… was his first computer. And the computer on which he wrote his first line of code. I learned this today. He, in this case, is Linus Torvalds, the man who created Linux. [The computer was his grandfather’s.]

Linus is a guy I revere a lot.

What is cool is that I had a VIC-20, too.

In fact, it was my first home first computer. A computer that I grew to love, had many happy hours with and which got me through my graduate business program. It cost $260, almost more than I could afford.

I, for one, think Linus is incredible. One of the most incredible, yet humble and inventive, people of the 20th century. And the 21st century — thus far.

Sort of like Linus, I wrote my first modern computer code on my VIC-20, which had BASIC as its “go to” language. As did Linus. I wrote many fun games and research programs on it. Many I used in my MBA program. I miss it.

My first computer code was written in college, of course. It was written in a language called FORTRAN. And it was written for processing, at that time, on punch-cards, called “jobs”, fed into a mainframe IBM 360 computer. That’s what we used in our 1960s electrical engineering (EE) school. It took up most of one floor of our EE building.

My VIC-20, on the other hand, was a bit smaller. Kinda looked like a modern full-sized keyboard. Albeit thicker. It was up in the attic room in our home on Garden Drive.

That room also had the train setup in it … where Jeff and I often played. Katie visited too–though she was still a babe. The room also had a home-made desk in it, on which sat the VIC-20.

The software operating system Linux, which Linus invented and still maintains, is the base system upon which Android was built. It is a free operating system based upon UNIX. It is now used on 80-90% of the world’s computers, desktops, mobiles, appliances, TVs, Internet-of-Things (IoT) stuff and server systems which make up “The Cloud.” It is used almost exclusively in Asia. And in most developing countries where for-profit home computers are not affordable.

Its father, UNIX, is also the precursor of the Apple operating system.

See minute 00:41. Like me, he relates better to computers than people.

My dad, I learned after his death, served in the offices of the 15th Air Force Command in Bari, Italy, during WWII.

He was a Chief Warrant Officer, rank of Sergeant, 1942-1944. He never talked about it. He only, once, expressed pride in having achieved U. S. Army sharpshooter status–with attendant medal–during training.

I believe he was responsible for the 15th Air Force’s written communications activities for both officers and staff. He did not serve in combat but saw the horrible results of it.

I do have pictures, which I have posted elsewhere, of his experiences in Italy.

Related to all this, I just watched a video (below) about a guy who served in one “Bomber Wing” of the 15th in Italy. As a gunner on B-17 aircraft. These are the aircraft my father was familiar with.

He describes what it was like to enter and be part of such a group. I am reminded that nearly 22,000 people, mostly bomber crewmen, in the 15th Air Force lost their lives flying missions into Germany during this war. Incredible sacrifice. This explains in a small way how, why, and the toughness of the job.

And, sad. NYT this day:

The coronavirus pandemic is shaking bedrock assumptions about U.S. exceptionalism. This is perhaps the first global crisis in more than a century where no one is even looking for Washington to lead.

By Katrin Bennhold

• April 23, 2020Updated 12:16 p.m. EDT

BERLIN — As images of America’s overwhelmed hospital wards and snaking jobless lines have flickered across the world, people on the European side of the Atlantic are looking at the richest and most powerful nation in the world with disbelief.

“When people see these pictures of New York City they say, ‘How can this happen? How is this possible?’” said Henrik Enderlein, president of the Berlin-based Hertie School, a university focused on public policy. “We are all stunned. Look at the jobless lines. Twenty-two million,” he added.

“I feel a desperate sadness,” said Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European history at Oxford University and a lifelong and ardent Atlanticist.

The pandemic sweeping the globe has done more than take lives and livelihoods from New Delhi to New York. It is shaking fundamental assumptions about American exceptionalism — the special role the United States played for decades after World War II as the reach of its values and power made it a global leader and example to the world.

Today it is leading in a different way: More than 840,000 Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and at least 46,784 have died from it, more than anywhere else in the world.

As the calamity unfolds, President Trump and state governors are not only arguing over what to do, but also over who has the authority to do it. Mr. Trump has fomented protests against the safety measures urged by scientific advisers, misrepresented facts about the virus and the government response nearly daily, and this week used the virus to cut off the issuing of green cards to people seeking to emigrate to the United States.

“America has not done badly, it has done exceptionally badly,” said Dominique Moïsi, a political scientist and senior adviser at the Paris-based Institut Montaigne.

The pandemic has exposed the strengths and weaknesses of just about every society, Mr. Moïsi noted. It has demonstrated the strength of, and suppression of information by, an authoritarian Chinese state as it imposed a lockdown in the city of Wuhan. It has shown the value of Germany’s deep well of public trust and collective spirit, even as it has underscored the country’s reluctance to step up forcefully and lead Europe.

