Author: DOuG pRATt
Two Dead in Minnesota
This NYTimes video analysis should play without a paywall stoppage.
Monday Stuff
The official Sunday Snowzilla total for the town was 22″. It’s continued snowing today, so I don’t know what the final accumulation will be. It’s light, fluffy snow, and good for throwing with the snowblower.
There was a National Cartoonists Society Zoom call this evening. I had a chance to chat with Colleen in a “break-out session.” Nobody else on the call mentioned Scott Adams, so I didn’t either.
Good Songs for Bad Times
Goon Squad Murders
The Second Amendment boys helped to get Trump elected and reelected. How do they feel, now that someone has been murdered by Trump’s ICE goons because he carried a firearm? Which he did legally.
Gun Owners of America [headed by Erich Pratt] said in a statement: “The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting – a right the federal government must not infringe upon.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/nra-stress-carry-weapons-wake-222952765.html
Pet Peeve Post
When stuck on a Windows Server problem at work, I would sometimes check Stack Overflow. As I noted yesterday, most of the site’s users jumped ship as soon as AI provided them with a viable alternative.
This reminds me of what happened to my former employer after the HITECH Act of 2009 took effect. A part of ARRA, HITECH infused tax money into what had been the stable and slow-moving hospital software market.
Suddenly, hospitals were able to get financing for the otherwise unaffordable software from Epic Systems. Customers started leaving us and the company has yet to recover from that loss in business.
Industrial policies by the federal government run the risk of picking winners, intentionally or not. Epic, which got its start as a customer of ours, won the HITECH prize. The financial hit on myself and my former colleague friends was profound.
One area where I see the positive potential of AI is with medical applications. If there’s an IPO for Open Evidence, I hope to hop on board.