May 31, 2011

           There’s nothing like a snap of some food to cover a quiet day. This was a day I did nothing and I can understand the attraction. Just don’t do nothing too long or you can’t catch up if you change your mind. This is my Russian baked chicken with rice. Surprisingly light on the calories, so dig in for seconds. I made that dish, checked in on Dave-O, got the prescriptions, tested the new battery charger, and wrote a dynamite review on my new Canon printer. But other than that, it was slack time.
           I swear, there is something changed about the way they make or fill propane bottles these days. I swap my units out for full ones, but sometimes I appear to get less. My usage is consistent and my oven pilot light very intolerant of weak pressure, so I know when there is something funny going on. Maybe I’ll weigh the next tank full and empty. It would explain everything if I’m getting only 44 to 46 pounds instead of the 50 advertised. I am very used to propane appliances.
           This was one slow month. Phooey on people who say time flies, they aren’t doing much. May also represents five years that I’ve been performing at Jimbos, though that includes bingo. I’ve purchased $3,842.42 worth of music gear. That figure does not include money paid in operating expenses, which represent 15.6% of every dollar. No, I have never said the total I’ve made, but let me say I would currently find $100 per gig very attractive money. If you are hiring, now is the time to contact me.
           Idiot video of the month award goes to MicroSoft’s What is Cloud Computing, a clip that is supposed to educate you about the cloud. But we are talking MicroSoft. The cloud is the cloud, because it is the cloud, which is the cloud, therefore the cloud is the cloud, both your public cloud and your private cloud. Like Vista, the cloud will solve all your problems. See, you are smarter already.
           My explanation lacks a video. Cloud computing is identical to the old “dumb terminal” concept, where the computer on your desk (the client) has no programs or data. Instead, you connect to a central computer (the host) that stores all applications and data, but this time you pay a rental fee to the owner of the host. Initially you save a little because you don’t buy the applications and install them, and dumb terminals are cheap.
           Dumb people are even cheaper. Think about it. “Rent” and “Ransom” both start with R. All your data is on somebody else’s server. Your private files are subject to warrantless searches because it is their computer, not yours. Every keystroke will be analyzed behind your back. Remember, it is the people with nothing to hide that get their identities stolen. Most common ID scam today? Using your on-line resume to apply for your tax refund before you do. But God forbid that anyone should ever call you paranoid, so keep on throwing your personal data out there. Somebody will catch it for you.
           If you think you can trust cloud computing, fine. But when I ask for an explanation and they start talking “fine-grained”, “two-pizza” and “location-based”, it is time to metaphorically pat them on the head and send them outside to play. To imagine cloud computing, picture a world organized and run like the DMV. It’s not even noon over there and already they are higher than an elephant’s ass.
           The club meeting today was teleconference through our new secure link. We are at a crossroads. We know our antennas are built right, we know we have them connected properly, we know that a solution is near. That is why by Thursday’s meeting we are hoping for a major breakthrough, when everything suddenly begins working. Every step has been confirmed a dozen times by my studies, and checked that many times on Agent M’s workbench.
           We have progress despite the fact it does not show. If ensues that the purse strings are getting looser and club purchases have become more directed. For example, we now know that packet analysis is best done with two computers and two antennas operating together. One unit actively creates the traffic, the other passively monitors it. My DOS background is an inestimable advantage. I have downloaded technical videos on the topic and am converting them to disk for our next session. We estimate we now have one equivalent year of college on this subject at a total cost of $27.72.

May 30, 2011

           There are times I get asked why I got out of rock music. It was the music I originally played, but that was partially in rebellion against what I considered “old fogie”. I never liked jazz or Broadway, I didn’t like the type of people who liked country, and Blues puts me to sleep. The specific tune that turned me off to rock was “Iron Man”.
           I was never mystified by medieval fairy tales and monsters. Take a look at this poster for a Miami band (Horde of Creeps) seeking a bass player. I wonder if they do any Jimmy Buffett? What amused me was that their ad stated they wanted a bassist who “can do a little more that play the guitar lines on bass”.
           [Author’s note: these guys are not kids, they are in my age group and I’ve heard them play live. It is heavy metal and yes, I’ve heard their promos such as “Don’t Feed It To Me”. And yes, I could play it. But isn’t it so strange how head-bangers could possibly, possibly (twice) have the same issues as I have concerning pecker-brained guitarists who think “bass is easy”?]
           Here’s a heads-up on the newest scam making the rounds. I was suspicious the first time and I’ve heard it six times since then. I almost got a photo today but I was too close to the action. It goes like this. Some guy on a bicycle stops you in the parking lot; he’s got a small gas can. Can you spare a dollar for gas? You see, his wife works in Ft. Lauderdale and he drives an older Capris with a bad gas gauge. He was on his way to pick her up when he ran out of gas.
           Wasn’t it awfully convenient of him to have a spare bicycle and a brand new gas can? Because there are no gas stations anywhere near the Publix on Hallandale. If it was me, I’d head toward, not away, from the nearest pumps. The idea is you feel sorry and give him $5.00 to fill the gas can. You, not me. I’ve lived here eleven years.
           Don’t you love the way potheads justify getting fried by saying it is a soft drug, that it doesn’t have the same effects of alcohol. The pot paradise of Holland is banning the use for tourists, and many Dutch border towns have closed their “coffee shops”. Per GlobalPost.com, it seems they are fed up with all the nuisance and criminal activity. Could it be that potheads, for all their jabber about harmless and medicinal use, are turning out to be nothing but, well, potheads?
           The remainder today is just guy-talk, so stop here if you are a critic. JP and I may troop out to Churchill’s soon, for old time’s sake. Many of you won’t have read back far enough to know, but JP and I don’t go out chasing women all that often because he is stunned that I turn down women I don’t like. (Oddly, most Florida men have plenty of experience with rejection but only the wrong way around.) He has never forgiven me for brushing off a gorgeous brunette that I did not know every guy in the house was after before I got there. That was at Churchill’s in 2002 and she wasn’t my type.
           JP does not care that she was what I call a born-again virgin. (You know, the divorce material that plays hard to get after she’s in a relationship.) The point is there are a variety of reasons I will turn down older women and JP disagrees with them all. Like most men, he believes you get what you can and spend the rest of the acquaintance trying to hash out who promised what.
           JP feels turning down a piece of ass ruins our chances with other women in the place. He does not understand how women think, finds it confusing. I don’t. I like a club where there are constantly new women coming and going, whereas JP likes to corner one lady and work on her all evening. He can waste $50 on drinks and get no closer than I do in five minutes.
           Our opposite tastes in women should mean we get along grand out on the town, but the fact is I break the ice 99% of the time. If I don’t move in for the kill, JP is at a loss of what to say to the one I brought over for him. All the above is old material, I’m repeating it for effect. I also repeat I am not after a fling, I am looking for a woman to live with, and yes, I am picky on that count. I’ve had more than one close call lately.
           Being cautious is not the same as expecting too much. The people who confuse the two can never define “too much”, so they are just being jerkfaces. Too much is when you want something you don’t offer in return. Women are far guiltier of pretense to get what they want than I ever was. Old women have borderline insane illusions about romance. I prefer to be practical. I personally am not the least intimidated by any woman’s ability to earn more than I do, grow emotionally stronger over time, and/or develop new skill-sets that are, shall we say, decade-appropriate.

