March 2007 Archives

I wrote about Al Gore's energy consumption a few days ago. Now, the Wall Street Journal has taken a turn on their editorial page.

I am unaccustomed to agreeing with, or blazing the path for, the Journal's editorial board. It's arguably the most politically conservative daily editorial page in the country.

Of course that's a large part of the problem with the whole human induced global warming debate. It has become a conservative vs. liberal bout - a political argument.

It's really a scientific debate. Why has that been lost in all the noise?

Helaine just returned from taking the trash cans to the curb. She was smiling.

Even though our lawn is 2/3 snow covered (the lawn over the septic tank always melts first), it is unmistakably springlike outside. The Sun is significantly higher in the sky, a difference you can feel on your skin.

Every year, in August and September, as the kids get ready to return to school, Staples runs a commercial with a parent shopping to the tune of, "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year." Wrong! Spring is the most wonderful time of the year.

Sure, we'll still see snow and colder temperatures, but the promise of spring is in the air. At this moment, a promise is all I need.

I'm home from work. My tie is off. I'm on the sofa in the family room. I'm playing poker.

I haven't written about poker in a while.

I've had my ups and downs, even moved sites. After being online for a few years, I'm playing about even.

With recent changes to the US law, I'm not even sure I will ever be able to retrieve my stake Somehow, that's not very important. I've gotten my money's worth.

Here's the weirder part. While playing poker, I'm watching poker. I've got the 2006 World Series of Poker on ESPN.

If you're not a poker player, you should know, the WSOP has been over for months. Jamie Gold won. He has not been a sparklingly pristine champ.

I know the result of the tournament. I know who Gold steamed through to win. It makes no difference. It is just fascinating to watch the game progress.

Poker is not a simple game of luck.

I'm not even sure it's correct to characterize it as a card game. I see it as a betting game. Within reason, how you bet is more important than the cards you get. You can win a lot on mediocre cards and very little with the nuts.

Conversely, you're most likely to lose the most when your hand is good.

Watching how the game is bet, especially on TV where the hole cards are revealed, is an amazing education. There are lots of people who play stupid, even late in a very expensive tournament. Not that I could pass such a test every single time.

In these tournaments, it's easy to look at the chips stacked in front of each player in a linear fashion. My theory of poker says that's wrong.

If one player has $6,000 in chips and another has $2,000, they are only separated by one potential hand! That's why I feel it's important to not change the way you play, even when you're behind. You're never as far behind as the chips make it seem.

The difference in hands is best considered in terms of logarithms. Well, it is to me.

Back to the tournament on TV. They're down to the final table and each of these players is winning a few million dollars or more. Yet, to a man, as they stand to walk away after losing, they're unhappy.

That is so weird.

I get my hair cut every three or four weeks. Helaine would like me to keep it longer (and I suppose I would too), but the people who pay for the haircuts feel differently.

It's not a big deal. I'm on TV. There's an image I should project.

For years, I got my hair cut right at the TV station. Now, I head to Branford. I always go before work, right after taking my shower.

I wash my hair within 30 minutes of getting to the salon. It doesn't make any difference. I get my hair washed again in the salon.

Having your hair washed by someone else is among life's finest pleasures. It's always good. It can sometimes be great.

Maybe it's the real reason I don't complain about how often my hair gets cut?

I was just cleaning out my spam mail bin when I found another interesting Russian email. I don't read Russian (though I recognize the Cyrillic letters), but I recognize the fixture pictured.

Russian spam (I get a lot) tends to look a lot more legitimate than American spam. They're advertising real products and they post real phone numbers.

This one is still very weird!

A computer generated translation follows...

Ann Nyberg, my co-worker, put the squeeze on me a few weeks ago. She asked if I'd help judge a charity chili cooking contest in Madison.

And so, Helaine and I are sitting in our family room, just about ready to leave.

The more I've thought about this, the more I wonder if I've bit off more than I can chew? Isn't the idea of a chili contest to make the hottest, spiciest concoction you can?

I won't be able to taste anything for a month!

I'll report back later and let you know if I still have all five senses.

The fact that I'm typing this means the chili contest held last night wasn't lethal! Thank heavens.

Our news anchor, Ann Nyberg, invited me to help her judge the Friends of Madison Youth's 1^st Annual Chili Cook-Off. Along with chili, it's important to be fearful of anything labeled "1^st Annual." That's a great leap of faith.

Helaine and I arrived at Ann and Mark's house around 6:15 PM. That was enough time to schmooze, say hello to 2/3 of their daughters and play with Savannah, their less than petite, incredibly happy golden lab.

Savannah is also called "The Hog." Need I say any more?

The Cook-Off was held at, and benefited the, Madison Arts Barn. During the week, the barn is a safe, supervised, drug-free meeting spot for teens. The proceeds from the Cook-Off will help in adding a study center.

As the evening began, Ann and me and the other judges were called up on stage. The emcee called Ann, "Amy!" She did it again later. I'm positive she knows who Ann is. She just must know someone named Amy a little better.

More about the chili in a moment. First, the entertainment.

There was a country feel to the night, and that definitely started with The Forgotten Ones. I'm hoping they won't mind when I refer to them as sh*t kicker country... old school, if you will.

The lead singer was tall and lanky and reminded me of Rick Ocasek of the Cars. They had a slide guitarist (a definite plus in my book). Another guitar player wore a pork pie hat and black t-shirt with a picture of Christopher Walken. "Beware the Walken," read the inscription.

