Misc. Ramblings

I haven't been tracking OpenOffice recently because I need to exchange Word documents with others and, well, the only program compatible is...now...wait...for...it...Microsoft Word. Likewise, I also need to exchange WordPerfect files, which have their own special idiosyncrasies.

So, I was a little surprised that there is now something called OpenOffice Premium. No, they aren't going MS on you. The price is still free, as in something we used to call speech. But added into the regular version are, among other things:

• Clip Art (currently more than 2,800 objects)
• Templates (number varies by language)
• Samples (number varies by language)
• Documentation (if available)
• Fonts (more than 90 fonts)

I haven't tried using it so I don't if its any good but if you don't need to be compatible with Word or WP you may want to give this a look.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

When is a gallon of gasoline not a gallon? When you buy it anywhere else than Hawaii. It seems Hawaii is the only state that takes into account the higher average temperatures here. What does that have to do with a gallon of gas?, you ask.

Well, as you know, a liquid tends to expand as it is heated. The higher the temperature, the greater the volume. But as volume goes up, down goes the density (all other things being equal). Hence, the higher the temperature, unless compensated for, the less energy you get for your money. Put another way, you aren't getting what you paid for.

Why other states or the federal government don't require temperature compensated gas pumps seems to revolve more around oil industry influence then rational laws. On one hand, where temperatures are high, the oil industry has opposed such pumps. But where the temperatures are much lower and therefore the density is actually higher, the industry has supported temperature compensated pumps.

So, how much more do customers pay the oil companies each year because of this lack of controlled pumps? Well, a series of articles in the Kansas City Star says about $2.3 billion USD. That's billions. Per year. Every year.

Yes, even if the pumps were upgraded, the oil companies could just raise its prices, at least you would be getting what you paid for, regardless of the temperature.

Aloha!

I know posts have been really spotty around here but it can't be helped. However, now that I've finished an internal report that I was working on for the past several weeks, I might be able to get back to a more regular posting schedule. Thank you very much for your patience.

I'll leave you with some useful metric conversions:

1 million microphones = 1 megaphone
2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds
10 cards = 1 decacards
1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
10 rations = 1 decoration
100 rations = 1 C-ration
10 millipedes = 1 centipede
3 1/3 tridents = 1 decadent
2 monograms = 1 diagram
8 nickels = 2 paradigms
2 wharves = 1 paradox

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

• Georgine Rose Corrigan, age 55, United Flight 93

• Richard Keane, World Trade Center

• Maile Hale, age 26, World Trade Center

• Michael Collins, age 38, World Trade Center

• Rich Y.C. Lee, World Trade Center

• Patricia Pitchford Colodner, age 39, World Trade Center

• David Laychak, Pentagon

• Christine Snyder, United Flight 93

• Heather Ho, age 32, World Trade Center

During this day of remembrance, I would also like to remember a columnist for the MorningPaper by the name of Bob Krauss. I didn't know Mr. Krauss, personally. But through reading his column, which ran for more years than I have been on this earth, I got to know a little about him.

It seems to me Krauss did what he loved doing; writing stories well told. For 55 years, he entertained and educated us with tales of deeds long past, present, and some into the future.

The column he wrote for reflecting on the events of this date in 2001 may not be one of his better, but I think it pointed to his optimism and wanting to move forward:

The really difficult thing for me about dealing with world-class terrorism is feeling guilty for wanting to feel good.

It began about the 10th time a television newscast ran the picture of an airliner diving into a World Trade Center tower in a ball of flame. That picture made me want to turn off the set. Yet the picture wouldn't go away, because this was the new reality. I felt ashamed for being unable to grasp it.

When I tried to write about it, I couldn't. That would be further compounding the violation of thousands of victims.

The column I'd written before it occurred was about flowers, as out of place as a joke at a funeral. Everything had changed. I felt guilty that what I felt was resentment when thousands of people had died.

In a strange way, consequences of the tragedy have begun to make it bearable. I went to Pier 10 to help plan the second annual Honolulu Harbor Festival. For the first time, a young guard politely asked to see a photo ID...

Then came the big question. Should we cancel the festival because of these uncertainties? Would it be in bad taste? Nobody wanted to cancel so we're going ahead. Terror shouldn't take over our lives...

Aloha!

It may be redundant to say that they do things differently in Florida.

