My Christmas Present (Early) - The Celestron 44340 LCD Digital Microscope

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" to a geek like a new piece of technology. Here is mine, a Celestron LCD digital microscope. (Or is it digital LCD microscope? Oh, whatever.) I've already taken several images with it, including the ubiquitous "let me image my hair follicle". That to people who work with microscopes is analogous to the "Hello, World!" program that all new programmers compile and run.
How is this new microscope? In a word, cool! I love the images it takes, which it will do at 1600x1200 without going to the (always crappy) digital interpolation. It takes really good videos, too, which is nice if you need to be able to look at a particular object at several depths. As always, the depth of field of this scope is poor, but that's physics, not poor design or bad engineering. It came with 5 slides, which is not even close to being enough. I've already gone through all five. I'm now working my way through, well, any object that will fit under the lens. And being the engineer that I am, I've already got a list of improvements I'd like to see incorporated.

1) Add an option to delay the taking of the picture. This is a must-have. Right now, when you take a picture, the scope, while well made, moves ever so slightly. I'm having a helluva time taking clear images because the scope is still moving when the image is snapped. I'd prefer a short delay to allow me to push the button, let the scope stabilize again, then have it take the image.

2) It provides the option to put the date on the image. I'd prefer a metadata field that provides the magnification of the image, the color lens being used for setting the light color, and the type of lighting (underneath, above, or both).

3) Make the image capture remotely controllable. Yes, I realize this will take some more work. I want the ability to plug in the USB cord and be able to take the images from the computer. Hit a "Snap" button in a window, it takes the image and instantly transfers it to the computer. That solves the shaking problem AND the transfer problem all in one.

4) Make the codes for talking to the scope over USB open source. You want to get some buzz going for your scope? Do this and you'll have programmers the world over snapping up scopes left and right. They'll hack the living crap outta your scope and have it doing things you never thought possible. And you'll sell a boatload of scopes, to boot. So, why not? Oh, and you'd be able to ignore all of my suggestions because the hackers will do it for you!

Merry Christmas all!

The "Ghost Radio" Web Site

Ever heard of EVP? It stands for "electronic voice phenomena". I'd never heard of it until today, when I happened to read a story on the JREF web site asking for comments on a Youtube video. This particular video (from a Brit based on his accent) claimed to show EVP. And what, pray tell, is EVP? Allegedly, it's the "voices" that radios make when they are not tuned to an actual signal. People are claiming that the radios are actually producing real, honest-to-God voices.
And like all things that anyone believes, there's even a web site for it. Except, in this case, it's not just a web site. Oh, no. For something of this vast, cosmological importance, we need an association. And not just any association. The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena.
On the very first page of their web site, they make the following claim:

People report experiences such as hauntings events or EVP, and these experiences can be verified and often replicated as objective events.

What?!?! Really!?!? You're out and out making the claim that "these experiences can be verified and often replicated as objective events"? Really?!?! So, tell me this: On what are you making these claims? What's your criteria? In what type of settings are you doing the experiments? What's your test group and what's your control group? How are you controlling for bias in the tests? You are performing multiple tests, aren't you? Not just one with a couple of your friends over for ... whatever? And why isn't this evidence openly available on your web site? Why isn't it presented so that outsiders (or disbelievers, such as myself) and check your claims?
Here's a test that I would want to try: Make a recording of what you believe to be EVP. Then I would want to play it back to 20 people (just for a start) and see if they hear anything. If so, what? If they all agree that they're hearing the exact, same thing, then we go to the next stage. Oh, and when you make the recording, I'd want to control for outside disturbances. I'd want the radio to (a) be tuned to nothing at all and (b) not scanning. Let's control for outside disturbances, shall we?
P.T. Barnum, even though he didn't actually say it, was still right.