I requested "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette," which they didn't know. They did play the classic, "Just Walk on By." It was great.

I wish I could remember who recorded that. I kept thinking Ferlin Husky, but Google implies not. I do know I used to play it as an oldie when I worked at WBT in Charlotte, back in the early 70s.

Also appearing was Kailin Garrity. It's good to be young, attractive and talented. I'm coming back that way next time.

Kailin, from Madison, played the guitar and was surrounded by another guitar player, bass, keyboards and drums. Again, the theme was country and they were very good, doing mostly original material.

I thought the arrangements were a little 'thin,' but when they did a cover of a tune I recognized, the band was full and tight. So, it's a good band that needs to better understand their own interplay with more complex arrangements. Easy for me to say. I know nothing about music.

The chili contest was a lot of fun - especially since I enjoyed the chili!

Each judge started by sampling four different chilies, picking their favorite. Then we each judged all the favorites.

I am not a chili connoisseur. I was still surprised at the difference in the chilies. They were each relatively spicy. None was remarkably so. In fact, I would have enjoyed something a little hotter.

The more noticeable difference was the texture of the individual recipes. Those really varied, from an almost soupy blend to thicker chilies. I liked thicker better than thin, with medium sized chunks of meat better than larger ones.

In order to keep the judges honest, we judged numbered, not named dishes. So I really don't know how my faves did. Actually, it's safer with me not knowing how I voted.

I am glad to report my stomach weathered the chili without a problem. That was really my biggest fear.

It's one of the few remembrances of my ill fated bout with French 1: "Quelle heure est il?" What time is it?

The answer has always been simple, but will now become painstakingly difficult with the new and improved switch to Daylight Saving Time¹, coming this weekend.

Notice how NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) is desperately trying to distance itself from this debacle to come!

What will happen this weekend is much of what was feared for Y2K. I don't expect planes to crash into mountains, but I do expect all sorts of small to moderate problems with everything from banks to clocks and watches to VCRs to alarm systems.

Yes, it will be a pain-in-the-ass to reset all my watches and the clocks that are now on everything electronic. The bigger problem will be reseting the items that are already programmed to set themselves later in the year.

I have one watch that just might be incapable of finding the right time! A website, associated with the vendor, says it should be OK. Unfortunately, the watch sets itself automatically off a low frequency radio station... a station it hears every once in a while.

How some computers are reset will make a big difference, because underlying our individual time zones are UTC, or Universal Coordinated Time (the order is screwy because the acronym is based on the original French).

If you look at the inner workings of email, you'll see times are referenced in UTC plus or minus a variable. Lots of the Internet and international commerce in general, works that way.

Delivery-date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:39:42 -0600
Received: from geofffo by longmont.hostforweb.net with local (Exim 4.63)
	(envelope-from )
	id 1HOCTe-0001BC-7d
	for me@geofffox.com; Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:39:42 -0600

My mailserver, in Chicago, is -0600. My home computer, here in Connecticut, is -0500. They understand a common time by using those offsets.

Unfortunately, lots of people will just reset their computer's internal clock, throwing the mutually understood coordinated time off. The computer will still think it's 5 or 6 or whatever hours off UTC, while it's actually not!

I'm not sure how that will throw things into a tizzy - but it will.

At work, though my computers are on Eastern Time, everything we do is really done in UTC. All weather info around the world is UTC. Going to Daylight Saving Time means all my data will arrive an hour later. All the forecast guidance, all my computer generated help, will now be delayed.

I have a list of instructions that I have to follow to get each computer on the same page. I'm dreading that. Nothing digital ever works perfectly the first time.

Maybe I should just start with my watches now too?

This story will unfold this week. The bigger it is splashed, the smaller the problem will be. If this entry is the last you hear about it until the weekend, we're in deep trouble.

¹ - It is Daylight Saving, not Savings, Time.

One of the folks from work asked me if I'd take a look at his PC, which I did this weekend. I was worried enough to make sure there were no other active machines on my network as it booted up. Good move.

No sooner did I turn it on, than pop-ups for adult web sites began to appear. I attempted to open some utilities, but the computer hardly acknowledged my clicks. It was slower than sluggish.

A quick check revealed there was a lot I didn't recognize in the start-up folder and task manager. Not a good sign.

Usually I go after these thing methodically. I wonder if it's even worth it in this case? There's nothing of real value on here - a few kids games which can be reinstalled.

There were few, if any, updates performed. It's still Windows XP SP1! On the Internet, this box didn't stand a chance. It was probably infected within minutes as it sat and idled.

It's a Compaq, which I think has a restore partition on the hard drive. If that's right, I can just spin it back to day one.

Oh, Compaq... you should be ashamed of yourself, letting this XP PC ship with only 128 mb. Sure, it will work, but just barely. I'll try and pick up another 512 mb to get thing a little snappier.

It's good to be the geek, but it's depressing to see what can happen to nice people who did no wrong.

I want to make comment about the Lewis 'Scooter' Libby trial. This will have nothing to do with the verdict.

I wasn't there. I don't have all the facts. The trial was incredibly politicized, These are all things I've worked to keep out of my blog.

There was, however, one part of the procedure which struck me when I read an article in Editor and Publisher.

If I ever go to court, that's what I want to hear - the jury was involved and thorough. It's something I think we often feel isn't there.

