Welcome

Tomcats Novel– Presents a synopsis of my Novel called Tomcats.

Reviews – Reviews by those who have read the Tomcats novel for the prospective reader.

The Author – A historical perspective of the novel and autobiography creation.

Autobiography – A preview of my autobiography giving some of the famous quotes during my life.

Diabetes Fundamentals – A summary of some basic fundamentals to aid the diabetic.

Number Systems – Different numbering systems are described to illustrate the importance of “bits”.

Purchase – Buy and download Tomcats (download includes all popular e-Book formats).

Steve Jobs – My special tribute to Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs

It’s a sad time. Steve Jobs passed away October 5, 2011.

I was hit hard by his passing and want to highlight my admiration for Steve Jobs by describing the one time I met Steve in a business relationship. I am a retired 3Mer who was once responsible for 3M’s Diskette Laboratory in the former Data Recording Products Division.

From 1981 to 1985 my highest priority development programs dealt with new formats resulting in greater data storage.  3M already supplied Apple 5¼ inch floppy diskettes used on their Apple I and II computers but during 1982 and 1983 a media capable of storing more bits per inch was in high demand.

Apple was one of the first to use 3M’s high density magnetic media in a 5¼ inch floppy disk format. It was used on Apple’s Lisa Computer. By the middle of 1983, my laboratory was working on 3 inch, 3¼ inch, 3½ inch, and 3.9 inch formats; all of these formats used the same magnetic media used in the Lisa 5¼ inch floppy diskette.

So, in mid-1983, when our sales force received a request from Apple regarding our new high density media, we were quick to respond.  The Diskette Business Unit Leader and I took off for California immediately.  On the way to Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, our salesman informed me that Apple wanted to talk to the main technical person responsible for the new high density media.  The meeting was at 9:00 a.m. and we arrived just in time.

The receptionist put us in a small conference room just a few feet away from the front lobby.  There were only four chairs in the room and no table so we were wondering what kind of meeting we were going to be attending. It seemed that the room was too small for a meeting but it did have a sofa with two end tables on the left side of the door.  I took up a spot on the right side of the sofa near the end table since there was an ash tray on the end table and I was still smoking Kool cigarettes.

The first person that joined us was Mr. Holt.  He was using the ash tray on the opposite end of the sofa from me.  His card said “Fellow”.  That really interested me and in response to my questions he explained that he helped Steve with special projects.  In fact, he had recently helped Steve form a new department.  I didn’t feel I had the right to ask what department and he didn’t offer the identity before our discussion changed to a new topic.

Then a secretary announced that Steve Jobs was going to be late for the meeting but he was on his way. The reason was that the bridge on this side of the mountain had been washed out by a rainstorm and it would take him longer to go down the other side.  This was a surprise.  None of us knew that it was Steve Jobs who wanted to see the responsible technical man. So, while waiting, Mr. Holt and I got better acquainted.

Then five people entered the conference room dragging their chairs.  They all sat in a clump next to the chalk board in the L to the right of the doorway.  No one introduced them and they sat patiently as Mr. Holt started telling me Apple’s concern about the magnetic media’s ability to withstand various temperatures during its use.  One of Apple’s concerns was whether or not the media would maintain its data integrity while being carried around in a shirt pocket.  I told him that we had quite comprehensive testing experience and could help him with their testing when the time came.

It wasn’t long before Steve Jobs and another fellow entered the conference room.  Steve sat down on the sofa in between Holt and me and the other fellow took one of the chairs on the opposite wall.  I don’t remember any tough questions from Steve but, at this point, he was the only Apple person who said anything.  It became apparent that Steve was mainly interested in the 3½ inch data cartridge format and 3M’s ability to provide reliable media.

After only a few minutes of discussion we all stood up and the meeting was over.  Steve Jobs turned to me and poked me in the chest with his right index finger and said, “Look, I know you have the media and I know that somebody down the street has the cartridge.  I’m going to Japan and get the drive.”  He was referring to the Sony 3½ inch diskette cartridge drive.  He had concluded that we could supply the high density magnetic media, already being used on the Lisa computer, in the 3½ inch cartridge format.  He was also announcing that he knew Verbatim had cartridge technology (they were located just down the street).

As we were driving back to the airport, the salesman asked if I knew who I had been sitting across from in the meeting.  Of course, I had no idea.  Then he informed me that this person was one of the original employees of Apple when they first started.  He had been the technician who helped put the first Apple prototype together in the garage. This was another indication of how important this meeting was in their decision process.  After all, he must have been a major stock holder.

