Quick Hit - Rapture

How many times have you seen the bumper sticker that says,

"Warning - in case of Rapture - car will be unoccupied"

Well - today I saw the counter sticker;

"In case of Rapture, can I have your car?"

Has general aptitude sunk so far?

Sorry for the extended absence. All of the usual things have been intruding, family, work, work, work - some more work, occasional friends, work - and then family. It is hard to come up w/ something that I feel strongly enough about to sacrifice my time putting it all down. But I have a new mantra that has caused me to re-evaluate what I spend my time on;

- Trying to please everyone is a sure cause of failure

So this is now one of my revamped priorities - so that I don't curl up in a fetal ball and start sucking my thumb. That said..on w/ the commentary.

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I know that for years that educator's have been saying that America is dumbing down. What with Spell Checkers and Google - does anyone really have to think any more? All they have to do is hit a button on the computer and all of the answer's - correct or not - come right up.

Then it hit me as I was waiting for my connecting flight yesterday (yes - I am travelling on business this weekend). Take a look at the mainstream media and news reports, and I think we are actually seeing the results of this in every day society.

For airlines - they no longer have confidence in the public's ability to read the seat off of the ticket - you are assigned to a group to board the airplane. I know some of the airlines actually group the passenger's intelligently so to try to minimize the boarding times, but I swear others are just "split the passengers up into a couple of groups, based on the (pasenger) count."

That's one - and yeah - that one is a little weak - but look - there is more.....

Years ago - people worked the newspaper crossword puzzles to keep the mind in shape. What do we have today? Soduku. I saw someone sitting in the boarding area - w/ get this 'Sudoku for Dummies' (I think we all know that the '.. for Dummies' books are one of the signs of the apocalypse - or at least at sign that the Writer's for Pauley Shore's last movie - still live).

Have you ever tried to play Sudoku? It isn't that hard - most newspapers are printing them
daily now - instead of or in addition to crossword puzzles. Take a grid - 3x3 - and put 9 of those together. In a 3x3 grid of 3x3 grids (so you have a 9 by 9 grid). Now - each square in the grid can have one number in it, and each number (1-9) can only appear ONCE in each 3x3 grid, ONCE in each ROW, and ONCE in each column.

Sounds simple right? Sort of - no longer does the reader need to have a dictionary to be able to spell the word correctly (dictionary - a fault tolerant, power independant, public domain reference on English words). All they have to do is to be able to count to 9 (not even 10, just 9).

Now admittedly - there are variants out there that are a little more challenging, using shapes and colors - or the alphabet, but this is more problem and pattern solving rather than expanding someone's knowledge. Imagine being a member of a College Admission's office - and having someone put down on their application - that they can solve a Sudoku in under 5 minutes. They would probably get laughed at.

Now - also match up the decline in knowledge of the general public - w/ the currently successful game shows of the last 30 years. For a while it was Jeopardy then it became Wheel of Fortune (and how much of this was Vanna - who now just has to walk back and forth and touch the letter, not even having to turn it anymore), then it was Millionaire, and now it is Deal or No Deal.

+ Jeopardy - general, specific knowledge w/ trivia thrown in
+ Wheel of Fortune - word/phrase knowledge/spelling
+ Millionaire - knowledge, w/ the twist of audience/outside participation
+ Deal or No Deal - luck

Luck? Yes - luck - and a little bit of odds/probability. If you haven't seen this show yet - watch it at least once. It is an interesting study on social pressure. The premise is simple - 26 cases that represent Money in the amounts between 1 penny and 1 million dollars (or more - depending on if it is a sweeps week or not). Each case is held on stage by an attractive woman (yeah - a little eye candy never hurts) and the contestant has to pick one that they think contains the Million dollars.

Once they pick the initial one, then they have to pick additional cases to eliminate those cases from contention. Each time they eliminate a set, the 'Bank' (a producer hidden at the top of the set) will offer the contestant an amount of cash in exchange for the contestant's case. The Bank offer is usually the average of the total amount of money outstanding (unreveiled) minus 5-10k.

This Bank offer starts small - and as the number of cases dwindle, and the success of the contestant in picking cases, this number can get up in the 6 digit area. But inevitably - the larger values are picked (above $100k) and that offer starts to crash down. Usually after the first big value that is exposed, the contestant can still walk away w/ a pretty hefty sum. And this is where the host comes in. Howie Mandel.

I am not sure who Howie eggs on more - the contestant - or the studio audience - who will then chant 'No Deal' when they think that the 1 in 15 chance that the contestant's case has more than $100,000 is worth walking away from a guaranteed X amount of money. He talks about how much money that is still on the board, and
how many times the annual average American salary that is.

