The unique thing about today. . .

A first for me. Hard boiled egg molds?

2012-01-31T15:28:00.000-08:00

These hard boiled egg molds are right up there with the rubber ducky tea infuser.

Measure twice, cut once.

2012-01-26T06:30:00.000-08:00

I'm working with an on-site IT guy in another state. We did some troubleshooting and determined that the optics on the switch were bad. I took him at his word that the fibers were tested. The new optics arrived yesterday. This morning, we're back at square one. When he ordered the new SFP, I told him to also get an optical power meter so we can ensure that the loss budget of the optics match the characteristics the fiber. A light meter isn't the kind of item you buy from CDW for quadruple the price you can find elsewhere. Here's a good one for less than $150 shipped. http://www.computercablestore.com/Silicon_ZOOM_2_Optical_Po_PID48433.aspx I know the value of the time I've wasted on this effort is worth way more than this thing. He needs to measure the optical loss (dBmv) before I can help him further. Instead of taking a measurement, he is ordering new fiber which might match the optical characteristics of the optics he ordered before without knowing the loss levels on the fibers he already has. My sympathy levels are waning.

Blogging, cardio fun, and Phylo

2012-01-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

There was a recent spike in traffic to my blog, so I decided to start paying more attention to it. The items getting the most clicks are technical. I generally forget that it's useful to others when I post odd technical tricks I learn, so others may stumble upon them.I did absolutely nothing technical today. I played drop-in hockey for the most fun possible morning cardio. I had a cheese omelet with chili on it for brunch. I relaxed and read email. Ooh, and I played some Phylo. Phylo is a pattern matching game, but the patterns are actually genome fragments of different mammal species. I'll tell ya, you have more in common with a bat than you do a horse or a dog. I would rather look for similarities among humans and mice than horses and dogs. http://phylo.cs.mcgill.ca/

Striking timelapse of Earth from orbit.

2011-11-13T13:09:00.001-08:00

There are absolutely amazing views of our planet in this video. I am awestruck.http://vimeo.com/michaelkoenig/earth-timelapse-iss

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over | Nasa, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Share button fail!

2011-11-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

I guess I should take a lesson from this and never use a share button to post directly to my blog.

Update . . and a favor to ask.

2011-10-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

It’s always a wake-up call when Christmas decorations start showing up in department stores, but it happening. . . already. It makes me start thinking about the end of the year.

So, 2011 is wrapping up and it’s time to gear up for 2012. As you know I’ve been a network engineer for 17 years, and have been happily working at Tetra Pak for the past two years doing global network operations. Also, for about 10 years, I have been getting experience as a real estate investor, renting homes in Kansas City. I invested near the top of the market, had some good years, and then rode it all the way down. Now the banks are holding the bag and now that the time is right to invest at the bottom, I can lend some valuable knowledge. I’ve made some career moves, eliminated all of my debt, and now I live in the Dallas market and I’m shifting my real estate strategy to something more lucrative that anyone with investment money languishing in stocks, or a 401k that’s barely treading water can participate in.

A lot of people find that interesting with all the doom and gloom that the media and talking heads portray in the real estate, mortgage, and stock markets. Surprisingly, there is no better time than RIGHT NOW to be buying real estate and taking advantage of the huge discounts and sales that you can find, especially here in the major markets, including Dallas/Fort Worth.
I just wanted to drop you a quick line to inform you that I am looking to buy somewhere in between 1-4 homes per month here locally. I am coming across so many deals direct from banks that are so discounted, allowing me to buy them with steep discounts of 40-50% off of CURRENT MARKET VALUES! I've got the deals, but I could use your help! Do you know of anyone who is unhappy with how poorly their CD, Savings, or 401k (or now a 101k?  ) is non-performing. I'm looking to add on a select few private lenders who would be interested in making an above average rate of return on their money for a short period of time (12-36 months) or working with me to cash in on the next 24-36 months or while we are still in this phenomenal buyers market.
All of my deals (like the house below) are secured with:

Title Insurance
Home Owners Insurance
1st Lien
Deed of Trust
Low LTV (70% or less)

I close all of my transactions with my title company or attorney's office so that everything is recorded properly. I have found several deals on homes that I am currently looking for funding on (like the house below). IF you know of ANYONE who MIGHT be interested, I would appreciate the referral! Please have them either email me with questions or call me directly at 972-827-7693.

Check out the rate of return of the current deal I’m working on here: http://bit.ly/gptxnote

Like I said, now is a phenomenal time to be buying real estate! THANKS FOR YOUR HELP OR REFERRAL!

RSS addiction is bad for your blog.

2011-08-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

I clicked on the "Trends" section in Google Reader and found out how much blog material I read, and it's somewhat significant.

"From your 150 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 1,407 items, clicked 84 items, starred 2 items, shared 7 items, and emailed 0 items.
Since April 19, 2007 you have read a total of 21,935 items."

I have added and removed RSS feeds for various reasons and come up with a mix of daily reading that I'm absolutely addicted to. I realize now that having a Google Reader (and Google Listen) app on my phone has changed when/where/how I get my news. Since I switched from Outlook to Google Reader as my RSS feed aggregator, I have racked up some crazy stats. I used to write a lot, now I mostly read. My eyes are drawn to text because I'm wired that way.

A few of my favorites are Wikinews, Xenophilia, Whiteout Press News Feed, Stephen Kruiser, The New Editor, WizBang, Pat Dollard, Cato Institute, Reason Magazine, etc.

I have some favorite audio blogs, too. Between The Adam Corolla Show, Mike Church, Packet Pushers Podcast, and Downtown Soulville, I'm getting more audio than I can consume on my commutes.

And I've found myself (and much of the public debate) ignorant about economics in the past few years, so it's become an avidity of mine. My RSS feed reflects it: Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance, Cafe Hayek, Shadow Government Statistics - Commentary, Official Gerald Celente Blog, Mises Institute Daily, The Future of Capitalism, etc.

It's hard to wade through the boring, basic, or politically hyperbolic items to find the really interesting bits. Nothing beats a good beat down in the letters to the editor which economist Don Boudreaux posts, whether the editors receiving them print them or not. He wars against stupidity and avoids boring, basic, or politically hyperbolic, although he uses some hyperbole for humor's sake.

I get my tech news via RSS too.
TheInquirer.net Home, Hack A Day, CNet News, Schneier on Security, TechDirt.

If I want to just ogle the newest electronics, I have a folder full of RSS feeds just for that. Engadget, Gizmodo, Gajitz, The Gadgeteer, TechTree.com, etc.

The rest of the feeds are terribly specific to my job. StaticNAT, Cisco Security Advisories, Cisco IOS Hints and Tricks, AirWise Community Blog... you get the point.

Andy Masters & Ryan D Howard " Bye Bye Blackbird "

2011-07-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

I miss the Saturday night jazz jam at the Mutual Musicians Foundation in Kansas City. That place has a way of just melting the stress out of my body.

2011-04-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

I know selfishness when I see it, but who am I to judge? The balance of give and take has to be a win-win, or someone's going to be accused of being the selfish one.

"Selfishness is the ultimate strawman, since it is by definition impossible to act in any way that is not selfish. If you value an end goal, whatever that goal happens to be, it is selfish because YOU value it. To value altruism is no more or less selfish than to value wealth. Selfishness is not and cannot be the problem (or complaint), rather it is a disagreement on what SHOULD BE valued. The charge that selfishness is evil is more correctly phrased; what you value is evil while what I value is good. The charge of selfishness always comes from someone who believes they know how to run YOUR life." - gleaned from Frank33328 comment on the Cafe Hayek blog.

I just found it thought provoking lunch hour reading, particularly the Don Boudreaux posts. I had a great macroeconomics teacher in college, but Mr. Boudreaux has a way of boiling things down to the essential and explaining complex economic interactions for mass understanding.

Earth Hour (of hate)

2011-03-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

I'm all in favor of efficiency, but to spite the hypocrisy of the electricity haters celebrating Earth Hour on Saturday night, I want to shine one of those 40 million candlepower SunForce spotlights they sell at Cabela's straight into the sky as a celebration of human achievement, an homage to the comfort and liberation provided by abundant, cheap electric power, and to honor all the coal miners and line workers who ever died to deliver it and all the countless, wonderful benefits of it. Actually, I'll be playing ice hockey at about that time. . . in Texas. Oh, I love electricity, and I love to use it in awesome ways.

Smart Grid or DIY power usage monitoring?

2011-03-06T09:50:00.000-08:00

When energy prices go up, it piques my interest in Smart Grid technology and energy consumption monitoring, etc. I think "Smart Grid" technology is ironic, because the devices collect power statistics to control consumption while consuming power themselves. Conversely, you can't manage what you can't measure, and your dryer, water heater, hair dryer, and HVAC use a lot more juice than some small electronics. Also, there are some nifty devices available to do this without interfacing with your provider's meter, and they provide more detailed information. Folks are saving hundreds by finding energy waste by proactively looking at usage data and accordingly unplugging things or changing usage habits, water heater and thermostat settings, etc.

In Texas (among other places), the utilities have been replacing meters on houses with ones that use a 900MHz mesh network protocol (IEEE 802.15.4). The providers can do remote connect/disconnect and automatically read the meter without tromping into your yard and upsetting your pets. In fact, they are collecting and storing smart meter usage data at 15 minute increments, which is sort of creepy in a 1984 kind of way. They know when you run your dryer or when your A/C kicks on and possibly the size of the compressor on your fridge and how often it cycles. If you want to know what they know, there are devices you can connect to your home router that can participate in this network, gather your power usage info and upload much more detailed data to web sites, like Microsoft Hohm or Google Powermeter. These web apps can show graphs of your power usage on your computer or smartphone. These may be unnecessary in Texas, because there is a Smart Meter Texas Portal which is a joint project by Oncor, CenterPoint, and AEP Texas under the direction of the Texas Public Utility Commission. It's publicly funded, probably by federal stimulus money, and available for free by signing up here using info from your power bill:
https://www.smartmetertexas.com/smt/jsp/register/rc_person_create.jsp?personType=0

If you live in Oncor territory in North Texas, they use ZigBee Smart Energy Protocol 1.0. I found a variety of in-home displays (IHDs) to show your current power usage and hourly/weekly/monthly cost. There should be a way to get an in-home display for cheap or free, because in 2009 the Department of Energy allocated $3.4 billion in stimulus grants for smart grid projects, including the deployment of over a million IHDs. (Sidenote: It appears that Cisco is getting their money back for contributing $187,472.00 to the Obama Campaign and about $2 million a year for lobbying. See Cisco HEM for home energy monitoring and Cisco HEC for home energy control devices.)

Here's a ZigBee to IP/Ethernet bridge to connect to your home network. You can connect thermostats, meters for individual appliances (freezer, hot water heater, etc.), displays, and TV-connected controllers and other things once you have a ZigBee home area network (HAN).

I'm not sure that most of this Smart Grid stuff the utilities are doing is ready for prime time. ZigBee SEP 1.0 is being supplanted by a more capable and IPv6 compatible SEP 2.0 protocol, which is not backwards compatible. So, you have to buy devices compatible with (or upgradeable to) whatever version your meter is. Here's Oncor's take on that. Besides, if your house doesn't have a smart meter, or you don't know which protocol it's using: AMR-ERT(old), AMI/ZigBee 1.0(new), ZigBee 2.0(newest). That's necessary information to buy the right interface, you can capture the data yourself with some cool new products. I haven't found a gateway that is compatible with all of them, probably because they're so different.

Of course, there's more than one way to do that. There is a meter you can clamp around your breaker panel wires yourself and a WiFi gateway to push data to Microsoft-Hohm or Google Powermeter. Here's a comparison of Envi by Current Cost and Blueline products. The PowerHouse eMonitor works with Google Powermeter and monitors each circuit in your breaker panel, which lets you pinpoint what's sucking up the juice and costing you money.

Pricewise, the cheapest way to go is to just get a government subsidized IHD that works with your meter to see your electricity spend in real time. The next cheapest solution, which gives you historical usage info, is to get the smart meter interface (iTronERT or ZigBee to IP/Ethernet gateway) for about $200. No smart meter? Not smart meter smart? The other solutions involve metering it yourself at the breaker panel and sending the data to the cloud via WiFi. These kits start at around $300 for the meter and the network interface. You can also get an IHD or access it with a browser or an iPhone or Android App. I suppose it'll pay for itself over time if you can find when, and therefore what, is wasting power.

I'm guessing these things will be mainstream in a year or two when the industry standardizes on the best protocols and the price comes down on the hardware.

