PC Guy Perspective

Big Issues

2008-06-14T12:53:00.001-04:00

I'm already sick of the Presidential Election campaign with seven months to go; not because my candidate was eliminated, but because nobody is addressing the big issues.

It astounds me that with all the press coverage the two major candidates for president have not had to take a stand on the big issues other than Iraq. What will each do to secure our borders and ports? Will they require inspection of all food and drugs imported into the US as other countries do?

Will they eliminate the loopholes that allow big business to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to major parties or political action committees?

Will they add a top level tax to remove the incentive for corporate executives to raid their own company's funds at the expense of workers and investors?

Will they finally stop giving billions in Federal subsidies to the two most profitable industries, big oil, and Agri-business?

Will they change securities laws and enforcement to make hedge funds disclose their major owners, report their activities, stop massive short selling and speculation plus regulate them like other major investment players?

Will they oppose a North American Union and reveal what interests are behind the secret planning that has been going on for years? Will our next President continue to participate in the G8 oligopoly of powers that answer to no representative body or government while making policy decisions for all nations?

Don't expect Obama or McCain to answer any of these big questions between now and the election or even afterward. The real power remains in the hands of the extremely wealthy who will remain in the shadows as we go through the motions of selecting between their approved candidates as if we were really in control of our own government.

Car Makers Unprepared

2008-06-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

Though we've known for over thirty years that demand would one day exceed the supply of oil, few people were prepared for the latest 'energy crisis' that has driven gasoline prices to new record highs. While the first shortage back in the mid 1970's was temporary, this time it is harder to dismiss as simply market manipulation. There really is an imbalance between supply and global demand. We've had it so good for so long, nobody wants the 'good old days' to end but they must. Even if w don't run out of oil, Global Warming may force us to change our ways soon. There is no longer any valid excuse for wasting energy.

Europeans and others have been paying $5 ($9 today) a gallon or more for over twenty years because their governments tax fuel to ensure conservation and to minimize the Billions in revenue going to the Middle East. As a result, America accounts for over 60% of Middle East oil revenue and 80% of Saudi Arabia's revenue. Cheney's plan to secure a source of oil for America after a revolution in Saudi Arabia is becoming much clearer now. It had nothing to do with Saddam. We invaded Iraq and began building five permanent bases to protect the oil that will allow America to remain a global power for decades after the fall of the Saud family. It is the easiest, fastest way to regain what we would lose in the coming Islamic Revolution that toppled the Soviet Union and continues to spread.

Auto makers have known for decades that Americans should be driving smaller, more efficient cars like the rest of the world, but gave us what we wanted instead because it was so much more profitable. Big trucks were the most profitable segment of the market and everyone went after that market, even Toyota and Nissan. The result was more than half of all US vehicle sales until last month were for trucks, not cars. In Europe, trucks are only 10% of sales.

Sure, automakers tried to give us new small cars but we ignored them until gas prices began to skyrocket. I just priced the same base model Toyota Corolla I bought three model years ago. The least expensive Corolla in the SE US (NC to FL) is now $15,999 plus dealer prep, taxes, etc. with no options at all.

According to on-line discussions dealers are getting $750 to $1000 over MSRP on some models. Even suggested retail prices are up nearly $2000 since 2006, though much of that is for new standard features like six air bags (my 2006 has 2, with two more a $650 option), ABS brakes ans traction control (formerly options) plus the new vehicle stability control that prevents drivers from making bad inputs in a skid are all standard for 2009.

But proof that automakers didn't see this latest crisis coming is the fact that they are still adding size and horsepower to their cars. The new Corolla is an inch wider and 200 lbs. heavier. It gets more horsepower from a tweaked 1.8L engine and even lower gearing than my Corolla. The result is lower fuel economy than my 2006. It seems all makers of cars for the US market are purposely not making their cars more fuel efficient until Congress mandates it. The new Honda Accord has 260 HP. Why would any Accord owner want or need that much power?

We have big changes to make and little will be done until the Federal govt. gets it's act together (not likely). While 55% of European autos are diesel powered because it is more efficient and cheaper to make, tough new US low sulfur diesel standards insure a $0.75/gallon premium for clean diesel here. It will help reduce smog and global warming, but eliminates an easy way to improve the mileage of existing truck and car models for most buyers.

Don't expect high mileage new cars until they are required by the government, after 2012. Even tiny new cars barely get 30 MPG on today's 87 octane gasoline. That's sad compared to my Nissan Stanza 2.0L hatchback that got 43 MPG back in 1983 on I-95 at 75 mph with a full load and the A/C on max. from 93 octane regular. As I have said many times, the gearing is way too low on all US cars, now including the new Corolla. Unless you can change your gearing (almost impossible) the only thing you can do for now is drive much slower or waste fuel.

Auto Buying Essentials

2008-04-27T15:40:00.007-04:00

I've long been more than casually interested in a way of living that I call Thrifty rather than Cheap. There is a big difference between between being thrifty and being cheap. A thrifty person might compare generic canned vegetables with brand name ones and decide the quality and taste of Green Giant is worth the extra money. It is all about getting your money's worth, living as well as you can on the money you have. Naturally, big ticket items like homes and cars are the most significant areas to master.

My top advice for both homes and cars which Americans tend to change about every six to ten years is to buy with an eye toward resale. That means rein in your extreme tastes and go with what most people find acceptable if you can. Sometimes you just can't. Choosing mid-range colors, popular layouts or features may significantly enhance resale value lowering your total cost of ownership, the true goal of thrifty buyers.

My top auto buying advice used to be to negotiate only an 'out-the-door' price including (trade), tax, title, and license. Never let sales staff talk monthly payments. That tells you nothing about price or your total cost. Never answer the question, "how much can you pay per month?" Simply reply that you have arranged your own financing already and as far as the dealer is concerned this is a cash deal. But there is an even more significant issue that must be considered first.

According to Consumer Reports, 48% of the five year cost of auto ownership is depreciation, the difference between purchase cost and resale value. By far. this is the single most important factor. So the thrifty auto buyer may not shop for the auto that most nearly matches his or her exact needs at the lowest price, but actually chose a vehicle that fits their basic needs and has the best cost of ownership including depreciation. You may be surprised to find that it could be less expensive to commute to work for five years in a Mazda Miata convertible than an ugly econobox. Insurance costs vary widely by model and account for 12% of ownership costs on average. Repairs, an important issue for me are only 4% of costs in their opinion.

The least expensive car I ever owned cost me $1,250 plus gas to own for four years and 60,000 miles. It wasn't my Dodge Aspen, Nissan Stanza or even my used BMW 325, all great cars. It was my '79 T-top Pontiac TransAm 6.6 liter V8, (Smokey and the Bandit car in gold). I bought it new through the military overseas Exchange (PX) System like my Aspen. I paid $7,500 for it delivered to the port or a top (Five Star) dealer in my home area as with the Aspen. That was not really cheap for a car back in 1979, but less than most US dealers got for one. I ordered only the options I wanted (T-top and radio antenna). I deleted the gaudy bird hood decal ($75 part) with resale in mind. I probably should not have. I put in my own better AM/FM cassette, amp, and speakers saving $350. These days factory radios and speakers are much better and more complex. I also tinted the top and side windows myself. These days complex curves require a professional tinting.

I sold it in one day in the lot at my credit union for book price $6,250. Net cost was under $350 depreciation per year, less than any other new car I ever owned. I lost $1,000 on the Aspen in one year and 12,000 miles when I received orders to Europe. I sold it and my Levi's Gremlin the same way, also in one or two days. Smart credit union managers will let you park your sharp For Sale vehicle in their lot if you promise to bring the buyer inside to arrange financing (do a credit check) and prepare your cashier's check.

Since the T/A was purchased overseas, sales tax didn't come into play until I registered it in a state. Some states are cheaper than others. You might even do as I did and first register it in Texas (my home of record) then transfer the title and registration to Washington state (duty site) to avoid high new car taxes. That was 30 years ago. Check current laws if you have an address or family in other states. Virginia used to tax new cars at only 2% but most states will collect the difference when you register there. Expect to pay 5 to 7% of the purchase price or current value if higher.

My bottom line is this. The best single piece of advice I can give anyone before they buy a car is to consider the most important factor, depreciation, when you select your car. Even if you plan to keep it forever, if it gets totaled in an accident or storm your insurer uses book values to pay you off.

Check the book price of a three year old version of a car you like and note the loss in value. Limit your choice to three of the most popular cars that meets your needs for room, mileage (the second most important factor), etc. and have the least depreciation. Avoid new models and major redesigns. It takes three years to clear the big defects. Check the NTHSA database for defect reports on all your finalists. Popular cars are usually sporty, turn heads, get thumbs up from savvy drivers, and never appear in used car ads unless they need expensive repairs or still owe more than the vehicle is worth.

Hondas hold their value better than any other make but are terribly overpriced. They often have good maintenance histories like Toyotas and Buicks, but that varies with each year and model. I've just noticed a hot used car market for the Acura RSX coupe, a Consumer Top Choice car according to Edmunds.com which is a good place to do your research before talking to a dealer. The one I spotted as the best of three available within 75 miles sold in one day. Another was at a dealership with high miles. The third was a factory turbo with six speed manual (street racer).

Finally, with US fuel costs rising but still far below the world average of nearly $9 per gallon, plan ahead. Don't let a $5,000 rebate on a big SUV stick you with a vehicle you won't be able to feed or give away in a few years. My personal mileage criteria was 43 MPG (like my '83 Nissan) but in 2006 the closest I could get with a non-hybrid was the 5-speed Toyota Corolla at 41 hwy, 37 city (add 12-18% after 2007 to compare EPA estimates see fueleconomy.gov). Expect to actually get 30% worse city mileage. My Corolla cost $12,000 less than a Prius that owners claim got only 47 mpg at best. It would have taken me 10 years of fuel savings to justify the Prius, assuming it had a repair record and parts availability as good as the venerable Corolla. Corolla is the most widely produced single vehicle model in the world and has been for many years. Unfortunately, in April 2008, US Corollas switched to the Matrix power train which is less economical.

Now all US autos without exception are geared far too low for highway driving. My '75 Gremlin (3-speed manual with electric overdrive) did 60 at 1,600 RPM's (the national 55 speed limit was enforced back then). Today all small cars are doing 3,500 RPM's or more at 70. If you can wait until new fuel standards are required in 2009 or 2010 models you will see a jump in fuel economy and likely lower RPM's in top gear. If not, consider replacing the std. tires/wheels with slightly larger diameter aftermarket versions but be careful. Your speedometer will register low and driveway and/or turning fender clearance may not be adequate. You might need the original wheels to keep from voiding your factory warranty. Avoid low profile tires, they improve handling but add miles to your odometer, wear to your engine, and use more fuel. If you spend more time commuting than racing, stick to cheaper high profile, narrower tires inflated slightly above the printed (full load) rating on the side for maximum fuel economy.

In three years I expect many people to be driving cars converted to run on natural gas or propane which should remain much cheaper than oil. By then most electronic fuel controls will accommodate the fuel switch easily but ask your local conversion shop about your finalists before seeing a dealer. Conversions on selected cars today cost about $250 and require a new fuel line and small tank in the trunk with gage like a BBQ gas bottle.

Enjoy your car purchase experience and remember, be thrifty not cheap.

Forty Years and Still Against War

2008-03-30T00:45:00.002-04:00

My medical condition is stabilizing and I'm even getting some basic medical care from the VA so I thought I'd diverge to an issue of more importance, more general value and appeal to others.

I've been around long enough that I'm seeing history repeat itself. This could only happen because people haven't learned a damn thing from history. Of all the things Americans haven't learned, history is one that has surely come back to bite us in the butt.

I remember 1968-70 (really) and how frustrated I was with Lydon Johnson's conduct of the Viet Nam War. His Defense Secretary, Melvin Laird was just as much a rich, ass-kissing, intellectual as Rumsfeld. He wouldn't stand up for what was right but later claims he knew he was wrong. I suppose Rummy is writing his memoirs now to try to vindicate his participation in yet another genocide of a Third World population that did NOTHING to the US. As Yogi says, it is De Javu all over again.

At the request of the French, we invaded and took out the legitimate leader we once supported (Ho Chi Min) and replaced him with a dictator in Viet Nam between 1965 and 1974. In Iraq, Cheney planned to install a crooked millionaire dictator (Shallaby) but he was exposed before we could stage a coup, so we held elections. Our policy decisions were equally absurd and devastating. Win Kow Ki was a brutal and crooked dictator so the CIA had him assasinated and replaced with Thieu who wasn't any better. In Iraq Bush's appointed administrator disbanded the Iraqi Army turning 200,000 armed soldiers into insurgents overnight. We let Billions in stolen oil fund the insurrection and the Shiite controlled govt. for years to the dismay of all the Arab neighbors. Military massacres and abuses of power were covered up or denied all the way to the Pentagon when exposed (Mi Lai to Abu Graib). It is both ironic and sickening that we haven't learned a damn thing from Viet Nam.

Iraki PM Malaki is playing both sides but knows eventually he needs Iran's support to survive after we leave. In both wars we were fighting mostly against the indiginous population who was prepared to fight for their homeland forever. We never learned anything from our Founding Fathers or the Minutemen who did the very same thing to eventually win control of America from the king of England after more than a decade of 'armed resistance' {terrorism}.

Stagflation was rampant in 1976-79 and guess what. We've got it again 30 years later caused both times by years of massive spending on an unpopular, unfunded, unnecessary war. The first time we spent $1 million a day in Viet Nam [to stop Communism] and we had to go off the Gold Standard when the next President took over (Nixon). This time we're spending $2 Billion a week in Iraq [to stop al Queda?].

This time the Arabs or Chinese holding hundreds of Billions of dollars could switch to Euros and turn us into a Third World nation with hyper inflation and a worthless currency overnight. Thirty years ago the Volker's Federal Reserve chose to raise interest rates to attract desperately needed foreign capital because we didn't yet have a global economy. Rates hit 18% and Carter's recession was longer and deeper as a result. This time the Fed lowered rates and let the dollar drop. So far Chuck Paulsen (Treasury) and Bernanke are getting away with it, but eventually rates will have to rise to attract that foreign capital we need because the Federal govt. can't stop overspending. If the Arabs keep trading oil in dollars, we'll see double-digit interest rates and inflation that taxes the poor and the rich alike. Let's hope China still wants to sell us $50 Billion in uninspected food, drugs, and manufactured goods every month. Europeans aren't buying nearly as much and they are fussy about standards.

Wake up America. We've already repeated history. It s time to finally get it and move on!

New Priorities

2008-02-21T12:49:00.001-05:00

It has been nearly five months since my last blog entry and things are only beginning to settle down a bit. I nearly died on October 3, 2007 and spent 15 days in intensive care at the Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville. It turns out I have had multiple myeloma (bone marrow) cancer for some time. It destroyed my kidneys which nearly became fatal before I realized I was really ill. While I still passed water my kidneys had ceased to function and my blood was filled with toxins and old chemical markers that gave my brain bad information about my body. I thought I was hot then cold but my actual temperature never changed. I was halucinating.

I've been on kidney dialysis ever since and will be for the rest of my life. Since I have cancer as well, I'm not a candidate for a transplant. The immunosurpressive drugs needed to prevent rejection of the foreign organ would stimulate my cancer. There is no cure for my type of cancer, but it can be surpressed by very expensive drugs ($5,000 a month). So I'm in no immediate danger of dying. It's the little things that get you. Each of these medical conditions has only a 50% five year survival rate overall. I've learned a lot about hemo-dialysis and what the kidneys do (or don't do anymore in my case).

I must take phosphorus binders with any food I eat and avoid most of the food I like because it is high in phosphorus or potassium or both. Healthy stuff like whole grains is actually higher in phosphorus and calcium than plain old white bread, but I still can't eat that stuff. Once again, the medicine to keep me going is quite expensive ($365 a month for Fosrenol). Without the medication and watching my diet, plaque would build up inside my arteries and blood vessels eventually causing a heart attack, stroke, or deep vein thrombosis.

Ironically, I was better off having no insurance at all. America's medical system is absurd and upside down. The indigent get everything paid 100% including drugs. The rest of us will become indigent in a few years paying outrageous sums for patented drugs that should have become generic many decades ago. I'm only just now getting basic Medicare so I don't know how all this is going to work out, but I do expect it to deplete my remaining assets very quickly.

I plan to post monthly blogs about issues concerning kidney dialysis or cancer patients from now on. I cannot work and hope to eventually collect some disability money, but it won't be nearly enough to pay for my dialysis co-pays and Epogen let alone my other medications. Epogen(R) stimulates the development of red blood cells in my bone marrow extending the time between blood transfusions and relieving the severe anemia but it costs a lot. MediCare pays 80% of the cost of hemodialysis including Epogen and Heparin (to prevent clotting in the catheters) for those like me with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) regardless of age, but it took four months to qualify.

With over 50 million subscribers Social Security is a circus. I'm amazed it functions at all. Even the simplest most straight forward process takes a long time because of the constant backlog and crush of people needing assistance. To make matters worse, the Feds have farmed out the disability and Medicaid portions to the states making these services slower, more complicated and even more difficult to obtain.

My view of the world and my expectations for the future have changed dramatically in the past few months along with my waist line. I've lost 65 pounds so far. I'm slowly disappearing. Food is no longer something I can enjoy. Nothing tastes the way it should. I can't really taste most of it at all, the rest has a bizarre chemical taste to me, unrelated to it's actual taste. I really miss the taste of my favorite foods but I'm lucky I no longer have to carry around all that excess weight. My heart and few remaining muscles just couldn't do it. But overall I'm in a lot better shape than many others. I can stand and walk and take care of myself. I'm no longer in pain and can expect to live for years if I'm dilligent and can continue to obtain the medications.
I'll write more about my experiences next month.