Why I want the score to read, "Col Barfoot: 1, HOA: 0"

In case you've not heard about it, Col Van Barfoot, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, has been told by his homeowners association to take down his flagpole that he uses to fly his American flag. Due to his age, the fact that he's a veteran of three wars (WWII, Korea and Vietnam), and (probably most importantly) a Medal of Honor winner, this has caused quite a stir.
I support Col Barfoot in this. First, I hate HOA's. I've read all of the comments about how they keep home prices up. But I've not heard anyone provide any evidence of that. To me, they are simply an artifice cooked up to "keep out the undesirables". Since when were we willing to sell out our liberty for some unspecified "Your house price will stay high" crap?
Second, as someone who (unfortunately) lives in an area that has an HOA, I'd ask this of all of the people who state, "He agreed to the HOA rules when he bought that house." My question is this, "How carefully did you read your covenants before you bought?" Of the two houses I've owned, both had HOAs. The covenants are legalese guacamole. They are designed by lawyers for lawyers. Did his explicitly state, "No poles in the front yard?" I'm willing to bet it didn't. I'm further willing to be he asked about the flag pole before erecting it because the covenants did not explicitly cover poles in the front yard.
Third, and to me most important, he earned the Medal of Honor. He gets a pass. Period. Considering that the majority of MoH awards are given posthumously, that takes some doing. I've had an argument with one person who blew that off by saying, "That was over 40 years ago." To which my response is that does not matter. He earned a frickin' MoH. He gets a pass. Forever. Period.
Fourth, the flagpole issue is not a violation of a law. At most, it's a violation of a contract. That means that he cannot be arrested. The police will not be coming to his house.
Finally, don't bother with all of the "what if" games. Those are the people who say, "What if he decides to paint his house purple?" or "What if he decides to put a car up on blocks in his front yard?" or "What if he decides to fly the Confederate flag instead?" He didn't. He put up a nice flag pole to fly an American flag, and he more than earned that right. End of discussion.

Reason #4 Why I Like Open-Source: Rhythmbox Fixed in 2 Days

I discovered a bug in Rhythmbox, which is the music-sorting and playing software on Ubuntu Linux. If you look at the link, I posted the problem on Sunday, the 22nd. Here it is 2 days later, and the problem is fixed. Now, the patch has not yet been posted, but I'm willing to bet that it is well and truly fixed. Why? Because I think the Rhythmbox maintainers had an idea where the problem was as soon as I posted it. It only took a couple of back-and-forth posts to figure out where the problem was. I was even able to test one of the maintainers' hypothesis myself. From there, I was able to post the results of my research back, and away they went.

One of the things that I most loved about this was that they showed me how I, a real newbie in programming and Linux, could capture the data they needed. They then provided me some feedback, asking me more detailed questions, showing me some mistakes I made in collecting the data (very patiently pointed it out, I might add), and continuing to work with me. That was my blinking light. That gave me a sense that something was happening. If the big software companies would take a hint from this, they might learn something.

Then again, maybe not.

Paranoia... Will Destroy Ya!

Found this in the review section of a Firefox add-on called "Ghostery". The comment was titled, "You can't get around tracking." It starts off well enough. (All bold-faced emphasis is mine.)

I implement tracking analytics so I can develop more user friendly sites. I have also implemented non-invasive adds in order to keep content free. By blocking my scripts, you are only preventing developers like me from creating a better (and free) experience for users like you. Most tracking data is anonymous anyways. Unless you click a link from an email, no one can tell your personal browsing habits. This plug-in is a security blanket for paranoid "the government is watching" people.

Okay. So far, so good. Logical. Rational. Seems like a person who's concerned that all of this ad-blocking and cookie-blocking, while well intended, may be having bad repercussions. Let's continue.

Just so you know, the government tracks every single page request in the US. There is no browser setting or plug in that can prevent this.

(Sound of a car careening off the cliff...) WTF?!?! Went from "Hey, I just want to make a living" to the fastest Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde, instant-right-turn-into-the-Twilight-Zone switch I've ever seen. I have Michael Oldfield's seminal work playing in my head right now. Where's my garlic and hot-cross buns? But, hey, he's not satisfied with simply making a right turn off the cliff, he wants to go down in a blazing fireball. Let's read his spectacular finish.

Much the same way to preventing unwanted pregnancy is abstinance... same goes for tracking... you must stop using the internet if you don't want anybody to know what you are doing. Otherwise, watch your back... 'cause we're going to GET YOU!! hahahahahahahah

I didn't realize that the medication could wear off so fast. I'm wondering if there's a straitjacket missing its wearer right now. Regardless, I'm going to be giggling about this one for quite some time, after I install just about every ad-blocking, cookie-cutting add-on I can put in my browser.

