Fall back......... Gladly!

I have never been a “morning person” even though most of my adult working life has been spent following normal daylight hours. So the fact that twice a year I have to adjust my internal body clock to the outside real world moving either forward or backwards an hour has never pleased me.

Now I do have to say that of the two adjustments I make the transition “backwards” much better than I handle the move in the other direction. It takes me at best several days to get acclimated to losing an hours sleep each year when we make the leap to “daylight savings” time. On the other hand I will hardly take notice of it when the clock is wound in the opposite direction. It does annoy me somewhat that we will now start to lose the daylight hours before six o'clock in the evening. By the time I get home from work even if the weather cooperates and it would be comfortable to sit on the front or back porch and read the natural light is gone which is the other part of that experience that makes it enjoyable. Such is one of the detriments of living in the northern section of the continent North America.

I find that from talking with a number of people that I am not alone in my sentiments on the subject. While at the bank this morning the young lady who was handling my transaction was surprised when I mentioned that this was the weekend to “turn back the clocks” for 2005. It also brought a smile to her face as she said that she was looking forward to gaining an hours sleep tomorrow morning. She is not the only one that I have encountered during the course of the week that has expressed that same sentiment.

I personally wish that the government would stop adjusting the time twice a year. Just pick one or the other and leave it along. I could be content with that. Somehow though I don't think my wish will come true anytime soon. The latest effort to tinker with the amount of daylight alloted to us in each twenty four hour cycle of our lives is a proposal to extend “daylight savings time” some number of additional weeks each year. This is going to cause all sorts of mischief with consumer electronic devices which have been programmed to compensate for the changes based on the calendar.

This is going to make my life even more interesting since I am the designated family member who has to set all of the digital clocks in various devices that don't set themselves for those members of the tribe that still live in the analog age. Had I listened to my late beloved Mother I would have gotten a good education, become a lawyer and could be making a lavish living filing suit for those that awaken to cold coffee in the morning because the clock on their automatic peculator activated the device at the wrong time.

Having said that I am writing this for my regular readers to make sure that they are not befallen by any of these modern maladies because they will have dutifully set their clock back one hour before retiring for a nights sleep this evening. While you are at it, follow the excellent advice that various groups have been offering and replace all of the batteries in your smoke detectors. I just replaced the one one here in my radio/computer room. Good night all.

Things you learn while trying to find a phone number

I was scheduled to give a talk tomorrow before a group about computers and the Linux operating system. Unfortunately I have a knee that has been giving me grief for a while now and near the beginning of this week I twisted it and undid any healing that has taken place since the injury. When I went to call the contact person for the group to inform him that I would not be able to make it I found that I did not have his home phone number. So I called a mutual friend who did and in the course of the conversation learned the following.

When I explained why I needed the phone number she asked me if I was going to put heat or ice on my knee and I told her that the doctor has recommended that I put ice on it. She said that she wanted to pass along a tip for times when I did need to apply heat to some body part for therapeutic purposes and gave me the following instructions.

Take an old sock, it must be cotton, and fill it with rice. Not the quick minute rice but the kind you have to cook. Fill the sock with it and sew the end shut. You can then put the sock in your microwave and heat it. It will hold the heat for an extended period of time. When it does cool down just put it back in the microwave and reheat.

She said that eventually the rice cooks and tuns brown and will no longer hold the heat. At this point you tear open your stitching and replace the rice. She told me it works wonders for people with arthritis problems. It you don't have a sock you can use a small tea towel or what ever you have handy just so long as it is pure cotton.

Now that I think about it if you don't have a spare sock because you get two back out of the dryer every time you put two in I want to talk with you. You have some system that could patented and we both could retire on the profits from it. Or we could sell it to the sock industry to keep it off the market!

So that is what I learned today and it is your tip of the week from Oakmont.

Interesting tidbit from the tech world

Here is an interesting insight from the world of high tech that you won't find in your morning news paper. None the less it is a story that will probably affect you at some point in the future. I know it will affect me when it becomes available in Oakmont.