Your War Costs

2007-09-28T16:18:00.000-04:00

Perhaps the main reason Americans have left ‘W’ get away with his unfunded war in Iraq for so many years is the amazing ability of govt. to hide expenditures. If there is one thing the Federal Govt. can do well, it is hide massive spending and debt. After all, these are the guys who print the money and nobody knows just how much they are printing. In addition, when they need more they sell Treasury Bonds, the most secure investment on the planet since WW II.

The idea of hiding the cost of war isn’t new. Lyndon Johnson didn’t include the cost of VietNam in any of his budget requests for five years. He left the next president so much debt Nixon was forced to take America off the ‘gold standard’ that had been adopted during WW II when the world economy was in shambles.
Only America could back its currency with gold and silver, until VietNam. Even after removing this guarantee, American dollars remained the most secure currency backed by the most prosperous economy for the next thirty years.
All that began to change after the dot com bubble burst in 2001. For the next two years the US stock market struggled. Then, Bush invaded Iraq starting with the most expensive fireworks exhibition in history, “shock and awe”. The most shocking part of that display was the cost [CLASSIFIED].

According to the Washington Post, “…from $48 billion in 2003 to $59 billion in 2004 to $81 billion in 2005 to an anticipated $94 billion in 2006, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The U.S. government is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago, a new Congressional Research Service report found. Annual war costs in Iraq are easily outpacing the $61 billion a year that the United States spent in Vietnam between 1964 and 1972, in today's dollars. The invasion's "shock and awe" of high-tech laser-guided bombs, cruise missiles and stealth aircraft has long faded, but the costs of even those early months are just coming into view as the military confronts equipment repair and rebuilding costs it has avoided and procurement costs it never expected.”

Each Tomahawk or SHRAM missile cost over $1 Million and so does each of the 3,700 MRAP armored transports now being airlifted to Iraq. We are spending over $322 Million a day in Iraq (vs $1M in VietNam) and some of the replacement costs for equipment and most of the medical costs for injured veterans have yet to be determined. Officially, war replacement parts were estimated at $30 Billion last year. But this week the sixth emergency spending bill (outside of budget) Bush has requested for the war is double last year’s $106 Billion request to which Congress added tens of billions more for MRAPs, medical care and other needed equipment.

All these figures are probably news to you since you never saw a penny of tax increase to pay for this war and the top 2% got huge tax cuts instead –a first during wartime. So far, Bush has spent over $1.5 Trillion dollars more than the govt. took in, almost all of it for his war on Iraq.

But don’t think you got away free and simply added this amount to our deficit. Eventually these huge figures have an impact, even on an economy the size of America’s. When tons of new paper currency is printed without income to support it and huge sums of treasury certificates are sold to foreign investors, there is an impact. The value of the US dollar compared to other major currencies is now at a 32 year low (when Nixon had to pay for VietNam).

Just this year the US dollar is down 8% so far and falling. Oil is priced in dollars so even though consumption currently justifies $70 a barrel, today’s spot price closed at $82. Americans are now paying a 15% penalty other countries are not paying because of a lack of confidence in our economy by other nations and economic policies Treasury Secretary Paulsen has put into place to hide the massive debt Bush has run up and stimulate US exports because of our massive exchange imbalance resulting from “Free” trade. What does this mean to you?

Take all your cash, savings, IRA’s and other investments. Take away 10%. That’s what you’ve lost to currency fluctuations and inflation this year. Over the past four years, you’ve lost 44% of the global buying power on your CD’s if you kept them in US dollars. While you thought you were earning 4.4%, after taxes, inflation, and currency fluctuations you were losing more than 5% in real value.
Retirees and others trying to live on investment income really got screwed and will feel the standard of living change, especially if they want to travel.

While global growth suggests the need for higher interest rates, the US FED lowered interest rates to stay out of recession. This will dry up foreign investment that has been paying for the war as investors move to more lucrative markets. To attract needed investment the Fed will eventually have to match global rates and send our economy spiraling downward as all commodity prices rise. This is called Stagflation. I’ve written about it before (see archives). It is out of our control. Only significant govt. spending restraint and years of low growth will pull us out. But our Congress doesn’t have the guts to cut spending so we may not see the end of Stagflation for a decade or more. By that time, MediCare funding will fail and Social Security will need major adjustments we can’t afford. Worse, individuals can’t even move to another country to avoid this mess. It is already too late for most of us. This is the true cost of the Iraq war to all of us.

Soprano Security

2007-09-04T11:14:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite TV shows is the Sopranos because the characters are so well developed. That's not to say they are normal, but in their world they make sense. We get to see more about what makes them tick than Scorsese or Copola have shown us.

We embrace Tony because he's enlightened. He goes to therapy, is getting in touch with his feelings, and even becomes an avenging angel for some of the defenseless creatures he encounters, especially animals. I can just imagine Tony Soprano after his daughter has graduated college and become his financial adviser talking a business owner into an entirely new approach to paying protection.

"I've always felt that making small business owners pay protection under the table was not the smartest way to go. These days the biggest crooks are the legitimate ones. So my financial adviser has come up with a better way. As the new owner of this business you are financing it through the local savings and loan. We've made special arrangements with them to allow you to include your protection payments in your loan package. This way you get many benefits normally denied to you by the system.

By paying your protection up front as mortgage points paid at closing we give you a very special price. While we normally charge 1% a month on the current value of your business when paid out of pocket, we are prepared to let you pay a one-time price in advance on the initial value of your business that will lock in your cost for the next 30 years, at least on a test basis. Once this becomes popular we may have to make an adjustment every ten years or so, but for our early clients we'll take all the risk of inflation.

By paying in advance, we give you all the benefit of compound interest so you only pay the present value of that fixed amount. Let's say the amount is $100,000 so one payment, 1/360th of that would be $278, but the present value of that future amount is only $95. The rest is interest you pay over time like you do on everything else. By borrowing the money from a legitimate lender you pay reasonable rates, not our weekly double digit rates. Plus, you get to deduct all that money from your business income before paying your taxes. With accelerated cost recover depreciation, you'll get over 1/3 of your protection money back from the IRS in the first five years and all of it within 20 years.

Taxes and insurance don't do that and they go up every year. Imagine your neighboring business owner complaining about his higher insurance and protection money rates. At least you'll know your protection rate is fixed because you had the foresight to pay it in advance.

Of course, doing it this ways causes us some problems. First, the money shows up as taxable income to the bank that they give us under the table, so we had to promise them to invest the money with them for ten years and that means we and the bank must pay taxes on our gain every year. That's the money the govt. give you back in depreciation (like insurance companies, the govt. never loses).

You may wonder why we're willing to do all this when we could just extort the money from you as we've always done. Look downtown and then look up. We want those big office buildings to become our next clients. By offering them a legitimate way to account for the expense, they are much more likely to go along. It's not easy trying to twist a corporation's arm. We can make far more money adding deductible security services, similar to environmental services (automated HVAC systems) to the cost of their building than by picking the pockets of 50 guys like you every month.

We even include an electronic security system that notifies us directly when an alarm goes off. For small businesses the monitoring services are all included in the price. We'll respond promptly and unlike the police have a very good chance at recovering your money or merchandise. Even if we don't, the perpetrator won't get away and you can be certain they'll never be back. We also spread the word that your business is protected by us. That carries a lot more weight on this street than an ADT alarm sign.

I hope you can see how we're trying our best to give hard working guys like you a break and shift more protection costs to those who can better afford it. That's why American is the greatest county in the world."

Insurance Rates

2007-07-27T17:42:00.000-04:00

I just paid the semi-annual auto insurance premium on my mother's car. I happened to come across an old statement in my pile of paperwork and realized the charges have gone up 41% since last summer with no change in risk or coverage. I consider more than a 10% increase for anything to be price gouging. I checked online with six other major and minor insurers and couldn't even come close to my renewal premiums, so I was stuck paying up. All I can do is complain to the Florida Dept. of Consumer Affairs, a waste of time, and write about it here.

Upon closer inspection, I realized one of the reasons my rates went up so much is that I wasn't paying as much as most people to start. My mother and I hardly drive anymore, we don't work, don't commute, total mileage is about 3,500 miles a year on her garage kept seven year old Buick LeSabre with automatic theft security and ABS brakes. LeSabre is one of the safest cars as rated by insurers because it is an 'old folks' cruiser. It is covered only for liability and PIP (FL Personal Injury Protection) for the minimum required amounts. We do have comprehensive to cover glass breakage which in FL has no deductible. With all that going for us we still pay 4.7 cents/mile for this minimal coverage. I would image the average commuter who drives 15,000 miles a year pays over $1,200 or 12.5 cents/mile for auto coverage, maybe more with collision (required if the car is financed).

Just think about that the next time you decide to run to the store or go for a drive. Not only are you paying about 13 cents a mile for gas (on 2.87 @22 MPG) but the same amount for insurance and then there's depreciation. Needless to say, that 5 mile run to the store (x2) actually costs $5 in auto expenses. Hertz estimates nearly twice that amount, but they are driving brand new cars which most of us don't. I doubt that one in 100 drivers could correctly estimate the actual cost of driving their own car ten miles to a store and back. If they could, the roads wouldn't be nearly so crowded. Now, don't even get me started on Florida home insurance rates.

BTW, Blogger no longer works with Firefox so I may be switching my blog away from Google. Also, my webpage has been resized to assume 1024x768 resolution. Not everyone uses that default screen setting. These changes suck Google. Get your act together. I refuse to live in a one size fits all IE only world.

Considering Linux

2007-06-23T14:27:00.000-04:00

Unless you've been living in a cave, you've probably heard about the PC operating system alternative to Microsoft Windows known as Linux. Linux has been around as long as Windows because it comes from UNIX, a large computer operating system donated to the public 30 years ago by the original AT&T and subsequently maintained by universities and volunteers. Linux is technically just the basic input output processing code or kernel of an operating system written and still maintained by Linux Torvalds and his associates. Many others contribute the remaining code for a complete OS.

More recently, Linux has been kept going by paid programmers from commercial software companies who follow the free licensing rules known as GNU and earn money by providing support and added services to those using their software which must still be made available for free. This is one key difference between Linux and Windows. Windows may be included with a PC, but it is never free or freely distributable. While commercial versions of Linux are sold, a free, no support version must be available for download.

Linux distributions include free software such as an Open Office suite, DVD playing, burning, and copying software. Much Windows software is not free but the quality of 'purchased' (licensed) software is generally far better than free software. There are notable exceptions including free browsers, office suites, and image software. There are thousands of programs available for both Windows and Linux. How much you pay for most software and the quality of that software is another difference between Linux and Windows. Today, many users of Windows and Linux can find free software that does most of the basic computing tasks they need or want to perform.

There may always be some software or hardware that you want or need to use that requires a specific OS. That's why many users of Linux also run Windows on the same computer in a 'dual boot' configuration. Virtualization software allows one OS to run another in an emulation mode, but this requires more system resources and performance is usually not as good. If you decide to try Linux, you will need to decide what hardware and software you need to use and whether you must run both Windows and Linux.

In the past, there have been few restrictions on what you can do with Windows and many included software applications for things like disk maintenance, media playing, and even some free updates and virus removal tools. Starting with Windows Vista, you will face license and performance limitations in how you may use Windows with certain hardware and high definition media content. These limitations are imposed by Microsoft to protect the intellectual property rights of the recording and motion picture industry at the expense of users. In the near future, you may have to pay extra for software updates, accessories, and other added features. There are no arbitrary limitations on what you can do with Linux on your PC.

While the quality of Linux distributions has improved dramatically and is probably as good as Windows in most respects, the amount of hardware that will work with Linux is very limited when compared to Windows. This is the most serious issue for new Linux users. Will Linux install and run on your PC? How difficult will it be for you to find and install drivers to make all your essential hardware work? For many users, Linux is just too hard to install on their hardware and almost no major vendors offer Linux pre-installed. This is the biggest difference between Windows and Linux and the results vary completely with your particular hardware and software.

Microsoft may be working to keep hardware makers limited to Windows Vista in the future with new license agreements that enforce intellectual property restrictions through hardware driver encryption and digital certificates. If a hardware vendor fails to pay or comply with a Microsoft license agreement, it's digital certificate will be revoked and all users of that hardware will no longer be able to use it with Windows. Worse, this may prevent vendors from ever opening their hardware specifications or even providing compiled drivers to work with a few major versions of Linux.

Microsoft dominates the PC market totally. Fewer than 1% of PC's now run Linux. That may be enough to force hardware vendors to ignore Linux completely and comply with Microsoft's newly added level of hardware complexity. Just as VCR makers built in circuitry to prevent 100% copying of tapes and paid license fees on manufactured blank media, high definition digital content will be protected by a new level of hardware driver protection designed to work only with one authorizing operating systems.

It is ironic that this time in history may be the best Linux has ever been and the best it will ever be. I've watched Linux shrink from five percent of the market to less than one percent as it gets better and easier to use. I don't think Linux is quite ready for low-skilled PC users. But more importantly, I don't know if Linux can withstand this final assault from Microsoft and the recording and motion picture industries. Unless PC users revolt over the subtle manipulation of their computers against them to enforce copyright restrictions, the hope of Linux becoming a mainstream OS is doomed.

To read more about Linux: http://www.maximumpc.com/linux?page=0%2C0
If you want to learn more about free or so-called Open Software or the Free Software Foundation fsf.org, search in Wikipedia.org for Stallman. Richard Stallman, a Harvard predecessor of Bill Gates, made a crucial decision early in his programming career. He felt software should belong to the end user and be free to use, modify, and distribute, not private intellectual property that can only be rented or used only as intended by the developer.

Globalization

2007-06-04T13:24:00.000-04:00

Apparently, every Century, civilization faces a major new challenge. In the last Century it was the Nazi's who threatened to take control of the world. This time the threat is more subtle but the consequences are the same.

Most people don't have a clue what globalization even means let alone the irreversible impact it will have on our lives. It goes well beyond political ideology and national interests. It will affect us all more than any war. It is called 'Free Trade' but comes at a very high price to both developed and developing nations. Both suffer social upheaval so big business can profit.

Globalization is nothing less than multinational corporations and wealthy investors making big changes in government policies against the interests of average workers and families. Massive amounts of labor, money and natural resources are manipulated to improve profits, lower labor costs, and concentrate power in a small elite class of extremely wealthy individuals. Of course, governments are involved, but in many cases, the interests these governments serve are not those of their typical citizen.

Who are these people? It is difficult to say. But they do hold meetings where the fate of nations is decided. Some of those meetings periodically include govt. leaders who will implement these plans via a supra-governmental organization, answerable to no one. It is known at the G-8. Public protests have had no effect on this blatant exhibition of raw power.

Eight major nations already controlled by these globalization interests implement trade agreements and coordinate to superimpose a new order over nations without consent from any of the citizens involved. If you think I'm kidding, just read about the extensive ground work being done by the Bush Administration on a North American Union without any directive legislation or approval from our Congress. Massive new highways are being built to carry goods directly from Mexico bypassing all border inspection.

Haven't you ever wondered why, almost six years after 9/11, America has no control of it's ports or borders and fails to enforce immigration laws and quotas? Why the law requiring 876 miles of new border fence is ignored? This is not an oversight. It is a massive conspiracy that includes both major political parties, most of Congress, and of course, all recent presidents. No responsible govt. leader or citizen could ignore the overwhelming evidence.

With few exceptions, nations throughout history have had kings or tyrants and a small privileged class who controlled and exploited the masses of poor, helpless laborers. Remarkably little had changed in the past 5,000 years until America's growth and abundance, especially after WWII, built a large Middle Class of citizens who all prospered as our economy grew.

Some will argue this general prosperity was due to the organized labor movement and the rise of Socialism. Others will say it was because of the exploitation of backward nations or industrialization fed by the flow of cheap foreign labor. A few even cite the unprecedented access to public education in the 1950's. Perhaps there is some truth to these claims. Whatever the reasons, things are about to change back to the norm after barely sixty years of extensive wealth sharing with average consumers. Just like deficit spending, for awhile, the entire pie got larger and everyone got more of it. The wealthy never really got poorer and they likely never will. Roosevelt's New Deal that tried to level the playing field just a bit between generations and with progressive taxes has been almost completely undone except for that nagging, unfunded (spent), Social Security entitlement.

The scariest part of this entire story is that we are now so far along in the globalization process that the media must be controlled to prevent the public from learning the truth and stopping it. Like everything else, news and information is big business, controlled by a few wealthy owners. All major news outlets now serve their particular liberal or conservative special interest groups. Ask Dan Rather, who remembers when it was otherwise.

More importantly, it is no longer necessary to prevent the facts from coming out. Even the Chinese are beginning to learn this can't be done. One must only 'spin' the story enough to confuse, obfuscate, or massage the facts to insure no significant conclusions or public response. The Internet helps, but won't change anything. The facts are clear on Bush's invasion of Iraq supposedly to find WMD's that he likely knew never existed. But that news was slow and muddled enough to prevent widespread public outrage.

Propaganda really works and can overcome any facts, even America's blockade of Japan that forced the inevitable war which had been brewing for years. That their official war declaration was translated hours late is an unfortunate blunder. It gave America the moral high ground, allowed the US to cover up our grossly incompetent military preparedness, and finally gave Roosevelt a valid reason for us to enter the war in Europe. History may eventually decipher the real story behind WWII and hopefully point out how it could have been prevented. Until then, Hitler will bear full responsibility. He makes such a great villain and he actually became even crazier with power than Nixon. History is still written by the victors.