My Review of Roku HD Player

2010-12-16T13:53:00.001-08:00

Originally submitted at Roku

The new HD, with built-in wireless, delivers top value in high-definition streaming.

Music, movies, NHL, YouTube, etc.

By Charles H from Irving, TX on 12/16/2010

Pros: Easy to set up

Cons: Needs a keyboard, Needs faster menus

Best Uses: Media Room, Compliments a projector

Describe Yourself: Technophile, Early adopter

I really love this thing. The most surprising thing is the radio choices. The audio is excellent, and the amount of selections is absolutely vast. I put one in my media room and had to get another one for the living room. In addition to instant movies, this is a great way to enjoy NHL GameCenter. Every hockey fan should know about this. I hope other sports leagues get on board. Fourthly, I don't have to sit at the computer to surf YouTube.

(legalese)

Culture Export

2010-12-14T19:20:00.000-08:00

This news story caught my eye, but mainly because I was entranced by the video at the bottom. It was far cooler than I expected.

When I think of double dutch, I think of kids passing time in the Bronx or Brooklyn and skipping rope to some sing song playground rhyme like "Mama called the doctor, The doctor called the nurse, The nurse called the lady with the alligator purse." Nowadays, it's a varsity sport in New York City high schools, but that's not where it ends. Now it's a combination of acrobatics, dancing, and some pretty advanced choreography to techno and hip hop music. And it's international.

The Japanese have traveled to Harlem and won the 18th *AND* the 19th Annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic at Harlem's Apollo Theater. We have clearly exported a piece of American culture. Here's the winning team this year from Chiba, Japan:

And this video sort of blew my mind:

It's Definitely Election Season

2010-10-26T21:12:00.001-07:00

All the local advertising is full of mud slinging, name calling, and false associations so it's definitely time for an election. Some things are different this time. The language is very divisive. Every politician is wearing the flag lapel pin. It's somehow a requirement ever since Obama was heavily criticized for not wearing one to protest war. The Tea Party has changed from a protest of bank bailouts, mortgage derivatives mess, and debt monetization into some sort of brand. TeaParty.org doesn't say what the Santelli rant did, and people are noticing.

And this song, "My Country, My Ass" expresses the general sentiment, and it's angry. . . with a country rock twang.

To configure a new Cisco switch via neighbor switch...

2010-09-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is a technical note to myself, so if you're not installing Cisco switches, you can stop reading here. Otherwise, it may be of interest. If a new switch is connected to the network and you need to configure it, but don't have a console connection. . . read on.

When you plug a new Cisco switch into the network, it will acquire an IP address via DHCP, by default. From there, this command list should allow you to access it without a console connection.

Log in to one of the other Catalyst switches already running on the network.

show cdp neighbors (Optional) – If CDP is running (you could turn it on temporarily) and you’ve chosen to start from a switch that is connected to the new switch, you should see a neighbor named “Switch”. This isn’t really a necessary step, but it’s useful to know things are working.

cluster enable WORD – The cluster commands require you to be in configuration mode. You must give the cluster a name.

show cluster candidates – Get out of configuration mode (or prefix this command with do) and see if you can see the new switch as a cluster member candidate. Remember it should be called “Switch”.

cluster member mac-address H.H.H – Back in configuration mode, this will add the new switch as a member of this cluster. The mac-address should be part of the information shown in the previous step.

show cluster members (Optional) – Exit out of configuration mode. This command should list the command switch (the one you are on), and a member switch. The member switch is the device you are planning to configure and should be designated as member 1.

rcommand 1 – This will log you into the new switch. You shouldn’t need a password.
Configure the the new switch.

no cluster member 1 – Log off the new (and now configured) switch and remove it from the cluster. This step may not be really necessary, but better safe than sorry. It will remove the new switch from the temporary cluster.

no cluster enable – This will remove the cluster and end the process.

At this point, you should be able to SSH or telnet into the new switch. The mistake I’ve made most often at this point is forgetting to set an enable password. Without both login (whether telnet or AAA) and enable passwords, the switch won’t let you in.

If an enable password has already been set, you’ll have to add “password the_enable_password” to the command “cluster member mac-address H.H.H”. And if you're nervous about how easy it is to configure a neighbor switch from, say, a compromised or rogue switch, consider "no cluster run" in all of your switch configurations.

Mornings

2010-08-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of my day is seeing the sunrise over Lewisville Lake during my morning drive to work. Now that the days are starting to get shorter, the sun is not quite up yet when I drive over the bridge. It also is far from setting when I cross the lake in the evening, but unless it's overcast, it looks something like this almost every day (pardon my crooked cell phone shot through a dirty window):

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z8P7i_S7aGc/TFxUK_ocmYI/AAAAAAAAAlA/E7ysZ-rW380/s1600/LewisvilleLakeAug2010.JPG

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/2856949962_d510e36f7b.jpg

What's happening in Pakistan?

2010-06-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

How is it that we are giving the Pakistan government over a billion dollars a year, then firing missiles in Pakistan, a sovereign nation, and killing people? How can we legally do this without a declaration of war? And how can we afford just giving Pakistan nearly 3 million dollars a day while spending ourselves into deficit oblivion?

Home is where the desktop is.

2010-05-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

I finally set up my desktop machine after about seven months of laptop and netbook wanderings in the wilderness. So, that's all I had to say. It is now time to play some Gratuitous Space Battles, which just doesn't work well on the netbook. It is far too epic for the little screen.

International versus NHL hockey.

2010-02-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

I noticed a few things while watching Olympic hockey that struck me as being strange or different. There is no fighting. You get ejected from the game for fighting in the Olympics, where in most professional leagues it is just 5 minutes in the penalty box. Olympic hockey has no "obstruction" call. So, you see the defense playing the body when the forwards approach the net. In North American hockey, the defense goes after the puck. In the Olympics, the goalie can play the puck anywhere behind the goal line, even way into the corners. I saw a goalie get an assist yesterday. There is some hitting, but not as much, I suppose because the rink is wider and there's less play right up against the boards. There seems to be more hooking, although they don't seem to call it much. I noticed that the defense will hold the puck behind their net for long periods of time to allow a line change, but North American players tend to keep the puck moving and execute line changes a bit faster. Of course, there's the no-touch icing in the Olympics, with which I'm familiar from playing in recreational leagues where it makes sense. And I noticed yesterday that they resolve a tie with a 10 minute overtime, then a best of 3 shootout. Canada won the shootout, so I didn't get to witness any differences in the shootout, but there is a difference in the rules. In the Olympics, if the game remains tied after the first three shooters, any player can be chosen to shoot any number of times. In the NHL, I believe that everyone has to shoot once before anyone can shoot twice. In the NHL a team can dress 18 skaters and 2 goalies. In the Olympics it's 20 skaters and 2 goalies. In examining the rule book, I noticed that anyone who was on the ice can take a penalty shot, where in America only the victim of the infraction can take the penalty shot, which I think makes sense unless the guy gets dazed or injured in the process.

Almost punched a guy.

2010-01-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

So, last Saturday I went to Cowboys Stadium on a whim to see if I could find a cheap ticket at the last minute. There were plenty and I started a bidding war and got a ticket for far less than face value. I got to the stadium just in time for the national anthem. It was played on guitar by Ted Nugent, and it rocked, up to a point where it was drowned out by a group of Mexicans in a nearby standing room only section chanting "Gringos suck!" I was about >< that close to punching the one closest to me, but the song ended and they stopped and I thought that I'd rather see the game than worry about a bunch of drunken idiots misbehaving in the cheap seats. Anyway, I don't know of anything as spectacular as Cowboys Stadium in Mexico. If you don't like gringos, please go back to Mexico. Next time, I'll probably be less tolerant if you disrespect Ted Nugent, and even less tolerant if you are shouting slurs during the Star Spangled Banner.

Mmmm Mmmm Good.

2009-12-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas pot luck lunch day here and I am nomming on a burnt end, smoked turkey, and some tasty side items. I am eating the best tamale of my life right now. I work too hard in the gym to indulge at the dessert table, but it all looks amazing.

How to use a Cisco ASA as a sniffer.

2009-11-23T15:50:00.000-08:00

Today I learned a cool firewall trick. If you're not technical, you can stop reading right here, just trust me that it's nerdcool.

You can use a Cisco ASA as a sniffer, and it will display the captured traffic in a format you can open in a packet analyzer.

First, create an access list to define the interesting traffic, like IP traffic from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.2, for example:

access-list sniffer permit ip host 192.168.1.1 host 192.168.2.2

Second, start the capture on the interface where the traffic passes:

capture testcap access-list sniffer interface inside

Be sure ASDM is installed, and "http server enable" is in your config, and http and https are allowed in your interface ACL to allow you to access it. If you already use the ASDM you’re already set up. If ASDM is running, you can now browse to the results.

https://securityappliance-ip-address/capture/capture_name

Put /pcap on the end if you want a version of the capture to load into ethereal or packetbuilder or some other packet analyzer.

Use the no syntax to stop the capture:

no capture testcap

Note that hackers could use this feature to PWN your servers or capture sensitive info, so be sure your ASDM interface on your ASA is locked down pretty good. Enjoy.

NOTE: If you want to watch the traffic in real-time (and you have CPU to spare), use this variation:

capture testcap access-list sniffer interface inside real-time

Some technical mumbo jumbo. It's what I do.

2009-11-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

For my job, I was calculating the maximum latency for TCP connections from a server running Windows Server at 10 Gigabits/s. It is 0.52ms. If the latency is any greater than that, a TCP connection can’t fully use a pipe that big. The rules of TCP were written for sharing a big network among a lot of hosts, not fully utilizing the big dedicated pipes you might find in a data center environment or a high speed WAN.

Windows Server 8 has RFC 1323 RWIN scaling, which increases the speed for higher latencies (LFN problem solved). This only works if the machine on the other end of the TCP connection is also using RWIN scaling. If not, the connection might actually be slower than without scaling, because the scaling factor is being ignored. Windows XP does not have it (unless you install service packs and do the registry tweaks). Windows 7 and Vista do. Linux kernels after 2.6.8 have it enabled by default. This is a bigger issue now that more machines will have the feature than not, and the data center pipes are getting larger, but many WAN connections are not. It is also an issue because some firewalls manipulate these values and cause performance problems. Other performance issues have arisen because now TCP doesn't share the bandwidth very well and can fill up network links that previously ran without congestion.

SSL MITM vulnerability revealed.

2009-11-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

Some security analysts in Overland Park found a vulnerability in *every* SSL implementation. http://www.phonefactor.com/sslgap/ We'll be patching that for months to come. Job security! But scary for internet users. That little lock in the corner of your browser means just a little bit less, until it's fixed on every secure server on the Internet. Wow!

First Day

2009-10-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

When you start a new job, and there's this massive knowledge transfer, and you *know* you're not going to remember everything or everyone's name. It's a bit intimidating. I'm taking notes.

New toy.

2009-09-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got fed up with my good ol' dinosaur HTC Pocket PC phone. The battery is giving out, it's getting long in the tooth, some of the keys on the keyboard are starting to flake out, and the Sprint service centers stopped restocking the batteries. The closest store which has one is in Blue Springs, which isn't that far, but there's more. I was on the phone with Sprint tech support over a messaging issue, and they said the problem is probably device related. I hopped on Craigslist to see what a newer, but used, smart phone goes for. I'm carrier agnostic, although my name is in the hat for a Sprint job. The G1 phones are still high, iPhones are still kinda high, the Palm Pre is steep. The RIM Blackberry is obtuse after having a nice sized touch screen and slide out keyboard. The same goes for the new Motorola phones. I found the Sprint Mogul for $80. I called, then I met the guy at the Sprint store and got my number switched to the Mogul. It's very much like what I'm used to. Windows Mobile 6.1 is alright. I was hoping it was upgraded to 6.5. Over lunch, I setup my gmail. Later, I got m.google.com setup as my Exchange server in Active Sync, so I could get my contacts and calendar entries onto it from Google, too. Sprint's Vision Services setup software doesn't do that for you. Only a few contacts appeared. I found out the hard way that I had only ever been synchronizing my Google calendar, not my contacts. When I got home, I connected the old device to the wifi and pushed the contacts to my gmail account, then did a pull from the new device. It worked. I didn't have to install any crazy software. 573 contacts transferred. Names, numbers, email addresses, you name it. Done. Complete. Finito.

