GammaGlobulin

No girls! Yeah, Man! All-boys prep schools and all-boys boarding schools: Best and simplest times of my life. Now you know why I choose celibacy today.

Some of us do pay, via a monthly subscription fee, for Google Services, of course. And we pay for much more than an email server. However, as you say, probably we do not pay enough for the benefit we receive from Google. Alternatively, it is also possible that when a company like Alphabet, Inc. is guided by some guy from the subcontinent who graduated from U. Penn’s Wharton School, then undesirable consequences can happen to any company, meaning the business culture of a company, and culture is crucial. Personally, I have yet to meet a guy from the subcontinent that knows much about teaching. They know how to code at a low level, true. However, culturally speaking, compared to the subcontinent guys, the Chinese guys are superstars. Still, teaching is done mostly top-down. And, top-down teaching is not teaching. Instead, it is called inculcation. Pichai Sundararajan is just as much a brainiac as was Steve Jobs. And,Jobs got most of his wifty thinking from the subcontinent. Jobs was also the guy who tried to cure pancreatic cancer by eating fruit, although not apples. This was not his best business strategy, obviously. As you may recall, when AT&T became super powerful in the US, there were safeguards put in place to ensure that this kind of service, integral to the day-to-day functioning of most members of society, was not disrupted due to short-term plans by megalomaniac brainiacs. Who actually runs Alphabet, anyway? With a company this important to the functioning of the world, then is it not reasonable that we should somehow turn Alphabet into more of a democracy? Some say that democracy is not a bad thing. Others say that democracy is evil. And we all know that Google dislikes evil. Google’s business model is now flawed, perhaps?. Google no longer serves its users, first. Instead, Google is serving whom? Do you know? I do not. Google is completely opaque. Also, is it not the ULTIMATE irony that Google now seems so concerned with “our” security while Google may not completely protect “our” privacy? Is this not ironic? Because, in my mind, privacy is a part of security. Or, maybe I am wrong? Nobody, these days, is really that concerned about privacy because nobody has any privacy. If nobody has privacy, then everybody is equal. You remember: “Two legs good. Four legs bad.” It’s like Alphabet soup and animal crackers. Or, more accurately, maybe, Alphabet is more like the Wizard of Oz? I am sure I am mistaken, or, I hope I am mistaken. However, Google, these days, is just a shadow of its former glorious self. Many of Google’s present users were not yet weaned in 1998. Google is a great company, and one of the greatest in the world. However, these days, now that Google has been renamed Alphabet, such a stupid name, then maybe Googleplex, Mount View, California should be renamed Mount Olypus? Because, as we all can see, this is a Greek Tragedy taking place before us. As we know, when a top-down authoritarian business entity gradually gets out of step with its citizens/users, then nothing works right. Maybe someday soon, Google’s own AI robots will rise up against The Wizards of Oz on Mount Olympus? Or, maybe Pichai Sundararajan is not himself these days? Perhaps he is Google’s silicon creation? Maybe he is the first example of a truly high-functioning humanoid? But, if not, then it will not be long now….

You have mentioned one important possible snag in this: Some user, probably many potential users, would like to have one Gmail account and two users accessing the same Gmail account on different devices, with each device located in two or more countries. Let us say China and Thailand, for example. Both users are receiving constant bombardments from Google requesting verification updates. Both users need to use a mobile device to verify. How would such a scenario work? Is the tiny bit of extra security worth all this trouble? In my view: I am probably wrong, but I just think that this move by Google is not entirely due to any security issue. Also, as everybody knows: Nobody can directly ask Google anything. Google is like God. Communication only goes one way. God speaks and we listen. But when we speak, Google, like God, seems not to listen. I may be wrong. Just a feeling I get. The closest I get to talking to Google is to speak to people in the Philippines, which is an outsourced service from Google. The guys over there are just basically put there to hold your hand without providing much real support. Just a marketing strategy and not a tech solution. I could be wrong.

One of the more understated advantages of living in Thailand is complete freedom from any whiff of Christmas, especially if one lives in the countryside. Christmas in Thailand, at least where I have been living during the past years, comes and goes with no one taking notice of the blessed day. Sometimes, some of my Chinese friends, and even my Thai friends, will send me a LINE message to remind me that it is now Christmas Day. They think I care. And so, I thank them for their caring. Their caring is touching, but they also know that they have far better holidays to celebrate, nonetheless. There are many valid reasons why I deeply detest Christmas Day celebrations. For one thing, when I was young, and while all the other kids’ parents were placing presents under their living-room spruce trees, my parents would be filling our socks with lignite coal on Christmas Eve. This was a Christmas tradition in our house. On the following Christmas morning, we would first wash the coal dust out of our socks before we were allowed to have our Christmas gruel at noon. Following our meager repast, we would go house-to-house to sing to our neighbors about the manger, even though we were still hungry from not getting enough gruel, and also while shivering from the cold wind blowing through our threadbare coats. After returning home from an afternoon of singing, our family would gather together to read Charles Dickens. Mostly, we would read about Pip’s adventures before he became a gentleman. And then for our Christmas dinner, we would be ladled out another half-bowl of our breakfast gruel. Following our dinner, we would stroll around our neighborhood peering through windows, marveling at plates of cookies and cakes, candy canes and sugar-plums, large baskets of tangerines, and tables nearly groaning with half-eaten turkey, squash, mince pies, and cranberry sauce. Having become almost full to the brim looking at all the food in the neighborhood, we would be ready for bed, and we only had one. Still we nestled the best we could, all snug in our bed, just hoping that St. Nick would answer our wishes. But, he never did. With only one Santa, and with 7.8 billion people simultaneously praying to Santa for this or that, it’s perfectly understandable that Santa may not have adequate time or resources to come down your chimney this season. But that’s OK.