It's the Money, Stupid

The BBC reports that the captain of a pirate-hijacked ship has died of wounds suffered when the ship was seized. Near the end of the report, the article adds:

The upsurge in piracy in the region is a consequence of the failure to find a solution to Somalia's political disputes, our correspondent adds.

No, you idiot. It has to do with something your article said earlier. But since you appear to have severe short-term memory failure, let me refresh your memory.

The pirates earlier told reporters they were leaving the ship after being promised a ransom of $3.5m (£2.1m), although there was no government confirmation of this.

Can you say, "Cha-CHING"? The pirates can. That, my friends, is what's driving them.

Any questions?

Need a Calculator for School? Try this!

I was reading through ticalc.org's web site and, especially, the update on the DMCA situation vis a vie TI's threat to sue Brandon Wilson because he dared to crack the encryption key TI uses to lock down the software in its top-o-the-line calculator, the TI-83+. Yup. That's right. It's a whoppin' 100 smackaroos to get you one of those babies. Perfectly understandable that they'd be upset.

Okay. Not really.

I was reading through the comments on their news site concerning this issue when I found this one explanation as to why TI is pissed (er, that means unhappy in this context, in case any one of my UK or Australian / New Zealand colleagues is reading this... doubtful... this web site gets less hits the the Chicago Cubs.) Anyway, here's his explanation:

Their latest reaction is baffling at first, but the reasoning is perfectly obvious if you understand who their customers are. Schools, CollegeBoard, ACT, Kaplan Inc, and other institutes have been hostile toward the whole 3rd-party OS issue for years. Now that calcs are a blank slate for anything we can cook up, TI must show their partners they won't take the situation laying down--even if it's a lost cause. Either way, this will be the stall tactic until new deals are made, or some kind anti-hacking revision rolls out. This line of reasoning may sound alien and incomprehensible from a coder's standpoint, but I witness it on a daily basis in the business world.

So, if this the problem, if schools and colleges are well and truly against 3rd-party operating systems, well, then, I have the cure. The picture says it all.

Any questions?

An Open Letter to Texas Instruments

Dear Dumbshits,

Back in the day, you built a truly wonderful computer. I know because I had one. I also had the expansion box that weighed as much as the USS Missouri. And I still have the 300 baud modem that you built for it. Now, you're left with your IC market and some calculators. Me, I prefer my HP50g, but some of the calculators you make are pretty good. Given that you do not dominate the market in handheld calculators, you'd expect that any news, or "buzz" as the current phrase goes, that generates publicity for your calculator would be a good thing.

I guess you didn't get that memo.

Seems a hacker has managed to crack the encryption key for one of your calculators. And you're pissed about it. Sent him a high-falutin' memo stating, "Stop that!" Threw in some big words and acronyms, including DMCA.

I guess you just. Don't. Get. It.

You have a group of people who are dedicated to tinkering with your calculator. Are they trying to reverse engineer your hardware so that they can make their own? No. Are they selling the software that they have managed to reverse engineer? No. But because you are currently suffering from some cranial-rectal inversion, you're going to be the guy with the truly smelly flatulence who just arrived at the tea party. And instead of saying, "Hey, we've got a lot of people who are looking at our calculators as cool! Let's build up some buzz! Have a conference! Start a contest for looking at some other part of the calculator!", you decide to kill the party just as soon as it starts.

Are you REALLY this stupid?!?! Can't you SEE the possibilities here!?!? So they cracked the encryption key of your vaunted $100 calculator. And somehow you think this is going to impede on your corporate profits. Ya know, it might. But something tells me that, if you saw this as a potential to improve the market share, to increase awareness (People thinking, "TI still makes calculators? Hey, I thought they quit after that TI 2500 Datamath thingee."), to really and truly hype your calculators, you'd be on the right track. Are you following me here? Can you see where I'm going with this?

That's right. Park your lawyers in the closet for a few minutes and figure the possibilities. Lots of buzz, lots of hype, lots of publicity, lots of free advertising. For YOUR calculator. You know, the one you want to sell more of? Hellooooooo?!?! And all you have to do is to say, "Ya know, perhaps we should concentrate on the hardware and not so much on the software. Perhaps we can even make it open source. If we do that, there's this whole community of open source people out there. Perhaps they'll want to buy our hardware. And by default we can control that." (knock-knock. Anyone home?)