Annual PC Backup

2007-05-06T15:50:00.000-04:00

Eventually, it may occur to us that our Linux home or Windows My Documents folder is getting thick with old files, making it difficult to locate things. Hopefully, this occurs before we realize our computer is getting old, full, or the hard drive is failing. If you have ever heard that sickening 'clunk, clunk, clunk' of a "dead" hard drive when you start your PC, the next thought that comes to mind is, "when did I last do a backup?"

For others, the start of a new calendar year and resolutions to do things right and better may invoke a preventive backup or maybe it's tax time. If you are technically minded, or just avoiding the actual work, you will first consider how to go about it. I've been doing my writing exclusively on a PC for twenty years now and I've learned a thing or two about backing up. To explain what I've learned I need only describe what I've managed to retain.

It turns out that the least effective method of backing up is proprietary backup software. Such software should never be your only means of storing files for future use and never backup to tape. I have managed to retain not one single system backup that is more than about three years old because that's how often I change computers and except for Windows XP, how often I change operating systems. Microsoft always changes the format of their free backup software (now only included in Professional or Premium versions of Windows). That means all your old backups become useless and inaccessible with each new release of Windows. Thanks a lot Bill!

Backup mediums have certainly changed a lot over the past twenty years as well. I remember making the difficult transition from 'real' floppy diskettes to 3 1/2" disks. I still have one computer with a floppy drive, and about a thousand diskettes. I never bothered copying most to CD or DVD because they were usually just outdated software I'll never use unless I'm stranded on an island with a 1995 PC or start a museum. Soon DVD (even dual layer) will become obsolete so the RIAA and movie industry can force us into new DRM copyright restriction standards and limit Blue Ray/HD DVD use to MS Vista.

I did copy my letters to family onto my hard drives and migrated my LTRS folder with each new drive and PC so I still have a LTRS directory in My Documents (even after 2 drive failures) with some very old letters to my mother in the following formats both zipped and unzipped: .ws (WordStar 3.3), .wp and .wp5 (WordPerfect 4.1, 4.2, and 4.5 DOS, wp6 Windows). Thereafter, I was forced to use MS Word but knew enough to store my documents in a generic format like Rich Text (.rtf) or briefly .htm. Office used to have add-ins to read old formats, but I doubt that Ofc 2003 would be able to open them. I should make an effort to convert these old files to a newer format if I still can.

I still haven't used so called Open Document formats (.swf, .odf) because these standards are so rare, fleeting, and require specific software to access. What is open about that? XML doesn't really apply well to text documents. So, for the past twelve years or so, I've been storing all my documents in Rich Text Format. All Linux and MS editors support it. It took up a bit more space than the various Word formats, but was not subject to macro viruses and if all else failed, it could be read with any editor. Of course, plain ASCII text (.txt) is relatively consistent varying only in end of line characters but compared to 16-bit Unicode, it lacks the use of language marks, Euro symbol and other items I might need, not to mention bold, underline, point size and typeface I can't do without. For me, RTF has been the only adequate constant in a sea of changing hardware and software. I recommend it highly for any documents you write. I save everything, so why not save it in the most accessible format?

The best method of preserving data is the simplest. Copy your documents to another hard drive and migrate old files and folders to each new drive or PC. Storage is cheap enough and constantly expanding so compression is optional and simply trades your time for storage space, if you use a standard compression format. Zip and .tar have been around forever and don't appear to be going away anytime soon. But why complicate matters if your data will fit on a drive uncompressed? Today, you can buy a huge USB external hard drive or 8GB flash memory drive for under $100 and a spare internal disk drive for under $50 (even SATA). There is little excuse for not having spare drives for every PC. Optical media changes more often and is more limiting but I may buy a cheap SATA dual layer DVD burner and media for under $50 when they are being phased out, just to augment my various hard drives.

Once you have a spare drive (internal or external) you still need to segregate your old files before backing up. 1. Change the View in your documents folder to show details and sort files by ascending date (click the date heading until the tiny arrow points up) . 2. Make a new sub-folder for the previous year, 200x. 3. Scroll past sub-folders to the oldest file and click to highlight it. 4. Scroll down to the newest file from the previous year and holding down the Shift key, highlight it to select the entire list. 5. Drag your selection into the year sub-folder moving your old files. 6. Open the year sub-folder in a second window on your desktop so you can see both (in Windows right-click the taskbar and choose Tile). 7. Recreate your sub-folders as needed inside the year sub-folder and repeat the above process for each to move old files into the year hierarchy. If you do this in January, just append the year to folder names or move them all.

8. Now to backup... Move the year window scope up (big arrow) to show your spare drive then open it. 9. Move up one level in the My Documents window then drag (copy) My Documents to the spare drive window. If you already have done so, say 'Yes' to overwriting. Remember, in both Windows and Linux dragging files on the same volume moves them by default, dragging to a new volume copies by default. If you aren't sure, always Right-button drag in Windows to get a choice menu. I copy any significant new document or spreadsheet to my spare drive immediately upon finishing it, just to be safe. Someday I'll write a Perl or Java program to automate daily copying all files in my home folder with the archive bit not set. Computers have always flagged a new file or one that is changed with a single archive bit property so it can be easily identified for backup and then marked as having been backed up. It is still the key strategy used by most proprietary backup software.

Religious Civil War

2007-03-30T16:34:00.000-04:00

One of the problems Americans have reconciling the daily news and photos from Iraq with the political rhetoric is that the most basic description of this war has been 'spun' by professionals to be anything but what it truly is. It is now a RELIGIOUS CIVIL WAR for control of of billions of barrels of oil reserves and vast natural resources not to mention the lives and future of 25,000,000 Iraqis.

The players include Iran (Persian Shiites) and most Arab nations in the region (Sunni's) in addition to the US and our few remaining partners.

Over 1,440 days ago the President declared Mission Accomplished in Iraq. Since then, the inevitable civil breakdown that James Baker and Bush's father had predicted and warned against has taken place. It was predictable, inevitable and unavoidable. Numerous examples of our inability to stop this civil war exist. One of the latest is the town of Tal Afar which had been occupied and pacified by the US for several years but once we left, resumed extreme levels of violence and bloodshed. A Sunni martyr giving away a truck load of free flour blew up a crowd of 80 civilians. In retaliation, Shiite government police or militia raided Sunni homes during the night, executing over 60 Sunnis. We are powerless to stop it except in a few isolated areas and then only temporarily. John McCain put it best when he called this situation a gruesome game of 'whack-a-mole'. Ironically, McCain has reversed his view and now supports continuing this futile strategy.

Tal Afar is but a preview of what will happen in Baghdad, when we inevitably leave. All out religious warfare (the worst possible kind) will continue until one group nearly exterminates the other and takes total control of the government and the country or some portion of it.

ALL parties have contributed hundreds of $Billions of dollars worth of war materials over the past four years to influence the outcome. The US is spending $12.5 million a MINUTE in Iraq, supporting our troops and the Shiite dominated government we helped establish. Iran funds the Shiite militias which at 1 million strong constitute the largest military force in Iraq, by far. Saudi Arabia and it's allies have been supporting the former ruling Sunni's who are natural allies with al-Qaeda but together are still losing ground and limited to extensive acts of terrorism. US taxpayers are spending 100's of times more than any of these groups but because of crooked US politicians and contractors are not getting much bang for our bucks.

Only Iran and wealthy Arab oil sheiks could afford to conduct warfare on this scale for over four years. Cheney knows this and was recently summoned to Riyadh to be told in person that Arab nations would not allow Iran (through it's Shiite militias) to take control of Iraq, whatever the cost. Expect a new commitment by Arab nations of arms and maybe even troops to prevent a clear Shiite takeover. This could be our brief opportunity to extract America from this conflict. If we wait and try to leave later, Iraq will explode into open regional warfare. Perhaps it is already too late.

Considering the stakes for all in the region, total victory can't be allowed, so the likely result will be a division of the country into at least three defensible areas. The Kurds in the North have wanted independence all along and will try to take and hold the oil fields around Mosul while establishing a Kurdish state, if we help them. If we won't help them, they will be destroyed by Iranian or Shiite fighters. The Sunni's still control Western Iraq, but will likely lose the valuable oil fields and Persian Gulf access in the South to Iran-backed Shiite's who have both legitimate and purely numerical claims to the government and most of Iraq. Baghdad will become another Beirut, shelled into a virtual ghost town. The battle for Baghdad will never stop. Baghdad will never recover it's former glory or prosperity. America has nothing to gain by staying in Iraq. We've already lost far more than we have gained by destabilizing this country and the entire region. If we don't pull out soon reducing the scope of this battle to a regional conflict, the entire Middle East could explode into a Third World War that will spread across Europe beginning the End Days, as many believe was foretold in the Bible.

PC Evolution 2007

2007-01-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

The original IBM PC released 27 years ago ran a 4.77 Mhz 8086/8088 CPU, 512 Kb of RAM memory on a 4.77 Mhz system bus with CGI 8-bit gray-scale video. It was meant to be a glorified adding machine, multiplying and adding columns of numbers and doing simple word processing. The XT model added an expansion slot and the AT two years later included the new 80286 processor at 10 Mhz.

PC's built in 2007 are expected to download and play video from a broadband connection, record and play HDTV simultaneously, or at least decrypt and output BlueRay or HD-DVD movies in surround sound to your plasma or LCD HDTV and home audio system. To do that, the video capabilities and system bus have to be jacked up like they are on steroids. Just compare one of these new monsters to your old PC.

The video card is a PC on a card. It may even have it's own fan and certainly has a huge heat sink. The CPU now dominates the board with a giant block of aluminum and fan atop it that makes your old CPU look puny. That's not because the silicon is bigger. It is now ¼ the size of your last CPU but contains two or more processors and 50 million transistors. All the rest is to support the 939 pin connectors and to dissipate the tremendous heat. Celeron CPU's run above the boiling point of water, 52 degrees Celsius (125F) but newer AMD processors run at room temperature if the huge heat sink and fan are working properly. The clock rate is being reduced, often 2 Ghz or less as the performance has continued to expand geometrically per Moore's Law.

Windows Vista Home Premium expects 1 Gigabyte of DDR memory, now 6400 times faster than SDRAM, a video card more powerful than your last PC with 256MB of dedicated video RAM and a CPU comparable to at least a 3 Ghz Pentium. To record and play high definition video in real time (without jerkiness) the main system bus has to run at 800-1000 Mhz with extra high bandwidth channels for video beyond what the AGP bus offered. The new PCIExpress16 standard handles 16 times more video data than it's immediate predecessor which blew away the old 8xAGP bus used a year or two ago. For gamers, this means you can see Shack sweat while playing the NBA video game. For the rest of us, it means our PC's will play or record high definition TV and movies from various sources. The PC is moving to a new role, more than just a communication device, it will coordinate our super high definition digital home multimedia experience.

I mentioned all that to explain what happened to me. I offered to upgrade a PC I had built for a friend a few years ago. I couldn't use the CPU, memory, or motherboard since all the standards had changed, but I thought I could use the old case, power supply, and CD-RW drive at least. I was wrong. The new board I purchased has a PCIExpress16 video slot that uses 75 Watts of power. So the board has an ATX12V 2.2 standard 24-pin power connector. If you check your old PC's power supply it has only a 20-pin connector. This standard hadn't changed since motherboards went from 5v to 3.3v almost a decade ago. So don't expect to upgrade that old PC without replacing the power supply. New ones also should include a special power tap for the newer SATA drive bus and maybe even a special vCore power connector for the new multi-core CPU's.

Ubuntu Linux 2006.10

2006-12-20T18:06:00.000-05:00

With Windows Vista hitting the streets and users cringing at the hefty hardware requirements it is appropriate to look around to see what other choices are available. Apple's OS X is a highly polished, well respected, and too expensive alternative by now but at 2.5% market share or less, it isn't even an afterthought at Microsoft. Linux has failed to gain control of the desktop too, not because it lacks features, polish, performance, or software, but because few hardware vendors offer Linux drivers for their printers, scanners, cameras, wireless cards, and other PC accessories.

If your old PC is running anything prior to Windows 2000, you should seriously consider trying Linux for security reasons if nothing else. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. There are many flavors of Linux which is both good and bad. It is bad because there is no consensus among Linux users so they can't get a significant enough market share to draw the attention of hardware vendors. The upside is that with so many flavors, you can probably find one that best meets your needs and likes. It also prevents anyone from developing a Linux virus that can spread very far. The support community is generally better for Linux as well, out of necessity, so you will find lots of free help getting started and may even enjoy helping others follow the trail you help to blaze.

I've tried many different versions of Linux over the years but I believe mainstream PC users should make the transition as easy and painless as possible until you get more familiar with the terminal (command line) and find a support community you really like. For those reasons I suggest you download the single Live CD of Kubuntu Linux (Ubuntu with the KDE desktop environment). This one CD kubuntu.org/download has everything a beginner will need and you can even mail order one for about $3. While you are trying single CD distros, PCLinuxOS 0.93a is pretty smooth and has a great Mandrake installer to partition your drive or setup multi-boot menus.

Those with more time and a good broadband connection may want to try the five CD distribution of Open Suse 10.2 on an old PC or spare partition of your regular PC. It shares the KDE desktop but is not a Debian based Linux. It is closer to Red Hat's Fedora Open Source version. Mandriva is a third choice you may want to consider, especially if you are buying disks. It is cheaper that SuSe, with fewer disks, and very user friendly. If the distro you try is from October 2006 or later it will include Firefox 2.0, the best new browser available. Check the feature versions at Distrowatch.com

If you go with an Open Source (freeware) distro, you will have to add-in support for proprietary formats like PDF, Flash, DVD movies, etc. There may be an entire CD available with most of these on it that can bring your OS up to an approximation of the retail version.

You will have to download and install extras via the package manager that comes with your distribution. Ubuntu/Kubuntu uses the Synaptic GUI for the Debian APT installer, while SuSe uses it's own RPM package manager in the Yast Control Panel. Even a newbee shouldn't have much trouble downloading and installing software in these newer Linux distros.

Like Vista, all the new Linux operating systems assume you have a network connection to the internet. If you are still a dial-up user, there is no good news (except 550Access.com ...referred by STRAPANE). I managed to get Ubuntu working with my full external modem, but the OS didn't see it or my serial port. Kubuntu has the KPPP dialer which should allow full modem users to avoid the terminal window entirely. If you have a WinModem, SuSe is your best bet, but even it is unlikely to have drivers for any but a few Intel or one Motorola chipsets. Most major video cards by major vendors like ATI and NVidia have Linux drivers and you might even be able to print with the CUPS printing system or using TCP/IP.

Linux is not the perfect desktop replacement for Windows and won't be without some major changes in the industry, but it can be a rewarding alternative to dumping a perfectly good PC to buy one that runs Vista. I suggest most users can run it dual-boot with Windows 2000 or XP and enjoy the best of both worlds. Here are some places to order CD's.
on-disk.com Kubuntu
osdisc.com Ubuntu Edgy 6.10
osdisc.com Open SuSe 10.2

Firefox 2.0

2006-12-03T13:24:00.000-05:00

Here's a brief overview of the newest, best web browser and why it is better than Internet Explorer. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features.htmlThere is a link to download it at the top of the page.

It is easy to download and install, even with a dial-up connection, and won't interfere with Internet Explorer. You can use either or both. Just leave the box to always ask checked in the preference dialog that pops up and you can easily make either your default browser. Even your bookmarks (Favorites) and homepage can be migrated automatically, if you wish.

I've tried the new Internet Explorer 7 and find it a poor copy of Firefox 2.0 that has obvious bugs. I'm really disappointed that Microsoft rushed the release of IE7 just to get it out a few days before Firefox 2 and left so many bugs in it. I couldn't even resize the browser window by grabbing the borders. That means IE7 isn't written to basic Windows standards, but Firefox is. Also, there are far more useful add-ins for Firefox than IE, not that you need them. With built-in phishing (bogus web domain) warnings, easier to use tabs, and a cleaner interface on Firefox 2, I think you will agree with me that Microsoft has lost the right to claim they have the best browser. Just having RSS feeds built in is a welcome addition. Don't miss the weather add-in that sits on the status bar.

Experts recommend switching from IE6 due to the numerous security problems it has. If you are switching to a new browser, give Firefox serious consideration. Generally, most users will find Firefox 2 easier to use than IE7 and it has options that are easier to figure out and select. The only shortcoming I see so far is the lack of zone security control. But the Noscripts add-in with icon options to temporarily allow scripts for a particular website for example is much easier and faster to use. This add-in allows everyone to run with higher security by default than with IE.

There seems to be fewer security issues for basic browsing with Firefox so that offsets the ability to lock down the browser (disable most features) for most websites as you must do with IE6 using zones.

Both issue security patches promptly and regularly and update automatically or manually (from the Help menu in Firefox). But security issues in IE are exploited much more often and much faster.

It is much easier to remove personal data stored by Firefox than Internet Explorer 7. As Martha says, that's a good thing!

Overall, I don't feel like I'm missing anything by using Firefox 2 which also has Adobe extensions and there are lots of add-in features not available in IE7 (I love the forecastfox add-in for the status bar along the bottom). If I do come across a website that simply won't work with Firefox (Microsoft's hotmail.com requires scripts normally not allowed by the Noscripts add-in), I can make a temporary or permanent website exception or even use Internet Explorer. The two are mutually exclusive.

Try Firefox 2 and decide for yourself. I'd like to know what you think.

