Houseboats are one thing, house islands another!
Posted By RichC on October 8, 2012
I think I may have spotted my next boat country. If you have a few bucks to spare, let’s have one built as their might be a spare room or two.
FreedomPop: A free wireless 4G Internet connection
Posted By RichC on October 8, 2012
Last week I started testing the new wireless Internet being offered by FreedomPop.com. The service is interesting because light data users can connect and use the Internet basically for “free.” Higher data use plans are available for those needing more, but requires paying for it, helping to build out the user base or completing offers on the marketing pages. I hoping to continue using it free of monthly charges, but increasing my data cap by “recommend a few people.” (hint, hint – click here and send me your email address and ask me to recommend you for the beta). I’m thinking the “free” service might make an acceptable replacement for my old Palm Pre tethered connection now that it is not easily do-able on my iPhone 5.
With this “free” claim comes a few minor caveats, but if it works where I currently travel and need it, it will prove useful.
- You must purchase a refundable 4G modem (a couple options)
- You are limited to 500MB/month
- You must be in their 4G covered area (basically WiMax/Sprint for now).
So far so good as I opted for the Photon 4G “tiny” 8 device modem (USB modem and Apple device “sleeve” are also available — the iPod Touch sleeve might be great for teens.). It is claimed to offer 6 hrs of connect time, but will also charge and run with a micro USB plugin. The shipping was very quick and it came packaged as if it were manufactured under 
Apple supervision – ie. very nice. The build quality is solid and did I mention “tiny” above? It is a 2-1/2” square and about 3/8” thick. I attached a little patch of Velcro to mine so I could stick it to the back of my computer, iPad or on my car dash … where I’m thinking it may get used most unless hot sun bothers it???
Set-up was a cinch and I was running in under 5 minutes, but after running my first speed test when still charging found it to be painfully slow – was the inside floor location, I think. Once I move it to the window sill, I was at speeds that match my Time Warner “non-turbo” basic Internet package. As I traveled in the covered area, speeds varied from just okay to impressively fast for Wimax both up and down on my iPad. (right). The connect remain pretty good while driving around Cincinnati and enable my Wazer mapping app to update without a problem. Unfortunately the footprint is not going to give me coverage in most of Ohio or at the boat (according to the map). It would really be nice to have a 4G data connection in Florida.
Another generation of Howards and the Reds & Buckeyes win
Posted By RichC on October 7, 2012
It has been a positive weekend for our extended family as my nephew Justin Howard and his wife Keity (Katie Vogel) had their second child … a boy, Evan Mark Howard. I’d offer up the normal details – size, weight, deliver issues – but figure linking to Keity’s blog would be more appropriate – LINK.
In other upbeat news, the Cincinnati Reds won game one of the NLDS against the Giants in a late night west coast game – LINK … AND my daughter took her brother to one of the very 
few Ohio State “night” home football games in Columbus. They had a great time watching the Buckeyes beat Nebraska in a high scoring 101 combined points game. I enjoyed watching from the bedroom at home and enjoyed the final 63 – 38 score almost as much as they did. Now if the Bengals can win this afternoon I’ll have a bounce in my step all week! BUT … just to keep life in perspective, I’m struggling to keep roots out of my sump and downspout drains and nearly ready to put in a new pipe rather than repair the old one again.
A missed high school reunion and scanning old negatives
Posted By RichC on October 7, 2012
Vintage Converse All-Stars from 1977 – note the untied shoelace before it became the style!
I was a “geek” before there were “geeks” … if being a photographer for my hometown newspaper and for my high school yearbook counts? Friday nights were spent shooting games and then zipping to the darkroom to “soup” the film before rejoining my buddies for pizza (prints would be made after the film dried). Fast forward to what was on my mind this weekend.