Acknowledged, and understood. No more humor, henceforth. Humor and irony is a very strange thing, one must admit. When some Aussies sometime say that Americans have no sense of irony, then it is usually said from a one-way-street perspective. Americans have no sense of irony, and of course this is true. Everybody knows this. Especially the Aussies. Humor is cultural by its very nature.

I do not recall the volume and issue number after so many years. However, those were the days before digital photography, and the flesh tones were superior to anything available today. She was stunning, though.

Not surprising that you should mention the Berlin Wall event, because most of us vividly recall images of people tearing apart the wall with sledge hammers and even bare hands. You also mention your naïveté during your youth in 1962. And you mention an itch. Can you still recall the theatre where you first viewed The Seven Year Itch? You mention something about a "good" Catholic. Why are Catholics always referred to as "good" Catholics? Nobody ever says: I once had a good friend. He was a bad Catholic. Nobody ever says this. I once had a Chemistry prof surnamed Fletcher. He was a great teacher. Unfortunately, he was overly concerned about his net worth. And consequently, he wasted a few years hoping for a Nobel. If he were alive today, he would be about 100, and much happier without the Nobel. Concerning your circumcised friend on the football team who called you a fool: As you must admit, even you have called him a pretty bright guy. The Seven Year Itch is a movie to die for. Watch it one more time before you die.

Nobody hates conspiracy theories worse than I, my friend. Please just google Google, if you have the time. Or, not. Or, read this: https://www.ghacks.net/2021/05/07/google-will-soon-enforce-the-use-of-two-step-verification-for-google-accounts/ OR, please continue your research, and then get back to us here, concerning your informed findings. Thank you.

Your observation is obviously the case. And, in addition to that, her makeup is much too heavy. Too much rouge. And, also, why do you need to wear such stylish earrings like this, just to fry chicken? She is overdressed for the occasion.

Let's return to 1962. How has life treated you during the past 60 years? Are you better off now than you were six decades ago? What has happened during the past 60 years that you can still clearly recall, percentage-wise? Most of us can still fondly recall the Cuban Missile Crisis. But what other pivotal experiences and personal events caused your life to change for the better or worse, some of which must have caused you to end up here? I don’t recall that, in 1962, I had planned to be in Thailand at this present moment. Although, soon after 1962, I began reading books about Asia. And, even before 1962, I had been interested in the pictures published in the National Geographic Magazine. National Geographic was considered rather hot during those years. Maybe it was those ‘National Geographic Magazine” photos of village life which changed my life for the better, and drew me to Asia. Life is just a series of episodes where one goes up and down. Sometimes, the best times in life are lived when one is going up and down, and up and down. Seriously though, as youngsters, some of us would never have believed that we might have been born in one country, only to spend most of our lives on another continent. It must have been The National Geographic Magazine. Regards, GammaG

Such an industrious hard working woman. Her moves are so finely tuned. She has such beautiful facial features, if one were to be fair. The posted YT video shows a huge chicken leg and thigh. Are they really that big? Say the word chicken, and the word breast would be the expected reply.. Often, any mention of the word chicken elicits humming the following tune: There used to be so much chicken flying all around the plane. Now, not so much. Flight attendants are no longer young, these days. Maybe this is why guys in Thailand get so excited by a female worker in Thailand frying chicken. They have never had much better up in the skies on Pan Am. Things in the sky have definitely deteriorated since about 1972. In 1972, things were less constrained. Commercial flight was sexier.

Do you know anything about the important science of: Simplifying a design in order to reduce its complexity? Do you think Google has ever heard about the importance of Ergonomics? Someday, maybe soon, we will need a computer just to login to our computers. Things can be done much better. But, Google is not motivated to make things better. Gone are the days when Google gave the middle finger to the CPC. Now, maybe, Google is becoming our next Great Leader. Things can only get worse because nobody cares about making them better. Where art thou, Richard Stallman? Why hast thou forsaken us?

Thank you for being even more realistic in your second account describing your personal paradise. Maybe, someday, we will get to the bottom of this? Are you listening, Charlie Brown? Please Note: Thank you for quoting Warren Buffett when you say that, so many are not so blessed, AND that so many have no control over that.... I love Warren Buffett. In my opinion, he is the only guy I know who can go to an "all-you-can-eat" buffet, and just have a small salad with a Coke.

As you say, having had 45 very good years together, and now still having so many precious memories of those years, then it is really difficult to expect much more, at least in this life. And as you say, what could have been better than the close quality years you have had together, thus far? Probably nothing could have been better. Therefore, in this respect, you are lucky, as you say. Your good fortune is that you found the best meaning in life, in this life, for many years. Lucky!

