law of unintended consequences New Years edition

If you have read my blog for a while you might realize that I have ADD.  If you are following along just fine you might have ADD as well.  Of course, it could also be that my medication is working.  It's not working today due to New Years.  See we are changing insurance and the new copays are lower on my medication.  I still have some, but I'm trying to wait till next year to save some money.  I'm sure that was an unintended consequence of switching insurance.

This is especially true since I get my insurance from work and I just spent an hour or so of work time looking for information about how the moon is leaving the earth's orbit because it came up on Google news.  The internet is frustrating on this point.  You can easily find out that the moon is moving away from the earth at 1.6 inches a year, but I can't find anywhere that mentions how much this increases from year to year.  Since gravity gets weaker as distance increases this 1.6 inches should be an exponential increase instead of a linear one.  In other words the 1.6 inches this year should be 1.600000000000001 next year and 1.600000000000003 the next  and so on.  My great *10^34 grandchildren need to be ready.  Did I mention the ADD?

Here is another example of  an unintended consequence.  My wife's family has decided to have a weight loss contest starting tomorrow.  Everyone who is participating is supposed to bring $10 to the reunion in March and see who has lost the most.  The unintended consequence of this is that I have been eating everything I can since I heard about it just to weigh more before I start loosing.  That way the first few pounds are that much easier.  Cheating?  I haven't seen any real rules yet so that makes it hard to cheat.  Definitely an unintended consequence.

By the way Happy New Year

My answer for Owen Gleiberman

My wife pointed me to this article in which Owen asks "Did anyone else find Avatar’s storyline as lacking as I did? And, maybe more to the point, how much does story matter in a visually driven contemporary blockbuster? Does it matter less than it used to? And, if so, is that a good thing or a bad thing?"  True to my description at the top I'm not going to register to answer his questions, but I'll answer them here.

The short answer is yes the story does matter.  Without a good story you don't have a good movie.  With a good story you have a chance for a good movie.

However the story is not everything.  You remember that movie with a great story, but terrible acting and cinematography?  Me neither.  I do remember a great movie with a good story, and great acting, but had no special effects.  The movie was "12 Angry Men".  In it the acting was so good that you don't even realize that the whole thing was done in one room.

In a way that movie was the opposite of Avatar.  Avatar had stunning visuals while 12 angry men didn't.  Both had a decent story.  12 Angry Men had great acting while Avatar didn't have access to that level of acting.  Both movies were entertaining, but in different ways.

Seperating Droid contacts

Some people enjoy turkey for Christmas.  However, I am eating crow this year.  If you remember in an earlier post I complained about not having a setting to choose whether or not the contacts were together.  I found that if you edit the contact and then hit the menu you have an option to separate the contacts.

I kinda feel like this.

Avatar More

Earlier I mentioned that Avatar made me think of "Dances with Halo".  The post was real short and I feel like you need a little more explanation.

The "Dances with Wolves" thing comes from the main character being left in enemy territory alone and becoming a member of the enemy tribe.  There are some other aspects to the story that set it apart, but that's the main story.

The Halo reference comes from the idea of marines in space.  Also the way the technology looked advanced, but not too very far advanced from what we use today reminded me of Halo.  In Halo and Avatar the characters were using bullets instead of energy weapons of some kind.  The vehicles were not using some anti-gravity field to move around.  I could imagine the military using battle suits like the ones shown in the movie for this type of thing.  They look lighter than tanks, and I would suspect that legs wouldn't come off the vehicle like treads do sometimes. The downside to this is that they look taller than a tank which means that they are easier to hit.

The graphics were good enough that I couldn't tell that they were graphics.

Avatar

Today, I saw Avatar.  My first impression was "Dances with Halo", but that's not a bad thing.  I liked "Dances with Wolves", and I liked Halo.  If you like sci-fi it's worth it to see this one. 

Merry Christmas

As I get older time seems to go by faster.  I remember when five minutes took several hours.  Now, it's Christmas time.  As you go out getting those last few things remember why we celebrate Christmas.  I changed my page today and put a link in the "Peace on Earth" graphic to remind everyone of what we are really celebrating.

The fact that God sent His Son into this world to save us becomes more amazing to me every day because of my son.  I don't mind telling you that I wouldn't send my son to save you.  You aren't worth it, not to me, and by "you" I mean the whole world including me. The amazing thing is that God felt otherwise... about us.  Don't let this season distract you from the gift that you have been given.

Google

I just saw this article about yet another new phone, but this one is from Google.  I'm not really salivating over this like the article says.  I think the article itself is propaganda, I think the "leaks" are just marketing, and I think that the phone will be one an HTC phone that Google has spiced up a bit and then branded. 

I do like the idea of the phone being unlocked to begin with, but I'm not sure that it will sell.  Most of the time people buy their phones through the carriers by entering into a contract with the carrier.  I’m not sure that the carriers will buy into the menu idea and still subsidize an unlocked phone. 

On a larger scale I’m intrigued at the things that Google is doing as a company.  At first Google was just a search engine/marketing company.  Now they are doing web browsers, cell phone operating systems, maps, email, corporate email, productivity software, and operating systems.  The article that I started with begins by saying “Watch out Apple”, but it looks more like it should be watch out Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Dell and anyone else in the technology sector.  I included Dell because after Google got android on phones they are contracting to make their own phones.  It’s not a big leap to think that they would do the same thing with Chromium.  I like these developments.  I would like to log in to Google Apps someday and take care of problems that happen on one of my branches Google computers that are running Chromium, or have someone in the company able to coordinate service using Google latitude that was deployed to our android phones. 

I’m concerned that they wont be able to pull it off.  I’m not questioning their technical skills.  I just think that as a company Google will not be able to focus on doing these other things well and maintain their focus on doing search.  I hope I’m wrong in this.

