On Mon, 8 Jan 2001, Tim May wrote:
Ray, you seem knowledgeable in some areas. But your pontifications on California basements, cellphone GPS, etc., are very "Choatean" in nature. Something you might want to look at.
You can trust anything I say about Math or Programming (especially AI and LISP programming -- ie, my job). A lot of my "rants" in fields like architecture, state government, etc, come from situations in Kansas, many of which do not apply to California, and I need to think twice before speaking once. Much of the rest (including GPS chips in cell phones "within the next couple of years," heard a couple of years ago) is gleaned from mainstream media and evidently has its share of distortions. Bear An aside -- Contractors are now building uninsulated homes in Kansas (a climate where temperatures range from about 110 fahrenheit to -3 fahrenheit over the course of an average year) on floodplains, with slab foundations, not even buttressed down to the heave line and with no provision for airflow to mediate temperature - and people are buying them! This monumental stupidity was a feature of the circus of fools around me for many years, and is still where my mind goes by reflex action whenever I hear about electricity supply difficulties, power costs and escalating home insurance prices -- however irrelevant it may be to the situation in California. California, it seems, has its own set of completely different acts in the circus of fools, and I'm still learning them....