TBWAIN - AKA Jeff Svare's Blog

Check That (Wheel) Spin

2011-09-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

Hilda Solis, President Obama's Secretary of Labor, has elected to discontinue using the ubiquitous black limo, and has purchased a Chevy Equinox.

At a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor she was asked why the switch to the SUV?

What better example could I set if I encouraged my staff to go and purchase and seek how we could acquire a vehicle that would for me would send a signal that we're for supporting our American workers, American-made products, fuel efficient as well.

Sounds good, right? There's only one problem. The Equinox is made in Canada. The country north of the United States. Also known as Canuckland, the Great White North, and What Sarah Palin Can See From Her Back Porch.

When US News contacted the Secretary's office to clear up her misunderstanding, a spokesman replied, "Modern automobile manufacturing is a global industry and General Motors is a company whose reach extends far beyond the boundaries of the United States."

That's more spin than what I've seen watching Top Gear.

Why I Don't Trust Barack Obama's Math

2011-07-15T11:20:00.002-07:00

At a press conference today, 15 July 2011, the President said he was,

"turning 50 in a week, so I'm starting to think a little bit more about Medicare eligibility."

You may want to reschedule that party, Barry. You birthday isn't July 22nd, it's August 4th.

He also said,

"Yeah, I'm going to get my AARP card soon, and the discounts."

Yeah, like he needs them. As president, he earns $400,000 year, with a pension valued at $197,000.

Last year, he and the First Lady reported their adjusted gross income as $1,728,096. They paid $453,770 in taxes, and donated $245,075 to charity.

That still left them with 1.2 million dollars to scrimp by on.

Filing status married, joint return, two dependent children. If you leave out the dog, that 1.2 million breaks out to be $257,312.75 per person in his household.

And, if he portioned out that 257K as a weekly allowance to each of his girls, that would be $4,948.32 a week.

Did I mention that he gets $500,000 per year for expenses? That'll buy lots of pencils and paper to work out the budget on.

Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive, but I think someone who is a millionaire has no business thinking about personal Medicare benefits. Or AARP discounts.

Of course, under his health care reforms, his Medicare taxes do go up. Nah, doesn't make me feel any better.

Yes, I know he was probably making a joke, with the pretense of trying to present himself as being able to relate to the rest of us.

But it's still not funny. Not to me. And hopefully not to others, either.

Once again, here's proof that people who have no idea what life is like for the rest of us, are making decisions that screw up out lives.

I can understand getting one of your kids birthdays wrong--which he's done, and so have I--but forgetting your own? Not good. Especially if you've gone through 49 of them already!

I wonder when the early onset Alzheimer's rumors will start?

Cutting the Debit (Card Fee)

2011-06-08T22:38:00.002-07:00

Merchants win, banks loose and so will debit card users, I'm afraid.

If you didn't know, currently banks charge merchants an average of 44 cents for each transaction. The Federal Reserve has proposed limiting this to twelve cents.

44 cents per swipe doesn't sound like much, does it? On the surface it sounds like that old story, "if I were to give you a penny today, and double what I've given you every day for a month, would you rather have that or a million dollars now?" According to the Fed, the banks and credit card companies earn $16 billion per year on them. That sounds like real money to me.

Richard Durbin (D-IL) said that taxpayers helped banks "in their darkest hour." And were repaid by them using the $700 billion bailout to pay huge bonuses to their executives who got them into trouble in the first place.

In response, banks say the decision does not take into consideration overhead costs, so they will have to raise other fees to make up the lost revenue.

Excuse me? Since when were banks and credit card companies guaranteed $16 billion in revenue? Sounds like it should be part of the cost of doing business. I don't care for predatory business practices, and that's exactly what these fees are.

So, how did the vote go in the senate?
For - 12 Republicans, 32 Democrats
Against - 19 Republicans, 35 Democrats

Interesting. I'll probably have to wait until tomorrow to see exactly what each senator's vote was.

Read the whole story at USA Today.

What's the Life of a Veteran Worth?

2011-03-31T21:08:00.002-07:00

Evidently, it's not worth even $50.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) used to receive a fifty dollar stipend from the Federal Government to reimburse them for their services at military funerals. This would help pay for a flag for the survivors, bullets for the salute, gas to get to the cemetery, and clean their uniforms.

Now that the government is running out of money, the Middle East is blowing up--and the President is going golfing on the weekend--this benefit has been discontinued.

This is shameful, appalling, and offensive.

I have attended military funerals before. This simple act, to honor the memory of a fallen comrade has provided comfort to many, many grieving families and provided them the reassurance the sacrifice of their loved one was not forgotten.

This nation has repeatedly asked it's young men and women to put up their lives in its defense, with promises of education, training, a possible career, and the respect of a grateful nation.

And now, we take their sacrifices and make light of them. Our elected officials, reduce more and more of the benefits many of them rely on. We squander money providing aid to country that would love to see us fail. But we do not support those who we asked to defend us.

What is the life of a veteran worth? Far, far more than fifty dollars.

Today's Annoyance

2011-02-23T21:24:00.001-07:00

It started with a phone call. You know the kind--one of those automated ones. The kind you usually hang up on as soon as you realize what it is.

This particular one was from my insurance company's pharmacy provider. So I thought I'd listen to the message.

"Your mail-order prescription has been processed. We must speak to you before it can be shipped. Please call us at 1-800, blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah-blah. Would you like me to repeat that number?"

As soon as the message got to the "please call us" part, I was looking around for a pen and paper to write the number down. I couldn't find one, so I thought I'd try stalling for time.

"Yes, please repeat the number."

"Please call us at 1-800, blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah-blah. Would you like me to repeat that number?"

No pencil in the drawers, no pencils in the pencil cup. I thought I'd better keep stalling for time.

"Yeah, repeat the number!"

"Please call us at 1-800, blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah-blah. Would you like me to repeat that number?"

No pencil in any drawers where they should be. My pulse was beginning to race.

"Yeah, yeah, the number, repeat the number!"

"Please call us at 1-800, blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah-blah. Would you like me to repeat that number?"

No sharp objects with which to draw blood so I could scrawl the number onto the wall, desk, or anyplace. I knew I was beaten.

"No, thank you," I replied in defeat.

"Thank you for using our services. Goodbye!"

Upon reflection, I am force to wonder at the logic behind the design that gave birth to this scenario. Here are the most important facts, as I see them:

The pharmacy wanted me to call them about the prescription.
The pharmacy called me to tell me to call them.
I was on the phone, listening to the message from the pharmacy.
The message told me the number to call.
The message repeated the number when I asked for it.

So why in the name of all that is good and right in the world, couldn't the message give me this option?

"Would you like to speak to a representative about your order?"

What a Difference a Week Makes

2010-11-04T11:28:00.002-07:00

On October 26th, one week before the mid-term elections, in a radio interview with Rev. Al Sharpton, the President said,

"Anybody who is concerned about the direction of the country has to understand that this election is as important as 2008."

Here's the part of the interview I really like:

"At another point, Sharpton asked the president: 'So even though your name isn't on the ballot, this is about your agenda and about the progress we've seen you begin to make over the past 20-odd months?'

'Absolutely,' Obama said."

So Barry's point is that this election is all about his agenda and the "progress" he's made.

Evidently the American voters aren't all that crazy about his agenda and his "progress" thus far.

After the elections, Barry said that frustrated voters dictated the Republican takeover. "As president I take responsibility."

"I think people started looking at all this, and it felt as if government was getting much more intrusive into people's lives than they were accustomed to."

So if the election was all about his agenda and "progress" the people aren't buying it any more. They want a change.

Oh, wait! "It's time for a change" was one of his slogans in 2008. Funny how these things come back to bite you.

Here's another great quote from his news conference:

"No one party will be able to dictate where we go from here."

Funny, I think that's how we've gotten to where we are. Obama ran on the promise he wouldn't play partisan politics, but that's how the Democrats pushed health care through. And it's pretty much how the last two years have been.

Who Says Only Republicans Say Stupid Things?

2010-10-26T09:44:00.001-07:00

In a radio interview with Eddie Sotelo, as reported on MSNBC, President Obama provided us with this BGO™ (Big Glimpse of the Obvious):

"If the Latino community decides to sit out this election, there will be fewer votes."

Duh, Barry. You could say the same thing if Americans with German ancestry didn't vote in this election. Which, according to Wikipedia, is about 51 million people.

Yup, that would make for fewer votes.

More Partisan Sniping

2010-09-06T12:19:00.002-07:00

But are we surprised?

Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said, "If we are going to get anything done, Republican cooperation, which has been all but non-existent recently, will be necessary."

Really Harry? Why is that? You didn't need Republican cooperation to push the health-care reform and economic stimulus through. You just want a scapegoat in case this doesn't scheme work.

Future headline: "Harry Reid Blames Republicans For Bad Economy"

AP said that President Obama says "Republicans have opposed everything he has done to strengthen the economy."

Yep, fer shure. It's the Republicans fault that unemployment continues to rise (remember how his plan was going to prevent the loss of jobs?), the housing market is still in the toilet, and consumer prices continue to rise. I'm not an economist, nor do I play one on tv, but my personal economic situation is the worst it's ever been. None of this administrations policies have positively affected it. Not that I think the policies of a GOP administration would have had a positive impact either.

Harry, you need to find a new line of work. Try the unemployment line. If you've managed to not squander all of your 193,000 dollar salary, you ought to be OK for a while.

Travel Woes

2010-08-26T05:52:00.002-07:00

Dumb things that have happened to me on this trip.

The flight from SLC was delayed because the plane had mechanical problems in Baltimore.

The flight from Atlanta was delayed because the air conditioning wasn't working.

When I printed my boarding passes it also printed out an emergency contact form for me to complete. In Salt Lake they told me they would take it when I boarded in Atlanta. In Atlanta they said they didn't know what it was and didn't want it.

When I asked about an upgrade at the gate to Business class, I was told I needed to do it on line 48 hours in advance. So they lost the sale of at least one of the three open seats they had. It was OK thought, there was no one in the seat next to me, so I had plenty of room.

When I checked in on line for my flight from Copenhagen to Stockholm, I couldn't have access to a printer for my boarding pass, The website said I could print it at the airport. When I got to the airport I found I couldn't print my boarding pass from the self-service kiosk, so the SAS employee at the check-in line directed me to a different line, on the other side of the hall. When I told them what I needed, they said, "You aren't checking any baggage, you need to be in the line on the other side of the hall." So I went back over to the lady who sent me to the other line, told her what they told me in that line, said I was very confused, and really just wanted to get on the plane. She directed me to the First Class check in where a very nice lady helped me get my boarding pass. She did make me check my bag, and that was OK, but they busted the handle on it, so now I have a sharp piece of plastic sticking into my hand.

SAS boarding procedures are like cattle roundups. There was a placard at the gate saying the plane would be boarded by rows. It wasn't. When they announce boarding every one rushed the gate, trying to get on. I don't know how many seats there are on a 737-800, but there were more passengers than there were seats in the waiting area at the gate.

A couple of times I've asked about available upgrades on SAS flights. The person will then start furiously entering information into the computer for about 15-20 minutes. At which point they will tell you how many thousands of dollars the upgrade will cost. For some odd reason, the calculate the upgrade price based on the difference in price starting at the point of origin. So, if you are on a trip with 5 segments, and you want to upgrade for the last one, you'll have to pay the difference on the four you've already taken. Even though you didn't enjoy any of the upgrade amenities of those flights.

