Misc. Ramblings

Actually, now that fellow Daynoter Phil does occasional longer posts, I don't know if he has relinquished his title of Man of Few Words. But not much of interest is going on over here in the Seto Shack.

However, there are a couple of sports events in town this weekend. First up is the American style football Hula Bowl (see the site here) on Saturday on the island of Mau'i. It will be broadcast on ESPN at 9:00 p.m. (EST).

The second is the National Football League Pro Bowl (see their site here) on Sunday, ABC 5:30 p.m. EST.

On the other hand, school work has heated up a bit as we try to gather information about how other states handle their retirement systems. My eleven loyal readers know that I am in my last semester working on a Masters in Public Administration. Our final paper is a group effort to help the Hawai'i Employees Retirement System increase operational efficiency.

Right now, we're contacting other state systems as well as starting to contact local state agencies that have dealings with the system.

Speaking of graduating, it's amazing how much it costs. You pay $15USD for a diploma, $55 for a cap and gown, $25 for a hood (that colorful piece of material that hangs around the neck and kind of reminds me of a woolen muffler). Then there's the announcements ($1.35 a piece) and thank you cards ($7.50 per 10). And for the high rollers, a custom matted frame for the diploma starting at $105 and going up over $200. Now if I can only graduate.

Speaking of working in groups, it's interesting they work, or don't work as the case may be. In my first year, we had a class in which we were given a test. The test was a list of about 10 questions dealing with surviving in a mountainous region during the Winter. After answering the questions on paper, we broke into groups and tried to combine the expertise of each group member to come up with a list of answers to the same questions.

The point of the exercise was to show that by pooling the experience/education/knowledge of the group, you would come up with more right answers than you did by taking the test relying only on your own knowledge. Well, you can probably guess the outcome of my group. I scored significantly higher on my individual test than our group did collectively. Now, perhaps this is an indication that I was not very persuasive in getting my group members to believe I had the right answers.

Or perhaps there are situations in which the expected synergy does not occur (see just about any of the current NASA projects). But in any case, all that I learned from that experience was that I should probably rely more on myself than others.

Such seems to be the case in the group I am in now. To me, our task is well defined and doable. If I were assigned to do this at work, I would be able to complete it, by myself, in about three months. But with this group, we will be lucky if it's done in six. And when it is done, the quality will be much lower than if I did it myself. Now, I realize this may sound arrogant and self-centered, but it also happens to be the objective truth.

If it is the reality, I am not encouraged by this because committees are how everyone in large agencies seem to organize themselves to solve problems. While I understand and support the assertion that problem solving should include the stakeholders involved, I'm not so sure relying solely on their input and judgment will result in the optimal solution.

In fact, I wonder if it almost guarantees it won't. It seems to me committees, more often than not, end up being a waste of time and resources. But perhaps I am being too harsh. Perhaps the problem is most committees are not led by people trained in facilitating meetings so the meetings do not stay focussed or disciplined. Or perhaps its something else.

Whichever the case, the next few months will be very frustrating for me. But regardless of how others seem to have problems figuring out what to do, I know what my tasks are and I will remain focused on accomplishing those tasks.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 09:57 AM | Permalink

Sometimes help comes from the most unexpected places.

José is a waiter, something he's been doing for most of his adult life. While waiters in those fancy restaurants can make six figure incomes, José didn't work in one of those. Instead, he worked in a small café where the food is simple but good and where everyone, as the saying goes, knows your name.

As you might imagine, José is not wealthy person. So life is difficult sometimes. But it is especially difficult in the food industry, what with the competition from other cafés, not to mention the fast food places. José didn't even own a car. But that didn't deter him from being a caring person and he enjoyed the work he did.

As a waiter, José gets to meet a lot of people. Some are nice and some are not. One of José's regular customers is Kimo. Kimo comes in once a week with a few friends just before their Elks Club meeting. The first time Kimo came in José took an immediately liking to him.

So week after week and month after month Kimo and friends would come for dinner before going to the club to provide speech therapy services to youngsters to help them overcome their speech impediments. Something he and the club did for free as a way of giving back to the community. When José found out what they did, he knew for sure that these were some of the nice ones.

