Re: OT Jeopardy Winner 12/15/2022

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 12/16/2022 3:42 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
> On 12/16/2022 5:13 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>> On 12/16/2022 2:59 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
>>> On 12/16/2022 4:44 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>>> On 12/16/2022 1:40 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
>>>>> On 12/16/2022 3:25 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>>>>> On 12/15/2022 6:07 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
>>>>>>> Hey Bob,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Do you know or are you related to a "Ray La Londe"???
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Well either way he is now the Jeopardy Champion as of tonight!!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> He won #32,600.   Maybe more on the way.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Just I would share the news!!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Les
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If I wasn't before I am now.  LOL.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nah! I don't actually know all that many La Londes.  Less than a
>>>>>> hundred probably. We've been in country since the 1680s, but most
>>>>>> are in the north country with a few in the deep south.  Cajuns and
>>>>>> Canuks. Mostly Canuks.  Far less of us are Damn Yankees.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't have any immediate relationship I am aware of.  No, I'm
>>>>>> not directly related to that Canadian boxer either.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now if you asked if I was related to that Bob La Londe who was a
>>>>>> research mechanic at NASA's Lewis Research Center who retired in
>>>>>> the early 1980s.  Yes.  That was my Grammpa.  If you asked if I
>>>>>> was related to the Paul La Londe who held several patents for R&D
>>>>>> work with Donn Products (USG NOW) including the ceiling tile grid
>>>>>> latch most of us have cursed at one time or another.   Yes.  He
>>>>>> was my uncle.  If you asked if I was related to the grocery and
>>>>>> hardware store owner from Dateland.  (2 miles north of Dateland
>>>>>> actually.) Yep.  That's my dad.  If you asked if I am related to
>>>>>> that kid named Rob La Londe who is a licensed pharmacy tech, crazy
>>>>>> smart gamer (with paid creds as a gamer), and mad higher math
>>>>>> skills. Yep. That's my son.  If you asked if I am related to that
>>>>>> hack shade tree button pushing wannabee not a real machinist.
>>>>>> That's me.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sorry.  I do not know who Ray is.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> LOL thanks for the Family Tree!!
>>>>>
>>>>> Depending on how long this "Ray La Londe" can maintain his
>>>>> championship on Jeopardy it might be a good thought to check the
>>>>> DNA just to know.;-)
>>>>>
>>>>> Last week the Champion walked out with more than $850,000.00
>>>>>
>>>>> Les
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It was probably more like $400,000 and many of the prizes wouldn't
>>>> be claimable if he couldn't independently pay the taxes on them first.
>>>>
>>>> I've day dreamed about winning the lottery so I only have to do jobs
>>>> that really interest me.  I've done the research.  LOL.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> On Jeopardy it is only ca$h.  No prizes!!  And yes, the actual take-home
>>> is always less than what is posted. It is the taxes! That will get you.
>>>
>>> But, forgetting the taxes, the WHAT IS LEFT!! Is not to be cried about!!
>>>
>>> I gave up on the Lottery before the Flood of 1972!!
>>> They always say "You gotta to play to win"
>>> What they don't say is, You gotta to play to lose!!
>>>
>>
>> Ultimately you play to have fun.  (I don't buy lottery tickets but my
>> wife does once in a while.)Â  I used to enjoy playing low limit 7 card
>> stud in Vegas.  Even if I was losing I had fun.  Sometimes I won and a
>> few times I pulled crazy movie level bluffs and won (and lost).  Then
>> everybody switched to high pressure, high speed aggressive play Texas
>> Holdem.  It wasn't fun for me.  I could hold my own unless there were
>> more than two or three good players at the table, but it was not fun.
>> It was hard work in your face game play.
>>
>> I figure one day I'll come home and find my wife gone with a couple
>> bags missing.  I'll know we finally won the lottery.  I'll call her of
>> course.  I hope I catch her before she gets to far out to sea on her
>> round the world cruise, so she can tell me where my half is stashed.
>>
>>
>>
> Back in the 80's when I got my first computer "Timex Sinclair".  I got
> it on a 30 Day Trail basis for $99.99 and $39.99 for a extra 16K memory
> card.  It connected to my TV and the keyboard was about 4"x7" pressure
> sensitive keys.
> After I taught myself to write a Basic Language program to generate a
> random 3 digit number I ended up calling my Dad and told him what I got.
> He really never understood that "computer thing" but I said that I could
> generate a 3 digit number for him to play on the Lottery this week.
> He always played the Lottery!!  He said "Ok?"
>
> So I loaded the program and pressed Enter.
> The number that came up was 2 7 2
> I said to my Dad "The computer says 2 7 2 so play that number this week!
> He said "Well Ok  ?"
> Soooooo Friday night I am watching the News and at the end at 6:59pm
> they do that Lottery Drawing thing.
>
> The first number was a     2
> The Second number was a    7
> The third number was a     2
>
> I called my Dad and said "DAD!! DAD!! You Won!!!!
> There was dead silence............................
> I said Dad did you see the number came up you WON!!!
> He said, I forgot to buy a ticket.................
>
> He kicked himself for years after that.  And it never happened again!!
>
> Totally TRUE STORY!!!
>
> Oh, I ended up taking the Timex Sinclair back and got a refund.  Then
> went out and bought an ATARI 400Â  :-)
>
> Hope you enjoyed the History Story!!!
>
> Les


