Edinburgh pictures from TI

Mychaela Falconia mychaela.falconia at gmail.com
Wed May 19 01:19:20 UTC 2021


Hi David,

> I think the statue will be Allan Ramsay.

Thank you for identifying it!  I have read up on the subject, and as
it turns out, just to make matters more complicated for today's folks
trying to understand history, there were two different Allan Ramsays,
father and son, and apparently both reached high accomplishment and
fame, the father as a poet and the son as a portrait painter.  The
statue is of the elder Allan Ramsay, apparently.

> No need to pull that one down which I'm unconvinced is ever a good idea

Huh?  Is there someone calling for that statue to be taken down?
Certainly not me, and in my quick web searches I never found any
mention of anyone calling for such.  In fact I never found any mention
of any controversy regarding either of the two Allan Ramsays - is
there some controversy going on that I missed?

I do, however, feel that it would be rather irresponsible for someone
like me to have that picture as a background wallpaper on her phone
without having a slightest clue as to whose statue it is, which is why
I asked for help in identifying it.

> I don't know Edinburgh,

All I know is that it is one of several geographical locations where
legendary TI Calypso history happened, joining the ranks of Nice in
France and Aalborg in Denmark.  Nice is where the chips themselves
were developed, along with the most interesting low-level software
components like Layer 1 and the DSP code, whereas TI-DK in Aalborg
designed and built all of TI's original development boards like
D-Sample and Leonardo.  As for the Condat-turned-TI group in Edinburgh,
the handset UI layer is the only part that came from them, to the best
of my knowledge.

Yes, I am *really* obsessed with the history of TI's GSM chipset
business.  A few years ago my life partner and I watched the somewhat
famous lesbian movie La Vie d'Adele (translated into English as Blue
is the Warmest Color), that movie is set in France, and I couldn't
help but notice that some of the background scenery depicted in that
movie looks like it might be Cote d'Azure, the area around Nice.  As I
was watching those scenes, I couldn't help but think "wow, I may be
looking at the place where the creators of the Calypso lived and
worked!"

> not even sure travel there is permissible
> at the moment with the covid nonsense

Yes, this part sucks for sure.  Right now pretty much the whole world
is off-limits to me for travel, with the exception of just USA and
Mexico.  Thankfully I live right next to the Mexican border, and
thankfully it is still possible to cross into Mexico by land (in your
own car, yay!) without being stopped or subjected to any tests or
quarantines.  My partner and I have been to Mexico twice this year,
first in February and then again earlier this month, both times for
medical tourism purposes.  My original first-choice medical tourism
destination of Thailand is now off-limits, with that country's govt
imposing tyrannical quarantine terms which are absolutely unacceptable
to me, but thankfully I found another surgeon in Mexico who can do
what I want (MtF conversion can be done in several different ways, and
I want mine done in a very particular way) - hence my multiple trips
across the border this year for consultation and for various
arrangements.

Another pleasant finding I had on both of my trips to Tijuana this
year was perfectly good GSM/2G coverage!  My partner and I have legacy
T-Mobile USA SIM cards from many years ago, the kind one can't get any
more, the kind with the classic GSM SIM application present and
enabled, and when we were in Tijuana, our GSM phones roamed on Mexican
operator 334-020.  Let's hope that this Tijuana GSM/2G coverage will
still be there in late August, as that is the time frame my surgery is
scheduled for - I am scheduled to stay in Mexico for a total time of
just under two weeks, including pre-op preparations and post-op
recovery, and I look forward to generating some non-trivial amount of
traffic on that GSM network when I am there!

> Scotland about to become a separate state (maybe!)

I did some web searches to educate myself on this topic, and from what
I've read, it appears that any movement in that direction will be years
away at the soonest.  And I most certainly don't have a slightest clue
as to whether any such Scottish independence would be good or bad - I
am simply too far away from that part of the world to be able to form
any kind of intelligent opinion on such matters.

The ONLY political issue of any kind which I care about at the present
is my right to remain vaccine-free, and I mean here in USA.  If I can
never again travel outside of USA+Mexico territory, so be it.

Hasta la Victoria, Siempre,
Mychaela aka The Mother


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