ShowMeBlog

Amazon selling Windows 7

  I just got an email that Amazon is now selling Windows 7.  You get 50% off if you order now.  Supply is limited and release date is October 22, 2009.
  I have not read all the details yet I just got the email.  It looks like the three below are the full retail price.

  Now those prices are if you are  not up-grading.  Here is the prices and details if you are doing an up-grade. One of them is a dis-count of 58%.

  I am using Windows 7 RC right now and it is excellent.  My feeling is that this is the first version of Windows that works. I started out using DOS and have used OS/2 and Windows from the start.
  I have never used Apple OS.

Federal Police Officers!!!! – Run… for your life..

Story Highlights

Plainclothes investigators test security at 10 federal buildings in 4 U.S. cities

GAO agents able to assemble components in restrooms, freely enter offices

GAO's report questions effectiveness of the Federal Protective Service

Sen. Susan Collins: Security lapses show "poor training, lax management" at FPS

    You can read the CNN story but I just got to put in my two-cents on the subject.  At one time federal buildings were guarded by private contract guards from services like Pinkerton, Burns and others.
     The contract company would bid on the contract and the lowest bidder would get the contract.  In a couple of years the contract would come up again and often one of the other guard services would bid less and get the contract. 
     What took place most of the time is the guard working for the one company would just quit and go to work for the other company that got the contract.  So it would be new company and same guards.
     The contract guards got higher pay because the government as part of the contract said that a certain percent of the money had to go to the officers.
      The guard company would say that they gave their guards training but in fact they gave none.  I know I worked for years for them as a second job on my days off from my full time job.  I worked for Burns, Pinkerton, Well-Fargo and many others.  I also owned stock in a couple of them and I would see their report to stockholders and they would show photos and stacks of books and videos that they said they gave to employees as training.  It never happened.  One company showed me a 15 minute slide show one time and that was it.
      

Student twice puts planes on runway collision course

  I have posted a number of post on Howard’s Notebook about the ATC problem.  There were warnings about this sort of problem.  I hate to keep blaming President Bush and the Republicans but they are the cause of this current problem we have with ATC.
 
 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- “A student controller was directing planes during two runway mishaps in the past month at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, apparently giving instructions that placed planes on possible collision courses, federal investigators say.

Federal transportation safety investigators say the exact causes of the mishaps are still unknown. But in both cases, potential accidents were averted only after pilots recognized that mistakes had been made, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

In one instance, two commercial jetliners came within 500 feet of each other, the NTSB said.

Both incidents involved a "developmental" controller -- a controller who is not certified in every position in the control tower. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates aviation in the United States including air traffic control, said Tuesday the developmental controller was under the supervision of different trainers during the two incidents, and that it is the controller/trainers -- not students -- who are held accountable for mistakes.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown did not immediately know what action, if any, was taken against the student.

But a controllers' union representative said the controller was still on the job, and deserves to be.

"This particular trainee had a total of 11 hours of training in the entire month of June. That's less then an hour a day," said Bob Kerr of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "He's brand new; he's going to make mistakes."

The student had completed about 30 percent of his training hours at the position, Kerr said. "He has plenty of time to not only learn from the present situation, but to continue learning and develop into a fine controller in that position."  …”

  President Bush and the Republicans wanted to break the ATC employees union.  They wanted to cut pay and take other action.  They would not hire and train new employees to do the ATC jobs and massive numbers of employees were leaving their jobs and retiring. 
  President Bush is gone but we still  have the mess that he has left behind and it is going to take years to clean up this mess.  It may cost lives.  It takes a long time to hire and train ATC employees.  Even after they get out of the school they still have to spend months, if not years, learning the job.

Goodbye Wackenhut

  Wackenhut Security has been the security company doing security for years for the Miami-Dade Transit system.  They been doing the security for 20 years.  They been making $17 million a year.
  I been reading about over billing for years and amounts that run from $6 to $3 million.
  It appears that a new company has the contract. 

  Last Sunday Chevor Wint a security officer with Security Alliance was shot and killed at work by two men.  I think he was doing security for the transit system.  He was killed the Metrorail’s Earlington Heights station.

  Miami-Dade moves to replace firm providing transit security
  “…The county manager is recommending that 50 State Security provide armed officers at all Metrorail and Metromover stations. A joint venture combining Professional Protection and Investigations Inc. and Security Alliance is also proposed to provide unarmed guards at all bus and rail maintenance facilities.

Separately, Allied Barton Security Services is recommended to take over security at the county's Juvenile Services Department, a job held by Wackenhut since 1998.

The proposals are scheduled to go before the Budget, Planning and Sustainability Committee on May 12 and the County Commission on June 2.

But even if commissioners agree to remove Wackenhut, the security firm may not go before its contract expires in November. The reason: Burgess said a transition to new security firms will take at least three months.

''It doesn't just happen overnight,'' he said…”

   My God, does this story, in the Miami Herald, mean that not only was the guard killed brand new to working transit security but that he was not armed? 

Remember the Nude Nebraskan Wrestlers?

  On August 12th of 2008 I told you about the Wrestlers kicked off team over nude Internet photos. 
ESPN will have a documentary “Outside the Lines” this Sunday (June 14th 2009) about the entire event.  Here is a little sample of the documentary.  I was correct in the comments I made back in August of last year.  They did do it for money and they were paid for it.  I did not know that they flew out to the site and did the photos and I did not know they did videos.  Not only videos but videos of them jacking off.
  If you want to see those photos:  Fratmen

Google Street View Off-Road

“MONTEREY, Calif. -- Google is taking its popular "street view" map feature on a spin off-road by expanding coverage to include biking and hiking trails.