The Droid adventure continues

Yesterday I posted about a problem I had with the Droid voice search.  I have fixed the problem.  Well, I think I fixed the problem.  When I posted the problem on this blog I also posted a complaint on the Motorola support forum.  Doing this required me to register which in turn required the serial number of my phone.  So it is possible that one of the techs at the support group reached out and fixed something over the air, but they haven't taken credit for doing it.  I handle some of the helpdesk calls at work and I take credit for fixing stuff if they call me.  I do this even if I didn't do anything to fix the problem because I will get the blame for the computer not working even if I didn't mess it up.  So I think I fixed the problem.

Here is what I did:
First I exported all of my contacts from Outlook.  I have multiple email addresses, and almost all of my contacts are in Outlook.

Next I imported them to Gmail.

Then I went into settings > Privacy> factory data reset.  I had to reactivate the phone.  When I did I only told it about my gmail account.

Then I called someone.

Then I joined the phone to one of my other accounts and tested the phone call again.

Here's what I think the issue was:

I think that the phone does not look at Exchange contacts in the same way as it looks at Gmail contacts.  The first time I tried the voice dial thing I tried to call someone who was not on the Gmail contact list.  Somehow this confused it and it got stuck searching the web instead of looking at the contacts.

I didn't spend as much time as usual trying to get my thoughts into coherent words this time.  I apologize for this.  I just wanted to get this fix posted.

More on the Droid

I should have just put all my findings in one blog.  I wasn’t thinking about how separating the different complaints would look.  Sorry about that. 

I have the car dock.  This makes the phone answering and speaker thing even more annoying because the phone knows it’s in a car dock, but still wants me to swipe to answer, and it wants to send the conversation to the regular phone instead of the speaker.  I think that Motorola makes Bluetooth kits which would explain this problem.  The other problem that I have in the car dock it that the voice dial does not work.  A co-worker also has the droid.  On his phone the voice dial works.  When you press the search button you can say “Call” and the phone part comes up to ask you who to call.  On mine doing the same thing results in a Google search for the word “call”. 

Yet, periodically it gives me this message to mock me.

I told my Verizon rep that this does not work.  I think it's been three weeks now, and I haven't heard anything from him.  Apparently he doesn't work either.  I'm not the only one with the problem.  You might notice my post on the Motorola site.  If you are about to buy a Droid make sure that you test this before you walk out the door since some of the phones work and others don't.

I have posted a lot of complaints about the Droid, and if you will bear with me I should be able to finish up (unless I find something else).

I like the combined inbox.  I have more than one email account, and it's easier to check them all in one place.  They tried to combine the contacts some as well and messed it up a bit for me.  My father's nickname is Mike.  His name is Roy, but everyone has always called him Mike.  My father's father and his father before him were named Roy.  My grandmother started calling my father Mike to lessen the confusion.  The nickname stuck and it is my actual name.  Thus like my father I can be called Mike, but I don't have the jr after my name.  Instead of calling me Roy to really confuse people I have always been Michael and my father is Mike.

"Neat story, but what does it have to do with your phone" you say?  Well, since I assumed you said that I'll tell you.  When the phone imported my contacts from the Exchange server it saw Mike and Michael with the same last name and assumed that they were the same person.  This wouldn't be a big deal except that there is no setting that I can find to tell the phone to treat the two as different.

Another thing I noticed is with the lattitude part of the maps.  It seems to almost work.  By that I mean that someone who I have shared my location with can get my last updated location, but the updates seem to be sporadic, and I can't find any setting that will allow me to change how often this update get's sent.

This leads in to the feeling that I have gotten throughout dealing with the phone that there are settings beyond my reach.  I don't really want to have to adjust everything on the phone, but I do want to be able to.  I feel like I could fix some of these things on my own if there was a setting to change.

Droid battery

I'm tempted to create a new blog and name it "Mike's Gripes". Keep in mind what I said at the beginning about how I liked the phone in general. There are plenty of good things about the phone that the marketing departments of Verison and Morotola should be letting you know about. I feel that since they are already bringing you all the good stuff it is more valuable to hear the things that they wont be telling you.

For instance, the battery is not as good as I would like. Seems like all that neat stuff that it does takes power. I opened the battery cover on my phone (don't do this with yours) and took the battery out to get an idea of the size and weight of the battery. The weight is barely noticable, and it's fairly thin. It's thin and light enough that doubling the size would not cause me any grief.

Above I mentioned that you shouldn't open your battery door. The problem that I have come accross with it is that it comes off more easily than I want. I hesitated bringing this up because I realize that there's a balance between comming off at a slight breeze and needing a cutting torch to change the battery. What I want is to be able to get the battery cover to open when I want to while not having it fall off the phone as a result of getting out of the car (which happened last night). The cynical side of me wonders if this is not a feature designed to sell after market replacement battery covers. I tend to doubt this though since you can prevent the cover from coming off by putting some duck tape on the cover right over the Motorola, Google and Verizon logos. While you have the duck tape out you can go ahead and make a case for the phone (I'm never buying a cell phone case again). 

Tiger Woods

I just saw the SNL skit about Tiger Woods.  I thought it was funny. I suspect there is more truth to it than we imagine.

 I have some advice for Tiger and all of the celebrities out there (not that I think they are reading my blog).  This bit of advice was given to me by CSM Purdy many years ago when I was in the Army.  He told me "Son, you can't hide nothing from nobody."  I don't remember what I was trying to hide, but over the years this has proven to be true.

Droid

At the risk of seeming like a grouch I'll go on about what I don't like about the Droid.  The swipe to answer thing is neat to look at.  There are a couple of problems with it though.  First of all it takes some getting used to.  My wife who also has one has swiped the wrong way several times.  This turns the sound off so that the next call does not ring.  


This isn't a big problem.  This is just something to get used to.  The problem comes when you are driving.  I don't have a Bluetooth hands free set up in my car.  That means that answering the phone requires me to swipe the phone and then somehow put it on speaker while not crashing.  


The reason this bothers me is that it would be easy to fix.  The phone has a gps.  It wouldn't be that hard for a piece of software to look at the current speed and change this behavior if say the speed was greater than ten miles per hour.  Then you could give the user two big buttons and send the call to speaker if the user decides to answer.    This wouldn't be that bothersome for a passenger and it might just prevent an accident.