About six months later, Apple announced the Macintosh computer.  It initially was sold with a single-sided 3½ inch diskette cartridge Sony drive. Apparently, Mr. Holt had helped Steve set up a department called the Macintosh Department. A subsequent Apple Annual Report presented a picture of the Macintosh management team. The five people pictured were the same people that sat in a clump by the chalk board.

In 1984, I was one of the first Managers at 3M to type my own quarterly progress report on a Macintosh computer.  I often wondered what Steve Jobs would think as I carried my 3½ inch cartridge around in my shirt pocket.  At that point, Steve Jobs had achieved another one of his visions.

At 3M, we were all proud of the part we played in the Lisa Computer Development and then how our media was initially the media of choice for the Macintosh.  In my search for competence, Steve Jobs has to rank as one of the most competent people I’ve met.  We will miss him.

Byron Gorres

Diabetes Fundamentals

Table of Contents
Introduction
History
The Triangle
Diabetic Balanced Diet
Frequent Urination
Blood Tests
Short-term Testing
Long-term Testing
Hemoglobin Volume Test?

Introduction – I am a Type 1 diabetic

Diabetes has caused many changes in my life style over the years but some of the necessary adjustments were made easier through simple explanations of the factors involved.  Being a Chemist has also facilitated my understanding of these concepts.  The purpose of this writing is to review some of the basic fundamentals and to present simple relationships aiding the diabetic in his/her understanding of what is happening to them.  Over the years, I have successfully aided many of my friends and acquaintances with simple suggestions about how they should think about and handle their diabetes.  However, let me say right up front that your physician should be totally involved.  Regular laboratory testing and doctor appointments are absolutely necessary.  What follows are simple descriptions and suggestions which are put forward in a very simplified manner.

History

I was diagnosed as a diabetic back in 1974 at the age of 38.  In those days, you could test your urine for sugar and ketones by dipping a stick.  If the stick changed to the wrong color you were in trouble.  Mine did and during the subsequent office visits, my physician also put pressure on my gall bladder and caused excruciating pain.  My fasting blood sugar level was three times normal and I displayed the common symptoms, i.e., fatigue, frequent urination, eyes sensitive to light, etc.  Since an enlarged gall bladder was also suspected, I was admitted to the hospital.  The doctor started me on insulin treatments immediately to lower the blood stream sugar level.  He called me the “side effect” kid and chose to put me on insulin shots instead of a new drug.

Of course, that initial hospital stay was very important.  Because the nursing staff could keep me under constant surveillance, it was only a couple of days before I was taught about “insulin reactions”.  It was customary to bring the meal tray into the room and a shot of rapid acting insulin would be given before eating.  Well, they brought in the lunch tray and gave me the shot during a phone conversation to an employee at work.  It wasn’t very long before I began sweating and became weak in the knees.  I quickly excused myself from the phone conversation, sat down, and drank the juice to get some sugar.  It was the first and most important thing I learned in the hospital.  In fact, my doctor had said that he was going to see to it that I had that experience while in the hospital.

The second most important learning experience during that hospital stay concerned diet and I’ll never forget the main points made by the dietician.  She taught me the importance of a “balanced diet” and clued me in about the effect alcohol has on your blood sugar.  It was the first and last time that I ever heard that alcohol lowers the blood sugar.  In fact, she cautioned me to not think that I could or should control my diabetes with alcohol.  But, on the other hand, if you are taking insulin to lower your blood sugar level and have some alcohol, you may suffer from too low a blood sugar level unexpectedly.  It’s a fact.

Being diagnosed as a diabetic was a startling experience but all of sudden hard work was not to blame for all of my symptoms.  So, I was fortunate to be diagnosed and I still admire my physician for putting me on an insulin regimen.  I now take 4 to 6 insulin shots a day but lets cover some diabetic basics before I tell you anymore about me.

The Triangle

The level of sugar in the blood stream depends upon many things but there are three main items; 1) How much and what we eat, 2) How much exercise we get, and 3) Amount and type of medicine taken.  Of course, of the three, food intake is the only one that increases the blood sugar level.  Let’s discuss this factor first.

