IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

LinkedIn versus Windows - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

This PC is running on Windows 32-Bit Vista because I have legacy software which I consider vital to preserve which will NOT run on later versions of Windows. It has until yesterday been serving for LinkedIn, but that now appears to  have changed.

Please see the following sketch:

The outlined-in-red display is what comes up on my Vista and also on another PC using 64-Bit Windows Vista. The incomplete display is also non-functional. I cannot view or modify posts and I cannot access LinkedIn functions.

My laptop that uses Windows 10 still operates properly.

I have attempted to contact Customer Support at LinkedIn about this problem, but there has so far been no response.

Comments??  Suggestions??  Advice??  Help??

Professionalism - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I came across a YouTube site of Chico Marx playing the piano in various movies dating back to 1929 so I sat there and enjoyed myself for a while. If you care to enjoy yourself too, this is the URL:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amQ63EZfUMA

At one point though, I noticed something. Look at this screen shot:

One of the piano keys was acting up. Now and then it would get stuck in its down position for a second or so here and a second or so there.

He literally never missed a beat. Chico kept the music coming with not the slightest hint of disruption, with total and complete control of the situation.

He really was a pro

Fixation - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Remember the good old days of Y2K?

Back then, a very close family friend and I were discussing the onset of the new millennium. I mentioned that many people thought that the year 2000 was the beginning of the twenty-first century but that it was actually the last year of the twentieth century.

"Well, that's a matter of opinion." came the reply.

I tried to explain that each century lasts for one hundred years, that the first century began at the start of the year 1 and ended at the conclusion of the year 100, the second century began with the start of the year 101 and ended at the conclusion of the year 200 and so on. The starts of the succeeding centuries were 201, 301, 401,....., 1801, 1901 and the then imminent year of 2001, and not the year 2000.

"Well, that's still a matter of opinion." came the reply.

I guess this would be an example of fixation.

This person was firmly fixated on the contradictory beliefs that the first century began with the year 1 and that the twenty-first century had to begin at the start of the year 2000. Perhaps someone, somewhere, at some long forgotten moment may have offered that mistaken view which then got taken up as an irrefutable gospel.

I gave up trying to bring enlightenment.

Today however, there are people out there espousing that face masks and social distancing are unnecessary intrusions into their personal lives because COVID-19 isn't really a serious medical threat, that there have been massive voter frauds committed throughout the United States, that no astronauts ever traveled to the moon and that the earth is flat.

Similar fixations.

Dendrobium - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

No kidding!!

Please see: 

https://www.chicagobotanic.org/plantcollections/plantfinder/dendrobium_micro_chip--micro_chip_dendrobium

Driveway Feathers - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I came out of the house this morning and found feathers scattered all over my car, all over my driveway and all over the front yard on the driveway's west side.

It seemed pretty clear that while I was safely tucked in and fast asleep, something in my yard had fallen prey to something else. There was no carcass anywhere to be found so I'm guessing a dove got taken by a hawk, very much the way I saw that same thing happen in my back yard some years ago.

I guess that humankind has achieved some measure of isolation from at least some of the forces of nature, but those forces are still there all around us and now and then, we get reminded.

 

 

 

The Anti-Tesla - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I spotted this a few days ago.

(Sigh)

Medical Treatment Authorization For A Minor - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

We have wonderful grandsons. They are hale, hearty and thriving. However, there is always the possibility of illness or injury so our family has taken various precautions which include authorizations of myself and my wife, the grandparents, to make any medical decisions that might be needed if Mom and Dad just happened for some reason to not be available at some crucial moment.

In the event of such a situation, we have the following document:

Both mother and father sign on the two lines.

Of course, there may be variants. If there is only one parent, then only that one person is named and only one person signs. Also, this document may include any number of children, not just two. In fact, my grandchildren number three.

I am NOT an attorney so this essay is NOT to be treated as legal advice. However, it is a step that we as a family have chosen to take and it is only presented in that way. Your own family situation may differ in various ways from our own so you would be well advised to seek appropriate professional guidance.

For example, similar authorization(s) might be applicable in the case of an elderly relative or someone with disabilities.

Just make the proper decisions. Don't let things go by default.

Oblivious - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I saw another example today of sheer, mind bending stupidity that could have resulted in serous injury or even loss of life. The setting was a local supermarket parking lot.

The lot was pretty full so when this one car came to a vacant parking spot, it was like finding treasure. The driver of that car positioned his vehicle so he could back into that vacant spot. Just as he was starting to very slowly move in reverse, a pedestrian walked right in back of his car as if nothing was there.

The driver slammed on his brake so nobody got hurt but it was a close call and that pedestrian seemed totally unaware that he'd come rather close to meeting his creator.

Pete Seeger sang in "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" the lyric "When will they ever learn?"

That is a very good question.

Smoke is Fuel - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I was listening to a storyteller on The Moth Radio Hour yesterday who was speaking about his experiences as a fire fighter. In the course of telling his tale, he spoke of the phrase "smoke is fuel" which very much caught my attention. I entered that phrase into Google.

The URL for the search result was probably the longest URL you can imagine but at the head of it all was the following text:

There is plenty more reading material waiting for you at that search result.

Because smoke generation is a process of incomplete combustion, that smoke is capable of sustaining further combustion. Smoke itself can ignite. If ignition happens while someone is enveloped in that smoke, that person can be immolated.

That person can be immediately burned to death.

Smoke inhalation is a widely known, a widely recognized cause of fire fatalities, but smoke immolation is I think less well understood by the general public.

If, heaven forbid, you are ever involved in a house fire or a workplace fire or any other fire disaster, please remember this and get yourself OUT of the area.

Your life will be at stake.

Amazing People - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

As a teenager into amateur radio (ham radio to some), I met some extraordinary people. I'd like to share a little of that.

Ginger was an older man whose apartment was in a four story walk-up building. He never spoke of it but I couldn't help but notice the facial scarring from his once having survived a terrible explosion that destroyed both of his eyes. His ham radio transmitter was "home-brew" using a pair of 6146 beam power tetrodes for the final power amplifier stage. Although a pair of 6146s could be safely operated at 100 watts of RF output, those tubes were only delivering 15 watts so that they would last virtually forever. With that transmitter and what I think was a Hammarlund HQ-129 receiver, he kept in contact with friends both locally and with one fellow in Shreveport, LA.

Bob was a man of middle age who was afflicted with extreme arthritis. He was quite rigid in a standing position throughout his whole body from his neck to his ankles. He had slight movement capability in his arms. His hands were functional. He ran a greeting card business from his apartment. The arthritis, he once told me, had developed gradually over time, mostly after graduation from college. His coping attitude was astonishing. He once said that in the far distant future when archaeologists were unearthing our present day civilizations and they found our skeletons, they would be really interested in his skeleton because of its arthritic structures but they wouldn't be the least bit interested in mine. He would be a unique find where I would be just another ordinary and uninteresting set of bones.

Sol was a podiatrist who also took super good care of my grandmother's feet. He also performed podiatric services free of charge as a volunteer at a nearby prison. The prisoners knew that when he came, he made their foot pains go away. Sol told me that many of the prisoners had long term and untreated foot conditions and that many of them were in nearly constant and often very severe pain from which he provided surcease and relief. Word got around in that facility and every single prisoner who came to him treated him with the utmost courtesy and respect. They knew.

I've always been grateful for the life lessons I learned from these three men. They often cross my mind to this very day.