May 29, 2011

           Amazon deforestation. It is an easy thing to oppose. Especially by Americans and Canadians who completely raped their landscapes and got rich. They can now tsk-tsk other people who are doing the same thing. Here’s a recent photo (Getty Images) that looks strange to me – there are no roadways, something one normally associates with farming or logging. I’ll have to ask the next time I meet a farmer or a logger. There does appear to be a wire running into the top point of the diamond shape.
           Here’s a lot of information. It is all music matters today, so unless you are interested in the backstage portion of music, skip out. I ran across an older musician who was able to reminisce about the same things as myself (I started quite young). He remembers when Fender PA heads had a grounding switch. I’ve been shocked by mics, but never by phono cords. He tells me that is why some have plastic shielding. I thought they were just cheap cords.
           I went to the club and completely tested all my equipment. Everything was taken out of the case, run through the paces, and packed away again. All gear checks out, including items of routine maintenance. Other than a few dead batteries, I am ready to commence performing again. My act is not strong enough to take on the road so I’ll be auditioning again soon, but since I can now do my own vocals, it will be from a position of relative strength.
           In the past, I’ve had mediocre people get headstrong on me because I could not sing. I’ve learned sharing the stage in Florida does not mean cooperation as effectively making sure the other person is the star only half the time. I wish it were otherwise but it ain’t. You have to arrange things so there are times they take a secondary position. For some, this is painful therapy.
           I’ve analyzed the recent failure (with the vocalist) and realize it was a rather routine situation after all, and I fell for it. Musicians like a free ride, to just show up and do your part for equal pay without ever having to commit the extra time and talent needed to create the band. That attitude gets the more complex when you get people who flit from band to band hoping to score. I was on the receiving end.
           Being a solo act once again, I re-do my research all over from scratch. I often get asked what my sources are. One source: GigMasters. My reasoning is simple: they have the guts to state their prices. There are exactly four country bands listed as based in Broward. They are “Atlantis”, “The Insti-gators”, “The Dave Mohr Four” and a new group from Hollywood, “The Jetstream Band”. I do not count bands like “High Octane”, “Black Gold” and several others who use “it depends” pricing.
           Also, I do not count Zydeco or Bluegrass as country, nor country Karaoke, and Palm Beach bands that perform in Broward. Note, although there are none in this area, I would not include Latino country, or bands with keyboards only or backing tracks only. My target audience is clubs and pubs, for I do not like the wedding circuit as being too unpredictable and often artist-specific. I prefer lounges, but there are no country music lounges in the entire area.
           Local country bands tend to be trios or larger and in my thinking there is a sustainable market for a reasonably priced duo. Reasonable is $200 to $250 for regular engagements. The lowest price for the others mentioned is $400 with special pricing up to $10,000 for New Year’s Eve. Be wary of agents, they’ll book you out of town every other week. I’ve found doing more research than what I already do is not productive.
           I have never personally seen any of these bands perform. It is enough for me to know that I cannot walk into a country joint without a cover charge anywhere in this area. My overall philosophy is not dependent on what others do. Most people hearing my show say it is one of a kind. In reality, just over 65% of what I play is country. The rest is old rock and pop with a country flavor, think Dwight Yoakum doing “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. I am seeking a niche since I have no intention of knocking my brains out by competing with the establishment. Now you know too much.
           The good news for today is the readership on my Epinions product reviews has passed 10,000. Not bad for only 26 written reviews during a stretch when I had very few new purchases to evaluate. For the record, I’ve made less than $100 on all that work, but I use it to advertise my other on-line destinations.