But it seems that people have been illegally parking in reserved stalls at the West Pasco Judicial Center (located north west of Tampa, Florida). But rather than ticketing and/or towing the cars, the user of one of the reserved stalls decided to take more direct action. Namely, the judge assigned to the parking stall blocked the illegally parked car in with his car and did not move his car until the end of the day.

Although there is a certain amount of street justice in the judge's action, you have to wonder if it wouldn't be wiser (and more expensive/inconvenient to the owner) to just tow the car away.

Aloha!

First, let me say that I am all for the goals of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and increasing vehicle mileage. Doing so disengages us from foreign entanglements that do not serve us well. I also recognize that the era of "cheap oil" may have passed. If this is true, then the era of relying on a single major source of energy may also be over because nothing else seems to be a direct replacement. If this is also true, then we should use an integrated approach that meshes multiple sources of energy so that we may begin an orderly transition away from oil as our major source of energy.

Make no mistake. A world without a single cheap source of energy will probably look and operate very much differently from the world we presently live in. I expect much disruption as we transition from where we are to where we will be. However, what that world will look like is not the focus of this post.

At the same time, whatever we do must be balanced against how effectively it helps us to reach our goals. To do this, we must at least test whether the benefits exceed the costs. I suggest that any alternative that doesn't meet that test should not be implemented.

Consumer Reports (CR) recently did a test of a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle. This particular Tahoe is designed to run on 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Noting that this is only one vehicle, and a large and heavy one at that, one must be cautioned about how widely the results can be generalized.

That said, CR reports of a Harris study that found buyers of such alternative energy vehicles do so for two main reasons: reducing our dependence on foreign oil and increased fuel economy.

Although CR did not directly examine whether the claim of reducing foreign oil dependence is possible with such a vehicle, they did test to see how mileage is affected.

As readers of this site already know, ethanol has a lower energy content than gasoline. What this means is that you get fewer miles per gallon with any ethanol mix versus 100 percent gasoline. How much less? CR reported "In highway driving, gas mileage decreased from 21 to 15 mpg; in city driving, it dropped from 9 to 7 mpg." Hence, due to its specific physical/chemical properties, properties that are not easily changed without expending more energy, ethanol will always give you less mileage when compared to gasoline.

Overall, CR found the following:

• The fuel economy of the Tahoe dropped 27 percent when running on E85 compared with gasoline, from an already low 14 mpg overall to 10 mpg (rounded to the nearest mpg). This is the lowest fuel mileage we've gotten from any vehicle in recent years.

• With the retail pump price of E85 averaging $2.91 per gallon in August, according to the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks petroleum and other fuel prices, a 27 percent fuel-economy penalty means drivers would have paid an average of $3.99 for the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline.

• When we calculated the Tahoe's driving range, we found that it decreased to about 300 miles on a full tank of E85 compared with about 440 on gasoline. So you have to fill up more often with E85.

• The majority of FFVs are large vehicles like the Tahoe that get relatively poor fuel economy even on gasoline. So they will cost you a lot at the pump, no matter which fuel you use.

Clearly, switching to ethanol does not increase mileage. In fact, it substantially decreases it (the higher the percentage of ethanol, the lower the resulting mileage relative to gasoline). But were there no advantages to burning ethanol? Well, yes. Sort of. You get decreased smog producing emissions. This is a GoodThing. On the other hand, is this benefit worth the cost or are there other cheaper methods of reducing emissions?

In addition, whether a switch to ethanol will decrease our dependence on oil is, in my opinion, also questionable. In order to grow the plants that are then processed/refined into ethanol requires the expending of energy. A big chunk of that energy is in the form of petroleum based fertilizers used to grow the plants in the first place. Although there may be alternatives to such fertilizers, it is not clear any of them would be lower in cost or practical to produce in the quantities needed to grow the untold acres of plants needed for fuel. The more plants grown, the more fertilizer needed. The more fertilizer needed, the more oil you use.

But, even if you assume fertilizer is not a problem, how much ethanol can the US produce? As a practical matter, only so many acres are available for production of any crop. Secondly, only so much water is available to grow the crops on these acres. Not all of these acres are spread evenly across the country so you have the problem of how to transport the ethanol since there are no major ethanol pipelines and you can't use the ones for oil/gasoline due to water contamination (water present in oil/gasoline pipelines easily mixes with ethanol, causing engines to run roughly or not at all).

