Dear Reader:
I received an interesting email the other day, asking if I minded whether one of my previous posts could be removed, because of the picture in the post.
There are no names in this post, except for the Four Titans, so in order for this post to be legal, it needs to contain a FORTRAN question. Of course I have never seen those regulations, but I was told by the Intel Rep they exist, so I believe them.
I think there is no doubt whom I consider to be the First Titan of this FORTRAN forum, the First Titan answers, very rarely, is always correct and thye are nameless. Thye is from a statistical analysis of the I, he, she family of words, that can identify a non-gender specific type, but within the linguistic frame of the system. So thye is genderless he/she and is a statistically acceptable fit, if thee doubt me, thee are free to repeat the analysis, it is not difficult.
The word comes from a simple analysis using FORTRAN.
So to the First Titan, why do thee, at this point I digress, because, if we are going to follow the full English rules, as I am now bound to follow the full board rules, then the thee as a singular is in place of the plural you, think that this board now requires FORTRAN instead of Fortran as the name?
For those souls who miss the reference to the Titans, one of the Titans was Chronos. Chronos is the second of the lead gods, ending in Zeus.
As an interesting note, I always used to name my programmes using Greek or Norse Gods, so when someone asked about the programme it was pretty unique. Texteditor as a name is not likely to be unique, whereas Zeus is unique. As an aside, the coders consider programme to be nonstandard English, perhaps, we could purchase them an OED subscription.
So now that I have passed the relevance to Fortran, apologies for the maker of the system, FORTRAN, standard I can now safely discuss the removed post.
As most of you, you is correct here, as it is plural, each time thee uses you, thee is actually breaking the old and middle English rules, but of course the reason for the breakage is the use of You in the earlier English for a more important person, so the use of you means you are a more important person than a mere thee. I know I am a thee, always have been. This is the reason for the thye, I wished to be completely non-sexist without using the he/she, I merely corrected a 5000 year old mistake in the Indo-European language.
Interesting, the following statement applies to this forum, it is not FORTRAN or Fortran, but
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the ....
For those of you, in this case correct as I am referencing all of the readers, women were not considered equal to men until 100 years ago come August. If thee or as a group, you, have any interest in why your grandmother was less important in the law before 1920, thee should read the Elizabeth Cobb book on the matter. Or, give it to someone female as a present. The book is fantastic. I am assuming a statistical age range here, that is probably correct.
ATT is frequently mentioned in the book as they made a huge effort in WW1. This is not a plug, it is an acknowledgment of their effort and the women, some who died doing their duty.
Of course, there is the long history of the 14th amendment:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
If you read it carefully, the word person changes to male, this is deliberate to avoid giving the vote to women, so Harriet Tubman could not vote, thye could be a great hero and human, but not a voter.
So the real story, we, collectively, have been complaining about the new forum software. I grant that it is interesting and has a few quirks. It is not as bad as trying to get the INTERCAL program running on Windows in modern C. As part of this process, the Fifth Titan, who replaced the Third Titan, sent me an email and asked very politely, the Fifth Titan is both polite and extremely good at thye job, if I could send some screen shots of the problems I was encountering with the new forum. I have no idea if the Fifth Titan asked anyone else.
So, I put aside my work on mortality in the COVID deaths, using Fortran, kindly supplied by Intel as free software for the next year, and tried to replicate the errors. The interesting problem is that I run Windows 10 Preview, so I am running on software that is pretty stable but occasionally has errors. In the time between when I had the problem with the scroll bars and the retest, Preview had updated, and they did it quite quickly, so I imagine that there was a major error in the video drivers, because random black bars appeared on the screen in VS 2019, had appeared for a while on my screen. The Fifth Titan was aware of the problems as one of my posts ended up in quarantine, the 40 days from hell place, where Chornos now lives.
I sent some test messages to the Fortran and the C++ Forums to test the standard input, the code input and put up a picture. I tried to get the system to replicate the errors, so it took a while. One of the crashes occurred with picture as did this one now - twice now.
If you look on the C++ Forum, you, collectively, will see the example, in this case the picture is of the death counts in the USA from COVID over a few days. I was not asked by the Intel Representative if I minded if that post was taken down. It is pretty obvious that these were tests.
I upload a lot of screen shots during the day, as I track and analyse the COVID deaths and cases using FORTRAN software, FFT, Linear Regression and so on. The screen shots are always CAPTUREnnn.gif. Simple, neat and easy to find the last one. So, if thee look on the C++ post you will see the last CAPTUREnnn.GIF that was on my desktop at the times I did the test. It is not the same gif I was asked to remove from the Fortran Forum.
