My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on June 29, 2007

People must be out of their minds lining up at the AT&T/Cingular stores to be the first to spend $700 for the an Apple iPhone? What mania … it sounds sort of “cabbage patch” crazy to me? 😀

Since I’m attracted to technology gadgets, I understand the want of the latest and greatest, but I’m not quite so willing to go out on a limb for this new cell phone and media device (personally I still think my Palm Treo 700p has the ‘edge’ over the much more pricey iPhone). I’m uncomfortable with all the hype leading up to the iPhone release and sense that it will have a difficult time in meeting its build-up. No doubt its got sex appeal, but underneath its gotta work well too. We’ll see?

Part of my concern is “the network” as the Verizon folks like to say, and as Sprint’s ads point out, with data … its all about the speed. Cingular’s EDGE technology isn’t nearly fast enough for the amount of data that Internet users wanting to play with their phones are going to want. I sense that as the newness wears off that there will be some complaining about the high priced monthly contracts and slow data rates (this will eventually improve I suspect). Nevertheless, the iPhone will also operate on WiFi networks, but if you’re sitting at an airport, in a coffee shop, at a desk in own home of office it hardly makes sense to ‘surf the net’ on a phone (take that from someone who watches TV on a tiny Treo screen!)

As for the music player, the lack of SD or mini-SD cards is going to have a few unhappy ‘podders’ … the iPhone needs expandable memory. To the iPhone’s credit, they have one upped the camera and gone with 2 megapixels, of which photos have yet to be seen by your’s truly (but its not going to take much to beat the existing cellphone cameras). The input device has me wondering. Early on I was skeptical that a smooth glass keyboard on the iPhone was going to match the time tested Treo and Blackberry tactual feel, but I’m pulling back until I try one. Same for the dial pad and pitch/twist tricks that look so cool on the Apple ads.

For now, I’m going to sit back and let the dust settle. It will be interesting to hear praise where it is not deserved and criticism coming most likely out of jealousy.

Click for the iPhone Intro Video – from Apple.com

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Technology | 2 Comments »
Tags: iphone

Posted By RichC on June 27, 2007

I’m getting ahead of myself by mentioning a book that I haven’t finished reading yet, but “Lone Survivor” is perhaps the best read of the year. The incredible true account of the author Marcus Luttrell helps one appreciate what incredible men serve in the United States special forces — particularly those included in Operation Redwing. Mr. Luttrell details his “call of duty” (with the help of best selling U.S. Navy novelist Patrick Robinson) and offers a first hand account of current events in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is an emotionally gripping and an incredible peek at our nation’s finest patriots.

I’ve read my share of military history books, but this timely book is written from the heart. The story blends Marcus Luttrell’s life story, his path in becoming a Navy SEAL with the men he served with in the Middle East. His 400 easy to read pages are an excellent account of the War on Terror and the men called to carry out those duties. Luttrell’s patriotism is surpassed only by his dedication to SEAL teammates (click for photo), his incredible will to survive and by those who fought and died to rescue him in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan. This is a true story of heroism and the ultimate sacrifice of America’s finest men — I am thankful to the “lone survivor,” Marcus Luttrell, for sharing their character, bravery and patriotism.

EDIT: Added Matt Lauer video since previous was removed and post remains active.

Category: Books, Millitary, Video-TV | 8 Comments »
Tags: Books, luttrell, navy, seals

Posted By RichC on June 26, 2007

No big deal … but this weekend’s graduation trip took me to western New York in my little diesel Volkswagen and my TDI turned the odometer over to the sixth digit … 100,000 miles. As far as modern cars go, the 2003 Volkswagen Jetta TDI has treated me very well. It has operated pretty much flawlessly with only scheduled maintenance. The biggest gripe I have had is with poor winter traction, odd tire wear creating noise but most is due to my tire choice AND lack of rotation. I bought a nice set of Kumho “Z” oversized higher performance tires from Jon Hamilton of RallyVW racing along with 16″ rims and although the slick weather performance is poor, the dry pavement grip is great (wear has been good too). That said, this autumn will have me looking for an all-weather performance tire.

As for the recent trip, the weather was beautiful and I took a few photos. Here are a couple of photos exiting off route 86 in western New York near Lake Chautauqua. The beautiful rest area in Bemus Point is worth a stop … especially if the weather is nice.

(click for larger photos)

Category: Archive, Automotive, Diesel, Photography, Photos, Travel, Volkswagen | 10 Comments »
Tags: biodiesel, biodzl, chautauqua, driving, jetta, new york, richc, tdi, Travel, volkswagen, western

Posted By RichC on June 25, 2007

We had an enjoyable trip to western New York (my wife’s home) to attend my niece’s graduation from Maple Grove High School in Bemus Point.