Then one day, Kimo didn't come in. So José asked the friends where was Kimo? The friends told him of how Kimo had to go to the mainland to have some medical tests done. For you see, Kimo was not well. In fact, his kidneys were failing and he needed a transplant. The good news was that he was a good candidate for the life saving operation. The bad news was that there is a continuing shortage of people willing to donate a kidney. Therefore, Kimo would probably be dead before his name made it to the top of the list. The further bad news was that Kimo's blood type was relatively rare so it would be difficult to match someone, even if there was a kidney available.

That got José to thinking. He felt he had a choice to make. A choice only for him. He pondered the choice and what it would mean. He stood at that crossroad and saw two clear paths. Danger lurked on one of them like a panther waiting to pounce. The other was wide open and seemingly safe. Then he made his decision.

A week later, Kimo was back at his regular table at the café - a little worse for wear and a somewhat tired from his trip, not to mention his circumstances. But when José walked up to Kimo to take his dinner order, Kimo got the second shock of his life. José asked him if he wanted to have one of José's kidneys.

To say Kimo was stunned would be an understatment. Why would someone, even someone you see once a week, be willing to literally give part of themselves to save your life? Knowing full well that no operation is routine and a kidney transplant is by no means without danger to the donor. We may never know for sure, but José felt he had been led to that crossroad and that, in either case, it was the right thing to do.

So José was tested and against staggering odds, he was a perfect match. Shortly thereafter, the operation was performed and Kimo was made whole again and was soon ready to return to helping the kids.

Some would say it was just a coincidence that Kimo first came to that café. That is was just a coincidence that he chose the specific table that José waited on. That it was just random chance that Kimo was willing to help the way he did.

But to tell you the truth, I don't believe that. I hope mankind is more than a minuscule boat buffeted by the winds and waves of chance. That all is not chaos. I don't believe people do whatever they do based solely on greed or self-interest. I think if we keep our eyes and hearts open, we can sometimes see the unseen patterns that betray the underlying plan. A plan that can, if we choose that path, lead to a better place.

Posted by DanS at 07:38 AM | Permalink

In a similar vein, I finally got Movable Type (MT) to automagically email me when someone leaves a comment. At first, I thought I had a problem with sendmail either being in a different location or not being available at all. But all it was is I had to check a box in the configuration file for MT that enables that feature. Doh!

So now if someone leaves a comment, it gets emailed to me rather than me having to check the site periodically during the day.

Posted by DanS at 09:04 AM | Permalink

For example, she wants to add staff to her office but realizes it would not be politically correct to do this in our fragile economy. So, she wants private industry to pay for them - either directly, as in giving her money or indirectly by providing some of their staff to work in her office.

This idea is fraught with conflict of interest problems. Say an oil company, decides to send one of their top administrators to work in the governor's office. One could say this person would bring a wealth of practical experience to the job. While this might be true, one has to wonder what kind of influence this person would have on policies such as regulating certain companies. Oil ones, for example. Especially since the last administration was in the midst of filing a law suit alleging evasion of billions in federal taxes and hundreds of millions in state taxes on the part of one oil company.

If you think she wouldn't hire someone like this, think about how she hired her then husband to represent her as mayor of Mau'i. Whether this was legal or not (it was not), it shows either a complete lack of understanding of the ethical issues this raises or a reckless disregard of said issues.

In these situations, there would always be at least the appearance of undue influence. That is, who does this person really work for? The oil company that pays his or her salary? The citizens of this state, over which this person has control of policy? The governor who is also his wife?

A second example is one of telling the truth. In her State of the State speech last week, the governor alleged that Hawai'i's workers compensation law was so unbalanced that someone fired for stealing could receive such compensation due to the stress caused by being fired. Only, it wasn't true. It did not happen and could not happen under the current law.

The spreading of an untrue urban myth is not trust inducing. It makes one wonder what else she believes to be true, but isn't. Does she believe the welfare system is the major cause of the high number of single-parent households among Blacks (see this study here that indicates this pattern existed a century before the welfare system was created). Does she believe the urban myths that are trotted out every time someone wants to institute tort "reform" (see a list here)?

We want and deserve better.