Diabetic Balanced Diet

The food we eat is made up of sugars, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.  For ages, we’ve been encouraged to eat a balanced diet.  But what should that term, balanced diet, mean to a diabetic?  It means you should select foods that when digested spread the amount of sugar put into the blood stream over time.  Don’t eat a diet that will cause large spikes in the blood stream sugar level, e.g., just carbohydrates.  This is especially true if you are a Type 2 diabetic trying to avoid taking insulin shots.  It is a matter of selecting when and what you eat so that when your digestive tract does its work the amount of sugar released into the blood stream stays relatively low.  To do this you must understand the simple facts given below:

1)         If your digestive tract is doing its job, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats all end up as sugar in the blood stream.

2)         Simple sugars, e.g., apple juice, take less than a minute to enter the blood stream.

3)         Carbohydrates, e.g., spaghetti noodles, are next with a peak in the 1 to 2 hour time frame.

4)         Proteins, e.g., meat, peak in 2 to 4 hours.

5)         Fats, e.g., bacon fat, are last with some still being metabolized into sugars the next day from an evening meal.

The term metabolism is often used for the digestive function.  The graph is intended to show the relative times that sugars from the four sources would be expected in the blood stream.  [Note: the blood sugar levels plotted are arbitrary and intended to show the time spread only.]  Of course, each person would have their own metabolic rates and the actual situation is much more complicated but the fact remains that a spreading of the blood stream sugar level over time is desired.  So, when you pick the foods for your balanced diet from the food groups, don’t forget the diabetic balanced diet concept.

I’d like to make a point about exercise lowering your blood sugar level next.  Of course, exercise does use energy stored in the cells of the body and insulin is needed to transfer the blood sugar from the blood stream into the cells.  So, be aware that exercise can not lower your blood sugar unless the insulin is there to transfer it into the cells in the first place.

Frequent Urination

Rarely do diabetics understand why they often encounter the frequent urination symptom.  Perhaps they even think that drinking excess liquids causes this symptom.  In reality, even with the best control, it is impossible to eat the same thing, at the same time every day or have exactly the same level of mental and physical activity.  Therefore, unless all the other factors are changed to account for the resultant blood sugar changes it is likely that your blood sugar level may occasionally exceed the “adrenal threshold”. The graph illustrates this phenomenon.  When the blood sugar level exceeds the adrenal threshold, the kidney attempts to remove the excess sugar from the blood stream and send it to the bladder.

So why does frequent urination result?  Since sugar is not very soluble in water, the bladder sets all the gears in motion to tell the body, I am thirsty!  The bladder has to get more water to dissolve the sugar and when it does, the bladder becomes full faster than normal.

Blood Tests

If sticking your finger is too dramatic for you, you are in trouble!  Having any form of diabetes demands that you know how your blood sugar level varies with your life style.  I want to highlight a few test techniques that have been useful to me over the years and then discuss the 120-day test.  So I’ll separate these two areas by calling them short term and long term tests.

Short-term Testing

There are a number of companies now supplying blood glucose monitors capable of determining the blood stream glucose level in 5 seconds from a very small quantity of blood.  So what?

Let me ask a couple of questions.

a) What is your blood stream glucose level in 1 hour after eating 15 grams (1 Carb) of carbohydrate?

b) How much do you drop your blood stream glucose level if you use your medicine?

These are questions that you should be able to answer or at least have an idea about what the answer might be.  I don’t care if you are a Type 1 or Type 2 diabetic or if you are on insulin or an oral drug different than insulin, these are basic questions.

Of course, to care about knowing the answer to these questions, you will have to pay attention to what you eat.  I mean, read the labels to determine the Carb content.  You also have to design an “experiment” knowing what is raising and what is lowering your blood sugar level.  So how do you get some idea of what your body is doing?

First, don’t eat anything or take any medicine for 16 hours and check your blood sugar level (BSL).  Then eat a measured amount of the food being tested and check the BSL at various times after the food is eaten.  Depending upon the food and your body’s metabolic rate you should see a rise in BSL and then a lowering in BSL.

Second, take your medicine as you normally would and then do the same thing as done in the first example above to obtain a fasting BSL.  Then perform the tests at the same times after eating the same thing to see the difference.

I would suggest that you try the above experiments on your most often eaten meal.  We all have our favorite foods.  I suspect that one experiment will be very enlightening.

Actually, since my pancreas is not producing insulin anymore, I can arrive at my Carb effect simply by drinking a coke and measuring the BSL in a few minutes.  I raise my BSL by ~20 mg/dL for every Carb eaten (notice the ~ sign indicating approximately).  I have also found that taking 1 unit of a rapid acting insulin will lower my BSL by ~20 mg/dL.  So, I remember how much insulin to take by multiplying the Carb content in the food by 1.  Remember, the number of Carbs is equal to the grams of carbohydrate divided by 15 since there are 15 grams of carbohydrates per Carb.