With these limitations, the article quoted "Eric Washburn of Windward Consulting, an energy and environmental consulting firm that specializes in renewable energy, says, 'Anyone who has followed this knows that corn will top out at 11, 12, or 15 billion gallons a year' in terms of ethanol production. That’s still a fraction of the 140 billion gallons of gasoline the U.S. consumes each year." In other words, if we were to try to replace all 140 billion gallons of gasoline with 100 percent ethanol, all else being equal, we would need in excess of 200 billion gallons of ethanol (before you say it, yes, there are some people who say we should convert to 100 percent ethanol). Clearly, at least with the present technologies, we cannot depend only on ethanol to replace oil.

The bottom line is the goals of reducing foreign oil dependence and higher mileage are important and worthwhile. The problem is, in my opinion, switching to only ethanol may not be the most cost effective way to do it. Rather, it seems to me that we need an integrated approach that may also include wind, solar, wave, and various other alternative fuels. But whatever path we choose, we need to keep testing how cost effective is this path. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

Speaking of alternative energy sources (as I was yesterday). The Big Island of Hawai'i will be getting a new set of wind turbines. Fourteen of the devices are being installed in the South Point area and are expected to produce sufficient electricity for as many as 10,000 households next year. The turbines will replace 37 older and less powerful ones in place since 1987.

For you trivia fans, South Point is the southern most point in the 50 United States (Florida has the southern most point in the continental US). It is located in a wind zone that provides continuous, strong trade winds. Thus this site is tailor made for a wind farm.

Aloha!

Sometimes, Apple is really easy to dislike. For example, I've been using my black, generation 1 Apple iPod nano for some time now and every once in awhile it will go into a White Screen of Death. By that I mean it will become non-responsive and just display a plain white screen with nothing else on it.

PCMag recently posted a short article on the subject and listed several ways to try to recover. If you run into this problem, you may try the following:

• Check that the iPod is fully charged.

• Toggle the hold switch on and off.

• Press and hold center and menu buttons for at least six seconds until Apple logo appears on the iPod screen.

• Retry plugging your iPod into a different USB port on your PC.

• Restart your computer.

• Reinstall iTunes and iPod software.

• Restore iPod to its factory settings with updater app on CD.

• Drain the battery down then recharge it fully.

• Still stuck? Call Apple care. Have the serial number ready (you can find it on the iPod and in the iTunes app).

Since I was having this problem (and not getting more than three to four hours of playing time from the battery), I was looking forward to the announcement this week of among other things, Apple's generation 2 nano iPods. Unfortunately, the only one that comes in black (the most popular color, natch) is, of course, the most expensive of the series. If you don't want to spend $350 USD, you can choose the cheapest model (the 2GB) but it comes in any color you want, as long as that color is bare aluminum.

I guess I'l wait until after the Christmas season because, being really cynical here, after that point Apple will probably release generation 2.0a nanos that will also come in black (and include a cheap affordable case for it). YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

A lot of people like to think that they are good at multitasking. They believe that their minds are like computers that can, at least seemingly, do more than one thing at a time.

But, even as most computers don't actually multitask (except those that parallel process. All others time slice. That is, a computer works on one task at a time, but only for a fraction of a second before it moves on to another task. This switching occurs as such a rapid pace that it appears as if multiple tasks are occurring simultaneously. But it isn't.), neither do most people. At least, unless you consider minds that are split into conscious and unconscious. But that would be the subject of another post.

No, what I'm talking about is the business person in a meeting, while responding to emails on her Blackberry, while editing a complex memo. Or a student studying while watching TV. None of these tasks will be performed as well as compared to a person who is concentrating on one task at a time.

You can read this article on the perils of multitasking in the business setting (or this one) or this article about students in school. But if you really want to try to multitask (and I don't recommend this) then, like a computer, I think you have to learn to rapidly switch between tasks and attend to what is important in each task. One study of driver performance while also attending to, for example, an MP3 player, seems to indicate that people may be able to learn to do this. Up to a point. But pass that point, and bad things happen. The bottom line seems to be that things go best if you attend to only one thing at a time. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

Guy Kawasaki has a post on why he believes "Smart People Do Dumb Things." I agree with some of his diagnosis but disagree on one.