Part D Rip-off

2006-09-23T13:01:00.000-04:00

I thought I had Medicare Part D all figured out last November after exhaustively checking out all the plans, the drugs they covered and the various deductibles. A second look has shown me I still have a lot to learn. The Medicare Part D law is probably one of the worst pieces of legislation ever passed by Congress. It was written by big insurance and drug company lawyers and not even read by most Congressmen. It has three purposes. Primarily, it was designed to bankrupt MediCare and force the government to abandon Social Security, as we know it. While the so-called Trust Fund (paper debt) of Social Security is budgeted by Congress to around 2040, this new drain of $120 Billion per year to the big drug manufacturers (Its second purpose) will break MediCare unless major changes are made. Third, it all but forces seniors to participate (with escalating penalties for not signing up) and thanks to an extra $99 monthly contribution from MediCare appears to save them between $60 and $98 a month off the full retail price of their total drug bill. Sadly, it also eliminates all previous discounts and takes away all incentive for seniors to shop around for better prices, thus favoring brand name pharmacies over discounters. But I already knew all that.

What I didn’t realize before is that you have to use the http://www.Medicare.gov website step-by-step formula to find out which plan is the best for you and know how to interpret the resulting list. The website designers did an excellent job of interpreting this horrible legislation and revealing the clever tactics of insurers. For example, one popular provider has multiple plans that differ primarily in deductibles. It is reasonable to assume that to determine the difference between two Part D plans from the same provider with the same drug list you could calculate the annual premium and add the $250 deductible to the one that has this deductible. It appears that the plan with zero deductible is a better deal, but it isn’t! The cost of the drugs from the same list, by the same provider is different under each plan and amazingly those who elect to pay the first $250 of drug costs each year wind up spending $375 less by the end of the year than those who took the plan that pays immediately.

The ONLY WAY to compare plans is by the total annual cost column that includes premiums, deductibles, and the cost of your particular drugs. This is provided at medicare.gov and the list is ordered by the total annual cost of the plans. Don’t make the mistake of skipping down to a plan with zero deductible thinking it will be cheaper than one with a $250 deductible by the same provider because you know you need more than $250 worth of drugs. You may save many hundreds more by paying the deductible yourself. It makes no sense but that’s how this law was written, to confuse everyone but the clever coverage providers.

Visit the medicare.gov website again, follow the steps, update your list of drug prescriptions and generate your personal list of local plans. Ask your doctor to put you on a substitute drug that is generic or a cheaper preferred brand of the best plan then recalculate so you can switch to the least expensive plan for you during open season each year between November 15th and December 31st.

Of course, compare the cost of Part D alone plus the premium of a Medigap Part C plan with the cost and coverage of an Advantage plan. The Advantage plan may appear cheaper but often pays much less for extended hospital stays. If you don’t follow the steps above carefully, you could be paying hundreds a year more than necessary for your prescription drugs under Medicare Part D from the same insurance provider. Also, write Congress asking them not to do the same lousy job with national health care. With insurers, drug makers, and our elite medical establishment in control of Congress, no legislation can emerge that will benefit working Americans.

Baby Housing Boom

2006-08-29T08:11:00.000-04:00

Anyone could have predicted the recent housing boom that started in 2004 or 2005 with records being set every quarter in sales, price, and construction. It was just about 29 years earlier that we saw a similar surge in 1976-1980 when the great Baby Boom generation had kids and needed homes. From 1942-1946 there was almost no housing construction or buying because the world was at war. By 1946 everyone began rebuilding and returning to a normal life. From 1947-50 the world saw the biggest Baby Boom since the end of the Crusades with the possible exception of 1919-21. The end of the First World War just happened to be about 28 or 29 years, one home generation, before the great Baby Boom doubling the effect and making it even more significant.

So it should have come as no surprise to anyone that I was born near the end of the great Baby Boom (1950), had a child and bought my first home between 1976 and 1980 (I actually bought 2) amid rising prices and interest rates. Sadly, the Federal Reserve under the Carter Administration didn't have a clue what was happening or what to do about it. [See Stagflation below.]

Just as predictably, my son had his first child and bought his first home in 2005, amid rising prices and interest rates, right on schedule. With greedy Republicans in charge this time, prices soared by 40% in one year in many areas. I'm not sure that was much better. But at least they knew it was coming.

I have no doubt that in 2034 there will be yet another housing boom with rising prices and interest rates as my grand-daughter has a child and buys her first home. Yet most people will be surprised when it happens.

Stagflation

2006-07-28T14:19:00.000-04:00

Many readers out there aren’t old enough to remember the economy of the mid 1970’s. Jimmy Carter was President and we had both run-away inflation and a recession at the same time. This worst-case scenario became known as Stagflation. It takes a lot of government action or inaction to get us into such a mess. I’m sorry to say, it appears we are in almost exactly the same situation today.

But what about the FEDERAL RESERVE you cry? We had a strong respected Fed chairman back in the 1970’s, Paul Volker, if I recall correctly. But the combination of a major economic downturn and a severe lack of foreign investment capital can each overwhelm the minimal ability of the FED to control the situation. The result, we had to let interest rates rise to 18% to get enough capital to stimulate our economy out of near depression.

The Iran Hostage Crisis following a gasoline shortage and price spike added to the general pessimism and lack of consumer spending. Today, the conditions are very similar with another round of energy shortages and price increases plus the continued expansion of the same Islamic Fundamentalist Revolution centered on Iran. We never solved either issue and they are both back.

Economists will argue that the real cause of stagflation was our excessive amount of foreign debt (including years of $1 million/day spending in Viet Nam) that was not offset by exports or productivity inside the US. Eventually, our foreign creditors found better places to invest, more stable currencies (Swiss Franc) and of course gold which topped $350 an ounce for the first time in the late 1970’s. This time I expect it to double that figure.

Today, we have all the same issues but with much larger numbers. We have been spending over $1 Billion/week in Iraq for years, have the largest trade deficit in world history, and as much as $3 Trillion of debt held by foreign banks while our economy is shrinking at the same time much of the developing world is expanding. Investors know they will get a better return in China, Asia, India, Japan, Brasil, or even Russia than here in the US. The result can only be a massive exodus from Dollars to other currencies and a devaluation of our money. This will lead to unstoppable inflation as it takes more and more currency to purchase everything from bread to cars. The Federal Reserve can’t stop it and the Treasury Department printing more paper (as they have been doing for years) will only aggravate the problem.

A $Trillion in capital invested in US corporations will disappear overnight as the stock market drops to record lows causing further flight from the dollar and a steeper economic spiral downward. There you have it. Stagflation. Get ready for a rocky ride over the next three years. It will take at least that long to turn things around as we make drastic political and economic changes to try to recover. Free Trade, open borders, and foreign wars will have to stop so we can rebuild our industry and begin to recover economically. I only hope it isn’t too late. Ronald Reagan pulled us out the first time mostly by massive deficit spending and his special ability to gain our trust and confidence.

We will really need an exceptional leader or personality to turn this one around and more money than even our government can print or borrow. As usual we spent our way out last time relying on the military industrial complex. Most of the military spending was pure waste and did nothing to improve our national security or effectiveness. I was in the military and saw the massive fraud first hand. Somehow our economy survived and recovered but this time we don’t have an industrial base, have far more competition and trade rules that favor everyone else.

I certainly wish I could write about more interesting and positive issues, but since November 2000 America has veered dangerously off course and may already have gone too far to recover. We and our children must pay for that disasterous mistake.

Inscrutable and Unstoppable

2006-07-01T12:24:00.000-04:00

Inscrutable and unstoppable
Sometimes my imagination makes a feeble leap into one possible future. I've combined the facts of various news articles I've seen to come up with one scenario that is not only likely, but probable if not inevitable. Someone will always abuse power. Just look at the state of American or world politics if you don't believe me. Now let's take a few well documented trends and let our imaginations run.

The Chinese government has many massive projects to modernize and revolutionize the world's largest nation. Just the buildings being constructed for the 2010 World's Fair rival most previous wonders of the world. A less wondrous but no less significant project is the translation of the Linux computer operating system source code into Chinese.

It has been announced that China will produce and maintain an Asian version of Linux sometime in the next year or two. There are no doubt hundreds of English speaking Chinese computer programmers hard at work learning all the ins and outs of the Linux operating system kernel. They have been translating chunks of all freely available source code into Chinese characters and recompiling it into working code for years.

I've personally used an Asian knock-off of Open Office, the software I'm using to write this, called Supreme Office that is actually a bit better, faster, and slicker than the original. Whoever produced this clone of Open Office was very good at copying, learning and understanding it, then improving upon the original. While Supreme Office may have been a product of Taiwan, the mainland has become well known for just such technology copying.

Now, consider the subtle implications of a really great (globally used) operating system with source code written in Chinese. It is inevitable that within a few years of it's initial release,Asian Linux will become one of the most widely used operating systems in the world. After all, who ever looks at source code anyway. Microsoft's is a tightly held secret. The courts have only been able to force them to reluctantly share pieces of it.

Use of Asian Linux will skyrocket if it works well, is free to download and more importantly, free of the document rights management [copyright enforcement] being engineered into all future versions of Microsoft Windows, including the very next one.

We are due for a major break from Microsoft's OS monopoly. The combination of a declining money grubbing behemoth crumbling under it's own weight and the maturing of Linux into a respectable alternative lacks only one hot button issue to start a full blown stampede away from using Windows. The inclusion of record industry Spyware under the guise of document rights management as the only really new feature in Windows Vista may be just such an issue.

If not the spyware, then the crushing new hardware requirements and expense of Vista or Microsoft's attempt to make us all buy a monthly subscription to obtain bug fixes, anti-virus, and anti-spyware to fix it's defective OS will certainly stir a grassroots movement to dump Windows. Windows Live (subscription service) has been Steve Balmer's goal for years, moving M$ to the AOL monthly income model instead of once every five or six years. That reality is only about a year away. After the big sales push for Vista and Vista Office, Microsoft will offer a web-based subscription service that includes all future OS and application updates. Windows Genuine Advantage is part of the testing to insure Microsoft has the capability to track and manage billions of subscriptions & downloads.

Asian Linux may arrive at the perfect time to sweep across the globe as the new OS standard. With all the hardware already made in Asia and assembly plants being migrated there as well, it is only a matter of time before they wise up and include Asian Linux with tons of free Open Source applications in the standard build. The lower cost will benefit most PC makers and consumers.

This hasn't happened already because the biggest suppliers like Dell and HP pay the lowest price for Windows, adding up to a $57 profit margin over smaller vendors. This has insured the biggest PC makers will continue to provide Windows and forces all others to pay more to offer Windows. As long as Windows is perceived by customers to be valuable, this model holds up. But if buyers suddenly decide Linux is better, all small PC makers will immediately begin shipping Linux because it finally enables them to compete fairly on price against the big guys. This transition to the best Linux could be very swift.

If Asian Linux is even close to being the best Linux, as I expect it will be, almost all new hardware (from Asia) will come with Linux installed. This will allow vendors to overcome one of the biggest drawbacks of Linux, a lack of drivers for specific hardware. Once Asian Linux is adopted by Asian manufacturers, all hardware makers will develop Linux drivers for their hardware as they do now for Windows.

The transition will accelerate once Asian Linux adds into the OS standard software interface (boundary) layers for each kind of hardware so that only mini-drivers describing the specific features of the device are needed. Microsoft has already written these standard buffer layers for Windows but Linux hasn't.

Now for the inevitable part. As Asian Linux rapidly spreads around the world as the new defacto operating system, the US government will become alarmed. It will muster every Chinese speaking non-Asian computer programmer in the CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security who has a Top Secret Clearance to reverse engineer Asian Linux and examine the Chinese source code. The only problem is, there are NO such people in the US government. They would have to trust an Asian national which they couldn't do.

It would take years to train an American computer programmer to read and write Chinese. There are 3,000 -5,000 pictographic symbols in their alphabet. Even learning to use 750 simplified Japanese Kanji characters could take years of study. I've only mastered a dozen numbers and a handful of words in about 16 hours of lessons. It is still a giant step from Kanji to reading Chinese. For an American government bureaucrat learning Chinese would be all but impossible but Homeland Security would try and fail for years before admitting it.

Even if the Chinese publish their Linux source code to comply with Open Source standards, fewer than 1/1000th of one percent of the world's non-Asia population will be able to read and understand computer source code in Chinese. Eventually, someone in the Chinese government will take advantage of this fact and add a back door into the OS kernel, allowing remote control of your PC or sending your keystrokes to the Chinese Secret Police from well below the Presentation layer, beyond reach of any software firewall, or anti-spyware application you might use.

That is no more than Microsoft could be doing already on behalf of the US government or the RIAA. It is human nature to abuse power and the greatest source of power in the digital 21st Century will be at the core of the world's most widely used operating system. Take your pick of whom to trust, Microsoft and their big corporate partners or the Chinese Secret Police.

Memorial Day

2006-05-29T17:43:00.000-04:00

I understand what it means to be a Veteran and observed first hand the military way of doing things for more than a decade. Still, every time I see films about the invasion at Normandy or Iwo Jima I can’t help thinking what horrendous military blunders these operations were, even considering the limitations of those times. Tens of thousands of young men died needlessly because their leaders failed to think or act creatively.

Don’t try to tell me there was no such thing as “thinking outside the box” in the 1940’s. Just look at the way WWII ended. The Manhattan project was more “far out” than just about any military project ever undertaken. In stark contrast, Normandy and Iwo Jima stand out as monuments to the worst case of bureaucratic conventional thinking imaginable.

While there is some documentation of extensive efforts to bomb the Japanese off of Iwo, I have seen no evidence of any serious attempt to use air power to eliminate the immediate threat overlooking Omaha Beach. It boggles the mind to think that so much effort was placed into saturation bombing and fire bombing of German cities while none of that power was reserved for use against the bunkers along the coast. While the 101st Airborne was fully deployed behind the lines, they were too far inland to be of much use in the initial landing. The famous LST landing craft proved to be totally ineffective, yet no alteration of their deployment strategy was ever made in the 8 to12 hours men were sacrificed before they even touched the beach. Almost no cover existed once on the beach either. This was especially true at Iwo Jima and the reason so many thousands died needlessly. An airdrop of steel cargo containers onto those beaches could have saved many of those lives. I can think of many less deadly alternatives.

Why couldn’t those landing craft have been “backed up” toward the beach, opening to the rear so they could be used for cover? Why couldn’t troops have been provided metal shields or something to give them a chance to get off the landing craft? Why didn't our HumVees in Iraq have steel doors? The answer lies in conventional military thinking and the habit of filling the gap between have and need with sheer guts. Rumsfeld, who never served a day in harms way, rationalized his lack of preparation for war by claiming the military always has to make do with what they have. That’s what the Marine Corps is all about. Take that hill, even though it seems impossible…crazy to even try.

It would be nice to think that by today’s standards such strategy would be dismissed as unacceptable but I can tell you that little had changed by the time I left the service. One of my last duties as a combat ready Air Force Navigator was to airdrop a new Ranger Battalion on its final airdrop before being declared combat ready.

The weather was terrible, visibility near zero, low clouds and heavy rain totally obscured the smallest and most remote drop zone at Fort Bragg. Even our B-57 bomb nav radar couldn’t see the ground through the heavy overcast. This was the toughest challenge that could be created for the Rangers in the US during peace time. I had dropped thousands of troops over a decade, 4,000 flight hours, half of it low-level, with few injuries or deaths. We were purposely never informed of the exact results of any airdrop. But no mission I’d flown was ever so purposely difficult and dangerous to the paratroopers we carried. The 82nd Airborne would not have done this drop.

I gave the mission briefing along with the Chief pilot and Ranger Colonel in charge. We were to do the only truly Adverse Weather Aerial Delivery System (AWADS) live airdrop I’d seen, dropping an entire 12-ship formation (564 troops) on the smallest approved drop zone anywhere, immediately surrounded by dense pine forest. I was in the Second Element lead aircraft, the most challenging position because we had to maintain our relative position 12,000’ from the lead (timing our turns from his, etc.) but also lead our own element, providing offsets and turn signals to our wingmen, just as our leader was doing. It was an hour of “assholes and elbows” in the cockpit for all the navigators, but especially for me. I did my best.

We were relying upon the un-calibrated offset of our Station Keeping Equipment (SKE radar) at its maximum distance as an element lead. Even worse, that error was compounded for our wingmen who further offset from our SKE signal. Technically speaking, just the error in our equipment was many hundreds of yard more than a jumper could correct once in the air, even if he could see the drop zone, which nobody could. To summarize, if we didn’t place ourselves and our wingmen properly upwind from the drop zone, they were going to come down in the trees.

My navigation aids were minimal. The radar was almost useless, there were no radio nav aids aligned with our remote rural NC flight path, and the Omega GPS receiver the Air Force had purchased for our C-130 aircraft was the only one that had failed all the flight tests. (I participated in those tests and the final report submitted to HQ Air Force). Our GPS was useless. It picked up only 2 of the 4 not yet operational GPS satellites above the Eastern US at the time with an average lane error of 14 miles. We were trying to fly over a 400x600 yard drop zone cut out of a dense forest without being able to see the ground. The combat control team on the ground heard but never saw our formation. We flew the hell out of the equipment we had, but in the end, the Ranger Colonel died and nearly half his troops were either killed or seriously injured as most landed well off the drop zone. I felt sick about it, but knew there was nothing I could have done to improve their chances. That whole mission was set up to fail yet reaffirm that 50% losses were still acceptable for a combat airdrop mission.

The army pronounced the airdrop “successful”, approved activation of the new Ranger unit, and re-affirmed the viability of their airborne airdrop mission. If a serious technical investigation had been done, it would have shown our SKE equipment was never calibrated or maintained properly. The AWADS program itself was a 1960's salvage operation to refit B-57 K-Band radar equipment into a C-130. It worked well enough. SKE was developed to spread the advantage of that precision ground mapping to "dumb" follower aircraft in formation. It was a one-time project with little or no ongoing funding or evaluation. All the R&D and funding went into newer weapon systems and eventual replacements for the C-130. [The combined experience of five decades of C-130, C-141 and C-5 operational requirements resulted in today's C-17. ]

That was one of the last live troop drops I flew. I became a Command Post controller and helped launch my squadron, the 40th TAS, on the Grenada airdrop mission. They dropped the other Ranger Battalion from Ft Lewis onto an airfield at the tip of that Island nation, secured the airfield and rescued the American students. But that mission could easily have been a total disaster if luck hadn’t intervened.