The program is in its early stages. In fact, so far the only trail to be mapped is the Monterey Rec Trail.

"This is the most beautiful bike trail I think I've been on in my life," said cyclist Dave Adrian. "If you could open the eyes of this and at least let people look at it, I think they want to come here and ride it themselves."

The mapping of the trails is the brainchild of Google engineers who wanted to map places cars can't reach.

To do the mapping, Google constructed the Google trike, a tricycle armed with the same 360-degree camera technology used on the street view cars.

The maps will give users a preview of the sites they will see while on their excursion…”

  I think this is a great idea.  Google is going to start doing street view of off-road areas.  A person can check out bike trails and other places like that from their computer.  God, I am tired already.  Smile
   So many neat things and neat stuff happening.  I wish I was young again.  

Liberty Ship Sunk Off Florida Coast

“KEY WEST, Florida (CNN) -- The USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a retired U.S. Navy warship, embarked on a sedentary new career Wednesday on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico near Key West.

The former warship was intentionally sunk in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary between 10:20 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. ET to become the world's second-largest artificial coral reef…

…The Vandenberg was built at the Kaiser shipyard in Richmond, California, in 1943. It was commissioned as a World War II troop transport ship. After Japan surrendered, the Vandenberg was the first Navy ship to return to New York Harbor.

During the 1950s, the ship was used to transport refugees from Europe and Australia to America. In the 1960s, the Air Force used the Vandenberg as a tracking vessel for possible missile attacks, and for rocket and early space shuttle launches.

The ship was decommissioned in 1986 and was anchored with more than 25 other retired ships in Norfolk, Virginia. The Vandenberg was towed to Key West last month…”

  My mother and father worked in the Richmond (CA) ship yard in 1943.  My mother was a welder and my father a welding inspector.  They were both members of the boilermaker union.
  I was three years old at the time.  They had a teenage girl baby sitting me.  They said I like her a great deal.  I do not remember here at all. 
  Many years later I would also be a member of the boilermakers union.
 

“…On October 14, 2000, the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park was opened in Richmond, California, site of four Kaiser shipyards, where thousands of "Rosies" from around the country worked (although ships at the Kaiser yards were not riveted, but rather welded). Over 200 former Rosies attended the ceremony…”  My mother’s name is listed at the site.  She was a welder at the Kaiser shipyard.

The end of blogging?

  Andy Serwer writes in Fortune Magazine about “The end of blogging.”  His point is that now with people frittering and using Facebook they just pop out one line of text and their ideas and need to blog are gone.
  I use Twitter and it is rare for me to post.  Of course when I post to the blog the title  and link goes out to Twitter without me having to do anything. I do not use Facebook.  I never have and I think it is stupid.  I did set up a page on it to see what it was like…I never could see why anyone would use Facebook. 
  Blogging is not going to end because of Twitter.  Hell, it seems to me that post of the people that post to Twitter are trying to get you to go to their blog.  
   Blogging will change.  It will not change because people are able to post one line of text.
   Blogging will change because people will be blogging mobile.  They will be doing more streaming of video and audio.  Soon when you tune in to read a blog you will see the location of the person and what they are seeing and you will be with them as they compose their blog entry. 
  There will not be a need for Twitter when you can get a live feed from a person and see them trying to write their blog entry….
  My baby, blogging, is not going to die.

  I been blogging since 1982! 

Technorati Tags: Andy Serwer,fortuen,end of blogging,inventor of the blog,twitter,facebook

Pay for news?

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Are Web users ready to start paying for content?

Not according to an entirely unscientific straw poll of hundreds of CNN.com readers who sounded off about News Corp. tycoon Rupert Murdoch's plans, announced this week, to start charging for access to his newspaper's Web sites.

Murdoch said the success of the Wall Street Journal, which charges for premium material and services, had proved that paid-for content could be made to work and said the current free access business model favored by most content providers was "malfunctioning."

But CNN.com users, on the whole, disagreed.

  I agree with the CNN story.  I said the same thing in my post “Made to pay ‘handsomely’ for accessing WSJ content.” 
  They will get some people that will pay for business and stock information.  They can get a LOT of people to pay for sex and porn and that is about it.  The Internet is a free form.  People expect to get most all of their information for free.  Of course it is not free.  They pay for a computer and Internet access and hardware and software.  We pay out a lot of money but we do not want to have to pay to access “news.” 
  Newspapers just need to change. 

Bike-to-Work Week

“Bicycle Friendly States Rankings Announced (5.8.09) The League released the second annual ranking of Bicycle Friendly States in conjunction with Bike to Work Week. View entire state ranked list. Click here to read more.

Smart Cycling Conference: Setting New Directions (5.8.09) Come to San Jose this June 18-20 to talk about the best way to teach cyclists; to help the League continue to improve our curricula; and to hear news and updates from the foremost cycling educators in the world. View agenda.

2009 spring Bicycle Friendly Communities and States (5.01.09) The League is proud to announce the 2009 spring Bicycle Friendly Communities and States in celebration of Bike Month 2009. The League is recognizing 13 new Bicycle Friendly Communities and three BFC renewals. Notably, five states have their first BFC designations. Read more.

DOT Sec. Wants “Sustained Engagement” from Bike Advocates (4.23.09) DOT Sec. Ray LaHood posted on his blogthat "When I told the League of American Bicyclists National Bike Summit that 'Cyclists are important users of America's transportation systems,' I meant it. Read more.

Where is Your Money Going? (4.22.09) On February 17, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 became law. ARRA provides $48.1 billion for transportation infrastructure projects to be administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Of that, $27.5 billion is for highways and bridges (3% of that for Transportation Enhancements). View specific state transportation funding info.” 
League of American Bicyclists