           

  

Droid copy and paste

I got a droid a little while back. This is strange for me as I usually don't go out and get the newest toys to come out. Instead, I tend to wait til the price comes down and the bugs get worked out. This time, however, I went ahead and took the plunge.

Overall I like the phone. There are some things that I don't like about it though. These have not been critical for me, but they might cause problems for others. Rather than create one long post with all the problems so far I intend to create multiple posts to break it up a bit.


First of all, I tried to copy some text from an email. I can't find a way to do it. I was trying to fix another problem and got tired of having to manually enter a password on one of my accounts because the characters are hard to get to on the droid keyboard. The Blackberry I had before could do this. Why wouldn't a droid?

Google changes the world

Just noticed this.  Apparently, there are more than 7 continents.  Go to Google maps and select terain view and zoom all the way out to see what I mean.

Google Apps

Gogle has a service that they call Google Apps.  For the most part I like this service.  There are a couple of problems that I have run into.  These are related and simple to fix which makes them all the more annoying.  The problem has to do with Google maps.  You see to have “my maps” in the Google maps area you have to have a Google account.  The Google Apps account will not work for this.

I know, you’re thinking “Big Deal a Gmail account is free”.  Maybe you are right, but they ironically reference a type of club that would love for its members to have maps.

Also, a business with more than one location might want to provide a map to those locations.  It’s just possible that they might not want to have to recreate that map when the employee with the gmail account leaves.  The other problem is that the Local Business Center also has to be tied to a gmail account. 

I know that there is a work-around, but I hate having to use work-arounds especially when the fix should be easy.  The Google Apps accounts are for all intents and purposes gmail accounts with different branding.  It should be real simple for Google to enable all the functionality that the regular gmail accounts have.  Google, if you need help with the code to do this just send me the part that is giving you trouble, and I’ll fix it for you.

The work around for these problems is to create a gmail account for the company or club involved.  Then share the password with the key people who will be using it.  Then you will need to change the password when people leave.  This is not ideal because these people might figure out that they are about to leave and change the password ahead of time.  I haven’t seen this problem happen in the past, but it’s something to keep in mind. 

As I said above I like the service in general.  It’s not a total replacement to Microsoft Office, but the price is right.  Even if you go to the premium service the license is a lot simpler to understand than the Microsoft model which seems to be designed to confuse you.  I would recommend this and Open Office to any small business or club before they sink a lot of money into Microsoft products.

Korea

Besides not having to register with multiple different news sites posting my comments here allows me to comment on more than one story at the same time.  I noticed this news story about S. Korea hoping that the naval clash would not leave a negative impact on inter Korean ties.  Some people don’t realize this but the Korean war is not technically over.  They have a ceasefire which has lasted fifty years.  So I guess they are saying we hope that this firing at each other’s ships does not end the ceasefire.  According to this it was already too late for that.  I hope it doesn’t get any worse.

Veterans Day

I want to write something special for veterans day, but I’m having trouble finding the words.  From the first days of our Revolutionary war to a few days ago people have seen fit to step forward and risk their lives for this country.  How can any words do justice to that?  If those words exist I don’t have them.  Instead I’ll invite you to find a veteran and thank them for their service, remember those who are no longer with us, and pray for those who are serving now.

What the extremists want

Some time after 9-11 I wondered what the oxygen thieves hoped to accomplish.  To my knowledge we had done nothing to them.  So I looked around on the internet to try to find the answer.  I figured that they might have wanted to call attention to their cause, and thus might have at least had a website. 

Well at the time if they had a website Google didn’t know about it.  Admittedly I may have been putting in the wrong search terms.  There is a great deal of information about the Arab Israeli conflict.  Searching for Arab USA conflict turns up a lot of stuff about the Arab Israeli conflict which again is not what I was looking for.  If you are wondering about the Arab Israel conflict it boils down to this;

1. The Ottoman Empire lost Palestine to Britain in World War One.
   
   
2. The British decided that they liked the idea of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
   
   
3. The Arabs didn’t like this.
   
   
4. The British went to the UN for help, and the UN thought that there was enough room for both.  So that’s what they did.
   
   
5. The Arabs didn’t like this either, so they started and lost wars which expanded Israel.
   
   

All of that brings me back to the question of “why target the USA”.  Then I saw this article about our Ft. Hood oxygen thief.  That lead me to this other article which finally explains what the extremists want in these words “We pray that we may witness the dismantlement of western, secular dominance across the world as we hold it to be pagan and idolatrous in the majority of its presumptions. We seek a resurrection of the just example set forth by centuries of Islamic rule throughout the ages and we hold it to be self evident for the objective soul and mind that Allah is One and that Muhammad ibn Abdullah is His Prophet and that the religion offers the solution to all of the world's ills and afflictions.” 

So basically they want to rule the world.  I would suggest that they follow the instructions found here.

Medicare fraud

I saw this article the other day.  I am against true Medicare fraud.  I don’t like any type of fraud.  The problem is that Medicare lumps something called “Medical Necessity” in with fraud.  This inflates the dollar amount involved by an unknown quantity. 

“Medical Necessity” is exactly what it sounds like.  Someone at Medicare decided that the patient did not need the treatment or item provided.  The real problem with this is that the people at Medicare haven’t seen the patient, and have no idea what the patient really needs.  It has been my experience that Medicare is wrong, but you have to appeal these cases to a very high level to prove it.  Based on that, I would consider these cases of Medicare committing fraud (or theft of services) against providers.

So in summary no one should be getting away with fraud.  This includes Medicare.  That’s the way I see it. 

combat soccer

A Couple of days ago I saw this article which made me remember a sport that we played when I was in the military.  We called it combat soccer mainly because we played it at the soccer field with a soccer ball.  This is where the similarities between the official version and our version end. 