I believe the military has come a long way since WWII, but not nearly far enough. Future conflicts should be fought as much as possible with remotely controlled aircraft, vehicles, and high technology. But in the end, the soldier must occupy and pacify whatever battle area he or she is assigned by military and civilian commanders with whatever equipment they see fit to provide. As always, our freedom depends upon their willingness to do whatever it takes to accomplish their military objective or hold their ground until relieved. May God have mercy on their souls.

Homeland InSecurity

2006-05-13T19:16:00.000-04:00

By now you’ve heard all the arguments over Border Security. Whatever your position you must agree that a nation unable to control its borders these days, for whatever reason, is in for serious trouble. Even if Iranian or Al Qaeda terrorists don’t use this weakness to sneak in weapons of mass destruction, the uncontrolled flood of the least capable from Mexico and Central America will depress wages, overwhelm government services, and generally further lower our already falling standard of living and education level. These people can’t succeed at home, some can’t survive where they are so in desperation they head for the USA. In their place, we would do exactly the same. Don’t blame them.

Combined with six years of government led outsourcing and exporting of most manufacturing and tech services there has been a massive shift of tax burden from the wealthy to the Middle Class. Add elimination of retirement security, no estate taxes on the transfer of massive wealth, loss of employer assisted health insurance, falling wages and rising prices (for everything but especially home prices), no more job security or overtime pay to name a few and it is easy to see that the American Dream is becoming just that…a dream.

Just this week (5/12) Congress extended tax breaks for the rich in spite of our unfunded War on Terror. Those earning under $75,000 will save between $9 and $30. Millionaires will pay $49,000 less tax which is that much more borrowed from overseas investors (China, OPEC, Nigeria, Venezuela, and others) and must be paid back by our grand-children. These potential enemies already hold $3 Trillion in US debt and some are considering exchanging our dollars for Euros or other currency with stronger prospects. This could make our currency worthless.

Not since the Great Depression of the 1930’s have we seen such an accumulation of wealth in the hands of so few. Over 60% of America’s wealth belongs to fewer than 2% of us. Our slow recovery came only when government gave us a “New Deal”, implementing Progressive taxation (not flat or Value Added taxes that benefit the rich) and the redistribution of wealth between generations (through Estate Taxes) to give everyone a fair chance to succeed and make everyone earn some of their success. Since 1986 our Congress has been systematically eliminating the New Deal and replacing it with a Bad Deal for the vast majority of Americans.

Only Social Security remains but the new Prescription Drug law is specifically designed to bankrupt Social Security by paying Billions more to the drug companies than any other government pays for the very same drugs. Before this law was passed Bush tried and failed to get us to undermine or eliminate Social Security which would have lasted until 2040 or later. In a few years it will become obvious that we cannot continue this outrageous drain on the “paper” trust fund whose $Trillions in contributions were spent by Congress long ago.

Special interest lobbying on a massive scale now controls everything Congress does. It takes Millions to get elected to Congress and that money comes almost entirely from the wealthiest two percent among us or the Corporations they control. Is it any wonder our Reps sell us out at every chance? They pass useless legislation to make it look like they are doing something when in fact they are paid to do just the opposite. Yet we re-elect these same crooks 98% of the time. That’s the power of Advertising and the government “pork barrel”, spreading Federal funding around based on the influence of incumbents.

The solution to Border Security is a lot harder than building a wall, punishing employers who hire illegals, or even deploying some troops. It is the same as the solution to most of the problems average Americans face today. We need a New Deal from our own government that has been working against us.

I'm astonished Bush still has 31% approval ratings, Cheney 18% and Congress 26%. A lot of people still don't get it. We are under seige from within as well as from outside our borders.

Tech Failures

2006-05-13T18:16:00.000-04:00

Premise
I am constantly reminded of the failure of technology to change my world for the better. More than twenty years ago, it was obvious to me that digital technology would eliminate the need for paper documents revolutionizing business, industry, and government. That just hasn’t happened. Instead, people use computers to generate even more paper, now with un-readably small print. For the most part, business hasn’t yet fully embraced the paperless database driven virtual organization. We still build big offices full of desks and huge libraries to hold paper books. American industry has moved offshore instead of automating. Our government is purposely not digital, organized, or accountable for the $ Trillions it collects and spends each year. If taxpayers actually knew where it all went they wouldn’t believe it or accept it. This tech failure is to keep us blissfully ignorant.

Military
I’m not really surprised. I could see the resistance to digital accountability long ago. I watched the Marine Corps, long known for it’s failure to account for equipment and supplies, repeatedly fail to implement even the most basic digital inventory system and whenever it appeared that it would, the system was replaced with yet another, incompatible system that could not read or use any information previously collected. It quickly became apparent to me that this was purposeful sabotage from above in the chain of command. The war in Iraq is the latest excuse to bypass inventory control (Reserve units leave their equipment when they rotate out) to hide massive losses of equipment and supplies.

IRS to INS
The IRS is a similar story. By now they should have everyone’s income tracked electronically and taxes calculated automatically. They could even hire it done by the folks who make tax software. The IRS has spent $Billions on computers yet still fails to keep the most basic records that might hold EVERYONE accountable. Even the FBI is purposely saddled with outdated technology and procedures insuring wiggle room for white-collar criminals and govt. cheaters. Immigration and Naturalization is a joke. It has never been funded to do it’s job and has no accurate data on tens of millions of immigrants it has processed.

Abuse of Technology
Institutionalized government inefficiency is accepted. I remember one particular lady who worked in the Federal Building for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at a low paying job. While each department had computers with immediate access to several computer databases and good network connectivity, her job was to print out daily reports and distribute them. A nice person but not capable of holding a real job, she was frequently several days behind in printing her reports and distributing them. It took two full cases of paper to print the report (20 reams) for all departments and the collated results filled a large stainless steel cart she pushed around all day. Most offices dumped the outdated report in the trash (for the shredder) as soon as she left, but nobody was willing to change her job description or alter her daily routine. The massive Xerox line printer we (a private contractor) managed was always on the blink and service calls cost $175 an hour. We “supplemented it” with two high-end HP laser printers that were far cheaper to operate and more reliable. She printed over 1 million pages on them in just the few months I watched this abuse of technology and trees. I often wonder if she and thousands of other government welfare workers are still at it a decade later. Then I remember the Department of Homeland Security…FEMA.

Government has not gotten more efficient, more economical, or smaller in spite of technology. That would defeat one of the primary roles of government, giving dignity to and assuring survival of the hopelessly inept. It would be far cheaper to send all these people home and just pay them to stay there. Let them Tele-commute and save Billions on office buildings, water coolers, and govt. parking lots. If they goof off working from home, so what...no difference.

Medicine
When I go to a pharmacy or watch a doctor of any kind, I’m appalled at the failure to utilize a database of symptoms, diagnosis and treatment to validate what the professional may or may not already know and prescribe. Consider the lengthy, locally designed paper forms we repeatedly fill out but nobody reads. This constitutes gross negligence and medical malpractice. It cannot be tolerated in the 21st Century when 47 million Americans can’t afford even basic health care. America’s health care system is purposely broken by the greedy doctors union (AMA), artificially difficult and limited doctor training procedures, drug companies and insurance companies who profit from our grossly expensive medical system unlike any other in the world. Too many vested interests prevent improvement.

Education
Education as well has failed to utilize our vast global communications network to bring the best teachers and information to the masses. While we have more knowledge at our fingertips than any generation in history, our kids are dumb as stumps. Only with great institutional rigidity and effort can teaching and learning remain the Byzantine manual process it is today. Soon, world governments will implement digital programmed instruction that can educate billions in the Third World, but America won’t participate. We continue to fall further behind.

Designed to Fail
I could go on about our machines from autos to washing machines that are designed to make maintenance difficult, repair nearly impossible and failure inevitable. Why haven’t they yet incorporated air conditioning components into the modern auto engine or placed the oil filter where it can be easily reached? These basic items remain Rube Goldberg add-ons or afterthoughts to every new design. GM could use a computer that would design the ultimate car but they won’t because a computer would never come up with the purposely-fragile crap we accept from all automakers. Sure Toyota and others are a bit more reliable, but they still operate from the same basic industry premise. “Make it wear out and break so we can continue to build and sell new ones.” Don’t accept the premise of the computer industry, “better, faster, cheaper will insure a market for future computers.” Imagine what the auto industry could really do with today’s technology.

Technology hasn’t failed. It continues to evolve. People have insured the application of technology fails when such failure furthers other human objectives.

Why Skip Vista?

2006-03-23T18:23:00.000-05:00

I’ve been a Microsoft MCSE for almost a decade and a fan since I first bought stock in 1987 (if only I had kept it!). I’ve been a beta tester since Windows 95 but I plan to skip the next version of the Windows Operating System called Vista. Here’s why.

First, this is not a new operating system, but yet another rehash of Windows 2000 like XP, Media Center Addition, etc. The core stuff is still basically Win2k. OK, a lot has changed since 2000 and the progressive improvements have added up to a truly useful, relatively secure, hardware and user friendly OS. But it doesn’t do anything new for me that I can’t do in Windows 2000. I have a DVD burner, scanner, pen drives, and can run any software out there except high end games. If you want to digitally record TV get Media Center Edition now for less.

Windows 2000 or XP run great on my 512 MB of RAM, 2.4 GHz AMD CPU, and built-in 128-bit 64 MB shared video card. That won’t cut it for the new Vista (Aero) desktop. So I’d still get an XP desktop. There are few other new features. IE 7 is available for XP so that’s no reason to upgrade. Personally, I’ve tried tabbed browsing and don’t find it any more useful than separate windows that minimize to a taskbar list in XP. Except for XP’s built-in pop-up blocker, IE 6 in Windows 2000 (free download) works just as well on the most complex web pages. Few web pages use pop ups anymore anyway but you can always add a free popup blocker. More useful in IE7 is the phishing protection. That has also been available as a Third Party download for years. Spoof Stick for IE adds an address line that shows the true root domain you’ve reached. http://digg.com/software/Spoof_Stick_Browser_Plug-In_ That’s about it for significant new features.

If you aren’t running XP SP2, you will really notice an improved user experience and a huge demand for system resources. Like all new Windows operating systems this one will be a memory and resource hog. Each new version since Windows ME has doubled the need for system resources. This one goes beyond requiring a new Intel CPU & motherboard, requiring a game class video card as well. Why spend an extra $600 or more for extra hardware just to run Vista? I think Microsoft realized they may be sitting on a huge flop and decided to wait until the new file system is ready so they could point to some really new feature to help justify the huge hardware expense. Pricing will have to start at $200 for this OS to break even considering the years of development invested. Wholesale prices may even double to PC makers who will have to sell these expensive new systems to users accustomed to ever cheaper, faster PC’s. Vista will be a huge step backward in the price/performance race.

If only Linux had a comparable desktop there would be a wholesale switch away from Microsoft. But I don’t see that happening. SuSe Enterprise 10.0 is the closest competition and they have no comparable Directory Services to enforce policies, distribute software and manage patches. Perhaps one day Novell will add these features, but not anytime soon. Home users will be the first to switch to Linux and save hundreds on their next PC. Notebook users will come next as the major [Asian] hardware makers included Linux drivers for future hardware and offer the OS with free Open Office as a way to keep costs down. End users will make the minor transition to save five hundred bucks and remain compatible with previous versions of MS Office, the established business standard. Microsoft’s next version of Office will have a different, proprietary file format that governments and big companies are likely to reject.

Most importantly, the next version of Windows will not be secure from snooping by Microsoft (MSN), the government (with MS provided encryption keys), and the movie and music industry to which Microsoft has sold out on digital rights management. Everything on your Vista PC must be licensed and registered over the Internet or it won’t work and you may even be reported as a criminal. Big Brother has arrived via Microsoft Digital Rights Management. Nothing connected to your next PC and no Internet activity will be exempt from profiteering and scrutiny by big business and big government.

DRM takes the personal out of computing. It was a great 25 years, but the rich and powerful are taking back control of digital information and communication. Hang onto your VCR. It is the last content medium you can still control without paying a fee. Even radio will be a pay service soon even as the number of commercials continues to increase. We are doomed to be controlled like cattle by powerful forces that run today’s global economy. The next Internet will be tightly controlled and fully monitored. Enjoy free movement, the free Internet and free software like Linux and Open Office while they last.

Port Deal

2006-03-13T12:04:00.000-05:00

Blocking of the Dubai Ports World deal is a sad commentary on the American electorate. While selling our strategic resources isn't good for national security, we've ceded control of our ports and shipping to foreign powers long ago. The Chinese Secret Police (like the KGB) own and operate numerous industries and businesses including the global shipping company COSCO, and the arms manufacturer Norinco. Cosco owns and operates one of our largest port facilities on the West Coast along with companies from Singapore, South Korea, and other nations.

DP World is widely recognized as one of the most modern and efficient port operators in 41 other global ports. They would likely have upgraded our aging port facilities and modernized the operation. It is anybody's guess how they would deal with longstanding mob corruption and the Longshoremen's Union. Such activity is hardly unique to the US. In any case, blocking this deal didn't improve security one iota. It simply eliminated one port operator that has a reputation for doing everything first class.

The minimal Coast Guard and Customs security we have on our ports would not have been reduced. We spend only about $750 million to secure our 37 international shipping ports but over $20 Billion on airport security. Like all our border security the top priority remains “maximize commerce”.

Theft security on the average $100,000 container load is up to the port operator and DP World tracks their containers as well as anyone. The simple truth is that Homeland Security knows we are not going to stop the flood of consumer goods into the US for the sake of national security, so they put their money and efforts elsewhere. Realistically, for nuclear security we need to inspect and secure cargo containers as they depart overseas ports, and pass through others, not upon arrival. Miami understands this and at least scans the hulls of all inbound ships well before they enter the Miami port area.

Congress and everyone elsewhere in the world learned long ago that as a group Americans are arrogant, ignorant, more greedy and wasteful than any civilization since ancient Rome. Having lived abroad for many years I was regularly embarrassed by my fellow white countrymen who treated everyone they encountered the same way they treat Blacks in America or worse. Most Americans think all Arabs are “stupid camel jockeys”.

Americans seldom venture abroad except to kill people. But when we visit we make no allowance for any language or customs other than our own, assume other nations are backward, poor and uneducated, and expect everyone to deal with us on our terms, in English, and for US dollars. Every glare and overly loud remark carries the implied expression “after all, we saved your butts and rebuilt your miserably little country after WWII. We are the Super Power.” News flash: that ship sailed sixty years ago. Get over it. It is a 21st Century global economy and we aren't the producers anymore. We're just dumb consumers. We no longer control our own destiny let alone our security.

It is a new Century and we have a hard lesson to learn. We borrow more than we make to buy crap we don't need from people who may use this money against us or to buy up America's assets. Like this port deal, we just don't get it. Our unwise Free Trade made it an open global economy where the developing World rises at the expense of the old developed world. Us. If you don't like foreigners buying up America, get used to it. Our excessive life style depends upon the continued selling of America to others.

My Machine

2006-02-10T12:11:00.000-05:00

I've just created a new answering machine message.

Hello, you've reached 261-xxxx. If this is Osama, Al Quada, bombers or terrorists from Iraq or Iran, you've got the wrong number. As for everyone else, this call has been screened for key words by NSA computers and is now being monitored by the Bush Administration. Hi, Dick, how's the ticker?

BOO...just kidding. Leave your name and number at the tone, or not. Either way, Homeland Security will get back to you, eventually.

DDT -Silent Spring Revisited

2006-01-20T15:39:00.000-05:00

Few books still stir controversy after more than 40 years in print like Silent Spring by the late Rachael Carson. First published in 1962, Silent Spring is credited with starting the environmental movement by alerting the public to the danger of chemical pesticides, especially DDT. Perhaps Oprah should recommend this one to her viewers. What amazes me even more than the meticulously documented and overwhelming argument against DDT she makes is the ongoing desperate attempts by big business to find any fault with it.

One author laments the loss of life in Third World countries by disease carrying insects as reason enough to pollute the global food chain http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1796 .

Some draw ridiculous conclusions by picking at minor details, (is 3.4% increased mortality statistically significant?), in cited research studies while ignoring the larger picture http://info-pollution.com/spring.htm .

Even ABC's John Stossel was duped into believing the danger of DDT is a myth by citing recent simplified studies as justification to resume the widespread use of DDT.

Keep your focus on the most important facts. DDT, DDE, and related chlorinated or fluorinated hydrocarbons are extremely persistent substances that have a devastating impact upon nature and the food chain. The book clearly shows the danger of even small amounts (3 ppm) of DDT being used for small insect control. Larger organisms in the food chain accumulate geometrically higher concentrations of DDT in their fat cells.

In a California lake, fish that ate smaller fish that fed on algae with DDT retain hundreds of parts per million when the initial introduction of DDT into the environment was at minimal levels considered safe. People eating those fish repeatedly would accumulate toxic levels very quickly and pass it on to subsequent offspring. This type of contamination is as insidious as radiation and can be just as devastatng.

