I guess if the 5th and 14th amendments can be done away with then the 1st and 2nd amendments will be next. Maybe the 6th and 13th amendments to the US Constitution should also be repealed. Any more?
I don't want terrorists in this country regardless of the color of their skin or religious beliefs but I think that political theory of the likes of Sadam Housain, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, or Idi Amin is not the direction that we should take. 
When a police officer kills someone unjustly we do not blame the gun or how easy it was obtained. Why do that for terrorists?

If surveillance by the NSA is so invasive why are they not catching the perpetrators of mass shootings and domestic terrorism?

Would building camps like those built to house Americans during WWII be okay to temporarily house Syrian refugees, if we left out the barb wire and fences, until they could find permanent settlement? 
Or have we moved on in the news cycle and once again blaming the NRA for all of the worlds problems?

Things we used to say

(Murphy’s) LAWS OF WARFARE

 1.  You are not a superman.

 2.  If it’s stupid but works, it’s not stupid.

 3.  Don’t look conspicuous — it draws fire (this is why aircraft carriers are called “Bomb Magnets”).

 4.  When in doubt, empty your magazine.

 5.  Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than you.

 6.  Never forget that your equipment was made by the lowest bidder.

 7.  If your attack is going really well, it’s an ambush!

 8.  No plan survives the first contact intact.

 9.  Five second grenade fuzes will burn down in three seconds.

10.  Try to look unimportant — the bad guys may be short of ammo.

11.  If you are forward of your position, the artillery will fall short.

12.  The enemy diversion you are ignoring is the main attack.

13.  The important things are always simple.

14.  The simple things are always hard.

15.  The easy way is always mined.

16.  If you’re short of everything except enemy, you’re in combat.

17.  When you’ve secured an area, don’t forget to tell the enemy.

18.  Incoming fire has the right of way.

19.  Friendly fire isn’t!

20.  If the enemy is in range...SO ARE YOU!!

21.  No combat unit has ever passed inspection.

22.  Beer math: 2 beers times 37 men = 49 cases.

23.  Body count math: 2 guerillas + 1 AK-47 + 2 pigs = 30 enemy KIA.

24.  Items that must be together to work usually can not be shipped together.

25.  Radios will fail as soon as you need fire support desperately.

26.  Anything you do can get you shot...including doing nothing.

27.  Tracers work both ways.

28.  The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming “friendly fire” (see #19).

29.  Make it tough for the enemy to get in, and you’ve made it tough for you to get out.

30.  If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will have more than your fair share of objectives to take.

31.  When both sides are convinced that they are about to lose, they’re both right.

32.  Professional soldiers are predictable, but there are just too many damn amateurs!

33.  Murphy was a grunt.


Top 20 Engineers' Terminologies

1. A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES ARE BEING TRIED - We are still pissing in
   the wind.
2. EXTENSIVE REPORT IS BEING PREPARED ON A FRESH APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM -
   We just hired three kids fresh out of college.
3. CLOSE PROJECT COORDINATION - We know who to blame.
4. MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH - It works OK, but looks very hi-tech.
5. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IS DELIVERED ASSURED - We are so far behind schedule
   the customer is happy to get it delivered.
6. PRELIMINARY OPERATIONAL TESTS WERE INCONCLUSIVE - The darn thing blew up
   when we threw the switch.
7. TEST RESULTS WERE EXTREMELY GRATIFYING  - We are so surprised that the
   stupid thing works.
8. THE ENTIRE CONCEPT WILL HAVE TO BE ABANDONED - The only person who
   understood the thing quit.
9. IT IS IN THE PROCESS - It is so wrapped up in red tape that the situation
   is about hopeless.
10. WE WILL LOOK INTO IT - Forget it!  We have enough problems for now.
11. PLEASE NOTE AND INITIAL - Let's spread the responsibility for the screw up.
12. GIVE US THE BENEFIT OF YOUR THINKING - We'll listen to what you have to say
    as long as it doesn't interfere with what we've already done.
13. GIVE US YOUR INTERPRETATION - I can't wait to hear this bull!
14. SEE ME or LET'S DISCUSS - Come into my office, I'm lonely.
15. ALL NEW - Parts not interchangeable with the previous design.
16. RUGGED - Too damn heavy to lift!
17. LIGHTWEIGHT - Lighter than RUGGED.
18. YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT - One finally worked.
19. ENERGY SAVING - Achieved when the power switch is off.
20. LOW MAINTENANCE - Impossible to fix if broken.


MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE WORDS (Oxymorons)
Military Intelligence
Jumbo shrimp
Air Force all weather fighter
Grand children
Los Angeles air quality
Semi-boneless ham
Relative simplicity
DOD civilian work
Civil servant
Fixed copier
Airline food
Light tank
Extra money
Spare time
Personnel management
Humane Killing
Military judgment
Sanitary landfill
Management science
Man portable
Professional staffing
Effective Army writing
Military Organization
Semi Dynamic
Dedicated aircraft
Intelligent Marine
Painless dentistry
Efficient S-1
Merit raise
Advanced Planning
Smart hockey player
Courtesy inspection
Program management
Engineering Specialist
Staff assistance visit
Simple Arithmetic
Fun run
Pretty ugly

Famous Lies
They're only cold sores.
We're glad to see you.
We're only here to help.
The check is in the mail.
I Love you.
Parts + 30
You can count on me.
Straight ahead you can't miss it.
I'll get right to it.
Trust me.
We're behind you 100%.
He just stepped out.
He'll be right back.
I'll return your call.
It'll be done by COB.
We can make it within cost and on time.
I am telling you this because I love you.
No problem.
We have plenty of money.
You'll only have to do it just this once.
We Know about the problem and are working on it.
We did not lie to you, the truth changed.
All the terminals are free.
Don't worry about that one, it's not very important.
The Army and the Air Force have reached an agreement.
Of course I can read a map.
Your pay will be straight at the end of the month.
There will be a little something extra in your paycheck for the good job you've done.
Give me your number and I'll call you in the morning.


FAMOUS LINES
There we were me and John Wayne knee deep in hand grenade pins. It's a good thing the enemy was only throwing hand grenade pins.

Must be capable of being utilized by soldiers without exceptional psycho-motor skills.

Where hard data was lacking, combat experience and sound military judgment prevailed.

It has been like a HOUSE episode this week except:

• It has taken a week instead of tidying every thing up in 40 minutes.
• They didn't cut me open to find "Nothing to see here" but they did jab a 3" needle in my knee, twice, to find "Nothing wrong here."
• They didn't tell me I was going to die just to come back later to say "Take these pills and you will be all better", it has just taken most of the week for them to say "Take these pills and you should feel better soon."
• All my physicians, nurses, and other staff were friendly caring, and informative people.

I am starting to feel better, but they have not quite figured out the pain in my leg, gotta wait till next week.

Here is a recent post I made in response to the latest No Agenda Podcast on their forums page.

I can only speculate on why the USA has not signed the Land Mine Ban Treaty but here is my guess.

The US Army doctrine on the use of land mines includes mapping where the land mines are and retrieving, disarming or destroying them when the mission is complete. In many cases the land mine fields are marked. Land mies are used to channelize or delay the enemy. The mine field will make the enemy slow own and if they try to disarm, mark or destroy the mines this allows the defender to target direct fire or indirect fire weapons o the enemy to destroy them or make them withdraw. Land mines that are not individually placed but are spread by use of artillery shells or aircraft have self destruct mechanisms that will neutralize the mine after a defined time period, usually in 12 to 24 hours.

Other countries tend to use land mines in a different way. The use them as area denial and terror weapons. They spread the mies out on roads and in fields to deny their use by their enemies. They do not mark or map where they place the mines and have no intention of retrieving or destroying the mines. They just want to deny the use of the fields by farmers and the roads by people and opposing soldiers.

Thus the US Army does not want to be denied the use of a valuable force multiplier that they use judiciously just because other countries use the same weapons indiscriminately not so much as a force multiplier but as a weapon of terror.

New Knees

For the last few years I have been experiencing a lot of pain in my knees. I had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in the left knee and it looked like it was going to be needed in the right knee.

