Adventures in Driving -- Washington State

Over the past two months, I have made many trips in the Seattle area, racking up 9000 miles on my truck. While this may not seem like much, you can imagine with all of the craziness that occurs on a daily basis, this was quite frankly enough to actually make me not want to drive anymore.

During traffic jams, most people know that just staying in your lane and going straight will get you there much faster. However, with the influx of Californians over the past 20 years into the Seattle area, the driving habits have also come with them. Now you see people automatically start weaving from lane to lane and tail gating, not only endangering them selves but everyone around them.

You can also forget about merging. The other day, I was merging with a 12 foot trailer on the back of the truck and in most realms, people would let you in. Not these guys. Three cars passed me at as high of speed as they could must in 10 feet, with the last one even using the shoulder to actually stay ahead of me. He then made a universal sign of peeve. I thought to myself, what happened to all those driving school lectures which said, take a deep breath, take your time, and merge.

Now we not only have to put up with three accidents in two miles due to this type of overly aggressive behavior from drivers, but we also have to have people yelling obscenities and making obscene gestures in front of our children. And without the police cracking down on these behaviors, we will continue to have more and more accidents and definitely more grid lock.

Car Chases In America

Once again, the media has become enamored with the police high speed chase. Then there was the O.J. Simpson low speed chase. Now, once again, the chase is on in California. A woman is being chased at 45 miles per hour. And the police just follow. But what is the point? People get killed in these chases, yet CNN will broadcast 30 minutes of the chase.

Where will it end. After 30 minutes of stupidity on the part of CNN, I am sure there is something else that is making news today. But still the chase is going on and still CNN is repeating the same stupid questions to the supposed "Experts"

---Just a follow up here. The chase ended after 1 hour plus and without incident. Apparently the driver just ran out of gas.

The Apple iPhone -- Hype or Savior?

Over the past 6 months, everyone has been debating whether or not the iPhone will be the product which takes Apple into the next decade in profits. While Apple has been short on details, they have definitely been one of the down sides of the iPhone.

When Steve Jobs failed to announce a SDK for the iPhone, the silence in the auditorium definitely showed the extreme disappointment of the developers. While Apple may think that their announcement that developers could create applications for the iPhone through the browser, this was not enough for anyone in the room.

The iPhone is the leading edge in design and with that, most developers I know expected to be able to produce applications that could run on the same level as the base applications. This is particularly true for the game developers such as ID and EA, who Apple seems to be in bed with on the computer platforms but failed to give them anything that they can hold onto for a future with the iPhone.

But under the wraps is apparently the ability to produce Cocoa based applications for the iPhone. Although this was let out of the bag by a developer at Apple, Inc., nothing official has been seen and is likely not to be let loose until at least October with the release of their next OS release, code named Leopard.

So while every news organization has been following in the hype mode of Apple, little has been done to really put it out there beyond the fact that it is another cell phone. If that changes, the potential for the iPhone to actually take over the market of the PSP and other hand held game consoles.

Are we short changing our military

I was talking to my Sr. Partner the other day about what it was with the military and the fact that a Marine SGT with 2 kids qualifies for food stamps. How was this possible? But then there was an article on the internet about the fact that the water at Lejuene, North Carolina was contaminated, causing several ailments include cancer and birth defects among the children born at the base.

How was this possible that something like this contamination went undiscovered for many years affecting some 75,000 families? How is it possibile that many of our military bases have become dumping grounds for all sorts of chemical waste over the past 50 years without someone standing up and crying "Foul"?

We must first look at the fact that the military is a beurocracy all to its own. The only people allowed on the bases other than the families of the military men are the beurocrats themselves.

Is it possible that we also dont care enough about these young men and women who put their lives on the line voluntarily and perform heroic tasks everyday? We have abandoned our troops in a manner not unseen since Vietnam. To make it worse we sweep the lack of support under the carpet due to the popular lack of support for a war.

