|
| Sunday, September 29, 2002 |
 |
Dumb? Ask the College Board 
| | There's a conversation raging over at ethePeople about George W. Bush's IQ scores. Seems somebody quoted a source claiming that Bush's alleged IQ of 91 is the lowest among the last twelve presidents. |
| | Though no fan of the man, I had to set matters right. My post doesn't seem to have appeared yet, but when it does, it will point here and here to establish an IQ just over 129. In a less fair world, that would be good to know. |
| | Not that any of it means shit. My best SATs were 486 and 519, for an IQ of 118. I've done much better on actual IQ tests, but without much agreement on scores, which ranged across 80 points. |
| | I hated being measured. Still do. The real agenda of standadized testing in school — sorting students into castes — was too obvious to me. So was the likelihood that my easily bored and error-prone nature would doom me to the dumb-ass track. Which is exactly what happened. By the 8th grade I was headed toward the local vocational-technical high school where they taught "manual arts." My IQ score that year was 103 and my Iowa Achievement Test scores topped out at the 10th percentile. As I recall, my vocabulary score was an 8 and my reading score was a zero. |
| | I still thank my parents every day for never doubting that I was a smart kid who just didn't get along with The System — and for doing their best to shepherd me through the educational mill. |
| | I say bravo to Dubya's parents for having faith in their kids, too. From where I sit, that's what counts. Not old scores. |
| | As for the genius in us all (including Bush II), I'll turn the mouse over to Whitman: |
| | I know that I have the best of time and space.
And that I was never measured, and never will be measured. |
Got a feeling there's a market for these. Kinda like the one for bifocals.
| | I tried to install MacGimp yesterday. Crashed the living shit out of the TiBook. Scared to try it again, though I really want to use it. Unfortunately during the move the Ti is my only box, and I don't want to take too many chances with it. |
| | Another context. At the new place Job One will be getting up and running on a new Linux system. Job Two will be creating a setup where the Linux system is the main box in the office while the TiBook with OS X is the laptop for the road. My main ax right now is the TiBook. I'll want GIMP (among many other things) running on both. |
| | For the move I'm finally retiring my old Linux system; but not just because it's older than most good wines. I can't take the noise anymore. I have a case of tinnitus that is worsened by computer fan noise. A loud fan, or one that emits dog whistle sounds, turns an annoying tone into squealing brakes. I'd hide the box, but the place we're moving is temporary, and all the boxes will have to share one office. |
| | So I'm looking for a new box with quietude as well as good technical specs. Ideas? |
Chill up
| | Reuters says ice meteors have been falling from the sky, ripping holes in roofs, smashing windshields and stuff like that. The record is a 440 pound piece that landed in Brazil. A scientist in Spain attributes it to global warming, somehow. |
Game over
| | Business likes markets, markets like an unfettered Net, and markets are made of people. Millions of them. That's all the foreshadowing we need for the end of the Hollywood vs. Internet story. |
So much for the fire season
| | Our first real rain since February here on the South Coast of California. Just hope it lets up when I start driving boxes between houses in the morning. |
Throwing coins down the gravity well
| | In any technical discussion on a newsgroup or email list, where a technical problem exists and the discussion gets longer, the probability that Microsoft will be blamed approaches 1. |
| | Microsoft is a conversational black hole. Drop the subject into the middle of a room and it sucks everybody into a useless place from which no light can escape. |
| | That quote introduced The Shrinking Subject, my Linux For Suits editorial for the August 2000 issue of Linux Journal. I wrote it in May 2000, when common wisdom being channeled through the mainstream press was that Microsoft would be broken up, and everybody was wondering exactly how that would happen. |
| | Interesting to read it again, nearly 2.5 years later. I said the company would remain in one piece, and that its strategy was to play rope-a-dope with Judge Jackson and win on appeal. And it looks like I was pretty much right. Happens sometimes. |
discuss
Copyright 2009 The Doc Searls Weblog
|
