rlfj: Blog

Some interesting feedback to the last chapter:

Will Carl’s knowledge, and what he does with it, change the future enough that his knowledge becomes useless? Or will he still be able to use that knowledge to make things better? Who knows?! Read and find out! Here’s something to think about, though. Carl is worth about $50 million at this point. Let’s say he does a Warren Buffet and grows his net worth to $50 billion. Many of the problems facing the country still can’t be fixed at that level. The U.S. economy is in the $10-$15 trillion dollar level (as of 2018). That’s another few orders of magnitude.

Neither Microsoft nor Bill Gates actually wrote DOS. Very true! Gates purchased it from another programmer, tweaked it as needed for IBM, and retained the marketing rights. (Yes, I know it’s more complicated than that, but you get the gist.) Is this critical to the story? NO! In fact it just adds a layer of confusion for his friends.

What was the name of the investment company Carl mentions? He couldn’t have forgotten E.F. Hutton, could he? You bet he could! Thanks for the reminder. I remembered the ad, but not the company!

Somehow I don't think Moore’s Law refers to beer “...In ten years' time, the size of the components will be a fraction of their current size, the price will be lower than now, even after inflation, and the power will be immensely lager." - Oh, if only Moore’s law applied to beer! The price of a six pack would halve every two years!

What is the name of the next book? The names of your books give hints about what is going to happen. “Lunar Orbit” Oh, wait that’s Book Nine, or is it Book Ten…

Could Carl have bought into Microsoft? Why not? In the real world, somebody did. I read the prospectus from 1986, and an outfit called Technology Venture Investors, a venture capital outfit from Silicon Valley, owned just over 6% at the time of the IPO. Why couldn’t Carl have done it? Maybe he managed to swoop in and get there first.

I got some interesting feedback on the ranking structure of British based police forces. There seems to be a discrepancy between the British system and the Bahamian system. Britain does not have either Corporal or Asst. Superintendant ranks. However, the Bahamas do, and I confirmed this with an email to the Bahamas police force. I think it is definite that the Bahamas based their system on the British but then have modified it to fit their needs (a zillion little islands, for instance.)

Bahamian ranks are:

Commissioner
Deputy Commissioner
Sr. Assistant Commissioner
Assistant Commissioner
Chief Superintendent
Superintendent
Assistant Superintendent
Chief Inspector
Inspector
Sergeant
Corporal
Constable

The staffing level of the Eleuthera Division is presently (as of 2012) forty-eight (48) officers. The rank of the senior officer is Superintendent. There are also two Assistant Superintendents and one Inspector posted to the Division.

I simply assume that in an instance of a major brawl in a bar involving American tourists, a fairly senior cop would show up, in this case the second ranking officer, an Asst. Superintendent.

As you must know by now, I appreciate accuracy and try to be accurate. I got the following note from a reader:

“Correct me if I'm wrong, but your story seems to try to remain within the realms of possibility. I cannot see this scenario being possible. There are quite a few reasons if you’re interested but only someone familiar with Governor's Harbour would notice.”

And that was it! No corrections, despite repeated requests for assistance! I can’t fix things unless I know what to fix! This is the kind of stuff that drives me crazy!

I refer regularly to the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Utica. That hotel is still present, and is one of the better ones in the area, but at some point in the 90s (I think) it was sold to the Radisson chain. Since then it has been sold to Marriott as part of their Delta chain. My family has had many weddings, receptions, and parties there.

Congrats to those who recognized ‘Rufus T. Firefly’ as Groucho Marx’ character in the classic movie Duck Soup. It’s my favorite Marx Brothers’ movie.

To those who commented that it would be impossible to do venture capital in the Baltimore area, I simply point out that Warren Buffet has been able to earn a very nice living running his little shop in Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha? Really? Outside of corn and cattle, it has even less going for it than Baltimore! (I’m sure it’s lovely - don’t stone me with the wonders of Nebraska, please!)

There is still some controversy surrounding how cue balls get to the proper outlet in a coin operated pool table. I have had a lot of people reply it’s not magnetism, but different size that makes the difference. Okay, I went to the font of all knowledge - Wikipedia - and looked it up. Here goes:

“Coin-operated pool tables such as those found at bars historically have often used either a larger ("grapefruit") or denser ("rock", typically ceramic) cue ball, such that its extra weight makes it easy for the cue ball return mechanism to separate it from object balls (which are captured until the game ends and the table is paid again for another game) so that the cue ball can be returned for further play, should it be accidentally pocketed. Rarely in the US, some pool tables use a smaller cue ball instead. Modern tables usually employ a magnetic ball of regulation or near-regulation size and weight, since players have complained for many decades that the heavy and often over-sized cue balls do not "play" correctly.”

So much for that issue; we won’t return to it.

Enjoy!