(The producers do a good job picking contestants too. I have seen high school coaches, beat cops, a Marine fresh out of the service trying to start again, a Dr trying to pay off his Med School bills.

[If you liked this one - and odds - I guess I started thinking about this last summer - in this blog - when I was talking about baffling the cashier's by handing them penny's to make their 'change math' a little easier]

Old Fashioned - or just different? (part 4)

A friend and I were reminiscing about days gone by - when we were in that dangerous teenage phase (i.e. driver licenses) when I realized that one of things that I am trying to hold onto are the things that I enjoyed growing up.

(I still find it hard to believe that this year is my 20th High School reunion. I am going to it - but I am not trying to lose weight or re-grow hair ahead of it)

But one of the things that I have done - is to search out books that I enjoyed reading back then - and if I don't have them - add them to my collection and read. Maybe once or twice - sometimes over and over again. My home-office - has nearly floor to ceiling bookcases on the only two walls it has. And they are basically full - of mostly paperbacks, but a couple of rows of hardbacks. And the Office Manager (wife) has said - no double stacking. So my space has reached its limit.

So you wonder where this is all going? How does it relate to 'Old Fashioned?'

Well - a couple of the books I had bought about a year ago - included CD's with previous books in those series - Star Wars and Star Trek - as PDF's on the CD.

- "Why do you want to read a book on your computer?"

- Well - why do you want to listen to a song or watch a movie on your PC?

- Because you are addicted to your PC - and can't stand to move away from it for any longer than necessary.

And you can read the book on a PDA (damn - I love Adobe Acrobat) - in the middle of a meeting - when you really don't need to be paying attention.

DISCLAIMER - read a book on your PDA in the middle of your BOSS's meeting - AT YOUR OWN RISK. Just because someone told you that you could do it on-line - doesn't mean that it is right. Or have you given your personal info to that African banker yet - in hopes that he will send you the money he has been able to smuggle out of the country under your name? HA! HA! HA!

So - what is the REAL advantage of having books as PDF - portability and storage. How much space does 13 paperbacks take up? How much does one CD? For that matter - how much space do 13 PDF files take up? Give up? 39 MB. I put the whole set on my SD card - in my test PDA - and have the whole set ready to be perused in the middle of a boring meeting.

But - what about when you don't have power - excellent point. I'll take a paperback over PDF file - esp on a long flight - stuck back in coach where they don't have power outlets.

BTW - if you want to try out PDF reading - look for this book - Star Trek: New Frontiers - Stone and Anvil (by Peter David). This was the one I bought and it came w/ the bonus CD (of all of the previous books in the series). Peter David is an excellent Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer - who has dabbled here and there, and created this whole 'sector' if you will - in Star Trek as his playland.

Traveling for Work

I think this week - when I am flying back East to take care of some server moves - is going to be my first true test of how well I do as a Road Warrior.

My plans didn't firm up until earlier last week - and there weren't any problems booking flights or hotel rooms. Silly me. I shouldn't assume that everything is taken care of - until I actually have a seat assigned to me. I went to check in this afternoon (for my 9am flight) to find that the web wouldn't let me. Uh oh....

Never a good sign - if the automated on-line system can't process the reservation/check-in - it usually means that something is wrong - like the plane has changed (different seat layout or fewer seats), or that there isn't a seat available.

Login to the corporate travel system - and see if I can pull up a seat map from my reservation. NO. OK - next step - go directly to the airline - and try to buy ANOTHER seat on the same flight (this is the only way to see how full the flights are these days). NOT GOOD. There is ONE seat left unassigned - and that is an exit row - middle. On this airline - the exit row seats are assigned at check-in - and only to Frequent Flyers.

So - looks like I better try back later tonight to see if the system has released the hold - or plan on getting to the airport early tomorrow morning - to try to have the earlier check-in time for the flight.

And the best part of this whole fiasco in the making is - that I still have to change planes to get to my interim destination (and then drive 90 mins to get where I need to be).

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Old Fashioned - or just different? (part 3)

Now - remember that comment about people who don't remember phone numbers - and have them all stored on their phones? I do that too. But I also have it one better.

My truck/SUV (whatever you want to call it). It has all of the bells and whistles. 3 antenna - one for the AM/FM, one for the XM Satelite Radio and one for the GPS for the on-board navigation system.

I don't use the navigation system very much - the data on the DVD is about 2 years old - and some of the road work/changes here - have already made it obsolete (I think it was obsolete the day I took it off the lot) - besides you really have to work to get lost in this town.

Streets in Phoenix - roads that run North-South are numbered - roads that run East-West are named. Further helping is that there is ONE NAMED North-South road - Central Avenue. To the West of Central - are AVENUES - to the East - are STREETS. Oh - and they don't change the name of the street - just because it doesn't go through all of the way - for example - Deer Valley - runs East-West - except where it would have gone through either a reserve or a hill/mountain. But when it stops for one of those - it picks up again on the other side - same road - same lattitude - same direction.