A few years ago, while tuning past C-Span on a boring Sunday night I had audio tapes of Supreme Court proceedings. It was a similar feeling.

I had no idea what the particulars of the case were, but I heard intelligent men and women pondering the facts with well thought questions and comments.

Cousin Michael, who reads the blog and who clerked in the US Circuit Court might write otherwise, but these comments from the Libby trial and my 'eavesdropping' on the Supremes, gives me optimism our republic is built on a solid foundation.

Or maybe I'm just naive. I hope not.

Sometimes this blog is written to be read immediately. At other times, right now for example, I'm writing to document something, so I don't forget. Like today's weather.

Holy cow, it was cold.

There's a strange weather record - lowest high temperature, which was broken today. On the Connecticut shoreline, it was more smashed than broken! The old record fell by a full ten degrees.

In the midst of all this, Helaine said to me, "There's a Comcast truck outside." So there was.

We'd had some minor trouble with the cable. A few channels, most of which we don't watch, weren't available. I didn't cry, without AZN or Oxygen, but I did want National Geographic.

I opened the front door and saw it was actually two trucks beside our telephone pole. One was a bucket truck. They were working on the pole... in the wind... in the bitter cold.

"You guys want me to make some coffee," I asked. They said no.

Pangs of guilt overtook me. Was National Geographic worth wind chills of twenty below (really - no hyperbole necessary)?

As they continued their work, they came in the house (and fixed the problem). We talked and they said the weather wasn't so awful, because they were dressed for it. I wasn't convinced.

As I type this, the worst of the wind chill is gone... but it's still 9°!

Hearing about the weather, a friend from California called to tell me he was sitting by his pool, enjoying the day. Grrrrr.

A few days ago I wrote how I sensed spring was just around the corner. Maybe it still is, but right now that corner looks a long way off.

Plus, the groundhog won't return my calls!

One of the reasons I hadn't bought a satellite radio yet had to do with the conflict between Major League Baseball on XM and NFL on Sirius (and, of course, my friend Rick on Sirius).

With the proposal of a merger, that seemed to no longer be a concern. After all, as Mel Karmazin said in Congressional testimony prices would not be raised and that listeners would benefit enormously by getting the best programming from both companies.

Wow - win, win!

This morning, in a count-your-fingers moment, the deal didn't look as sweet. Here's what the NY Times had to say, quoting FCC Chairman Kevin Martin:

Mr. Karmazin has not blazed a path here. As I remember, Cablevision got the original Boston cable TV franchise by making monetary promises.

Nothing costs as little as described. Rich people don't get richer by giving things away. My call isn't important to anyone.

Someone asked me for a quick bit of weather research today. It was nothing earth shattering. Just a reminder of someone's wedding day. The year was 1967.

More recent weather records are usually easy to obtain, but 1967... that's in a box, in a cabinet, in a basement, in a government building, in North Carolina. And, they're closed now.

Then, it struck me. I'm a subscriber to the NY Times. Every month I get 100 hits on their voluminous database, going back to the late 1800s.

It took about 30 seconds to get the weather info (unseasonably warm for March). My curiosity was piqued.

As long as I was there, what about the day I was born? I searched using the same terms, but came up blank. However, with the results that came, there was a link to the Times' TV listings. I had to look.

So far, everyone I've told this story to has said, "There was TV in 1950?" Yup. Not a lot. Not much 'high production value' stuff. The seeds of what would explode as the Golden Age of TV were just being sown.

I've attached a copy of the listings. There are ten points I found very interesting. you might find more (and I hope you'll post a comment if you do).

Here goes:

1. There were seven channels in New York City and environs. Only two, WCBS and WPIX have the same call letters today. WABD was the DuMont Network station (Allan B. DuMont). WATV became WNTA before becoming WNET, the premiere public television station in the US. Back then it was a commercial 'indie', licensed to Newark, NJ.

2. Sandy Becker hosted a late evening quiz show. He had been radio's "Young Doctor Malone." I remember him most as a prolific kid's show host on Channel 5.

   I've seen old airchecks. He was very talented and quite an intellectual adult voice for children. You don't see that much anymore.

3. I met one of the hosts of this show, Carl Caruso, when I visited WABC radio on a Saturday night in 1967. A high school friend's father was a new writer there. It was a very heady night for me.

   I forget who the mayor was... and so did Carl. On an hourly news brief, he called him Mayor LaGuardia!

   Nice guy. Great pipes.

4. Johnny Olsen hosted a show. Who knew?

   He would later become the voice for Goodson-Toddman and made the phrase "Come on down" a part of the lexicon via The Price Is Right.

5. From Baseball-Almanac: The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 on July 26th as the Dodgers' Jim Russell went both ways for two home runs, making him the first switch-hitter in history to accomplish the feat more than once. On the other side of the plate, St. Louis' Stan Musial hit in his 30th straight game for the longest consecutive hitting streak of the decade.

   This was probably a one or two camera show. There was no videotape, so no replays. There were no character generators. It was a live broadcast from Ebbets Field.

6. From the NY Times description: Sal Maglie, the Mexican League returnee who has risen from bull pen obscurity to a position of prominence on Leo Durocher's staff, yesterday pitched and batted the Giants to their second straight one-run triumph over the Reds at the Polo Grounds.

   The NY Mets would play their first few seasons at the Polo Grounds. By then it was a deteriorating dump in Harlem.