Once the platoon arrived at the soccer field we were divided up into two teams.  Then the platoon sergeant would assign each team a goal and go over all of the rules of the game.  I still remember all of the rules pretty much verbatim so here they are;

1.    Don’t kill each other.

2.    If you get the ball in the goal you get a point.

3.    The team with the most points wins.

During one game I remember running to catch the ball that someone had thrown and seeing something approach me out of the corner of my eye.  I don’t remember the rest of that day, but I think it was fun. 

A coward

It states in this article that the investigators are looking into how and why Nidal Malik Hasan shot his fellow soldiers.  There are some that are saying that he was harassed because of being muslim, or that he had a problem with our military fighting with his fellow muslims.  Neither of these are reasons to violate your oath, much less attack fellow soldiers who are unarmed at the time.  Muslims have fought one another before and I didn't see anything in the oath that said anything resembeling "unless I feel like I'm being harassed". 

No, this was a rear echelon individual with no concept of honor who would rather shoot unarmed individuals than face his "muslim brothers" who are armed.  In other words a weak coward which I will not elevate to the title of a man.  Henceforth, I will instead refer to him and those like him as "oxygen thieves" because they are using oxygen that real people deserve.

Note: My wife mentioned that this post was not clear before.  I hope this clears everything up.

 

Open letter to the Federal Reserve

Dear Sirs,
     I am very interested in your zero interest rate.  I would like to borrow $3 billion to start an investment group.  I intend to repay you with bailout money after I'm too big to fail.  Due to my previous post the NSA, CIA, Secret Service and FBI all have any further information you might need about me to process this loan request.  Thank you.

P. S.  I've already had swine flu so I wont need the shots.  Of course, one of the groups listed above probably told you that already.

new job

If your boss has to appear on the Today show and explain why you failed to do your job you might need to start looking for another job.

Adsense Echelon pageview

I didn’t really pay attention to the whole AdSense thing when I clicked on “Monetize” in my settings. Apparently there is money involved if a whole bunch of people look at my page.


This made me wonder about how many security agencies monitor internet web pages, and how many of them would end up visiting my blog if I put words like the following that I copied from this article. I also wonder if Echelon follows the links to check up on those possibly evil agencies.  It's possible that whole teams of people might be alerted and have to check everything out very thouroughly. 

Rewson, SAFE, Waihopai, INFOSEC, ASPIC, MI6, Information Security, SAI, Information Warfare, IW, IS, Privacy, Information Terrorism, Terrorism

Defensive Information, Defense Information Warfare, Offensive Information, Offensive Information Warfare, The Artful Dodger, NAIA, SAPM, ASU, ASTS,