Please. Consider what I'm saying. You can either stay on this same road. Or you can really and truly make a comeback in the calculator department by embracing a different mindset. The choice is yours.

Back in Business

After reformatting the Linux partition and starting from scratch, my system is now up to Ubuntu version 9.10. Yes, it's pretty nice. The interface is different, but I'm not certain that alone made it worth it. I do know that the Ubuntu team has stated that there were many changes that made the upgrade worthwhile. I'll take them at their word. I've discovered that some things that didn't work before do now. For example, I have an old webcam. It didn't work at all before, but does now. Kind of. Another thing is that this new version is recognizing my other partitions without me prompting them. I'm now in the process of reloading my data and putting back the various programs that I need. Skype is back (which was one thing I really needed) and so is Octave. I'm hoping to get the latest version of Freemat (version 4.0) installed as well. I've got Thunderbird back, and all of my e-mail is back in its proper place. All in all, the upgrade was disastrous, but the OS, once installed properly, is working fine.

The one thing I'm doing better this time than with the original install is keeping careful notes of what is getting installed and how I installed it. Some of those notes will be written up in upcoming articles.

A Big Setback

Today, I received a notice from Ubuntu that a major upgrade was ready. Specifically, the system was ready to upgrade from version 9.04 (called "Jaunty Jackalope") to version 9.10 (called "Karmic Koala"). Being the trusting type, I hit the "Upgrade" button. As the upgrade progressed, I received a few errors, namely that "OpenOffice" was running. I managed to kill the processes, though for some reason it kept coming back. Anyway, there wasn't anything that said, "This is a MAJOR error! ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!" Two hours later, it finished. I restarted the computer and thought, "Hey! Looks great!" Wanted to go on about my business. Just before the upgrade finished, I was listening to some music. So I wanted to continue listening.

Only problem is my sound wasn't working. And still isn't working. Also, every time I reboot my computer, the icons on my desktop all shift back to the left side of the screen. (I have certain ones that I explicitly put on the right side of the screen.) And sometimes Skype doesn't start up. And also when I reboot or shutdown, I get a pop-up window that says an "unknown" process is still running.

Suffice to say, I'm far less than thrilled. I went to the Ubuntu forums and found someone else with a similar problem on the sound. He managed to get his problem resolved. I didn't. That was topped by someone called "lovinglinux" who came on and told me tersely that I was on the wrong thread. It was a kubuntu thread, and I was ubuntu. Despite the fact that the original creator of the thread was actually helping me. At the time, I was thinking, "Well, bite me, "lovinglinux", you arrogant, kubuntu prick!" I've calmed down since then and realized he was trying to save me from possibly getting bad information. But as mad as I was at the time, he was "wrong thing to say at the wrong time".

I've scoured the internet (both Ubuntu forums and non-Ubuntu ones) hoping, praying to find a fix. Somewhere. Somehow. And I've come up empty. Seems that a LOT of people are having similar issues. I'm now backing up all of my data on Ubuntu because. I. Am. Going. To. Have. To. Start. Over.

No, waiting is not an option. I need sound NOW. I need Skype to work reliably NOW. I need the sound because I use it with Skype. And I need both of them NOW. So, as I'm typing this, I have data backup in progress. Once it's finished, I'm going to start over with a fresh install, which seems to work better for most people. Still, this will be 6+ hours out of my life, not to mention the future time to re-install much of the software I've come to rely on. Freemat & Octave. Google Earth. Wireshark. Wine. Crossloop on Wine. Paint Shop Pro on Wine. And the list goes on. And this is time that I could have been spending doing real work.

Does this mean I'm dissuaded from Linux? Hardly. But if you're considering making the switch, wait a few more weeks.

Loading Digital Images under Ubuntu Linux

After loading Ubuntu Linux (ver 9.04, aka Jaunty Jackalope), one of the things on my list that I needed was the ability to download images from my two digital cameras. One was an older Sony Mavica CD-R camera. The other was a newer Canon Powershot SD870. Under WinXP, it was pretty much plug-n-play.