On my Tuesday flight from Copenhagen to Stockholm the only physical difference between business class and cattle-car was a sign on one of the headrests that said, "Business class ends here." I think that's how SAS saves money on the planes. "We don't need no stinking first-class seats!"

Getting through security at the Copenhagen airport is a pretty time-consuming process. There are a fixed number of checkpoints, but not really any lines for them. You just pile together like a heard of cattle and slowly funnel into one of them. They could do much, much better.

General learnings: The people staffing the gates are overworked, underpaid, and many are insufficiently trained to do their job. Some are just surly and some are incompetent. The flight crews are generally fantastic and will do everything possible to make you as comfortable as they can. The certainly don't get enough thanks from the passengers.

Signs of the Times

2010-08-06T20:56:00.002-07:00

Today it was 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius) in Salt Lake City. And they were starting to put the Christmas lights up on the trees.

I see it happen every year, and every year I think it can't be happening yet. But it is.

"And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath." Acts 2:19

The Pary Line

2010-08-03T10:45:00.002-07:00

From the Associated Press -

"Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says it would be 'deeply irresponsible' for the Obama administration to support a wholesale extension of the Bush era tax cuts, including breaks for the wealthy."

When was the last time you heard a politican say that it would be "deeply irresponsible" to raise the national debt to over 13 trillion dollars?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Pink Floyd Rock Band

2010-05-18T14:29:00.003-07:00

Sounds cool, doesn't it? Who couldn't imagine themselves wailing away with David Gilmour on Comfortably Numb?

You could make it a reality. You can vote for Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin, or U2 at this site set up by Harmonix.

Vote now! Vote often! Vote Pink Floyd!

Oh, yeah, I'd buy this.

New Year Honours List

2010-01-01T13:36:00.003-07:00

I could start this with a lame Star Trek fanboy lead-in, "Jean-Luc Picard gets a Knighthood!" But I won't, 'cuz it would be lame.

The 2010 Honours List is out, and the classically-trained (and just bloody amazing) actor, Patrick Stewart is on it. He has been made an OBE for services to drama.

He will now be properly addressed as Sir Patrick, but Trek fans across the world will still call him, "Jean-Luc!"

Make it so.

Post-Millenial Stress Syndrome

2009-12-31T23:58:00.002-07:00

Owing to the many news reports circulating regarding the end of the first decade of the 21st century, let me say this: This isn't it.

The current millennium began 1 January 2001. The first decade of this millennium will end on 31 December 2010. That's 364 days from now.

Take a look here for more information on when this millennium began.

Genealogical Predictions for 2010

2009-12-30T19:46:00.002-07:00

Don't hold me to any of these.

In an attempt to get "member non-enthusiasts" stoked to use new.Familysearch.org developers will create a Wii interface that will go online in Q2.

"Just 500 more points and you can add another ancestor!"

A major player in the online genealogy community will try to open up a new market by reserving a new domain, then fill it with US census records, passenger lists, and city directories, stating, "It's new content tailored for people in (insert country name here)."

There may be more.

A Thought For Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T19:04:00.001-07:00

I think Dickens said it well:

"Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and
infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was
a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a
master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or
any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old
world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him,
but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was
wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this
globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill
of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these
would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they
should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in
less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was
quite enough for him."

Merry Christmas.

A Mathematical Diversion

2009-11-10T10:54:00.003-07:00

A few years back, I would get together with a bunch of friends during lunch and play strategy games. I've been waxing nostalgic for those get-togethers and have even scripted some new scenarios that we could use. The dice, sheet protectors and grease pencils made for some great fun, but I've thought about what could be done to make it a little more high tech.

I was momentarily bored today, so I figured out how to create a function that would allow you to use an Excel function in place of dice.

The function RAND will generate a random number between 0 and 1. =RAND()

If you want to specify a min-max range, for example if you were using a twelve-sided die, multiply the result times the largest possible number less the smallest and add 1. =RAND()*(12-1)+1

If you want to round up the number so you don’t get any decimal places, add the ROUND function and specify zero decimals. =ROUND((RAND()*(12-1)+1),0)

If you wanted to, you could put this function into multiple cells, specifying a different range of numbers for each cell. Just press F9 and the computer will do all the die rolls for you!

I wonder if this is how the M5 computer system started?

Political Thinking

2009-10-21T16:33:00.002-07:00

It's time to confess something. I've been trying to avoid it, but I can't. Everyone's talking about it, and I've been thinking about it. So I'm going to do something about it.

I'm gonna talk.

All the uproar about changing the health care system has just been divisive. I don't honestly think that I can trust any solution the government puts forward. Really, what is the government's track record on making things better?

Let me be clear: no one should loose their homes to pay their medical bills. Costs are outrageous, and many people don't have access to care they need. Making people "realize" the costs of healthcare by making their insurance payments doesn't make them less likely to need medical care.

Hello, does anyone else realize this? Who wants to contract a major illness that disrupts their life and plunges them into debt? No one elects illness.

Instead of this major overhaul, let's start with something smaller. Let's unify the records and billing process.

People should promptly know what their medical costs are. This nonsense about having a procedure and waiting 120 days to get a bill from the provider is unacceptable. This is something the health care industry can fix themselves without any pressure from Washington. And I think they do a better job if they do it themselves. It's call industry standards. If they all decide to work together they can fix this problem.

Let's see them do it. And if they can't, let's see if the government can legislate a better system.

And then we'll talk about what's next.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like .... Christmas?

2009-08-12T20:10:00.002-07:00

Yes, indeed it is.

Last Thursday we got fifteen copies of How the Grinch Stole Christmas in. And this wasn't our first receipt of Christmas books, either.

And on Monday they started putting red lights on the Lebanese Cedar on Temple Square.

Today's high in Salt Lake City--a balmy 96 degrees Farenheit.

Ho, Ho, Ho.

Sports Programmers Are Idiots

2009-07-25T13:30:00.002-07:00

Yep, this is another disgruntled post about baseball.

This is the first Saturday afternoon I've gotten home before the MLB Game of the Week is scheduled to start. The possible matchups: Cardinals vs. Phillies, White Sox vs. Tigers, and the Twins vs. Angels.

If you look over to the column at the left, you will see that I live in Utah, just 20 minutes north of Salt Lake City. We have a AAA baseball team here that is affiliated with the Angels, the Salt Lake Bees. You'd think some programmer would make note of that.

Wrong.

What do we get to see? St. Louis @ Philadelphia. Yeah, Salt Lake is such a National League town.

I wonder if the decision was made by our local Fox station? I hope not, because this way I can attribute it to some nameless suit in a boardroom somewhere, and not someone who's supposed to know about sports locally.

It's interesting to note that we are in the Colorado Rockies broadcasting area. But we don't get any of their games on radio or television. I can pick up the San Francisco Giants some evenings on the radio in my van when the signal is skipping, though.

Doctor Who and the Fashionistas

2009-07-21T10:25:00.001-07:00

Within days of releasing pictures of the newest regeneration of the Doctor, the fashion police are critiquing his wardrobe. Read about it in BBC News Magazine.

Interesting how comments on changes to the Tardis have been rather quiet.

Forty years ago today ...

2009-07-20T12:48:00.003-07:00

I was glued to the television in our apartment on the south side of Fargo watching Neil Armstrong take that "one small step."

NASA's Apollo 11 40th Anniversary site.

NASA's Apollo 11 multimedia library.

Just one more of those "where were you when" moments.

Damn Yankees

2009-07-10T09:52:00.003-07:00

Anthony DiComo, MLB.com's beat writer for the Yankees said it concisely:

For the first time since 2003, the Yanks swept the Twins in a season series.

You can read all about it at this link.

At least the Twins won't have to play the Yankees again this season. So there is a silver lining on this dark cloud.

And I hate having to say something nice about the Yankees.

Native American DNA Study Results

2009-05-01T13:51:00.002-07:00

There's a report out from the University of California Davis that states Native Americans are descendants of one ancestral Asian population, rather than the product of multiple migrations.

"Our work provides strong evidence that, in general, Native Americans are more closely related to each other than to any other existing Asian populations, except those that live at the very edge of the Bering Strait. While earlier studies have already supported this conclusion, what’s different about our work is that it provides the first solid data that simply cannot be reconciled with multiple ancestral populations."

The results of the study show there is a genetic marker called the "9-repeat allele" that was found in 41 populations tested from Alaska to Chile.

Their conclusion is "that the most straightforward explanation for the distribution of the 9-repeat allele was that all modern Native Americans, Greenlanders and western Beringians descend from a common founding population."

However, they do allow for other possible explanations.

"If there had been two or more different ancestral founding groups and only one of them had carried the 9-repeat allele, certain circumstances could have prompted it to cross into the other groups and become widespread."

Certain circumstances, perhaps like one immigrant group being wiped out by another group, and the few remaining survivors being assimilated into the surviving group and producing offspring? I wonder where have I read about that before?

And, of course, they rule out this possibility in their research. Read the full news release here.

Management Theory 101

2009-04-15T13:51:00.002-07:00

Treat your staff like they are stupid.

Whenever you want to get get feedback from "the best in the business" — don't ask anyone on your staff for their input.

This proves you are superior to them as you don't suffer from the same preconceptions (understanding the scope of the project), prejudices (experience), or lack of vision (ideas on how to make things better).

Lego Christus

2009-04-13T12:16:00.002-07:00

No, not Lego Christmas—Christus.

As in Bertel Thorvaldsen's iconic masterwork. But this one isn't marble, plaster, or even fiberglass.

It's made out of Legos. 30 thousand Legos.

The parish priest, Per Wilder, started the project in the fall of 2007, and received help in building it from members of the community as well as students from the local school.

I've had the opportunity to see the original in Vor Frue church in Copenhagen, and the plaster model at the Thorvaldsen Museum.

Here's a link to the article (with more pictures) in Aftonbladet.

A Google map showing the location of the church is here. Just in case you want to drop by and see it.

Social Networking Genealogy Apps Gone Wild

2009-04-02T22:32:00.002-07:00

I was checking my Facebook notifications tonight and saw this surprising item listed there.

I'm fairly certain that the POTUS and I aren't cousins, but I had to check, just in case I had missed something.

So I looked, and what did I find? This:

No. I don't think so.

I'm so glad Wednesday was April Fool's Day. Otherwise, I may have had cause to worry.

How to Get the Money Back from AIG

2009-03-23T18:07:00.001-07:00

Lock Edward Liddy in a room with Chuck Norris.

It's Been a While...

2009-03-16T21:42:00.002-07:00

... and I've thought of lots of witty things to say, but never had the chance to put them down in print. Or what passes for print in this electronic medium.

But right now, I'm tired. And I think I'll go to bed and dream of the upcoming baseball season.

But I discovered today that Google Books has issues of Baseball Digest online!

They Look Fast Just Sitting There

2009-01-30T14:27:00.002-07:00

Cnet news has a photostory on the new Porsche museum that's scheduled to open 31 January 2009. The museum's website is not to be missed.

If you want to see what the site looked like while it was under construction, Google maps can help you here.

Reading Between the Lines

2008-11-05T11:49:00.002-07:00

I was reading an AP story by Terence Hunt this morning about the historic election of Barack Hussein Obama. As I was reading it, I couldn't help but read between the lines of what was being said by others about this.

Barack Obama:

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep."

The read: It's harder to effect change than simply going around and saying, "It's time for a change!" Reality bites, don't it?

Barack Obama:

"We may not get there in one year or even in one term ... But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."

The read: OK, so where exactly are we going?

Afghan President Hamid Karzai:

"This is my first demand of the new president of the United States _ to put an end to civilian casualties."