The weather and drive was beautiful and the time with our family too short. The small rural high school graduation (79 students) did offer an interesting commencement speaker for such a small high school: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who also had a niece graduating. The evening event was personal compared to our local school’s affair, but then again my sons class is 10 times the size.

Besides congratulating my niece Jackie, we also shared the day with her step-sister Meg. Both girls will be heading off to college next year, although in different directions … on east and one west.

  
(Jackie on the left; Meg on the right)

Caps off to all the recent grads …

 

I’m also continuing to test the ScanR.com cellphone photo to OCR text conversion. (see yesterday’s blog post) I’m impressed with this service as I took photo of the Commencement Program and the online service converted the photo to the text below:

Tonight’s Speaker

Mr. Roger Goodell was born in Jamestown, New York. He was chosen to succeed Paul Tagliabue as the Commissioner of the National Football League in September 2006. Roger is also the son of former United States Representative and Senator Charles Goodell. Charles was appointed to the Senate after the tragic assassination of then New York Senator, Robert F. Kennedy.

Roger was a three-sport athlete at Bronxville High School, whereas a senior he served as the captain of the football, basketball and baseball teams. He was named Athlete of the Year in his senior year. He then went on to Washington & Jefferson College where he earned a degree in Economics. He graduated magna cum laude along with earning the Walter Hudson Baker Prize in Economics.

Roger comes from a large family, which continues to have roots in Chautauqua County. Many summers were spent at the home of his parents in Chautauqua Institution. The atmosphere of that home was stimulating and encouraging. It would not have been unusual to find George Gershwin sitting at the piano or to have President Ford calling to speak to Charles.

Roger lives in Bronxville, New York with his wife, Jane Skinner, who is a Fox News Channel anchor. They have 4-year-old twin daughters, Sarah and Suzanne. He willingly acknowledges that Jane and the girls are his center and foundation. As Roger returned home the day he received word of being named NFL Commissioner, Jane leaned over to the girls and told them to say congratulations to their Dad because he was now “Number One.” Sarah looked toward her Mom and then toward her Dad and simply said, “Not in this house.” Roger would be the first to admit she’s right.

Category: Archive, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: bemus, family, flickr, howard, jackie, jamestown, jax, new york

Posted By RichC on June 24, 2007

I’m attaching a test from a “cellphone camera to Scanr.com FREE conversion service.” The services receives an email attachment (ie. document, whiteboard image, etc) from your cellphone and converts it to a scanned image or PDF document. It might be nice for spies wanted to use their cellphone to bring home classified documents — or just for the average law abiding citizen wanting to save a copy of something as a PDF, TXT or JPG. Click the small image for my sample test of a 8-1/2×11 Lakota Local schools schedule for 2007-2008 taken with Palm Treo 700p or download the PDF version here — 747KB. (I used the ‘reading glasses’ trick and held them in front of the camera lens to achieve a sharper ‘macro’ photo — a smart company would build that feature into their camera. Hint, Hint Palm!)

Category: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
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Posted By RichC on June 23, 2007

I’m not overly addicted to Internet based radio that plays music (although I’ve mentioned Pandora here), I’m concerned that regulation requiring webcasters pay much higher royalties based on the number of listeners they have might make it through congress. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, but suspect that most U.S. based Internet radio companies playing music could just move their servers offshore? Nevertheless, the change would treat broadcasters who are able to monitor their feeds over the Internet differently than satellite and ‘free’ over the air radio.

To draw attention to this change, most Internet radio broadcasters will be participating in a National Day of Silence (PDF) on June 26th next week. The goal is that listeners support online Internet radio by contacting their representative in Washington D.C. to SaveNetRadio. (see www.savenetradio.org)

Here’s the list of participating Net Radio broadcasters:

Yahoo!
Live365 stations,
Rhapsody,
MTV Online,
AccuRadio,
KCRW (Santa Monica, CA),
Pandora,
Radioio,
DigitallyImported,
RadioParadise,
3WK,
myMVY,
Wizard Radio,
Born Again Radio,
Pearadio.com,
Ear.fm,
WGLI (Bablylon, NY),
WMUK (Kalamazoo, MI),
Head-On Radio Network,
Zecom/Gemz Radio,
monkeygrip music cafe,
KFCF (Fresno, CA),
LuckySevenRadio.com,
Blue Power/Guitar Speak,
WPNA (Oak Park, IL),
60’s Chicks Radio/Seasons &
Celebrations Radio,
STAR 107.9,
WRPS/WebRadioPugetSound,
Puregold Rock ‘N Roll,
NeverEndingWonder Radio,
RadioMilwaukee,
BAGeL Radio,
Gotradio/100hitz,
KDUN (Reedsport, OR),
GDRadio.net,
KQLZ (Los Angeles, CA),
KXPR/KXJZ (Sacramento, CA),
NiceNoise.Net,
BlackLight Radio,
Pure Pop 24/7,
Smooth Jazz and More,
Reggae Nostalgia,
WCH Radio/The Wave,
WYGS Southern Gospel Radio
Network,
BluegrassCountry.org/WAMU.org,
WRAJ Internet Radio

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Posted By RichC on June 22, 2007

Perhaps it is because I’m in northeastern Ohio this week … but one can’t avoid hearing and talking about missing pregnant mother Jessie Davis. As the news about this missing person has spread nationally (USAToday), the search locally continues with thousands of volunteers another day in the Stark County area. From electronic billboards along the highways to those stopping to pray for her at home church, this area has taken Jessie and her family into their hearts. The police and FBI are keeping tight lipped about the investigation as the dogs search areas (turning up a false lead which ended up being marijuana) around her home. The boyfriend, Bobby Cutts, Jr., a police officer and father of their 2 year old has not been called a suspect, but his house was searched today. According to news reports, the nationally recognized Texas EquuSearch company will be arriving and using even more sophisticated equipment to help in the search.

One of the more interesting components of this situation is that a 1-day old girl (about what Jessie would have been carrying), was found alive on a Wooster Township doorstep. The girl is fine and DNA testing is being done to see if it could be Jessie’s child. (no confirmation that Mr. Cutts is the father, but it is expected) The Stark County Sheriff has set up a tip line for any information in regards to Ms. Davis: 330-430-3818.

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Posted By RichC on June 21, 2007

I often tune into the CNBC financial programs, particularly the opening and closing bell hours to monitor the daily happenings in the financial markets. Occasionally the host allows and encourages a guest the freedom to mention stocks … a policy that I find questionable especially when its a smaller company during trading hours. (I hope the SEC is keeping an eye on this policy) If a GE or a Boeing is mentioned positively or negatively its no big deal, but when they comment on something like Cumulus Media (CLMS) it is something different … a mere mention caused the stocks average daily volume to go up over 100%!

To illustrate my point, Dylan Ratigan encouraged Guy Adami (Fast Money) to mention Cumulus Media positively during trading hours; Adami suggested that it stands to gain as the advertising spending from political campaigns accelerates, especially if NYC Mayor Bloomberg enters the race as a 3 party candidate (link). As expected, traders jump on the mentioned stock and it quickly traded up just 10 minutes before the closing bell. This begs the question, did Ratigan and Adami have a vested interest (friends, clients, etc) in highlighting this particular stock during trading hours? I doubt it, but this practice needs to stop since CNBC, Ratigan and Adami knew exactly what is going to happen.

I’m including the CNBC TV chart above that were prepped (known in advance) for the closing bell segment yesterday (Wednesday, June 20, 2007). Below is an actual response chart showing the price jump when CLMS was mentioned at 3:48 PM — also note the spike in volume. Thankfully I was not trading this company short, but if someone was, they lost a few dollars trying to close out their daily position.

Category: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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Posted By RichC on June 20, 2007

Popular Mechanics previewed the Volkswagen TDI ‘clean diesel’ which should begin appearing in 2008. VW has been without a diesel this year and will not have one as they begin to introduce 2008 models this fall. Thankfully for those laying in wait, the Jetta sedan and Jetta Sportwagen TDI should be worth the wait.

Category: Misc | 7 Comments »
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Posted By RichC on June 20, 2007

Its hard to tell what the future will hold, but from the sound of things (CNBC intro below), there are is a significant number in America not preparing properly for retirement. No … I’m not talking about only the unemployed and ‘working poor’ … I’m talking about people living paycheck to paycheck picking up their morning “latte” at Starbucks, taking $10 – 20 lunch breaks and buying a new cars with the equity in their home while they carry balances on credit cards. Its a frightening thought considering as a nation we might be facing a very unprepared group of senior citizens. How are we going to handle millions of unprepared elderly Americans if they haven’t prepare now while they can? Social Security is bleeding and company pensions are non-existent … how deep with the younger generation dig in order to take care those unwilling to sacrifice a few pleasures today to secure their own retirement?

Category: Financial, Video-TV | 2 Comments »
Tags: cnbc, Poll, retirement, social security