It was my 35th Sidney High School reunion (class of 1977), but as usual I didn’t put it on the calendar or make reservations. Still, after noticing a few Facebook comments, I reminisced on my own by glancing through a stack of old negatives that are stuck together in the bottom of a box. Nothing stood out, but then my ol’ photog eyes may have lost the knack of mentally flipping blacks for whites??? The trip down memory lane did get me thinking about how to scan in black and white film negatives into digital copies. (click for larger image, but be warned … this image is larger than usual)
I suspect there is a better way (let me know), but I tested converting some of my old push processed Kodak Tri-X negatives on my flatbed scanner. Although the quality if far from what I would like to see, I think it can be done.
- Dust the negatives then place face down on the scanner. Put a white backer sheet or two behind the negatives.
- Scan at the highest resolution grayscale setting your scanner is capable of and let the auto feature make the adjustment (I’ve tried tweaking with poor results).
- Open the file in Photoshop, Gimp or something similar and look for the “invert” menu option. For Photoshop look under Image > Adjustments > Invert.
- Adjust the contrast and brightness and possibly tweak sharpness.
- Save as a .jpg.
Great White Sharks are magnificent creatures
Posted By RichC on October 6, 2012
Happy Birthday … our Tootsie is 15 years old
Posted By RichC on October 5, 2012
What do the unemployment numbers really mean?
Posted By RichC on October 5, 2012
The unemployment numbers were released this Friday morning and looked 4 tenths better than August (7.8% from 8.2%) drawing suspicion from those who suspect a political conspiracy. Since the numbers are generated in questionable ways including phone polls, who knows?
This is still good news for President Obama who will who will point to economic recovery due to his stewardship of the economy.
The payroll numbers are less encouraging from my point of view as a total of 114,000 jobs were created (104,000 in the private sector). Who really understands the numbers and how accurate our measuring methods are?
My casual observer view is that the unemployment numbers are lower because fewer people are losing their existing jobs and those long-term unemployed are slowly dropping off the list. What we do know is that they are not being rehired in any large numbers (chart above) and this is reinforced by the lowest number of Americans participating in the U.S. workforce in my working lifetime (link and graph below). So personally I would be careful in getting too excited about the numbers by just looking at the lower unemployment number (if it is even realistic), because it doesn’t reflect job growth and how most people see their personal finances if they are employed.
Is the U.S. the best place for small business?
Posted By RichC on October 4, 2012
I started a post on the Presidential Debate last night, but figured if I’m tired of tweeting, reading and hearing about it, others may be too … so will pass on opining. I will say that Mitt Romney looked well prepared and was able to comfortably manhandle President Obama on the subject of the economy, banking and jobs, the subject of last night’s debate. Who knows if Romney’s obvious experience and competence registers as “important” with the majority of voters?
Instead of rehashing who is better for the economy, I’ll share my thoughts on some changes I’ve seen for those who believe small business is key to our economic recovery. Much of my concern has to do with excessive regulation hindering small businesses and entrepreneurs.
I was fortunate that in the 1980’s a young ambitious person could pitch a simple 10-page business plan to a local banker and realistically pursue a the dream of building a business. It was great when a bank manager knew you personally, took and interest in your success, offered guidance and was for the most part the final say on lending; he monitored cash flow and extended additional capital as one’s small business track-record improved. His goal was to see you succeed, which in turn generated income for his bank. That was their business model … in the good ol’ days.
Initially, I needed $25,000 in capital to move a part-time small business (one that I built – cough, cough) from my basement and garage in our house (high risk in today’s regulated world) to a commercial location. For me, it was time to either go full time with more “reliable” equipment and employees or hang it up and move to where my “day job” required (a move of my family from Akron, Ohio to Miami, Florida). The worries were simple: “Would my sales efforts offset salary requirements, capital expenses and monthly bills?” If so, I would succeed, if I couldn’t sell and manage, I would fail.
Fortunately, we weren’t overly hounded by licensing, permits, OSHA, multiple recycling contracts, storage of inventory, health insurance requirements, managing payroll and today’s complexity of withholding taxes, sales taxes, city, state and federal taxes and all of the filings and dates — all that now hammer small business with penalties if mistakes or an oversight is made. We didn’t initially have tax reporting of purchases to and from suppliers, vendors and freelancers or concerns over inspections and investigations (although I did have a stressful ulcer inducing IRS audit!)