National Information Infrastructure, InfoSec, SAO, Reno, Compsec, JICS,

Computer Terrorism, Firewalls, Secure Internet Connections, RSP, ISS, JDF,

Ermes, Passwords, NAAP, DefCon V, RSO, Hackers, Encryption, ASWS, CUN, CISU,

CUSI, M.A.R.E., MARE, UFO, IFO, Pacini, Angela, Espionage, USDOJ, NSA, CIA,

S/Key, SSL, FBI, Secert Service, USSS, Defcon, Military, White House,

Undercover, NCCS, Mayfly, PGP, SALDV, PEM, resta, RSA, Perl-RSA, MSNBC, bet,

AOL, AOL TOS, CIS, CBOT, AIMSX, STARLAN, 3B2, BITNET, SAMU, COSMOS, DATTA,

Furbys, E911, FCIC, HTCIA, IACIS, UT/RUS, JANET, ram, JICC, ReMOB, LEETAC,

UTU, VNET, BRLO, SADCC, NSLEP, SACLANTCEN, FALN, 877, NAVELEXSYSSECENGCEN,

BZ, CANSLO, CBNRC, CIDA, JAVA, rsta, Active X, Compsec 97, RENS, LLC, DERA,

JIC, rip, rb, Wu, RDI, Mavricks, BIOL, Meta-hackers, ^?, SADT, Steve Case,

Tools, RECCEX, Telex, Aldergrove, OTAN, monarchist, NMIC, NIOG, IDB, MID/KL,

NADIS, NMI, SEIDM, BNC, CNCIS, STEEPLEBUSH, RG, BSS, DDIS, mixmaster, BCCI,

BRGE, Europol, SARL, Military Intelligence, JICA, Scully, recondo, Flame,

Infowar, FRU, Bubba, Freeh, Archives, ISADC, CISSP, Sundevil, jack,

Investigation, JOTS, ISACA, NCSA, ASVC, spook words, RRF, 1071, Bugs Bunny,

Verisign, Secure, ASIO, Lebed, ICE, NRO, Lexis-Nexis, NSCT, SCIF, FLiR, JIC,

bce, Lacrosse, Flashbangs, HRT, IRA, EODG, DIA, USCOI, CID, BOP, FINCEN,

FLETC, NIJ, ACC, AFSPC, BMDO, site, SASSTIXS, NAVWAN, NRL, RL, NAVWCWPNS,

NSWC, USAFA, AHPCRC, ARPA, SARD, LABLINK, USACIL, SAPT, USCG, NRC, ~, O,

NSA/CSS, CDC, DOE, SAAM, FMS, HPCC, NTIS, SEL, USCODE, CISE, SIRC, CIM, ISN,

DJC, LLNL, bemd, SGC, UNCPCJ, CFC, SABENA, DREO, CDA, SADRS, DRA, SHAPE,

bird dog, SACLANT, BECCA, DCJFTF, HALO, SC, TA SAS, Lander, GSM, T Branch,

AST, SAMCOMM, HAHO, FKS, 868, GCHQ, DITSA, SORT, AMEMB, NSG, HIC, EDI,

benelux, SAS, SBS, SAW, UDT, EODC, GOE, DOE, SAMF, GEO, JRB, 3P-HV, Masuda,

Forte, AT, GIGN, Exon Shell, radint, MB, CQB, TECS, CONUS, CTU, RCMP, GRU,

SASR, GSG-9, 22nd SAS, GEOS, EADA, SART, BBE, STEP, Echelon, Dictionary,

MD2, MD4, MDA, diwn, 747, ASIC, 777, RDI, 767, MI5, 737, MI6, 757, Kh-11,

EODN, SHS, ^X, Shayet-13, SADMS, Spetznaz, Recce, 707, CIO, NOCS, Halcon,

NSS, Duress, RAID, Uziel, wojo, Psyops, SASCOM, grom, NSIRL, D-11, DF, ZARK,

SERT, VIP, ARC, S.E.T. Team, NSWG, MP5k, SATKA, DREC, DEVGRP, DSD, FDM, GRU,

LRTS, SIGDEV, NACSI, MEU/SOC,PSAC, PTT, RFI, ZL31, SIGDASYS, TDM. SUKLO,

Schengen, SUSLO, TELINT, fake, TEXTA. ELF, LF, MF, Mafia, JASSM, CALCM,

TLAM, Wipeout, GII, SIW, MEII, C2W, Burns, Tomlinson, Ufologico Nazionale,

Centro, CICAP, MIR, Belknap, Tac, rebels, BLU-97 A/B, 007, nowhere.ch,

bronze, Rubin, Arnett, BLU, SIGS, VHF, Recon, peapod, PA598D28, Spall, dort,

50MZ, 11Emc Choe, SATCOMA, UHF, The Hague, SHF, ASIO, SASP, WANK, Colonel,

domestic disruption, 5ESS, smuggle, Z-200, 15kg, DUVDEVAN, RFX, nitrate,

OIR, Pretoria, M-14, enigma, Bletchley Park, Clandestine, NSO, nkvd, argus,

afsatcom, CQB, NVD, Counter Terrorism Security, Enemy of the State, SARA,

Rapid Reaction, JSOFC3IP, Corporate Security, 192.47.242.7, Baldwin, Wilma,

ie.org, cospo.osis.gov, Police, Dateline, Tyrell, KMI, 1ee, Pod, 9705

Samford Road, 20755-6000, sniper, PPS, ASIS, ASLET, TSCM, Security

Consulting, M-x spook, Z-150T, Steak Knife, High Security, Security

Evaluation, Electronic Surveillance, MI-17, ISR, NSAS, Counterterrorism,

real, spies, IWO, eavesdropping, debugging, CCSS, interception, COCOT,

NACSI, rhost, rhosts, ASO, SETA, Amherst, Broadside, Capricorn, NAVCM,

Gamma, Gorizont, Guppy, NSS, rita, ISSO, submiss, ASDIC, .tc, 2EME REP, FID,

7NL SBS, tekka, captain, 226, .45, nonac, .li, Tony Poe, MJ-12, JASON,

Society, Hmong, Majic, evil, zipgun, tax, bootleg, warez, TRV, ERV,

rednoise, mindwar, nailbomb, VLF, ULF, Paperclip, Chatter, MKULTRA, MKDELTA,

Bluebird, MKNAOMI, White Yankee, MKSEARCH, 355 ML, Adriatic, Goldman,

Ionosphere, Mole, Keyhole, NABS, Kilderkin, Artichoke, Badger, Emerson,

Tzvrif, SDIS, T2S2, STTC, DNR, NADDIS, NFLIS, CFD, BLU-114/B, quarter,

Cornflower, Daisy, Egret, Iris, JSOTF, Hollyhock, Jasmine, Juile, Vinnell,

B.D.M., Sphinx, Stephanie, Reflection, Spoke, Talent, Trump, FX, FXR, IMF,

POCSAG, rusers, Covert Video, Intiso, r00t, lock picking, Beyond Hope,

LASINT, csystems, .tm, passwd, 2600 Magazine, JUWTF, Competitor, EO, Chan,

Pathfinders, SEAL Team 3, JTF, Nash, ISSAA, B61-11, Alouette, executive,

Event Security, Mace, Cap-Stun, stakeout, ninja, ASIS, ISA, EOD, Oscor,

Tarawa, COSMOS-2224, COSTIND, hit word, hitword, Hitwords, Regli, VBS,

Leuken-Baden, number key, Zimmerwald, DDPS, GRS, AGT. AMME, ANDVT, Type I,

Type II, VFCT, VGPL, WHCA, WSA, WSP, WWABNCP, ZNI1, FSK, FTS2000, GOSIP,

GOTS, SACS STU-III, PRF, PMSP, PCMT, I&A, JRSC, ITSDN, Keyer, KG-84C,

KWT-46, KWR-46, KY-75, KYV-5, LHR, PARKHILL, LDMX, LEASAT, SNS, SVN, TACSAT,

TRANSEC, DONCAF, EAM, DSCS, DSNET1, DSNET2, DSNET3, ECCM, EIP, EKMS, EKMC,

DDN, DDP, Merlin, NTT, SL-1, Rolm, TIE, Tie-fighter, PBX, SLI, NTT, MSCJ,

MIT, 69, RIT, Time, MSEE, Cable & Wireless, CSE, SUW, J2, Embassy, ETA,

Porno, Fax, finks, Fax encryption, white noise, Fernspah, MYK, GAFE,

forcast, import, rain, tiger, buzzer, N9, pink noise, CRA, M.P.R.I., top

