Tuesday, Mar. 25, 2003 - 11:13 a.m.

Here I am again

Wow, I got on 2 days in a row the first time. Maybe I won't need my hold or my notes.

Subject: Bill Gates vs. GM

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 had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 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 over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen 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. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

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.

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

I am training another new lab tech. We get them for a week or so, just long enough to get attaached to them and then theygo off to other shifts. That seems to be the story of my life. Invest lots of time in a young person's life and just about the time they get interesting, off they go. 2s brought the girls over yesterday along with a chicken dinner and 13 pages of algebra! It is spring break and he has the girls all week this year. It seems ex-wife went in and got some assignments that s had neglected to to, plus 7 more pages and sent them along on spring break. So G'ma got to do algebra again.

Actually it wasn't too bad. s has a very good grasp of basic math so we didn't have to start at ground zero or spend lots of time redoing simple math mistakes. We couldn't do half a page because she didn't have her notes, the school doesn't issue books only work sheets and G'ma doesn't remember the various property rules. But we crunched alot of numbers and equations. The only hard thing is most public teachers use the property rules with the problems. s would do an equation probably using those rules but leave out some vital step. I would be doing the problem my way which to is start at the left and proceed with PEMDAS til I get to the end. I would always have the right answer but deciphering where she went wrong took more time. It doesn't do any good to know the answer is wrong and then redo it and get the right answer. Half the battle is finding what kind of mistake was made. Any way we worked on it several lhours and she had a very good start of finishing the whole set without too much problem over the next few days. They are going up to bigbigtown to have a surprise party for 3s. It is his 40th birthday. I am sure he will be totally enthused about being reminded about it so joyously. 2d is going up also at the end of the week to join them. Just a little getaway for her, but naturally she is on a large guilt trip about being away from church and her piano responsibilities. I am sure I found her under a cabbage leaf! She is also going to be gone the following Sunday. The local ski lodge is hosting a symposium for instructors in this part of the state and as a Level 3 instructor and a DSL in training, she has responsibilities. She has never skied on a Sunday at our lodge, she is usually out of town if she skis then. So she is travelling on a very large guilt trip there. It will be interesting to see what her final decision is.

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