The read: OK, keep your promise, pull the troops out. That was easy. Let's see Karzai stay in power without the US to back him up. And Hamid, tell your people to stop shooting guns into the air when our planes are flying overhead. It's not healthy for them--it provokes an unpleasant response.

Jesse Jackson:

"And then that Barack's so majestic."

The read: So, maybe Michelle will let you two date a few times.

Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Democrat:

"He's going to call on us, I believe, to sacrifice. We all must give up something."

The read: Can you say tax dollars? I knew you could.

President George W. Bush:

"Congratulations and go enjoy yourself."

The read: The easy part is over, pal.

The second best thing about this election, in my opinion, over 60% of the electorate took part.

The best thing: It's over for another four years.

I Voted!

2008-10-22T21:47:00.003-07:00

I have, this night, exercised my constitutional right to franchise and voted. I stood in line for 20 minutes to do it, and counted it time well spent.

So, if you want a right to complain about the election results, make sure you vote.

And to the person who said, "For the first time in years, I'm voting with hope." I say, don't worry, you'll get over it.

No matter how partisan the politicians are, I am always amazed at how much more partisan the electorate can be.

God bless America!

More Political Finger-Pointing

2008-10-10T11:30:00.002-07:00

From Reuters News Service:

Ex-president Carter slams Bush on market crisis

"Former President Jimmy Carter said on Friday the "atrocious economic policies" of the Bush administration had caused the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s."

And Jimmy would know. He was President during a period of double-digit inflation, an unstable housing market, a foreclosure rate that approached that of the great depression, the spectre of war with Russia and Iran, and what was lovingly referred to as "the malaise" even though he never used that word in his speech.

"Carter told reporters on a stopover in Brussels that "profligate spending," massive borrowing and dramatic tax cuts since President George W. Bush took office in 2001 were behind the market turmoil and economic crisis.

"I think it's because of the atrocious economic policies of the Bush administration," said the 84-year-old Democrat, who served in the White House from 1977-1981 during a period of high inflation and energy crisis."

So, it's all GWB's fault, hunh? What about holding some of the financiers responsible for their fiscal irresponsibility and criminal actions? If you look closely, Jimmy's saying the solution to the problem is to raise taxes. If tax cuts were the problem, tax increases must be the solution, right?

"Whoever wins next month's U.S. presidential election would inherit economic problems that would force them to postpone implementing some of their proposed reforms, he said."

So what else is new, Jimmy? Remember a little hostage crisis in Iran that you left for your successor to solve? Every President has to deal with matters that started with his predecessor. How they handle them is one way they are judged as being successful or not. Maybe you've forgotten how the Vietnam war scuppered LBJ's "Great Society" plans.

""The economic situation is an entrenched problem. It is going to take years to correct what has been done economically," Carter said, adding he hoped Democrat Barrack Obama would win and immediately improve Washington's image in the world."

Yes, this is an "entrenched problem"! So is our dependency on foreign oil and trade! Who's naive enough to think we can solve the financial problem in a weekend? Only the Senate, House, and President, and the rest of the gullible population. These problems require non-partisan action, not partisan bickering and finger-pointing!

"Eight years ago, the United States had a budget surplus, low inflation and a stable, strong economy, he said."

Eight years ago we were riding the bubble economics that produced the artifically inflated economy of the dot-com boom, the effects of the 1997 Asian market crisis was just starting to subside, and Al-Quaida was planning their attack on the World Trade Center. These were things that the President would "inherit" as well.

Jimmy, go back to your Saudi bailed-out peanut farm and help Habitat for Humanity build homes. Rest on the laurel wreaths of your successes in human rights and the Arab-Israeli peace accords. Your actions didn't help out the economy so stop acting like you did. Quit trying to play the elder statesman. You don't do it well.

Read the article sans comments here.

R.I.P. Richard William Wright, 1943-2008

2008-10-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

On 15 September 2008 Rick Wright, keyboardist for Pink Floyd, passed away due to cancer. His influence on Pink Floyd's style was considerable, if not underappreciated.

The BBC News report can be found here.

Wish you were here.

The Return of Arthur Dent

2008-09-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, has been commissioned to write the sixth (and maybe final) book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

Doug Adams, who died in 2001, stated once that he thought there should be a sixth book written, because "Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number."

The book, entitled And Another Thing... is scheduled for publication in October 2009.

Power to the People

2008-09-20T22:56:00.001-07:00

Or, how to make the people think they have a choice, without letting them know they don't.

London's mayor, Boris Johnson, has been asking people their opinion on a pressing issue. When one woman responded with her choice, he responded, "me too!".

Sir Antony Jay, CVO, creator of Yes, Minister, thinks its all for show. And he's right, I'm sure. Read about it here.

Where I am Right Now, Pt. 6

2008-09-06T14:52:00.001-07:00

After three flights (Helsinki to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to Reykjavik, and Reykjavik to Minneapolis), I'm finally back where it feels like home!

I love Minnesota! Tomorrow I'll be home in Utah, where it's going to be much warmer than the places I have been.

Where I am Right Now, Pt. 5

2008-09-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

Aargh. Three countries today! Sweden, Denmark, and finally Finland. Short trips, yes, but three currencies is going to play hob with my expense report.

And it's raining here in Helsinki.

Observations

2008-08-29T00:35:00.002-07:00

During the past few days I've had the chance to view events back home through different eyes. Here's some of my conclusions:

If a person who speaks two languages is bi-lingual, and a person who speaks three or more is multi-lingual, what do you call a person who only speaks one language? An American. Or British, or Canadian. :-)

Many people who watch American television shows think it's an accurate representation of life in America. That's really scary.

The Democratic National Convention has attracted a lot of attention. Mostly because they think both parties are out to lunch/up in the night/out of touch/totally whacked. Pick one. It's providing a great source of humor over here.

Madonna's statement comparing John McCain to Adolph Hitler has also caught a lot of people's attention. Mostly because they think Madonna's probably not sure who Hitler was, much less how he can accurately be compared to John McCain. A someone here observed, "Just because you a famous and have lots of photographers follow you around doesn't mean you aren't stupid."

And after all, isn't if fun to see how stupid other people can be?

Where I am Right Now, Pt. 4

2008-08-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Another day, another city. Well, not exactly. It's Thursday afternoon for me, and I'm in Malmø, Sweden. The last time I was here it was pouring rain. Today it's cloudy, cool, and mostly dry.

Where I am Right Now, Pt. 3

2008-08-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

According to the clock on the wall it's 1:30 PM in Copenhagen, so it must be 6:30 at home.

Where I am Right Now, Pt. 2

2008-08-24T00:30:00.000-07:00

It's 12:30 AM at home right now, so I must be in Reykjavik.

Where I am Right Now, Pt. 1

2008-08-23T10:40:00.002-07:00

I'm in the lobby of the Best Western Dakota Ridge using their electricity to work on my laptop.

There's a really nice restaurant next door, Al Baker's. The Chicken Gumbo soup is really good. And the staff is very friendly. I'm gonna have to try the walleye.

Seven hours and 45 minutes until my flight leaves. :sigh:

On the Fjord Again

2008-08-23T08:38:00.002-07:00

Well, almost.

I'm still in the US. I'm experiencing a return to insomnia absent my regular habits, and stressing over what was left undone when I left home. But, everything there will be fine. Won't it?

Ja, it will.

The good things. The wireless is working great on my Ubuntu 7.10 laptop. Which is more than I can say for the WindowsXP partition. It won't find any signal at all.

Now I just need to get some work done.

An Epiphany

2008-08-01T15:11:00.001-07:00

Anyone can screw up. But to make a totally colossal mistake in a new an innovative way--that requires true genius.

I am so smart I scare myself.

May the Norse Be With You

2008-05-17T16:40:00.003-07:00

Hurra for Syttende Mai!

Or maybe this year, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Click on the picture to see the Aftenposten article.

So, Like, Ya'know

2008-05-14T20:37:00.001-07:00

I was riding the train into town on Tuesday and had the great misfortune to sit behind a young college student who was obviously majoring in communications.

I almost went mad. Driven into a murderous rage by this man's language. I can only imagine what was happening to the person on the other end of the phone. Most likely he was equally articulate.

No, it wasn't vulgar or foul--it was.... I don't know how to describe it. It was agonizing to listen to. Every third word was "ya'know." Literally. I sat there for ten minutes so obsessed by his inarticulate conversation that I actually began counting how many word he would say before he said "ya'know" again.

He averaged three words before he said "ya'know" again. The most words he was able to say before repeating himself was eight.

Here's a verbatim transcript of part of his conversation:

"Well, ya'know, it's like, ya'know, we ya'know, really should, ya'know, do something, ya'know."

Ja, and if I did something, it'd be justifiable homicide.

One Good Thing from the Campaign...

2008-04-17T20:47:00.002-07:00

... or maybe ten.

It's better than listening to Obama doing damage control for his "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them" comment.

Perhaps Barack's been reading too much Karl Marx.

Happy Birthday, Sir David

2008-03-06T00:10:00.001-07:00

Today is David Gilmour's 62nd birthday.

I have a vivid memory of the first time I ever heard him play. I was over at my cousin's house, and they asked me if I wanted to hear this new album they had just bought. The band was Pink Floyd, and the album was The Dark Side of the Moon, and it was amazing. It's still one of my favorite albums to this day, and David Gilmour is probably #2 on my list of favorite guitarists. Eric Clapton is #1. Sorry, David.

When I die I want Shine On You Crazy Diamond played at the viewing.

Rock on!

What A Pretty Picture

2008-02-29T17:16:00.001-07:00

The photo of Barack Obama in traditional Somali attire certainly has generated a lot of attention. I haven't heard anyone from the Obama camp say, "So what?" about it, so I guess they're trying to soak it for all it's worth, too.

Popular opinion says it was leaked to the Drudge Report by Clinton staffers, trying to make Obama look bad. I don't know how they expect that to happen. Obama's father was Somali, so why can't he pay respect to his heritage by wearing these clothes?

Since this plan, if true, seems to have failed, the Clinton camp is trying to do damage control by denying any involvement. The Reuters account, as published at Yahoo News on Friday, states:

"Clinton's campaign denies authorizing the release of the controversial photo but says that, with 700 staffers, it could not be certain someone had not sent it out unofficially."

Translated from politicalese into English, it says, "Of course we leaked it. We just won't admit it."

This would even make Sir Humphrey proud.

You Get What You Pay For

2008-02-28T22:11:00.001-07:00

It is with great regret I report that Utah SB14 which would have prevented smoking in cars with children under five years of age, was killed in committee on the 18th of February.

Stephen Sandstrom, a Republican from Orem, said this bill was "a slippery slope" that could lead to "telling parents of overweight kids they're not doing enough to prevent obesity." He may have been the same one I heard who said this legislation was "an invasion of privacy."

Ten days later, the House passed HB140 which requires children under the age of 8 to be in booster seats. The reasoning, according to Tim Cosgrove, a Democrat from Murray, is that 34 children children between the ages of 5 and 8 died in crashes between 2002 and 2006.

According to the National Cancer Institue, secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer, heart disease, ear infections, asthma, and SIDS. It can also increase the risk of breast cancer, nasal sinus cavity cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, and brain tumors. The NCI also estimates over three thousand lung cancer deaths occur each year due to secondhand smoke.

So I guess that it's ok to expose children who can't make a conscious and informed choice to the risk of contracting cancer while a passenger in a car, but we can't let them be harmed in a car accident because they are unrestrained.

Idiots.