May 28, 2011

           I’m wearing army boots. To find out why, read on. I kind of like my new high speed Internet. It changes everything. For instance, as long as I don’t get too fussy, I could live anywhere I want. Today I spot-checked places that will give me a mobile home for free providing I keep up the lot rent. Based on what I pay now, I could live in almost any city in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, or Montana. Then I quit looking since those are the only places I’d care to live.
           Take a peek at this acre on the island of Hawaii. It’s serviced and only $8,000. Same climate as here, I’ve lived in both places. Then there’s Idaho. Too bad one needs a winter vehicle to live there because the bargains make my eyes water. Anyhow, I’m comfy here and just looking.
           There is even an estate in my old stomping grounds. It says if I buy the 3 acres of land near Everett (for $24,000) they’ll give me the recently-inspected two-bedroom house for free. I know that area and I’m tempted. Meanwhile, houses in Point Roberts, Washington, are asking millions of dollars. That’s because the owners are Canadians and the recession has not hit there yet. The average household income in Canada is $25,363, still $6,000 less than in America. The writing is on the foreclosed wall.
           Then I drive past the old place here and see the “For Rent” sign still stuck in the window. What are those crazy people up to? Are they trying to rent it from 3,000 miles away or paying local help? Either way, they are losing their shirts. I have no idea how they are scrounging the money, but I do so hope it is Patsie paying the tab. So she can put her money where my foot is.
           Advice: Sure, it will mean admitting you are wrong (and stupid, and conniving, and liars), but dammit sell the place, you fools! I’ll give you $3,000 for it right now, time-limited offer. What? Well, because nobody else has any money and banks don’t mortgage mobile homes. The last time the place had value was when I was in charge. But we all know having your name on the bill of sale makes you better and smarter than me, so much so that your verbal contracts are worth about the same as your handshake.
           Later. The gang has suggested a nickname for Patsie. They offer that she be known as “Tycoon Patsie”, long-distance real estate wizard and forked-tongue princess of Florida property law. I feel that needlessly exposes her horrible example to the children, so I won’t use it in writing.
           The cruise ship gang showed up tonight for bingo, making it a resounding success. Small crowds, big prizes, it keeps them happy. I forgot it was Memorial Day weekend. On top of that, I got a couple callouts thanks to problems from the new Xfinity service. It isn’t exactly compatible with the Google chrome browser, which tries to install itself when you aren’t looking. I suspect Google is becoming the next 800 lb gorilla using that rotten Hewlett-Packard tactic.
           Florida now leads the nation in foreclosures, hundreds of thousands of them. That eliminates any chance of it being only a handful of irresponsible types and shows that the recession is biting deep into the middle-class whose entire equity was placed in their houses. I draw that conclusion because the family house is usually the last of all assets to go. One statistic not published is the average age and income of the borrower, but I’ll bet you it is not primarily seniors losing at this stage.
           One positive outcome of all this is that possibly credit checks will become less ubiquitous, but don’t hold your breath. Credit checks are now done for job applications, apartment rentals, hospital admittance, and now a secondary industry is arising from information garnered by these credit checks. For instance, the brand of car you drive, easily discovered on your credit record, can determine how much you pay for utility deposits. Didn’t know that, did you?
           And don’t go thinking all you have to do is avoid credit. Having no credit score has become equivalent to a bad score (a course I predicted in 1991). Losing your house is one thing, the fact that you will have to lose your lifestyle and attitude to start over is another thing because most people just can’t do it. I assure you, living without credit is not, as many assume, just a matter of paying cash for everything. It takes years to learn the ropes even amongst those of us equipped to learn ropes.
           If asked to nail down the single most difficult part of living without credit, I would say it is developing a sense of the payoff times on larger purchases. There is a lot more to it than buying the biggest box of detergent on sale. One must consider value in a different way that is hard to define. You may actually choose an item of less value because it is easy to replace. You reject anything high maintenance. You learn that self-reliance is not determined by how much money you can get.
           Did you know I do not have a perfect credit score? Top of the FICO (Fair, Isaac & Co.) scale is 850. Since I’ve never missed a payment in my life and was only late a few times in my twenties, I should have 850. But I don’t. You have to be actually making payments and I don’t possess a credit card. Length of credit history is also required. One must have 40 years of perfect payment history to get that score and I’m not old enough.
           Nobody knows how many (or how few) people have a score of 850. My guess is around 24,000 in America. Oh, and asking for your credit score can cost you a point each time. It is their property, not yours.

May 27, 2011

           Here’s a progress picture on the tank circuit components, proving beyond doubt that Agent M and I are not cutting corners. Either of us could tell you in detail how these pieces are made and how they work. The capacitor shows only the stator, not the rotor.
           Up early enough, assisted by the local garbage collectors who, like my father, believed it is unrewarded to get up early unless you let the whole neighborhood know about it. Impresses the shit out of them, said my brothers. I read a collection of experiments done by Arduino buffs using the 7-segment LEDs. I noticed these trained and obviously wealthier than I individuals all used code similar to what I derived on my own. So much for higher education. And another thing, every one of them used pre-assembled parts, where I, the purist, used nothing but components.
           In other words and from my point of view, they cheated. I smirk when they describe “how little” their projects cost, often referring to $40 parts as nothing. They build a kit and crow about it. The real challenge was not the code or the assembly, but the thinking required to plan the project from the ground up. It doesn’t surprise me how that crowd never invents anything. But they sure think they do.
           My turn. Guys, there is nothing, repeat nothing, original with your “new” musical instrument that consists of light beams to make the woo-woo sound. It’s all been done, and a long time ago as well, so ho-hum. Same with the strings and keyboards with the old distorted whale-fart tones. Give it a rest, you people, and yes, I mean “you people”. If you think I need anger management, remember I think you need stupidity management, which you understand will take a lot, lot longer. So there.
           It is month’s end where I get conservative with the cash. Except for a scooter jaunt to Walmart for batteries, I was indoors with the fans and poring over antenna information. Do you ever get that feeling that the experts don’t really know any more than you do, they’ve just been at it for a while? Yeah, that feeling. It was too hot to do anything outside anyway, though I put in some time on the capacitor. Without a drill press, every part is a compromise. It is getting there.
           We have done everything right according to the texts. Our antennas should by rights work. This means a change of policy to begin looking for external reasons for the bottleneck. We are planning on moving the test five miles further inland. During my studies, I found something new. Have you ever notice the really tall radio antennas are on flat, marshy, bottom land? I thought that was because it was cheap to use such unproductive areas. Nope. Radio waves reflect better off said terrain. AM waves, that is.
           The other improvement was in technique. Agent M has plenty of experience tinkering, but not with experimentation. I used to rush around the same way. Now each step is documented and conducted in that rarified air of dealing with errors systematically. Where before he’d grab an antenna a hook it up, we now log the first antenna’s performance and chart it against the second, looking at every discrepancy.
           I thought about playing out tonight but by four in the afternoon decided it was better to stay inside. From experience, it would be a dead evening due to rent day next Wednesday. I’ve responded to a couple of individuals who advertise country music. Solo acts are geared for rock and blues. Country always sounds better with a duo. There tends to be a better balance of musical parts. This is my third year of looking because this time I’m being super cautious, probably since I can now afford to be.
           Today was easy enough that I reviewed the press releases of companies developing military exoskeletons. A lot of it is pretty impressive. It relates to robotics as these “armor suits” use parts of similar design, particularly the arm and leg joints. The sensor controls are astonishing, the operator can load 200 lb missiles or dribble a basketball. We’ll see these things in action before long.
           Some of the fringe commentators covered the world’s reaction to these robo-soldiers. It was predictable that terrorists who use civilian populations for cover would complain that Americans are cowards who won’t fight like men. This fools no one, the first tactic of any idiot faced with technological superiority is to try to insult you into not using it. It can really infuriate the idiots when they learn you don’t care what they think, but I already mentioned my brothers once today.
           Hand-launched drone airplanes are being used by the hundreds in combat. I watched the soldiers throwing them into the air and could see the flyers are built from stock components. While they are not really robots, it is clear to me they work completely off computer code. I could not determine if they were self-controlled, but I could tell these weapons are practically perfect for using the servo and step motors I will have as soon as budget allows.
           That will be soon. As time moves ahead my average monthly income will become so predictable that this may cause more record high and low months. That situation will be artificial, a statistic caused by a narrowing standard deviation, like a graph with a sudden spike. My next priority is long-range transportation. That could be as soon as November.