The good news was that it was just that easy with Ubuntu. I literally plugged them into the USB cord I keep on the desktop for just such a purpose, turned on the camera, and voila! I'm downloading pictures. After plugging in the camera and turning it on, a new folder popped up on the desktop. It was as if I'd plugged the digital storage card (for the Canon) or CD (for the Sony) into the computer. All I had to do was to select the pictures I wanted to copy then paste them into the folder on the computer where I wanted them to go. Now, it didn't pop up a "wizard" of any kind. So you have to know how to do basic copy-&-paste operations.

The even better part was that downloading them from either device seems to be as fast, and probably faster, than under Windows.

I consider this one less thing off of the list before Windows can go "bye-bye" for good.

So It Begins

These just arrived from Amazon. I have a bit of reading to do. Time to get started.

The Realization

Many have said it, but it's rare when I agree. I'm an idiot. In one of my previous posts ranting about Linux, I was comparing it to Windows. I knew (and still know) Windows fairly well. The problem was that I was upset with Linux, of which I knew (and know) little, against something I knew well. Not a fair comparison.
Now that I have Linux to play (and learn) from, I've found that Linux has much more to offer than Windows. One of the best things is transparency. Linux does not try to hide anything. On the contrary, it gives you the opportunity to see everything. By way of analogy, imagine buying a car and having the hood welded shut. That's Windows. Linux is just the opposite. It not only has a transparent hood, the hood can be opened and the different parts examined to whatever degree you like. A further analogy is what is provided on the dashboard. A Windows dashboard would have the basics (speedometer, perhaps a fuel gauge) whereas a Linux dashboard would look like that of a 747. Gauges, dials, switches and levers everywhere.
So, those are my realizations. Now that I have my head out of my... motherboard, I can see that Linux will allow me far greater opportunities than Windows ever will.

The Beginning of the End

I realized that, in a previous post, I'd ranted about I'd ranted about problems I was having with Linux. Specifically, I was using a version of Linux called Ubuntu. I'd tried Ubuntu and found it wanting.
Not too long ago, I started a new job that required me to having a much deeper understanding of programming. Frankly, that was one thing I remembered that Linux did real well. Perl, C, C++, you name it. Long story short, I wound up loading Linux onto a hand-me-down computer. After playing with the latest version of Ubuntu (9.04, the Jaunty Jackalope), I was pleasantly surprised. It did much of what I needed it to do right out of the box. Therefore, I've decided to make this permanent. I'm not going to make the leap completely. I've found that I still need Windows because there are still some things only it can do. But the transition has begun.
I plan on keeping a running log of my transition to Linux (and away from Windows) on this blog. Future posts will go through the various steps (loading Linux and adding functionality).

Yeah, I'm Ashamed About the Last 8 Years... NOT!

BUMPED: The update explains why.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I originally published this one, then a friend from Texas (who is a much better writer than I) got ahold of it and polished it. Therefore, this has been slightly modified. The intent remains the same. Only the smackdowns are more well written.

I popped on over to Skippy's List and checked out the latest posting from Michiel, who went into a rather quick discussion of why he's happy that Bush is leaving office.

In a word, "Gack!"

It leads with

"I think about 70% of us can agree..."

Well, many of us believe that 50% of all statistics are made up, but I digress.

Michiel, if you want to rant about how much YOU think Bush sucks, have at it. It’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. You’re even entitled to say it aloud and in print, but what gets to me is the "I'm ashamed to be an American." statement you made, then dittoed time and again in the comments. This gets to sounding like a therapy session. "Hi, my name is Michiel, and I'm ashamed to be an American." followed by a chorus chiming in, "Hi, Michiel. I’m ashamed, too!"

Were you ashamed when Al-Qaeda tried to blow up the World Trade Center the first time (1993), and Clinton did... nothing? When they blew up Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and Clinton did... nothing? When suicide bombers blew up the USS Cole and Clinton sent... a couple of missile strikes? When bombers blew up the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam I didn't hear much talk about shame then. All of these, by the way, happened on Clinton's watch. Did he have anything to do with them? Nope. What did he do about them? Next to nothing, which Al-Qaeda saw as, "Hey, we can kick the living piss of out these people and they won't do anything. What a bunch of pussies! Let's kill more of them!" This is what happens when you do nothing in the face of evil.