Kudos to Representative Cosgrove for promoting children's health and safety. Shame on those who killed SB 14, and unknown numbers of children in the future.

Candidate Complaints Continue

2008-02-27T10:33:00.001-07:00

In Cleveland on Tuesday for a candidate debate, Hillary Clinton whined,

"Well, could I just point out that, in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time? And I don't mind. You know, I'll be happy to field them, but I do find it curious."

Her statement reminded me of an old saying, the first liar doesn't have a chance.

Perhaps she was thinking the same thing.

This Never Would Have Happened if Sir Humphrey Was in Charge

2008-01-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

If you are familiar with the BBC series, Yes, Minister, you may recall an episode entitled "The Challenge" where the Minister of Administrative Affairs, Jim Hacker, plans on implementing pre-set failure standards on local governments plans to determine if they are successes or failures. The criteria were to be described in the documentation for the plan so that everyone would know if something worked or not.

I came across and interesting website today put up by the United States government called ExpectMore.gov.

This website purports to show what government programs are "Performing" and "Not Performing." I take it that there are some performance standards built-in to every government program that makes it possible to gauge if they are a success or failure.

Programs that are "Performing" are rated as "Effective," "Moderately effective," or "Adequate." Programs that are "Not Performing" are either "Ineffective" or "Results not Demonstrated."

In fact, if you go through the listings and select a program, you can find out for yourself what the measures of success are, how the program is doing, and what the future plans are.

For example, the African Development Foundation is designed to stimulate "economic growth and security in poor communities in Africa." This program is rated as "Effective" because it has been successful in creating jobs, improving its business model, and "Continuing a focus on performance measurement and conducting independent evaluations."

This "Effective" program was funded at $26 million in 2006, $33 million in 2007, and $46 million in 2008.

Hm, if my math is correct that works out to be 105 million dollars over three years.

Excuse me, but when did the United States start running Africa? I can think of plenty of domestic programs that could be funded with this money, or perhaps even going toward reducing the national debt. Of note this "Effective" program planned for 70% profitability in 2006, but only realized 44%.

If you are in college, try telling your professor you deserve an "A" when you score 44 out of 100 on a test. If it helps, you can refer to this government report as proof that even though your performance wasn't perfect, it was "Effective" and therefore worthy of the very best possible grade. I'm sure when you put it that way he'll understand.

On the other side of the coin, the Treasury Department's African Development Fund, which "provides long-term interest free loans, grants, and policy assistance" to finance "investments in health, education, agriculture, sanitation, and infrastructure." In other words, they fund this "Effective" program. Their evaluation gives it a "Results not demonstrated" rating.

According to this report, they need to establish "a new anti-corruption and fraud unit and improved internal financial controls." To improve their performance, they plan on asking Congress "to secure $136 million annually for the period 2006 to 2008 to fund the US commitment."

So part of the solution appears to be to throw additional money at the problem. Instead of paying 105 million over three years, they want to spend 408 million dollars over three years. I know it's only millions of dollars, so it's not like we're talking about real money, anyway.

It's interesting to note the assesments are made by the government, specifically, the Office of Management and Budget and other Federal agencies. If you go to the end of the About Us page, you'll see that one of the goals was to have completed the assessment of all Federal program by 2006.

Excuse me a moment while I check my calender, okay?

Quotable

2008-01-29T22:55:00.001-07:00

When Senator Edward Kennedy announced his endorsement of Barack Obama he made the following statement:

"With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion."

Absolutely. We'll be turning to a brand new page of misrepresentation and distortion.

Do politicians think we aren't paying attention? The Democrats accuse the Republicans of misrepresentation and distortion, and in return the Republicans accuse the Democrats of misrepresentation and distortion.

This is nothing new. The fact is that everyone is so busy with misrepresentation and distortion that the truth is successfully obscured and we are given government statistics to accept as facts.

All it does is rally the existing supporters, boost a few percentage points in undecided voters, and make it look like something is really going to happen, so that no one will have to do anything.

And the universe continues to unfold just as it should.

Now That the First Primaries Are Over...

2008-01-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

... the candidates have taken to attacking the others in their party.

It's really rather amusing, and would be even more so, if one of these people wouldn't end up being blamed for everything that's wrong in this country.

That is, after all, why we elect a president, you know.

The democrats still haven't signaled to Hillary Clinton that they don't want her. And why shouldn't they? She's probably the most polarizing candidate running. Mitt Romney is accused of flip-flopping, which is a negative way of saying "he changed his mind."

Only a fool never changes his mind when confronted with evidence to the contrary. Unless of course, you can blame someone else for it.

Hillary's qualifications are the stuff of legend: Whitewater, the gifts to the Rose Law Firm, the Chinese campaign contributions, grand jury subpoenas, Kenneth Star, the Lincoln Bedroom, Monica Lewinisky, her husband's impeachment, Gennifer Flowers, the failed campaign promise to repair the health-care system in the first 100 days (two terms--no change in health care), the "vast, right-wing conspiracy" and being a reverse carpetbagger.

Of course, she did spend eight years in the White House. But, as Bill Clinton's former advisor, Dick Morris pointed out, "So did the pastry chef."

Of course, Hillary did employ the royal We referring to the Clinton presidency, so it's obvious she feels like she's qualified. Even though she's never run a city, township, county, or state. Well, maybe she did run a state.

Didn't we learn our lesson last time we elected an Arkansas musician turned governor?

I wish there was a candidate who reflected my ideas and opinions. That's one of the failings of a two-party system. And a multi-party system is so fractured that only a few people's opinions are really represented.

Christmas time!

2007-12-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

On this Christmas, I thought I'd like to post one of my favorite passages by Charles Dickens. This is from Sketches by Boz, from the chapter entitled "A Christmas Dinner."

Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused — in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened — by the recurrence of Christmas. There are people who will tell you that Christmas is not to them what it used to be; that each succeeding Christmas has found some cherished hope, or happy prospect, of the year before, dimmed or passed away; that the present only serves to remind them of reduced circumstances and straitened incomes — of the feasts they once bestowed on hollow friends, and of the cold looks that meet them now, in adversity and misfortune. Never heed such dismal reminiscences. There are few men who have lived long enough in the world, who cannot call up such thoughts any day in the year. Then do not select the merriest of the three hundred and sixty–five for your doleful recollections, but draw your chair nearer the blazing fire — fill the glass and send round the song — and if your room be smaller than it was a dozen years ago, or if your glass be filled with reeking punch, instead of sparkling wine, put a good face on the matter, and empty it off–hand, and fill another, and troll off the old ditty you used to sing, and thank God it’s no worse.

This is, I think, good advice at any time of the year, and perhaps even better advice at Christmastime. Merry Christmas to all of you! And best wishes for the New Year!

Swag--It's a Good Thing

2007-10-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

We had a health fair at work today. All the usual stuff was there. People telling us soda is bad for you, fried food is bad for you, white flour is bad for you, sugar is bad for you, we're too fat, we're too thin, we don't get enough rest, we don't get enough exercise.

All the usual stuff. Including lots of swag. Water bottles, pamphlets to tell you more about disease than you want to know, pens that don't work, candy (that seems rather out of place), useless stuff that people pay to get their business name on, and drawings to win stuff.

There was a drawing to win a $300 mountain bike. I didn't win. But I did win a cool Ogio bag! It came in really handy for putting all my swag inside.

"It was logical"

2007-07-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

At ComiCon Leonard Nimoy made this comment on the script for the new Trek movie, "By the way I should mention this is a fabulous script...this is going to be a great movie. And I mean that, I don't say these things lightly. It is a wonderful script and great team putting it together."

Boy, I'm really glad to know it's going to be a great movie. Where have I heard that before?

Read the entire article here or the transcript here.

They also released a new poster for the movie. You can see that at this link.

In a very short time you will know EVERYTHING!

2007-07-20T06:38:00.000-07:00

Thus spake J.K. Rowling on Wednesday, 18 July, whilst imploring Potter fans not to breach the secrecy surrounding Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. At midnight on the 21st, all will be revealed, and we will all know it together.

I have to admit it, I'm more than a little intrigued by this story.

My kids have sucked me into the mythos, and I want to know what happens! But, I'm staying firm on my resolve to wait. Even though I work at a bookstore, and we all want to know, the seals on the boxes are intact!

We've been wondering what's being depicted on the banner we have in the store. It shows Harry and Voldemort in some kind of area, being watched by hooded figures who may be Death Eaters. Harry is looking up with his left hand upraised, and Voldemort's arms are outstretched and he doesn't appear to be looking at Harry.

We think we know what's going on.

It's a Quidditch Death Match. Harry's hand is reaching up to grab the snitch and bring Voldemort's reign of terror to an end.

Yeah, that's it.

Only a few more hours to go.

Genealogy. It's all Relative

2007-07-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

Genealogy is a pursuit where you'll never know what you may turn up. Or the fascinating things that drop in your lap.

Some people approach genealogy wanting to prove some old family legend. Some just are curious about how their family got to where it is. And others, well, some others want to see what they can get from someone.

Once upon a time, not very long ago, a man came in to the Family History Library and wanted to trace the descendants of a European royal (any royal, pick one -- no kidding!) to see if he was a descendant. We explained it was easier to go backwards from your self and see where you connect up. He didn't like that answer, and I don't think he ever came back.

Someone once said the easiest way to trace your family history is to run for office. There's a lot of truth in that old chestnut.

So the other day I was glancing through the online Deseret News and noticed an article about Mitt Romney and his LDS roots. As I was reading the article, I came across a name I recognized. The name was Hannah Hood Hill, daughter of Archibald Newell Hill and Isabella Hood.

Hannah Hood Hill was born In Ontario, Canada in 1842, two years after her parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1862 she married Miles Park Romney in Salt Lake City. She and Miles had a son named Gaskell Romney, who married Anna Amelia Pratt, a granddaughter of LDS Church apostle, Parley Parker Pratt. They had a son named George Wilcken Romney, who married Lenore Emily LaFount. And they had a son named Willard Milton Romney, who everyone knows as "Mitt."

Back to Archibald Newell Hill.

Archibald was the son of Alexander Hill and Elizabeth Currie. Alexander received land in Canada for service rendered in the Royal Navy where he saw action at the Battle of the Nile. Some family stories place Alexander at the Battle of Trafalgar, where Lord Nelson was killed, but since he was safely in Canada at that time, it's really unlikely that he was involved in that. By the way, my youngest son is named for Alexander Hill.

Alexander and Elizabeth had another son, John. John married Margaret Bryce and had a daughter, Martha Ann. Martha Ann was married thrice, and by her last husband, Franklin Theodore Underwood, had a daughter Vivian Ethel Underwood. She's my wife's grandmother.

That makes Mitt Romney my wife's 4th cousin, and 4th cousin once removed to my children.

Say, cousin, could you help out a family member who needs a few bucks?

Writers Report Script for ST: XI Done

2007-06-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

In an interview with SciFi Wire the writers report the script is complete and they are in preproduction (which is such a nebulous term that I think it's meaningless), and are "still casting."

Here's a great quote from the interview: '"Kirk is in the movie," he said. "Some kind of Kirk."'

Maybe that's another term for "preproduction."

When asked if this was a kickoff for a new series, Roberto Orci said "I'm sure CBS is thinking about that."

Perry Mason Mode On:
Objection! The witness is not capable of knowing what other parties are thinking.
PMM Off

Yeah. I'm stoked for this. Really. Can'tcha tell?

Read the announcement at http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=42031

The Empire Strikes Again

2007-04-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

The RIAA's trained government attack dogs, the Copyright Royalty Board, has determined that Internet Radio Broadcasters must make increased royalty payments effective 15 May 2007, with the increase retroactive to 1 January 2006.