We have to support our troops with the money and the proper living situation otherwise, it wont be long when another country just attacks us and takes over, forcing us into their way of life rather than the way of life that our fore-fathers wanted for us.

A ride on the Washington State Ferry

One of the best kept secrets of Washington State has been its ferry systems. Going between points that are too far to drive or that cant be reached by any method other than boat or plane, the ferry is one of the best ways to get there.

Of course, there is the perverbial get in line and wait bit going on with it. I got in line going against the morning traffic and was on in about 15-20 minutes. It is then an hour to Bremerton. But the ferry ride cuts off about a half tank of gas in my truck and I can go all the way from Seattle to Shelton and back on a quarter tank of gas.

I decided that since I had my laptop with me that I would sign up for the Wi-Fi access on the ferry. While everything seemed ok at first, once I got about a quarter of the way into the trip, the access died. Iam not sure that this is normal but the cost also will be a thing that will deter people from using it.

*Monthly Unlimited Access Plan - $29.95 (1st month $14.95)
*Daily Access Plan - $6.95/day (24 hours)
*One Time Use Plan - $2.95/per 15 min ($.25 per min after)

Unless you are a daily traveler who has to be in contact at all times, I would not recommend this.

Once the connection died, I used my trusty bluetooth connection on my cell phone which got me through the rest of the trip. I am sure that while most people will not need this level of connection during the ferry ride, it was nice to know that it is there.

But the one thing that makes it all worth while is the view of the Olympic Mountains as you get closer to Bremerton. The view is breathtaking on a clear day and definately worth the trip.

Temporary marriages....but only in Iran

Check out this article about the latest idea in Iran:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070603/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_temporary_marriage

Its almost as if we have this already in America with the way the divorce rate has gone through the roof. Imagine if we had this kind of law here. Maybe then we could do away with Divorce almost totally.

Google offers Street er...streak views

Googles new "Street Views" apparently is offering users much more than they are bargaining for. The new zoom and street level view combination allows users to put themselves almost into peoples living rooms.

But the view apparently does not stop there. Between a street corner nose picker and the wild girls of summer at Stanford university, people are getting views that they could never have imagined.

Is this the beginning of the loss of privacy and the true "Enemy of the state" syndrome? Or is this just innocent fun for everyone? Only time will tell, but obviously it does need more research if people are showing their goodies to the world on a system open to everyone. (I can see the decency police on this one real fast).

Spam King Arrested

Todays news that the spam king of Seattle has been arrested, also brought hope that the level of spam in our mailboxes would be less. However, I would not get your hopes up too high yet. He is only one of the top ten.

Many of the spams on the Internet today originate in places outside the control of the US Government. So what makes them think that with all of the spam originating in China and Russia and other Eastern European countries, that the level of spam will decrease significantly with the arrest of just one operator. In a 12 hour period my spam box had over 2000 spams and it does not seem to be decreasing. Instead it is just the opposite.

So what can you do? Make sure that your ISP has spam blocking software. If they dont, insist that they get it. Most of them these days do implement some type of blocking software.

Turn on your junk email box. In Microsoft Entourage, this has the effect of catching some things that still get through but keep an eye on this as well as sometimes there are false positives.

If you are completely overwhelmed, you can do a White List, which will allow only those on the list to email you. Although a bit draconian in nature, it does work and is completely controllable.

Hammer Man on Google Maps

Google today announced that they will be having street level views of the google maps. So I thought I would check it out. But I found that my location in Seattle was not available with the new features. But what I did find is that the shadow of the famous "Hammer Man" at the Seattle Art Museum is viewable in the satellite photo of the corner of University and First Avenue in downtown Seattle.

There is even a bus turning on that corner in the satellite photo so you cant miss it when you are looking, but be sure to go down to the lowest viewable level in google maps.