7. Even in 1950, Buffalo Bob was running the show on Howdy Doody. The Times referred to him more plainly as Bob Smith.

   I still remember, vividly, a song which used to be sung when Howdy Doody was seen on Saturday's

   Which day is the best day of the week?
   Saturday!
   Which day is the best day of the week?
   You'll see Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob, Clarabell and Mr. Cobb

8. This is very unexpected. The Brooklyn Bushwicks were a semi-pro team (which folded in 1951). They were multi-racial, but primarily played teams from the Negro Leagues. The Baltimore Elite Giants was such a Negro League team.

   I never knew any Negro League games were telecast.

9. Broadway Open House is the beginning of the line for what became the Tonight Show. WNBT (now WNBC) was the flagship station for the NBC Television Network. This show is normally associated with Jerry Lester.

   In the summer of 1950, Lester hosted three nights a week, while Morey Amsterdam hosted the other two.

   Morey Amsterdam is best known as Buddy Sorrell on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

10. This too is very unexpected. In fact, it's downright weird.

    Why, in July 1950, was the New York Times running program listings for Radio Moscow? It was a short wave broadcast and it's unlikely there were many New Yorkers with the equipment or inclination to listen.

Pump and dump stock schemes are evil. Yes, gullible people will lose money - and I'm almost not sorry for anyone who responds to SPAM by buying shares of stock. More importantly, these stock touts undermine the integrity of the entire market.

A respected financial journalist, with whom I've exchanged emails on this subject, tipped me off to the SEC's action. I responded:

I applaud the SEC, however, these companies now must pay the price for someone else's crimes. I say that with the assumption they're just innocent bystanders.

And, of course, there's nothing to stop these pump-and-dump schemes from increasing the number of companies touted by a factor of 2 or 10 or 100.

It seems likely a common thread can be traced within the ownership of all these companies. Doesn't it?

That seems to be where the SEC has dropped the ball. Shouldn't they be able to put together a list of the shareholders of these touted companies and find owners that connect across more than a few of these very thinly traded operations? If I were the SEC, that's how I'd do it.

Meanwhile, within a few moments of getting the original email, I got another pump and dump stock email. It is for a company that's not on the list. Neither is the second!

It's been a few years since I entered the Emmys. It's a very weird competition. It's totally arbitrary. Winning is totally without rhyme or reason. Judges get few guidelines.

Helaine thinks the whole process is ridiculous. She very well may be right.

One year I won. The next year I wasn't nominated. Honest. Go figure.

I am lucky enough to have seven sitting in a case in my family room. From a practical standpoint, seven is the same as ten or three.

Actually, seven is better than ten. Having ten would make it look too easy.

All of this is the setup for what will transpire Sunday.

Gil Simmons, at my station, has volunteered to coordinate Emmy judging for the San Francisco/Northern California region. I volunteered the location, my house.

It looks like we'll have six or seven of us watching the DVDs. The more the merrier. I sent a few more emails tonight, trying my best to guilt the last stragglers into coming.

For some of the younger guys¹, this will be a revealing process. Seeing how the Emmys are judged is helpful when you're deciding what to submit the next year.

It will be interesting to see how they treat the weather in an area where weather usually isn't as important. It will also be interesting to 'take notes' on how their weather equipment is being used. We mostly use the same, or similar, tools. Sometimes you catch a glimpse of a technique or twist you hadn't thought of.

Last time I was a judge there were moments when I wondered, "What were they thinking when they sent in this tape?" Hopefully, that won't be the case again.

¹ - It has been pointed out, all the weather people in this market are men... white men. That's becoming more and more unusual.

A week ago I got my first inkling something was wrong. Helaine told me Stef had told her "BabyLaps," her laptop computer, was running really slowly.

I had Steffie load some remote assistance software and attempted to fix things from here. The computer only ran slower!

"Bring it home," I said. And so, tonight she did.

When I walked into my office, there was the laptop sitting under a note with the sketch of a tearful face and three words, "fix me please."

For three hours, I've been trying just that - and failing. This is so frustrating!

There are no outward signs pointing to the reason the computer has become slovenly. There is definitely something wrong and it's waiting to be discovered!

OK - that's the bad news. The good news is, I can get in as the Administrator and run the machine perfectly in safe mode. In other words, there's no hardware problem and the operating system seems intact.

This will take a long time.

This is worse than I thought.

• CHKDSK - OK
• Virus Scan - OK

Still, the computer acts like it's got problems reading the hard drive. In fact, it timed out on a system restore and popped an error message that leads me to believe there is some sort of hard drive problem.

I'm currently defragging, with the thought that this moves and rewrites disk blocks. Maybe it will uncover the problem.

At some point soon, I'll backup whatever will copy off the machine, reformat and reinstall Windows. I hope it doens't get to that.

There is more to CHKDSK than just CHKDSK!

CHKDSK has three levels of 'stuff.' Using a function hidden in the disk drive's properties, there are two more levels. That's what I'm using now and a whole lot of bad clusters have been discovered and replaced!

It is a s-l-o-w process. My guess is 6-8 hours to completion... but it's just a guess.

Do these clusters mean the hard drive is slowing dying? Is this a small event which is now under control? I am currently clueless.

This video demonstrates the process I used to get where I am.

Quick PC Disk Error Check And Recovery -

Why pull punches. The disk drive in Steffie's laptop is nearly dead and will be replaced. CHKDSK ran for over 12 hours, correcting nearly 8,000 clusters and shedding 8 Gb in capacity. Even then, the laptop was 'challenged.'

