Category Archives: Technology and Society

Administrative, Business, Technology and Society

Computer Fun

10 Comments

Patricia’s machine has been acting up for months, dying unexpectedly. I tried replacing CPU, memory, and power supply. Also cleaned the CPU heat sink. But to no avail, and now it shuts down almost immediately after boot. So it’s probably the motherboard.

And of course you can’t buy new FM-2 mobos any more, so it means new processor and memory as well, plus a graphics card, because the Ryzen doesn’t support on-board integrated graphics. So we just had to lay out about $600 for an upgrade, but it will be a much better machine, with a Ryzen 5 3600X (same as mine) and 32G of RAM in a single stick (upgradable to 128G). It will also be able to support multiple monitors. Unfortunately, it won’t be here before Tuesday.

[Sunday-morning update]

Wow, time flies. I just realized from an old blog post that her mobo was five years old.

Health, History, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Ventilators

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Nearly everyone put on them in New York died.

So much for “life saving.” Of course, the problem is that by the time it’s so extreme that they decide to put you on one, it’s probably too late. But this shows that the ventilator panic was probably pointless.

We’re learning rapidly how to deal with this, but we’ve unfortunately lost a lot of unwilling guinea pigs. It reminds me of what I say in the book: Every aviation regulation is written in blood. People always have to die or be injured for us to learn.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

The Wreckage Continues

6 Comments

One in five IT jobs have disappeared, and the sudden loss of office jobs is devastating the middle class.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Newspapers and Manhattan are screwed.

[Update a couple more minutes later]

AOC tells people to refuse to return to work.

Really? Is she going to pay their bills?

[Update a few minutes later]

Yes, the Democrats totally want a depression.

Business, Economics, Education, Popular Culture, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Technology and Society, War Commentary

The Economic Wreckage

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Bob Zimmerman catalogs it.

Some things will recover quickly, but we won’t have a robust recovery until people have sufficient confidence that they can go back to sporting events or movie theaters or restaurants at normal capacity, which will probably require a vaccine (even if it’s a placebo). And now, despite all the money being pumped into the economy, the Fed has to worry seriously about deflation.