Posts

Showing posts from November 11, 2018

Expidite the expidited

Image
I am headed to the passport office this AM to get a new passport. I didn't have time to do the expidited renewal after getting back from Japan. So I made an special expiditing appointment with the passport folks in Atlanta. I am glad I only have to drive into Atlanta, not fly up to NY or Washington DC. It seems I have had to do some expiditing everytime I have renewed my passport. Passports are good for 10 years. When you get a new passport it is a time to ponder where you will be and what the passport will look like in 10 years. The pic belows shows the wear on my now cancelled passport. it was a 50 page book (the extra pages version) and 46 pages are fully used. Many countries require 3 empty pages to enter their country. So, I got full use of the larger size passport. If you need more pages, you send the passport in and they will "sew-in" more pages. The thickest passport I ever saw was at the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan border. A truck driver I saw had a Uzbekistan passpo...
I took a course on blockchain today. Atlanta is well setup for the next plays in "fintech". It was good to get access to some of the folks who have been working in this area for the last 8 or 9 years. Like a lot of inventions, it is is technology looking for an application. My belief is that with cryptocurrency there is opportunity. I think specific opportunity is to break the geography of currency. Why are particular tracts of land (Read; Countries and reserve banks) tied so closely to main stream currencies? This is a so-called "digitization" opportunity moving the human race into the future. It is fun to expand my personal understanding.
Image
I really like this guy's electronics videos. I understand that they may have cult-like following like Bob Ross or something, but he does give lots of great information and tips. I find this video to be quite good in support of fixing "All American 5" radios. I particularly like the details on rebuilding the IF transformers (23:47). I have several that could use a tune up. I also like that he is giving these antique radios the respect they deserve. Note that this radio was built in Utica NY.