Apple to produce sub-notebook

Apple Insider has reported that Apple, Inc. will produce a sub notebook much in the same style as the old 2400 series. Is this a return to the smaller laptop or is this jsut a ruse for Apple finally doing a real Tablet style laptop. Only time will tell but in the interim, you can check out the article and draw your own conclusion.

http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2500

Has Microsoft Finally Seen The Writing on The Wall?

Today, Microsoft stock got slammed after Steve Balmer said that original forecasts for Vista sales were outside reality. The article in the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003574610_microsoft16.html) says that he doesnt think consumers are going to buy many PC's. But of course, for those of us who have been watching the long time Apple versus Microsoft battle, we already know that Microsoft has been playing catch up ever since Apple came out with OS X 10.4 And the Mac Intel machines.

I guess only time will tell is this is Microsoft's last hurrah or if this is just a temporary glitch in the software and PC markets.

URL's

Article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003574610_microsoft16.html
Apple: http://www.apple.com
Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com

Passenger Bill Of Rights

Once again, this topic has poked its head above the horizon. For too long now, passengers have had absolutely no rights once they are on an airliner. This has led to abuses in 1997 where passengers sat on the tarmac at minneapolis-st.paul for more than 12 hours and now once again at JFK and at Austin for more than eight hours.

Is this the way we wish to be treated as air travelers? I know from my own experiences, that once an airline staff says something, their word is taken over any one else as gospel whether they are in the wrong or not. And in situations where passengers are stuck in an airplane going nowhere, being told nothing, having no food, overflowing toilets, no medical care and in general, staff who are about as uncaring about the situation as anything, it is time to have change.

Here is a link to a much further reaction to this type of thing:
http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy/2007/02/passenger_bill.html

American Airlines has said that this type of thing is "an Overreaction" according to a report on CNN. But is it? If someone had died in this situation, I wonder what they would be saying then. And Jet Blue who was at the center of the controversy in these cases, have said that they want to "Serve their customers in their own way". Northwest, who was at the center of the 1997 controversy basically said the same thing and nothing was done. Now we have the situation happening again.

When is the government going to wake up and do something about the lousy way passengers are being treated? I say the time is now and if you care about this, call you legislator or senator and let them know to vote for the bill that is being introduced in both the House and the Senate.

Wait on Vista or it will cost you?

Finally last week, Vista was released to the world. Bill Gates was promising big things out of his new baby. He was right. One thing that you will get is a big bill according to an article on the PC World website. Not surprising from the news reports mentioning that you would need a new machine to run the OS. As far as I am concerned, the Mac Book Pro has my vote for my next machine.

What the Heck is Mental Anguish

I just read an article (http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=59342&source=2) about Astronaut Lisa Nowak, saying that she suffered from "Mental Anguish." What the heck is "Mental Anguish". Does that mean that she was wasnt crazy when she drove 900 miles across the US in a diaper just to "talk" to the other woman? Or does that mean that she was suffering mentally from some tragedy?

As far as I know, the only tragedy in her life is the ones she created. She separated from her husband of 19 years to chase a guy who was already dating someone. She supposedly broke up a marriage other than her own. And she sprayed mace in a womans face after driving 900 miles. "Mental Anguish?" I would say she was downright nuts!

If she cracked, then someone should have seen this coming. Where is NASA folks when someone cracks? They sure jump to the forefront when the glory is to be had. But not many voices are heard when something like this happens. Come on NASA...Speak up. We cant hear you.

By saying she suffers from "Mental Anguish", it sound to me like the same old bureaucratic problem of trying to shove things under the carpet that NASA has always done.

Video "Every OS Sucks!" Pulls No Punches

For those of you who gripe and moan about Windows, well, this video will make you groan about a lot of things. It should make the older generation who lived in the time of 8 bit machines smile a bit though.

Check out the video at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2514730680283477734

Mac World Expo 2007: Where's The Beef

In all of the announcements that Steve Jobs put forth in his Keynote this year, it seems that the only thing that came out were the things that were almost like the secret that everyone knew about.