As soon as I connected the new device to my home PC, it grabbed my browser favorites and Outlook/Google tasks, and prompted me to setup Media Player Sync with the new device. Once I did, it pushed a gig of music onto my new device. The adapter to connect it to my Jeep stereo is a different shape than the old one, so I have to spend $7 for a new one. This smart phone already does more, takes better pics and video, has a better keyboard, and is smaller and thinner. I need to see if I can get my tasks over the air from Google, too. I think I would still be fighting with entering all my contacts, calendar entries, tasks, email, and browser favorites if I had gotten an iPhone. And I think the whole mess would have been difficult if I didn't have everything sync'd up with my Google account. There's a beta Google Sync app for it, but I think I'll wait for the release. Outlook connects to gmail okay without it. Maybe, if I install the beta, it will get my tasks over the air, finally. Next, I need to figure out the GPS stuff, and get a new version of Tom Tom. After I install a Nintendo or Sega emulator, I'll be playing video games on it, just like the old device. Although, now I tend to look at Twitter and Facebook before breaking out the games, if at all.

New phone: http://www.engadget.com/media/2007/06/sprintmogul.jpg

Critique My Resume

2009-09-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm meeting with a recruiter in Corporate Woods at 10. My resume seems to be working for getting me interviews. I've done a few over the phone. I learned that my Cisco certifications expired in July, though. I'll be a test taking machine for a while to get them renewed. Those Cisco money grubbers have raised the test prices. Ouch.

The resume probably needs some additional improvement. I'm accepting input, so leave a comment. Please send your critiques and job leads or ideas. Or, feel free to email me.

MY RESUME:

H. Charles Hill, Jr.
4209 Arlington Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64133
816-651-1900
Charles.Hill@gmail.com

Objective:

Degrees and Certifications:
Received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Oklahoma Christian University of Science and Arts in May 1993.
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification.
Currently enrolled in Keller Graduate School to receive a Masters of Information Systems Management in 2010.

Key Skills:
• Highly experienced in IP routing and switching using Cisco and Juniper routers, switches, and firewalls.
• Very familiar with routing protocols including BGP, OSPF, and RIP. Also familiar with IS-IS and EIGRP.
• Familiar with VLAN switching protocols including VTP, STP, ISL, and 802.1q.
• Experienced in Unix shell scripting, Perl, and CGI, in addition to C programming on a variety of Unix platforms.
• Familiar with Linux, Solaris 8/9/10, BSD, Windows 2000/XP and other operating systems as well as PC and Sun hardware.
• Experienced in database application development using FoxPro, Access, and MySQL.
• Developed and maintained web interfaces using Perl, and PHP.
• Performed network support for SAP BASIS infrastructure, including saprouter connectivity and security.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Work History:
Dec. 2006 - Present Capgemini, Network Engineer III
• Conducted site surveys and generated network documentation for existing enterprise networks.
• Configured firewall instances on a 6500 platform with a PIX firewall service module to secure corporate servers in a virtualized data center environment.
• Led a team of engineers during a large WAN deployment.
• Set up WAN routers in a fault tolerant manner and recommended network enhancements.
• Created exhaustive network design documents and participated in multi-day white board sessions with network architects.
• Supported a virtualized MPLS network with BGP and LDP.
• BASIS network support for an SAP implementation, including EDI and security.

Sept. 2006 - Dec. 2006 Sprint Nextel, Network Control Technician II
• Performed network monitoring, troubleshooting, and trouble ticket management using the Clarify ticketing system.
• Tested network functionality and customer experience at regular intervals.
• Facilitated conference calls between various fix agents to keep the nationwide wireless data network functioning as expected.
• Met short-fused event notification and trouble ticketing requirements in a fast-paced environment.

March. 1999 – May 2006 Time Warner Cable / Road Runner, Sr. Network Engineer
• Assisted with the deployment, quality assurance testing, and launch of the earliest DOCSIS networks in eight different Time Warner division networks made up of Cisco routers and switches which now reliably carry over a million users’ internet and phone traffic.
• Assisted with the deployment, testing, and launch of VoIP services in five Time Warner division networks across the region, including the installation of Cisco BTS gear, softswitches, session border controllers for SIP, and others.
• Worked with a quality team of engineers who performed scheduled deployments and maintenance on a region-wide network consisting of hundreds of routers, switches and WAN connections among cities in the Central and Mid-Atlantic regions, including SONET (POS, DPT/SRP), T-carrier (HDLC/T3), and DWDM WAN technologies.
• Performed BGP load balancing for several OC48 (and smaller) connections, a regional iBGP mesh, and several regional autonomous systems.
• Regularly made BGP adjustments to shift hundreds of megabits of internet traffic to avoid network congestion, meet contractual obligations with other internet backbone providers, and mitigate customer impacting outage situations.
• Was selected to serve on the Governance Committee in the Broadband Network Services Division and used my familiarity with all aspects of successful internet service provision to help develop tools and standards which were further improved and used company-wide with great success.
• Developed quality PERL and PHP network troubleshooting tools with web interfaces which are easy for customer service representatives to use on an Apache/Solaris platform.
• Helped build a regional DWDM ring using Cisco ONS15454 equipment and dark fiber.
• Gained a thorough knowledge of PIX 535, PIX 515 and Juniper 208 firewall configuration and troubleshooting.
• Built VPNs using PPTP, IPSec, and various authentication and key exchange protocols.
• Performed server load balancing in a data center environment for various web and mail servers using Cisco Local Director, Cisco SLB, and F5 Networks BigIP solutions.
• Received Foundstone Ultimate Hacking training for improving network security through penetration testing.
• Assisted with law enforcement cooperation projects involving Fiducianet/Neustar to implement wiretap capabilities and respond quickly to FBI and Secret Service subpoenas to intercept data and voice traffic.
• Quickly responded to, troubleshot, and isolated complex, potentially service affecting conditions that require a broad and in-depth level of technical knowledge.
• Partnered with peers and technical support organizations to manage trouble events, develop technical solutions, and restore services, while updating the Remedy ticketing system to communicate the progress in a timely fashion.
• Developed network design improvements, submitted purchase order requests, created yearly budget forecasts for network growth, and helped evaluate new technologies and features for continuous network improvement and fault tolerance.

Sept. 1995 – Feb. 1999 PSINet, Sr. Network Engineer
• Installed and tested new DSL, Frame Relay, T1, DS3, BRI, PRI, and other telecommunication services.
• Installed, maintained, and managed large modem pools, network access servers, Cisco and 3Com routers, and WAN connections in several cities across the Central U.S.
• Became familiar with all aspects of successful internet service provision, having started in a sales/customer service role to eventually help build and maintain a large-scale ISP network from the ground up.

Aug. 1994 - Sept. 1995 Winslow Associates, Programmer/Technician
• Performed network maintenance in a Novell LAN environment.
• Completed various programming tasks on a DOS/Windows/Novell and FoxPro platform.
• Set up an online service for clients to transmit specifications for their orders.

They're like Lego's for building a real house.

2009-09-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

The Germans have created a system of ecologically friendly non-toxic building blocks for making houses by stacking the interlocking blocks on a slab. I think it's fascinating. The resulting houses are hurricane proof and very well insulated.

http://www.hib-system.com/

I think I like this idea better than the whole yurt thing.

39

2009-08-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt, at the behest of the "Scene Team", which is the group here in the office who plans the mandatory fun. Luau lunch is a hit with me. Hula hoops, a hula dance contest, and free barbecue. That's entertainment.

It's been a while since I posted anything here. I had a birthday in the meantime. I don't FEEL 39. A week ago, I was sick on my birthday, recovering from a sore throat and a recurring fever. Now, I'm over it, and my birthday has passed. Still not feeling 39. I scored two goals in a very competitive hockey game last night. I tipped one in from a pass to the front of the net from the other winger. The other goal was a soft goal between the goalie's skate and the post.

I spent the previous weekend in Texas at my brother's house for the celebration of the niece's birthday. That involved assisting with the assembly of a trampoline, eating cake in a windy park, and having a blast hanging out with the folks and some screaming 7 year old girls. I'd say that was the highlight of my month. I savored the irony of a group of 7 year old girls hitting a Hannah Montana piñata.

Clean Energy Bill

2009-07-02T15:36:00.001-07:00

I'm packing my bags (read: waiting for the dryer to stop) to spend a weekend with my folks and relax a bit. Given this space on the Internets where I can write just about anything I want, and usually choose to write nothing, today I decided to write something. I read a big chunk of the Clean Energy Bill which passed the House this past week. There are a few things I like about it, but only if they are suggestions.

There are provisions in there which say every house and building must be inspected for energy efficiency and labeled in some public way and filed with the title/deed. The Federal Government will give favor to "Superefficient Best In Class" appliances. Did GE purchase the Democratic Party or what? What the heck is a Smart Grid Dishwasher going to do for me, and why do I have to buy one? There are even standards for spas in this bill!

Also, why do government agencies automatically get free installation of net metering (where the meter spins backward if you're generating more power than you're using if you have solar panels or a windmill) and not everyone else? Why is it that we are punishing the oil, gas, and coal industries? Why does Congress get to write permission slips to polluters and auction them off? What in the Constitution gives them that power? The more of this I read the sicker I get. Why would any intelligent person vote for these things? Maybe none did.

Wouldn't it be enough to just cut the oil and gas subsidies and tax breaks (like the $4 billion break the Republicans gave to Exxon), and let clean energy alternatives compete on their own merit? Why do we have to swing the pendulum to the other extreme? Why can't we just create a level playing field?

If I could put a windmill and a solar panel on my house and run my appliances on that, I would, if it wasn't so cost prohibitive. I get the feeling that the purpose of this bill is to make buying power from a utility so cost prohibitive, I can't afford to NOT get solar panels and windmills.

To be honest, I think that the price of those things is coming down. Natural market forces would see them come into play in good time, when they're ready. Instead, we're all going to be punished for having found coal-fired electricity and gasoline powered transportation the norm by no choice of our own. And because the party in power is not the party of Exxon and Chevron, the refineries in the US will be taxed out of business. Our fuel will not be refined in our own country. How does that improve our reliance on foreign sources of energy?

I heard one theory this week that city folk tend to be Democrats. A future of electric cars and road taxes by the mile to replace the lost revenue of gasoline tax prohibits country living (Republican tendencies). I seriously don't think the jackholes who wrote this legislation are thinking that strategically. I think it's simply to very forcibly break down the oil and gas industries who support the Republicans, and they're using global warming pseudoscience to perpetrate a giant fraud. We don't really need this. And we really don't need it in these economic times. Would I drive an electric car if I could afford one? Probably so. They're quiet and fast and maintenance free. Would it be the most affordable mode of transportation? If the government didn't subsidize gas and oil and defend gas and oil interests abroad, probably so. I believe that people do deserve a choice. Neither the Republican defense of gas and oil interests at the expense of everyone, nor this Democrat plan to punish gas, oil, and coal at the expense of everyone is moral or right.

Smart grid? Open communication protocols to signal cheapest times to run appliances? I like it, but does it need to be forced down our throats at our own expense by GE and the Democrat controlled Legislative and Executive branches? No way.

Shame on the Oklahoma Highway Patrol

2009-06-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

Wow. I can't believe this situation. (Contains strong language.)

What he said!

2009-05-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

I'm a bigger and bigger fan of Peter Schiff every time I hear him speak. I agree with everything he says here about what needs to happen. After being part of a Libertarian force in a Republican caucus in 2008, and then part of the MoGOP convention, I know it's possible.

Neglected blogs, landlord blues, & thieving housemates.

2009-05-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I put anything here, and it's mainly because I've been working through my lunch hour and trying to get enough sleep.

In the meantime, a semester ended and a new one began. So, I have a new batch of students in the Cisco Switching and Wireless class.

Also, I've been through a round of mortgage loan modifications and refinances to get lower payments on the rental properties, and move any missed payments to the end of the loan. So, with the foreclosure threat gone, I have focused on getting properties back into saleable/rentable condition. Not cheap. Not fun. I have one rented, one sold, one foreclosed (short sale failed, old house, needed to go), and one vacant while I'm slowly rehabbing it.

I also caught the folks who rent my basement stealing from me. That was a major downer. I lost my temper, but I got more than a confession, I got a pawn receipt. I asked them to move out in the next month, no matter what. Now, I'm in a dilemma. Do I press charges? Do I accept the pleas of apology, not press charges, and just go pay the pawn broker to get my stuff back until they can repay me? How frustrating is that?