May 26, 2011

           Today’s club meeting was discouraging despite the hard work accomplished. You see, even with the most carefully controlled experiments in ideal laboratory conditions, we still cannot get any measurable signals off any antenna that we built. Yet we’ve examined store-bought models and they are the same or inferior. Our meters are set to detect a ten thousandth of a volt and we get nothing. (Shown here is a T-shaped brace to hold a wire antenna, you can make out the multi-meter and soldering iron.)
           Mind you, we are looking for an inferred value. Only by accidentally reading an article on a different topic did I find a sentence that stated that the antenna collects a voltage. After studying 60 antenna documents and examining 200 photographs, we are still unable to find firm information on this matter. We concluded we might be hooking the leads up wrong, so we tried every possible combination before calling it a day.
           Thus, we continue working on the tanking circuit to see if we can get any resonating frequency, and as a backup, build a small amp by attaching the signal to a transistor base and on to a meter. The solution to this has baffled us ten days now. What do you suppose the answer will be once we find it? Meanwhile shame on so many authors of books on antennas that never provide any real help.
           I’m watching “Band of Brothers” again, this time on the new DVD player that Dave-O gave me. It’s a DVD recorder but he didn’t know how to use it. One day America will make a real war movie. Meanwhile, the Germans always stand around in groups and shout Teutonic oaths to give away their positions, refuse to post sentries, and when the shooting starts, are conditioned to run back and forth across the line of fire while ignoring available ground cover.
           The fact is the Germans never had anything like the vast stocks of equipment always shown. And as the Allied armies advanced, the German forces began to consist of raw recruits surrounding the ever-shrinking numbers of late-war veterans “of diabolical efficiency”. All one hears is how they were defeated but nary a word about the kill-ratios of such units. It must have been so gruesome it is covered up to this day. The Russians lost over 81,000 men taking Berlin. It wasn’t the German girl scouts managed that.
           My dangerous times amount to driving a scooter at rush hour once or twice a month. Which reminds me, I drove all ten miles to downtown Ft. Lauderdale y’day at 4:00 PM and the road was almost empty. Times are tough. You know, I yet may decide to go live in that town. Careful you know what you are doing, that is one town you may live in a nice neighborhood, but not what you have to drive through to go somewhere.
           I’ve even noticed that I’ll live precariously when it comes to finances now that I have steady income. I have some emergency funds, but I’ve gotten lax with my operational cash. In March this year, I let that cash drop to $19.65, something I haven’t risked in decades. Guaranteed income changes one’s thinking. (The difference here is that I recognize and document such things.)
           The records kept here show that AA batteries are a bad item to purchase in Florida and the worst place to buy them is at Big Lots, followed closely by Publix. The best before dates such as 2016 are fictitious. The worst brand is Kodak, then ordinary Duracells. Kokak product is basically a waste of money, lasting one hour in my camera where a good set of batteries lasts up to six months. Eveready makes a battery called “Super Heavy Duty”, also labeled 2016, that isn’t worth throwing out. Most of these batteries come in a recloseable package. Recloseable by whom?

May 25, 2011

           How do you like my new TV? Good, because it isn’t new, it came from that real estate office next to the old shop. Now part of my entertainment center, shown here is a still from an episode of “Band of Brothers”. This company of soldiers single-handedly won WWII and went on to become character actors. I got to admire them, for despite the legendary mountains of war material produced by the USA, they were continually short of ammo, medical supplies, and winter clothing.
           Happy anniversary. Today is fifteen years since I left the phone company. To this day, and likely forever, that outfit will dominate my thinking about jobs, group behavior, and the IQ of the human race. Nor do I care to shake the memory as I recognize probably five times the spread of abhorrent behavior and repugnant personality types than the average person. It sounds negative, but it isn’t really. I still get fooled, but never as often as what I witness every day and never the same way twice. I actually sometimes miss that job, but only for the money.
           I may have finally located Julie-K, the babe of the west. She fell out of communication four years ago, moved to a new job, got a boyfriend. Then I was out of the loop medically for another two years. Oddly, I found her on a listing of tennis players and remembered she had mentioned the sport a couple of occasions. I sent off an e-mail to the club president asking him to pass on the message. It would make my month to hear from Julie-K again. She was almost the one, you know.
           Sadly, I sent Staci-O the Dear John letter. On the upside, guess who I smacked into on Facebook? Vinny, the guy who sold me the bass I play to this day. He vanished when Mars Music went south but is still gigging out in Pompano. Vinny plays the circuit so he knows who is looking for bassists. I need the break. Neither Vinny or I can believe he sold me that bass in 2001. It eclipsed every other instrument I’ve ever owned.
           Getting the updates on what Ray-B and I talked about y’day, the total unemployed (I include part time and underemployed) count in the US is getting close to 25 million. Those that are employed have seen declines in their wages for five consecutive years and most new positions are service sector McJobs. Nobody’s career is safe in such a situation. An economic upturn by itself will barely change things in our lifetimes for the entire system has sunk past the proverbial point of no return.
           I think Yuppies were asking for it with their warped sense of self-entitlement. I did not see them in the next chair at evening classes all through the 80s and 90s when times were good and many laughed that I wasn’t in the next chair at the stripper bar with the gang. They thought they had it made.
           Imagine turning sixty with five more years of mortgage payments totaling more than half what the house is worth. That’s pure financial genius, guys. Brag to me again about how much money you made on the place. Louder! I can’t hear you. It’s all those banks and credit card companies giggling and rubbing their hands together.
           Right after all the above, I got a 5:00 PM callout. I used to get two a week, now it is two per month. The impetus here is that I didn’t give a second thought to driving up to Sunset on the scooter where a car would have been a major effort. The technical response is that the beautiful computer up there was getting bogged down by repeated requests for updates thanks to a serious screw-up over at MicroSoft. Look up rtvscan and the related 100% CPU usage.
           Looks like the robotics club finally gets some sensors this month, maybe next. Indeed, it can be as simple as that, one single callout makes all the difference. I bought the washers for the variable air capacitor and they didn’t fit. Same box, same product number but they don’t fit the standard bolt. Standard means they are supposed to be manufactured as a matching set. Something goes awry in the milling process and I have to drive ten miles to exchange three dollars worth of parts. Another sure sign of our deteriorating infrastructure.
           Blog guide says I must mention food today. Oh, I know. Rice. Ray-B was unaware that traditional Chinese fried rice is made with day-old white rice. That’s a fact, and here’s more. Restaurants will cook up extra fresh rice to ensure a supply for tomorrow, and a Chinese diner can tell instantly if the rice is aged. I’ve eaten a rice-based diet for twenty years and I can’t detect the difference, but it is there. I’ve even seen Chinese restaurants put up a warning to tell patrons if they use fresh rice. You may never have seen this sign unless you read Chinese.
           Speaking of rice, I’m finding out to my surprise a lot of people can’t cook it. I’d forgotten that I had to learn the hard way. When I was in college, I bought a big bag and cooked around ten pots full until I could get it right. Here is my current favorite way to prepare rice. I use white rice, but if you have time, always use brown rice allowing that it takes twice as long to make.
           For three to four hearty servings (and I mean hearty, not those miniature weight watcher portions), I use this method:
           1 cup rice
           2 cups water
           1 small vegetable bullion cube
           1 dash curry powder