This is action appears to be designed to force Internet broadcasters out of business, leaving only providers who sell DRM-encoded music at excessive prices. Estimates place the new rates at approximately $US 155/listener/year for Internet broadcasters compared to $US 25/listener/year for commercial radio stations.

If you want to continue to have your listening options limited to mind-numbing top 40 with banal banter by talking heads, do nothing. If you want to let the RIAA know they've gone too far, go to SaveNetRadio.org.

Exterminate! Exterminate!

2007-04-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't another anti-DRM post.

The Daleks have been voted the scariest villain on Doctor Who!

I'll confess that I had always thought the Cybermen were more interesting baddies than the Daleks. That was until I saw the Doomsday episode. I just loved the banter between the Daleks and Cybermen.

The story can be found at Scifi.com.

The Empire Strikes Back

2007-04-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

On 16 April, the RIAA's happy group of yes-men determined not to rehear a plea from Internet Radio broadcasters regarding the proposed royalty payment structure. This means the new rate structure goes into effect on 15 May 2007, retroactive to 1 January 2006.

Nothing short of legislative intervention will stop Internet music services from going silent on May 15th. Go to savenetradio.org and contact your elected representatives and ask them to take action.

First they said I can only listen to music I've paid for on a single device. Now they are telling me I can't listen to music using the delivery mechanism I prefer.

IH8DRM

2007-03-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

And why do I?

Simple. I don't like my computer telling me what I can or cannot do with something I have legally purchased.

I've been trying--not very hard, but trying nonetheless--to record all my vinyl to mp3. And when I say vinyl I'm including the tape used on my cassettes and 8-tracks. I also have a fully functional Marantz Quadrophonic 8-track player on which to play my aforementioned 8-track tapes.

So the other day I wanted to record my copy of Wishbone Ash's Live Dates lp. But I can't find it. So I found my cassette of the album, plugged it into the tape deck I have connected to my PC and fired up Audacity and left the room.

When I came back and checked the recording, all I had recorded was the loud squeal of a over-tensioned cassette.

So now I have a lost lp, a junk cassette, and no Wishbone Ash to listen to. If I buy the CD, it'll cost me $19, which is almost the same as downloading it from Yahoo or Wal-mart. If I try the Russian site, AllofMP3, it's less than $4. If I could find a friend and record their copy, it'd be free, but I'd probably be violating some clause of copyright law. The US music industry won't let me get to AllofMP3, 'cuz they say it violates their rights.

Well, what about my rights? Don't I have the right to listen to music I paid for?

Why can't I go into some music store, wave my faulty cassette in front of them and let me download the tracks as MP3s for free?

So, back to DRM. What DRM does is say, you legally purchased this song through this service and you can only play it back using this service a specified device. If I want to make a copy of it to play on my PC at work, I can't do that. Nor can I burn a copy to a CD to play in my car.

Now do you see why I hate Digital Rights Management?

Does anyone have a copy of Live Dates they'll let me borrow?

Doctor 10 for 4th

2007-03-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

According to Sci Fi Wire, Doctor Who will be getting a fourth season.
And another old villain will make his reappearance. Maybe the fourth season will also bring some new revelations on the Time War.

Care for a jelly baby?

Yeah, Sure

2007-03-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

"The beauty of Daylight Saving Time is that it just makes everyone feel sunnier," Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass, quoted by Associated Press, 22 July 2005.

He wouldn't have said that if he was at my house this morning. :-P

I'm sorely tempted to make a comment about the absence of sunshine and the space between his ears.

The ST XI Screenwriters Speak

2007-03-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

TrekWeb posted an excerpt from an MTV interview with the screenwriters for ST XI. The TrekWeb article can be found here.

Here's some highlights:

"The challenge of the movie is to be 100 percent true to the fanbase but also to bring in a whole new group of people who've never seen 'Trek' before," Kurtzman said.

>My comment: Isn't that what they've all said before? And how well did it work? Of course, this one just might do it. Maybe.

Orci and Kurtzman also confirmed that the film is not in any way a prequel but a reimagining of the franchise. Whether that means a whole new look for Star Trek remains in question. "We're not going to start totally from scratch," Orci said. "We want it to feel like it's updated and of the now. That's actually the discussions we're having now: how to keep the look of the universe yet have it not look like nothing's new. It's tricky."

>My comment: Reimagining is so cliche. And usually doesn't do well at the box office. Batman Begins may be the exception to that, however. Someone ought to check on that.

Orci recalled. "We've been watching [Star Trek] all our lives. I've even read the books. It was all about, what have I always wanted to see in Trek?'Trek,' more than anything, has always been about the human interactions. It's all about the human soul."

>My comment: So this is another fanboy movie? I remember all the uproar about the writer of Nemesis (who essentially ripped-off Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire to make Gladiator) being a fan, and how that was going to make everything all better. Yeah, sure, right.

At least they got the part about the human experience right. That's something B&B lost sight of along the way.

The Most Frightening Thing I've Seen in a Long Time

2007-02-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is not for the faint of heart. Really.

A Lego Sponge Bob at the American International Toy Fair. Photo from PCMag.com's Photo Blog.

I needed this to remind me why I'm glad we got rid of the satellite dish.

Taxing Our Taxes

2007-02-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

I am completely comfortable with the fact that I have to pay taxes to support government services. I acknowledge the fact that I get far more in return in benefits than what I pay.

What I don't like is having to pay to file my taxes.

E-filing is cool. It speeds up the entire process. Getting your return to the IRS is faster, their processing is faster, and you get your money back sooner.

So why is it we have to pay a fee of $15.95 to pay our taxes?

It certainly can't cost that much to process a return when there's no hands touching it? It would make more sense if they charges $15.95 to process and send a refund when it was sent in on paper.

When you file on paper, how many steps are involved? Lots. Copying your return, taking it to the post office, the postal service sorts and delivers the return, the IRS receives the return, they sort and deliver the return, a warm body checks the return, maybe another warm body checks the return, they approve the return, it's sent off to have a check cut, someone enters the check request, someone approves the check request, someone tells the computer to print the check, someone takes the printed check in its envelope to the post office, the postal service sorts and delivers the check, you open the check, take it to your bank and deposit it, and the bank requests the fund from the IRS.

By my count that's seventeen steps in my simplified illustration.

But when you e-file, you send the data over a secure network to a computer that queues your return for error checking, checks your return, issues the order to transfer the funds, and the IRS transfers the funds to your bank.

And that's five steps.

Which of these two scenarios sounds cheaper to implement?

Now the $15.95 fee is bad enough, because you can't pay cash to pay the fee. So you have to put it on your credit card. Great. Now I have the interest for this fee that I'm stuck with until I pay the entire balance.

However, the government, in their wisdom has made it possible for us to avoid this credit card charge. We can deduct the fee from our tax return! Hooray!

But wait, there's more!

If you choose to do this, the fee is $24.95! In order to save the credit card charge, it costs you more! MORE!

BOHICA.

This is unfair to every taxpayer in the United States. We should not have to pay to pay our taxes. If anything, we should get a $15.95 credit for e-filing and saving the government the money.

And why do we have to pay another $15.95 to e-file our state return as well? This sounds more like organized racketeering than government organization.

Can you tell I just finished my taxes?

Neologisms

2007-01-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

I live in a part of the county where many people believe in places that don't exits.

It's not like people believing in Kansas, Oz, or even Neverland. In this case, many people here call places by the wrong name or mispronounce the name or even generate an entirely new word. It annoys me to no end.

For example, there is a city about 90 miles from here that many people call "Evingston, Wyomin." No, I don't think so. Please note how the "g" has shifted from the state to the city.

A local institute of higher learning is called Westminister College. Nope. Try Westminster.

I've often wondered when someone says "irregardless" do they mean we should regard it?

Another new word that I've heard several times lately is "homogenius." From the context, I'm fairly certain the word that was intended to be used is "homogenous."

If this new word was to be found in Merriam-Webster's lexicon, I suppose this word would have a Latin derivation with Greek origin and mean "same aptitide or capacity."

Or maybe something else.

New Trek Movie Rumors

2007-01-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Trektoday.com is reporting that the first draft of the script includes a young Kirk and Spock, as well as Christopher Pike and Montgomery Scott.

From the article: "The feature film’s storyline is non-linear, there are different timeframes addressed," the IESB article added. "This goes along with the rumors of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy's involvement."

I can only say that I'm not very impressed with this revelation. Time travel is overused, and rarely well done. Going back to where we've already been, for apparently no reason other than that's what everyone else is doing, is not very compelling. And having different actors play roles established by others has only worked on Doctor Who. And maybe the three different Catwoman on the old Batman TV series.

Of course, believe nothing until you get official word or see it on the screen.

Read the original article at http://www.trektoday.com/news/160107_02.shtml.

The End of the World As We Know It?

2007-01-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Maybe.

Hillary Clinton announced today that she is forming an investigation committee for a possible presidential bid. This really isn't any surprise to anyone. It's been obvious that the presidency is what she's wanted all along. And, I daresay that if she's elected, she'll look on it more as a re-election, than an election. Do you remember her famous "We are the President" statement?

I'll take this opportunity to revisit an old question some people had. Why, when she was a long-time resident of Arkansas, did she run for the senate in New York, when she really didn't live there? Easy answer. A New York politician is much more visible, and wields much more influence than a senator from Arkansas. Don't believe me? Name a current senator from Arkansas without looking it up first.

Hillary's platform includes health care reform. I remember Bill promising reforms to the health care industry within the first 100 days of his presidency. It didn't happen.

If the health care industry is paying attention to what's happening in this country, they'll work on reforming themselves, rather than wait for the government to mandate something with all its attendant rules, regulations, and bureaucracy.

But I think Hillary's election is more likely to happen than any self-imposed reform in the health care industry.

Customer Service

2006-12-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

Or not.

As this is the season of Christmas cheer, peace on earth, and goodwill toward men, I thought I'd publicly air my frustrations in trying to return a piece of defective software to my local Target store.

Here's the e-mail I sent to their customer service department just a few minutes ago.

On Wednesday, 27 December 2006, my son purchase a computer game, Cabela's Outdoor Adventures (SKU 20102842, receipt redacted). I installed the game, and when he tried to play it the video would not display. I then spent a considerable amount of time verifying that all the video, sound, and monitor drivers on his computer were up-to-date, and tried again, with the same result. I then contacted the manufacturer's technical support for assistance. They had no idea why the game would not work. We verified the computer it was installed on met all the system requirements before purchasing.

I attempted to return the game today to the store where it was purchased and secure an in-store credit but was told all I could do would be to exchange it for the same item. I understand the reasons for this policy in general, but in this particular case it makes very little sense. Why would installing the same files on the same computer make any difference in the final result? When I pursued the question about getting a credit with a supervisor I was told that you would be unable to return this item because "it would be a copyright violation."

In my work I deal with Federal and foreign copyrights a great deal. This argument is frequently presented by those who are ignorant of what copyright law actually entails. Not allowing someone to return a defective piece of software and crying "copyright violation" makes as much sense not allowing someone to return a book with a page missing because they had already read the other pages, and claiming it would violate copyright.

As the policy is to only allow exchange of the same item, what would your store do if they did not have the same item to exchange? In that case, I'm guessing you would issue an in-store credit.

It's entirely possible that this game will work on some other computer, but for reasons unknown, it does not work on my son's. Apparently your corporate policy requires me to suffer the loss of $21.29 because your employees do not understand copyright law.