If I tell the pawn shop folks the whole story, they'll press felony charges whether I do or not. Anyway, I hate to see a grown man cry, like when I threatened to call the police yesterday. He has a one year old child. What's the right thing? I don't want to send a desperate man to jail over a few hundred dollars, which he spent on diapers, formula, and birthday gifts for his one year old kid. Did he learn a lesson from being caught? Hard to say.

If only it was that easy.

2009-04-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

Best Tea Party Speech!

2009-04-20T17:37:00.001-07:00

Kansas City Tea Party

2009-04-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

DSC00621
Originally uploaded by chillkc

I went to the Kansas City Tea Party to protest overtaxing and overspending by the Federal Government. It was actually very inspiring. The speakers were good, the signs were pithy, and the weather was perfection, sunny and 70.

Confused Socialists

2009-04-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

Socialism confuses the distinction between government and society. Every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.

Frederic Bastiat, The Law, 1850

Hockey.

2009-04-13T10:43:00.001-07:00

I am playing ice hockey Tuesday AND Thursday night this week. I am happy about this. That is all.

I like Chris Cornell's work.

2009-04-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Chris Cornell's new album, Scream, doesn't sound like Audioslave, Soundgarden, or Temple of the Dog, but I approve!

Streaming audio of Scream here.

April fools?

2009-03-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is virus day in my profession. All the hidden undiscovered virus/worm bombs tend to go off on April 1. I just count on something strange happening in the network.

We went from the Bush frying pan to the Obama fire, and all the anti-Bush countdown clocks have just made way for the anti-Obama countdown clocks. I'm adding one to my blog right now.

Meanwhile, here's a video that I think gets it right. We've been moving to the left, but now we're moving to the left much faster. It's time to reassert the Constitution and get back to the proper levels of government.

Militia Indicators.

2009-03-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

I had no idea I had anything in common with militia members. There's a document recently distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center called "The Modern Militia Movement" which lists the indicators of militia involvement for the awareness of Missouri law enforcement. I match the description on about 10% of the items. The other 90% includes some hillbilly extremist nuttiness. Some of the points of view listed are exactly the things I learned in civics class in junior high school. Also listed are a series of conspiracy theories, most of which are easily discredited, and others which are difficult to discredit. Some of the indicators include bumper stickers, one of which I had on my Jeep for probably six months. Two of the political candidates and one of the political movements, I fully supported in the previous election and beyond. One, I voted for in the primaries, and one I voted for in the general election. Do I have even a remote urge to join a militia? No. I just found it interesting that I couldn't completely dodge all the indicators of belonging to a militia movement. I just hope I don't get "profiled" by police.

And to completely change the subject, in Florida they're taping magnets to the heads of crocodiles to keep them from finding their way home after they're relocated. The theory is that crocs can sense magnetic north. I wonder if this is working?

AIG Bonuses Protected by Obama's Own Law.

2009-03-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

I found this news item to be the most ironic thing I've seen all day.

It was discovered that Obama granted AIG a free legal pass to give high bonuses because of the following stipulation in Obama’s stimulus bill he personally orchestrated and signed into law:

From page H1412 of the Final Stimulus Bill, “SEC. 111. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:

“(iii) The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary.”

This amendment provides an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009, which exempts the very AIG bonuses Obama is condemning every single chance he gets. The amendment is in the final version and is law.

All of Obama's complaining about how these AIG bonuses need to be looked at and prevented in the future ring hollow now.

"This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed," Obama told a group of small business owners.

"I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"

And now for the second most ironic thing I saw today:

Wildlife thrives at Chernobyl

Translate servre error

2009-03-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

I got a good laugh out of this one, so I thought I'd share. Sometimes technology is not the answer.

The Progressive Quiz

2009-03-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

I took the Progressive Quiz and got 107/400, which makes me "very conservative". How about you? I'd love to see your comments. -CH

(Inter)national Defense Budget

2009-03-04T18:46:00.000-08:00

One thing that is striking about the U.S. national budget is the amount that we spend on defense. Not our own defense, but the defense of some pretty rich countries who simply would rather freeload. Why is it that while our country is going beyond broke, but into multiple trillions of dollars into debt, are we still defending other sovereign nations which are capable and financially able to defend themselves? Like Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote D’lvoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, just to name them all. Let's sell them the gear and come on home. If they object, offer them a spot as the 51st state. They can pay a piece of our Federal taxes.

Obama, not qualified since birth!,

2009-03-03T18:31:00.000-08:00

Interesting comments followed my posting of the video where Dr. Alan Keyes was critical of Barack Obama, refusing to even call him the President because he has paid to suppress his birth certificate in the state of Hawaii, probably because he was born in Kenya to a mother who was too young to transmit U.S. citizenship. If it comes to light that this is true, the Democrats face an immense embarrassment. Obama would be deposed. The document posted on Obama's website purporting to be his birth certificate only certifies that Hawaii has the original and that it is real. For some reason the original long form with the doctor's signature, footprint, and place of birth has been suppressed. I agree with Keyes that many in the military probably need to ensure that their Commander in Chief is bona fide before taking any orders from him.

Barack Obama is not legally a U.S. Natural-born citizen according to the law on the books at the time of his birth, which falls between “December 24, 1952 to November 13, 1986. Presidential office requires a natural-born citizen if the child was not born to two U.S. Citizen parents, which of course is what exempts John McCain though he was born in the Panama Canal. US Law very clearly stipulates: “…If only one parent was a U.S. Citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16.” Barack Obama’s father was not a U.S. Citizen and Obama’s mother was only 18 when Obama was born, which means though she had been a U.S. Citizen for 10 years, (or citizen perhaps because of Hawaii being a territory) the mother fails the test for being so for at least 5 years **prior to** Barack Obama’s birth, but *after* age 16. It doesn’t matter *after* . In essence, she was not old enough to qualify her son for automatic U.S. Citizenship. At most, there were only 2 years elapsed since his mother turned 16 at the time of Barack Obama’s birth when she was 18 in Hawaii. His mother would have needed to have been 16+5= 21 years old, at the time of Barack Obama’s birth for him to have been a natural-born citizen. As aforementioned, she was a young college student at the time and was not. Barack Obama was already 3 years old at that time his mother would have needed to have waited to have him as the only U.S. Citizen parent. Obama instead should have been naturalized, but even then, that would still disqualify him from holding the office

*** Naturalized citizens are ineligible to hold the office of President. *** Though Barack Obama was sent back to Hawaii at age 10, all the other info does not matter because his mother is the one who needed to have been a U.S. Citizen for 10 years prior to his birth on August 4, 1961, with 5 of those years being after age 16. Further, Obama may have had to have remained in the country for some time to protect any citizenship he would have had, rather than living in Indonesia.

According to FindLaw.com, which is cited by Geraghty, the requirements that were in force from Dec. 24, 1952 to Nov. 13, 1986, encompassing the time of Obama's birth, state, "If only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least 10 years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16."

And from another source:

There are two types of certificates. The one that has been “released” wouldn’t even get you into Little League in this country, let alone be sufficient proof of “natural born” citizenship. However, even if he had been born here, when he went to Indonesia, they did not allow dual citizenship and he would have had to relinquish his U.S. citizenship–-which, according to documents in evidence, his family did–-on his behalf. He used an Indonesian passport to go to Pakistan in the early 80’s and has never been “naturalized” since returning to the U.S. His Kenyan grandmother is videotaped stating she was in the delivery room when O was born in Kenya.

Okay, I'm taking this with a grain of salt, but I haven't seen his original birth certificate either.

The other interesting comment was that Obama's fiercest critics are black conservatives.

Here's one implying that Obama has more in common with Hitler than Rush Limbaugh does, and that Rush Limbaugh's message is reflective of Malcolm X's message. Wow!

And Al Sonja Schmidt made a few clever jokes at a recent Spendulus protest in Santa Monica.

For the full Santa Monica tea party protest article, click here.

And one last fiscally conservative gem:

Campaign for Liberty message.

2009-02-27T13:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Friend of Liberty,

The other night, Barack Obama gave his first nationwide address as President. To be sure, it was an historic event, but the vision for the future he delivered contradicts many of our historic American values.

Although he denied believing in Big Government, Obama delivered a resounding celebration of federal programs and prescribed more intervention than ever as the cure for our ills.

But this plan stands opposed to the vision of our Founding Fathers.

In 1801, in his first State of the Union, Thomas Jefferson proclaimed that the pillars of American prosperity are “most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise.”

Because they understood the vital importance of fiscal restraint, our early Presidents were often able to announce budget surpluses during the State of the Union.

While Barack Obama warned against the burden of debt upon our posterity, he attempted to defend his own profligate deficit spending as necessary to restart the economy.

This deficit is not a down payment on a future surplus, and his massive “stimulus” spending will only prolong our economic suffering, not hasten our recovery.

This crisis resulted from spending, borrowing, and printing too much money. We lived far beyond our means, forming an overblown bubble of consumption.

And now that bubble has burst.

Instead of returning to a sound and sustainable economic policy, Barack Obama wants to reinflate that artificial boom and leave it to the next generation of Americans to deal with the disastrous consequences of a bust.

And those consequences cannot be overstated. Our federal government is currently on the hook for $56 TRILLION in total liabilities and unfunded commitments.

At this very minute, an American child is born into $184,000 of debt.

Our children and grandchildren will be too insolvent to pass the buck along to the next generation. We must stand up now for this nation’s future.

Campaign for Liberty is leading the charge against Barack Obama’s bankrupt future by fighting to restore the America our Founders envisioned – a nation of free markets, free people, and sound money.

We can restore America’s promise of a better future. But we will need your help.

Campaign for Liberty operates like government should, meaning we will not go into debt. Only your ongoing financial support allows us to stand up against Barack’s broken vision for America.

Please help us in this important fight. If you are able to give to Campaign for Liberty at this time, please click here. If not, we still thank you for standing alongside us in our fight for freedom.

With your help, we can start a R3volution to restore America to the free and prosperous nation our Founders envisioned.

Thank you for taking a stand with us at this critical hour.

In Liberty,

John Tate, President
Campaign for Liberty

P.S. We stand at an historic crossroads. If we do not stand up for our Founding Fathers’ vision for America, Barack Obama will certainly take us down his path to Big Government and bankruptcy.

If you wish to contribute to Campaign for Liberty, please click here.

Kansas City Tea Party.

2009-02-25T11:24:00.001-08:00

FairTaxers! KC Plaza Tea Party

Feb 28th at 10 a.m. JC Nichols Fountain at 47th and J.C. Nichols Parkway K.C.MO.
This will be a public peaceful protest event with Amanda’s army, the young mother that cares about her kid’s future.

The FairTaxKC organization will stage a “Boston Tea Party” type symbolic protest that Americans did in Boston on December 16, 1773 by putting the Income Tax Code in an IRS RIP casket.

Congress is forcing upon us, inefficient, ridiculously complicated, wasteful taxation and we are angry. This did not have to be this way.

Pork laden spending, rushed through Congress in secret, is unacceptable. Yet another example of our leaders using our Income Tax code to pick winners and losers and we are the losers.

Our protest is to emphasize that the FairTax HR-25 will be a more effective stimulus without bankrupting future generations. Why does Congress ignore it, hide it, and refuses to talk about it? We know the answer.

Meet at staging area Home Depot 97th and Metcalf at 9 am Saturday Feb 28th.
We will give out hats, signs, etc and caravan to the Plaza.

House Demolition Perfected (PG language)

2009-02-24T18:51:00.000-08:00

How Midwesterners Demolish A House (With a cannon and some explosives. Duh.)

Dollar Crash.

2009-02-24T16:43:00.000-08:00

Glenn Beck has been making some scary shows lately. When he and Ron Paul get together, the conversation makes me cringe, because I know they're probably right.

The UN, IMF, and World Bank are all threats to United States' sovereignty. The central bankers can print dollars until they're worthless so they can come in with a global monetary system to replace it. The Federal Reserve is already operating outside the Constitution. The Congress has lost control of our money system. This is going to be an interesting ride. Does the bank hold your deed? Do you have hard assets? Land? Gold? Other precious metals? Does your state government have gold reserves to back a local money system? It's sobering. This graph shows exactly what is happening to the dollar right now. Brace yourself. . . they're dumping dollars onto the market.

Behar versus Coulter. Five rounds. Ding Ding!

2009-02-21T21:32:00.000-08:00

Really? Wow! Really?

2009-02-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

I respect Dr. Keyes. I really hope he is wrong here, but I suspect he is right.

[VIDEO: RawReplay.com]

Download video via RawReplay.com

Went to the gun range instead. Oops.

