![Right Angle: Backstage [04-28-2020]](https://billwhittle2.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ra-042820BSb-thumb-615x400.jpg)
One Moment Please
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52 replies on “Right Angle: Backstage [04-28-2020]”
Here in flyover country we understand what “bait sammiches” means. We don’t need no stink’n punctuation.
And in other news, Scott shows off his astounding lack of science fiction knowledge. Pbbbbbtttttt!
PS – Scott – liking the altenative universe Spock look you have going on – I know, you’ll probably have to look that up to understand what I am talking about.
The space in my brain that would have been occupied with science fiction knowledge remains uncluttered, ready to accommodate other kinds of information…should I ever acquire any.
Used to be a place in Austin that had a sign that said Beer and Worms. Really bad combo.
When I was a kid, our school bus drove past a mom ‘n pop burger joint. They had a sign that attempted to list some of their treats. They made the same mistake as “Bait Sandwiches,” but it was “Fish Malts.” All of us would chant “Fish malts! Fish malts!” when we drove by. Silly, but a fun memory.
Bill, maybe you’re thinking of Koss Pro4AA headphones. Perhaps the first hi-fi dynamic headphones; I had a pair in the early 70s. A classic, and they’re still being made and sold.
Steve, do both topics. Make the episode longer. We don’t mind.
I watched the Kern County video of Dr. Erickson, who tried to contain his disdain for the academic/administrative state. I understand YouTube took the video down because it did not agree with the WHO.
The WHO is a collection of collectivist liars, and YouTube and Google have purchased and consumed their KoolAid in search of political power.
Scott, I’m so happy for you that you’re among the first to get to go back to work, and that they called you first! Understand the mixed feelings though.
I loved Flash Gordon the series… I have a friend who could ind or make you that awesome Ming collar…
and I remember those very cool calculators … we would go once a week to the local strip mall diner for whoopee burgers and a trip through Coles… the precursor in Canada to Staples… and I recall that 140$ price tag… and then the 80$ more complex model a decade or so later…
love you guys… I was supposed to fly tonight to Toronto on my way to Miami and the cruise… oh well… shalom from Israel as we celebrate our 72nd miraculous rebirthday!
In California, you can order Pizza with…as a topping…Bait. Here that usually means anchovies. However, best to insure they are of the canned filet type…or the fresh…cooked?…fresh ones.
Scott is called vector because he is such a straight arrow.
Google says that there are “about 600 billionaires in the US”.
There is a portion of the “kids not getting educated” problem is that in EVERY school there is a percentage of they kids that show up totally unprepared to learn. These kids stay uneducated, many disrupt the rest of the class so their learning is degraded and the whole lot is pushed forward through high school. Virtually nobody is held back. With C-19 “distance learning” I think we are going to see a whole new education gap appearing.
My first calculator was a Bomar Brain for around $80
I dreamed of a Bomar Brain, but was delighted to get the Texas Instruments T-1220
I loved the incredible lag with the factorial (x!) button. My engineer dad brought his T-1220 home from work. I couldn’t get enough of the tiny red numbers in the readout. And that stylized brown and black case.
It ate the batteries, though.
I owned a Bomar Brain and it helped me through Sonar A, A1 and C Schools at FLEASWTRACENPAC or Fleet Anti Submarine Training Center Pacific in San Diego in the early 70’s. It really helped me work with very small and very large numbers but you had to use Logarithms to do it.
OMG, I had that exact calculator when I was a kid!!! My grandmother had given it to me, and I assume it was either hers or my mother’s when she was in school.
So did I!!! Or rather, my mom did, and I was allowed to use it at her desk. My dad had an amazing TI financial calculator from the mid-1970s. That thing had so many buttons and Greek symbols! My brother got a TI scientific calculator, which I learned how to use, but then never needed. When I took physics, we were allowed to use a simple calculator. Mine had solar batteries, which at the time had a serious cool factor. It had a square root button. Was all I ever needed. BTW I also learned to use a genuine slide rule in physics. I used my grandpop’s (he was a geophysicist). I think I still have the slide rules but lost my dad’s financial calculator (as well as my mom’s) in Harvey.
My dad taught me to use his slide rule and I took it to college with me. Didn’t have quite the “cool” impact I thought it would.
In H.S. (this will date me), there were no calculators, only slide rules. They still stump me, even more so now in thinking back!
In college, the Chemistry professors had HP calculators, using something called ‘reverse Polish’ notation, you had to enter things in a non-intuitive order. I also had problems with those.
