KH6BB

In this era of high speed digital communications, it was interesting to hear that museum ships, such as the battleship USS Missouri, moored in Pearl Harbor (see their ham website here), held the old time equivalent of a call in show this past weekend using ham radios.

With the right conditions ham radio operators can reach almost every part of the globe. So it should not be surprising that over 500 calls were received. As part of the ritual, ham operators exchange post cards (called QSL, acknowledging receipt) between themselves and collect them as indication of their devotion to the hobby.

Lucky and Good

There's an old saying about it's better to be lucky than good. And with four or five laps to go in the French Grand Prix, and seemingly resigned to taking second place, German Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher passed Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen's car after the Fin locked up his brakes after hitting a patch of oil apparently dropped by one of the Toyotas. Schumacher went on to win the race.

Raikkonen was understandably disappointed by the result. And news sources indicate (see one here) that the McLaren-Mercedes team could have protested the pass as it was apparently made under the yellow flag. In either case, as of this morning, McLaren has not taken any action and I assume the result will stand.

Assuming it does, Schumacher wins not only the race, but wraps up his record-tieing (with legend Juan Manuel Fangio) fifth world championship. While there have been rumors that Schumacher will retire at the end of this season, it is hard to believe he will do so, given the possibility of breaking the record next year. Whatever the future may hold, Schumacher is indeed both lucky and good.

Apple OS Based on God-less Darwinism and Communism

This one should wake you up on this fine Monday morning. InfoWorld's Bob Lewis has a short column on leadership and responsibility (see it here). "As a leader, two of your most important responsibilities are making good decisions and persuading those you lead to embrace them." However, as we have seem by the recent accounting scandals, this is easier said then done.

Persuading people to change, based on difficult to understand, complex reasons, is not an easy thing to do. The natural tendency is to blame others for your problems. But leaders are paid the big bucks not to make the easy decisions, rather they are paid to make the hard ones and then to clearly communicate the need for change.

Oh, the stuff about the Apple OS? OS X was code named Darwin and it is based on the somewhat opensource UNIX. Hence, Darwinism and free as in beer Communism (Hey, don't blame me, I just report this stuff).

Aloha!

Cup Runneth Over

It doesn't seem possible, but the next America's Cup Yacht race is just around the corner. The Louis Vuitton Challengers series starts up 1 October and even now, the boats are in training in the Hauraki Gulf of Auckland, New Zealand.

The early betting is as follows:

1. Alinghi, Switzerland (Societe Nautique de Geneve)
2. Prada, Italy (Punta Ala Yacht Club)
3. Stars & Stripes, USA (New York Yacht Club)
4. Oracle Racing, USA (Golden Gate Yacht Club)
5. OneWorld, USA (Seattle Yacht Club)
6. Victory Challenge, Sweden (Gamla Stans Yacht Sällskap)
7. GBR Challenge, Great Britain (Royal Ocean Racing Club, Cowes, England)
8. Le Defi Areva, France (Union Nationale pour la Course au large)
9. Mascalzone Latino, Italy (Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia)

The Sound of Falling Shoes

Awhile back, I talked about how the leading candidate for governor shocked everyone by pulling out of the race a day before the state Democratic convention. At that time, I mused that something was up. That is, I figured the former candidate was pulling out because he was tipped off that indictments would be coming his way.

Well yesterday, one of the candidate's core campaign heads was arrested on theft and racketeering charges. The charges arise out of alleged campaigning on public time and using public facilities. As background into what kind of person this man may be, in 1997, the current Governor expressed surprise that the mayor would hire this person seeing that he, the current Governor, had fired the man because all he did was campaign, instead of serving the public.

It should be noted that just because the man was arrested does not mean he is guilty of anything. However, the investigation continues and the noose tightens. I think the "old boys" are starting to get the message that the old way of doing things will not stand. And if the party is to be relevant in the future, this is a Good Thing. The question is, is it already too late?

Aloha!

Rubbish

To show just how badly run our city is, I bring you this stinking story of unsanitary engineers. Our rubbish is scheduled to be picked up on Mondays and Wednesdays. In the last six or seven months, the city has failed to do so three times. Now, this is not just our house, I'm talking all the houses in a three to four block long area. And each time I've had to call the city to ask them to come and pick it up.