2009-02-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

Some coworkers came by my desk near the end of the work day and asked if I wanted to go to the gun range for a little while and shoot a 9mm and a .380. I had a full plate, but I was frustrated with the work I was stuck doing at that point, so I capitulated. I drove them to Jose Peppers where they bought me a quick dinner and we went to The Bullet Hole in Overland Park (Shawnee Mission Parkway & Robinson). After they got to shoot their respective guns, I got a chance to try them both. I'm not a fan of that Keltec .380. It was too light, so the recoil was pretty bad. It bruised my thumb. The Sig Sauer 9mm was perfection. The weight was ideal and it fit my hand perfectly. I shot a really tight group in the bullseye of the target the first clip I emptied. It was ladies night at the gun range, which was an interesting dynamic. I'd go back there in a heartbeat. I'm told that I should try shooting a Paraordnance or Springfield Armory XD next time. I took the compadres back to the office to get their vehicles and went inside to finish my work, where I lost track of time. Big mistake. I was supposed to meet up with my friend Adam D. to discuss how his new venture and my side business could benefit each other. I had not heard my phone because I had left the phone in the Jeep. He tried calling me a couple of times. Man, I hate that I forgot our appointment, because we're both so busy. . . I hope to reschedule.

Grammar disclaimer.

2009-02-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

I just reconnected with my high school English teacher on Facebook. She is particularly close to a group of us who graduated in 1988, because she taught us in 7th grade, 9th grade, then senior year. I wouldn't call myself a great writer, but I'm no slouch. I attribute a great deal of my success to my writing skill. I may be missing a lot of commas, but if I were any better, I might have ended up being a grammar Nazi copy editor.

It is great to be able to reconnect with someone who taught you a great deal of vocabulary and style, and thank them for it. Reading is much more fun when you don't have to write a book report. I hated book reports back then. Presently, when I read a book I like, I go on and on about it.

Brainbench

2009-02-13T21:06:00.000-08:00

Last night, I was cleaning out my office bookshelf, and I found a folder full of certificates. One of them was from 2000, and it was the Brainbench "Unix Administrator" certification. I logged into the account after quite a bit of guessing, and found that Brainbench had my Oklahoma City address! I haven't lived there since 2000. My Unix Administrator certification had expired or otherwise disappeared. They charge a nominal fee for most exams, but some of them are free. I took a Cisco Network Support exam for kicks, and because it was free. I teach this stuff, I hope I know it! I used only my brain and scored in the 99th percentile. I'm sure I missed a queuing question, a QoS question, and an obscure TCP question. I think I nailed the rest of it. I don't have the QoS bit flags memorized, and I don't get much chance to configure queuing, class maps, or policy routing.

Individual Test Results - Actionable Data Just For You

Test: Cisco Network Support
Date: 14-Feb-2009
Score: 3.97
Weights: 100% Cisco Network Support
Elapsed time: 23 min 3 sec
Cisco Network Support
Score: 3.97
Percentile: Scored higher than 99% of previous examinees

Demonstrates a clear understanding of many advanced concepts within this topic. Appears capable of mentoring others on most projects in this area.
Strong Areas

* Routing Protocols
* Traffic and Device Management
* LAN Switching
* WAN Connectivity

Weak Areas

* Advanced Technologies
* Hardware Architecture
* TCP/IP

Your results are now posted to your online account. You can log on to your account anytime via the Brainbench home page.

I think that's a pretty fair assessment.

Monday night thoughts.

2009-02-09T23:00:00.000-08:00

I still love the word Porkulus. It's not "earmark free". It's more than an earmark, it is the whole animal, hoof to snout. I absolutely agree with this article on Obama's busted bubble. His press conference tonight made me realize that he just doesn't know his bubble has burst. Or he doesn't know that we know. He's looking tired. I recognize that look. I think I've had that same look when I was trying to be someone I was not. The overwhelming stress will wear you out. Obama is failing the integrity test in the crucible of the Presidency. In politics, your word is your bond. He's already sunk. The economy will recover, over time, in spite of the Porkulus Bill, if it happens to pass in the next day or so. Folks are about to get their tax refunds for 2008. Anyway, America's economy is too diverse to fall too far. We just need to brace for inflation that will happen when the banks print more money.

I'm belt tightening to the Nth degree. I want completely out of debt in the next several months, mortgages included, with lots of extra money coming in. I recognize what got us into this mess, and I don't want to participate in it any more.

In an economy based on debt, there is a pool of credit out there which people owe called Principle plus Interest. The available money supply is the Principle. As long as people are paying out of the pool of Principle to try to cover the Principle plus Interest, there will be bad paper. The moral thing to do is to not owe any Principle plus Interest, lest you be caught when the Principle runs out not being able to cover your Principle plus Interest payments. Usury was a sin in every major religion up until the last couple of centuries. The answer is to put your head down, earn as fast as you can to save up enough for what you desire, and to pay cash.

I read a book that said the rich purchase assets. The poor purchase liabilities. People with mortgages feel that their home is their biggest asset, but until that last P+I payment is made, the bank owns it and they are slaves to the bank. It's still a liability. Credit cards are worse, because the interest is sky high. Once I'm out of debt, I want to make money so fast that I never have to worry about money again. I have found people on the internet who have done it and are willing to teach me how. I am taking full advantage of their tactics.

My focus this year is building a portfolio of assets. An asset can be a company, equity in a joint venture, bonds, a piece of land, mineral rights, an oil well, intellectual property, cash, precious metals, or even a web site. The easiest valuable asset for me to create is intellectual property. The second easiest asset for me to create is web sites. The third easiest asset for me to create is a service business. I am spending time in all three of these swim lanes, focusing on them serially, and learning as fast as I can. My associates on Twitter are teaching me things I never imagined were possible. I'm also networking with local entrepreneurs and I'm attending a dinner Tuesday night (tonight) to learn more. The philosophy of the successful people I've chatted with is to create great value in a hungry market niche, make more money, have fun, give like crazy, and repeat.

I'm also tasked with finding equity partners. I keep hearing that finding capital is just like sales, but you can find it even if you sell badly. I got a silver rating on a venture capital site where I posted my revenue model and business plan, but having a day job limits the amount of time I can spend on pursuing it. If I can get something launched and have a set of financials (a solid P/L and balance sheet), I could get a gold rating and they'd be calling me.

One of my mentors said that it is LESS RISKY in a down economy working for yourself than being an employee. . . as long as you put in the time and do the necessary work to eliminate the risk. Until one of my ventures replaces my W2 income, plus enough for insurance, I'm stuck on the fence. . . because I have liabilities. I'm literally a slave to the government and the banks. Anyway, I have a plan of escape.

Micheal Phelps' bong hit photo.

2009-01-31T19:37:00.000-08:00

Let me get this straight. A 23 year old man crashed a college party, drank heavily, took a hit off the bong, someone got a picture, and it's a big scandal. I guess it's a big deal if you're an IOC spokesman charging 5 or 6 figures for appearances, US Olympic hero Micheal Phelps.
PHOTO: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/

The striking thing about the story is the polarity of the comments. Some say he's thrown away his career here. Some say he's just gotten some cred. I just hope he's not watching the next Olympics from home.

I tend to agree with conservative William F. Buckley Jr. on this one:

General rules based on individual victims are unwise. And although there is a perfectly respectable case against using marijuana, the penalties imposed on those who reject that case, or who give way to weakness of resolution, are very difficult to defend.

QUOTE: The National Review

Google Street View Roadkill

2009-01-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of buzz over the past couple of days about the Google Maps Street View van hitting a deer. I tried to view that location, but Google has blacked out the images. Someone got some screen shots and posted them HERE.

I would feel badly if I didn't see roadkill deer on a very regular basis here in Kansas City where the deer are overpopulated.

Having recently hit a deer in Oklahoma while driving home from the family Christmas, and I understand what the driver went through. In the case of the Google van deer, it got up and walked away. The deer I hit needed to be euthanized, so a fellow who saw the incident stopped and we held it down to cut its throat.

The highway patrol said it's not considered an accident, so I moved on. I stopped at a rural Oklahoma convenience store nearby to get the blood off of my hands and told the clerk I had just killed a deer and left it on the shoulder of the highway by the bridge. She hopped on the phone and called a family member to go get the meat. I'm sure it was still warm when they got it.

Hacker's Zombie warning!

2009-01-28T17:26:00.000-08:00

Some lighthearted hackers changed a road sign near the University of Texas at Austin to warn of "ZOMBIES AHEAD". Cute.

Ka-lick! Cell phone bill is ridiculous.

2009-01-28T07:48:00.000-08:00

This is the most ridiculous bill I've ever seen. It requires cell phones manufactured after its passage to make an audible click when a photo is taken. I suppose it will curb the amount of under-stall, under-skirt, changing room pictures that pop up on the internet. What kind of noise will the phone make while it's taking video? This is just silly. Rep. Peter King (R) should be laughed out of Congress. What about other types of cameras? What if you use your phone to take pictures of wildlife? What if you have an open source camera app on your phone? Surely there's no way for the phone manufacturer to prevent you from disabling the sound. Mr. King, get your head out.

Obama Love

2009-01-21T01:11:00.001-08:00

Well, we have a new prez. And you can buy a Chia Obama for your home. What a great gift. I hope O does well. I think there's a bit of mania over the guy, and the bar is set pretty high. I think he's going to have some difficulty keeping the ratings high. He can't sign the FOCA bill in any form, because it not only permits the freedom of choice for women to get an abortion, it inhibits Catholic hospitals' choice to not perform an abortion. The bishops have threatened to close the doors to 30% of the nation's hospitals if that happens. There's one culture war that's not over by a long stretch.
Ch-ch-ch-chia! You know you want one.

I got a kick out of Cal Thomas' first column since the triumphal entry of Obama. I can't disagree with him on all points. I also found Obama's speech to be a little harsh, with George and Laura sitting feet away, just lambasting the previous eight years for little reason except to get a crowd reaction, as if he was still campaigning. Anyway, the proof will be in the pudding. On the other hand, the Obama 2008 / Biden 2009 signs are uncalled for.

Some trivia for you: Chia Seeds are THE BEST source of
Omega-3 & Omega-6 essential fatty acids! You know you want one.

Nice weather (by contrast)

2009-01-19T10:10:00.000-08:00

Sunday: I went to the grocery store today and the place was a madhouse. The weather was comparatively nice today; 45 degrees is a lot better than 4 or 5 degress.

I had Sunday brunch with Carmen again for the third time. We combined sushi, omelets, and fresh fruit again. It's a winning combo. We looked at real estate in the afternoon, which is good for both of us. I'm into real estate, although I'm looking for the exit, and she is into interior design. Every open house has a real estate professional there answering questions. I learn something from every one of them I meet, and they learn from me.

Cold Winter Saturday

2009-01-17T10:10:00.001-08:00

I just finished teaching my Saturday class. It was an easy lecture and lab. Since I have a small class this time, we are using real network gear instead of doing software simulations. That means that physical cabling problems occur, which these students have never seen before. There were a few moments where students didn't know how to proceed with troubleshooting, so I had to step in and show them how. Or I'll show them a trick or a fix that's not in the textbook. When I do, they are usually shocked and amazed at how fast I can troubleshoot and fix network problems, but I've literally seen it all before.

I found another "make money fast" scheme that's interesting. . . if you want to be a walking billboard:

WOW!! Get seen -- get paid! You can now get paid to drive your car, wear T-shirts, and more! Just join the EyeEarn Advertising Network and start earning money effortlessly while you go about your day! It's fun, easy, and no experience is necessary!
FOR INFO, CLICK HERE.

Getting the word out.

2009-01-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

I found a way to update my Facebook status from Twitter, by allowing the Twitter application on Facebook.

With this button I created on TwitterMySite.com, you can click and follow me on Twitter.

I can send a tweet from my cell phone, and everyone I know is up to date, instantly. I have never had this power before!

Falsely charged!

2009-01-15T01:34:00.000-08:00

Some hacker charged millions of credit card accounts with a small charge from "Adele Services". Wow, if the credit card system is undermined, what then? Paypal, anyone?

I'm checking my accounts now, but I'd hope the credit card companies would remove the erroneous charges before most people notice.

I was trying to imagine a credit card free world. Have you ever tried to wire money from one bank account to another? It's a pain, even if you own both accounts. I never understood why, in this day and age, it has to be such a slow, manual process. Anyway, I love Paypal. Hey, also, I can push and pull money from eTrade easier than doing a bank wire.