Finally, sometime in college I scrambled up enough bucks – washing glassware for Chem labs, working at the local cafeteria, and evenings at J.C. Penney’s – to purchase a Texas Instruments instrument, don’t remember the cost or the model number or the number of functions, although I’m sure it had a few… Finally, a calculator I could understand! Except that 2nd row of labeling you had to access via the Function button!
I had that same Texas Instruments calculator in a case I wore on my belt in college.(Chemical Enginering degree). Very early adapter of such things. People would follow me around and ask to see it. (Still have it, but it but it stopped working years ago.) Also had a TSR model 3 computer as my first micro computer.(the term PC had not been used yet. Radio Shack made it.) First in town to upgrade memory in it and first to put hard drive in it. (Originally had to run off a tape player) Programmed it to assist with a strategy board game called Star Fleet Battles. Still have the game, but not the computer. Yes, I am a computer geek when it was hard to upgrade the computer.
My first computer was a Radio Shack model. One boots the OS from a floppy.
Mine was a Kaypro II. Officially portable (the keyboard snapped onto the front and it had a handle on the back end), but very heavy. Dual 360k floppies and 64k of RAM!! My dad sat us down and gave us a lecture about how when he was in the Navy working on developing the computer system for the Pacific Fleet, they had a computer that was 64k but it took up a whole room.
I bought my first computer in 1978 it was a Heath Kit H-8 computer with an 8008 processor and 4 ea. 8K byte memory boards for a whopping 32K of RAM. Loaded Basic and other programs with Cassette Tape. BTW all the other programs I had to enter my self and convert Heath Basic to whatever version of Basic programs in books and magazines I could find.
I still have the HP-15C that I bought Freshman year in college, several decades ago. I recall that it was more than $100. It was a pain to do the “reverse Polish notation” but you could program it to do inverse matrices; but you couldn’t use it for the tests.
And Scott the first computer I used was also a Radio Shack model.
I know what reverse Polish is, and used it. Hated it.
Same here. It’s not called Reverse Polish Notation for nothing. Who said Mathematicians don’t have a sense of humor.
Fabulously wealthy or deeply in debt. Embrace the power of AND.
Fun fact: 98.6 is no longer the universal human body temp. Our average body temperature has been slowly declining over the last hundred years, and nobody is sure precisely why. They’ve done a number of studies to determine that it is not accounted for by inaccuracies in old equipment or statistical anomalies (new or old).
http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/01/human-body-temperature-has-decreased-in-united-states.html
That is fascinating! I too am around 98.0. I think my dad was closer to 97. I always thought it was some weird curve-busting thing we do in our family. Nice to know that we’re not quite so abnormal after all!
I wonder what that temperature website Bill talks about might have to say about this.
Maybe because people exercise less? Maybe air conditioning is getting better? Maybe people get sick less now? Who knows the reason.
It is quite the puzzle, but it’s been happening since at least the 50s (to a noticeable degree) and it seems all the way back to the 1800s, so sedentary lifestyle and air conditioning can’t quite account for all that.
The podcast Sawbones also did an entire episode on it.
I blame Global Cooling.
Whoah! If NY cancels all the Primaries, does that mean AOC goes straight to the General and is therefor a shoo-in for re-election?
Please no…
Oh, Snap. And I think she would lose the primary. Conspiracy theory alert. I wonder if they will have multiple candidates on the ballot.
Scott, when you look it up make sure your watching FLASH Gordon and not FLESH Gordon. That latter one, though very faithful to the original, has some added elements you may not approve of.
LOL Damm right it Does! LOL
Scott, never wear a tie to an interview and you will never have a job that requires you to wear a tie. That philosophy has stood me in good stead for better than 20yrs.
This is wisdom.
Yeah, Galaxy Quest quote! Love that show, one of the best Star Treks out there.
2nd, maybe 3rd, best Star Trek movie.
Scott might find this useful for Karen homework
https://www.reddit.com/r/IDontWorkHereLady/
Bait Sandwich shops are pretty common all along the Gulf Coast and even to the East Coast of Florida. Bill, surprised you never saw any.
My best memory of the calculators was the belt cases they came with.
Is this a new record? 44 minutes of my life irrevocably wasted in a single episode of backstage?
I’m afraid you were warned when you signed the waiver.
Actually, probably not. Bill on his own can actually do 40 minutes + without taking a second breath. I think there is one out there almost 50 minutes long. The longer the better as far as I am concerned. After 20 minutes they really let their guards down.