Cable is yesterday's technology
Attorney Gregg Skall of Womble Carlyle and Don Hicks of the Missouri Broadcasters Association are attending Telecom 05 in Las Vegas, a major trade show for the telecommunications industry, and filed this special report.
The picture emerging from Telecom 05 is that cable is past its prime as a dominant video delivery system. Telcos are on the horizon and with unlimited broadband capacity in an IP delivered world and this could provide a critical opportunity for broadcasters by combining their unique ability to create high interest, local content. Most speakers here agree that the content owner is in the driver's seat, and that puts broadcasters in a very good position in the new world order. Telco executives, whose forbears said they never wanted to be more than common carriers of messages for others, are talking about being very serious video programming providers.

Follow THIS LINK for the complete story.

ATTORNEY'S ADVICE-----NO CHARGE

If you are like me you get tons of email from friends and relatives with jokes and stories some of which seem to make the rounds at least a thousand times each year. This was sent to me by a friend and it seems like good sound advice to me. Disclaimer! I am not an attorney nor do I play one on television. So this advice is worth exactly what you are paying for it.

Read this and file it for goood advice -ID theft is becoming rampant!



ATTORNEY'S ADVICE-----NO CHARGE

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name,
but your bank will know how you sign your checks.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED."

3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number,
and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check-processing channels will not have access to it.

4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks,
(DUH!). You can add it if it is necessary. However, if you have it
printed, anyone can get it. (This could cause problems if when you go to use a check, your ID info (usually a DL) doesn't match the info on your check.)

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.
Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Also carry a photocopy of your passport when traveling either here or abroad. We have all heard horror stories about fraud that is committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.

6. When you check out of a hotel that uses cards for! keys (and they all seem to do that now), do not turn the "keys" in. Take them with you and destroy them. Those little cards have on them all of the information you gave the hotel, including address and credit card numbers and expiration dates. Someone with a card reader, or employee of the hotel, can access all that information with no problem whatsoever.

Unfortunately, as an attorney, I have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer and received a PIN number from DMV
to change my driving record information online. Here is some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. The key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). However, here is what is perhaps most important of all (I never even thought to do this.)

3. Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert.
Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet and contents being stolen:

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
3.) Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything.
Nevertheless, if you are willing to pass this information along, it could really help someone about whom you care.

Technology rolls on and the future of television

Regular readers of my blog will know that my television watching has decreased steadily over the last few years from many hours a week to only a few. Partly because to be quite frank there has not been a lot produced by the television industry that holds my attention with notable exceptions like Fox Television's series “24”.

More importantly though is the current level of competition for my eyes and ears during the available waking hours in life. There are still a few television programs produced by the networks like the aforementioned “24” and the CBS series “NUMB3RS” that I watch on a regular basis. On the weekends I watch quite a bit of the C-Span network particularly Book TV on C-Span2. Having satellite, Direct TV, as my provider for television programming I also have access to some channels like the Rural Farm Network that you can't just pull out of the air. I am a rail fan and they carry several programs of interest to those that enjoy looking at or talking about trains. If it weren't for my ability to “time shift” much of the material with my TiVO digital video recorder I would likely miss a lot of it.

Then there is Pod Casting now of both the audio and video variety. I find myself spending more and more time listening to program material that has been recorded and is streamed over the Internet. Most of it very interesting and not available via normal media outlets such as broadcast radio and television.

When you add to this my love of books, talk radio and movies I am amazed that I find time to play with my computers and amateur radio!

And now Steve Jobs co-founder and current CEO of Apple Computer has complicated my life by raising the bar in the market place and the publics awareness of Pod Cast programs with the introduction of the newest iPod which sports not only audio but full motion video. This in and of its self is not new. I have an RCA Lyra “video juke box” which lets me have music, Pod Casts radio shows, home movies of family and hundreds of still pictures from my digital camera all in a box that while not quite small enough for your shirt pocket will fit nicely clipped on my belt to carry along. What makes the new iPod special is a deal with ABC Television network that will allow owners of the new device to plug into the net and get some of the most popular shows on the schedule today a very short time after they air on the broadcast media. This has ABC's affiliate stations just a little nervous about where this is all headed and I understand their trepidation.

Here is a link to a story in the Wall Street Journal that goes deeper into the subject. In the words of an old Carpenters song, “We've only just begun” and the future is anything but clear for the direction that entertainment media will take in the coming years.