The entire class of chlorinated hydrocarbons has proved to be dangerous. Another related chemical variation [4 chlorines replacing hydrogen atoms around carbon] produces carbon tetrachloride, once commonly used as a cleaning solvent but found to be very carcinogenic. Chlordane, a compound similar to DDT, was once sprayed under all home sites as a permanent pesticide lasting up to 40 years, but banned in 1989 because it pollutes ground water over wide areas. The effects of related chemical structures except with fluorine replacing chlorine is well documented as destroying earth's protective ozone layer that shields us all from ultraviolet solar radiation. These chloro and fluoro carbons, used in air conditioning and as spray propellants have been banned worldwide as well.

Don't let self-serving special interests cloud the facts. Chemicals have many uses, but often create more problems than they cure. Americans, more than any other culture have used and abused chemicals, especially hydrocarbons, to both enhance and pollute our lives and our environment.

It is clear that the widespread use of powerful chemicals has often appeared beneficial at first but frequently turns out to have the opposite long term result. Chlorinated hydrocarbons stand out as a group of chemicals always having persistent and cumulative effects that make them far more dangerous than they appear to be.

We have much to learn about existing in harmony with nature. If you haven't read Silent Spring, you should read it carefully and take it's basic message to heart.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395683297/104-4717462-4330364?v=glance&n=283155

Digital Photography 101

2005-12-27T12:27:00.000-05:00

Wouldn't it be great if you could take all the pictures you want for FREE? Well, now you can. For an initial investment of under $300, including accessories, you can learn to be a photographer by trial and error. You'll also need a Windows ME/2000/XP or Linux 2.2 kernel or later PC with a USB connector to store and view your photo collection.

My camera is a Canon A60, one of the early 2nd generation digitals but now quite out of date. I started with a $30 650x480 Chinese JamCam 3.0 while waiting for average prices to drop from $300 to around $120 (on sale). Within a year they had. Now prices are stable around $195 but the features continue to increase with 4 or 5 megapixel cameras and true optical zooms near that price.

My camera is a 2 megapixel which means you can print out only a 4x6 in normal photo quality (with the original 1200x1400, 1MB file), but that's enough for most people. I bought it 18 months ago online from Ofc Depot and got over $120 off (final price $96) when the going price was over $200 [one of my best online bargains]. Like computers, digital camera prices drop dramatically every year.

It has many features not found on similar consumer oriented cameras which is why I recommend Canon. I never mastered some of the finer points in the 86-page manual like changing ISO, lighting adjustments, and panorama shots. In full-auto mode you just point and shoot, which always works out OK. It does movie clips with sound too. Originally this camera sold for $345, but is already out of production. Check J&R Music & Photo online for the best prices.

You can probably still get an A80, it's 3 MP cousin for about $130 these days. It has the same 3x optical glass lens. That's enough camera for just about anyone. There is no reason to pay more. Don't settle for cheaper versions without a true 3x optical zoom like the A310 which goes for under $100. The semi-pro Canon S series has even more features for a lot more money.

As a former camera buff who used to develop and print his own film I really appreciate digitals. There is lot you can do to enhance digital shots if you have the right software, especially the expensive stuff. I often adjust colors, soften shadows, or brighten photos with the free Arcsoft Camera Suite that came with the camera or an old shareware version of Paint Shop Pro.

Other accessories you'll want for your digital camera include two sets of NiMh (Nickel metal Hydride) batteries which can be recharged 1,000 times and a good quality charger that doesn't overheat the batteries. Cheap $20 chargers wear out the batteries quickly. Check photography forums online for the model number of a good charger. I don't yet have one. You'll also need a big memory card and maybe a spare PC connector or card reader. With these extras you can capture all your vacation pictures. I don't often print my pics, but when I do I go to Wal-Mart and get them for 29 cents each (not the Kodak machine, the other one). The machine even lets you crop and enhance them. You've now completed digital photography 101. Have fun.

2006 Small Cars

2005-12-21T15:53:00.000-05:00

Newer Faster Cars
It has been twenty years since I have purchased a brand new car. Like many people, I've been driving cars six to fifteen years old. Last year I helped my mother get a nearly new Buick and I was amazed at its quietness and pep. You no longer have the feeling of speed in you ears or your tush in these new cars. Now wonder people drive like crazy these days. They have no sense of how fast they are going but numbers on a dial. Just stand or park near the driving lane of any major street in town and you will quickly learn what I mean. Venture onto I-95 and cars will blow past you like you are standing still while you are doing 75. Speaking of dials, my 1979 6.6 Liter V-8 Trans-AM's speedometer only went to 100 MPH (I wrapped it well past that on the autobahn). Dials and cars today go to even higher speeds though there is no public place in the US to drive that fast without killing someone. Why tempt fools?

Smooth and Quiet
My mother rode with me to the city in my 94 Chrysler and complained she couldn't hear the radio. She was used to her newer, much quieter Buick. The wind and tire noise in my top of the line older LHS was annoying to her. Today's cars have a drag coefficient of 0.31 or better while even the sleakest designs 10 years ago were 0.45 or more. Just wash and wax a new and an old car. You will experience banged and bruised fingers if you are not used to the many uneven surfaces and protruding trim on older cars.

Improved
All of the new small cars I tested were more powerful, quieter, more efficient, more convenient and user friendly than anything I've owned. Although I looked at some of the least expensive cars sold, they are all well equipped with standard features only found on high end cars in the past.

Equipped
Four speaker AM/FM/CD players (no MP3's), lightly tinted windows, plus small items like remote trunk and fuel door release, outside temperature reading, dual visor mirrors with covers, intermittent wipers, reading lights, engine and trunk lights, power tap, low fuel warning, split folding rear seats, remote control mirrors, larger glove boxes and console bins, more cup holders and storage in the doors are all standard features on these economy cars under $15,150. Big items like A/C, large alloy wheels & tires, pwr windows, remote pwr door locks, and cruise were sometimes included in the base price or packaged in the next higher model.

Performance
I've had a pet pieve for many years. Newer cars are all geared too low! Newer engines must run at ever higher RPM's at highway speed. In 1975 I had a new Levi's Gremlin with a big straight six engine and electric overdrive on a 3-speed manual gearbox. I purchased a tachometer (not normally available) and was gratified to find my engine doing 1,600 RPM's in overdrive at 55 MPH on I-5. Back in those days 55 was the enforced national speed limit, so we had plenty of time to think about stuff like RPM's, play with the radio, and look at the scenery. Perhaps that's why so many Baby Boomers are such lousy drivers today.
Anyway, the cars I just tested are all doing at least 2,000 RPM's at 55 and 2,500 to 3,000 at 65. That's screaming by my standards. I can't understand why engineers would do this to otherwise well designed cars.

Efficiency Game
There must be a reason for such low final gear ratios (4.18 typically). I could blame it on the unrealistic EPA test that never goes over 55 for the highway mileage test. Or I can try to explain it as an engineer might.

Then
For fifty years, until 1979, the basic engine, crank, stroke, and valves of large block six or V-8's remained pretty much the same. A typical GM 400 cubic inch V-8 had a long stroke, one intake and one exhaust valve, and produced it's best torque between 1,400 and 4,200 RPM's. I know people who've driven them 350,000 miles with no engine repairs (78 Pontiac). Typical 4-speed final gear ratios were 3.24 to 3.5. Drag racing ratios were 3.90 to 4.11. Anything lower was strictly for pulling stumps.

Now
Today's smaller engines with dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder are like Indy cars of decades past. Honda's Formula-1 racing engines are designed by the same engineers who've been making street legal 9-12,000 RPM racing engines in motorcycles for decades. Today's car engines are de-tuned versions of these same engines with torque curves that run from 2,000 to 6,000 RPM's. Improvements in crankshafts and flywheels make these tiny powerhouses run smoother than older V-8's. Friction is controlled by finer tolerances and excellent standard lubricants. Today's 1.8 Liter 4's with electronic valve timing put out 120 to Honda's 150 HP. That's nearly twice the HP of their original 1.6L US engine in 1966. You can cruise all day at 75 doing 3,500 RPM's and barely hear or feel these engines. Add an aftermarket turbo and you can get 400 HP (until it blows up). I have no idea how long stock engines will last but I'd estimate maybe 100,000 miles, if you are lucky. Germans typically have their engines rebuilt after 120,000 km of autobahn driving (see NASCAR Winston-Cup Series for comparison).

Still, that doesn't explain why Toyota, whose 1.8L engine is like Honda, Mazda, Kia and others but has a higher 3.94 axel ratio, does 500 fewer RPM's at 65 than the Mazda 3i with 4.18 rear end, and gets at least 6 MPG better hwy mileage. Wake up rice burners--gear up!

Technorati Profile

Digital TV

2005-11-05T21:13:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't been paying attention to the FCC and Congressional action on this subject, here are some dates. Hopefully, you won't need to buy a replacement TV in the coming months. If you do, it will have to be an HDTV.

On Thursday, the FCC moved up by four months the date by which small TV sets sold in the U.S. [13 inches to 24 inches] must have digital tuners to receive HDTV. The new deadline is March 1, 2007. The FCC previously ruled that all new mid-sized sets [25 inches to 36 inches] be digital-ready by March 1, 2006

Senators set a deadline of April 7, 2009, to end traditional analog TV broadcasts. Telcos are eagerly awaiting use of the old spectrum they already purchased for new digital services. This latest legislation was added to a budget bill. The originally proposed transition was to have been by 2006 but consumers have resisted the expensive new sets. No single new screen technology yet dominates the market and none is ideal or cost effective for replacing the typical 32" or larger CRT screens most TV watchers now enjoy at much lower resolution, 520 lines interlaced.

The bill also provided $3 billion to help poor Americans buy digital-to-analog converter boxes for their older television sets so they can continue to receive a signal once the switch is made permanent.

I just checked Wal-Mart and a typical 32" HDTV costs $650 to $1,900 depending upon features and resolution. I'm hoping prices on the 1,020 interlaced picture models [comparable to cheap PC monitors] come down to $700 by late next year. A few early HDTV monitors are going cheap (under $300) but require an external HDTV tuner that costs $300. Built-in HDTV tuners add about $80 to a set. Contrary to the hype, a basic traditional outside TV antenna will pick up the new digital signals from your local network broadcasters within about 25 miles, about the same as before, but quality drops off rapidly to nil at about 40 miles.

Of course, once you have a TV that can show your PC picture, you'll want to get Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005 (under $200 OEM) and connect your PC with an upgraded video card sporting a DV out connector and XP DirectX 9.0 drivers. There is a special remote to control your PC but you'll want to get a wireless keyboard and mouse for another $60 or so. This is still as cheap as a digital video recorder so make sure you have a big enough HD to record your favorite TV shows, at least for now. This convergence requires a Premium version of Windows Vista and a much more expensive PC if you wait until it is released next year. Minimum 256MB video, 1 gigabyte of RAM and 3 MHz requirements add $500 or more to the base Vista PC, and much more for one with media center features. Consequently, I don't see a rapid transition to media center computing, especially in those households still paying for their new HDTV.

As you may have noticed, more and more TV programming is in the wide-screen 16x9 format rather than the older 4x3 ratio. It will take decades before the average television show is in wide-screen format. Considering the percentage of old TV re-runs on cable, we may never again be completely free from the black bars above and below our picture.

That makes choosing the shape of your new set a difficult decision. Should you pay the extra $100 to $250 for a traditional shaped screen and suffer the black bars above and below much of the time or go for the new wider format and have a much smaller picture with side bars or stretched picture when you need to watch an older format show? The really big plasma and liquid crystal (LCD) HDTV sets are prohibitively expensive and projection TV's not sharp enough for high quality broadcasts.

Soon there will be yet another option that looks quite promising. SED's, a joint Canon Toshiba venture will be entering production soon. They combine the quality, efficiency and possibly lower cost of CRT's with slim LCD-like design. http://www.canon.com/technology/display/

Prices are coming down but not as fast as looming government deadlines. Expect to dig deep for a new TV sometime in the next 36 months if you haven't already. I remember when color TV (invented in 1947) was widespread by the late 50's and cost nearly $1,000. We got ours around 1959. By 1963, nearly everyone watched Bonanza in living color, but then most didn't have to pay $60 a month for cable or satellite service. Today, add $50 a month for a cell phone and $30 for broadband internet too. A larger chunk of our discretionary income is going to digital services all the time. Even radio is rapidly becoming a pay-service (Sirius or XM satellite radio) and by the time I pony up it won't be commercial free either. Forget about the Public Broadcasting Service. It is already on the chopping block.

Someday, if the Bush appointed FCC has it's way, we'll even have to pay to find out what time it is. Hopefully, by then I won't care.

The World Car

2005-10-28T13:10:00.000-04:00

I’ve been following the personal computer industry for more than 25 years and have seen more than 15 generational improvements in design. The original IBM PC ran at 4.7 Megahertz and had an 8-bit data stream to do simple arithmetic calculations. It was sophisticated compared to my 4-bit Commodore VIC-20 with 4 MB of memory and cassette tape drive. By comparison, today’s PC’s are fire-breathing uber-monsters able to process massive streams of high definition digital video and audio through specialized buses at over 800 MHz to processors capable of doing billions of instructions per second. That’s progress.

The automobile has been around over 100 years but where’s the progress over the past two decades? OK, they say you can go 10,000 miles between oil changes instead of 3,000 and you don’t need a $40 ignition tune up every year. My 1983 2.0 Liter Nissan Stanza got 43 MPG at 75 mph with the A/C on. I put over 160,000 miles on that mid-sized 5-door wagon and it saved me a fortune on gas. The trick was having 8 spark plugs in 4 cylinders and a cut-off float in the carburetor. The dual spark plugs ran off a standard V8 distributor with special dual contact rotor. Better burn…more clean power. The float cut fuel flow whenever the car slowed or was in a turn. It averaged 37 MPG around town.

Even compact sedans today have fuel injected 16-valve overhead camshaft engines like Indy racers of two decades ago. Do these cars have 1,000 HP, get 200 MPG, or cost $2,000? Today’s complexity of design fails to produce real improvements in performance, cost or reliability. In fact, today’s cars are easier to damage, more difficult to repair and far more expensive than they need to be.

Recently, on “Cops”, I saw a fellow head butt the hood of his car in frustration. He left a dent. Lean against any new car and your leg will bend the paper-thin fenders. Someone bumped my mother’s Buick Park Avenue in a parking lot and the entire plastic rear end of the car was pushed forward a fraction of an inch causing the trunk to leak. Any 5 mph impact typically does about $800 damage. Every Nissan and other cars & trucks with an overhead cam engine will self-destruct if the timing belt should ever fail. Valve rods could fly right though the hood. My LHS’s timing belt broke with the car at idle when the water pump seized. It caused over $1,000 in engine damage. To minimize risk, you must change the belt and pump every 60,000 miles for about $400. It takes 2 ½ hours of ($70) labor to change spark plugs on many new cars. There’s a computer control circuit board in modern cars (2 in the hot engine compartment of Chrysler cars) that controls engine timing and ignition. It costs about $3 to produce but you can’t buy one for less than $350. That’s truly highway robbery.

What the world needs is a radically new and practical automobile design. Of course, it will be small, tough and lack frills, like a Jeep. But, with over 3 Billion potential customers for a simple, efficient, long-lasting vehicle under $2,000, the market is wide open. China is in a perfect position to be the first to produce such a car. With state-of-the-art design and production facilities and a booming economy, China could design and mass-produce a revolutionary new car that would be a 21st Century Model T. A standard, widely produced engine control circuit board could be produced and sold at a profit for $5, the exhaust oxygen sensor, by which engine timing is optimized, for $10. This 1970’s BMW pioneered technology makes any car reliable and economical to repair.

Common sense design would make these vehicles far more simple, sturdy, and useful. For example, extending the camshaft forward out of the engine with a lug nut shaped end would allow owners to turn over the engine manually with the same tool used to change a tire. It could also drive attachments from a winch to farm implements. This could be a life-saving feature or the only power source in remote areas. A five or six speed manual transmission with a very low 1st gear and overdrive top gear would enable power distribution from stump pulling to long-distance cruising on a 1.2 Liter, 83 HP 3-cylinder engine.

Perhaps two models could be offered, a basic $2,000 car weighing 1,500 lb. (682 kilos) and a larger, more complex 1-ton (909 kilos) version for $5,000 with a standard 1.8 L 4-cyl. This larger model would be like a stripped down Corolla with 25% fewer parts and more sturdy materials. No CD players, electric rear view mirrors nor power windows are needed. More like a Hummer H3, real bumpers and brackets would replace fancy molding and shiny trim. Open or canvas covered trunk space could be a mini-truck bed onto which users would fasten their own extensions as needed. Folding, hard-back rear seats would extend cargo space into the interior without compromising the main structural box of the unit-body. A removable windowed roof hatch with canvas sunroof replacement might be included. The rear edge of the hatch could open slightly with a fold-over dual hinge like the back windows of an older BMW coupe. Like the VW, it should have a water-tight undercarriage. Six inches of ground clearance is suggested. Include the best design features of a Jeep, CV2, VW, small BMW and Hummer.

MIT has designed a $100 portable computer for widespread distribution in Third World countries. http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptop-images.html I think we need a World Car as well. Modern electronics and technology have made many key components simple and inexpensive. I know there are smart people out there who can design and mass-produce a good, practical $2,000 vehicle that is more satisfying than anything we have now.

Truly Personal PC's

2005-10-07T16:42:00.000-04:00

After 25 years, it is time the personal computer evolved into something much more personal. Sure, it has gotten faster, smaller and smarter. OK, it has evolved into a communication device from a basic number cruncher, the only real advance in the PC concept, but that required the creation of the entire Internet.

I’ve lived through countless generational evolutions of CPUs, memory, bus and peripherals. There’s not a single major component of the original PC that hasn’t evolved or been replaced. But the basic concept hasn’t changed at all. It is a box, however portable, that includes all the hardware, OS, and personal data created by its user. Network Computers, NC’s (the evolution of dumb terminals) don’t store the data or software locally but rather at a central location. Wide area wireless broadband promises to breathe new life into NC’s once again but they have never been very personal and never will be.