This morning, I went to Dell for tech support. This laptop is protected against everything for three years. The father of a college student is prudent.

I chose to chat with Dell because I am comfortable conveying technical info via the keyboard. And, I wanted Dell's operator on my side. I was as nice as I could be.

All things considered, my chat request was probably taken in India. In the past I've asked where the call was being answered and the support tech was always forthcoming.

It is obvious from my conversation that there are differences between the English I speak and the English Gunjan speaks. When I was confused, I asked. He did the same. We never strayed too far from understanding each other.

The transcript of my chat is attached below.

Steffie will receive the new drive at school and install it herself. In a laptop, installing a hard drive isn't much more difficult than plugging in a light. I have confidence she'll be able to handle it (if she can find a Phillips head screwdriver).

Should a drive die this soon - only about a year and a half after purchase? Of course not, but stuff happens.

The bottom line is, within a few days, this will all be resolved and resolved to our satisfaction.

We had a small, but very nice group over for Emmy judging today. The talent from San Fransisco and Northern California was OK. There were few, "why did they send that," moments.

The judges themselves don't discuss the folks who submitted, but one was so head and shoulders above the rest, it's difficult to not see that person (gender neutral on purpose) taking home the Emmy.

More interesting to me than the Emmy judging itself, was a story from Ryan Hanrahan of WVIT.

Back in the late 80s, his folks took him to the Branford Community Center to meet Santa. He was just a kid. He has a photo taken while he was on Santa's lap.

Guess who was Santa?

Depending on the level of embarrassment, I'll post the photo when I get it.

This is one of the finest photos I've ever seen. Nearly everything about this photograph is perfect.

Please look at the larger image. The thumbnail on this page doesn't do it justice.

I don't know the photographer, Michael Poliza, except to say he is a professional and this shot is part of a book on Africa. There is an amazing amount of technique and know-how here. Under the same conditions, I probably wouldn't come back with anything like this.

I'm not sure which I'd like more - to go to Africa or to shoot like this guy?

My friend Harold is Chief Operating Officer of the American Radio Relay League - the national organization of ham radio operators. Recently, he asked if I'd write an article for QST, the League's monthly magazine.

The article is a non-technical look at antennas for Field Day. From Wikipedia:

I like to write. This will give me a chance to write against deadline. I have a week.

This afternoon, I sent a note to some possible interviewees. By tonight the ball should be rolling.

I've blogged about this because I know some of you reading this are hams and might have Field Day experience. If you'd like to participate, please drop me a note.

In the meantime, isn't that writer's block I see making a left onto my street?

From my Cousin Michael in sunny, crispy, Southern California:

KTLA is a TV station. There's no KTLA radio, so they're off the hook.

That leaves us with three points here.

1. The days of Edward R. Murrow are over
2. Some listeners perceive news anchors as announcers - people who read and add no expertise to the situation.
3. Some radio station needs a better name recognition campaign

As with Major League Baseball, is it possible we've expanded media to the point we're thinned the herd a little too much?

UPS arrived early yesterday afternoon, my new Dell Laptop in hand. After lots of anguish, and an email and call to Dell executives, I decided to purchase a Inspiron 640M.

If you have haven't purchased a notebook computer in a while, or you've just pointed to one in a store, said "mine" and took out your credit card, you've missed a terribly weird experience.

No matter what you do, you're never quite sure what you're doing!

Dell's site is that way - but so is HP's and a few others I tried. There are lots of options, but many of them are only described in marketing hyperbole. What's the difference between different processors in absolute terms? Got me.

Then there's the matter of price. It's tough to look at any price conscious website and not see a link for a Dell deal, that leads back to the Dell site. I configured the same laptop in a few similar ways and came up with wildly differing prices!

As I told the woman I spoke to at Dell, I didn't want this experience to be like buying a car, or worse purchasing an airplane seat. I don't want to make a purchase only to find the person in the seat next to me paid a lot less!

My laptop has a Core 2 Due processor, 2Gb RAM, CD/DVD writer, 120 Gb hard drive (which shows up as a 110 Gb hard drive) and a WXGA+ screen - meaning 1440x900 resolution.

That was the deal breaker for me, resolution. As far as I could see, there were no other laptops priced in the same ballpark as the Dell that gave me as many pixels on a 14.1" screen. Pixels are important to me. I edit lots of photos.

Like I said, the laptop arrived and I am favorably impressed. I am not as gung ho about Windows Vista - and that might just be because it's different.

In typical Microsoft fashion, I loaded some updates, which busted the Vista sidebar! I had to do a rollback.

I also now better understand the Apple commercial where John Hodgman (playing "PC") is asked for permission to perform a variety of tasks on a steadily maddening basis (go ahead - watch the commercial).

My idea of security isn't sitting at my door with a shotgun. That seems to be Microsoft's answer.

At nearly every instance where I installed or tweaked something, Vista asked if that's what I really wanted. Often it asked two times and sometimes three.

My friend Peter says some savvy users have turned this 'feature' off. Maybe me too, though not now.

Speaking of security, though the system came with a trial subscription for security software, I've been using the free version of Kaspersky's virus scanner, given away by AOL. When I attempted to install it, I found it was not Vista compatible.

The battery life on the new laptop is much more than any I've ever used before. It looks like it will be at least 5 hours in real life. That means it becomes a DVD player for airplane trips - even cross country trips. That's cool.