I was not particularly paying attention when I posted the FORTRAN gif, I had just uploaded a picture to somewhere else. The picture shows an American Baseball team listening to the National Anthem at the opening game in 2020. As far as I am concerned, it is about as American as Becky. Of course, neither Becky nor her mother could vote, so they were not proper men Americans, of course they could and did die bearing, the men's children., as my great grandmother did in Australia, but she could vote.
The Intel Representative in an email said, " Someone emailed it to me and said it should be removed per our guidelines, but I wanted to chat with you first and let you know why I’m taking it down.
Thanks,".
The picture, which I will not upload, is easy to find. It is considered unacceptable because it reflects on BLM. The posts were made to test the system as requested by Intel, not as a statement on BLM, it was the last CAPTUREnnn.GIF on my desktop, and I probably did not look at it, beyond baseball and America when I posted it. I am aware of the BLM signals, but these are part of the modern American lexicon as the struggle to correct the error in this creation statement, so that men is broadened to all persons and applied equally. We determine equally with statistical analysis, America is not equal.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the ....
There is the strong possibility that the someone will object to this post, I do not know someone's name but statistically it is likely male, and over 20. In the law, these unidentified individuals are usually called John Doe, but as I am a John and I did not sent the note, let us identify the someone as Kevin, so I can avoid using someone, who could be anyone.
So at about the same time as I saved the original picture I saved the following picture, this is a mother on the front line in Portland confronting something that looks like it is from the Guardian's movie.
I have four daughters, who I had sent the picture to, so I care about the need/problem for women to end up on the front line, if you read Elizabeth Cobb's book, you will see the bravery of women in the face of death. However, the picture is not Fortran and could be complained about. I deliberately used this picture as a test, make no mistake about that fact.
For a major part of the career, I used to advise developers and others on how to proceed to get done what they wanted to get done, usually in the face of community resistance. I made a lot of money and I was very good at my job. One outlines the alternatives to the client and then points them in the direction, best alternative that achieves the objective. So I will do such an outline for the Intel Rep and someone, I called Kevin. Of course someone could have asked me to edit the post. I would have started a long discussion beginning with no.
As I tell my students, if:
1. you are battling a barefooted poor pregnant lady with a baby, give up you just lost -- 1989 highway relocation
2. if you are battling 20 year old nurses standing around the only tree in their parking lot, give up you just lost - 1988 hospital development
3. if you are trying to take down a tree planted by a man and his wife at the time of their marriage in about 1940 and she is now dead and the tree is the last reminder of this wife, give up you just lost, actually here the client was a little stupid and finally the state leader of the political party in power at the time told them to stop, I never ever upset that level of politician - only bad things happen.
4. I can go on and on, but I will stop.
One more, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Maitland once said -- you are very good at this and I replied, a lot of practice.
As I would tell my client, once you make this action, there are alternatives that can happen and you want the good alternative - success for the project, not the bad alternative loss of money or the worst alternative loss of reputation. You have to enumerate the alternatives, as I will do here:
As a very senior manager, who has worked at Chicago McDonald's hq once said, after a tense meeting, you could walk through a minefield in golf shoes. That was at the end of a long meeting, where I explained tricky ethical issues to a client, and showed them the way out of their problem, which I had not created. Although later, when I asked the same client why they bought a swamp, he said to develop and I said cannot develop swamps for residential.
So there are a number of alternatives that I see with this post, once I send it, and Intel should understand the point of my teaching moment:
Alt. 1. Intel understands my perception of their error in taking down the original post and restores it - as it was run, at the direct request of Intel, as a test, therefore it is not outside the guidelines. I take some humour in Intel asking me if they minded taking down a picture of an American Baseball national team on the first day of play in 2020 listening to the National Anthem - and broadcast to the world as a symbol of American democracy in action.
Here, one thinks of the women who came from ATT and operated the communications systems on the front lines, during WWI, we should all be inside a burning building operating the communications systems and not stopping because a million boys are going over the top. This offensive included the Lost Battalion, I think. I have run into a shaking building during an earthquake to save my child, bravery is not a lack of fear it is the ability to suck it up and do it. Those women are very brave, I have seen men who look like the clown above refuse to enter a collapsing building, I am that sort of engineers who does that sort of work.