Slovenian Easter Breakfast

The Slovenian/Slovenia Tradition in Our Family

A cold breakfast that includes:

• Sliced Zelodec
• Sliced Klobase (Slovenian smoked sausage)
• Fresh horseradish (scraped from a whole root)
• Hardboiled eggs
• Fresh bread (fresh baked white) and bought Egg Bread (see below)
• Fresh Sliced Ham (not sure what kind, Virginia likely)
• Fresh Potica (Slovenian Nut Bread, Helen’s recipe)
• Krofe (Slovenian donuts; not here and missed; by Aunt Alice Azman)
• Orange Juice, Coffee

In the old days the Tomsic-Pecjak and Azman families took large wicker baskets of these foods, covered with a decorative cloth, to the church (Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church on Neff Road, Cleveland). There they were blessed by a priest. A must on Holy Saturday or Easter eve. Some thought the blessed stuff tasted better.

A bit more background

Grandma (Helen) Tomsic [1915-2010] baked fresh white bread on Easter eve. She took to the church while warm. We also got fresh egg bread from the local bakery, Maxim’s. (It was run by a former prize fighter on Windward & E185th Street in Cleveland.) Fresh bread was not unusual. We got it almost daily. It was 29 cents a loaf, sliced.

Auntie Alice made the Krofe – Slovenian doughnuts. Mmmmm, with loads of powdered sugar on the top. (A Greg Tomsic & Bill Azman favorite.)

We also took oranges to squeeze for juice to the church, along with other foods. And we had lots and lots or chocolate bunnies and silver dollars from Auntie Josie’s hunt.

__________________________________________________

The Meats

The meats came from Azman Meats at 63rd and St. Clair in the old days.

They now come from the new Azman Meats on East 200th Street, Cleveland, run by Bill Azman Jr. Bill has grandly maintained or improved all the special recipes.

Azman Meats IS the center of Slovenian meat excellence in America: http://www.ftransit.com/azmans/ More below.

Slovenian pronunciation help – accent on second syllable

• Zelodec (ZHAH-LUH-DETZ)
• Klobase (KLOH-BAH-SEH) – with fresh horseradish
• Potica (POH-TEET-SAH)
• Krofe (CROW-FEH) – with rolling rrrr

__________________________________________________

THE SOURCE OF ALL PROPER EASTER TREATS

Pictures below from the original East 63rd Street ‘Azman Meats’ Store, Cleveland OH
The original master, Uncle Bill Azman Sr. at the 63rd store:

And, the NEW Store on East 200th Street, Euclid OH

AWARDED BEST SLOVENIAN SAUSAGE IN USA!

Easy to order. Simply call and ask that two pounds of smoked sausage to be sent to you (also called 2, 5-6 packs.) It will arrive in a week via UPS. You will then receive a bill in mail at later time.

Boil the sausage for 30 min and then moan with pleasure. Horseradish required.

FRIDAY – Feb 21, 2020 – Boy did we get pasted this day.

I blame it all on Wisconsin and Iowa, of course. I had noticed they had lousy weather (temps in teens) a few days before. Then it happened, again. We got their shit. That means lousy, as in 40 degree and bad stuff, weather.

But not just low temps (for Florida). No. We got a humdinger of a Nor-Easter. But what the heck does that mean?

• 30-40 mph winds directly from the north/north-east. For 36 hours!
• Dark and dreary.
• Surf (as in the big Ocean) UP. Pond up. Hair up. Animals panicking. Greg loving it.
• Hold-your-hat sucko weather. A real bummer. And great fun to watch.

In this case, a max wind in my backyard of 27 mph right across the pond… which rose about two feet due to ocean rise. ‘Cause it is tidal. WOW. Haven’t seen that kind of stuff since our three hurricanes. All a mere 1,000 feet from the wildly noisy, roaring-like-a-train Atlantic Ocean. It WAS a “Nor-Easter of Nor-Easters” for sure. So cool!

Wildly entertaining video:

Mainly for you, Jeff… if you want to mess around, for a machine capable of video/photo processing at extremely fast rates (“gamer” speed level), but others might be interested. Dad

If you want to build a “Screamer” State-of-Art 2020 PC for as little as ~$225.

It consists of three main (3) Pieces – Assumes a Case ($40) and SDD (for OS) are lying about.   [A Note: Prices here are early-FEB 2020. Prices are up in late FEB, likely due to China Inc being affected by virus situation… should drop again.]

As for OS, you may know Win 10 is now very good and KEYS for it can be purchased on EBAY for $4. Price essentially $0 for Win 10 Home.

Here is my build, if you or any of your friends want to mess with:

1. CPU – RYZEN 1600 or 2600 or 3600 – all similar, diff gens
Ex: $85 or $120 or $150 respectively, on Amazon – dropping

2. MOTHERBOARD – For RYZEN
$70 or less
Ex: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FWVJSHC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Gigabyte always good.

3. RAM – 16G DDR4 3200 MHZ
$70 or less on Amazon — buying any “Used” pieces from Amazon store usually are NEW with dented boxes; I use this approach.
Ex: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NKYM62D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Or Crucial, or Corsair Vengance

Assume you can dig up/reuse power supply (PSU) & case but another $80 if needed.
SSD (Solid State Drives) if needed are non-sensically low priced these days.

THE Main 3 pieces were and should be:  $225 !!

High performance Video Boards–if needed and not lying around (as assumed here) –like Radeon RX570 for as little as $50 on EBAY (used) – $120 NEW.

