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.

Thanks for Christmas Eve

As I sit writing this missive, thousands of my fellow citizens stand duty in harm's way thousands of miles from here. Thousands of miles from friends and, more importantly, family. I've just had a wonderful Christmas Eve day. Presents, good food, and family. But I digress. The point is that I do this knowing that my fellow citizens, volunteers all, are in harm's way this holiday season.

And if it weren't for those people, the world situation would be far, far worse. This wonderful Christmas of mine would not be possible.

So, to all of you, far away in really crappy conditions doing what you volunteered to do, please accept this:

Merry Christmas. And thank you.

Let Me Say "Thank You"... Again

It's 1973. I'm eight years old. The nerdiness has already set in. I'm a voracious reader. I'm very big into books about submarines, World War II, airplanes, World War II, and Abraham Lincoln. Probably in that order. One summer, my parents took me and my siblings (all four of them) to the Indiana State Fair. I remember wandering around the fair with my Mom's hand firmly clasped in mine. We wandered up to a large table stacked with all kinds of second-hand books. The man working the table was very nice. He asked my Mom if I read. Her response was something along the lines of, "Oh, yes. He reads constantly." I was already pawing through the books on the table. At one point, he reached over, picked up a small, short book. It had a red cover and was a collection of humorous letters sent to the Beatles. It's title was something like, "Hey, John, Paul, Ringo, & George: Can I have a lock of your hair?" Something like that. He then said I could have it. Free. It was mine to take home.

I know that book is still around somewhere. I know I read it many times. Frankly, I read it at least once before I left the fair. My parents, at one point, wanted to watch one of the livestock shows. So, I sat with them and read that book. If I hadn't had that book, I'd still love to read. My parents really encouraged it. Growing up, my bedroom had a medium sized walk-in closet with shelves ringing the top 3 feet. And each shelf was cram-packed with old books. I learned of astronomy, physics, history, calendars, on and on, thanks to that closet of books. And for that, I thank my parents. That, and much, much more.

Still, this stranger added to my love of reading just a bit more. That love has stayed with me. Part of the reason I love to read blogs. I just love reading. And he showed me that a simple act of kindness can have a long-term affect.

That day at the Fair, before we left that stranger's table, my Mom (being a Mom and in her best Mom voice) said, "Say 'Thank you.'" I know I did. Otherwise, I would not have lived through that day. But that was a thank you of an eight year old under penalty of getting a whoopin'. So, here, now, and with Mother safely many hundreds of miles away, I think it befitting that I say,

Thank you.

Dual Monitors, But I Don't Know How

I have a (now older) Pentium 4 computer. About a year ago, the video card went Tango Uniform. As a replacement, I bought a PNY nVidia GEForce 8500 GT. A nice card, frankly. I've heard others say that it's a less-than-stellar performer for games, but I don't play games on my computer. That's what my PS2 / PS3 are for.

Anyway, the card comes with three outputs, a DVI, a VGA, and an S-Video. I recently purchased an LG 19" monitor and mounted it the wall above my current computer monitor. The LG is a nice, little monitor. It even came with VGA inputs. Which got me to thinking, Can I use this for a dual-monitor set-up?

The short answer is, Yes. But here's the problem. I don't know how I got here. Here's how I have them set-up.

• Both monitors are now set-up in their native resolution. The Samsung uses 1920 x 1200. The LG uses 1440 x 900.


• They're set-up in a top/bottom combination. That means that I go through the top of the Samsung, which puts me on the bottom of the LG (mounted on the wall above the Samsung).


• Each can have a different wallpaper.


• Windows boots up and runs from the Samsung monitor.
  

Here's what I remember. I started with the nVidia GEForce window that appears when you go to "nVidia Display" window. I then clicked on one of the wizard buttons, followed by a few of the others, then I wound up with all of the settings I have now.

And it works pretty well. The only drawback is that some of the high-resolution graphics don't pan as smoothly as before. But otherwise, it works just fine.

The Engineer's Creed

With all due respect to the US Marine Corps, my good friend Jeff provided me with the following "Engineer's Creed".

I could not have said it better myself.

This is my calculator. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My calculator is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My calculator, without me, is useless. Without my calculator, I am useless. I must key my calculator true. I must calculate better than any enemy who is trying to out-calculate me. I must calculate him before he calculates me. I will....

My calculator and myself know that what counts in this war is not the problems we solve, the size of our graphs, nor the equations we make. We know that it is the trig that counts. We will trig...

My calculator is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weakness, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its function and its keys. I will keep my calculator clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God I swear this creed. My calculator and myself are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but Peace.

Buh-bye, Skippy!

Skippy's List is off of my blog list. No more will it's URL darken this site, or any I run. Why? Well, it's gone well off the deep end, and wound up in "let's talk some seriously deranged, mental s___".

End of discussion.