So what about proteins and fats?  You’ll have to run experiments to determine how these foods are converted to sugars with blood sugar level measurements.  Sure it ‘s more complicated, but it’s not impossible to figure out what happens when you eat a hamburger and French fries.  Run the experiment!

One more point, don’t throw away the experimental results too fast.  You will want to compare the new to the old when you suspect that changes have taken place.  A measured change can precipitate action while well-intended comments, e.g., “I’m more tired this year”, is essentially meaningless during an office appointment.

So, my point here is — do not kid yourself.  Do some simple measurements.  If you don’t understand what happens, ask your physician.  But remember, you should execute some experiments on BSL because you are unique.

Long-term Test

If you are a diabetic, you have heard of the A1c test.  The test is long term because it measures the glucose effect on hemoglobin molecules in the bloodstream that have an average life of 120 days.  So instead of having an instant BSL test number, the A1c test presents the effect of glucose on hemoglobin molecules for the last 120 days.

There are many web sites available that explain various aspects of how glucose reacts with hemoglobin and what other factors enter into common diabetic symptoms.  For example, the terms glycosolated hemoglobin and glycated hemoglobin describe different glucose-hemoglobin reactions because of an enzyme.  I’ll let you conduct your own research on the intricacies of what glucose does in the blood stream but I do want to talk about the volume of the hemoglobin/glucose conglomerate.

Hemoglobin Volume Test?

Every diabetic has heard about the symptoms caused by reduced blood flow in our extremities, e.g., the effect of high blood sugar on our retinal capillaries?  We expect the hemoglobin molecules to transport the oxygen to the cells and take away the carbon dioxide but what if the glucose molecules swell the hemoglobin molecules?  Obviously, the circulation is reduced by the larger hemoglobin/glucose combination, especially in the very small capillaries, e.g., the retina.

A more significant test for diabetics, regarding hemoglobin, would be to measure the volume occupied by the hemoglobin/glucose conglomerate, i.e., the volume would include glucose molecules that are absorbed and reacted, not just the amount of hemoglobin (Hb) reacted with glucose represented by HbA1c.  After all, it is the volume of the hemoglobin oxygen transporter that concerns us most, not how much glucose has reacted with the hemoglobin molecules.

In polymer chemistry, they call it “swelling”, i.e., when a solvent that “likes” a polymer is absorbed into the polymer and causes it to expand because the solvent likes the polymer more than the polymer likes itself.  In our case, glucose is the solvent and the hemoglobin corresponds to the polymer.  It’s a fact that glucose has many hydroxyl groups (-OH) that would be “liked” by various sites in the hemoglobin molecule.  No one said it was simple.

I hope you’ve had food for thought.  Take care of yourself.

Number Systems

Table of Contents

Introduction
Decimal Numbers
Binary Numbers
Octal Numbers
Hexadecimal Numbers
Summary

Introduction

It’s a binary world.  Think about it.  Everything comes down to yes/no, true/false, did you/didn’t you, less than/greater than, equal to/not equal to, did you see it/didn’t you see it, etc.

Some will argue that there is also an analog component.  I’m not against that but wish to remind them about high/low, on/off, flip and flop.

I’ve been after all of my grandchildren to know something about binary arithmetic as soon as they can count.  Maybe you don’t think this is important.  What could be simpler than counting with only two numbers, i.e., 0 and 1.

In fact, maybe we should review how a decimal system based on the numbers 0 through 9 works first.

Decimal Numbers

Why do the digits 1, 2, and 3 in the order 123₁₀ stand for the number one hundred and twenty three?  It’s because the decimal system is based on powers of ten.  Therefore, 123₁₀ is the result of the equation given below:

123₁₀ =  1×10² + 2×10¹ + 3×10⁰

If you didn’t remember, now you know that in any numbering system any number to its first power is equal to the number itself and that any number to the zero power is equal to one.

We all think of one thousand as ten cubed. But technically, it is:

1,000₁₀ =  1×10³ + 0×10² + 0×10¹ + 0×10⁰

The decimal system is so simple that we use it around the world.

Binary Numbers

The binary system has only zeros and ones.  Let’s examine the binary system by counting up to 10₁₀.  We’ll use four bits to do our counting.

0000, 0001, 0010, 0011, 0100, 0101, 0110, 0111, 1000, 1001, and 1010.