Alt. 2. Intel asks me to take down this post or takes it down. At that point, I would tell my client, use Intel as an example, these are the things that could happen:
a. I will do nothing - unlikely but possible, no impossible
b. I will remove myself from the forum - 100% probable
c. I will write a letter to the editor of the seven major newspapers in the English speaking world, setting out the whole story and including the emails and the pictures. The London Times, The Guardian, The NY Times, The Washington Post etc. Highly probable, about the same level of certainty as the Fourth Titan will continue arguing with me.
At this stage, if I was advising Intel on the matter, I would suggest that this third option is not a good option to fall back on. There is always a first option and a third option - if you select them you fail the test and do not understand my teaching points.
The problems are:
1. one of the papers runs the letter, small but not zero chance, someone in England at a major bank/company say sees the letter and emails senior Intel people and asks what the hell are you guys doing. If you think here I am wrong I refer you to the old man above, he created a firestorm with a single letter, the firestorm occurred to a company as big as Intel. I got to fix it, I fixed a lot of things.
2. At this stage senior Intel people becomes interested and a whole lot of hurt descends on a lot of people. You see Intel sells stuff, SIP does not want to be on CNN saying they are sorry, we are at the start of the return to school shopping season, a lot of Intel chips are being sold.
3. A whole lot of hurt descends on me, it has happened before and it will happen again. I enjoy the argument - ask Titans 1 to 4.
4. Intel asks the representative, "who asked to take down the picture?"
There are things you do in the corporate world and there are things you do not do, I can assure you that asking me to take down the picture is not something you do, if you leave it there, no one except a Kevin Someone cares, in caring about such things Kevin misses the point of the USA, but the lady above does not, ask Captain Portland about the pain, she is risking her life.
You see the person not taking it down had cover, I was to blame, but it was a test. We are sorry you got upset, but it was in accordance with a request to test the system. If you had asked me to take down the test message and that is what it is - I would have said - no problem, but someone turned it into a political matter, a Bill of Rights matter to me.
Never mix corporate with political - bad things happen, do not break the law as a company, bad things happen, do not argue with women or any other identifiable group - bad things happen.
I know this because I used to fix bad things. The Bishop of Maitland once asked me "Was the Pope out the day you rang?" I said- no idea - your Lordship, he then said do you often call the Pope's private secretary. I replied when I need something important to potentially save lives, yes, your Lordship.
A Nun later asked me to introduce her to the Cardinal when he visited Australia. I did. Nice guy, you can look him up his name is Cassidy.
So the point of this long email is, do not mix politics with corporate. I did not object to the posts removal as I knew I would send this one as a further test as to whether the people involved will understand the potential downside from getting involved in a political matter in the corporate world, once it is explained.
I did not include the original picture as a BLM matter, it was just a random shot of American baseball. If some one wishes to object again, I need Intel to understand it is no longer an interesting internal teaching moment for this forum, but has become a Bill of Rights issue. Of course Intel has every right to censor this post and I have every right to write a letter to the editor.
The Bill of Rights is a two edged sword. Children should only play with plastic swords. This is not a plastic sword, it is the sword that holds this country together and it is important.
If I am Intel, then this post is a little annoying, personally I would restore the original, there is nothing bad in the original - your defense is that it was a test, sorry you did not like the baseball photo, I like baseball, and then ask me, do you mind taking this one down? Not at all if the old one is restored and the lesson is learnt.
If I was Intel I would want this one gone, but if Intel does just bin it, then there is a third thing that will happen, personally I do not want that to happen, I enjoy this forum. But as my mother once said, son you only see false and true and to me this is a truth matter.
And:
I think the First Titan is really cool like the Fonze, but no leather jacket, and pens in thye upper pocket, and I like the second Titan as thye email me a lot and thye lives in a cove, and the Third Titan is super cool, but is a bit weird about Dear Name: on the forum and the Fourth Titan is just the perfect sparring partner, like you best friend who you always argue with, but still like. The Fifth Titan is new, like all newbies it takes a while to settle in and learn the features of the group.
So, this is a test, let us see if the test is passed to failed, personally I do not want to waste more time on this matter, but I will if pushed.
That woman is fighting for a cause, I wish I had the guts to stand beside her in Portland, but it is a long way away and I have a 13 year old daughter who needs me. So the picture, sorry, here it is again and when I posted it elsewhere I said something like - this is a major shift in American culture and I am sure Intel's Bob Swan understands that quite well. The statisticians say this is the biggest shift in American Culture since 1967. I remember 1967, it was bad.
If you only think you are a Titan - you are not.
JMN
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