There wasn’t the frustration and challenge of tracking waste with special bins, pickups and paperwork filings, or concern over too much inventory of certain chemicals. We really never feared being fined or sued over infractions based on missing a filed any one of any number of reports … like a rag in the wrong bin or the number of inches between the wall or ceiling and a piece of equipment. It’s no wonder small business start-ups are at a 30 year low and companies move or expand overseas.
Knowing these potholes are all part of a new business today, on top of struggling with a slow economy, it is hard to imagine anyone taking a risk … if you can even attract the capital in the first place! If America is going to be prosperous once again and is to be the place where one’s ambitions and dreams can be achieved, we need change … and in my opinion, not Obama’s kind of redistribution “hope and change.” I’m not saying Mitt Romney is perfect, but under his leadership our country has a much better chance of bringing back the American dream and the promise of prosperity that comes from helping, not hindering, small business succeed.
Click for larger images of the CPP Edison Street building in 1987
Anticipating the Presidential debate and Social Security 101
Posted By RichC on October 3, 2012
Most of America is waiting to hear from President Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney tonight for the first Presidential Debate. The president must defend his 4 years of leadership and stop offering excuses or pointing at Republicans; he needs to either convince the majority that his policies are working or that the changes that he will make in a second term will grow business and bring jobs back. Governor Romney for his part needs to be positive and communicate a message much better than “points in a plan.” His ideas need to be convincing and reinforce that they will move “all people” in this country forward — it is that simple. Whoever does their job best will win the election — “it’s the economy stupid.”
I started my list of topics that I’d like to hear discussed last night. First on my is a clarification and justification for each candidate’s plan to grow the economy and create jobs. The only way forward from our monstrous hole is a robust and growing economy. Our debt is too large and our promises too many for anything else to work (the social security video below being part of it).
Second, and possibly part of the first topic, is how do you intend to control the size of government — its spending, cost and reach. It now intrudes beyond anything the founders of our country would ever recognize and is starting to resemble the countries people came to America to escape. The “land of opportunity is turning into a land of regulation, fees, fines, taxes and red tape.
A third area, most likely still connected to the above two points is tax fairness. We can’t continue the crony capitalism that rewards the connected people, their lobbyists/industries with tax breaks, credits and deductions while everyone else is forced to decipher our complex tax code. We’re foolish if we keep corporate rates higher than other countries in a global economy and expect companies to make their money and create jobs in America. At the same time, half the country can’t be excluded from paying income taxes while they expect those already paying the highest percentage and most dollars to pay more and continue to work hard and expand their companies. Central control and more regulation will not create jobs or bring business to America.
We’re also failing in education. The blame can equally be divided between students, parents, teachers, administrators and bureaucrats. One thing that has become clear is that the more money we pour into education, the bigger the Dept of Education grows (from 4% to 6% of GDP since I was in school), yet fails to educate students that can keep pace with other first world countries spending far less … and we are particularly lousy at educating our bottom third. Part of this may be the lack of a “carrot” (good jobs for high school graduates) and part of it the lack of a “stick” (we’re still rewarding “carrots” — life on entitlements).
The final topic is national security. President Obama has tried his hand on both soft-diplomacy and hard core military muscle. We can see the results in how special ops decimates the leadership in terrorist networks and where weak power gets us in dealing with the changing nations of the middle east and their willingness to test our resolve. I’ll be listening to what changes (if any) Obama will make if he serves as commander in chief for another 4 years or what a President Romney will signal to the world (I come back to my memories of Carter and Reagan, but am not sure Romney is a Reagan?)
My final concern is addressing the “elephant in the room.” Medicare and Social Security … and we might as well toss in military and public employees’ pensions and healthcare to be fair. These a big topics that no elected official is going to tackle … even though we all know the time is coming. I’ll include a short video clip on just one of the topics, Social Security. This CNBC clip is about as simple and clear of an explanation as I have seen.
SILVER & LIGHT on Vimeo
Posted By RichC on October 3, 2012
Large-scale wet plate photography video (below).
SILVER & LIGHT from Ian Ruhter / Alchemist on Vimeo.
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.