secret, Mossberg, 50BMG, Macintosh Security, Macintosh Internet Security,

OC3, Macintosh Firewalls, Unix Security, VIP Protection, SIG, sweep, Medco,

TRD, TDR, Z, sweeping, SURSAT, 5926, TELINT, Audiotel, Harvard, 1080H, SWS,

Asset, Satellite imagery, force, NAIAG, Cypherpunks, NARF, 127, Coderpunks,

TRW, remailers, replay, redheads, RX-7, explicit, FLAME, J-6, Pornstars,

AVN, Playboy, ISSSP, Anonymous, W, Sex, chaining, codes, Nuclear, 20,

subversives, SLIP, toad, fish, data havens, unix, c, a, b, d, SUBACS, the,

Elvis, quiche, DES, 1*, N-ISDN, NLSP, OTAR, OTAT, OTCIXS, MISSI, MOSAIC,

NAVCOMPARS, NCTS, NESP, MILSATCOM, AUTODIN, BLACKER, C3I, C4I, CMS, CMW, CP,

SBU, SCCN, SITOR, SHF/DOD, Finksburg MD, Link 16, LATA, NATIA, NATOA,

sneakers, UXO, (), OC-12, counterintelligence, Shaldag, sport, NASA, TWA,

DT, gtegsc, nowhere, .ch, hope, emc, industrial espionage, SUPIR, PI, TSCI,

spookwords, industrial intelligence, H.N.P., SUAEWICS, Juiliett Class

Submarine, Locks, qrss, loch, 64 Vauxhall Cross, Ingram Mac-10, wwics,

sigvoice, ssa, E.O.D., SEMTEX, penrep, racal, OTP, OSS, Siemens, RPC, Met,

CIA-DST, INI, watchers, keebler, contacts, Blowpipe, BTM, CCS, GSA, Kilo

Class, squib, primacord, RSP, Z7, Becker, Nerd, fangs, Austin, no
d,

Comirex, GPMG, Speakeasy, humint, GEODSS, SORO, M5, BROMURE, ANC, zone, SBI,

DSS, S.A.I.C., Minox, Keyhole, SAR, Rand Corporation, Starr, Wackenhutt, EO,

burhop, Wackendude, mol, Shelton, 2E781, F-22, 2010, JCET, cocaine, Vale,

IG, Kosovo, Dake, 36,800, Hillal, Pesec, Hindawi, GGL, NAICC, CTU, botux,

Virii, CCC, ISPE, CCSC, Scud, SecDef, Magdeyev, VOA, Kosiura, Small Pox,

Tajik, +=, Blacklisted 411, TRDL, Internet Underground, BX, XS4ALL, wetsu,

muezzin, Retinal Fetish, WIR, Fetish, FCA, Yobie, forschung, emm, ANZUS,

Reprieve, NZC-332, edition, cards, mania, 701, CTP, CATO, Phon-e, Chicago

Posse, NSDM, l0ck, beanpole, spook, keywords, QRR, PLA, TDYC, W3, CUD, CdC,

Weekly World News, Zen, World Domination, Dead, GRU, M72750, Salsa, 7,

Blowfish, Gorelick, Glock, Ft. Meade, NSWT, press-release, WISDIM, burned,

Indigo, wire transfer, e-cash, Bubba the Love Sponge, Enforcers, Digicash,

zip, SWAT, Ortega, PPP, NACSE, crypto-anarchy, AT&T, SGI, SUN, MCI,

Blacknet, ISM, JCE, Middleman, KLM, Blackbird, NSV, GQ360, X400, Texas,

jihad, SDI, BRIGAND, Uzi, Fort Meade, *&, gchq.gov.uk, supercomputer,

bullion, 3, NTTC, Blackmednet, :, Propaganda, ABC, Satellite phones, IWIS,

Planet-1, ISTA, rs9512c, Jiang Zemin, South Africa, Sergeyev, Montenegro,

Toeffler, Rebollo, sorot, Yucca Mountain, FARC, Toth, Xu Yongyue, Bach,

Razor, AC, cryptanalysis, nuclear, 52 52 N - 03 03 W, Morgan, Canine, GEBA,

INSCOM, MEMEX, Stanley, FBI, Panama, fissionable, Sears Tower, NORAD, Delta

Force, SEAL, virtual, WASS, WID, Dolch, secure shell, screws, Black-Ops,

O/S, Area51, SABC, basement, ISWG, $@, data-haven, NSDD, black-bag, rack,

TEMPEST, Goodwin, rebels, ID, MD5, IDEA, garbage, market, beef, Stego, ISAF,

unclassified, Sayeret Tzanhanim, PARASAR, Gripan, pirg, curly, Taiwan,

guest, utopia, NSG, orthodox, CCSQ, Alica, SHA, Global, gorilla, Bob,

UNSCOM, Fukuyama, Manfurov, Kvashnin, Marx, Abdurahmon, snullen, Pseudonyms,

MITM, NARF, Gray Data, VLSI, mega, Leitrim, Yakima, NSES, Sugar Grove, WAS,

Cowboy, Gist, 8182, Gatt, Platform, 1911, Geraldton, UKUSA, veggie, XM,

Parvus, NAVSVS, 3848, Morwenstow, Consul, Oratory, Pine Gap, Menwith,

Mantis, DSD, BVD, 1984, blow out, BUDS, WQC, Flintlock, PABX, Electron,

Chicago Crust, e95, DDR&E, 3M, KEDO, iButton, R1, erco, Toffler, FAS, RHL,

K3, Visa/BCC, SNT, Ceridian, STE, condor, CipherTAC-2000, Etacs, Shipiro,

ssor, piz, fritz, KY, 32, Edens, Kiwis, Kamumaruha, DODIG, Firefly, HRM,

Albright, Bellcore, rail, csim, NMS, 2c, FIPS140-1, CAVE, E-Bomb, CDMA,

Fortezza, 355ml, ISSC, cybercash, NAWAS, government, NSY, hate, speedbump,

joe, illuminati, BOSS, Kourou, Misawa, Morse, HF, P415, ladylove, filofax,

Gulf, lamma, Unit 5707, Sayeret Mat'Kal, Unit 669, Sayeret Golani, Lanceros,

Summercon, NSADS, president, ISFR, freedom, ISSO, walburn, Defcon VI, DC6,

Larson, P99, HERF pipe-bomb, 2.3 Oz., cocaine, $, imapct, Roswell, ESN, COS,

E.T., credit card, b9, fraud, ST1, assasinate, virus, ISCS, ISPR, anarchy,

rogue, mailbomb, 888, Chelsea, 1997, Whitewater, MOD, York, plutonium,

William Gates, clone, BATF, SGDN, Nike, WWSV, Atlas, IWWSVCS, Delta, TWA,

Kiwi, PGP 2.6.2., PGP 5.0i, PGP 5.1, siliconpimp, SASSTIXS, IWG, Lynch, 414,

Face, Pixar, IRIDF, NSRB, eternity server, Skytel, Yukon, Templeton,

Johohonbu, LUK, Cohiba, Soros, Standford, niche, ISEP, ISEC, 51, H&K, USP,

^, sardine, bank, EUB, USP, PCS, NRO, Red Cell, NSOF, DC7, Glock 26,

snuffle, Patel, package, ISI, INR, INS, GRU, RUOP, GSS, NSP, SRI, Ronco,

Armani, BOSS, Chobetsu, FBIS, BND, SISDE, FSB, BfV, IB, froglegs, JITEM,

SADF, advise, TUSA, LITE, PKK, HoHoCon, SISMI, ISG, FIS, MSW, Spyderco, UOP,

SSCI, NIMA, HAMASMOIS, SVR, SIN, advisors, SAP, Monica, OAU, PFS, Aladdin,

AG, chameleon man, Hutsul, CESID, Bess, rail gun, .375, Peering, CSC,

Tangimoana Beach, Commecen, Vanuatu, Kwajalein, LHI, DRM, GSGI, DST, MITI,

JERTO, SDF, Koancho, Blenheim, Rivera, Kyudanki, varon, 310, 17, 312, NB,