Posted by DanS at 09:02 AM | Permalink

73 seconds to the end. At 0.678 seconds into the flight a puff of smoke is recorded jetting from the aft field joint of the right solid rocket booster.

71 seconds to the end. Cameras record eight more puffs of smoke emanating from the joint. The color of the smoke suggests the grease, joint insulation, and rubber O-rings are being burned and eroded by the intense heat of the burning propellant.

36 seconds to the end. The craft encounters the first of several high altitude wind shears. The wind shears cause relatively large deflections of the vehicle. These deflections are automatically countered by the guidance, navigation, and control systems of the engines. The number and intensity of the corrections recorded set new records for flights to that time.

15 seconds to the end. The main engines throttle up to 104 percent of their rated capacity. At this time, the first flickering flames coming from the solid rocket booster joint can be seen.

14 seconds to the end. The flame becomes a defined plume and the pressure sensors in the booster now detect a differential between the left and right booster. This is the first telemetry data confirming a leak is occurring.

9 seconds to the end. The flames suddenly change in shape and color as they breach the external fuel tank and begin burning the hydrogen therein. Telemetry from the fuel tank confirms a leak.

1 second to the end. The lower strut linking the Solid Rocket Booster and the External Tank is severed or pulled away from the weakened hydrogen tank permitting the right Solid Rocket Booster to rotate around the upper attachment strut. This rotation is indicated by divergent yaw and pitch rates between the left and right Solid Rocket Boosters.

0.88 seconds to the end. A circumferential white vapor pattern is observed blooming from the side of the External Tank bottom dome. This is the beginning of the structural failure of hydrogen tank that culminated in the entire aft dome dropping away. This releases massive amounts of liquid hydrogen from the tank and creates a sudden forward thrust of about 2.8 million pounds, pushing the hydrogen tank upward into the intertank structure. At about the same time, the rotating right Solid Rocket Booster impacts the intertank structure and the lower part of the liquid oxygen tank.

0.86 seconds to the end. White vapors appear in the intertank region. Within milliseconds there is a massive, almost explosive, burning of the hydrogen streaming from the failed tank bottom and liquid oxygen breach in the area of the intertank. At this point in its trajectory, while traveling at a Mach number of 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet, the vehicle is totally enveloped in the explosive burn.

The end. The reaction control system ruptures and a hypergolic burn of its propellants occurs as it exits the oxygen-hydrogen flames. The reddish brown colors of the hypergolic fuel burn are visible on the edge of the main fireball. The vehicle, under severe aerodynamic loads, breaks into several large sections which emerge from the fireball. Separate sections that can be identified on film include the main engine/tail section with the engines still burning, one wing of the vehicle, and the forward fuselage trailing a mass of umbilical lines pulled loose from the payload bay.

NASA Space Shuttle Challenger Crew on January 28, 1986

• Francis R. Scobee, Commander
• Michael J. Smith, Pilot
• Judith A. Resnik, Mission Specialist 1
• Ellison S. Onizuka, Mission Specialist 2
• Ronald E. McNair, Mission Specialist 3
• Gregory B. Jarvis, Payload Specialist 1
• Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist 2

May they rest in peace. Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 09:09 AM | Permalink

Most of my objections to using Movable Type (MT) appear to be baseless. While the installation of the software could have been made easier by having an install script/program and the instructions could be clearer, I still got it up and running after *only* three tries. One of those tries could have been avoided had I known the cryptic error message I got meant I needed to delete the MySQL database if I wanted to start over again.

Whichever the case, MT is now installed using the default template. It creates an index.html file that is W3C standards compliant for XHTML 1.0 (although I have not checked it for accessibility) and only about 5.5KB in size.

Note that it is a work in process and will change in size and look so I guess I should reserve final judgment. I further note that it creates a page that uses javascript for the comments facility so a certain percentage of people will not be able to use it (including me).

And finally, installing the software is not the same as using it. I reckon it will take awhile to get things how I would want it to look and then I need to decide if it's worth switching over or not.

But as of now, it looks like I should be looking for Dr. Pournelle's crow gif.

Posted by DanS at 06:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

This is a test

Posted by DanS at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)