Purdue University gives itself a Wi-Fi glow-up — CIO Ian Hyatt describes how the IT department revamped Purdue’s outdated Wi-Fi, turning tech troubles into top-tier connectivity and quieting Reddit complaints. My latest on Fierce Network.
“Farewell, My Lovely” is the best movie we’ve seen in a while. Released 1975, set in LA 30 years earlier, and dripping with noir. Robert Mitchum is a perfect Philip Marlowe. Also featuring Jack O’Halloran, best known as the giant dimwitted criminal henchman of General Zod in “Superman II,” as the giant dimwitted criminal Moose Malloy. Also featuring Charlotte Rampling, who recently played the Reverend Mother in “Dune Part 2,” Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton, and Sylvester Stallone, before “Rocky” and before bulking up. I don’t think Stallone has any lines; he has a small but important role.
The IMDB trivia page is worth reading, as is Wikipedia, starting here.
Thanks, @bitdepth!
Things that don’t work: 31. “Waiting…. if you really want to do something, don’t wait for some unspecified time when it’s more convenient and then watch that time recede before you.”
Five of my favorites: “The Man Who Folded Himself,” by David Gerrold, “Time and Again,” by Jack Finney, “The Proteus Operation,” by James Hogan, “Last Year” by Robert Charles Wilson and “The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August,” by Claire North.
The 23 Best Time Travel Novels - a collection dating from the 1950’s through today. Despite paradoxes, time travel is a fascinating concept and makes a great read.
I have spent the afternoon on the daybed dozing and reading dynomight.net and I am fine with this.
Tuesday’s debate has made me even stronger in my support of Biden than before. Trump spent his entire time onstage spewing nothing but hate and lies. Lapses in Biden’s performance are trivial in context.
Phrase of the day: “swivel-eyed loon with terminal groomer-panic” (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)
Trump disgraced himself and the country yesterday, reaching new lows for mendacity and delusion, and the lead stories in the NY Times are about whether Biden is fit to run?
Biden does not need to be replaced. The felon and his entire party of criminals and theocrats need to be replaced.
The only reason we’re questioning Biden’s acuity and not Trump’s is because Biden’s voice has gone soft.
Trump seems commanding because he shouts and smirks. It’s an illusion.
Trump is dangerously disconnected from reality. He’s not just a fascist; he’s completely unhinged and delusional.
Heather Cox Richardson has a bracing analysis of last night’s debate.
Biden showed he’s smart and on top of the issues. He’s a lousy debater, but he’s still mentally sharp.
Trump, on the other hand, rambled and lied outrageously even by his usual low standards.
I am reading John Irving now and enjoying his habit of italicizing keywords in dialogue. Helps me to hear the dialogue as I read it.
Today I learned that Arnold Schwarzenegger has a son named Patrick, who is a successful actor in his own right. And I also learned what a “glow-up” is, and used it in a headline.
My colleague Diana Goovaerts has a juicy exclusive:AWS is challenging NVIDIA with a 1,000+-watt Trainium chip that will go head-to with Nvidia’s Blackwell GPU, part of an overall push to make AWS data centers ready for the next wave of GenAI demand. Nice work, Diana!
“One would think that a story like this would be out of 1890, not 2024.” Schools on the Fort Apache reservation expel students for taking part in Native American religious ceremonies that the schools claim are satanic. [The Guardian]
I thought we as a nation were done with this kind of white supremacist bullshit, but apparently not. There’s a direct line from 19th Century “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man” evangelism to today.