You talk about Dubya "being on vacation". Yeah. Vacation. The last sitting president to get a vacation was somewhere in the Coolidge or Roosevelt I administrations. Okay, sure, George W. Bush had absolutely no access to any of his senior staff when he was in Crawford. Nope, none. Completely isolated. No access to phones or e-mail because, well, Texas is obviously a technologically challenged backwater. Right? Hardly - the President of the United States is surrounded by the most extensive and redundant communications system known to man and he literally cannot get away from it.

Regardless, when did the President become the be-all, end-all of this country, and when did we expect the government to come to our aid when things were going wrong?

Since when did this country become a cult of personality? Is the President the only reason to love or hate this country? Apparently so. When Clinton's presidency ended, Alec Baldwin Eddie Vedder stated, "If Bush wins the White House, I'm leaving."

Alas, he didn't follow up on his promise.

When I was growing up, my family expected the government to stay the hell out of our lives, not get more involved. And certainly not to the point where we expect them to hover over us. The people I grew up with called that concept "socialism". We were expected to get through puberty, then move out. We were expected to work our own way through the world, and watch out for ourselves. Which reminds me of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans. Hey, couldn't have seen that coming. It appeared suddenly out of nowhere with absolutely no warning whatsoever. Just suddenly whacked New Orleans. Everyone's dancing in the bayou one second and underwater the next. No warning messages saying "Leave Now!" All the fault of that EVIL Army Corps of Engineers, no doubt.

And when people DIDN'T leave (you know, on any of those buses left to wind up underwater), then they started screaming for government assistance. When the call comes out, it falls to the government to do, well, everything. The Mayor of New Orleans sat on his hands waiting for the incompetent Governor of Louisiana to do something. But who took the blame when neither did anything? FEMA and George W. Bush, who simply did nothing more than follow the law.

A couple of months later, a flood hit the Midwest. I don't remember hearing about people dying in their homes or looting. Nor did you hear of the National Guard having to be mobilized to handle the populace.

Another one that really gets me is

"I have never been so embarrased (sic) to say I am from Texas as I have been these last eight years."

I haven’t read anything that leaves me with the feeling Texas is all that glad to have you. Tell you what. Head south. Seriously, hop in your jalopy, drive until you hit water, and then take a swim. That, if you'll pardon the cliché, will kill two birds with one stone. You'll no longer have to say you're from Texas OR from America. Instead, you can whine to the President of Mexico, [as world weary as you make yourself out to be, you know who he is, right?] about how he makes you embarrassed (note the spelling... "ss", two of them, as in "ass") to tell people you're from Mexico.

Oh, and you might want to hold that thought while you’re there, as you might not like the Mexican response.

But, wait, "Fortunately, I haven’t traveled to other countries". Fortunately! FORTUNATELY? So, you've never been anywhere but here but you're willing to throw your entire country under the bus simply because of the President? Yeah, you're truly a proud American. "Proud" in the same way that the President-elect's wife was "proud" to be an American. Well, I have traveled to other countries and have always been glad to be back. And, Texas – what a great place so long as you’re not subjected to the vagaries of Baghdad on the Brazos.

"And since we are on the Texas thing, what the hell is up with your accent?" Yeah, America isn't a melting pot at all. Can't have different dialects merging. That would never do.

In your closing, you stated "I would like to express my feelings by quoting your eloquent Vice President, Dick Cheney..." (It’s a bit lost out of context to its original utterance, by the way.) Instead, I'm going to quote another, eloquent American, Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.

"Now, please respond with that biting sarcasm for which you are so well known, and bite me."

UPDATE 2009/07/05: Mike the Marine provided a much more curt appraisal of those who would turn this great country into a cult of personality.

Problems with Paperport 11 Not Responding

I've had problems with Paperport 11 freezing up (not responding, crashing, whatever). Turns out that my problem is that the thumbnail files (which Paperport names "PP11Thumbs.ptn" and "PP11Thumbs.ptn2") were corrupted. I exited out of Paperport (it was not responding anyway), went into the directory where those files were stored, and deleted them both.

All that does is, when Paperport 11 starts up and you go into that directory, it will take a few extra seconds while it rebuilds the thumbnails. However, it won't freeze up anymore after that.