On July 30th I had bilateral total knee joint replacement. Yes, both knees were cut open and new titanium alloy prosthesis were installed. I spent 4 days in the hospital at Vanderbilt and then a week in the rehab hospital. It is now 7 weeks after the procedure. I have full flexibility in both knees I continue to go to physical therapy where we are now working on strengthening all of the leg muscles. Generally I can walk around the house without a cane but I do use the cane in public. When I am sitting still or laying down there is usually little or no pain. Moving around, standing up, walking around produces varying amounts of pain but mostly tolerable. Mentally I am just exasperated with the pain and wonder when it will be gone. I had the surgery so that I could get back to living and not constantly limping about in pain. There was a further consequence in that the nerve blocks they put in so that during and for a few days after the surgery I would feel nothing in the legs but after they were removed I still had numbness on the outside of my left leg from my hip to the big toe and about a hand size patch on the outside of my right leg just below the knee. Feeling is coming back on the left leg but now it is ultra sensitive so that makes it difficult to get a good nights sleep. I am hoping that by November I will be completely healed and I can then look forward to being able to travel and walk without pain again. I have lost about 32 pounds so far and hope that I can keep losing and keep the weight off. So far I continue to lose a pound or two a week.

Here is the before x-ray of both knees:

Here are the x-rays taken immediately after surgery:























Here are pictures of the knees a few days after surgery while I was still in the hospital:

And here they are at 7-weeks post-op:

Trying to win a Drobo. I am running out of room on my media server.
Scott Bourne is giving some away. One of his sites is http://mydl.me/

Power Pole Colors

Just need to document something that I will integrate to my web site later.

Anderson Powerpole colors for 15-45A connectors.

White - 5v
Blue - 9v
Pink - 12v regulated
Red - 12v nominal (11v-15v)
Violet - 24v
Yellow - 48v

From Wikipedia

For the larger Multipole design, each color is keyed so as to mate only with a like colored connector, and Anderson publishes a list of recommended voltages for each color:

• 12 V: Yellow
• 18 V: Orange
• 24 V: Red
  • Used by Warn for its 12 V winches (should have used yellow multipole)
  • Used by Tripp-Lite for some of its 24 V external UPS battery packs
• 36 V: Gray
  • Used by Tripp-Lite for some of its 38 V external UPS battery packs
  • Used by APC for some of its 24 V external UPS battery packs (should have used red multipole)
• 48 V: Blue
  • Used by Tripp-Lite and APC for its 48 V external UPS battery packs
• 72 V: Green
• 80 V: Black
• 96 V: Brown
• 120 V: Purple
• 144 V: White

Some manufacturers have ignored this color coding recommendation. One should always test the connection with a voltmeter if unsure. For example, winch manufacturer Warn uses a red housing for its winches, even though they are powered by 12 V DC, not 24 V DC.

Passing of a friend

Former TISL delegate, Robin Clay Hall - UTK, died Saturday evening and his funeral will be just a few blocks away as the 39th TISL General Assembly convenes. The funeral will be at McKendree United Methodist Church, downtown on Church Street, Thursday at 11:30. Reverend Clay Hall served as pastor of this congregation just a few years ago. I recall that Clay was very active with TISL during the 12th and 13th General Assemblies. Clay was a son, a student, a soldier, a pastor, a husband, a father and a friend. He will be sorely missed.

The Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature is a forum for the top echelon of campus leaders and political science students to exchange ideas and express their opinions on state, federal and local issues.

TISL's General Assembly, which first convened in 1966, meets in the legislative chambers of the State Capitol each November.

Spotlight on Notebooks results?

Scored 100%.

That is 100% wrong.

So much for my prognostication.

Spotlight on Notebooks

I'll go out on a limb about Apple's announcements for tomorrow.

• Sub $800 netbook without hard drive with a 10" LCD screen and an 80GB HD, no optical drive.
• New external USB optical drive that will play BlueRay Discs and work with MacBook Air and new Netbook.
• BlueRay option on all new Mac notebooks.

That's about it. Everybody else has predicted the rest.

Are Smokers Inherently Litterbugs?