TV Downloads
May Undercut
ABC Stations
By NICK WINGFIELD, JOE FLINT and ETHAN SMITH
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 17, 2005; Page B1
Last Thursday morning, Apple Computer Inc. started selling an episode of the hit television series "Lost" through its iTunes Music Store for $1.99 after the show aired the night before on ABC. It marked the first time a popular show was made available for legal downloading over the Internet so quickly after its original airing.
With that, Apple may have helped open a Pandora's box for the media business. The Cupertino, Calif., company and its first TV partner -- Walt Disney Co., the parent of ABC -- have taken a potentially significant step in the dismantling of a decades-old system for distributing TV programming to viewers, a move that could have profound long-term consequences for broadcasters, cable systems and satellite companies if more users download shows instead of watching them the old-fashioned way.

Follow this LINK for the complete Wall Street Journal story.

Is it just me?

Am I losing my ability to pay attention or did the old Edgewater Steel property just sprout a new cell phone tower site? Being an amateur radio operator I don't normally miss a radio tower so it was to my surprise that as I crossed the Hulton Bridge on the way home from work the other evening that I looked down river and spotted this tower which from the bridge looks to be on the Edgewater property.

The last new cell tower that I know of that went in around this area is the one just north of the bridge on the Harmarville side that went up about five or six years ago. Now that I think about it, I'm also wondering if that tower is not just for cell phones. I keep hearing rumors that some local communities are switching their public safety radio dispatching to Allegheny County. Penn Hills police and fire have already made the move as has all of the departments on the other side of the river south of Harmarville. I will have to investigate further. If you know anything about the new tower drop me a note in email.

The flip side of “Jay Walking”

I don't know how many of you are Jay Leno fans but he is my preference in late night comedy if I happen to be up until that hour with the television on. David Letterman is alright but he doesn't seem to develop the connection with his guests that Leno does. Of course neither of them could hold a candle to Johny Carson in that arena but then no one else could either. He will be truly missed by those who are still glued to the tube after the eleven o'clock news.

One of the things that continues to amaze me is a segment or I guess you could call it a “skit” that Leno does called “Jay Walking”. He will go out on the street and pick individuals at random and ask them questions on a given topic. Sometimes it is something that is in the news such as the Supreme Court other times it will be a question about history or some aspect of science.

Depending on your point of view the results are truly funny or sad. I fall into the latter category. The first time I saw this done I was sure that it was all staged for the laughs. I just knew that people couldn't be that dumb. Not and want to admit it in public anyway. It wasn't until I had seen it a few times that I realized that “Yes Virginia, these people are that stupid.”

Don't get me wrong. I am not being condescending nor am I claiming any superior intelligence. Far from it. I am one of those people that wasted his youth and missed the chance for an excellent education that is offered to every individual born in this country. I am now playing catch up late in life trying in earnest to learn what I should have been soaking up in junior high and high school. It is one of the few things that in life that I wish I had the chance to go back and do over again. Some time I will opine on why I think I got the education that I did but that is a topic for another day.

Watching Leno's “Jay Walkers” really scares me at times. A lot of them are young people and will be part of the pool that we draw on for our future leaders. Let me tell you that the “pool” is badly in need of a good shot of chlorine! The really disappointing ones are the collage students. Here is a group that completed, supposedly, a high school level course of education complete with diploma and now has moved on to what I assume will be at least a bachelors degree in liberal arts. This from people who can't name the seven major continents on the globe or think that the people directly elect the judges of the Supreme Court the same way they do their legislators. I repeat, I am not laughing, this scares me!

This brings me to the real reason for writing this blog entry. Every so often I meet or hear about a young person or group of young people that brightens my spirit about the future of the nation. I think we have a long way to go in order to remain competitive in todays world market place especially when you hear about facts like we graduate far more lawyers than we do engineers from our collages. By the way, when you see those figures the numbers are astounding. Being a “glass half full” person most of the time though, I take great solace when I find these young people where ever they might be. I got to see one such young person this past weekend on television of all places.


Intelligent television watching. Now I realize that this statement could be considered an oxymoron. There are however some things out there on “the tube” that make it worth owning one even in this day and age. I have been a huge fan of C-SPAN since its inception almost twenty five years ago. I did not become a real “C-SPAN junkie” until after they had been on the air for several years and I started watching Washing Journal to start my mornings each day. Brian Lamb has provided the country with a great service though his ideas and efforts that he puts into building the C-SPAN network.