I have to agree with the many people who are very unhappy with the fact that the program crashes, but this is a work-around until Nuance fixes the problem. If that ever happens.

The US Patent Office's Secret Patents

I've come to realize that all of the patents currently held by the US Patent Office are secret. How do I know? Well, take a look at this screenshot from my computer (using Firefox Ver. 3.0.8 as my browser). I'm supposed to be looking at an image of a page from one of Edwin Armstrong's patents for frequency modulation. Instead, I'm looking at... nothing. Nothing at all. Why? It seems that the Patent Office, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to use Quicktime to display images. And Firefox appears to have, uh, *issues* with Quicktime.

So my question is simple. Why Quicktime? Why not simple images (JPG, PNG, whatever)? Even Internet Explorer can display those properly.

Sigh.

Farewell to Another "Red Tail"

Walter Palmer, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, earned a new set of wings.

God speed, sir.

Respect Earned

I was teaching a small class on all things RF. One of the students was a Marine. He was quiet, but when I would ask general questions of the class, he was one of the ones who would proffer an answer. He also asked lots of questions. But one of the things that I noticed one day was that he was always 15 minutes late. That's unlike any Marine I've ever known. Marines are always punctual. Always. At first, it was annoying. Then I decided to confront him. Well, he beat me to it. On the third day, he came up to me during a break. Looking me straight in the eye, he quietly said, "Sir, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going through a divorce right now." My heart went out to him. Such a thing would be devastating to me. I blurted out, "I'm sorry."

He wasn't looking for sympathy. He was simply passing information. "I wanted you to know that because now I have to get my daughter off to school. So I can't get here til 8:15." I should have known. From then on, I always noted that, right at 8:15, we was walking in the door. But then on the last day, it's test time. Unfortunately, snow has caused a problem. Schools are opening two hours late. He has to stay home with his daughter because he has not been able to set-up childcare yet. We have two tests to get through. He's missed the first one, and we're well into the second when he finally walks... er, charged would be a more apt term... through the door. I handed him a copy of the second test and said, "We'll make up the other one later." Even though the second test is open book / open notes, he simply gets out a single sheet with some precisely written notes, a calculator, a pencil and an eraser. And everything is placed precisely on the desktop in front of him. He goes through the first test in brisk order. He hands it in and says, "Can I take the first one now?" I'm shocked at how quickly he's gone through the test, thinking, "He must have skipped some stuff." But I quickly drop the first test in front of him. He runs through it with the same, brisk pace. When he hands it in less than 15 minutes later (an hour was allotted for the test), I looked around. Despite the fact that he came in late, he breezed through both tests and still finished before several other students.

And how did he do? Well, let me just say that his grades would do ANYone proud, Marine or otherwise.

Another EMT Story

A friend just sent me a video of a woman kicking the living p*ss out of a guy. From the context, it seems that he started it (after he got drunk), but she finished it. Reminds me of a story from when I was a firefighter. I was driving the ambulance this time, unlike my first story. The call was for a "person injured in a fight". The part of town where the call came from was not, shall we say, a good part of town. Any time the cops went in there, they went (a) in force and (b) loaded for bear. We pulled into the community behind two cop cars who raced ahead. By the time we got there, there were already five cop cars in front of a townhome.

Now, picture this: A small townhome. A front door made of glass and the glass is completely shattered. Surrounding the front yard is a 4' high chain link fence. The fence is roughly 15' from the front door. Lying on the ground where the fence hits the grass is a man, clutching the fence as if his life depended on it, crying, and he's yelling, "She was trying to kill me! She was trying to kill me!" Standing on the front porch are three women. One is relatively slender and of normal height (5' 8" or so). The other two are, shall we say, more substantial. All three are looking at this guy lying in the grass as if he were a cockroach to be stepped on. My aide and I start working on this guy. He's pretty well banged up. Has a nice cut over his right eye and a knot that's getting egg-sized. And more cuts all over. Oh, and he reeks of alcohol. We get him loaded into the back of the ambulance. Once we do, I ask the cops what happened because my aide needs to put it into her report.