Lofty ends. Lofty ends can justify all sorts of weird and inappropriate means. Look no further than the quests for peace that produce mayhem and violence. Or, the desire to make a profit (something that is genuinely good for shareholders and customers) that warps a company’s code of ethics even though the company is made up of smart, honest people. Companies trying to achieve a lofty goal can start believing that any means to achieve it is okay.

Arrogance. This is greed’s twin brother. Arrogance sets in when a company claims success as if it’s a God-given right. Arrogance also means that a company believes it’s above the law—that no one and nothing has claims against it.

Say, believe, and act in a way that convinces employees that differences of opinion and diversity of thoughts are good things. Frankly, a couple of curmudgeons is a good thing for a company.

Spell things out. It’s not enough to say, "Plug this leak in our company" and assume that it will be done legally. You should say, "Plug this leak in our company by using only legal, ethical, and reasonable methods." That’s when you’re done.

Squash arrogance and greed. I’ll be honest: I don’t know how to do this. If I figure it out, it will be the topic of an upcoming blog.

I disagree and will discuss the following:

Move the crowns. When employees go around saying, "We need to do it this way because Bill/Steve/Carly/Larry wants it this way,” you’re in trouble. It means that employees are making decisions based on what they think will make kings and queens happy—as opposed to what’s right for the customer, employees, or shareholders. Good CEOs put the crown on the heads of customers, not themselves.

This is one of those "Yes, but." kind of things. First, it assumes you know better than the CEO what is right for customers, employees, or shareholders. To the extent that you are wrong (and arrogantly so) and the CEO is right is the extent to which this prescription is not only not usable, but potentially disastrous to a company.

This can breed infighting and management at cross-purposes. Such an environment is not healthy for employees, customers, or shareholders.

Yes, businesses and government should focus on its customers (Who the customers are is a slippery concept because there are usually multiple classes of customers - internal and external. But I digress.). But that is far from saying the customers run the business.

Show me a company run by its customers and I'll show you a collective out of business. Well run businesses are run by good managers and employees working in a healthy environment.

To actively work against what Bill/Steve/Carly/Larry wants, based entirely on what you interpret your customers want, is in my opinion pure arrogance (see above), is called insubordination, can lead to the ends justifying the means, and group think as deadly as coming to a quick consensus.

To say the customer is king is, I think, giving an unbalanced view of the answer. Surely somebody within the organization has to take charge. Somebody has to be responsible. Somebody has to be accountable. Somebody has to lead. Somebody has to make the hard decisions that the customers can't or won't make. If that somebody who has the authority is Bill/Steve/Carly/Larry, but you feel otherwise, perhaps that is your signal to leave the organization.

Yes, the customer is king. But. That doesn't mean the king is always right.

Remember the king can cut off the heads of those he so chooses.

Smart people keep these things in mind when they hand out crowns.

Aloha!

Another day, another laptop battery recall. This time, according to Engadget, it's Toshiba. What's bothering me is that all the batteries were from Sony. Yet,it seems, the only laptop manufacturer who isn't recalling the batteries in its laptops? Now wait for it. Sony. Yep, as far as I can see, Sony is not recalling any of their own laptops. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean Sony does not use the very batteries it sells to everyone else? Or does it? I don't know. But it sure seems strange. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Our secretary will be getting a service award next month for her 25 eyars of excellent public service so I thought it appropriate to include this bit of humor:

A big corporation recently hired several cannibals. "You are all part of our team now," said the HR rep during the welcoming briefing. "You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don't eat any of the other employees."

The cannibals promised they would not. Four weeks later their boss remarked, "You're all working very hard, and I'm quite satisfied with you. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?" The cannibals all shook their heads no.

After the boss had left, the leader of the cannibals asked the others, "Which one of you idiots ate the secretary?"

A hand raised hesitantly. The leader of the cannibals shrieked, "You fool! For four weeks we've been eating managers and no one noticed. But you had to go and eat someone important!"

Aloha!

Over the last few years, I've made it a policy not to comment on political charges or complaints that occur within the last week of a campaign. This is because, it seems invariably that these charges or complaints end up having no merit and seem intended by those who make the allegations to smear sway voters away from a candidate.

The timing of the charges appear carefully calculated to produce the maximum impact and minimum time for the target to defend him or herself. However, once the charge or complaint works its way through the system, said charge is almost always found to be without merit and dismissed. But by then, months after the election, no one cares.