Why do banks have such terrible systems? Banks CREATE the money. They should have the best systems possible.

Israel or Palestine?

2009-01-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

The most irritating thing about the whole Israel versus Palestine situation is that our tax money funds either side. I know our tax money goes to Israel, but why should we fund either side?

"- Until 2003, Israel received approximately
one-third of the annual US foreign aid budget.
In 2005, the US gave Israel more than $2.6 billion
in aid, a budget exceeded only by US aid to Iraq.
By comparison, Jordan received $683.6 million,
Rwanda received $77 million, and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories received $348.2 million."

I'm not a Hamas sympathizer by any stretch, but this video made me think. (It takes a while to load; I had to minimize it and watch it later. Palutube is hosted in Russia.) The video is a few years old, but I'm sure the sentiments are similar today.

The next generation of Palestinians is now embroiled in hatred for Jews in general after the bombardments, and the Palestinian kids are already indoctrinated to believe that Jerusalem is theirs. After seeing all the suffering, the Palestinian girl in the video seems jaded and, well, pissed off that every house in her town, Jenin, was damaged and people she knew were murdered when Israel invaded.

The survivors live in tents, waiting for things to calm down so they can rebuild. This ain't over by a long shot. I believe the US Congress should stop dumping money into this perpetual battle. It's a waste of funds. We should be neutral, because neither side is right. I'm not saying they shouldn't duke it out and let the winner take the spoils. I just don't want to have to pay for it year after year (like since 1948). Jews and Muslims can live and work together. It happened before and happens today in other countries around the world. I've been to New York City. :-)

Random thoughts.

2009-01-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

"Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to do what they want to do." -Kathleen Winsor

Well, mistakes I made as a landlord a few years ago have come home to roost. I don't have the cash reserves to get through this rough spot. My rental business is now a separate entity, so it's easy to see exactly how much money it bleeds every month. I'm in the process of selling the houses that have lost money and I'm keeping the profitable ones. It's a rough time to sell, that's for sure.

On the technical services business front, I'm showing a profit, because the overhead costs are minimal. In my day job, I learned how to outsource. I can get a week's worth of web development done for under $350 overseas. That's less than a day's pay for me. Setting up the server is free, and the hosting is free for the first three months. I can sell the result for $1200, and move on to the next one. I'm recording the steps to sort of institutionalize the process.

If anyone needs an Infusionsoft integration, a web store, email autoresponders, or a web site makeover, I have the means and the skills, plus experience now.

I have a super secret web project, which has never been tried. I think the development will take me a couple of months. It is also very exciting.

Yeah, the real estate business is in flux. I'll get back in when I've built up enough cash to buy houses with cash.

Venture potential.

2009-01-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, my business plan is starting to get recognition among venture capitalists. I want investors, but I want to maintain control. What a dodgy place to be.

VC & Angel Network

Get Rich Quick-aholic

2009-01-13T16:17:00.001-08:00

I've seen a ton of cheesy, bad, over the top, make money fast web sites. If you wanna laugh yourself out of your chair, just Google "Big Ticket to Wealth Demo Flash Videos".

If you want something serious, I recommend Bill Bartmann's Billionaire U. or Loral Langemeier's Live Out Loud program. They have proven entrepreneur and business education offered that won't break the bank. In fact, they are cheaper than tuition for a 3-hour business course. They not only teach you how to make money, but also how to structure a business, how to build more wealth, and how to protect your assets after you've done so. If you don't have the right foundation in place, you won't keep the riches you've earned. A million dollars won't come to a bad steward. Why do 1 in 3 lottery winners go broke within 5 years?

Anyway, I'm following what I've learned so far so I can reach my $1M asset mark by 1/1/10. I must say, I'm learning stuff they didn't teach me in school.

The first millionaire in San Francisco, Samuel Brannan, didn't mine the gold, but he cornered the shovel market and announced that there's gold in the American River. I'm not suggesting that someone form a monopoly, just find a niche, tap into demand, and sell them what they need.

Letting go of the losers.

2009-01-13T09:55:00.000-08:00

Becoming emotionally attached to investments is a bad thing. Looking back, the two rent houses I have on the market haven't really made me much money. I'm dumping them as fast as possible. I have some better ideas!

Best gas additive EVAR!

2009-01-12T14:06:00.000-08:00

I've used fuel injector cleaner and gotten a tiny bit better gas mileage. I'm aware of my fuel economy, because my Jeep Grand Cherokee calculates it while I'm driving. Keeping the tires aired up helps for a mile a gallon. Fuel injector cleaner helps a fraction. This stuff added a few miles per gallon on the first use.

http://www.gassavingsadditive.com/

I'm truly impressed.

Twitter Tricks and Errata

2009-01-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

Composing a meaningful Twitter update is like a form of poetry. I always feel like I'm writing a haiku. It's not about counting syllables; it's about counting characters. How do you make a point in 140 characters or less? It's like a lesson in headline writing.

Twitter is built around the 160 character SMS message size limit for cell phone texting. (see GSM 03.40, 03.41, and 03.38) The protocol uses a field in the SS7 protocol for call setup and teardown that is 140 octets (bytes) in size, but they cram 160 7-bit characters (septets) in there if the default aphabet is used. Some accented characters or alternate alphabets use two or three septets. Should texting cost more if you speak one of the languages which uses lots of accented characters?

I frequently run into a character deficit in the Twitter update box, then I have to edit my update down. I strongly feel that the SMS standard should have focused less on bit packing and foreign alphabets and more on message fragmentation and reassembly. Then they could have used Unicode, which contains almost every alphabet in use today. What a tragedy. U may become a permanent homonym/synonym for you in casual texting English. It may already be too late. Is spelling a new art or a lost art? I suppose if they charged by the word, people would just start leaving out spaces. In the telegraph days, people saved money by using the word "stop" instead of periods to end sentences, because punctuation was extra while the four character word was free.

Telegram rates varied depending on the distance the message had to be sent, the speed with which it needed to be delivered, and its length. A ten-word telegram sent within a city cost as little as twenty cents in the 1920s. The same telegram sent from Chicago to New York City, for example, cost 60 cents. Most telegraph companies charged by the word, so customers had good reason to be as brief as possible. This gave telegram prose a snappy, brisk style, and the frequent omission of pronouns and articles often became almost poetically ambiguous. Telegrams were almost always brief, pointed, and momentous in a way unmatched by any other form of communication.

[REF.]

Some phones, like the iPhone, do a good job of splitting long messages and putting the message fragments together again, despite the fact that they might arrive out of sequence. You still get charged for multiple messages. One blogger wrote that it was a coup to charge $1310 per megabit for SMS. I think his calculation is wrong by an order of magnitude, even if you do the math with the most egregious messaging rates. (15 cents per message / 1120 bits = $133.93 per megabit) In the days of $20 per month unlimited broadband, this is robbery.

Maybe poets have known for years, but I've learned a lot of tricks and creative ways to merge sentences by compressing the predicate of one sentence into a string of adjectives in another sentence to still convey my point. I abbreviate where possible. Sometimes a more descriptive word gets sacrificed for a shorter, less colorful synonym. Any form of "be" can be replaced by "=". Another useful math operator is "+". You can change "bread and butter" to "bread & butter" and win back two characters. "Bread+butter" saves you four!

Not all Tweets are crafted to fit the length constraint, and Twitter might truncate the message at an unfortunate place. For example:

@Foodimentary Food~Fact: 350 million eat with knife and hands; 250 million eat with hands only. These sets of stats come from The Japanese Restaurant Ass 1:41 PM Jan 9th from web

I digress.

Porn "stimulus"

2009-01-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

The porn industry is asking Congress for a bailout of $5 billion. Beautiful irony. Touche! Larry Flynt for porn czar! He's making a brilliant point here:

http://rurl.org/1aoe

The comments section is priceless.

"With the housing market showing continued softness, we don't want that spreading to other parts of the economy."

"Not once have I ever heard of the porn industry being hard up (no pun intended!)"

"Well, more vital than the auto industry. I buy Japanese auto, watch American porn."

Diet Coke Booby Trap

2009-01-06T10:04:00.000-08:00

This is a pretty good practical joke. The link is a video of someone falling for it.

http://www.wimp.com/wildpop/

And wimp.com delivers again. . . this looks terrifying, but fun.

http://www.wimp.com/humanslingshot/

Million Dollar Challenge

2009-01-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Today, a 28 year old guy I was talking to bragged that he made $875,000 last year. I hadn't asked, but he was trying to sell me his marketing services. He told me I sounded like an 18 year old. I had never heard a sales guy as condescending. It was sort of the last straw for me. My whole life has led up to this point. Jupiter is lined up with Venus. Stocks and real estate are at garage sale prices. Quite possibly the most massive transfer of wealth in history is occurring. And I have an interesting goal for 2009.

I will build a portfolio of assets in excess of $1,000,000 in 2009 by the most highly ethical means possible. I will have fun doing it. 15% of annual profits go to charity.

Here's the deal. I think of million dollar ideas all the time. A few months or years later, I learn that someone implemented my idea and it took off, and I get nauseous. I mean ill in the pit of my stomach. It's my turn.

I've been reading get rich quick web site schlock for a few months now, or enough to find that people much dumber than me are making fat coin working less than I do. I have made lists of all of these sites and segmented the lists into categories and ranked them according to how big is the barrier to entry. Here is a summary:

The ones with the low (under $100) or no barrier to entry are 1) just crap, 2) have a steep learning curve, 3) they are multi-level marketing (MLM) Ponzi schemes (1-up, 2-up, up-line commission structure), or 4) some kind of ethical bribe to get you on a mailing list.

The ones with the higher barrier to entry are either too good to be true, as verified by ripoffreport.com, OR they are travel clubs, seminars about health, wealth building, entrepreneurship, internet marketing, stock trading, flash/video production, currency exchange, and other high powered training outside of a university setting. Some were MLMs with those as products.

The highest barrier to entry stuff is direct investing in gas & oil, or real estate.

Most of it is useless to me right now, because I've spent 2008 scraping by, paying off debt, and getting my rental property business on auto-pilot. The gems of knowledge I've learned in my schlock sorting is that all the knowledge on the internet is completely worthless unless you:

1) have a low-cost product or a service you're selling that has real value to repeat customers,
2) have the will power to lead a business in trying times, and
3) take action with proven marketing methods.

It's all about ACTION. Period.

I also learned that a million dollars will not come to a personal bank account. So, the first thing I've done is I've created an LLC to provide technical and marketing services.

Internet marketers seem to be making a lot of money, and they use a lot of technical services. 15 years of tech experience cannot fail me now.

By the way, I recommend the book Forming an LLC by Michael Spadaccini as well as the tax planning and entity structuring advice in Building, Leading, and Protecting Your Business by Loral Langemeir. They sum up best everything I needed to know to get the job done. The rest I learned from the Secretary of State web site and Warren Taryle of Taryle and Associates.

I'm actively seeking board members. Any friends or family or anyone who understands what I am doing is welcome to join me.

My next step? Hang out a shingle. I'm building a commercial web site. Actually, I will be building three web sites. I will create another blog that is search engine optimized to reach my target customers. I will create a set of capture pages (aka squeeze pages) to collect customer information and identify sales copy that is the most effective. I will set up an auto-responder to email to potential customers information about my brand and services. I will build a sales site that generates qualified sales leads.

I have a graphic artist working on my logo, in exchange for technical advice. He's arriving here Sunday from Chicago to meet with me. I have solicited a marketing firm to work on my positioning, but will have to wait until cash comes in before I pull the trigger. I know that market research is essential, and while I have done many hours of it til now, I am not a pro yet.

By the way, I already have one customer and $1200 in sales, which I will be able to invoice this month. I'm waiting on my SS4 filing to the IRS to yield an EIN so I can open my business bank account and get the pertinent local business licenses.

I have interviewed a few bookkeeper types. If you want an inbox full of resumes, advertise for a bookkeeper. Wow!

Stevia is sweet and good.

2008-12-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas, my mom asked me if I wanted sweetener for my tea. I'm spoiled now, because I love the way stevia tastes, so I asked if she had any. She goes, "What's stevia?" Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is an herb that's sweet like sugar, but it has no calories.

Imagine a sweetener that's actually good for you. I've been sweetening my coffee and tea with stevia for about six months. I bought some at a hippie grocery store, and I like it better than Splenda, Sweet & Low, or processed sugar. It is has no carbs, no calories, and no glycemic index, but it tastes naturally sweet.