On Monday, I got fed up with this and called the city office of information and complaint. I left a message on their voice mail and they called me back yesterday. All that office did was to forward my call to the refuse department. What I wanted to know is why this is happening and what they were doing to keep it from happening again? Remember, refuse collection is a health and safety issue and is not something to be taken lightly. But the response I got from the refuse department was their driver apparently could not read maps. Excuse me? Their driver could not read maps? So what were they doing about that? Well, they would have a supervisor follow behind the truck to make sure the driver followed the route!

Hmmm. Let me count to 10 before I continue. Okay, perhaps this is a system problem and not a people problem. For example, one of the city agencies, after years of complaints that their parks "workers" were sitting under trees in their trucks sleeping, decided to add GPS units to their trucks so they could see where everyone was (although they could not see what they were doing).

So perhaps some kind of navigation system that could help drivers follow their assigned routes would help. Or perhaps it is a training problem. Maybe drivers do not get any/enough training in their routes. Or could it be a labor relations problem in that workers are having to do more with less and simply can't do more?

Whatever the case, the city needs to have people with better attitudes than what was exhibited to me. Especially in their complaints office.

That Sinking Feeling

No sooner than I talk about the America's Cup does the Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes racing yacht sinks in trials off of Long Beach, California. A rudder shaft apparently broke, opening a hole in the hull that sank the boat in four minutes. All aboard are safe and efforts are underway to raise the boat, sitting on the bottom in 55-ft. (~17m) of water. I guess better there than in New Zealand but when you spend $5 million USD on a boat without even a motor, you wonder what else can go wrong.

Passages

Having your employer tell you your services are no longer needed is almost always a Bad Thing - at least in the short-term. This kind of news usually leads to life changing decisions. Herein lies the opportunity disguised in the form of a crisis.

I say opportunity because it can lead to a renewal of who you are. It can lead to a refocusing of what you want to do, where you want to do it, and what you want to be. It frees you from the chains of fear because at that point, you have very little else to lose.

I can say these things because its happened to me before. And while going through the cycle of anger, shame, disbelief, self-doubt, fear, and then renewal was not a fun thing, in the end, it turned out to be a Good Thing. In fact, it was the moment in which I was free to choose my path. In so choosing, my life has been much better than if I had stayed at my old job.

Having said that, you need to be prepared before hand. By that I mean you need to have two to three months worth of pay saved in the bank. This is the cushion that helps you to keep your options open while you look for that new path. If you don't have that, your options are not as good, but not impossible.

So to fellow Daynoter John Dominik, who announced in his Monday post (see it here) that his employer was downsizing him out of job, I say, keep the faith, Godspeed, good luck, and know that our prayers are with you and your family. If we can be of any help, write what you need on a coconut and throw it our way.

When one door closes, another opens: but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. - Alexander Graham Bell

Aloha!

Deregulate This

There was a small, four-paragraph article in the MorningPaper about how cable TV rates far outpaced inflation (not that everything has to rise at the rate of inflation). Using Consumers Union (the Consumer Reports people) numbers, cable rates rose 45 percent since the 1996 passage of the Telecommunications Act which deregulated the cable industry.

The industry mouth piece, the National Cable & Telecom Assoc. says you can only count from 1999 and therefore the rise is *only* 17 percent. Oh, well okay then. In either case, the inflation rate was 7.5 percent for that time period.

Where are all those people who said deregulation would increase choice, decrease prices, and increase the number of services available? Is anyone out there that can tell me that deregulation has done that for any cable subscriber? Or for that matter, the telephone, banking, or air lines customers?

As far as I can see, anyone who says deregulation is good for you is actually saying deregulation is good for the creation of monopolistic industries. Which is okay as far as that goes. But the natural, logical, and economic move, barring government intervention, is for such industries to reduce services and raise prices.

You see it here first when I say the next industry to implode will be the pharmaceutical industry. It seems you can't go by a month without news of another consolidation/takeover. As the number of providers go down, so does the supply. Even now, mainstream drugs for diabetics and hypertension patients is in short supply while prices, and profits, are skyrocketing. Where there is no choice, the free market fails.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all deregulation is bad or that all regulation is good. And I am certainly not saying all industries are evil or all governments are good. But I am saying, and some people will say this is obvious, is that there is a role for government regulation.