Are smokers inherently litterbugs or do they just consider throwing their cigarette butts on the ground not littering.
As of Monday, Sept. 1, smoking is banned from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center campus. Since 21st Ave and it's sidewalks border VUMC but are not VUMC property smokers are now congregating on the 21st Ave. sidewalks. When they are done they throw their butts in the landscaping which is VUMC property. This ever increasing eyesore is only a month old. The visible amount of smoking trash is no longer blending with the landscaping and is not biodegrading fast enough. While I applaud VUMC's efforts to be a smoke free campus, having the smokers concentrated in a single area where ash containers are available and clean up of refuse is easier may have been the better option. Workers, patients, and visitors taking a smoke break must now go further for their habit and no longer have convenient receptacles for their waste.

Got My iPhone

Finally got my iPhone this week. Having fun playing around with it and getting to know how to use it. I have already used it to post to Twitter about the colision of the train I was riding on with a car.
Typing is not the esiest on this but tons better than my trying to type on my Razr.


Geolocate this post

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iPhone mania

Yes, I want a new iPhone 3G. But not enough to stand in line for hours. My contract with T-Mobile finally ended and we switched to ATandT. I was really hoping for a 32Gb or larger version and am hoping that maybe in September or October Apple will offer iPhones with more storage. I have a 40GB iPod and it is just fine for the podcasts and music I want to carry everyday. I only use about 16GB and could pare that down but after getting the great apps for the iPhone and wanting to put Video podcasts on it that 16GB will get used up real fast. I can see that a 32GB version would be sufficient. It would also be great if they would offer one with an SD slot (mini, micro, etc.) With the current shortage of iPhones it will be easy to wait awhile but I am not sure I can last until October. Also, depending on my contract with ATandT it might be better if I got it sooner rather than later. I will have to find out some of the impact.

Knee Surgery

At the end of February I had arthroscopic knee surgery to fix a torn meniscus.
Here are some photos that the doc took.

Macworld Expo 2008, Wednesday

Another day at Macworld Expo. Picked up a new battery for my iPod and wandered the floor in the South Hall. Won a iPod holder from Kensington, had an eyeball QSO with Lee Imber, WW2DX while he demoed the glance.net screen sharing software/service.

Also sat in on the GeekBrief TV taping at the xtrain booth. Watched as Cali Lewis interviewed Patrick Norton then later with Veronica Belmont. Roger Chang was also in the audience.

Afterwards I attended a couple of the Tech sessions in the afternoon.

More Pictures available at Picasa.

Macworld Expo prediction results

Well, I guess I mostly suck at Macintosh prognostication.

Blu-ray, no embracing, no announcements.

Update to AppleTV. Well they are updating it but now how I had hoped. It is still a good thing and if I had paid a bit more attention about the iTunes Movie rental indicators I might have gotten more of this right.

No 3G iPhone. Ok, I got this right but duh, who didn't see that. The update for the iPhone and the iPod Touch is pretty cool and some of the technology behind the mapping is interesting.

Lighter weight MacBook. I pretty much missed this. I knew if anyone could pull this off Apple could and I was pretty sure Apple would announce something. I was pretty sure that the optical drive would be external. I had mentioned to a colleague that I thought that Apple would introduce an external optical drive but I had holed it would also work on an AppleTV and include Blu-ray capability. I really missed it on the Newton size device. Maybe next year.

I guess I will have to watch the net a bit more this year and try again next year.

Picassa Photo Album

Photocast RSS feed

Flying, it's for the birds.

Have I mentioned how much I dislike flying. Maybe if I lost weight I would be more comfortable on the plane and wouldn't dislike it so much. But I can remember 100 pounds ago and I was not comfortable in coach seats. Now even coach is segregated. They call it Economy Plus on United. An extra "5 inches of legroom." A 5 inch change it seating pitch should be noticeable. I could not see it. Even so an open row is an open row. Someone should be allowed to move to it to make everyone a little more comfortable. Putting two 300 pound plus guys next to each othe in a CRJ700 is insane. The Window seat is really only good for children, people under about 5' 5" tall, or a couple that want/don't mind snuggling up to one another. In other words there is no shoulder room. The fuselage curves in about 7-8 inches in 2 feet. So while I had a reasonable amount of hip room with no armrest next to the window I was forced to lean toward the seat next to me. This made it uncomfortable for both of us. and just 3 rows forward there was an empty row. But NOOOO! that seating was for economy plus passengers.