Splenda is chlorinated sugar. Your body won't absorb it (much). Saccharine (Sweet & Low) and Aspartame (Equal) are not good for you, either. If you are diabetic, dieting, or just health conscious, you should try stevia, just to see if you like it better. I'm a fan.

Creativity and Thrift.

2008-12-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

In my college years I had a girlfriend tell me, "You're not creative enough to be thrifty." We would get into arguments about whether it was better to make a thing, or just go buy it pre-made. She used stuff she had and made what she needed. She had a tremendous knack for it. If you have the skills, homemade cookies are much better than the ones in the plastic boxes in the bakery section. With enough negative thinking, you can convince yourself that you either don't have enough time or enough cooking skills to make better cookies than the bakery, and plunk down a few bucks for a few cookies. The reality is that you can acquire the time and skills. Cookie ingredients are cheap. Plus, you can make cookies over and over. Doing the cooking yourself is one way, and making money to just buy cookies is another means to the same end.

Now that we've proved that I'm hungry, here's a non-food example, if we were talking about decorating a room, she would head for the art supply store and spend what few dollars she had on paint and canvas. She'd buy an old picture frame at a garage sale. She would take an old crate out of the garbage, wrap it in cloth, take some tall dried grasses she picked from the roadside and arrange it in the top, and it looked amazing. I would get a part time job and go to Pottery Barn and get something cool with the money I made. She ended up with a conversation piece in her apartment while I had to remember to take the price tag off of my art, find time to hang or display whatever it was before I had to run back to work. The fact is, I didn't have the creative vision to stop by the road and pick tall grasses that might look decorative when dried.

Maybe it's still true that I'm not creative enough to be thrifty. I had never linked these two talents or virtues before she pointed it out. When money is tight, my creative side comes out. Necessity is the mother of invention? I think you just have to want something enough in this world of abundance to create it for yourself. I think that belief stems from the time I was chastised for not thinking creatively enough to not "waste money". Well, that's why she was an art major, and I got my degree in computer science.

Political Map

2008-12-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

I took The World's Smallest Political Quiz, and got the result I expected.

Fair Tax effort lives on.

2008-12-12T22:14:00.000-08:00

I work for an outsourcing firm. One of the Big Three is a client here. I get to see first hand the calculations which are done to allocate employee resources when a company outsources jobs. The income tax in the United States is THE main reason jobs are leaving, and one of the main reasons our car makers cannot compete on the global stage. The cost of the income tax plus a high labor rate negotiated by the union is built into the price of the product. So, it's cheaper to make stuff elsewhere.

I got this friendly email from Earl Long, the local Fair Tax activist/organizer/cheerleader/geezer/fellow, and it expressed my feelings so well I thought I'd just post the whole thing.

-CH

===
Good morning FairTaxers!

For the American taxpayer, the ol’ “baby-seal-treatment” (bludgeoning unmercifully by our government) just keeps coming. We are rapidly approaching 100 years of living under the tyranny of our current income tax system and the devastating effects it produces on our economy and everyday life.

Does anyone hold out the slightest particle of hope that the fine gentlemen wielding the clubs are going to voluntarily relent and improve our circumstances? I certainly don’t.

Please remember that our constitution requires that we the people assume the responsibility of being the boss! Washington won’t listen unless we speak. And it must be forcefully. Whispering sweetly in their ears won’t get it done! Our kids are counting on us.

Please sign on today at www.fairtaxkc.org by a triple 20 FairTaxer. We can and must remove the bludgeoning tools from Washington’s heedless hands.

The Geezer

I wonder. . .

2008-12-10T18:42:00.001-08:00

How do the Toyota workers in Alabama feel about contributing their tax dollars to Detroit auto workers who make more money than they do?

OU is doing well.

2008-12-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

I've been to a few December games at Arrowhead Stadium. I know how cold it can get. I'm happy to be enjoying the Big 12 Championship game from home. At least it's not windy out there.

OU is doing so well, it's not even entertaining.

Consequently, I'm still reading get-rich-working-from-home ad pages. I have hit this one a couple of times, so apparently it's popular.

The audio narration is from the perspective of a wage slave who meets up with an ultra rich young guy who made his money with automated Internet marketing sites. It's so feeble it's kinda funny, but it really illustrates the divide between the creative class and the working class.

If your job involves a repetitive task that can be automated and you are not trying to automate it, you're working and not creating. The current trend seems to be outsourcing the running of the automated tools, so that it's completely on auto-pilot. If you can convince an army of underpaid people to implement your automated formula and get a cut of the action, that's great leverage. That's a recurring theme I'm encountering.

The marketing world is in flux. There's a movement from traditional advertising to targeted internet sites which are search engine optimized to receive traffic based on the keywords people enter into search engines and forward that traffic to the seller of a related product who pays the most commission. Marketing is in the hands of the masses now.

If you can get good at building good web sites to warm buyers up and send them on to an affiliate site to make their purchase, you really can make a lot of money. Finding the right niche, testing the market, then appealing to that niche in that manner IS the new marketing. Web hype. Now that people can DVR their shows and skip the commercials, it's the emerging way products are hyped and sold.

Fast Money! and Vacation Photos on Steroids

2008-12-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

In my spare time, which is rare, I'm still looking for flashy get rich quick web sites. To find the schemes with the lowest barrier of entry, I end up going through the gyrations of registering for free newsletters and watching demo videos. This one takes the cake!

On another topic, I found a utility that will take pictures that you've taken in a particular place, and stitch them together into a 3D model called a Photo Synth.

I took some Colorado vacation pictures that I took at some places last summer, and some of them merged into a synth views, and some were just not synthy at all, so they didn't merge into a 3D view.

Here's Summit Lake:

And Roxborough State Park:

And some spot along Highway 103 in Colorado:

Operation Giftervention.

2008-12-03T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'm letting everyone off the hook.

Dear ________________,

I know how tough it is to find the perfect Christmas gift for me. And while I appreciate all the effort you put in, the truth is I really don’t need another present this year. But American troops stationed overseas who won’t make it home for a while—well, they do need a gift. So I’m asking that instead of spending money buying me a present, you send some Trail’s End popcorn to a soldier. It’s easy (the website takes care of all the shipping) and, best of all, 70% of the proceeds benefit the Boy Scouts of America.

To get started, just go to www.orderpopcorn.com and click on “Operation Giftervention” in the bottom-right corner of the page.

If popcorn isn't your style, here is a list of requests from folks deployed overseas and where/how to send the items.

Thanks and Merry Christmas,

Charles

New York Rangers

2008-11-20T16:07:00.001-08:00

New York Rangers
Originally uploaded by chillkc

I got to check out a Rangers game last night. I had watched the first period from a store in midtown, then proceeded toward the arena to see if I could find a sports bar where I could get some food and be among fans. Well, ESPN Zone was closed for some reason. I took the 1 train down to 34th and when I came up there was a group of ticket scalpers yelling "hockey tickets". I asked how much, and they all crowded around me. I started a bidding war. I negotiated a $240 club level seat down to $40, even after the guy said his rock bottom was $60. This is after the game was a third over and the Rangers had given up a few goals. Anyway, I got inside in time for the second period. I got to see the Rangers score their first goal of the game. There was a waitress to take my food order. The crowd was into the game. It was good. And, I must say, the Madison Square Garden Arena has the best hot dogs. Click on the photo to see what I mean.

NYC again.

2008-11-18T14:12:00.001-08:00

If I didn't do NYC right last week, this week I get a do over. So far, the experience is better in some ways and worse in others. I'm starting to notice a routine. I wake up to the Early Show and watch some crazy news reports and make some oatmeal and coffee to get myself going. Get ready and run down to the lobby to meet the other Capgemini folks, who have joined me in my cheap but good hotel situation at the Belnord. The rooms are small, but clean and newly renovated, the internet is free and fast, only 3 blocks from the office, and only $89 a night. Incredible deal, especially for Manhattan. We all go to Cafe 82 for a hearty hot breakfast served fast. Then back up Broadway to the office for filling in for a dwindling IT staff, all of whom know their jobs are in the process of being outsourced. Morale is low, but things are still running. At around 9, I join a group who walks to one of two nearby Starbucks for a Venti Drip, and some discussion about the morning emails. I got a Grande Peppermint Mocha Twist, which took 10 minutes longer than just Drip. Lunch is a matter of sneaking out when there's a lull and finding some good grub. The restaurant selection just within one block is fantastic, but I'm getting advice from people who have lived in the neighborhood for over 10 years. There are countless amazing restaurants on Amsterdam and Columbus. My favorite so far, and I've been twice, is Saigon Grill. Perfect pork chops, with pho and spring roll appetizers. The hot sauce makes my scalp sweat. Back at the office, the workload is sporadic for the rest of the afternoon, but there's a soda fountain and a Cafe Mio machine with hot chocolate or a selection of 10 different kinds of coffee or tea. The spoiled IT folks here still go to Starbucks and call the fresh Kenyan roast they have in the break room "dirty water". It's better than the crap they passed off as coffee at the Sprint campus. I had to ice it down and slam it for the caffeine, then chew some mint gum to get rid of the flavor.

The interesting thing about Manhattan is how efficient everything is. I can get the same kind of errands done here that I might do at home, but everything is walking distance and usually on the way. If it's not, I can hop on the subway for a few minutes and pop up where I want to be for $2.

The downside this week is that it's starting to get cold. I expect to see snowflakes before I leave. Last week I was taking bad pictures with my phone, which is unfortunate. I brought a hi-res camera with a flash and video capability this time.

Long layover.

2008-11-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

I had to book this trip at the last minute, and keep costs low, so I ended up with a long layover in Baltimore. I'm making the best of it now that I've found a power outlet and used my cell phone as an internet modem.

There's nothing like an upcoming trip for an extended period to make you think about all the loose ends in your life. That said, the Jetta is put back together, but some of the vacuum hoses and clamps need to be replaced. Here's a picture I took. The Vietnamese guy who is helping me is actually enjoying putting it back together. He's as sick about foreign cars as I am about data networks, I guess.

Here is a random picture of Shiloh the Dog, waiting eagerly on my back porch to go back inside after doing her thing.

I love New York

2008-11-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

I'm flying out to New York City in the morning. The bags are packed. The dog's care has been arranged. The loose ends are tied up. It's been over a year since I've been to Manhattan. This time, I found a reasonably decent place to stay just a five minute walk from the client's location on the Upper West Side.

Here are some pictures from my last visit. That included my second visit to Ground Zero, my first visit to Battery Park, a Turkish Day Parade, and a 10km charity AIDS walk. I hiked all the way up Central Park and down Riverside Drive along the west river with 10,000+ of my best friends, so I've seen the areas surrounding the Upper West Side, but this is my first time to stay in the Upper West Side. There's a restaurant near my hotel called Hot and Crusty. I like the name a lot, we'll see if I like the food.

Cloud Computing

2008-11-07T21:29:00.000-08:00

I have become very intrigued by cloud computing lately. The idea that I can go to http://aws.amazon.com and create an account and select a server image type, like a Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL image, and have the server booted up and running such that I can begin configuring it in minutes and I'm only charged by the amount of I/O. . . I just have to sit and meditate for a while about the consequences and scalability of that. The art of configuring and tweaking server OS and application performance and security is dead. The images are standardized now. Performance isn't an issue, I can configure one and replicate it 20 times and use load balancing on the network side to get performance.

I think it's great for putting public type web pages out there, but what about scaling a data center housing enterprise SAP or Siebel accounting and business process applications, or databases which contain information protected by privacy laws or credit card protection standards. Until there's a cloud firewall that goes with the cloud server, enterprises will have to build their own clouds. You can bet that Cisco 3.0 is working on the cloud firewall, with policy templates that you build which can scale when you replicate your servers in the cloud environment.

I have heard of using Pound to terminate SSL and perform web server load balancing on a server within the cloud environment, but F5 Networks' appliances do a much better job of that. Not only do you need a cloud firewall, you need a cloud load balancer, and a cloud VPN federation. Are these functions moving off of the hardware appliances and back onto the servers? Or are these functions going to still work on hardware designed for the purpose? Now that they have a blade chassis for servers, will they make a chassis with 10 slots full of virtual firewalls? Load balancers? VPN accelerators? How will the security functions protecting enterprise data assets and network traffic be integrated into cloud environments? This looks to me like a paradigm shift in scaling information technology like the mainframe to PC/LAN to internet/web shifts in the past.

