Jamcleat

I do not claim any understanding of Nelder-Mead or anything like it, also called a downhill method of finding a minimum for a system of equations, which, if you keep up with these things, may be old news. But consider the possibility of the inverse, nearing the summit realizing that whatever your strategy and method, the climb has led you up the wrong peak. Or more to the point, in the valley, you cannot realize or see that the adjacent (or some very distant) valley is lower but not chosen because the initial solution set off in the wrong direction. The desired goal is now distant. Maybe in Step n, there could be a global check for other minima. Or maybe this accomplishes that trick.

The previous post started my mind wandering and when it sat down to rest it was thinking of this folk singer. Stan Kelly-Bootle is a favorite of mine, not as a folk singer, but rather for his commentary on the state of computing. I first found his writing in the Unix Review, still worth seeking, old SODA, never flat. And contemporary as the Curmudgeon in the ACM Queue on-line magazine.

My long-time friend Bob sent me news to help understand Windrows 7. Hay-Hay-Hay.
Fortunately I only have to use Window at work. The company I work for can afford to pay lots of smart people to protect me from folks who would do bad things to my computer. At home, I use Ubuntu, a Linux based system. Much less worry about invasive software problems.

I have heard that Windows 7 became generally available today.  As I have said elsewhere, no version of Windows is safe to use on the average home computer.  Be warned. 
I have also heard that it is difficult (impossible) to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7.  Fortunately, I do not have to worry about that. My machine came with Windows 2000 Professional and is too small to run XP, Vista, or 7.  I have developed a tool that I call the Windows Upgrade Advisor.  It works with any version of Windows, even 3.1!  I hope that you find this tool useful.
I heard something on the radio this morning that went something like this:
“Last night I set my bed to Microsoft Sleepnumber 7. Now it’s full of bugs and has no support.”

The Microsoft PR machine has swung into gear over the Danger data loss.  Now the lost data is for the most part recovered.  And the truth comes out that the Microsoft management decided that the technicians did not need to make a backup because it would take too long and the maintenance company (not the hardware vendor) assured them a backup was unnecessary.  Of course, everybody knows, “backups are for sissys”.  I have been a systems type for about 35 years.  I think I know what I am doing.  And I always make a backup.  And keep it until somebody says. “Yeah, this is working fine”.

My advice: Do Not Trust Anything Microsoft.

With today’s news, it becomes apparent that Microsoft not only cannot produce an operating system for consumers that is safe and reliable but is also incapable of running a data center.  Admittedly, the data center they were running was not Microsoft but rather Oracle  based.  But sound data center management does not depend on technology.  Backup and recovery are religion, not add-ons. Other companies do quite well with Oracle. And Oracle does quite well for other companies.  Microsoft lost data for T-Mobile users of Sidekick.  If you outsource, be careful of the company that acquires your outsourcer.  When you put your eggs in the cloud basket, be careful of who is watching the basket.

I have said a number of times to a number of people that “Windows, any flavor, is unsafe for use in a home environment”.  I use Windows at work where there are numerous, certified, compensated, experts to deal with the numerous and well-known security problems with Microsoft Windows.  These experts along with significant capital investment create a network with sufficient additional protection that my employer can trust that the Windows computers connected to the company network will be safe.

But at home, I only boot Windows when not connected to the Internet.  I only use Windows to play games that only run in Windows, most particularly Flight Simulator.  This way I can avoid catching some dread virus or trojan.  I use Ubuntu now and previously used Debian unstable.  Keeping these systems safe is a relatively easy matter with System Update or apt.

Now comes news from New South Wales that one should not use Windows for on-line banking.  Hmm.

If you have been getting here via http://jamcleat.toasterlogic.com please update your bookmark to point to http://jamcleat.com.  Jamcleat has a host of its own thanks to Phillip Calvin.

CICS or Customer Information Control System as it was once known, now pronounced “kicks” is a transaction delivery platform for the mainframe.  I have been working with it for 30 years or so.  Recently it has been extended again, this time to support requests from PHP programs.  Wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtyHRAQROnw

http://tinyurl.com/phpOnCICS

Pretty exciting.

YouTube offers some related videos at the end of each video. The choice below was offered.

Unrelated to CICS or PHP (or perhaps I do not really grok either one). But you may recognize parts of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFFW-wBG3c

The scene from Pi is especially well remembered.  One of our favorite movies here.

This code follows the clock face code.  It also makes use of the pif() function, my local version of Pi() or Application.WorksheetFunction.Pi().
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