Another $80 if Case and PSU needed.

The sky. The stars. Anytime.

And being able to “see” a planet that is 1,800,000,000 (1.8 billion) miles away. The planet Uranus. Just out there beyond Saturn.

It be very far away. It takes nearly three hours for light–traveling rather quickly–to get here from there. At the speed of our automobile it would take over 3,000 years to get there. It’s far.

Despite all of this, I was amazed and happy that I was able to “see,” or “capture,” the planet with my little astronomy camera. That is, when the camera is attached to a 103 mm refractor telescope. My favorite and newest scope. The image I got is below.  Uranus sits rather unimpressively in the middle of the wide-field picture.

What truly astounded me, however, is that while in the original picture Uranus is rather unimpressive, I was then able to zoom far into it and “draw out” five of its surrounding moons from the image’s darkness.And its pixels.

Holy crap. I surprised myself that I could do that.

A terrific feeling – to me.

[December 3, 2019.  8:30PM. 60 degrees up in the southeast sky. A 25 minute exposure.]

SEE LARGE IMAGE.

Few things in life are more special, other than my impossible to surpass children, than the things that have to do with natural wonder. To me, that is. The national parks, the beauty of landscapes and gardens, the wonder of nature’s behavior and in my case, the spectacular feel of the cosmos.

Seeing Mercury cross the sun with my own eyes (admittedly with a solar filter to cut the sun’s brightness by 100,000 times) is right up there. As was Halley’s comet. And viewing my first galaxy over 60 million light years away.

Capturing it on “film” adds to the kick. Knowing I can revisit what my eyes saw and body felt at any time is really keen. Like reliving the moment with the crappy photos I took of Halley’s. They remind me of the instant I took them, the time, the day and how I felt viewing the comet with my two very special and delighted tiny children.

The pictures above and below I add to that personal list of magical times. That one incredible day I saw Mercury crossing a star that seems infinitely larger (actually three hundred times larger in diameter) than it. More precisely, if Mercury were a golf ball, it crossed a real star larger than my house. Not to mention millions of times brighter. Cool stuff, I think.

… for those, who like me, view Facebook as promoting terrible people, being invasive, acting much like a virus, being like “big-brother,” and generally helping to destroy democracy, here is an alternative worth considering:

Mastadon Social Network

Getting Into Mastadon

Three nights ago, October 4, 2019, I nailed it. Pluto, that is.

For four decades I had wanted to “see” Pluto with my own eyes. Or my telescope. Or anything. Ever since I was wowed seeing Halley’s Comet with Jeff and Kate. The beginning of my serious stargazing.

Nada.  Until three days ago.

Of course, no way is Pluto visible to the naked eye. It is way the hell out there. The naked eye can see stars to about “magnitude 5”; in dark areas. Pluto’s magnitude is about 14.3. That’s almost 10,000 times dimmer than the dimmest star visible with most naked eyes (on the magnitude-measure’s weird logarithmic scale). And heck, it is so far away it takes six hours for light to get to us from there. It is really out there!

And forget telescopes too. At least mine. Pluto is not visible with my four inch telescope plus my eyes. Or yours. Probably not with my largest eight inch telescope either. Over the years I have tried. And failed.

Well, two nights ago I thought I’d give it a shot. It was a spectacularly clear, terrifically transparent, crisp blue sky in my Florida backyard. This after three months of heat and humidity haze. And rain clouds. It was also one of the last nights I could give the thing a try given the trees about to obstruct the nightly view. I’d have about an hour to do it before Pluto drifted behind the trees. Perfect sky. About an hour to do it all.

I stumbled into action with my four inch scope and my astronomy camera. The goal: a thirty minute “blind” exposure. I say “blind” because I was not sure I was pointing at the right area of the sky. I could not see squat though the telescope–not Pluto or other stars. [Even through the scope that chunk of sky appeared black.] I simple hoped–beyond hope–that the telescope was aligned well enough to point at the right, very tiny, area.  I figured my odds of this happening were about 10-to-1. Nothing ever works the first time in astronomy. It was 8:20 PM-ish. Oof.

Well, the next day I checked my exposure (actually about seventy exposures which I “stacked” to yield one long one.) Man, did I have a great star-field composition. A huge mass of stars. Thousands. After a sigh, the pursuit became a daunting “Where is Waldo” exercise; not even knowing if “Waldo” was in the picture. Looking at thousands of pinpoints. With no bearings. Moral was not high.

BUT I FOUND IT. After about three hours of looking at star charts, rotating them, hallucinating many star patterns and nearly seeing pink elephants–there surfaced a discernible star pattern! On the charts and in my photo. First I noticed three brighter stars. The I noticed three more that were pointing at Pluto on the charts. And MY PHOTO had those stars on it! I was jubilant.

But it took many more minutes. Since Pluto is an infinitesimal speck in the middle of lots of infinitesimal specks, it took a while to be relatively certain. But finally, there it was. Pluto. Nailed. Wow.

See if you can figure out the first three stars I noticed in this “star field.”

And yes, I am weird, but you already knew that.