Well if you just want to talk about antiques I learned to write BASIC on
a Commodore Pet 2001 with a push button tape drive.  That would have
been around 1977.  I wrote a numbers instead of colors version of Master
Mind on the Heathkit H89A and I was in the process of writing a black
jack program when APS dropped a wire across another wire feeding a
massive over voltage into every household in the area.  I knew there was
a problem when the surge suppressor exploded and flames shot up the wall.

The H89A with its Z80 could have eaten a half dozen Timex Sinclairs
before breakfast.

I got to play with some Apple II+ computers in school in 81/82, but it
wasn't until 83 when I discovered the wide open world of the PC/XT.

In the mid 90s a buddy of mine was setting up networks in local high
schools.  At one point he had a bunch of the old PC cases with the holes
for the two big connectors in the back.  He was whining because he
couldn't put AT boards in them.  I said, "I have a Sawzall and a bunch
of hole saws."  We were installing computers with sushi cases before
anybody knew what a sushi case was.

Sushi cases were the nickname we gave the cheap Chinese stamped cases
that were not deburred.  The joke was you would get chopped up like
sushi building computers with them.  Used to buy a lot of that stuff
from Yokohama Telecom.  Back then the Computer Shopper was still a great
resource for computer businesses and serious hacks.  I used to call
Yokohama Telecom about once a week and ask what the specials were.
Often as the new tech was coming out they would be selling the last gen
at dumpster fire pricing.  I made a little bit of coin on the bulletin
boards upgrading PCs (XT and AT) for the social computing crowd.


A couple years earlier my buddy with the PC cases at one point was just
dumping XT hardware from his computer business.  I offered him a dollar
a board for everything he was going to throw in the trash.  I made a
pretty good coin upgrading XTs for people.  For 20 dollars I'd drop an
RLL controller in a PC and give somebody 50% more drive space.  For $30
I'd set them up with an MFM-A controller and almost double their drive
space.  All the folks who couldn't afford a real computer store.  I'd
give them a small bump instead of forcing them to buy current generation
right now like the computer stores.  The PC I used for surfing the
bulletin boards back then was an XT with a 5 meg  Seagate (not gig meg)
hard drive and an RLL controller giving me a whopping 7.5 meg.  I also
had a 286 with a bit more specs, but that was my play computer.  LOL.  I
probably still threw away 75% of those boards, but I made money first.


That was also when I started writing the story, "Hackers & Phreakers &
Things That Go Bump In the Night," on the never ending story board on
Timelords BBS.  Things have changed so much since then I don't know if
its even still relevant.




--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff


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