I.T. Erudio

Clever heading here – Welcome

Just a place for me to put my random thoughts …

  • Vince Lombardi – Speech 1970

    SO “back in the day” (in another lifetime, in a small town in southwestern Ohio when I might have described myself as an “athlete”) a high school teacher gave me a mimeograph (“ditto sheet”) copy of a speech by Vince Lombardi. Yes, that is the “Vince Lombardi” for which the “Lombardi Trophy” is named. The…

  • Dumbledore vs Gandalf

    A “social media” post had a poll going about who would win between “Professor Albus Dumbledore” (from the “Harry Potter” books) and Gandalf the grey/white (from The Lord of the Rings – LotR). Well, I didn’t bother voting in the poll – I think Dumbledore was winning – but that isn’t the point. Polls The…

  • value, price gouging, and, monopolies

    Every “introduction to economics” book will have a chart showing the relationship between “supply” and “demand.” Pointing out that as supply (of a manufactured product) goes up, unfulfilled demand goes down probably sounds obvious, but the relationship works both ways — i.e. if “demand” goes down, then “supply” will decrease. However the relationship between supply…

  • look for the union label, corporate profits, and inflation

    A “meme” post caught my attention. I’ve seen various versions – but the gist is always that “corporate profits” are the cause of “inflation.” From a “marketing” point of view the meme does a lot of things right – the version that caught my attention “caught audience attention” by stating that “The profits of the…

  • Movies, Television, and Streaming

    Correlation never equals causality. Maybe that one line sums up “logic 101” and/or “statistics 101.” The example I used to hear was that there was a positive correlation between ice cream sales and drowning. As ice cream sales increase so does the number of deaths by drowning. BUT eating ice cream does not CAUSE drowning…

  • memoirs of an adjunct instructor or What do you mean “full stack developer?”

    During the “great recession” of 2008 I kind of backed into “teaching.” The small company where I was the “network technician” for 9+ years wasn’t dying so much as “winding down.” I had ample notice that I was becoming “redundant” – in fact the owner PROBABLY should have “let me go” sooner than he did.…

  • Plot holes and “Star Wars” …

    “Telling stories” is a euphemism for “lying.” “Lying” obviously requires a “lie” to build around – with the definition of “lie” (the third definition from Merriam-Webster: “to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive”) being the relevant point. Not that INTENT is required. SO it is POSSIBLE for someone to “tell a story” that is not…

  • What is the purpose of amateur sports?

    Maybe the first question becomes “Do amateur sports have a purpose?” The numbers fluctuate but there are AROUND 1 million high school football players each year in the United States. Around 7.8% of those high school football players will play in college (at any level). Less than 0.5% of those college players will make an…

  • Mr. Shakespeare, marketing, and the “Western”

    A lifetime ago I worked as a “student employee” as an undergrad. I was helping out the “system administration” folks – and ended up doing low level “desktop support” for faculty members. random thought: I remember running the big ol’ suit case size “VHS video” camera when they gave a presentation about this new “internet”…

  • genre twists and franchise changes

    Re-watched the original “Mad Max” (1979) – available on various “streaming services.” Now, the ORIGINAL “Mad Max” was/is a “low budget” Australian movie. It didn’t get “distributed” in the U.S. “back in the day” – which was why “Mad Max 2” (1981) was released as “The Road Warrior” (1982) in the U.S. The “low budget”…