I have learned that since 9/11 and the latest rules implemented by the TSA to wear the minimum amount of clothing and "accessories" until after you pass through security. Also slip on shoes are a must. With getting to the airport the recommended two or more hours in advance of your flight and whatever travel time involved with getting there, having the airline call you two hours before the flight to tell you the aircraft for your first leg is delayed and ten minutes latter call to tell you that the second leg has been canceled is not very helpful. I did not find out about this until after I got through security and finished getting dressed.

Did you know that if you wait until the last minute to get your tickets to fly you will spend an extra hour going through security? It seems that the airlines have a code they put on your boarding pass that tells the TSA that you need an extra thorough going over. So even if you purchased your ticket a month in advance and your airline cancels your flight and as a "courtesy" books you on another airline; the new airline will flag you for special screening. What is going to have to happen to reduce the flying threat level enough to get rid of these silly rules that do nothing to thwart terrorism and just continue to make things inconvenient and to reduce our freedom.

I guess if you only have carry on luggage jumping up as soon as the aircraft parks and getting in the starting blocks by the door to race up the jetway and out of the terminal makes some sense. I don't want to stay on the plane or in the airport any longer than anyone else. But if you checked baggage, You might as well take it easy. It is going to take at least 30 minutes to an hour before your luggage will show up on the baggage claim carousel.

Have I mentioned how much I detest flying these days. I guess at the moment I have the freedom of choice not to fly, but walking to London can be so inconvenient and walking to San Francisco could cut down on my productivity at work.

Getting ready for MacWorld

Gosh I wish I had posted this earlier. This week Apple announce new Mac Pro hardware. I had mentioned to my colleagues last week to hold off buying a Mac Pro until I got back from SFO. I fully expected them to announce that the quad core chip to be the baseline for the Mac Pro and here they announced it a week earlier than I expected. Obviously Steve Jobs has some announcements that he fears will overshadow this one so they put it out a week early.

I expect that Apple will embrace Blu-ray. I am expecting them to announce availability of Blue-ray drives in iMacs and Mac Pros. Getting it in a MacBook would be really cool.

I am hoping they a release an update for the AppleTV that will allow an external DVD player to be attached to the USB port to be able to play DVDs through AppleTV. One less device in the stack. With luck Apple will have a Blu-ray compatible device in the same footprint as the AppleTV.

I don't really expect them to announce the 3G iPhone unless they are ready to ship immediately. It would seem kinda dumb to announce one and then wait for several months before shipping one. Who would buy one in the mean time. Unless they dropped the price of the current one to $150-$200.

While I would love to have a lighter weight MacBook than the 5 pound beast plus another pound or two of accessories that I will be carrying to MacWorld I don't think a price or specification will make it attractive enough for me to get this year. I am not sure what Apple could bring to tablet or ultra-thin sub-notebook to make it a better seller than other brands but if anyone can Apple can. I think that they will announce something. Maybe in a size slightly larger than the Newton 2100 that includes a keyboard that can be folded out of the way. That would be cool.

Work at a hospital? Don't get sick.

Just a short one this week. I have been sick most of the week. I work at a Medical Center where my Primary Care Physician works. I takes months to get an appointment with my PCP. Even the Acute Care clinic takes a few days to get squeezed in. The only advise I got was if it got worse to go to the CVS/MinuteClinic down the street. One would thing for employees that a hospital would have a better plan for taking care of sick staff.

RedHat Vista

Okay, maybe this is not a fair title, maybe it should be MicroHat. I recently tried to renew my RHEL licenses on the RHN website. Five licenses needed to be renewed but the site would not allow me to renew all five at once but only one license at a time. Further review of the site showed a dizzying array of license options. Enough to compare with the options for Microsoft Vista. The options are confusing about what functions are included, what hardware is supported, and what support is included. Even calling their customer support about this I was handed off to a couple of people before being told call someone from sales to deal with the renewals. I did let them know how I felt.