In order to correct this issue, I would like one of two things. Either to be allowed to return the item and receive a store credit for $21.29; or send me gift card, check, or money order for $21.29 and I'll keep the game. I'd rather return it and let you resell it to someone who may be able to enjoy it.

Thanks for your help. I look forward to hearing from you promptly with a positive reply.

Jeff Svare, AG

I hope this story has a happy ending.

The Empty Stocking

2006-12-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

From my childhood, one of my favorite Christmas movies was The Bishop's Wife. Not the dreadful one with Denzel Washington (whose work I really enjoy, especially Crimson Tide), but the 1947 version with Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young.

I think my favorite scene was when Dudley (Cary Grant) decorates the Christmas tree using his angelic powers. During the course of the show, Dudley find himself falling in love with the bishop's wife (Loretta Young), and she with him. All because the bishop's attentions are focused more on building a new cathedral than on his wife and daughter.

Years later, I began to appreciate the closing scene of the movie. Bishop Brougham is struggling trying to write his Christmas Eve sermon, and Dudley takes over the task, dictating to the typewriter what the bishop's sermon will be. It's an eloquently short sermon that plainly teaches that charity is what we should be giving to one another.

"Tonight, I want to tell you about the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear there was a child's cry. A blazing star hung over a stable, and Wise Men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down through the ages. We celebrate it with a star hung on a Christmas tree and a cry of bells and gifts, especially with gifts. We bind them and wrap them, and we put them under the tree. You give me a tie, I give you a book, Aunt Martha always wanted an orange squeezer, Uncle Harry could use a new pipe, oh, we haven't forgotten anyone, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one, and we have even forgotten to hang it up! The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's His birthday we are celebrating, you know. Don't let us ever forget that. Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most, and then let each of us put in his share - loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand - all the shining gifts that make peace on earth."

To all of you who have embraced charity at this season, I wish you a Merry Christmas. And thank you.

Asta, 1991-2006

2006-10-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

Today, 31 October, a few minutes after 10 in the morning, our Miniatute Schnauzer passed away. She had two seizures on Monday, the last one continuing for over an hour and a half. When we finally got her to a vet, her temperature was over 110° F. She continued to seizure during the night, and the high temperature probably caused brain damage as well as ruptured several organs as she hemmoraged during the night. We took her to her regular vet in the morning, and we were with her when she passed away.

We got Asta from county animal shelter in 1991, when she was only a few months old. She was a dear family member who grew up with our kids. We have lots of fond memories of her and will always remember that she had the softest fur of any dog, and was the most beautiful Schnauzer we had ever seen.

She was called lots of things by us over the years. Ai-ai, "The Protector from the farm", schnozzler, nostril, dingy dog, Astro, paranoid pooch, and other names.

Thanks for being a part of our family. We'll miss you Asta.

AAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!

2006-10-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

What was Gardenhire thinking? Santana had struck out 8, the Twins were down by 1 run. Santana had great stuff going, but his pitch count hit 107. Evidently that means his arm is in immediate danger of falling off.

Maybe Gardy was afraid that Frank Thomas was going to homer off Johan again. So, showing no confidence in his ace, he pull him for Jesse Crain. Who immediately serves up a home run pitch to Thomas.

This reminds me way too much of Game 4 of the 2005 Division Series when he pulled Grant Balfour at the beginning of the eighth inning. Santana started that game too. Johan gave up one run through five innings, and was relieved by Balfour. Balfour didn't allow a hit, and struck out two in his two innings of work. The Twins were up 5-1, and Balfour was smokin' the ball past the Yanks.

What happened? Sheffield singled. Rincon throws a wild pitch allowing Sheffield to go to second. Matsui walks. Williams singles, scoring Sheffield. Posada strikes out. Ruben Sierra (remember him from this season?) homers, scoring three runs. Game tied. Twins loose in 11 innings and go home for the season.

Today, Oakland 3, Minnesota 2.

Goodbye, Tomcat

2006-09-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

After an extremely successful career as the premiere example of carrier-based aripower, the Navy has retired the F-14.

And I'm sad to see her go. The F-14, in all it's variations has been described as the 60's musclecar of naval aviation. Her replacement, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is easier to maintain (read: cheaper) and carries a heavier payload. It also has shorter range, and lower top speed. More Super Hornet specs can be found here.

Most people never had the opportunity to see a Tomcat in real life. The closest most got was Top Gun or JAG. Which, I'll have to admit, isn't all that bad. But having seen VF-1 Wolfpack deployed on USS Ranger CV-61, real life was so much better.

The Tomcat was a maintenence-intensive craft, requiring 40 hours on the ground for each hour in the air. But, dang. She sure was pretty. Even sitting in a hangar, she looks mean, cool, and sexy. Put her in the air, and she's mean, cool, and sexy.

Here's to everyone who was involved in her design, production, flight, and maintainence. And of course, those who never came back.

Anytime, baby!

The Navy's story of the retirement party can be read here.

USA Today's story can be read here. Their blog, Remembering the Tomcat, can be read here.

It Was 40 Years Ago Today

2006-09-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

\Roddenberry taught the world to say\"Beam me up, Scotty."

Actually, that line of dialogue was never uttered in an episode of Star Trek. It's a popular myth.

"Mr. Scott, three to beam up."

That is actual dialogue from the series. But not in the first episode.

I remember sitting on the floor in front of the tv in our house on 13th Avenue South in Fargo, North Dakota at 7:30 pm to watch the first episode of Star Trek. Little did I know then what an effect it would have on my life. I was barely seven years old, but I was already a die-hard sci-fi fan.

While I liked Star Wars when it came out, and anxiously awaited each and every movie that followed, they never caught my imagination as totally as Star Trek did. Maybe it was because Star Wars was about humanoid aliens and Trek was about the human experience among aliens. I don't really know. I do know the best Trek eps have always been about how our humanity reacts to the larger world around it.

Some of the episodes from The Next Generation seemed to connect more deeply with me than others. The Inner Light is a good example, and maybe DS9's The Visitor is an even better one. Both of those really, really grabbed me.

Now it's forty years later, and I have a daughter who's also a die-hard Trek fan. She relates to Kathryn Janeway, which I think has helped her develop an appreciation for Katherine Hepburn movies. I hope she hasn't given up on her idea of entering the Star Trek writer's competition. I think she'd do well.

May the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet.

Live long and prosper.

Star Trek.com: Star Trek at 40

I Hate To Fly SAS

2006-08-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

After I had checked my bag at Gardermoen airport last week I decided to ask about upgrading my seat on the Copenhagen to Chicago leg of the trip. Evidently Scandinavian Airlines has some whacky policies about issuing or purchasing upgrades.

There were plenty of seats available in Business class, so seating wasn't a problem. After waiting about 15 minutes for the ticket agent to help me, she said there were plenty of seats, but the upgrade would cost about 8,000.00 USD. That's Eight Thousand dollars. Eight grand.

Why so bloody much? Evidently SAS' policy is that if you upgrade one segment, you have to upgrade all of them. Even the ones that have already taken place. My Chicago to Stockholm leg, for example.

Last year, I missed my flight from Chicago to Oslo because of bad weather in Chicago. So I had to stay overnight on my own dime. The United Airlines people had to change my flight from Chicago so I arrived in Europe in Frankfurt rather than Munich. This change also necessitated them changing my flight from Munich-Oslo to Frankfurt-Oslo. While I was waiting in Frankfurt to fly to Oslo, my luggage was flying to Amsterdam and then on to Oslo. Why I couldn't get that same flight, I don't know. By the way, when I got to Oslo, my luggage wasn't there. It didn't reach me until Sunday afternoon. I had left home Thursday. You can imagine how fun that was.

When I tried to leave from Copenhagen last year, they said my ticket wasn't valid and wanted to charge me $14,000 to fly home. All because of some stupid fiddling around with my ticket by United Airlines.

På Toget

2006-08-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

I took the train from Göthenburg to Oslo today. While we wewe stopped in Halden the Norsk Tolkontroll came aboard to talk to each passenger to see if they had any goods to declare. They're just looking for the usual stuff, asking the usual questions. "Where are you coming from, where are you going, do you have any alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs?" They've got all the makings of Latter-day Saint missionaries.

They're in the second compartment right now (15:11) and it smells like they found something. :-)

I think missionaries would approve of the dress code as well. T-shirt, blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a gorgeous black cocker spaniel. Who really likes getting his ears scratched.

We're just pulling into Sarpsborg. Here's the latest in a series of odd-looking rail cars. A 29.2 cubic meter, 12 thousand kilogram container with a square opening running through the center of it. I wonder what it's for?

While eating out a few times in Sweden I discovered some more words that don't have the same meaning. In Sweden, pepperoni are pepperoncini, and salami is pepperoni. Today, I had a slice of salami (pepperoni) pizza with jalapeño peppers.

Changing Water Into Wine

2006-08-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

Or, If We're in Sweden, Don't Let Me Order the Drinks

Do you remember that line from Star Wars (back when it was Star Wars, and not when it was Star Wars: A New Hope) when Han says to Luke, "Don't get cocky." Hm?

I was feeling pretty good about how well I was making myself understood here in Sweden. I was able to get through Immigration, customs, buy a ticket for the bus into town, check in at the hotel, and buy a few things and ask directions. Yeah, I thought I was doing allright.

Then we went to dinner.

The waiter came to take our orders and asked what we wanted to drink. I said, "Vann, vennligst." Or in English, "Water, please." Then I noticed he took away all the wine glasses from the table except for mine. "That doesn't seem right," I thought to myself.

I a couple of minutes he came back with a bottle of water for our table, and a few minutes later he came with a bottle of white wine for me. I said, "No thank, I wanted WATER."

At this point, the Swede who was with me said, "The word for water in Swedish is 'vattn', not 'vann.'"

I said, "Jeg sagt 'vann', ikke 'vin'!"

Since then I've been drinking Pepsi.

The Writing On the Wall

2006-07-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

The men's room wall, that it.

The past week we've been in Moab, Utah taking a little vacation. That in itself is another story, which I'll probably never post here, for various reasons. Moab is somthing like another city in Utah, Park City. Both are recreation destinations each shares a considerable liberal attitude, which I oftimes don't understand, and more frequently don't want to both trying to understand. They're world view is different from mine, and it's probably better that way.

So at one point during the week I found occasion to use the men's room in one of the restaurants we were eating in. Glancing around I noticed the testostorone-charged sophomoric expressions that I thought dropped out of fashion when someone graduated from high school. Well I was wrong.

One bit of writing caught my eye. It said, "Victary [sic] to the Iraqie [sic] resistance! Troops out now!" Of course, as with all written material of this ilk, it was undated and unsigned, making it impossible to determine of this was of recent vintage, or dated back to the ground war in Iraq.

Whoever the MORON was who wrote this, I hope you are ashamed of yourself. This "Iraqi (please note the correct spelling) resistance" is nothing more than armed hoodlums, thugs, and anarchists who want nothing more than to have things their way. These well-armed playground bullies want to keep girls and women from receiving an education so that they can continue to exploit them. They destroy schools and hospitals and religious buildings or turn them into ammo dumps, placing at risk the people there who use them for their intended purpose. The kill other Muslims simply because they belive in a different line of succession than they do. They are intolerant, ignorant, brutal savages who have no place in the 21st century. Their pre-medieval mindset will never allow them to understand, tolerate, or accept anything that is different from what they think is right. They follow the dictates of their own conscience, and allow no others the same privilege.