Use a pot with a matching lid large enough to be only half-full for this recipe. Put all the ingredients cold into a pot. Bring to a rolling boil, stirred at first to prevent clumping. Reduce heat to a bare simmer, cover with the lid and wait 20 minutes. Turn off heat, remove cover, stir to prevent sticking.
           Things to watch for. Don’t buy instant rice, it has no nutrition. Some recipes say add the rice after the water boils. It makes no difference and forces you to stand there waiting on the event. Using my method, it does not matter if you leave the rice boiling for a few minutes as the cooking does not start until the steaming stage when you cover the pot. There is no need to peek at the rice. I use a kitchen timer set for 19 minutes. The reason for the curry is that it turns the rice a faint yellow color without changing the taste. The bullion cube, vegetable or chicken, contains all the salt you need. Leftover rice keeps in the fridge for several days and microwaves perfectly. While the rice is steaming, it is not unusual for small amounts of vapor to vent out the lid. This recipe can be halved or doubled easily, it is the ratio of ingredients that is important.
           [Author’s note: ah, some say, but my diet restricts rice, so I must have been cheating. Wrong. My doctor says no Chinese food, which is different than “rice”. Their preparation contains up to a dozen ingredients not found in natural boiled rice. All that oil, chicken bits and soy sauce equals too much fat, cholesterol and salt. Just settin’ the record straight.]

May 24, 2011

           True, I just spent six hours working on the capacitor. I could buy one for $10 but then, why would I do that? Save the ten bucks and remain dumb? Not my style. Most of the hours were trial and error, I could build another one in far less time now. The only thing stopped me was Ray-B came over on his day off. That’s him on the acoustic with red scooter in the background.
           We played music and compared metaphorical notes. The music scene, the economy, and the future. Out of the blue, he remembered that old Fendermen song “Mule Skinner Blues”. Except for Rusty, my former business partner, I’ve never met anyone else who knew that song.
           Now, I think I will learn it. It is the version with the yodeling parts. I dug it out of my pre-Limewire-shutdown archives. It is so great to have somebody intelligent to shoot the breeze with that I talk too damn much. But Ray-B says it is worth listening to because it contains new information. That’s a real compliment.
           As far as the economy, be reminded that I say the depression is already here. We can, as a nation, never recover from the stupid mistakes of the past thirty years. (That’s “we”, not “I”.) Twenty years ago I predicted February 2011 as the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. This is not speculation, it has already come to pass. Hey, middle class, your pension plan is broke, your house is falling to 1970 prices, your dollar is worth ten cents, your career left for China and your children were born $40,000 apiece in debt. Serves you right.
           Ray-B bought so we went to this excellent little sandwich shop near Panera. Great prices, big portions. The sandwiches are twice the size of Quizno’s. I didn’t get the name. I almost became a school teacher before I started with the phone place. Ray-B knows schoolteachers and he says they only make around $35,000 per year. Could that be? I mean, that is nothing these days. He assures me that is it. Glad I never went into the occupation. Janitors make more. For some crazy reason I though teachers made twice as much but apparently not.
           Now Ray-B walked into this place and complete disarray. He saw the antennas and workbench and declared the scenery pretty amazing. You can tell when I’m busy: hacksaws and wrenches on the kitchen table, sink piled high, and empty coffee cups all over the other furniture. It’s the sign of forward movement, lads. Ray-B is likely to be an early beneficiary of the research happening right here these days. A tiny thing like free Internet can save you $1,000 per year and it is perfectly legal.
           I suggested him and I play a take-up set next time he’s on the beach. I get so many offers to play out there but my solo act is not quite strong enough. That’s not to say I can’t do something. I only need to look harder for the right venue. It keeps coming back to my old solo act, but this time Karaoke has made what I do seem refreshingly live. Do you remember Charles, the sax player? He jammed with Mike and I one time at Jimbos, saying we were too good for that place. I’m still there.
           Well, he’s in the same boat as I. No place to play his instrument solo. So he goes to Karaoke with his sax, requests his tune, and plays a sax solo instead of singing. And does a first class job of it. I saw his act for the first time last Thursday. I’ve got his phone number somewhere. Is there such a thing as country sax? If not, we’ll create it. For the past year I’ve tried several times to take my bass to Karaoke but none of the DJs would let me plug into their speakers. Now Charles and I acted in isolation, so this must be one of those instances of co-evolution.
           I’ve got some video of our jam today. Google veryatlantic in a few days to find it on youTube. Right now, I’m up to Home Depot to buy another 258 washers needed for my variable capacitor. Is it worth it? We shall see. I also checked the musicians list for bass opportunities. This week had a full crapload of guitarists who think they know all about bass playing judging by what they were asking for. Real bassists are influenced by styles, not by memorizing names of so-called heroes and album cover art.
           There was one poor guy in there wanting lessons and I had the unpleasant task of writing him that he may be setting himself up for more of the same disappointment. Bass lessons are designed to sell you more bass lessons, often falsely convincing the student the ultimate goal is to play “jazz bass”. What a crock!
           I have never met a guitarist who could play the bass like a bass, I can instantly hear the guitar influence and that is rarely a good thing since the bass is a completely different instrument. But you can’t tell a guitarist that because he knows it all, yet when I play the bass the right way, it sounds wrong to many a guitar player. It doesn’t “match” what they have been conditioned to believe is bass playing. But I’ve had more hundred dollar bills in my tip jar than any guitarist I’ve ever met. So there.

