[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[Comcast]


Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions.
Frank Lloyd Wright
 
The old bastard always thought he was a wit. He was half right.
From the writings of Robert A Heinlein
 
A modest little person, with much to be modest about.
Winston Churchill
 
Congress is going to start tinkering with the Ten Commandments just as soon as they find someone in Washington who has read them.
Will Rogers
 
The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.
Dan Quayle
 
All we have to do is get out and vote, while it's still legal……
Hunter S Thompson
 
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Deep Web
 
The World Wide Web has become so big that search engines can’t index it all; in fact, they find only a small proportion. There’s also lots of stuff out there — mostly in databases — that can’t be reached at all by the conventional search technologies in use since the Web began. The firm BrightPlanet has estimated that this deep Web (a term it seems to have invented) contains 7,500 terabytes of data, compared with about 19 terabytes of data on what it calls the surface Web, numbers impossible to visualize in other than the vaguest way. Even if these figures are overestimates, it still suggests that there is a lot of material out there that would be useful if only one could find it. The firm also points out that the deep data is usually of excellent quality, and that most of it is publicly accessible without charge. Now we have to find a way of getting at it.
 
BrightPlanet estimates that this so-called “deep Web” could be 500 times larger than the surface Web that most search engines try to cover. - NewsScan Daily, Jan. 2001
 
The FAA database is part of the invisible Web, sometimes called the “deep Web” — a vast repository of information hidden in databases that general-purpose search engines don’t reach. - The Industry Standard, Sep. 2000
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Bluetooth
 
This is a specification, developed by a consortium that includes IBM, Ericsson, Nokia, Intel, and Toshiba, for a radio system that allows electronic devices to communicate with each other over short distances without connecting cables. Some 1,200 companies pledged to support this new format when it was first announced, including giants like Microsoft.
 
It has been a buzzword in the computer industry since late 1999, and in its early days it seemed certain that the format would become universal, most commonly in portable computing devices and cellphones. One research firm in late 1999 predicted there would be 61 million Bluetooth-equipped appliances by 2003. Typical implementations would be for a hands-free (and wire-free) headset linked via Bluetooth to your mobile phone in your briefcase; immediate password access to your office through automatic sensing between Bluetooth appliances; or automatic data transfer between computers, say in a meeting. However, the slow-down in high-technology fields in 2001 meant that take-up was much smaller than originally expected, and other systems, like Wi-Fi, are competing head-to-head with Bluetooth.
 
The consortium named it after the tenth-century Danish king Harald Bluetooth, who united warring factions.
 
Any Bluetooth device can talk to any other, no matter what brand name is on the label or what software forms their operating systems. - Arizona Republic, Nov. 1999
 
I’ve nothing against the concept, but to date Bluetooth appears to be a triumph of marketing over product fulfilment. - PC Magazine, Feb. 2002
 
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When Gillette first marketed its safety razor at the turn of the century, it sold 20 blades for $1.00 How much did the razor handle cost?
A: $5.
 
All automaker Henry Ford's cars were black until 1925, when he introduced two new colors. What were they?
A: Green and maroon.
 
What are the street lights in Hershey, Pennsylvania designed to look like?
A: Foil-wrapped Hershey's chocolate kisses.
 
What U.S. department store was the first to install electric lighting?
A: Wanamaker's of Philadelphia, in 1878.
 
What were Kleenex tissues marketed as when the were first introduced in 1924?
A: A cold cream remover.
 
Woolworth's 5-and-10 cent store chain was founded in 1879. For how long did 10 cents remain its top price?
A: For 53 years, until 1932--but only in its U.S. stores east of the Missouri River. Prices west of the Missouri and in Canada were higher because of greater freight costs.
 
What is the full name of Barbie, the doll?
A: Barbara Millicent Roberts.