More observations later. Right now, I'm pretty happy.

I've seen stories on CNN and ABC¹ and heard a radio piece on NPR's "All Things Considered" about "Pi Day." It's "Pi Day" because today is 3-14 and Pi is 3.14.

OK - it's really an infinite string of digits, but 3.14 usually covers it.

What surprised me was the multitude of Pi stories on-the-air today. Is there a Pi PR firm? Does Pi have media savvy? Why this year and not others? Has America developed a thirst for math?

I doubt it. It wasn't that many years ago Steffie referred to the Pi symbol as a 'foot stool.'

My knowledge of Pi doesn't go very deep - 3.1415926. Others can recite the non-repeating sequence of digits by the thousands. In this case there's no jealousy.

¹ - Bill Blakemore, the ABC reporter on this story, claimed he could recite Pi to 50 digits. It's no world record, but has to be one for TV reporters.

As always, I'm in an NCAA Tournament pool. I know NOTHING about college basketball - zip! I do some simple statistical analysis so I don't look totally stupid.

As it turns out, the NCAA selection committee also does analysis. My picks are often close to theirs. Here's this year's picks. Wish me luck.

Spring starts in a few days. There's a storm on the way. As is often the case, it's so complicated it will be difficult to describe!

It looks like snow, freezing rain and then heavy rain. So, winter storm problems, iciing problems and probably some flooding.

I need to take a deep breath and stay focused.

I got this a little while ago:

When he says I haven't given an accurate forecast in years, I suppose that reveals his mindset.

Of course he could be right. I'm hoping he's not. It's so complex. Surely there are things I've missed or underplayed. Hopefully, I've seen the whole picture.

The funniest part is, I didn't know the details of the other forecasts until I read this (I had some idea of NWS because I read their forecast discussions - not their finished forecasts).

So, now I sit and wait... and watch... and wait some more. The is what Tums are for, right?

This is sort of funny... and strange. It's part of an article about using 'eyetracking' to understand the most effective way to compose a webpage from the USC's Annenberg School of Journalism's Online Journalism Review.

The test subjects were asked to look at a picture of George Brett to find out more about his sport and position. The shading on the picture indicates where viewers were looking. The darker the red, the more time staring... errr... looking at a particular spot.

I'm surprised. Everyone looked at his face, but...

• Men looked at his crotch
• Women didn't

It doesn't stop with George Brett. The person who ran the study added:

I have attempted to write this closing sentence a half dozen times. There is just nothing more to say!

I had to get up early this morning for a meeting at work. I left a few minutes early, carrying 'Clicky' in his bag.

Connecticut is very photogenic when it's got a pretty blanket of snow. It's still nicer when things are warm, but looking pretty must count for something.

From a technical standpoint, recently I'd read where snowy photos needed to be overexposed by a full 2 f-stops. That seemed like too much, so I added just one. Not enough. Next time I'll know better.

Blogger's note: Tried to identify the bird from a National Geographic site. No luck. If you can figure it out, let me know.

When it comes to customer/retailer disputes, the customer isn't always right. Unfortunately, often times he is, after the sale, when consumers have almost no leverage.

Maybe that's why I've become hooked on reading consumerist.com. It's a guilty pleasure, like reading about Paris Hilton or sneaking a candy bar from the bag left over from Halloween (you think this is a surprise to anyone in the Fox house?).

I am often amazed by the reported (not verified) outlandishly bad behavior of America's big merchants. And believe me, some of this is pretty mean.

On the other hand, I also see consumer weasels trying to game the system and then getting upset when they don't succeed. Reading their letters of complaint makes my blood boil. Consumerist often treats them as legitimate complainers, though I wouldn't.

Business weasels seem to outnumber consumer weasels. Again, remember where the leverage is after the sale.

I am curious how big business looks at sites like this? All of a sudden, the Internet has made one person's word-of-mouth louder and opened up publishing to nearly anyone. Bad customer experiences trying to cancel AOL's service, get a cable TV problem fixed, or expose customer neglect by airlines have been well documented with pictures and sound.

Do big businesses weigh the cost of this bad publicity and if so, how much weight is given to sites like this? Is someone from Cingular or Home Depot or any one of the sites often mentioned reading Consumerist as part of their job?

I can tell you from experience, no official has ever responded when I've written about a product or service I was dissatisfied with - but this blog gets minimal traffic.

'Buzz' has created today's celebrities. It's also responsible for web hits like YouTube, Craigslist and MySpace, which seemingly grew without organized promotion (at best with minimal promotion). Can buzz injure established brick and mortar companies too?

Read at your own peril. The site is addictive.

We are enjoying Netflix. It's cool to always have a movie we want to see hanging around the house, waiting for us.

Helaine has been nice enough to indulge me a few documentaries. Tonight it was Wordplay, the story of the 28th Annual Crossword Puzzle Championship held at the Marriott in Stamford¹.

Wordplay itself refers to the practice of styling the answers in themed crossword puzzles.

I'll get to the competition in a second.

To legitimize the whole process, a few celebrity crossword addicts were interviewed, including Bill Clinton, Mike Mussina, Ken Burns, the Indigo Girls and Jon Stewart. Interestingly, Stewart is the only one who seemed consciously affected by the camera.

They all do their puzzles in pen.

The movie followed a handful of favorites through the contest. If you're looking to fill your quota of stereotypes, they're there! Everyone was a nerd. No one could be thought of as physically attractive. And yet, it was fascinating to watch.