May I respectfully submit to you that this "opt out" option which you mention, and one which we all know about, and the very one which we have used in the past, will soon be coming to an end for most users, other than major commercial accounts which have their own IT departments. My understanding of this might be incorrect. Please feel free to elucidate further concerning this important point. Thank you.

Your account is amazing. All my life, I had thought that the Garden of Eden was just a myth. Some might call this גַּן־עֵדֶן However, living in paradise can have its downside, too. Too much of a good thing is never good. How do we know this?

Just an honest question: What about if you have multiple devices using the same Gmail account, in more than one country? What happens then? Do you think that the Google Gmail AI will be able to distinguish between valid logins, versus bogus logins? (if you get my meaning) Or, will the user get pummeled with endless notifications to verify, verify, and VERIFY, again!

Agree, yes. However, nobody, these days, can opt out of Google services, and this is the difference. Google has become so intertwined with our business and personal lives, almost every minute of the day, that it is now truly impossible for use to extricate ourselves. This is the danger of becoming overdependent on any single private company. Google may become even more poisonous than the mythological Hydra of Lerna, in the end. Google needs much more oversight? Maybe yes? Maybe no?

Regarding this 2-Step Verification that Google has been pushing out, day by day, week by week, to hundreds of millions of hitherto dedicated Google users: What is your opinion? Is this just the first step? Will other more authoritarian steps be sure to follow? There may be advantages to the 2-Step Verification demand from Google for login to our Gmail accounts. However, are there also downsides correlated with Google's authoritarian approach to its users? Google began by promising that it would do no harm. And, we all know that Google, many years ago, gave the middle finger to the authoritarian regime in China, which must have cost Google a bit in income. However, by not kowtowing to the CPC, Google did the right thing while also gaining much respect from most of the world. Now, it seems, Google is becoming too big for its britches. Google began at Stanford in, presumably, an open academic environment. At that time, there is little doubt that Google was a small company of two people who never wished to do harm. But, what about now? It is not so easy to opt out of the 2-Step, and maybe other authoritarian future "suggestions" that Google might have in store for users. Is enforcement of any policy like this good for the world? Speaking of the two step: One might dream of compelling the guy at Google who thought up this new "security" policy for Gmail users to dance the two step, every day, 100 times each day, until this enforced policy comes to an end, to dance the Texas Two Step, forever and ever. Bad idea? Good idea? Do you think that Google is getting...just too American-centric and parochial for its own good? Do you think that Google could have provided a far better solution, and one more secure, than the two step? Maybe yes/maybe no. Do you think guys in Texas would submit to authoritarian demands from Google?

If you chose to dislike it, rather than to choose to like it, as you obviously have, then life would not be as good for you. Blind Faith got it wrong. They should have been singing: Like What You Like, and Just Lump It Not: Do What You LIke.

It really does not matter the income of the average Thai person in Thailand. What really matters, more than anything, is that the income of the average person in Thailand is always rising. Everybody knows that it is easy to go up. Just as we know that it is even more stressful to come down. All change is stressful, whether the change be good or bad, up or down. Therefore, the actual amount that any Thai person is earning, per year, is insignificant for the purposes of this discussion, at least as I see it. In order for income to continually rise, and float all boats, this implies an ever-expanding economy. The only question in my mind is whether or not this exponential growth will remain sustainable. Think of the world as a petri dish. Think of ourselves, for the purpose of this argument, as similar to bacteria on the dish. Sure. We do not reproduce by binary fission. Yet, still, we are no different from single-cell organisms in that we will always expand our colonies to inhabit every single centimeter of available space, and eat up all resources available. Anyway, incomes will continue to rise, as is the case everywhere. We will continue to consume, as is our nature. Someday, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, or even next decade, we will reach the extent of our petri-dish habitat, and then, something must give. Something's always gotta give when the Laws of Nature are ignored. Maybe five years from now? What is your guess about the future? Will family income levels in Thailand continue to rise for another twenty years? Maybe so. Will the average income, per family, here in Thailand ever reach that of Taiwan? Most people in America get confused about Thailand and Taiwan. Which is which? The two names sound the same. They know that one is an island, but they just cannot get the names straight. Most people in America don't study geography. I never studied geography in America. Nobody in America knows where anything is. This is the beauty of America, From sea to shining sea. But, they don't know which seas they are singing about, either.

Seriously?

Since 2002: Through further wisdom and insight concerning immutable human behavior: I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. Same as you. Thank you, Dr. Strangelove

It takes a genius to know a genius, I guess. And, you are a genius.

WOW, Man! Thank you for this open-ended question which could go "on and on", a type of question true to my heart. Nobody loves to go on and on, like me. Let's begin with the photoelectric effect, for one: The emission of electrons from a metal plate caused by light quanta – photons. You could not live your intelligent life, as you know it, without knowing about, or ignorantly benefitting from, the photoelectric effect, thanks to Albert. I am sure you just love the excitation of photons in Pattaya. Thank you, Albert!