CBM, CTP, Sardine, SBIRS, jaws, SGDN, ADIU, DEADBEEF, IDP, IDF, Halibut,

SONANGOL, Flu, &, Loin, PGP 5.53, meta, Faber, SFPD, EG&G, ISEP, blackjack,

Fox, Aum, AIEWS, AMW, RHL, Baranyi, WORM, MP5K-SD, 1071, WINGS, cdi, VIA,

DynCorp, UXO, Ti, WWSP, WID, osco, Mary, honor, Templar, THAAD, package,

CISD, ISG, BIOLWPN, JRA, ISB, ISDS, chosen, LBSD, van, schloss, secops,

DCSS, DPSD, LIF, J-Star, PRIME, SURVIAC, telex, Analyzer, embassy, Golf,

B61-7, Maple, Tokyo, ERR, SBU, Threat, JPL, Tess, SE, Alex, EPL, SPINTCOM,

FOUO, ISS-ADP, Merv, Mexico, SUR, blocks, SO13, Rojdykarna, RSOC, USS

Banner, S511, 20755, airframe, jya.com, Furby, PECSENC, football, Agfa,

3210, Crowell, moore, 510, OADR, Smith, toffee, FIS, N5P6, EuroFed, SP4,

shelter, Crypto AG Croatian nuclear FBI colonel plutonium Ortega Waco, Texas

Panama CIA DES jihad fissionable quiche terrorist World Trade Center

assassination DES NORAD Delta Force Waco, Texas SDI explosion Serbian Panama

Uzi Ft. Meade SEAL Team 6 Honduras PLO NSA terrorist Ft. Meade strategic

supercomputer $400 million in gold bullion quiche Honduras BATF colonel

Treasury domestic disruption SEAL Team 6 class struggle smuggle M55 M51

Physical Security Division Room 2A0120, OPS 2A building 688-6911(b),

963-3371(s). Security Awareness Division (M56) Field Security Division (M52)

Al Amn al-Askari Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI)

Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti

Federalnaia sluzhba besopasnosti GCHQ MI5 Kill the president





I’ll get back to this someone’s at the door. It’s all fun and games till someone violates the patriot act.

Medicare For All

I saw this article on Google news this morning.  My initial reaction was that these people simply didn’t contribute enough to Pelosi’s last campaign.  While that’s true I also noticed that you don’t see much about the Medicare for all proposal in the news so I decided to comment on that.

First of all, I’m not as big a fan of HR 676 as you might think.  Medicare is a health insurance program.  To me it makes no sense for the government to run health care in that manner.  Here’s why;

§         You and I purchase health insurance because we don’t have the funds to hire the medical staff and purchase the equipment needed to treat our eventual medical problems.  This is not the case with a government.

§         If a healthcare provider’s primary motivation is money they are better off making the patient feel better without actually curing their problem.  This keeps the patient coming back.  Every business in the world loves repeat business.  Medicare for all would do nothing about this.

§         Over a lifetime there is no risk that you will get sick, injured, or both.  It’s a certainty.  You aren’t really insuring anything.  You are just pooling your money to pay for the eventual care that everyone will need.

§         Having healthcare structured in this way creates a claims billing and payment structure which really does nothing to treat the patient.  Yes, I’m saying that the entire health insurance industry is doing nothing to treat patients.  President Obama mentioned in one of his speeches that it’s 6% of the economy and indicated that he’s just not going to go to a single payor system.  I think that when you consider the people doing the billing it’s at least twice that.  So the current system and the “Medicare for all” system would have roughly 12% of the economy involved in nothing more than producing and paying claims.  I think I know why our health care is the most expensive in the world.

Don’t get me wrong on this.  I think healthcare is part of the government’s job for moral and practical reasons.  For the moral reasons I turn to the Bible.  If you look at Leviticus you will see that when people had problems they were to go to the priests.  In that time the priests were both the church and the government.  The argument can be made for either one being responsible for healthcare, but it can’t be made that healthcare should be a private venture.

Also, from a practical point the government should be doing healthcare for the same reasons that the government should be doing military, police, and fire. 

§         All of these require special training.  This training is expensive. 

§         There is a large portion of the time when you don’t need these services. 

§         When needed these services could save lives. 

§         Market forces combined with the above points will lead to infinite cost.  Don’t believe me?  Ok, how much would you pay for?

o       Someone to go into a burning building and rescue your family.

o       Someone to take murders, thieves, etc. to jail.

o       Someone to defend this country from all enemies foreign and domestic.

o       Someone to keep you alive.

Given all of that I still think that HR 676 would be better than any of the other things I have seen. 

Economic Crisis

In the midst of economic uncertainty I would like to say that on some basic levels our economy is somewhat safe. At a very basic level the economy is still based on a farmer planting seed and harvesting more than what was planted. All the other facets of the economy are extensions of that in some way.