As far as the "troops out now" sentiment goes, I'd love nothing better to see them home. But anyone who believe this to be possible has no understanding of the circumstances, and no comprehension of what's involved in transitioning to a peacetime, post-war government. The Allied occupation of Japan lasted for seven years, and that was with a stable populace and government that was seriously interested in rebuilding its economy and infrastructure. That's not the case in Iraq.

Psst! Hey Buddy, Wanna Win A Beemer?

2006-07-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

SCO, the company that has made a name for itself by claiming it owns Linux and for suing IBM, has announced it's offering Unix developers $1000 USD to receive training in its EdgeClick Developer Challenge. The winner of best wireless application gets a BMW M5 or $100,000 USD.

Ja, and the fine print of the agreement probably says that SCO gets the patents and all rights so they can build up their war chest.

Just for giggles, I did a search on IBM's website for the term "SCO". I got 20,298 hits.

An Observation

2006-06-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

The Detroit Tigers' manager, Jim Leyland, was ejected from his first game this season. Ostensibly, it was for arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire Paul Nauert. After the game, he was asked if this was something he did to "get his team fired up." His reply: "That's high school [stuff]."

Ron Gardenhire has been ejected from at least four games so far this season. The Twins have been treading water trying to stay above .400 most of the season.

This was Leyland's first ejection. The Tigers are currently in first place, two and a half games ahead of the ChiSox.

Perhaps there's a lesson here. Perhaps it's that Gardenhire is a lousy manager.

Balco Bonds Passes the Babe

2006-05-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

Barry Bonds: Better baseball through chemistry.

Not.

If you want my opinion of better baseball, take a look at the wrapup on last Friday's game between the Twins and the Mariners. Two great young pitchers, Francisco Liriano of the Twins and Felix Hernandez of the Ms.

Hernandez gave up just three runs on five hits, struck out eight and walked one. Liriano pitched a four hit shutout, also walked only one, and struck out eight. What I wouldn't have given to have been able to see that matchup.

Yeah. That's better baseball.

Chemically Speaking

2006-05-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

Barry Bonds hit his 714th home run today, to tie Babe Ruth for second.

Here's all I've got to say on the matter:

C₂₁ H₃₀ O₅

Tough Losses

2006-05-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

Last night, 17 May, Johan Santana pitched what may have been be best game of the season for the Twins. He gave up four hits, walked one, and struck out 12. On the flip side, he gave up two runs (both earned) on a two-out, one-one homer in the eighth. This gave him a Game Score of 77. The Tiger's pitcher, Justin Verlander, gave up six hits, and hit Michael CUddyer. Despite the six hits, the Twins didn't score. Verlander's Game Score? 70. A really impressive outing.

So, did the Twins make this an easy win for Verlander?

Here's a comparison of the two pitchers:

IP ER BB HR K ERA 61.1 22 13 6 70 3.23 Santana 51 18 14 7 27 3.18 Verlander

Other than strikeouts, Johan and Justin are pretty close. Innings wise, Johan's pitched one more game. Looks like Verlander's a better pitcher than he gets credit for.

Maybe this knowledge will make the loss easier to deal with.

Nah.

It's Nice When Someone Agrees With You

2006-05-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

I was reading my old hometown newspaper today, and saw that their sportswriter, Mike McFeely, feels the same way about Rondell White as I do. Here's what Mike said:

Designated hitter Rondell White, our choice for Nice-Guy Pro Jock of the Year, has to go. He’s paid to hit. He’s not hitting. Any questions?

White’s been an embarrassing free-agent signing for the Twins. His zero home runs, 10 RBIs and .185 average make him the least productive DH in the American League.

He also calls for the Twins to bring up Kubel to play outfield along with Hunter and Cuddyer as well as moving Stewart to the DH role. Interestingly enough, that's where Shannon was batting on the 15th. He went 1 for 4, with a single and RBI.

The entire article can be found here (registration required).

The Beat(ing Up) Goes On

2006-05-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

Last night, May 9th, the Twins showed their impressive ability to only be able to capitalize on crappy pitching.

Back on May 3rd, they unloaded on Joe Mays, scoring 6 runs on 8 hits in 3 and 1/3 innings. Of those six runs, only two were earned, which makes me suspect that they had more assistance from the other side of diamond than from their own dugout. Joe's arm just isn't what it used to be, and the Twin's took full advantage of it. Mays' game score for this outing was 29.

After they pulled Mays, the Twins went back to facing major league pitching and promptly shut down. If they would have kept going against the Royal's bullpen they way they went after Mays, they should have scored 16 runs on 22 hits. Of course, projections like this lie more in the realms of fantasy, so it probably wouldn't have happened.

As it was, the three relievers combined to pitch a one-hitter with four strikeouts over the next four and two-thirds innings.

Back to last night's game.

Kevin Millwood pitched one and one-third inning, gave up 9 earned runs, 1 walk, and 1 home run. All this was accomplished in the amazing span of 45 pitches. Millwood's game score? -1. Yep. That's Minus One. It's got to be one of the worst outings ever.

This time, the bullpen didn't fare much better. Four pitchers combined over the remaining inning to serve up 10 hits and 6 runs, 4 of which were earned. They walked 4, struck out 4, and gave up a ninth-inning HR to Justin Moreau.

So what's my point here?

Silva gave up five runs, 4 earned, in six innings. If it hadn't been for Millwood's performance, the Twins may have lost the game, 5-4.

Trivia Time!

2006-05-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Can anyone answer this question?

What player holds the record for the most errors in a World Series?

I don't know the answer, but Willie Davis committed 3 errors in game 2 of the 1966 Series. All of them in the 5th inning! The Orioles scored 3 runs, eventually going on to win the game 6-0.

Incidentally, Jim Palmer pitched a complete game shutout in that game, and became the youngest pitcher ever to do that.

Thanks to Ken for letting me know about Willie Davis' unenviable feat!

Pop! Goes the Tendon

2006-05-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ruben Sierra spent the first two weeks in April at extended spring training. On 18 April he was called up from Fort Myers (the Twins' Class A team), and eleven days later, he ruptured the biceps tendon in his left elbow. According to the report, the MRI found a rupture at the elbow. I've had one of those MRI's as well. As good as they are, mine didn't show that my injury involved a complete separation of tendon from the bone. I had to have surgery to determine that.

I'm familiar with the repair to correct a distal biceps tendon rupture. I had surgery to fix it just over two years ago. Even though I successfully completed rehab, my right arm still isn't as strong as it used to be, and I still have numbness on the inside of my forearm (which bugs the heck out of me!).

Reuben is going to try rehab rather than surgery. I tried rehab before I tried surgery, too. Let me clue you, Ruben, rehab doesn't fix the problem if you've pulled the tendon off the bone! I've heard that same sound, and felt that same pain. Life isn't going to be the same for you dude. If I were you, this would be a good time to hang up the cleats.

Of note, in his 11 days with the Twins, Sierra was hitting .188. He hit .250 in 3 games at Fort Myers.

Now That April's Over...

2006-05-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here's some changes I'd make if I was in charge of the Twins.

1. Send Liriano back to AAA to get him into a rotation where he's pitching every 4 or 5 days.

2. Dump Rondell White and Reuben Sierra. Their productive days are behind them.

4. Bring up the Jasons. Kubel could DH and play outfield, and Bartlett could take over for Castro at short.

3. Reevaluate the coaching staff. If they're sound, make the players listen to them. Especially to Joe Vavra. Tori isn't producing the way he should (who is?), and Morneau looks to be levelling off as a perennial average batter. He's got a lot more potential.

4. Plan on bringing up some arms from AAA to get them some experience. Radke's gone after this season, and I'm seriously wondering how Kyle Lohse won in arbitration again.

:sigh:

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

2006-04-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

Justin Morneau has 20 strikeouts and 5 HRs with a BA of .208. Tori Hunter has 18 strikeouts and 5 HRs with a BA of .221. Rondell White has 18 strikeouts and NO HRs with a BA of .120 (up from .079!).

Looks to me like Rondell can't hit.

RW also has left 13 runners in scoring position. Morneau's left 6, and Hunter's left 5.

Am I the only one who sees a problem here?

Tony, Rondell, and Justin

2006-04-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Tony Batista has been on the receiving end of a lot of negative commentary since the Twins acquired him in the off-season. Sure, the deal really looked like the team in Japan was trying to unload him, but now that we're far enough into the regular season, let's see what he's doing.

Through last night's series with the Angels, Tony is batting .286. That puts him fourth on the team with players with more than 15 at bats. Luis Castillo is the hot bat, with a .404 average. Batista's tied with Morneau, Hunter, and Castro for second place in the hits department, with 14. Shannon Stewart and Castillo are tied in first with 19 hits. Tony's fourth on the tean with 8 RBIs, behind Morneau (14), Hunter (11), and Stewart (10). He's also tied with Cuddyer and Stewart for HRs (2) behind Morneau and Hunter with four apiece. He and Morneau are tied for first place with 7 two-out RBIs. And sure, Tony's been caught stealing once and has committed 1 error. As Aaron Gleeman stated that Batista's been swinging at everything, but he has only been struck out 9 times in 49 at-bats.

To me, it looks like he's making a valuable contribution to the team. Now, let's look at Rondell White.

Prior to Thursday's game with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (yeesh), Rondell's batting average was 1 percentage point higher than Sandy Koufax's lifetime BA. What was Sandy's average? Point 098. Yep, going into last night's game RW was hitting .097. And that was up from .079! Last night, in 4 at-bats he got 2 hits and 2 RBIs, boosting his average to .127! Cue the fireworks boys, he broke the .100 barrier!

Rondell has contributed 3 runs so far this season. Lew Ford, with 33 fewer at-bats has brought in 7! White has struck out 17 times, 7 hits (one double), 4 RBI, left 10 runners in scoring position, and grounded into a team-leading 3 double plays.

I'm sorry, this guy just isn't cutting it. Gardy's had him batting cleanup most of the time, but his performance doesn't warrant it. Now that Reuben Sierra's up from extended Spring training give him the DH position. Do something!

On Justin Morneau: Justin has struck out 18 times in 57 at-bats, has 4 HRs, 12 RBIs, 14 hits, and batting .246, Looks to me like he's swinging for the fence every time. But he's connecting and productive! Rondell, take a look at Morneau, obviously he's got something working for him.

Tonight starts a nine game road trip with the first three with the divison-leading ChiSox. The Twins are three games back. They've lost 3 of 5 series so far. Now would be a good time to fix the lineup. The three best pitchers will take the mound. This season the Twins have been outscored in the first, second, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Since regulation games are nine innings, being outscored in five of them doesn't make for a winning record. Please get the hitting to come together. If not, the morning of the 25th will find them six games behind Chicago. That's not a good position to find yourself in near the end of the first month of the season.

CIL Day Three

2006-03-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

CIL2006 - The Journey Conludes - Almost

10:02 This morning's keynote was presented by by Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, and former managing editor of US News and World Report. While he may look older than some expected, and appears to be just another Foundation suit, he's a very intelligent man, and worth paying attention to. His presentation was prompted in part by this week's Time cover story on the overconnected teen. So his focus was on the younger Internet users, the Millenials, those people born between 1982 and 2000. In other words, my kids. Uff da.

He presented Eight Realities of Millenials.

This group is formed by a distinct age cohort, 5-23 years old
They are immersed in a world of media and gadgets
Their technology is mobile
The Internet plays a special part in their world
They are multitaskers
They are unaware of, or indifferent to, he consequences of technology
The technology they use will change radically in the next decade
They way they approach learning and research tasks will be shaped by their new techno-world

I think I'm just going to try and absorb all this, and not comment on it right away. There's just too many implications in what he's said to risk being hasty.