I see no reason to change my policy. However, I do feel compelled to note some thoughts regarding several charges brought against Congressman Ed Case (who I support) over the last few days.

Recently, Congressman Case sent out an email that quoted a passage from a book by former Hawaii Governor George Ariyoshi (who supports opponent Senator Daniel Akaka but who I otherwise respect as being one of the more fiscally conservative of Hawaii's governors). The entire text of the email follows:

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Dear Friend:

Please consider the following insights by ex-Gov. George Ariyoshi from With Obligation to All (1997): "Loyalty is a strong traditional value of people generally, and this is so with those of Japanese ancestry. I had my own definition of loyalty, which I construed as loyalty not only to individuals but to principles, and our foremost principle was openness and fairness. "I wish I could find the speech I gave to the 1972 Democratic Party Convention, in which I called for genuinely opening up the ranks to newcomers. I talked with Governor Burns beforehand about that speech. I told him I was going to say we had to change. ... "The Democratic Party was at a critical stage, and it had to change. "A few years earlier, Bob Oshiro had made a chart that showed the ages of all the people in the Legislature. It showed how they had all started off young but their average ages had gone up and up. We were in danger of being an aged party unless we brought in new people with new blood and new ideas. I believed we could not just tell new people to come in on the condition that they listen to us. There were other people who were giving lip service to the theme of openness, but I was saying, 'The difference between you and me is you still want to retain complete control. You don't want to let these people have any real influence.' "We were saying to these new people, 'Come in. The party belongs to you.' And then we were treating them almost like robots. ... "If you really wanted people to come in, you had to tell them, 'Come, use your best energy and judgment, and do what you feel has to be done.' ... "The speech was coldly received by some old-time Democrats. ... The issue always was what we do with our so-called power."

Mahalo and aloha,

CASE FOR SENATE

Governor Ariyoshi immediately went on TV and alleged that the quote was taken out of context, did not mean what it says, and in any case, Congressman Case should have called the Governor first. Unfortunately for the Governor, the quote was not taken out of context (as confirmed by the newspaper that endorses Senator Akaka), it in fact means exactly what it says, and no one needs Governor Ariyoshi's permission to quote this passage under Fair Use laws.

The Democratic party then and now, tends to be a very closed organization. The alarm that Governor Ariyoshi so clearly rang, lo those many years ago, rings especially true today. Perhaps more so as the party continues to age, but those in power refuse to allow new comers with new ideas to guide the party in new directions.

The second of three allegations involves a TV campaign ad. I have to admit, I don't recall seeing this ad. But from what I understand, in it you see, among other people, what appears to be a fireman in uniform shaking Congressman Case's hand. Someone has charged that this is a campaign violation because, they say, the Fire Department has a policy of prohibiting members of their organization from using the uniform to endorse any candidate. This policy is, if it exists, a wise one. I think the police, and perhaps other uniformed public organizations such as the military probably have similar policies prohibiting their members from doing similar things. The problem is, although the fireman may be in trouble for being in the ad, I know of no violation on the part of the candidate.

The third complaint appears even stranger. The US Chamber of Commerce is doing a series of get out the vote phone messages. Under our Constitution, the Chamber has a First Amendment right to speak out and ask people to be good citizens and vote. As in the TV ad, I have not heard the phone message but I understand it does not endorse or ask that you vote for anyone in particular. However, Congressman Case is apparently mentioned as supporting small businesses. As above, if there is a violation, and I do not believe there is one, it would be against the US Chamber of Commerce, not the candidate.

It has been said, more than once, that politics is a dirty business. But to the extent that it is, I suggest it is so only because people of goodwill allow this to happen by not speaking against it.

At this point in the campaign, I'm not going to ask you to vote for Congressman Case (although I hope you will consider him), but I do ask that you actively work against those who use smear unethical tactics during campaigns. And I ask that you carefully examine whether, in the wise words of Governor Ariyoshi, the Democratic Party is "at a critical stage and it ha[s] to change.. .We [are] in danger of being an aged party unless we br[ing] in new people with new blood and new ideas."

Come this Saturday, you decide.

YMMV, insert disclaimer here.

Sorry, no post today. I'm at home trying to get over a sore throat and sore back.

Aloha!