May 23, 2011

           A nice gloomy summer day perfect for a scooter ride. JP’s been in touch and he remains completely tied down to his situation, unable to get away for more than a day at a time. One of those days could be this upcoming Friday. He wants to hit the casino and I’ll go along for the gamble of meeting some half-decent women. What a paradox how one begins to think like that in Florida.
           The weekend indoors left the electronics club one hell of a lot smarter than we were before. For instance, my home-made variable capacitor, shown here, is all the wrong dimensions but I am continuing anyway for the learning experience. Except for the more impenetrable sine wave formulas, which I would just plug into a spreadsheet once I get a reason to do so, we are now able to zero in on exact frequencies and design the appropriate antenna. We have not yet built any from scratch. That’s next week.
           What sort of things are we learning? My part of this week’s design is the capacitor. When I said it was wrong, I meant it will still work, just not as well as a better design. The fixed plates are the stator, the moving plates are the rotor. The pieces are cut in a curved fashion. But why?
           Not because it looks nice, not because they mesh better, and not because the lack of sharp angles makes it easier on the fingers. The reason for the rounded edges is because any acute corners will allow electricity to concentrate to a point and risk the danger of gap sparks, known as “arc-over”. My plates have the exact same curvature as an American 25-cent quarter. Sixteen rotors and seventeen stators.
           All this is certainly not helping meet any women either. Yeah, but nor has this made us rich and famous yet. Gee, maybe we should invite women to join the club and see who shows up. Can you just see that stereotype? A robotics club that spends 99% of its available energy on getting along instead of getting ahead. Then smugly claim that makes us superior to other clubs. And despite never having actually invented anything, we demand to be paid the same. Imagine the stimulating conversation! “Did you hear who’s fembot is pregnant?” In unison, “Again?”
           I’ll cheer things up with a photo of the coil built by Agent M. I do suppose many things, but on my best day I could not have produced such a fine product so fast. My original plan was to show my attempted coil side-by-side but this product by M takes every prize. We spent hours in the hot sun testing antenna designs. We were unsuccessful, but we have a better idea what does not work.
           Jimbos is right near the clubhouse so this one of the few nights I go there when not performing. This entailed a “big” conversation with Eddie, the guitar player. We got to talking about music and we will never agree. Eddie still suffers badly from guitar-think, that a band is made up of a guitarist and a bunch of zero flunkies who do what they are told. Eddie does not like my “play it once” rule, which is understandable, because he got caught by it.
           This is the rule in my (that’s “my” as it not yours or somebody else’s) band is that before anybody plays their own version, I need to hear them play it like the original at least once to prove they can do it. There are solid reasons for this rule; the main one being is that it will expose any musician who cannot play it in the first place. You have no idea how many bragging guitarists I’ve caught on this one.
           Well, you can visualize how well Eddie did on that test. Eddie, who can’t play the same song the same way twice. When he says that isn’t true, ask him to play the intro to his own favorite song, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”. Case closed. But he doesn’t like the test saying it stifles innovation. You see, Eddie just wrote a new original in the form of the 13-7/37th bar blues. And if you flunkies were real musicians, you’d be able to follow him. This does not apply in reverse to the guitarist because it stifles innovation, get it?
           At any rate, I was taking inventory of what I need to fire up my old act, this time with vocals and two complete new sets including more chick music. Faith Hill stuff. My conclusion is that things may come to this unless there is remarkable improvement with the existing arrangement. The odds of that are rather poor. The current vocalist is too shaky for stage work, passing the burden on to me to cue in the intros and such. And I am already far too busy on stage to adopt anyone.

May 22, 2011

           For all you school teachers with them mortgage-backed pension funds, I thought I’d introduce you to a little of your own destiny. I know that you, yourself personally, are the one who has it all figured out and are immune from the vagaries of the marketplace, but here is a dose of reality to bring you back to base. Good ole’ Spam [spiced ham] has come out with a single serving size. Now how about that? You knew you could count on them. Would you like fries with that?
           Shows you how much attention I pay to religions predicting the end of the world. I never heard a word about the rapture until it was over. If mortal existence ended at 6:00 PM y’day, it didn’t have any effect on my bingo game. See the kind of important things I miss by not reading newspapers and watching TV? Next thing you know, somebody will come along and tell me there’s a war going on.
           It being my day off, I read six articles on antennas and related matters. It would be hard to find worse reading. All of it is full of jargon and gobble-de-gook. The beginner’s material starts of by expecting the reader to be overjoyed that the new Google Android is “backported”. I can hardly contain myself. Oh, and you are supposed to know what this new Android is, because it isn’t the other Android. This one is a copy of the Arduino brainboard I’ve been using.
           The time I spent reading is easy to explain. I’ve run out of projects to do with just LEDs. I need some other type of sensors to do more robotics. A good robot needs vision of some kind, not just flashing LEDs. I know I’ve gone here before, but the sensors are so damn expensive. Motion, infrared, and pressure sensors start at around $30 each. A three axis accelerometer is $60 and speaks a foreign language.
           Sensors are another blind alley of the electronics world. Very little information is available at the learning level. I’ve not found a single source that describes if it is possible to build one from components. In the end, I’ll likely just buy one and find out later the alternatives. For instance, nobody said a word about the Arduino being unable to store live data or print graphs of the results. Not one word, the bastards.
           Same with antennas. Of the 50-odd sites visited, not one of them has a clear explanation of the most critical part: how to connect the wiring to the antenna. In the one or two instances that had a picture of the joints, none had a written set of instructions. It is really this wiring that changes the antenna from a piece of wire into something that works, yet nobody on the planet Earth has the brains to explain it so a newcomer would understand. I’d do it, but this blog is not an electronics textbook.
           But I’ll tell you about the wires to use. That’s plural “wires” because you need two. Since I use only dipole antennas, the wires go to each end of the dipole, or in the case of a split dipole, to each half. The first type is two identical wires in a plastic strip casing, a product known as “TwinLead”. You’ve seen this wire if you’ve ever hooked up an ouotdoor television aerial. That’s all it is, two wires. They are held apart by the plastic casing (this casing and the distance apart are very important, don’t mess with them).
           [Author’s note: I was surprised to learn about this twinlead wire. We know that antennas are directional, but they are also anti-directional. You see, the twinlead itself also acts as an antenna, but the theory is that the television station will transmit on a plane parallel to the ground. The twinlead is supposed to run from your antenna down to the TV, which is vertical to the ground. Hence, it picks up almost no signal. Now I see why the antenna should be at the highest point on your roof. It prevents you from running a long wire sideways to your television set. Those “standoff” insulators running down the antenna mast are also important. Twinlead is affected by nearby metal.]
           The other common type is coax, and the outer wrapping is always the ground. I borrowed this photo from Flat-Broke Experimenters, as they are one of the few sources that keep explanations simple. The (unknown) author flatly states that in his 30 years experience, he is convinced all antenna people don’t have a clue what they are talking about. If he’d had Google back then, he could have figured that out in fifteen minutes.