With all this, what can be done to get these over-connected individuals to be involved in family history research? How are we going to deliver content to them when they do get involved? The way this group will want to approach research may likely be completely different than the way we've been teaching people to do it.

11:20 Gary Price's Best of Resource Shelf demo'ed a whole bunch of amazing things that are available on the Internet. We didn't even come close to seeing all the things he listed, but of the ones he did, here's my faves:

Search Engine Ordering
Customize Google

12:20 Roy Tennant and Andrew Pace made a presentation of their new OPAC. It's a flat file created from ten fields downloaded from their catalog system. The search results are returned using the Endeca search engine. I've been doing some work with database downloads from our catalog, and think think this would be pretty easy to replicate. I'd like to give it a try.

14:35 I attended a presentation on Open Source Software for Libraries, This was pretty interesting, as I think (along with a lot of other librarians) that in a day of decreasing budgets, Open Source solutions make a lot of sense. Glen Horton made a short presentation on some selected applications, then showed how they were being implemented. I was really intrigued by the Greenstone application. It's being used by the Greater Cincinnati Memory Project to deliver digital collections.

OSS4lib has a list of Open Source applications targeted for library use. There's a pretty comprehensive list of applications there. If you're looking for an Open Source solution for some of your library's needs, you shouldn't miss this.

16:10 The Technology Project Management presentation was a case study in transferring from a legacy system to an application (Aleph 500) offered by a different vendor (Ex Libris). In an interesting twist, after describing the environment in which this transition took place, the presenter had the audience identify potential points of difficulty in the process. We did a pretty good job of ascertaining the areas where problems arose. I wonder why? Maybe because we've lived in that world.

17:05 "Is Google, or is Google not the Next Dialog?" Google is free, others are not. Google's strengths are in cost of technology and infrastructure (it's free); cost of use and access (it's free); and usability (we're all used to it). Classification and archivability are areas where Google doesn't do well. The commercial companies provide a structure that provides for these needs, and meets them very well. An article that was on the commercial database twelve months ago, very likely is still there in the database. On the Internet, the page may have been taken down a long time ago, or the archived page may not be the same page that you wanted. So, is Google the next Dialog? No, and I don't think that it ever will be. Will it compete with commercial databases? Certainly. But I don't think that's where they intend to take their business model.

In his Q&A, Mr. Dames stated that he felt content costs will decrease, and that content providers will shift to getting their revenue from the services they provide.

I'm going to make a possibly unwelcome observation at this point. It certainly seems that a lot of time has been spent in the this conference (and the two previous ones I've attended) worrying about Google and it's impact on libraries.

Get over it, already. I don't think Google wants to replace libraries. There's no money in that. Google wants to make money. If anyone needs to worry about Google, it's Microsoft.

Tomorrow - the Postconference!

CIL Day Two

2006-03-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

CIL2006 - The Journey Continues

10:00 This morning's keynote was by Megan Fox, Planning for a Handheld Mobile Future. She discussed several devices that are capable of receiving digital content. Microsoft is developing a new font to replace Times New Roman that will be more readable on multiple devices. New apps are being created to produce native mobile content. A study to deliver student's schedules to their mobile devices raised the question, "If you can upload their schedule to their phone, why can't you turn the ringer off?" Another product described was a mobile digital search. Use your camera phone to take a picture of an object, then receive information about it. One example is to take a picture of a movie poster and get back reviews and theaters and showtimes, or video stores, in your area. I'm not quite sure how we'd ever de able to deliver digital content to a patron's smart phone, but we could send them information on the FHL in a text message or voicemail.

11:20 Lorcan Dempsey spoke about Structured data in the Web 2.0. He mentioned four specific areas where the 2.0 web was developing:

Flat applications - web services stitched into other applications delivering a seamless experience to the user.
Rich interaction - Using tools like AJAX to deliver browser-based interactive services, and web-delivered business applications like Google's Writely.
Data is the new functionality - Services built on top of data.
Participation - social networking, mobilizing the web so that content is delivered to the user not connected to a PC.

12:20 The Digitization Issues and Challenges panel was interesting. There were four panelists, two representing Kirtas and ebrary, one from a STM (Sct-Tech-Med) librarian, and Steve Abram. The tag-team sales pitch wasn't too compelling from my point of veiw. That's probably because our preservation focus is on materials completely different from what they are centering on. They're doing automated filming of printed books, we're doing preservation of materials that may be destroyed as part of the preservation process. So, their business model ain't in my world.

The STM perspective is that these types of libraries are disappearing and will probably go totally unnoticed once they are gone. I'll contest that, and say the users of those libraries will certainly notice. And if they pass away unnoticed, then I have to question their existence in the first place.

Stve Abram asked the really tough question: what are we conserving and preserving these materials for delivery to? Most Internet services now don't require using a browser. It's user-interaction that's being delivered. The new library users have higer academic scores, but no fact-based learning skills, but many have highly-developed learning styles.

14:40 James Hodson presented a Holistic View of Digital Preservation. The key points from his presentation focused on how the user receives the content that's being delivered. Bandwith and display technology have changed dramatically in the past five years. Monitor resolution, processor speed, RAM, and bandwith have all increased. Storage and capacity costs have dropped continually. In December 2005 56% of all computers had a resolution of 1024x768, 20% were 800x600, and 14% were 1280x1024.

I've actually had a couple of minutes today to find and say hi to a couple of people I know from other conferences. I've even had a chance to talk to some new people about what we're doing and gotten some great perspectives and thoughts. It's been great!

CIL Day One

2006-03-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

CIL2006: The Journey Begins

09:50 The Washington Hilton Ballroom was packed for Chris Sherman's keynote, Search Engine Report. While I didn't catch all of it thanks to traffic on the George Washington Parkway, I was able hear his conclusions:

Search is getting exciting and innovative again
New tools and products are making more types of content searchable
Threats to privacy and individual liberty are subtly increasing in the US, while ironically they seem to be improving in China.

I've tried to get these exactly the way they appeared on his slide, as I don't want to misquote him.

While Microsoft releasing a new search engine and mapping tool are alright, I don't personally find either innovative as much as I find them derivative of existing products.

Lots of content has always been searchable (anyone remember Archie?), other sources of electronic content (gopher, finger and WAIS, for example) mostly dried up and went away faced with the overwhelming onslaught of the World Wide Web and hypertext protocol. Those that didn't go away usually migrated to to the Web. What we have searchable now is other types of content, such as MP3, MPG, etc.

As far as privacy goes, librarians are probably among the most liberal groups around, and perhaps more easily than others percieve enchroachment of one's rights. I think one of the key phrases in his last statement is "seem to be". I don't think authoritarian rule in China is in any danger of crumbling and unleashing a wave of human rights legislation.

11:18 Mary Ellen Bates' presentation on Thirty Search Tips in 40 Minutes was almost a mini Yahoo lovefest. Many of the tips she presented were from Yahoo. I think that's really more indicative that Yahoo has been working harder to put some interesting services up moreso than anyother entity. Except Google, that is.

Some highlights from her list:

In case you weren't counting, that's 6 Yahoo services.

12:15 Jason Clark and Karen Coombs just wrapped Website Tools and Technology. After overcoming a technical glitch, Jason showed how AJAX technology makes sites like Google Local work. He also showed a site called sproutlines.com that can make a To-do list. I can see a business application for this, but I can't see any purpose in making my to-do list publicly available. I don't need anyone else knowing just how far behind I am on my goofing off.

Karen showed some popular CM and blogging apps. Her recommendations were Drupal and Plone for CM, and Movable Type for blogging. She also showed a site called tiny MCE and openwebdesign.org.

14:45 I attended a panel discussion on lessons learned from implementation of Federated search engines. I hear rumblings that federated searching in the consortium my library belongs to is withering and may never see light. That's too bad. Northwestern University has a successful implementation, as do those from the other three libraries represented on the panel. The key things they shared were to not require login access until they drill into more than what the federated search can deliver.

Federated searching also introduced searchers to sources they may not be familar with. But if the interface looks too complicated, people will never use it, so they may never find these sources. Related to that, most users never use advanced search features. That's either due to lack of interest, or not understanding what to do with all those extra fields. I guess the Google model of a single search field is really strong.

16:05 Frank Cervone and Darlene Fichter made their Cool Tools Update for Webmasters. The showed us some pretty fun stuff. I've been interested in PHP scripting for a while now, and they showed screenshots of PHPEditor and PHPExpert Debugger. Way cool.

They also showed a couple of Firefox extensions that I'm not familiar with, Colorful Tabs 1.1 and Tab X 0.9.2. I wasn't aware of these, but I'm going to have to check them out.

Wink is an application that will create a Flash presentation. Powerbullet Presenter crates Flash multimedia presentations. Mailbigfile.com will allow you to send an attachment up to 1 GB in size. That'd choke most e-mail sysytems. NVu is a WYSIWYG HTML editor like FrontPage, but without all the messy Microsoft HTML code. MetaTag Export will help you creatmeta tags for your web pages. If you have multiple staff writing pages, you may want to consider using this app to ensure you are getting consisten code.

17:05 Meet the Grokkers was a report on the implementation of the visual display of database search results by the software provided by Groxis. The software organizes the search results into visual clues, which are discernable by their color, size, shape, and location. Mention was made that this appeals to the Visual learner as described by Howard Gardner in his book, Multiple Intelligences.

This visualization overcomes two deficiencies in traditional ranked search results: it helped students to look past the first page of search results; and provided context and other connections to the subject. During the test, one student described it as, "Really fun."

18:47 Everyone Loves Steve Abram

Well, it's true. Everytime I've seen him today he's been surrounded by a group of people, and they're all having a wonderful time. I showed him the picture I took of him at IFLA last year. He was having fun there, too.

I literally bumped into Nancy Garman at the reception this evening. Fortunately neither of us was seriously injured. I must confess to coveting her "One of the Blog People" button.

But now, it's late, and I must sleep. I know that. Now I just have to convince my mind and body.

In Search of the Perfect Cheese Steak Sandwich

2006-03-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

Since this was my first trip to Philly I had to try a cheese steak sandwich. I asked my seat-mate on the flight in (the guy with the Bose headphones) who made the best sandwiches. He wouldn't commit himself, but he made a great suggestion, "Get one of each, they're small." So I did.

The parameters of my test sandwich: steak, onions, and Cheez Whiz.

I tried Geno's first. Incredible. The flavor was amazing. I could have died a very happy man.

Next, Pat's. Incredible. The flavor was amazing. I could have died a very happy man.

Pat's steak was every bit as good as Geno's. But the on Pat's the bread was better, and so was the cheese. I can't figure out how Cheez Whiz can taste different, but it did. Pat's Wins! Pat's Wins! Despite this glowing recommendation, you won't find me on their celebrity page.

Cheese steak. It's a beautiful thing.

Observations

2006-03-19T23:44:00.000-07:00

I found a great reason to have an MP3 player with you when flying: you can't hear unwanted conversations.

The fellow I was sitting next to on the plane had a set of Bose Sound Cancelling headphones with him. After the in-flight movie (which was awful), I asked him about them. He even let me try them on. It was amazing! Suddenly all I could hear were my own thoughts. The persistene drone of the cabin pressure system was gone! Then he plugged them into the armrest headphone jack. I'd swear I was suddenly listening to premium quality sound system. I'd been using my cheap airline-furnished earphones just before this, and it didn't sound anything like what I was listening to then. Simply amazing.

Note to self: Add noise-cancelling headphones to Want List.