Combination devices that compromise on features in favor of portability still struggle for acceptance and standardization but continue to grow in number and complexity. Eventually, cellular phones will combine all the features of PDAs, portable music and game machines, plus the connectivity and major computing features of a PC. Still, they are shadows of the original PC concept that hasn’t grown or evolved since the addition of the role of communications terminal.

Fortunately, advances in technology plus a few truly creative minds are poised to make the first true advances in the PC. Flash memory is now cheap enough to replace hard drives with tiny, solid-state storage that can include the entire OS, software and personal data on a handy, inexpensive, removable component. USB and other self-configuring and detecting standards make it possible to totally separate the general hardware from the OS and data component. The hardware and comm. link can belong to the host location while the OS, software, and data remain truly personalized, private, and controlled by the end user.

Like other PC’s, the hardware can vary significantly but maintain basic compatibility with standards such as the Intel instruction set, USB connection, basic chipsets and firmware to mount and boot from a removable flash drive. Knoppix, a brand of Linux, has been mounted on CD’s for years enabling it to self-configure and run on many different PC’s capable of booting from CD. An updated version could run from a flash memory device as well.

Imagine, schools, coffee shops, libraries, offices and phone booths equipped with inexpensive drive-less PC’s missing only your personal thumb drive. For a small fee where appropriate, you could have your familiar home PC experience anywhere. You could interface with local computer networks wherever you are for work or play while maintaining your very personalized software and key records with you. You would control whether everything remained on your personal data device.

Hardware enabled encryption would insure that all traffic between your drive and the PC hardware or internet was encrypted so that only your flash drive with it’s unique encryption chip could decrypt it. We setup similar (software only) encryption every time we do ecommerce over the Internet now and trust it for $1 Trillion in transactions daily and next generation CPUs from Intel and AMD are already being designed to include a unique hardware encryption chip.

The one hundred dollar PC is not far off. See this link to see what is being planned for 2007 by the MIT Media lab. http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
Others are setting industry standards (U3), developing and marketing software (Migo), or deploying early versions of truly personal virtual PC experiences. Flash Drives Make Any Computer Personal Ubuntu H2 http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/13/1635229&from=rss

Patch Tuesday

2005-08-16T19:56:00.000-04:00

Just one week after Microsoft’s August monthly release of critical update patches from Windows, commonly known as Patch Tuesday, CNN’s network was hit hard by some variant of a worm that exploited one of these patched vulnerabilities. Lou Dobb’s show and some others were affected. Sadly, the cause is quite clear to me as it is to any good network administrator. CNN has not been updating it’s Windows network. There is literally no good excuse for this failure. Let me explain why.

Microsoft has been under attack by hundreds if not thousands of computer programmers for the past five years or more. The reasons vary but usually include the fact that 95 percent of all PC’s in the world run Windows and or overly complex and often poorly designed features included in Microsoft operating systems. There are simply more ways to exploit Windows and more people doing it than with any other system ever built. If I was a hacker I’d hack Windows before I bothered with anything else because it is easier and more effective to attack Windows. Who cares if somebody writes a virus for the TRS-80?

Knowing that your systems are the most popular and most vulnerable means you have to take the bad with the good. If you are going to use Windows because it is easy, cheap, portable, or whatever, then you must also be prepared to do what it takes to defend your system or network. Microsoft has made this pretty painless. Individuals since 1998 have been able to turn on automatic updates and get these critical patches with little or no effort on their part. Not doing so is as dumb as leaving a loaded gun lying around unsecured. It is an invitation to disaster. Apple and Linux users are laughing now but will eventually face similar issues once they gain enough market share to be significant.

Networks have special considerations. They also have professional administrators whose job includes providing the security individuals can do for themselves on unmanaged systems. Microsoft has gone out of their way to make this task as easy as possible for this group as well. Years ago, IT departments had to apply patches manually at each desktop or pay huge sums for System Management Server (SMS) to deploy these patches automatically. In the past few years Microsoft has released several versions of free administrative tools that contain most of this functionality. Software Update Service (SUS) was such a success it was updated and became Windows Update Service (WUS). Administrators can use WUS to download and selectively test and install software patches to any recent version of Windows client or server machine.

There is NO reason not to do this promptly each month. Because the process of documenting and fixing vulnerabilities makes the weakness known, it is vital to apply these patches promptly BEFORE new viruses and worms are written to exploit them. If a patch cannot be applied because it affects some poorly written but vital software application, then administrators must fall back on the training and intelligence of network users until the vital software can be repaired or replaced.

Sharp network administrators make it a top priority to download and test all new critical updates immediately when they become available the second Tuesday of each month. Many other software vendors including Oracle, RedHat, and others time their regular patch releases to coincide with Microsoft’s. As soon as these patches prove compatible with vital software on representative sample machines on the network, updates are flagged for widespread distributed via WUS. No network machines should be without a critical patch a week after being released. CNN’s were and the results were painfully obvious.

Typically, the government is slow at most everything so it was no surprise to hear that some machines in offices on the out-of-session Capital Hill were affected. A few companies (Caterpillar?) were also caught with their patches down. Shame on their administrators or maybe shame for being on vacation without a trained replacement. Management is generally to blame and must accept responsibility for excessive IT cutbacks, incompetent directors, poorly trained, lowly paid, overworked staff. Otherwise, Administrators had the wrong priorities. Nearly 50 percent of business networks still run Windows 2000 because it still works fine. But you have to apply available patches to any operating system.

Energy Crisis

2005-08-11T14:50:00.000-04:00

I’ve always been proud to say that I participated in the very first Earth Day in 1970. As an idealistic college student I took a few whacks with a sledge hammer at a donated gas guzzler to demonstrate our rejection of the status quo. To this day I remain committed to the concept of conservation in all aspects of my life.

I generate far less garbage than the average American. "The average American generates four pounds of solid trash per day... 1,460 pounds per year." http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020606.html Whenever I drink a soda from an aluminum can, I save the can and eventually turn it over to a charity to recycle it. It takes 75 Megawatts of electricity to make a new aluminum can but only 1 megawatt to make a recycled one. I recycle plastic bottles as well, to avoid placing them in landfills where they would remain forever.

But I learned long ago that as a consumer my impact on the planet is miniscule when compared to industry and government. I’m reminded of ridiculous lawn watering restrictions applied by power crazed bureaucrats while millions of gallons of water regularly spill from poorly maintained city water systems and construction sites. Consequently, it would appear that political activism is far more effective than personal conservation in saving our planet from the ill effects of human expansion and consumption. Still, doing my share seems like the right thing to do. If everyone felt that way, our world would be noticeably better.

While I never owned an SUV, I admit I could have been more careful in choosing my automobile. I have an older full-sized sedan that gets nearly 22 MPG in town and 27 on the highway. While that’s as good as most new cars today, it is far less than my 1983 Nissan Stanza that got 43 MPG on the highway at 75 MPH with the air conditioner on and 36 around town. The secret was a 2.0 Liter four cylinder engine with eight spark plugs and a high energy ignition system. It also had a clever fuel cut-off float in the carburetor that shut off fuel flow immediately upon entering a turn or slowing down. That made it a bit jerky, but very efficient for a low-tech solution. With today’s computer controlled fuel injection I have no doubt Detroit could nearly double average fuel economy with a few minor changes to their vehicles. Perhaps they will once gasoline hits $3 a gallon. I’m eager to see what changes in the next model year but I won’t run out and buy the first new products American automakers offer us. I remember the self-destructing GM Diesel sedans of the mid-1970’s.

If only the recently passed $295 Billion Energy Bill (advertised as $286.4 Billion) had been spent to make our highways and intersections more efficient rather than building $223 Million bridges to nowhere. Every significant intersection in Germany has a right-turn merge lane with a yield sign to avoid unnecessary stops. Traffic circles and synchronized stop lights could save millions of gallons of gasoline every years. We haven't seriously considered such measures.

The original US energy crisis in 1973 was bogus. It was mostly created by the powers that control production and distribution to see if they could get away with rapid price increases the same way sugar producers had recently done. Eventually, all commodities went through similar supply interruptions to gage the potential for price increases. I recall a visit to Columbia during the peak of the coffee shortage in 1975. Our embassy contact took my flight crew up into the hills to a distributor whose warehouse was stacked 30 feet high and overflowing with cases of the best coffee in the world. We flew a car load back to Panama for distribution to base personnel. In a few months, prices stabilized and there was plenty of coffee for everyone but at new, higher prices.

Our current energy dilemma is not artificial. It is the predictable and unstoppable result of the rapid economic expansion of China and India. For years, commodity prices have been under pressure from these two “Billion consumer” economies as they expand at ever increasing rates. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html Construction materials in recent years have been in short supply, especially steel and gypsum for concrete due largely to the world’s largest dam construction project in China. More recently, general growth in China has increased to double digits (nearly three times America’s growth rate) and demand for energy and raw materials far exceeds previous years. Chinese oil imports are up 35 percent. http://www.rgj.com/news/printstory.php?id=90612

OPEC is pumping oil at nearly maximum capacity and American refineries are working overtime trying to keep up with our growing demand. Even drilling oil in Alaska’s wildlife refuge won’t have a significant impact on this supply crunch. To make matters worse, China’s banks are holding Billions of US dollars they need to use to buy more resources for their continued growth. They are even trying to buy America’s third largest oil company. Congress hasn’t decided whether to oppose this move. They are waiting to see how much more bribe money China is willing to offer them to allow it.

Expect to pay at least $2.50 a gallon for gasoline the rest of this year and $3.00 or more starting next year. Europe is at the mercy of Iran, which provides over half of their oil. That’s why Iran laughs off European threats over their nuclear ambitions. China, a member of the UN Security Council, has already assured Iran they will not oppose Iran becoming a nuclear power and has recently agreed to purchase oil from them.

Hydrogen cars may be the only solution, but don’t expect to see them for another six years in any volume. Over nine hundred Billion dollars has been invested in our gasoline distribution system and it won’t easily be converted to distribute hydrogen or hydrogen fuel cells. Until that happens, large numbers of hydrogen vehicles simply won’t be able to replace current vehicles. That’s why everyone is concentrating on the interim solution of hybrid gas/electric vehicles. This transition makes a lot of sense and could reduce our consumption dramatically. The Japanese are years ahead in this technology since every other country in the world pays several times what Americans pay for fuel. Japan is especially vulnerable because they must import 100% of their oil.

We import up to 25% of the oil we use, most of it from Saudi Arabia. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/saudi.html But we could easily reduce our consumption by half if we had to do so. America’s Happy Days of conspicuous consumption are unique in the world. The price of that excess is now measured in lives and limbs lost daily to maintain our excessive lifestyle and economic survival. With all the jobs we’ve exported in the past five years our economy would be in Depression if we had to bear the energy costs other nations endure.

Iraq’s 2.2 Billion barrel reserve becomes our strategic reserve when the Saud family is eventually overthrown in Saudi Arabia. Clearly, that’s the reason Cheney and his brain trust engineered the invasion of Iraq more than three years ago.

"Although Americans represent roughly 5% of the world's population, we generate 40% of its waste." Like addicts, we are not willing or able to make the conservation adjustments accepted long ago by Europe and Third World nations. It will be a hard lesson for our children to learn but eventually we must learn to live more humbly. That includes stopping our excessive waste of all kinds of natural resources, beginning with petroleum.

http://www.nrdc.org/cities/recycling/recyc/appenda.asp

Truth About Oil
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/investing/articles/0,15114,1105683,00.html

Digital Insecurity

2005-06-26T18:21:00.000-04:00

I see a common thread in the news these days. The proliferation of digital technology and connectivity is creating an unprecedented threat to information security on many fronts. Here are just a few excerpts from recent news on this theme.

SenderID, SPF, Domain Keys
By this Fall, if your e-mail does not have a Sender ID, MSN & Hotmail will handle your message as if it was JUNK mail. other e-mail giants such as America Online (SPF) and Yahoo (Digital Keys) have developed their own authentication systems. AOL and Yahoo plan to implement them into their e-mail systems by year's end.
Unsigned mail could be handled differently since it is more likely to be SPAM, but DoubleClick, a major SPAMMER, has already announced plans to use SenderID on it's mail servers when appropriate. [You probably won't recognized the name of that domain owner or it could appear similar to a known business. ]
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5758365.html?tag=nl.e539

Instant Message Collaboration
The latest desktop version of Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 together with the company's Live Communications Server software will allow workers to access a [corporate] IM system from any device on the Internet.

MS Issues Small Business Security White Paper (71 pgs)
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/support/security-toolkit-pdf.mspx

Microsoft Releases 10 Security Bulletins
Microsoft's monthly bundle of patches for June is one of the biggest since the company switched to a monthly patching cycle, and it brings fixes for 12 vulnerabilities, including three critical issues.

Popular Web browsers' javascript leaves users vulnerable
The flaw allows a phishing attack when a malicious JavaScript pop-up window appeared in front of a trusted Web site, Secunia [Security firm] said. It could prompt s user to enter data such as a userid and password.
"The problem is that JavaScript dialog boxes do not display or include their origin in a popup dialog window which could appear to be from a trusted website. The latest versions of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer for Mac, Safari, iCab, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Camino, and Opera prior to 8.01 are all vulnerable.

Security Software facing increased attacks
Symantec, CheckPoint Software, and F-Secure are among the vendors that have seen a rise in the number of security issues that affect their products in the past years, according to Yankee Group. If the trend continues, the number of vulnerabilities for security products will be 50 percent higher than 2004 levels, according to the analysts. While Microsoft flaws continue to be exploited, the rate has decreased notably. Analysts credit the shift in targets to the tighter security in Windows XP Service Pack 2.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5754773.html?tag=nl.e539

Microsoft to Deliver Automated, All-in-One PC Health Service for Consumers OneCare is a comprehensive, simple-to-use consumer subscription service that will provide automated protection, maintenance, and performance tuning in an all-in-one package for Windows-based PCs. [...there's big money in creating a problem then solving it.]

Microsoft plans to buy Claria (Gator)
Microsoft is expected to buy the advertising firm Claria which earned the wrath of millions of users when it was called Gator for trashing Windows PC's with AdWare. Microsoft hopes to extend it's MSN advertising and add user profile technology already possessed by rivals Yahoo and Google. All three offer free "toolbar" downloads which add functionality to browsers but could also work in the background to gather information about your browsing and even capture keystrokes or at least javascript field (login) input if so configured. I do NOT recommend adding optional toolbars in general, but do find the Yahoo and Google customized homepages helpful and informative. You might try these highly personalized portals for a homepage, but avoid the temptation to modify your browser with added features you don't really need and installing executables you don't understand.

To make matters worse, Microsoft's [Giant] Anti-SpyWare software (still in Beta) has just been changed so the default settings Ignore Claria/Gator SpyWare rather than remove it. Anti-M$ jealots are going wild over this clear abuse of power and lack of ethics. That pretty well shoots 'Trustworthy Computing' in the foot. Nice going Balmer. Hopefully, Enterprise Admins will use this as a valid reason not to implement SpyWare Security with Microsoft products since they now ignore the worst AdWare/SpyWare offender out there.

Beyond PC's
Gartner analysts John Pescatore and John Girard wrote in a published paper that enterprises should prepare for the growing threat from malicious software for mobile phones and PDAs. "...a fast-spreading phone virus or worm is unlikely to appear before the end of 2007...after that, even antivirus software is unlikely to help. "

Two main factors...that would encourage a virus to propagate.... First, smart phones capable of being infected by malicious software will have to make up about one-third of the market. Second, users of those phones will have to regularly exchange executable files. "Today, the penetration of [such] mobile devices (capable of being infected by a virus) is still relatively small. [That situation is changing quickly. Wireless providers are anxious to sell optional data services and routinely offer comlex picture phones for under $100 with extended service plans these days.]

The Liberty Alliance is working on a standard to keep cell phone numbers from providers of wireless content such as ring tones, protecting people's privacy.

"The standard's purpose... is to enable third-party content providers to integrate (services) with mobile carriers without knowing the identity of the users." said a member. The interface specification for mobile messaging will work with both plain Short Message Service (SMS) and with Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), which is used by newer cell phones to send images and music.

The privacy concern arises from content providers sharing users' information, such as e-mail addresses, with spammers for a fee. "This business represents a large source of income for mobile operators and content providers alike," says Timo Skytta, of the Liberty Alliance. In Europe, laws now prohibit service providers from transferring personal information to third parties without customer's consent.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5754363.html?tag=nl.e539

Vehicle Computer Security
Malicious Code - Anti-virus firm F-Secure confirmed it was unable to infect an automobile, a Toyota Prius, with variants of the Cabir worm, despite rumors to the contrary.

Personal Security
"[Security firm] Cybertrust does not use the term 'identity theft' if we can avoid it. Identity theft is actually identity fraud, since the victim continues to have the use of his identity after being attacked."

National Digital ID
In May, President Bush signed into law a bill that will require all Americans to obtain federally approved, machine-readable ID cards approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The "Real ID Act of 2005", was attached to an Iraq/Afghanistan military spending bill. Enforcement starts in May 2008. This will effectively create a national ID card [and database]. Once created, it's likely that it will make an attractive replacement to Social Security numbers, passport numbers and other credentials which would be more easily trackable in a national database. Read more on the Real ID Act:
http://snipurl.com/fln6
http://judiciary.house.gov/newscenter.aspx?A=430
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/05/real_id.html

RealID (national digital ID cards & database) and RFID (embedded passive transponder chip) may be the most significant, life-altering developments in this Century! I'm working on a detailed discussion of their significance to all of us. I was astonished at what I discovered.