           Furthermore, mistake or not, in the absence of any clear documentation, Agent M and I are proceeding with the assumption that wireless Internet and WiFi are the same thing (just you try to get a straight answer out of anybody about that) and that both are ordinary FM radio signals. It is no easy matter to find accurate information about this type of subject, although strangely after you find out for yourself, a lot of the people you asked earlier start acting like, “Oh, is that what you meant.”
           Last, that was Big Al on the line. He’s the guy researching the Internet for a single valid business opportunity. I’ll talk politics with the Al, but my knowledge of names and current actions is limited. I know the concepts but not who is championing or opposing anything. Big Al says we are on the verge of civil disobedience. I say the government learned in the 1960s the danger of not having every person on file and will never make the same mistake again. Dare protest today and your name goes on the profile list.

May 21, 2011

           Blog readership is up again, slightly. That increase is led, sadly, by traffic to the few posts where I show pictures of pretty or nude women. Goes to show you. I notice when I set up a new computer, I still have to install Flash to view the videos. That’s scary, too, but only for those who know that Flash is owned by Adobe, the Macromedia people. Flash has spent the past several years perfecting ways to install evil cookies on your computer. Evil, because they last up to 30 years rather than the usual 30 days.
           And Macromedia is the archproponent of DRM, digital rights management. When, not if, they get their way, those cookies will be used to control what you read or listen to. My Internet usage is confined 100% to those areas that are free. Hotmail, Google, jimmyr, and a host of academic web sites. DRM means you will be forced to watch ads (a form of payment), and the article you read is deleted after one usage. Want to read it again? Pay again.
           The cookies are a precursor to software that will prevent the material from being printed, copied, or downloaded, and it will become illegal to sell it used or give it away when you are finished. Even when you pay full price, the media never becomes yours. Everything you look at will be filed away “for your protection”. You can view these evil cookies by downloading and running “Cookienator”. Here is a screenshot of some Flash malware already on this brand new, just set up computer.
           Yes, there are forces at work to repel this Americanization of the Internet, but they are disunited and far spread. DRM will make it illegal to open any accounts in a fictitious name so don’t waste your time on that angle. If you remain complacent (and you will), it won’t be long before you must watch a three minute ad for deodorant before you get the weather report or enter your PayPal code for lottery numbers. Want to check your own email? That will be 15 cents, please, because the log-on screen is copyrighted.
           Some of you may think the above scenario is far-fetched. If so, you have evidently not traveled much. In the majority of foreign countries where the media is controlled, like Canada, DRM is certain to be implemented as soon as it is ready. It almost is.
           It looks like steak and lobster for the weekend, bingo was a resounding success. The cruise line regulars are finally back, packing the place again. While not setting any records or reaching the highs of a year ago, the game has certainly evolved to a show. But rest assured, it is nonetheless still gambling and there should be no disguising that point.
           I headed up to the [Radio] Shack, intentionally driving through mortgage estates, the band of middle-class housing between the I-95 freeway exits. Those who think the real estate market will recover in this lifetime are brain dead. Live in a tent, but wait this thing out. Banks are purposely holding back the foreclosures so as not to flood the market, but they are getting desperate. The foundation of the market, first-time home buyers, are gone. What is selling is going to investors who are focused on making a profit, not maintaining the property.
           It’s a statistic, but almost half of all foreclosed houses have been trashed by former owners to the point of being uninhabitable. Why, it’s the bank’s fault for lending them all that money when they couldn’t pay it back. My guess is when house prices drop to the $45,000 range, things will pick up, but only because at those prices it is dumb to rent.
           Renting is another barrier to consider. It is very difficult to find good tenants in Florida. And bad tenants know the law is on their side. As I pointed out in 2000, the difference between renting and owning in Florida is barely $100 per month. All the good people have bought so you are renting to the other group. In all the years I’ve been here, Dave-O is the only person I know who rents. And he’s buying as soon as his big bucks arrive. He’s buying a mobile home and waiting out the market. He’s seen the light.

May 20, 2011

           Here is a tiny bottle of real Old Spice. This is tagged seven bucks, and that is at Big Lots. Wish I’d kept those jugs of it people used to give me for Xmas before I was old enough to shave. We’ll see how the weekend goes before I make the investment.
           Agent M has an iMac. It is over nine years old and runs circles around my 2.34 gigahertz IBM/windows piece of junk. I’ve had one major computer crash every year since 1992 when I bought my first non-Apple equipment. I won’t mention the minor problems. But I did correctly predict IBM-based PCs would be nothing but trouble when I first saw the complicated operating system they used back in 1984.
           For those who don’t know the tale, IBM started using DOS, a really bad system pirated by Bill Gates. DOS cannot be improved, it can only be updated by adding more and more code, which slows down the computer, so they have to build a faster chip and the you know the vicious circle. IBM did try to kick Gates out by developing their own operating system. I think it was called OS/2. It flopped because some genius designed it to only work well with IBM software. Apple did the same, but IBM software isn’t Apple software no matter how hard they try to copy it.
           Today, I learn how to make onion rings. I’ve failed too often so I’m on a search for the recipe that works. I even tried store-bought batter and all it did was turn my cooking oil dark, although my freedom fries now have a nice golden tone. If like myself, you have noticed the serving size of onion rings drop to half over the past few years, get back here for my review of what I find on-line.
           Later. It turns out onion rings are quite the industry in America. Where do I get free samples? I’ve learned they use only sweet onions, and that they dust their rings with flour before dipping into the batter, saying it makes the batter stick better. I was definitely having trouble with that. So far, the best recipe for batter is tempura (egg and flour) but like all Japanese food, it looks better than it tastes. I’m on the right track.
           Even later. The second live gig did not go so well, I’ve allowed for the fact that it never does. The scary thing is that the errors were mostly identical to the ones made three weeks ago. No change, no improvement. Remember, these songs are all material the singer told me she already knew. The tune is called “The Rose”, not “A Rose”, you see what I’m getting at. Also, I’m detecting far too much stage fright for someone who is supposed to have many years of experience. There are overall too many signs that I am the only one doing the work, precisely the situation that causes me to team up with others.
           Then to top it off, Eddie and I got to talking women. Somebody bought the house a round just as I finished packing the gear, so we sat up at the bar. A woman nearby was listening in and kept pointing out every few sentences that the fault must be with us, not the women. We were looking in the wrong places, we were too fussy, we didn’t have anything to offer, you know the drill. She kept adding a little home-spun wisdom to everything we said, like we’d overlooked the really important things in life and everything we knew could stand a little improvement. Finally I asked her if she was a Canadian. She was.