To see these contestants breeze through puzzles, solving clues in 10 or 15 seconds was mind boggling. Sure, they know the obscure puzzle words, those chestnuts which are used and reused because they alone solve certain problems of puzzle design, but it's more than that.

The contestants are analytical. They are organized... anal if you wish. It's almost as if they have to do puzzles. In fact, maybe they are driven by an unseen force to do just that.

SPOILER ALERT - In the end, a rookie error from an established contestant allows a 20 year old college student (from Hartford, as it turns out) to win. I like him and was pleased he won. - AS YOU WERE

I finished the movie and immediately headed to a website where you can attempt to solve crosswords online. I bailed before the halfway point, though I was doing fine on a reasonably easy puzzle.

I like the movie and really cared about the folks involved. How often do you get to say that?

¹ - The 30th Annual Championship takes place next weekend in Stamford.

About six months ago, Helaine bought a new wallet for me. Today, after she asked for the fiftieth time, I switched over. Having a 'fresh' wallet doesn't seem to be a guy thing, but I'm willing to play along.

Every wallet I've ever had has been a black fold over affair. Not this time. We've gone brown. No consultation. I'm guessing I'll still match... though don't green and brown clash?

Over time the old wallet fatter - a repository of stuff I didn't want to throw away. I think that was as much of a problem as the shabby exterior. On the other hand, cows were upset it was still being referred to as leather.

I pulled everything from the old wallet and put it on the kitchen counter. I only carry one credit card, plus an ATM card I've never used.

From my mid-winter poker trip to Atlantic City were three casino cards. They are credit card like in their shape and appearance. You can no longer play in a poker tournament without one. I have no idea why I carried them. They're now gone.

There were also a few business cards from people I met and exchanged cards with. Except for one, the others have been disposed.

Insurance card, AFTRA card, FedEx, Southwest, AAA - gotta keep those.

I have about ten of my own business cards I keep in my wallet. We have nice cards at work - meaning they're thick. Ten takes up a lot of space.

I had one bandage in the side pocket. It's a very small round one, still in its wrapper. The wrapper itself had a tear, meaning it's no longer sterile. I have no idea why I was carrying that. Gone.

I'm not sure why, but I always carry a single dollar bill behind my drivers license. I always have. It is not money meant to be spent. If there's a superstition with this habit, I've lost sight of it over the years.

It's very possible this particular Series 1995 bill has been sat on daily for the last 12+ years.

The joke is, guys in their late teens and early twenties carry condoms in their wallets, which leave noticeable circular impressions in the leather. I'm in my fifties. I carry Splenda.

I don't just have a new wallet. I now have a slimmer butt!

A friend just sent me an email with that photo on the left. I'm going to post it without identifying the three men.

All I will say is, you probably know who they 'were'.

You can post your guess in the comments section, though I think they'll be outed pretty quickly.

My friend Harold asked if I'd like to write an article for QST, the ham radio magazine published by the American Radio Relay League. Being foolish, I said "yes."

It's a non-technical overview of antennas for Field Day, a yearly ham radio emergency preparedness exercise.

Truth is, if you're not a ham, it will be deadly boring. If you are, it might still be boring, but it's attached at the jump (below).

We ended our big October Southwest trip in Las Vegas, where I promptly got good and sick! I'll spare you the details, except to say I never saw the face of the doctor who came to our hotel room to administer an injection in my butt¹!

We've always enjoyed Las Vegas, but this trip left Helaine a little shaken. She was reticent to go again.

Long story short, the opportunity arose, we've got free Southwest tickets, and we leave tomorrow. We're going to undo the jinx of October.

We're staying at the MGM instead of our 'usual' Mirage.

Of course I want to play poker, but we're also going to a few shows: Barry Manilow (who we saw on our first date!), Gordie Brown and Roseanne Barr.

I know Manilow has supporters and detractors with no middle ground. It will be interesting to see what he does as a 'house act' at the Hilton.

Gordie Brown is also a house act. He's an impressionist who plays the Venetian. In fact, I first saw him during "Impressionist Week" on Letterman and was favorably impressed. Helaine, who scours the Vegas trip report boards when a vacation approaches, has read lots of good things.

Our last choice is much more chancy. Roseanne Barr has become another house act. She's just opened at New York New York. Both Helaine and I watched her first appearance on the Tonight Show, blown away by how funny she was. Then her career skyrocketed and crashed.

Is she still funny? Has she seen the error of her ways? I'll let you know.

Keep your fingers crossed for good weather at Midway in Chicago. We're on a one-stop.

¹ - The doctor's bill was declared 'off network' and originally rejected by my insurance carrier. If you're really sick, you're entitled to get a doctor without shopping for one who has signed the right papers. After lots of grousing, and two internal reviews, they paid it all, save the co-pay.

The insurance company, in Rhode Island, neither knew nor cared who I was.

Bottom line - If you're in the right, don't give up. That's $435 in my pocket, not theirs.

John Bolton was Jon Stewart's guest tonight on Comedy Central. It is difficult to imagine a stranger juxtaposition. Stewart had been relentless in his attacks and, quite honestly, former United Nations Ambassador Bolton was an easy target.

Why did John Bolton agree to appear? He had to have known how Stewart had skewered him and how the audience would respond to his mere presence?

Now I know. Bolton has cojones!