Digital Identity Control
While the potential for abuse is obvious, proper implementation of digital identification can be beneficial and finally end the senseless repetition of filling out your name, address, and phone number on different forms again and again. Urge legislators to require all digital ID information be encrypted with the best available technology including a hardware component and to require physical contact with the item containing the embedded encryption chip plus your personal identifier number (PIN) code to authorize and enable decription of personal identity information transmitted by RFID or read from your card. You should always have positive control of when and how this information becomes usable unless superceded by the filing of criminal charges against you.

Knowledge and Vigilance
Government has a legitimate interest in being able to gather this still encrypted information and some unecrypted non-personal information such as zip code, citizenship status or other valuable but less personal data to help identify criminal or terrorist movement and activity. In a post-911 world, there is room for some high-tech tracking and surveillance without wholesale invasion or elimination of personal privacy. We can learn to live with cameras everywhere in public places and infrared scanning through buildings by authorities looking for criminal activity. These minor technical invasions of privacy are offset by the increased threat of terrorism and need for security. All of this can be done without excessive snooping, building extensive profiles of regular citizen activity or other unjustified loss of personal liberty or privacy. The principles of personal liberty and privacy must be maximized while the proliferation and uses of digital technology increase. Strong penalties for anyone exploiting technology to compromise personal identity must keep pace with new technology and be vigorously enforced.

For now, I remain hopeful that digital technology can be used properly to improve our lives. But this will require our knowledge and vigilance to overcome those who would abuse it's power.

FL PC Guy

Internet Threats & Defense

2005-06-20T13:07:00.000-04:00

Considering my handle, it is about time I post some computer advice. In this globally connected, post 9/11 world, you must be observant and be able to defend yourself. It reminds me of when I was stationed in West Texas. My father-in-law gave me a handgun and told me to hide it in my car in case I ever broke down out in the middle of nowhere. Even in the 1970's there was an element of the Wild West still prevalent in remote West Texas. Banditos roamed freely. Considering our current border situation and the massive influx of all sorts of people from Central America, it probably still isn't safe at night in many parts of the South or other remote areas of the US. The rest of the world, especially the Third World, has always been this way but we Americans have been enjoying innocent "Happy Days" since the mid 20th Century. When I was a child we never locked our doors in a town of 10,000 and there were only two or three patrol cars for the entire town and they were often parked at the Office even at night.

Well, anyway, the internet is like the rest of the world, untamed, even a bit wild. All sorts of bad guys are still out there online, some are even organized and well funded. So anyone who connects to the rest of the world and especially those who connect via Broadband needs to take some basic safety precautions.

Microsoft has done a pretty good job on their Windows Update site with their three step plan. http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx Use a firewall, download critical updates immediately or automatically, and use updated AntiVirus software. If you haven't done these three basic steps, please follow the directions at the address above.

Non-Windows users also have automatic security patch updates available from their OS vendor and cooperating mirror sites, usually Universities here in the US. Your anti-virus options are far more limited, but the threats are far fewer. Still, you need to follow the same procedures to be safe. I'll explain firewalls in a minute. Almost all Linux distributions include a configurable firewall, ipchains, and if you are fortunate, some GUI interface or dialog. Linux users should also install and frequently or automatically update anti-virus software, even if you have to pay for it. Perhaps someone will post some good free alternatives.

Firewalls are specialized access lists which filter IP traffic by TCP or UDP port and direction. As a former router administrator I can tell you there are thousands of ports loosely designated for a particular application. Most people only use a handful like TCP port 80, the browser or HTTP port. Incoming POP3 email uses port 110, while outbound SMTP typically uses 25 or these days 25000. The entire list is here: http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers . Most people only need to know to open those two, close 135 outbound (Windows network sharing) and block (drop) every other kind of traffic from the internet. Of course, reply traffic is typically allowed. You want to block unsolicited traffic from outside. If you download a Trojan, macro executable, or other virus and initiate it from your local PC, any traffic it sends and any updates it downloads would still pass through a properly configured firewall. Windows XP SP2 firewall ignores all outbound traffic. That's why you need security updates, AntiVirus and the other stuff I'm about to list. Even XP users need to add an outbound firewall like ZoneAlarm or NetVeda Safety Net. Both are available for free.

The fourth defense you increasingly need is Anti-Spyware software. SpyWare, malware, and AdWare are variants that install some executable on your PC and secretly gather information which is eventually sent back to its creator. While it typically included elements of viruses, trojans, and other malware, the primary objective is to compromise your privacy, security, or both. Amazingly, there are few laws in place to counter this relatively new threat and enforcement is often difficult since much AdWare obtains your tacit agreement when you install some legitimate software it sponsors. Until specific legislation addresses hidden applications, it isn't unlawful in most places to distribute AdWare or even to use it to gather private information about it's users.

Even if the company, much SpyWare or AdWare is created by big companies, doesn't use this information for unlawful purposes, the way it installed, updates, and operates without your control makes it very tempting to abuse and extremely hard to prosecute.
Once a piece of AdWare gets installed on your PC, it runs silently, repairs and updates itself, has no easy means of being removed, and communicates freely with any internet address in the world as often as it is connected to the internet, even if you have all the latest critical updates, current anti-virus software, and a good inbound firewall. That's why we all need to run several of the available Anti-Spyware applications that are available.

This is a new industry and there are several approaches to finding and removing the many thousands of commonly known AdWare or SpyWare components in use. Worse, because malware updates itself frequently, once installed, it can change it's behavior completely on a regular basis, even hourly. Imagine someone at Gator (a major AdWare distributor) downloading a special code update that watches for browse connections to the Bank of America or CitiBank website then captures your keystrokes and sends them to some IP address in China or the Ukraine. After an hour, the code is replaced with legitimate AdWare code and there is no trace left of the deed that captured a few hundred usernames and passwords to bank websites and passed them along to Terrorists. This threat must be addressed immediately by Homeland Security, Congress, and each State legislature. Until the FBI is funded with the staff and tools to defeat this threat, you must play catch-up and hope you don't fall prey to a new segment of code not yet identified by current Anti-Spyware. The bottom line is that even if you have all of the following installed and up to date, you must ASSUME your keystrokes are being captured and forwarded.

Download, install and run the following software at least weekly: AdAware SE Personal Edition by LavaSoft, SpyBot Search & Destroy, and until Summer 2005, the beta of Microsoft's (Giant) Anti-Spyware application. Each has some capabilities the other lacks and all are currently available for free. If you can afford it, especially if you use broadband, buy the full versions. Set your scheduler (in Control Panel) to open all this software at least weekly when you are likely to be online. Get the updates before you scan your system just as you do with your anti-virus software.

Still, there are two other things you MUST continually do to safeguard your private information. Both are somewhat of a pain, but simple things you can do to protect your ability to do online commerce and internet banking with some sense of security. First, configure your firewall to prompt you for approval of all outbound traffic except HTTP. That means each time you send an email, update software other than your anti-virus or anti-spyware which can be exempted, you must give your OK to send information to the internet. If you aren't intentionally sending something, then DENY that traffic. It could be your credit card info going to China! You'll notice things like Windows Update (WUABOOT) requesting contact to the internet. Be sure you know what internet access you are approving. Second, you should never type your credit card number or password into a web dialog without skipping characters and using the mouse to reposition and insert the correct characters. If the website won't let you edit the string, complain how they are compromising your local security measures and stop using that site.

Keystroke capture is so easy to do with a tiny resident application that even an expert can't detect when service.exe is running something that does just that. All the IPSec and encryption techniques developed so far apply only to network traffic AFTER the keystrokes are entered. Microsoft is aware of this major flaw and has been working with Intel and others for years to develop a new generation of equipment that will encrypt all traffic between the motherboard, CPU, video card, keyboad, and other major components of your PC with special hardware chips. This feature won't be part of the next version of Windows and maybe not even the one after that. It will require your operating system to be custom installed for each hardware component and break your system if any piece fails. No existing hardware is compatible and no new hardware with this capability is yet available. Until you own such a system, be very careful before you participate in online commerce or banking. Review your bank and credit card statements for fraudulent transactions, you may be able to review transactions online every other week.

Never use a debit card online (or anywhere else), you are not protected by law from its unlawful use, only by current bank policy which could change at any time or be arbitrarily applied. The most you can lose from using a US credit card online is $50 by law as long as you promptly advise your bank and BankCard Center in writing (snail mail) of loss or compromise of your card number, or known fraudulent activity and within 60 days of billing. Banks make this distinction increasingly blurry but stand to save $Billions if they can swith users from Credit Cards to debit cards. Repeated efforts to repeal the Credit Card law have failed in spite of massive political contributions, but I wouldn't count on our current government to continue to protect you from big business. Watch for news of changes in Credit Card law.

Finally, try to become more familiar and in touch with the operation of your PC. Know what runs at startup and why, don't install any software from a company unless you are sure it has more to lose in bad publicity than it has to gain from compromising your PC. Stick to big name vendors or highly recommended, long established developers. Read the fine print of licensing agreements when installing software and never agree to install additional software (AdWare). Update protection software and run full scans regularly. Do a full system state backup before installing anything, backup your personal files to removable media frequently, and have all the drivers, CD's and license keys readily available to wipe and reinstall your OS if it does become compromised beyond repair. Yes, it's a pain but life online just isn't simple anymore.

Or, if you are unwilling to work at securing your PC, then stay off the internet and just use your PC to play Solitaire. Don't shop, get news, play games, or otherwise interact with the world online. While you are at it, build an eight foot wall around your home, put in a well and gas generator, stock up on canned goods and ammunition. That's the alternative.

BTW PC Mag recently reviewed seven anti-Spyware apps and agree with me that no single app is up to the challenge. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1829282,00.asp

2005-06-18T19:41:00.000-04:00

FL PC Guy

Useful- Trucker's Hitch, Slide Rule

2005-06-18T12:36:00.000-04:00

For no apparent reason I was reminded of a useful trick I learned somewhere, perhaps Air Force survival school in 1975, that has been a handy thing to know from time to time. I refer to a practical knot for tying things down, known as the Trucker's Hitch. I have used it for years to tie large objects to my car or tie down my partially open trunk when hauling stuff too big to fit nicely inside.

I'm not much of a knot master despite four years in the Cub Scouts and several weeks of Boy Scout camp in my youth. I may have completed a merit badge on knots, but don't remember any that I found useful. But Scouting did familiarize me with half-hitches and later I built on that knowledge when I needed to know more. [In the Air Force we studied knots and also learned to make backpacks and belts with pouches out of parachute gear for survival use.] The Trucker's Hitch, as I apply it, is simply a complication of simpler knots that removes the tension from the part of the knot you will eventually need to untie.

I said "as I apply it" because there seems to be some dicrepancy in what actually constitutes a Trucker's Hitch as indicated by these two different web-based explanations. http://www.grogono.com/knot/truckers/index.php# and http://www.bsatroop159.org/knots/ktrucker.shtm

My Trucker's Knot looks more like the Boy Scout description but I find mine even simpler and quicker to apply. I start with a single cross-over knot sort of like the first step in tying your shoes. You don't need two ends however, when tying big things down you usually fasten each end separately and have only one end of the "shoe lace" and loop it around something just before making the knot. You might use a three foot piece of rope or string and your leg to follow along. Tie one end off nearby and wrap the remaining end around your leg or a chair leg to practice.

Assuming you are tying something down you now have one end of the rope tightly over the item and the other end wrapped around your fastener (leg?) with a single hitch or cross-over knot in the rope and the remaining free rope in your primary hand. I usually tie left over right so I'll assume you did the same for this explanation. Doing the opposite throughout should produce a similar result.

Now do another left over right where the right is your hand with a grasp on the remaining rope, but not the end, and the left being the tight portion of the line over your load. This time, when pulling the line through, don't pull the free end through but pull that part of the line through leaving a four to six inch loop sticking up between two half hitches as you draw it tight.

You will notice that there is no tension on this loop but on the hitches below it. At this point, pulling the free end would make the loop smaller and eventually untie the second hitch releasing tension on the load. To stop the free end from moving you make a similar sized loop to the inside with the remaining rope and drop the new loop over the first one pulling it into a new half hitch over the first loop. Do another and you are finished. To untie your load, simply slip the last two half hitches off the loop and pull the free end to release tension on the single remaining knot holding the load.

With a little practice you can tie this knot in about three seconds without thinking about it and untie the tightest rope as quickly if secured with this knot. I hope you can follow these directions and take a few minutes to learn this valuable knot well. I guarantee it will come in handy some day if you can remember how to do it.

If you can't follow any of these directions, just Google (search on) "Trucker's Hitch" or "Lorry Hitch" in the U.K. There are many explanations, pictures and even animations out there on the web to help. But I have found the best way to learn this knot is to practice using it in a typical situation. All that matters is to end up with a knot that holds fast under stress but remains easy to untie. See for yourself what works and what doesn't.

It is very satisfying to have the knowledge and minor amount of skill or practice to get the job done with few tools. [Anybody can do a job with all the right tools.] With a length of rope and this practical knot you can turn your passenger car into a far more versatile piece of equipment than it normally would be (unless you drive a Hummer). But don't press your luck. If you really need a truck or trailer, this knot isn't an adequate substitute. I'm glad I took the time to learn to do this knot and wish it would be taught in schools instead of so much useless nonsense. In fact, I can't think of many useful things I ever learned in school except maybe basic Algebra.

Perhaps one day I'll explain how to make a simple circular slide rule for price comparison while shopping. It takes only two pieces of laminated paper printout and a fastener (sewing snaps, those replacements for buttons, work great), needs no batteries and quickly tells you which size saves you money. Don't always assume it is the larger one. It frequently isn't. And those shelf stickers with price per unit are often useless ore even wrong.

Learning to use the C & D scale of a slide rule (straight or circular) is another useful skill everyone should master. Here are the templates you will need. You can adjust the size with a copier that expands or reduces. http://www.blogger.com/

Using your slide rule couldn't be simpler. Just turn the inside wheel to put Quantity (ounces) on the inner scale below Price on the outer scale. Look above the other quantity number for a comparable price. Look above the 1 for a unit price (price per oz.). Note: As with electronic calculators, it is important to first make a rough mental estimate so you will know approximately what answer to expect. Otherwise, you won't have any way of knowing when you make a mistake!

FL PC Guy

First Thoughts

2005-06-11T14:28:00.000-04:00

Well, thanks to Blogger.com for giving me a new way to share my thoughts and knowledge easily with others. I chose the dark background because white background web pages bother me. Perhaps I'll figure out a way to get a pastel background for the long run. Today, it's all about the words.

So, why read further? I think I can say without much fear of contradiction that I have a particular knack for getting personal computers to behave over the past 25 years I've worked with them and 13 years I've been paid for doing so. I don't know many people who wouldn't benefit from some regular advice on how to get more out of your PC experience. I've taught over 1,000 people to use PC's, or use them more effectively. More to the point, I come across all sorts of interesting tips and tidbits of information on the web that I find interesting or worthwhile. I'd like to share some of that knowledge with others because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. A web log seems like a pertty painless way of doing so.

I'm not new to writing. For three years I maintained a website I updated daily that was read by about three hundred regular readers. I added lots of photos too, thanks to the advent of digital photography. For six years before that I maintained a personal website with a lot of great stuff for consumers, techies, and MCSE candidates (NT 4.0).

More recently I bought a domain and expressed my political opinion in 2004. As usual, my guy never had a chance. I'm pretty fed up with both major parties and Washington in general, so I"m going to avoid that topic for awhile. It make me so crazy and elevates my blood pressure. It is all I can do to watch Lou Dobbs on CNN at 6 without blowing a fuse over the nonsense going on all around us. One last word on this...how can we be safe with wide open borders?

There is a wealth of valuable consumer information out there and I'm confident we would all be better off if we followed some of the advice and knew how things work, including our own bodies. Nutrition and health are an increasing concern for me as I get older and medical care continues to get worse and more expensive. Just as waxing your car periodically for a few dollars can save hundreds on a new paint job, eating more fruits and veggies, taking the proper vitamins and simple exercises can save your a fortune or more in risky hospital procedures.

For example, most people know that everyone needs supplemental calcium, but most people don't take the magnesium needed to metabolize that calcium. I'm not sure why they don't put both together in calcium supplements, but it may have to do with shelf life or the extra cost.

There is actually a great website devoted to how things work. That's exactly what my mother needs. Like many women I know, she doesn't have a clue how anything works. That's not to say men are any better off. I can't do much under the hood of my car anymore either, though I will surely thrill some folks one day when I share what I've learned about auto air conditioning. Auto A/C repair is one of the biggest scams going. I'll give you some basic information you can use to defend yourself from con men in overalls (your nearest auto repair center) and maybe even resolve the problem yourself.

Of course, I'll also talk a lot about new developments in computers and digital technology. We have only begun to see the changes technology will bring. As the world becomes even more digital, connected, and even more computing power becomes even cheaper, or lives will be impacted even further. Hopefully, more to our benefit. WiMAX wide area wireless may bring some competition to the telco/cable fiber cable rollout monopoly that has been going on for decades. Imagine having three or four new wireless choices for broadband access or even phone and TV service! Right now, you are limited to your phone company and single cable provider.

HDTV is coming, slowly. By now, you may be annoyed by the format change that makes the DVD movies you rent and some TV shows smaller because they are designed for the 16 x 9 widescreen ratio instead of your nearly square old TV. It will be more than a year before DirectTV gets it's new satellites in orbit to offer truly digital HDTV. Until then, remember, digital and HD are not the same.

I look forward to posting more information soon and hopefully I will develop some readership to make my effort worthwhile. Until then, I'll close with the words of Ronald Reagan. "We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."