2012 July 14 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for July 14th, 2012

Life is Good and I Don’t Mean LG

Published by Robert Pogson July 14th, 2012 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

I am eating a radish, tomatoe and beet-top on whole wheat sandwich with mayo as I write. The beets and radish came out of the garden today. I will wash it down with watermelon. It doesn’t get any better than this…

Of course, I would appreciate a little rain if anyone knows how to get the thunderstorms that have been dodging my place for weeks to make a deposit. A little rain would make life better than good, nearly perfect. As it is I will make do with sprinklers.

Crops that are doing well: tomatoes, apples, beets, sunflower, corn, onion and pumpkin. This is the best garden I have seen since I was a kid on the farm, except for the odd weed…

I have seeded all but a small area of the yard and some of the new grass is absolutely lovely. I will reseed some thin spots in the fall when the rains return. The new grass is my revenge on the weeds. I can now mow once or twice a week and the weeds get nowhere. The grass doesn’t seem to mind. Thank you Dyck Seeds, for perennial rye-grass.

Renovations on the old homestead are about half-done. This fall, I should finally be able to lounge around like a proper retired gentleman… if The Little Woman allows it.

- Robert Pogson

Look What $60 Will Buy

Published by Robert Pogson July 14th, 2012 in technology. 9 Comments

Walmart.com’s best selling tablet today is the Pandigital R7T40WWHF1. They include a 4gB microSD card in a bundle.

I have spent more than that on a fancy pocket calculator for maths students while this does so much more. It’s worth the price just for the display yet it’s a general-purpose computer. It’s probably not the best at anything but the price but it looks like an incredibly useful tool. It reminds me of Star Trek. OK, it does not travel at “Warp Speed” but it is extremely portable being 7 inches and not 10 inches, a better size for most pockets and purses and hands.

It’s lack of speed probably stems from the antiquated ARM11 CPU but that also permits the low price. To give a hint, Nvidia Tegra used ARM11 and we are now at Tegra 3 and a newest chip in the series is planned for early next year using ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore. If you just need some connectivity and some computing power it’s a bargain. You get the result of $billions invested in R&D in a convenient package for the price of taking a large family to the movies, or one tank of gasoline, or dinner for two at a good restaurant… and this gadget will outlast all of those transactions.

I have always admired great technology. It allows us to do more for less and makes the world a better place. With all the pessimism in the world, good things like IT that works well and is affordable is about as good as it gets except for my imminent harvest of radishes.

- Robert Pogson

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.