He was every bit Stewart's equal in the debate. He was glib. He was prepared. He gave no ground. He was very impressive in the heat of verbal battle.

As the segment ended, it was clear he had won Jon Stewart's respect.

He was not the caricature Stewart expected. He surely wasn't the caricature I expected.

Our trip to the airport - uneventful. About five minutes from the parking lot, Helaine asked if we were running late. We're at the gate with no one from Southwest. Guess not.

We're flying from Hartford to Chicago Midway and then on to Las Vegas. One stop, no change of planes.

I just popped the radar in another browser tab. There's a long, thin line of thunderstorms - train echoes is the term - just north of Chicago. We'll see how much impact that has on our day. The anticipation is we're in Las Vegas around 4:00 PM.

Usually, before a Vegas trip, we watch Chevy Chase in "Vegas Vacation." We didn't, but we've brought it (and two sets of headphones) along to watch on the plane. That will probably be the MDW-LAS leg. Right now I'm looking for some quality nap time.

It was in the 20ºs as we drove to the airport. Las Vegas should approach 70º this afternoon.

Sweet.

We're in the hotel room right now, but here's what I wrote enroute:

"Wow, is it pouring." That's what Helaine said as I began to type this entry.

We're sitting on Flight 1103 at Gate B16, Chicago Midway Airport. Our through flight from Connecticut was not a through flight today!

After an hour of left turns, killing time while waiting for a chance to land, we put down hard during a light rain. The Chicago passengers got off and we sat back... for a minute.

Someone from the Chicago ground crew came onto the plane to tell us there would be a change of equipment. We were currently on "A." We'll be leaving from "B."

Midway is considered a small airport. Obviously, whoever came up with that hasn't walked the terminals!

We got to B16 and stood in the pre-board line. With no boarding passes, Sandra checked our drivers licenses against a list and we were off to the plane. Though those darned wheelchair people snuck in before us, but we were squeezed in before the (soon to be) screaming babies.

Helaine is looking out the window where unfortunately, she's now seen our bags - totally drenched as the rain beats down!

We're going to be a little late getting into Vegas where clothes changing (at least this evening) is probably out of the question.

There is one thing we've tried on this flight we'd never tried before - watching "Vegas Vacation" on the plane. My old laptop had enough battery stamina for the coming attractions. This new Dell has a beefier, newer battery.

Yesterday I headed to Radio Shack to buy a splitter cable. It, and the laptop in general, worked perfectly. Cruising along at 40,000 feet we watched the movie.

I was surprised to pick up a lot of throwaway dialog I'd never heard before... and we've seen this movie plenty of times.

The pilot says we'll be around 1:20 late. Nothing I can do about that. There's barren land below us. Nothing to do but wait.

Helaine and I both wanted to use our laptops here in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, this hotel charges an outrageous daily fee for Internet - and it's per computer. So, I brought a wireless router from home.

Now Helaine and I share a single connection, as we do at home, and have wireless access anywhere in the room (or nearby rooms, I suppose).

In order to cut down on the riff raff I am running WEP encryption. It isn't the most secure method of encryption, but we'll have so little traffic, I doubt it will be cracked.

The router, a D-Link DI-524, is the size of a paperback book and weighs a few ounces. I brought two ethernet cables just in case.

This is totally over-the-top geekiness. I'm so proud!

I had a great night's sleep and was up early (for me). Helaine and I headed to breakfast in the MGM Buffet.

This hotel is immense - probably largest on the Strip. There are other superlatives that also apply., but Helaine's words will suffice:

We walked Las Vegas Boulevard to the Aladdin (soon to be Planet Hollywood), then back again. Comfy conditions with temperatures easily in the mid-60ºs and no clouds.

There continues to be construction nearly everywhere you look. City Center, on the site of the old Boardwalk Hotel is going full speed ahead.

The MGM has a daily low end poker tournament at 11:00 AM. I'm on my way.

After blowing out of a poker tournament, Helaine and I headed to the Strip. We were going to Bellagio where I wanted to see the Ansel Adams exhibit.

I'm with you on this. Las Vegas is the wrong place for America's foremost nature photographer. On the other hand, I'm here and it's here!

As a photographer, how can he not be a god to me? His displayed work did not let me down. Not every print was genius, but there were more than enough for a lifetime's work.

It was interesting to listen to the narration (you are given an audio 'wand' to listen to), especially when it was Adams' own words describing the circumstances of a shot.

I was a little disappointed, because I wanted more technical disclosure. Adams kept notes. I wanted to know if a shot was a 3 second F4.5 or 1/30 F11. Why did he make his choices? How did the darkroom affect his finished product?

Now I'll go look for that info, because it's surely on the net somewhere.

Quick entry with more photos than text. Helaine and I had a fast dinner at the MGM's coffee shop, then took the monorail to the Hilton to see Barry Manilow.

Yes, we were the youngest people there! Yes, the show was amazing.

I have seen Manilow many times before (a friend used to work for him) and though his voice wasn't as young and sprightly, he hit all the notes. With a ten piece band and four singer/dancers, he and they were very tight. There was less schmoozing than I remember, which I missed.

He told a particularly poignant story about his grandfather... and I thought about my grandfather and how proud he'd have been had he the opportunity to see me on TV. That was a nice moment.

Manilow is one of Vegas' more expensive tickets, but well worth it to us. We enjoyed every minute.

From las vegas 3-2007

From las vegas 3-2007