So 10₁₀ =  1×2³ + 0×2² + 1×2¹ +0×2⁰

Because of my never-ending endeavor to spread knowledge concerning binary arithmetic to family members, I received a sweatshirt with the following message on my birthday.  “I only have 10 kinds of friends, those that understand binary arithmetic and those that don’t.”

Unfortunately, I had never thought about binary numbers before I started to program computers in 1961.

Octal Numbers

I didn’t use octal arithmetic until my graduate school days when I was programming a Control Data Corporation 1604 computer in machine language.  In 1961, this computer had 32K (32,768) 48-bit words as its main memory.

Each computer word contained 48 bits that were either set to a binary 0 or binary 1.  These bits represented either numbers or computer instructions and the programmer had to know which, i.e., the machine was dumb.

In the numbers case, if the left most bit was a 0, the number was positive.  If the left most bit was 1, the number was negative.  Therefore the maximum size number was equal to 1×2⁴⁶ since the left most bit could not be used.

The master designer had used 48-bit computer words and the memory size was 32,768₁₀ words, i.e., 2¹⁶.  Therefore, it took 15 bits to point at any word in the computer’s 32,768₁₀-word memory, i.e., location 0 through location 32,767₁₀.

The designer used 6 index registers.   There were instructions that used these 6 special registers to implement various operations such as loops.  For example, in Fortran, a Do I = 1,10 would end up using an index register to perform the sequential operation.  So, denoting which index register was being used took three bits, i.e., 1 through 6 binary.

Then there were six bits used for instructions.  In octal, that allowed the designer to use 000₂ through 111₂ in the remaining two octal digits and a total of 64₁₀ instructions could be easily designated.

The final 48-bit computer word for an instruction looked like: NNRLLLLLNNRLLLLL, containing 16 3-bit octal digits.

Where: NN represents the instruction, R represents the index register, L represents the memory address.  Depending upon the instruction, L could also be an actual number.

I used the numbers so much while programming the CDC 1604 computer that I’ll never forget that a 12₈ was “load the accumulator” from LLLLL, a 14₈ was “add the quantity in LLLLL to the accumulator”, and 20₈ was “store the accumulator in LLLLL”.  So let’s assume that location 0₈ has the number 67₁₀ in it and location 1₈ has the number 33₁₀ in it.  We’ll locate the computer program to add these two numbers in location 3₈. and place the result in location 2₈.  Therefore, the computer’s memory would be as follows after running the program:


Location 000008 =  0000000000001038
Location 000018 =  0000000000000418
Location 000028 =  0000000000001448
Location 000038 =  12000000140000018
Location 000048 =  20000003000000008

Examining the example above further–

In decimal, 67₁₀ + 33₁₀ = 100₁₀.

In location 2₈ above, the result was 144₈.  Of course, that is equal to 100₁₀.

1×8² + 4×8¹ + 4×8⁰ =  100₁₀

64₁₀+  32₁₀ +   4₁₀ =  100₁₀ ……..

Hexadecimal Numbers

It wasn’t until I programmed a computer having computer words 16 bits long that I ever saw the hexadecimal number system used.  The computer was a Control Data Corporation 1700 that was based on a 16-bit computer word.

Therefore, with a 16-bit computer word, it was natural to use 4-bit numbers so that one computer word could be described by four 4-bit quantities, i.e., HHHH, with each H representing 4 bits.  So, 0000₂ through 1111₂ represented the numbers in decimal from 0 through 15.   But the computer designers didn’t want two characters, e.g., 14₁₀, representing the 4-bit quantity.  So they called the 1100₂ quantity the letter “C” in the hexadecimal system.

Therefore, in the hexadecimal system, 1000₂ = 8₁₆, 1001₂ = 9₁₆, 1010₂ = A₁₆, 1011₂ = B₁₆, 1100₂ = C₁₆, 1101₂ = D₁₆, 1101₂ = E₁₆, and 1111₂ = F₁₆.

If you prefer decimal numbers:

A₁₆ = 10₁₀, B₁₆ = 11₁₀, C₁₆ = 12₁₀, D₁₆ = 13₁₀, E₁₆= 14₁₀, and F₁₆ = 15₁₀.

Now, 100₁₀ = 64₁₆, i.e., 100₁₀ = 6×16¹ + 4×16⁰.

Summary

You’re amazing if you got this far.  I hope you went out to some of the linked web sites where they actually describe how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers in these number systems.  All I wanted, in my case, was to alert my family members to the presence of binary logic in their lives!