"What we anticipate seldom occurs: but what we least expect generally happens." - Benjamin Disraeli

I attended a meeting on pandemic influenza preparedness yesterday. In discussing the topic with some of the neighbor island civil defense people, they suggested the most efficient way of creating a plan was to take what you alreay have and modify it as needed.

In creating a continuity of operation plan (COOP), it is important to realize that there is no way to anticipate every type of disaster. Even if you could, it would be impossible to create an infinite number of individual plans to address these possibilities.

Yet, we cannot just sit here and do nothing. Disasters will occur and people who depend on your services will expect you to be operating when they need you.

So it seems to me that the only practical way to prepare is to have a general plan that can be easily modified. That is, instead of coming up with various scenarios and creating a plan for each, create modules that can be pulled "off the shelf", as needed, and put together to create a customized plan that is keyed to the situation.

Think of it as a parts store for your car. They don't keep all the parts for your specific car in one place. Rather, they keep all the headlights for all makes in one place, all the radiators for all makes in one place, all the brake lights for all makes in one place, etc. Then, depending on the need, they go to the appropriate shelf to get the required parts.

Another way to think of it is like a menu. You go into the restaurant and, depending on what you want and what it has, you choose. Likewise, depending on the situation, you choose which modules you need.

I realize that there are downsides to this method (there always are, regardless of what you do). Continuing the parts store example, it would be impractical to have every part for every vehicle ever built. Doing so would require too much space and too much money tied up in inventory that may never be sold.

Of course, parts stores don't have to keep that many parts because some items fit more than one make or model. For example, a 15-inch tire will usually fit a 15-in rim, regardless of whether the rim is made by Toyota or Chevrolet.

Similarly, trying to have a specific module for every type of disaster would not be practical.

So what type of modules am I talking about?

In June 2004, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) updated their COOP objectives. Some of them are listed below:

• Know and insure the continuous performance of an agency's essential functions or operations.
• Execute, as required, successful succession to office and delegation of authority.
• Insure that agencies have alternative facilities from which to perform their essential functions.
• Protect essential facilities, equipment, records, and other assets.
• Insure and validate COOP readiness through testing, training, and exercise programs.

Take, for example, the objective of having alternative facilities. Regardless of the cause, there are at least three things that we need to do in this example: acquire, prepare, and move to alternative facilities.

By breaking each of these three things into the common ways (e.g., acquiring a facility can only be done by leasing; buying; or much less likely, taking by eminent domain) of doing each, you can prepare a module that is flexible enough to respond to almost any cause.

Not all modules may require sub-modules. On the other hand, some may require many. But the key is keeping the focus on the objectives, not the almost infinite number of possible causes of a disaster. I suggest one way to do that is to keep the general plan and modules flexible so that they can be altered as the situation requires. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

In the continuing sage of what is now being termed HP-Gate, the New York Times broke the story last week that those in authority at Hewlett-Packard studied ways to insert a spy into the offices of C|Net and the Wall Street Journal. This, as a way of finding out who was leaking information to the two organizations and thus plug the hole. However, it is unclear whether an effort was ever launched to implement such a plan.

If this sounds eerily like President Nixon's administration and some of his "black bag" tactics during the Watergate scandal you could be right. And as in Watergate, this plan may be just the tip of the iceberg. The Times article goes on to quote HP's manager of global investigations as saying "We use pretext interviews on a number of investigations to extract information...” In other words, this is not the first time that they have used what may be illegal and certainly unethical tactics to get information.

As these revelations trickle out, day-by-day, it really becomes a question of why the HP board of directors are still around. It appears many, if not all of them, should have voluntarily stepped down when the now growing scandal first broke. Instead, all except one (who apparently resigned as a protest against the actions of the others), have done their best to cling to power, rather than to put the continued health of the company before themselves.

Here are some notes from the avian flu pandemic plan meeting I went to a couple of days ago. At the meeting were people from Civil Defense, hospitals, utilities, transportation, hotels, restaurants, the press, and various other state and county agencies.

If you are presently working on putting a plan together, these notes may help. But not all this may be of help to you in your particular situation so you will need to decide what works for you. The main thing to remember is that there are things you can and should do now to prepare.

I. In general, as many as 40 percent of the employees may stay away from work for the following reasons:

A. He or she is sick with the avian flu.
B. Someone in their family is sick and must be cared for.
C. Schools are closed/no child care.
D. Afraid of catching the flu.
E. No transportation.

