing Institute of Technology calculated that while investments to reduce greenhouse gases in line … [Read more…]
The investor class is excited
From the comments on this NYT essay on The Disastrous Employment Numbers, May 8, 2020: sedanchair Seattle 9h ago @nero Because thanks to Trump, they can simply steal our money and get away with it on a scale unprecedented even in previous bailouts. As with every scam Trump ever participated in, there’s no need for … [Read more…]
Hot Spots for Students
On their web site, Mark Quattrocchi explains the why of their donations of internet hot spots to rural and unconnected students in Sonoma County. This effort is also written up in the Press Democrat on May 2, 2020. We all need a feel good moment every once in a while.
We Are Living in a Failed State
Sobering summary of our current state from The Atlantic’s George Packer: When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly. Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, … [Read more…]
The Beard is Gone
Last time I shaved off my beard was in 2009, just after I was fired during the recession. Then I did it just to see what was under the facial hair, as part of the ritual of self-examination during a fit of depression. This time I cut it off slowly to make sure my face … [Read more…]