Ok so where does the crisis come from? Years ago I got into a situation where I had too much month left at the end of the money. I went to one of the payday advance places and wrote a check. The problem was that they charged interest. This put me in a worse situation the next month so I ended up going back. This cycle kept going for several months until I cut something somewhere to break the cycle.



Great budget story, but what does this have to do with the economy? What I was doing was basically getting a loan against my accounts receivable. This is a common business practice which becomes the same problem. Eventually you end up with your whole AR tied up in financing.



A big problem with this, aside from the interest, is that accounts receivable are not always received. Sometimes you don’t get paid at all. Then you are out that plus interest. When you realize the problem you have to cut back somewhere to fix it, but with a business this can mean peoples jobs. The best way out of this is to never get into it.



I know that this is a simplified version of the economy, but it explains why things cycle. It also explains how things are tied together. Once a financing place can’t get it’s money back from one business it’s less likely to loan out to others even if it has money from the government to do so.

Some ideas about healthcare

Previously, I mentioned that I don’t think that the government is going to take over health insurance. In other words it is FUD. I also mentioned that I’m concerned that without regulations that define coverage criteria we will have insurance companies making up reasons not to pay claims. What you will end up with is people with insurance going bankrupt like they are now.



Thinking about it further I can see how taking over the entire health insurance market would result in a situation where it make sense for them to provide health care instead. Paying the medical providers directly in the form of a salary would certainly make more sense than funding some insurance middle man to turn around and pay the providers. Taking out the middle man removes the cost. Of course, like I said before it’s not going to happen.



Since that isn’t going to happen I would like to see a generous benefits package outlined that would be a minimum of what is covered by anyone claiming to sell health insurance. Standardizing a benefits package helps create competition. I’ve seen negotiations for insurance coverage. When the employer talks about lowering the price the insurance company talks about lowering coverage. If you try to go to a different insurance company they give you a different plan that you have to figure out. It’s really hard to get to an apples to apples comparison of plans.



Similarly, I would like for the benefits to just have a coverage percentage, deductable and maximum. Along with this I would like to see language that would allow me to have a supplemental policy to cover all the out of pocket expenses that my current coverage dose not cover.



For all the benefits mentioned above I would like to see a group of people from the health care and health insurance industries come up with standardized coverage criteria for the whole benefits package. I would like the providers of care and health insurance companies to have equal say in the coverage criteria so that you end up with criteria that are reasonable.



I like that it looks like the plans will abolish pre-existing conditions.



I would like for all of my medical records to be available to anyone treating me for anything. If this is handled through some smart chip technology, the internet, or a hybrid of the two doesn’t matter to me. We are no longer in the 1950s. We shouldn’t have a condition where one doctor doesn’t know what the other doctor has done to treat the patient.



That’s the way I see it today.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1

Just read this and had to make a comment.

Dave, Microsoft’s marketing department called and wants to know where to send the check.

Seriously, you have to be kidding. You really think we should forget about Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP and both versions of the Xbox. All of these products required fixes of some type. The lesson that comes from this is “Microsoft products are in beta until SP1”. ME and Vista never really worked at all.

Your reasoning that the fixes are the only thing that comes into play doesn’t make sense. Murphy’s law ensures that your setup will be the one that has the problem requiring the fix. You might even be the first one with that problem which means that they or you will have to come up with a work around. If you want to do that have fun with it. As for myself and our company we will wait till SP1.

Chris Turner a real hero.

I was going to post more of my ideas about health care today, but I saw this story on the TV this morning. I’ll get back to the health care tomorrow.




First of all, Chris Turner, deserves thanks for making me feel younger. I’m 41 years old and to see reports of a 62 year old man fighting and winning reminds me that I’m not that old.



I have to disagree with him, however, about being a hero. I can only imagine how he feels about being called that, but it’s true. Without him the deaths of the guards would have been just part of a tragedy where thirty some odd people died. I know they were just doing what they had to do in a tough situation, but that is what heroes do. Heroes also tend to deny that they are heroes. He earned the title by his actions. He’s not going to get rid of the title with words.

Some ideas about healthcare.

The headlines today are all about the public option. Some of our politicians are worried about the public option being a stepping stone to the government taking over healthcare. As I mentioned in my previous post I was in the Army. I have seen government run healthcare and I liked it. Unfortunately, that’s not what the stepping stone leads to. It’s not even close.


What they are really talking about is a government takeover of health insurance. This is not likely to happen either. In the article linked below professor Carroll notes several states where similar ideas have been tried. I don’t know of any of these states where the public option has lead to a government takeover of health insurance



Huffington Post – Meet the New Health Care Reform, Same as the Old Health Care Reform

I am a bit concerned about the proposed legislation for another reason. I’ve billed insurance companies before and I know that having insurance does not mean that they will pay. I also know that it’s worse to have insurance that does not pay than to have no insurance at all.


The problem when billing is that different plans within different insurance companies can come up with a different set of hoops that the provider has to jump through to get paid. As long as insurance companies get to make up these rules they will find ways to deny claims. When claims get denied the patient ends up with the bill. So the patient is out the premiums that they paid plus the amount of the medical procedure.

Afghanistan

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/10/620000438/1

I keep seeing this come up in the news. First question in my mind is why is this an Obama level decision? I know he is the commander in chief, but moving troops around should be handled at a lower level. It’s not smart for him to be involved at this level. He gets all the blame if they loose and none of the credit if they win.


As a citizen I expect our president to give the military their mission and leave it to the military to decide how to do it. He should also decide on priorities of missions. When I was in the military our squad leader might define a limit of advance. When you reached that point you would find cover and reload your weapons. On a much broader scale I expect the president to define an end point to missions given.

I don’t expect the president to understand military tactics /strategy. He has people who have been very well trained in that area. He should trust them. They understand that sending more troops does not mean sending more people to get shot at. Sending more troops means sending more people to shoot back. That’s the way I see it.