For those diehard Apple Computer, Inc. fans, the name change to Apple, Inc. is sure to create almost as much of a clammor of voices as the lack of any new computers. Is Apple really dropping all of their computers as well or is this just purely a name change.

There were none of the expected quad core machines nor any updates to its long line of laptops. Also the lack of any mention of Leopard is sure to put some pundits off their game.

While the two items that Steve Jobs introduced were nice, it would have helped if he actually had those in hand to begin selling today. This Mac World Expo will likely go down in history as the one that Apple introduced nothing. At least nothing tangible. Just all Vaporware. Much in the methodology of another big company everyone loves to hate, Microsoft.

Email Account Hijacked? Dont expect help from Yahoo.

I was reading through a few things today and ran across this tale of email account hijacking.

Unfortunately this article about email hijacking hits home here. In my case, nothing in the account was changed. Unfortunately, I am the careful user who normally doesnt use real info when setting up the account (i.e. BDAY, address, etc). Doesnt help too much when trying to get back in or the password reset. Of course, the hacker probably changed all that anyways.

But I had to write off an account about 2 years ago that I had since Yahoo first opened email to the public. Yahoo unfortunately wont do anything about it to this day. And the only thing you get to track down help is a bunch of menus that really are no help at all.

That should be the real story here is the fact that the big corporations who run these systems are more and more hiding behind automatic html systems with no listed phone numbers and no publicized address. And unless you are aware of security commision filings, you wont have a clue of where those corporations are.

Hopefully Yahoo and others like them will eventually get real people who can help other real people.

Apple tells 9 year old to read the legal page

A 9 year old who wrote to Apple Computer, Inc. as part of a school project, got a response from the legal dept. at Apple, telling her that they dont accept "suggestions".

Her mother, who was absolutely horrified, immediately called the local CBS affiliate and certainly got the attention of Apple then.

You can listen to the video here of the news report.
http://cbs5.com/investigates/local_story_103023852.html

I guess it just goes to say, there are days where everyone screws up. (Or as I would say, "What the heck were they thinking?!!")

The Eclipse or how not to see one

Once again, a major event is taking place and once again, I am relagated to the list of those folks who read about the event, even wanted to see it but who for one reason or another couldnt get the picture except on TV.

Unfortunately, I guess I have to move to Hawaii or some place like that where crear or mostly clear skies is the norm. The cloudiness and the haziness of the weather here in Tokyo once again has prevented seeing anything, even if we could see it here.

I guess the next event for me to miss is the leonoid storm and while that is one of the brightest meteor showers of the year, its brightness doesnt do anything to penetrate the general cloudiness of this place.

Many times, we travel half way around the world for these events of our solar system, but when we get to the place we are going, either it is perfect beyond words or it is miserable and a wasted trip.

I guess it pays to check the weather forecast for these events and I think I will do that next time a meteor shower or eclipse takes place prior to jumping off the deep end.

Tourist. A bad word in space?

Once again, a non-astronaut is making the trip to the space station. The word tourist seems to have been applied to these non-astronauts but even that is a bit misleading. Astronaut has always been associated with anyone who has reached 62 miles up. And the wings associated with space flight awarded to those folks.

But this is not a teacher in space type program or a fantasy Pan Am flight from the movie 2001. It is instead the program which the russians have been touting for 20 million USD per trip over the past few years. Not bad if you are a multi-millionaire with nothing but time and money on your side.

There have been two before him but Gregory Olsen is not letting that stop his enthusiasm. According to Olsen, "Someday everyone will be going into space just like they are flying in planes today."

He will be spending approximately 10 days in the zero gravity of the space station and coming home with the current crew on board the station. These change over flights always only take a total of 2 astronauts and the Russians have been using the selling of the third seat to inject their space program with much needed cash.

While this is a good way to get into space, it would be easier if companies like Scaled Composites suddenly started making a ship which would go all the way into orbit rather than just into sub-orbital flight. Then you would see people lining up for flights, especially if it was as safe as flying in a plane.