Turns out that this guy has a history of domestic violence. This was his third time attacking the slender woman mentioned above (his girlfriend). In most cases, victims of domestic violence figure it's their own fault. Perhaps this women did, too. The first two times. But not this time. She called her two sister's to come help her. The two sisters (uh, BIG sisters would be the apt term here) came over and, uh, helped. They proceeded to give this guy (as another buddy called it) a "severe thumpin'". They finished him by tossing him through the front door. The plate glass front door. How in the world he did not wind up with deep gashes and life-threatening arterial bleeds, I will never know.

Let's just make this simple. The idea of "Don't Marry a Woman Bigger Than You" or "Don't Live With A Girlfriend With Two Sisters Bigger and Tougher Than You" isn't easy enough. How about, "Don't Commit Violence On Your Wife / Girlfriend / Significant Other"?

Just a thought.

Manny Acta - Class Act

The wife lucked into some tickets for the 2009 Natsfest in DC. I'm not much of a sports fan. Never really have been. I'm a geek. To me, jocks were those guys we made fun of when they weren't stomping mudholes in us just for kicks. Anyway, the Natsfest is an openhouse at the Nationals Stadium. Pretty much everything is open. We toured the various executive clubs, had our pictures taken with different players, and enjoyed the sights. One of the things that my wife wanted to see was the PNC club. At the time we went, Manny Acta, general manager of the Nats, was giving a talk. I'd seen him a few times during the afternoon. He'd signed autographs until he literally begged to stop because his wrist hurt. After that, he simply asked if he could just have his picture taken with the visitors.

Then the talk started. Manny was having a conversation with Charlie Slowes, the voice of the Nationals Radio. Then the floor was opened for questions. Four or five people managed to get in questions. The interesting part, to me, was how Manny handled the questions. He treated each one as if it was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard. He was straightforward, witty, and intelligent. At 3:30, he was told that only one more question would be allowed. Manny was surprised; his response was, "Do I have to be somewhere else?" That wasn't it. Another group was going to use the area after us. So we had to clear out. But it was obvious to me that he was enjoying the Q & A. Yes, it could have been an act, but Gywneth Paltrow at her best could not have matched him. He was terrific.

So, I have to give credit where it's due. Manny Acta is a class act.

DTV is coming!

In less than a month and a half, standard analog broadcasts across the US will cease. However, not all analog signals will cease. For example, if you are on cable systems, you will most likely still see analog for quite a while. If you are getting your signals over the air (meaning you use an antenna, not through a cable service provider or satellite dish), there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Channel Numbers: In the analog world, the channel number referred to the actual RF channel (a 6 MHz wide chunk of spectrum) that your TV used. For example, if you were watching channel 2, that meant that your TV was tuned to a signal residing between 54 - 60 MHz. Or perhaps you were watching channel 13, which referred to the spectrum between 210 - 216 MHz. Well, in the digital world, it's not that simple. As part of the digital bit stream coming into your digital-ready TV (or digital converter box), each channel is assigned a "virtual channel number". This may (or may not) be the same as the RF channel. Look at the image at left. This shows the RF channel number (27) and the assigned virtual channel number (26-1). Most likely, the virtual channel number applies to the station's analog channel number, which most people are used to.


• Multicasting: Notice how your digital channels are listed as "26.1" or "26-1"? That's because of something called "multicasting". That means that a TV station can put multiple programs onto one RF channel. For example, in the image shown, the channel is listed as "26-1". That's because it is the first program on the channel. But there are others. In this case, there were four programs running on this one RF channel. The first, listed as "26-1", was a program about home improvement. The second, third, and fourth programs (listed as "26-2", "26-3", and "26-4", of course), were a local program about Washington, DC, a cartoon, and a news program.


• RF Channels: The FCC first established 82 channels for analog television (channels 2- 83). In the 1980s, the top 14 channels (70 - 83) were given up for a new service called "cellular telephone". Now, with the transition to digital television, even more RF channels will be given up; channels 52 - 69, to be precise. Starting on 17 February, only RF channels 2 - 51 will be available for television. Those channels from 52 - 69 (a total of 108 MHz) will be used for new wireless services. But, in a practical sense, this also means that, if you already have a digital TV or converter box, you will need to re-scan on or near that date. That's because many stations will be changing frequencies. Your TV will need to know where to find them, requiring a rescan of the RF channels.