I say this is obvious to some because it is not obvious to others. Certainly it wasn't obvious to Congress. It certainly wasn't obvious to the doctrinaire, misguided individuals who see government as the problem in all situations. They seek to build mistrust and cynicism about government. But remember this, government is put there either by citizens who vote, or by citizens who don't. If you don't like what you see in government, work to change it, not destroy it.

While it may not be perfect, the countervailing power of government is the only thing standing between you and these corporations. So lets try to make it better, rather than tearing it down.

In a totally unrelated note, the CEO of the sixth-largest US cable company, Adelphia Communications, was arrested yesterday under securities, wire, and bank fraud charges. It is alleged that the CEO used company funds (i.e., money paid by subscribers) to build a personal, private $13 million USD golf course and bought Manhattan apartments for family members, among other charges. Further, they allegedly falsified documents to hide debt to obscure the true financial condition of the company. Gee, where have we heard that one before?

Aloha!

It's Friday!

Boys and Their Toys

Thanks to Doc for this link here. It warms the heart of an old Electronics Tech student like myself to see the types of modifications shown there. Namely, modifying your Acura MDX SUV to allow WiFi reception while on the road. And better yet, to display computer output on the Acura's dash mounted navigation screen! Heck, you can even pipe a TV signal to it. I love that kind of hack.

Some enterprising people have made the modification and are using the screen to display the signal from a rear mounted video camera. In fact, they've wired a relay connected to the reverse switch such that whatever is being shown on the screen switches to the video camera input when you put the transmission in reverse. Now, is that just 2 kewl or what?

Coffee at Speed

Most of you know that PCs have a convenient coffee cup holder built in. Now, follow this link here and see a case modified to not only to hold the cup, but brew the coffee as well!

Girls and Their Toys (or what is that buzzing sound?)

Airport security being what it is, people need to understand, if not accept, that there is a possibility that you and your luggage/carry-ons will be searched. Hence, when packing, think about what you are taking and whether it is potentially embarrassing to you. If so, do you really need to pack it?

For this women (see the article here), I guess the answer was yes when she packed her vibrator (yes, ahem, that kind of vibrator, not the kind to soothe those aching neck muscles). It seems the women was forced to empty the contents of her bag, including the vibrator. She was then required to hold it up (the vibrator) for all to see. She is suing the airlines for "negligence, gender discrimination and the intentional infliction of emotional distress." You decide whether it's worth the embarrassment when you start packing.

Random Checks

I've been meaning to talk about our experience with airport security on our recent trip to Mau'i but when I thought about it I didn't have the time to write it and when I had the time, I didn't think about it. But the above story reminded me so here it is.

Just a few observations. First, there is no parking/waiting/standing in the loading zones. The loading zones are for active loading and unloading only. If you come early to pick someone up, and they aren't at the curb, with all their luggage, don't bother trying to park there and wait. You will be ticketed and towed.

Second, check-in of baggage is now a two step process. You stand in line at the check-in, get your luggage tagged, then you take the luggage and stand in another line where you will either be checked manually (hands and luggage handle wiped with a special cloth which is then checked by a machine for, I assume, explosive residue or your luggage will go through another line in which the luggage is x-rayed. As far as I can see, the line you end up in is not random, the person directing who goes where seemed to be targeting certain kinds of travelers/luggage.

After your luggage leaves your hands, you then get to, yes you guessed it, stand in another line for you and your carry-ons to go through another check. Once through that, you go to the gate. Where, once again, you get to stand in another line in which some of you will be further searched. Note to local people, who try to pack a minimum of clothes so that everything fits in a carry-on, thus allowing them to get off the flight and proceed directly to their car without having to wait for checked luggage, be aware that the contents of your carry-ons, if you are chosen, will be spread out on a table for all to see (words to the wise: 1. Have clean underwear; 2. Leave that sexy thong with the elephant ears at home; and 3. If you have to bring your vibrator, make sure it looks like something else (see story above). Again, this check did not seem to be a random one.

I don't know for sure, but all these additional checks may have delayed the flight by half-an-hour. And they are not kidding when they say to be there 1.5 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Did all these checks make me feel safer? Yes and no. I'm reasonably assured that a weapon of mass destruction, carried by a passenger would not make it through the checks. But, airports tend to be out in the open with many ways in. Beyond which I will say no more.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!