Internet Marketing

2008-11-06T20:12:00.001-08:00

I have been categorizing all the make-money-fast schemes I can find on the Internet into categories. I have learned about every kind of pyramid scheme and the various types, including the pass-ups, 1-ups, 2-ups, and the perpetual leverage payment plan. Some of these are marketing legitimately valuable products and services, usually overpriced, and some are selling collections of public domain ebooks, software, or information which one could find elsewhere by simply searching for it. The problem is that 95% of them want money up front. So, I'm sorting them according to the size of the barrier to entry. Some of them have a small initial barrier to entry, but if you read further, you find that that's just an application fee, and the actual product they're pushing is much more expensive. Of course, in the name of integrity, you have to have purchased it for the opportunity to then sell it. The hottest items are "information products". This is some presentation or packaged educational material, sometimes a DVD of a seminar, or a flash version of a lecture with slides. The cost to produce this stuff is so minimal. It makes great business sense to sell this multi-level marketing style, because the main cost is the marketing. The interesting ones are the travel resort clubs, legal insurance, or even a membership based web service that prints and mails customized greeting cards.

After the MLM stuff, there are the affiliate marketing programs. This is much more straightforward. You get a reward for helping customers find the product they're looking for, or maybe a product they might buy, whether they're looking for it or not. The barrier to entry is zero. You just need a web site or a blog to put web links or banners online where people can see them and click them. Commission Junction and Google Adwords are huge.

Another thing I have found is the very rare community of people freely giving out information to better themselves and anyone interested in following in their footsteps. The absolute best one of these is a group of Internet marketing folks who are selling software and web hosting, but teaching people how to make lots of money using the tools that they are selling, and they're not asking for anything on the back side. It's really free. If you want to spend a few hours a day not only learning about internet marketing, but actually watching a video that shows you how to do it, with the expectation that you actually will, I highly recommend the Thirty Day Challenge. It's a group of Aussies who are master Internet marketers, spending tens of thousands of dollars to spread this knowledge and the prosperity that goes with it.

Yay for car commercials.

2008-11-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

I thought if I had to watch another political ad, I was going into exile. What a relief to be back to the cheesy commercials for car dealerships, Gutter Brush, Gutter Helmet, Gutter Monster ads. All the ambulance chasing personal injury lawyers are back on, and nobody approved that message. Instead of back-to-back mudslinging attack ads, we have Heidi Klum skin care products and Bowflex Treadclimber again, amen. I'd rather hear about Oxi-Clean than Obama. Give me triple action cleaning power I can believe in, because three minutes of lying campaign ads in a row makes me feel dirty and conflicted. I'm so glad it's over. The hand has been played. The chips have been pushed, and the losers have stepped away from the table.

I prefer a deadlocked House and Senate, or different parties in the Congress and the White House. It allows for a sanity check for new legislation, so it's good for everyone. Bush didn't veto very much. I have a feeling Obama won't either.

I'm disappointed with the BOMB (Bush Obama McCain Bailout) that passed so Congress can show they're doing something about the economy, even though it doesn't bode well for the future economy. The less influence Congress exerts over the economy, the better off we are. The mortgage bubble was caused by bad legislation which encouraged easy loans, which increased demand for houses, which increased housing prices above the free market norm. Now that market pressures are trying to deflate the bubble, they're propping it back up at the expense of a weaker dollar and increasingly worthless T-bills. When the dollar is weaker, outsourced jobs will come back onshore, but we'll be paying more for imports, and that means oil. If we don't produce more of our own, we're going to be in worse shape in coming years than we were this past summer. The prospects are scary. With one party in control, we're going to get a stream of crappy legislation coming out of Washington for a while. I can't wait to see what the first hundred days has in store.

Bush did a good thing in setting up a web site to show which government programs are working and which ones are wasting money. It should be a no-brainer for the next Congress and Executive administration to make the appropriate cuts. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/ I just don't have any faith in the Democrats to cut these instead of cutting the military. Y'know, our military might enforcing a dollars only for oil policy, which saps value out of oil producing countries, is the only thing keeping our dollar afloat in the world economy. It's no longer backed by gold. If any country starts selling oil for euros or yen or whatever, the dollar will weaken against that currency. If we don't fight, the dollar will tank.

Our framers must be spinning in their graves.

Voting lines like I've never seen.

2008-11-04T15:26:00.000-08:00

I have simply never seen so many people in line to vote on election day. I'm usually in and out in 20 minutes. I was in line at 7:15 this morning. I didn't vote until about 9am. I barely made my 9:30am conference call. The line went up the sidewalk about 300 feet, around the corner another 50 feet. The Democrats were electioneering about halfway up the line, with a table and big tent with Obama/Biden signs. The Missouri law limits electioneering to 25 feet or more from the polling place. Just enough to keep them out of the doorway, I guess. I grabbed a handout to see what the party line was on the state questions, sheriff election, and judge retention, etc. A lady was selling donuts and milk to people in the line. I have also never seen so many parents at a polling place with children and babies in tow. It was a mass of humanity inside. There were signs and handouts with phone numbers offering free rides to the polls. It's exciting to see people actually showing up to vote. It was a circus atmosphere and I detected a certain amount of zeal and energy. To be honest, I have never seen that many black people or that many young people at my precinct polling place.

The people handing out ballots had two people checking IDs. I signed and initialed, two of them signed and initialed after making sure my signature next to my name and address on the voter rolls matched the signature on my drivers license and voter card. I would say they were doing a good job authenticating people. I saw some people turn and leave the line when they got near the front, so I suppose they didn't have the right credentials. I heard of one lady receiving a ballot which already had markings on it. I didn't hear which candidate's name was already marked. She got a replacement ballot, and they asked everyone in line to be sure there were no marks on the ballot before accepting it.

With all that procedural stuff and the crazy turn out, I have no idea how this thing is going to turn out. Well, I'm pretty sure that my favorite candidate will not win.

House for Rent (Kansas City)

2008-11-03T17:38:00.001-08:00

$800 / 2br - 2Bed 1Bath Large Kitchen Large Deck Fenced Yard Raytown Schools (50th & Sterling) (map)
Reply to: hous-904714559@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-11-03, 6:13PM CST

HOUSE FOR LEASE $800 / month

2 Bedroom, 1 Bath, Large kitchen,

Big deck, Large fenced back yard, New siding, New stove

1 car garage

E. 50th Street
(near 50th & Sterling, east of Truman Sports Complex, south of Blue Ridge Crossing)
Kansas City, MO

Raytown Schools
Pets welcome with pet deposit.

Contact Charles @ 816-651-1900

The Good, The Bad, The Opportunity

2008-10-29T19:59:00.001-07:00

I signed up for FriendFeed.com, so all my social networking site stuff, including this blog, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Flickr, Facebook, etc. is in one place.

I think being an avid web surfer has a downside these days. I don't know about you, but I am being literally bombarded by Internet marketing schlock for "work from home" or "get rich in your spare time" or whatever "instant cash system" or "guaranteed money making formula" or blah blah blah. It's like my browser has the imasucker.cookie. My inbox gets at least one a week. It feels like every time I opt out of one mailing, I've been opted into two or three. They're all starting to look and sound the same. If I get all the way to the end of the presentation and I still don't know what is the actual product, but the upside of it sounds so phenomenal that I might be an idiot if I don't sign up, the skeptic in me wants to either prove it wrong and shout from the mountains that it is a scam or really actually make thousands of dollars a week. In fact, that's not a bad idea. I might have to start a website to review these things, and use website revenue to pay for the cost of entry to these potential scams. I'll either get rich quick or have a successful get rich quick debunking site. I can use the in-your-face marketing techniques flowing forth from my browser and email inbox.

There's always audio or video on the screen. The page has colorful eye-catching headlines and is written in conversational language in short paragraphs with one amazing claim or rags to riches testimonial after another. There are only 100 subscriptions available! Members only. Click here to join. Apply online today! This unheard of pricing expires today. Do you really want to navigate away from this page? Download the free ebook. Pre-order the Free DVD and workbook for only $7.99 shipping and handling. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed.

I digress.

How long before Internet is spelled with a small i?

Wal-Mart Super Center after midnight

2008-10-27T06:15:00.001-07:00

I went on a midnight adventure to Wal-Mart Super Center to buy some important home repair items, which isn't atypical when I have a vacant rent house I'm getting ready to rent again. Being busy with that has kept me away from blogland, too. Anyway, it was early October and they were putting out the seasonal Christmas stuff. That's too early. I don't want to think about Christmas until Thanksgiving.

We have your traditional Hannah Montana and NASCAR stockings, which I had to capture just to be sure I didn't dream it.

And another thing shocked me when I approached the checkout counter. A couple of fellows walked up with many gas cans and a garden hose. It's not hard to figure out what they were up to. Again, I had to take a picture to be sure later that I didn't just dream it.

Terry Tate strikes again.

2008-10-21T03:45:00.000-07:00

This was under the heading Nailin' Palin, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. Sarah's answer should have been, "The Economist, The New York Times, The National Review, and a wide variety of online resources." Then, Katie would have been the more appropriate target here.

Amazing

2008-10-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

I am always intrigued when computer technology, my expertise, is successful in solving medical problems. Today I stumbled upon one such article.

"Charles Higgins, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, built a robot that is guided by the brain and eyes of a moth. Higgins said he basically straps a hawk moth to the robot and then puts electrodes in the neurons that deal with sight in the moth's brain. Then the robot responds to what the moth is seeing -- when something approaches the moth, the robot moves out of the way."

They have implanted electrodes into the motor cortex of monkey's brain about 18 months ago. They interpreted the signals the monkey's brain used to move his legs, then they connected this to a robot in Japan over the internet. They showed the monkey a webcam of this robot which walks around like he does, and he started monkeying with it. He started making it walk faster or slower, it made him happy, and they rewarded him with Cheerios. What does this mean to you and me? It means that people who are paralyzed may soon be able to walk using robot legs!

So, what's next? They took a monkey who plays video games, and they used this technology to wire the monkey's motor cortex to stimulate his actual muscles. They then used anesthesia to deaden the nerves to his hand. The monkey learned how to flex his wrist to play the video game again and could control the strength of his wrist flexion.

In their experiments, monkeys were enabled to flex and extend their wrist to play a video game by artificially stimulating arbitrarily chosen motor cortex cells in their brains. The monkeys' wrist nerves were temporarily numbed with a local anesthetic, which paralyzed the muscles, according to the report. But despite the nerve block, the monkeys were still able to control the contraction strength of their wrist muscles. University scientists noted that controlling the strength of the muscle contraction is what allows someone to gently pick up an egg or grab tightly to a handrail.

I think it's fantastic.

Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University and lead researcher on the project, said at the time the research may only be a few years away from helping paralyzed people walk again by enabling them to use their thoughts to control exoskeletons attached to their bodies.

Friends, we live in amazing times.

Market, Election, Weather Outlook

2008-10-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

I'm not participating in stock market speculation. What a ride! I'm not even speculating about who will win the presidential election. Change is the only constant. I'm just popping some popcorn and watching from the sidelines.

Niels Bohr - "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."

43 cars, 400 miles, 1068 left turns.

2008-09-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

I attended the Camping World RV 400 NASCAR event today. I have a minor sunburn on my right arm and my right ear, and tinitis in both ears. But I saw some decent racing. I thought Carl Edwards was going to win near the end of the race, but he got into the wall on the last turn and didn't quite make it past number 48, Jimmie Johnson. I also learned that listening to Dale Jr. chew out his spotters on the radio adds some entertainment value. Three chicken tenders for eight bucks can be a bargain, if it's the only low carb, low sodium, protein option available. Smoking, drinking, extended standing, and exuberant pumping of one's fist in the air when one's favorite driver is doing well is allowed in the stands. Free parking is not free. . . if it takes a quarter tank of gas and an hour of stop and go bumper to bumper nonsense to get out of there. On the other hand, I had a pretty good time.

Mister Professor

2008-09-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

I spent the day giving an exam and grading it. I've been teaching a Cisco networking class at DeVry University for the past four weeks. It's kind of rewarding to know that the lectures I've been giving have actually contributed to some people's knowledge. On the other hand, not everyone did well.

Olive Cafe

2008-09-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

I called the only number I could find for a Mediterranean restaurant in Lees Summit. There was an answer, but she said she's been out of business for years. I asked where I should go instead, and she told me Olive Cafe. It's inside a Palestinian grocery store at 95th and James A. Reed. A bunch of us network folks went out there. I wrote a review on Google. It was good. I'm glad there's a Mediterranean lunch option here. I can get my Falafel fix without driving all the way to Westport.