Unless you completely lose track of which way you are going - and if you have a compass in your rear view mirror - you can't do that either ;)

So the only time I use the Nav System is if I am trying to go someplace new and different - and I can just put in the address - and I will get the map w/ turn by turn directions. And an estimate on how long it is going to take to get somewhere (very important when you are carting a toddler around - who doesn't like her car seat for any longer than she absolutely has to be in it).

Old Fashioned - or just different? (part 2)

So - Cash - the old adage that "Cash is King" is slowly sucumbing to modern technology. For years it seemed like Fast Food (and strip clubs) were the last bastion of Cash only. But no more. Every single fast food restaurant will take ATM/Credit now. Not only because every one else does - but this also allows the 'convenience' to the customer who might be short on cash.

Here's where the old fashioned question comes in - since I deal in cash - nothing ever turns out to be a round dollar amount. So there is loose change. I have a small change purse - where I keep maybe $2 worth of coins - so that when the total of my purchase is X.23 - I have the 23 cents to give the cashier.

Well - I was at the window at Chick-Fil-A on Monday - and the total of my breakfast - w/ a Diet Coke (no ice - it is cold enough coming out of the fountain w/o it - and since they use foam insulated cups - it stays cold long enough for me to finish it on the drive to the office) is $5.15. So I have my cash ready - and usually some coin to try to speed the process along. It was the beginning of the week - so I didn't have small bills - just a $20 - but I did have 20 cents. So I figured I would give her the twenty and the 20 cents, and I would get back 3 fives and a nickel (have you seen the new nickel yet?) - to give me some small bills for the rest of the week.

Now - this is where I swear Math (being able to add or subtract in your head) is a lost art.

She starts counting out change - and I see two fives come out - then she starts counting out ones - four of them. And then she starts puling coins. Finally hands me the change - and says "$14.95" - and I look her like she is smoking something - because she had entered the number on the register - and was just counting out what it had told her. Unfortunately - this seemed to be her first day - actually handling the whole transaction - and I think the fact that I questioned what she was doing - nearly put her over the edge. All I wanted was the correct change - the measly little dime more. I got it - but it got me thinking - has Math finally become a lost art?

Look at society now - cell phones - you don't have a number to call - you have a name (or even a face) to select and push dial. How many of these people would be lost without having to just push a button?

TTYL - when we discuss what a hypocrite I am about that last statement.

Old Fashioned - or just different?

The other day on my way to work - I stopped (ok - didn't stop - did Drive Thru) to get Breakfast on my way to work.

"Hello - my name is Robert and I have a Chick-Fil-a addiction. I can't drive past one without ordering something. For breakfast - it is the Chicken Egg and Cheese Bagel, and for lunch/dinner - the caesar salad wrap. When one opened near my office in Chantilly I was there every morning - and the staff began to expect me to come by. One of the girls actually asked my name - so not only did I know them - but they knew me. That was a mistake. My wife was shocked to learn that the staff knew my name - she knew that I would learn their names - since it was on their shirts - but how did they learn mine?"

But I digress.

The one thing that I have noticed when I first came to Arizona almost two years ago - is that just about every place takes Debit/Credit cards - even drive thru fast food. Now I don't get that - if the purchase is under $10 - I prefer to pay cash. Mainly because -I don't like having to pay fees for the use of my own money - so using the Debit card is not that convenient. Sort of the same thing about using the credit card - I don't feel the need to finance my fast food meal.

(I have been poor between jobs - and it wasn't fun)

I carry cash - usually enough to get me through a couple of days - after the learning the lesson the hard way a couple of times while travelling. First it was getting held up due to weather on a flight home - and having to stay at a budget hotel away from everything incl ATM's, restaurants, etc. The second was forgetting to get cash before heading out on a business trip (Sky Harbor - doesn't have any ATM's out on the concourses past security - they are all before security).

So I take Friday's attitude towards cash

== DETOUR ==

Friday? Who is Friday? Friday is a courier in a Sci-Fi novel by the same name - Friday, by Robert Heinlein

It is one of my favorities - something I can get lost in and forget about my day.

She is a courier who specializes in getting info from anywhere to anywhere. So she knows how to use cash to grease the skids of a bureaucracy to get where she is going without leaving a trail.

Well - she goes on vacation - and forgets her own rule - and finds that a power struggle has left her without any $$$ (credit isn't just denied - the cards are zapped)!

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OK - so you know now I like to carry cash - and something about my morning drive-thru stop that started this rant.... but I think I have taken enough of your time today.

Stay tuned.