In order to mitigate these reasons, agencies may need to become more "family friendly." For example, you or your organization may need to provide a way for your employee to work from home, provide on-site child care, and/or transportation. For employees who are afraid to come to work, you may try instituting an education program that lays out the ways the flu is transmitted and reasonable and effective steps that can be taken to avoid becoming infected.

II. Since the flu may be contagious even when no symptoms are yet displayed, detection systems based on symptoms alone may not be very effective. Hence, a multi-tiered system that includes prevention, using the standard protocols of proper personal hygiene (e.g., washing your hands, using a mask and or gloves, covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, maintaining social distance of about six feet, etc.) may need to be emphasized.

III. Although up to 40 percent of employees may be out due to the reasons listed, the actual day-to-day percentage may vary. One participant indicated that for the first few days after the word is out that a pandemic has started, he probably wouldn't have any employees because they would all be getting the supplies they felt they needed or making arrangements for their families.

IV. Transportation to or from the affected areas would be overwhelmed, then reduced or cease.  This includes people and cargo. Here in Hawaii there would at first be a rush of tourists trying to leave the islands and residents returning (assuming quarantine has not yet be instituted).  Not all tourists would be able to leave while at the same time they might not be able to continue to stay at their hotels (either because of no rooms or no money to pay for them). Goods such as medicines, personal hygiene products, and food would soon become in short supply. If it is possible to begin amassing a long-term supply (at least a month, if not longer), to the extent possible, now would be a good time to begin.

V. Communications during this period is critical. What do you know and how do you know it? Who is the lead during this period? Your local, state, or national health department? The Governor? Civil Defense? Find out and listen to them. Otherwise, you will be overcome by rumors from any number of sources, many of which may be inaccurate.

VI. Large gatherings of people such as sports events (e.g., football games at the stadium) may need to be canceled or avoided due to risk of mass contamination.

VII. In our state, the Attorney General's (AG) office is responsible for preparing the legal requests for isolation/quarantine.  The AG is also be working with the Public Defender's office to work out the details on how infected people will be represented in such proceedings. The legal profession in your area may need to start thinking about these things, especially if employers require legal documents such as these to prove you are out sick (and are now healthy to return).

VIII. Hospitals and physicians will most likely request that those who are not ill do not come to the hospital or doctor's office because if they do, and are not infected, they likely will be exposed to the virus from those who are sick and congregating at these two types of areas.  This is counter-intuitive to the public as they have been educated to go to the doctor/hospital if they want to be tested.

IX. There are human resource questions as to what is the policy of allowing sick people to come to work. If someone is infected, do we prevent them from working? If so, under what authority? If sick leave or vacation time are used up, but they wish to stay home for any of the reasons in Roman numeral I, A through E above, what are the policies? If the person is out and a doctor's note is required by the employer, how would they get one if no doctor is available?

X. Families should be preparing now, much as they do for hurricanes or other disasters. The difference is the length of time to consider. If the pandemic last for several years, can you stockpile food, medicines, diapers, toilet paper, etc. for this long a period? If not, what alternatives are there?

XI. Janitorial/rubbish pickup may be affected. How do we keep our offices/businesses/homes sanitary?

XII. Those who have public contact need to have masks/respirators, gloves, and wash their hands.

XIII. Social distancing may require splitting employees into shifts or otherwise dispersing them to other locations so that fewer are present at one time in one location as an attempt to avoid cross contamination (i.e., even if one of the shifts/locations become infected, the other may still be okay).

XIV. Essential employees/functions must be identified just as you would/have already for a strike.

XV. There must be manual processes for all critical electronic ones because infrastructure like electricity and phone/Internet access may not be available or reliable.

XVI. Possible impacts to the courts (state and/or federal): orders for quarantine/isolation, probate, contested wills, bankruptcy, burglary, and theft (as order is lost, as occurred post Katrina and in Iraq).

Again, the main point is to begin planning now. Although life during a pandemic may be a struggle, it may be worse if we aren't prepared before hand. YMMV. Use at your own risk. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

The march to Firefox 2.0 has begun with the availability of Release Candidate 1.0. Before you go running off to download the software, remember this is still betaware. Therefore, you should not install it on a production PC since bad things can and do happen. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

This week's wallpaper comes from Valuca's Photos. Specifically, the strange clouds gallery.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!