I particularly enjoyed this past weekend when they had a twenty five hour call in marathon of live television. I did not watch nearly all of the entire twenty five hours but the parts that I did get to watch were very enjoyable. This was done to celebrate twenty five years of being on the air and as part of this event C-SPAN sponsored a contest inviting viewers to write a two hundred and fifty word essay about why they watch C-SPAN. From hundreds of entries they chose twenty five for special recognition having the author read their entry on the air live during one of the call in hours. I wish I had paid closer attention and had more time I think I would have entered.

The “grand prize” winner got to appear on the show live with Brian Lamb for one of the hour long call in segments. The winner turned out to be a high school senior from Florida named Erica Barger.

Here is a young lady that you should keep an eye on. Erica is one of those young people that renew my faith in the future of our country. I have encountered others like her but not nearly often enough. She is bright, hard working and seems well grounded in her ideals. She also seemed very comfortable on camera talking to thousands of people though only a senior in high school. Mark my words if this young lady continues on her current path she will mark a mark on our society. She is the antithesis of the “Jay Walkers” that I see on late night television. Lets hope for all of our sakes that there are a lot more like her out there.

Maybe next time

After my last posting I got email from my friend Henry about the loss of the Dairy Queen. Henry has retired from a long careerer in law enforcement to become a professional photographer. One of the things that he does just because he enjoys doing it is shooting pictures of old gas stations, old barns and other places that are fading from the American landscape.

He was quite upset that he missed to opportunity to shoot Oakmont's Dairy Queen in black and white. I personally don't prefer black and white although I will say that on some subjects it makes an interesting aspect stand out in a photo that you might otherwise not notice. Since the Dairy Queen has been on that spot since my wife was a child I think a black and white of it would have had its place in the overall scheme of things.


It is however, a moot point now as the building is now gone and soon will be replaced with a shiny new pharmacy. Here are two views of the lot as it exists now. The first was shot from Allegheny Avenue looking at what would have been the front of the DQ.

The second was shot from about where the counter with the cash registers would have been looking toward Hulton Road the still standing gas station and Chrysler dealer. Maybe next time Henry.

I will have to just show my grand daughters pictures

Well it breaks my heart but a life long Oakmont land mark is gone. I took this picture about two weeks ago just haven't had time to sit down and write about it. I won't miss the gas station all that much but it sure seems funny to go down either Allegheny River Boulevard or Allegheny Avenue, look over and not see the Dairy Queen. Oakmont youngsters will surely miss it during future hot summer nights when it was nice to go and get a cold ice cream cone or some other frozen treat. My friend Henry and I have eaten many of their “Brazer” burgers cooked over open flame and REALLY delicious. I suppose in the long run the new pharmacy will bring more revenue to the town and create more jobs but I'm just being a little nostalgic tonight. I have two grand daughters now and when they come to visit Pap in Oakmont there won't be a Dairy Queen to visit. Such is life, which always moves on. I have some additional pictures that I will post with more thoughts at a latter time.

Getting your news in one spot

A computer literate friend of mine runs a web site and blog and has just installed some software that gathers news stories from a number of sources and puts it in one place. In addition you can arrange the stories in different ways such as listing them by category. Kind of a neat concept. I'm sure he is not reinventing the wheel here but as deeply involved with computers and the Internet as I am I haven't kept up with some aspects of it. For instance, I have never gotten into instant messaging which has become a huge use of the net. I do use it now and again but I can live with it or with out it. Now email is another story altogether. Take away my email and I have a serious problem! Much as with blogging I am late coming to the arena of “news aggregator” programs. I do find them useful though.

As usual I'm getting off track. I grew up in the television age and until a few years ago was literally addicted to it. I planned my week around what would be on prime time television. It was also where I got ALL of my news. That is a habit that I have broken. Of course I may have substituted one addiction for another in the form of the computer but at least I read a lot more books now days. I also get the majority of my news from the Internet and news papers. You would be amazed at how your opinion of the world changes when you are not getting your news from ABC, CBS and NBC. What television news I do get now I get from Fox News Channel. The are far from unbiased but I think they do the best job of presenting the facts that you will find in the television world of news.

This is why I was fascinated with Mike's news feed. It pulls lots of ideas together in one place and lets you pick and choose which ones to pursue. Check it out for yourself and see what you think.

Link to Michael P. O'Connor's News Sources