May 19, 2011

           This is an exposing photo from the new club. I like to think how drastically it shows the growth from three weeks ago. Back then, anybody could have joined us and knew as much as we did. We plowed slowly through incredibly difficult topics for three hours today to study this antenna. Agent M and I are planning ahead to independent research without all that much help from the outside world.
           Again, electronics dominated the day. We are in the process of standardizing all fittings where we presently have a hodgepodge of different couplers. It took one demonstration for us to switch completely over to digital calipers accurate the hundredth of an inch. Going on line to review what others are selling, we have already seen plenty of items where we could do better. We have narrowed our studies to bi-quad dipole and yagi antennas, the latter shown here.
           I’ve downloaded around 200 pages of articles on these particular antennas and I think all those authors went to the same school. They lapse into graphs and formulas far too early, before they have finished explaining to the death what works and why. I’ve always been leery of formulas that contain sines and cosines. Just tell me where the wires go and I’ll find the sweet spot myself. We need some straight talk about antennas and that book still needs to be written.
           Agent M is as extraordinary as I was at that age. He’s got a complete workshop set up in the walkway between his house and fence. In the planter he’s got a whole crop of radishes and peas. He says I’m the first person who knew what the little leaves were. He does his own car work and has an inquisitive nature, though he tends to move too fast, often missing important points along the way. Incidentally, at 4:55 PM today, we finally connected at 231 kbps. All my updates were completed within 15 minutes.
           Staci-O was up to practice tonight, so I scootered the 32 miles. We are far behind schedule; she didn’t put in the time little by little and is now doing the mad scramble to catche. By now, we should be out there, instead, we are still practicing intro and versions. No matter, we go on stage tomorrow night.
           Things are moving too slow, we should have a full complement of tunes by now and ready to play out, whereas we are still running over the original twelve tunes. I now do twelve myself and that represents the only new material in several months. Yet this is far from the worst situation, hell, look at the Hippie, not one new song in six years. That reminds me, I looked at craigslist, a rare thing for me. The musicians section is totally taken over by commercial interests.
           But there was a bass player advertising for a band, and it had me rockin’ with laughter. He is a west coast type obviously new in town and learning the hard way that all the mentally defective guitar players on the east coast have moved to Florida. It gives them a sense of belonging. The humor I see is that he has plainly been stung repeatedly and listed what he hated. He won’t be in a band soon, for that list was longer than mine.

May 18, 2011

           From the “Things Dumbies Are Not Likely To See” department, we have the victory screen from Tut’s Tomb. No, not solitaire. Anybody can win at solitaire. Tut’s Tomb is a difficult version of a different card game that I play twice a year to make sure I can still clear the stack in near my 68 second record. The card “bounces” are angular, not smooth like solitaire.
           Welcome to the sweltering heat, the part of Florida they don’t tell you about. I’m safely ensconced in a shady shelter with three fans, but I can look out the patio doors and see the heat. It’s good I have plenty to do, which includes make my specialty fried chicken. Except, it isn’t fried, but nobody knows that. Hush, it’s a secret.
           I put together a kit for Agent M who is far handier with tools than I. One item he’ll build is the coil, which for some reason I cannot manage on my own. My wires bend, slip, come loose and work their way off whatever core I am using, which has ranged from dowels, PVC pipe, to empty shampoo bottles. This coil connects to the antenna, so when that goes operational we can do something with it. I’ve covered this material many times before but who knows where. This blog has no index.
           Another four hours of testing here shows no improvement in the antenna strength, though all testing is still indoors. But the different antennas pick up different routers around a third of the time, which is truly strange. There is no ready explanation, since the stations that are found are detected at the same wattage. It would be nice to come back here some day and laugh at such questions.
           I have not been in the Philippines since around 1985, the time Pat Pendergrast and I took that freighter/ferry/steamer floating death trap to Kalibo. What reminded me is that I made fish and rice for lunch, and I still make it exactly the same as the meals we had on that boat. Fish, salt (in the form of soy sauce) and rice. Every meal for two days was the same, I ate the tail, Pat preferred the head. To this day I still make it the same way, even the same proportions. Conditioning, I suppose.
           Try as I might, I cannot emulate a steel guitar on the electric bass. I already play parts meant for piano, sax, fiddle, and guitar. I’m probably just not trying hard enough. Think of the instrumentals in “Good Hearted Woman”, “Silver Threads & Golden Needles”. I don’t seek the sound, rather the different feel to the notes that make the riffs distinctive. That the crowd identifies with a particular song and it is a large part of what makes my show so original. The use of hard work instead of Zydeco.
           Another urban legend put to the test says don’t try this at home. You know the trick of cleaning a microwave is to boil a few ounces of vinegar, then wipe the cavity clean. Dave-O came over and we watched the microwave. First the vinegar will boil, then it will smoke and yes, it will catch fire. Ordinary vinegar. You been told.
           Dave-O got an advance on his settlement. He went directly to Red Lobster for feast, it’s a bachelor thing for those who can’t cook. He’s got the Jeep back on the road and gave me a brand new DVD player he never uses. He drank the last bottle of wine I keep around and fell asleep in the armchair until dark. We are still going to head out to Davie to meet some “white girls with blonde hair and blue eyes and small knockers”.
           With his luck, he walked in the door just as I finished cooking a huge pile of chicken and corn on the cob. But he had the $39 “special” at the restaurant and couldn’t manage a nibble.            We watched “Charlie Wilson’s War” and calculated the economic kill ratios of the American weapons. That is, how many dollars does the bad guy need to attack an American with one dollar? Easy, 266, or just too many. This is based on the American stinger missile ($74,000) shooting down a Russian helicopter ($20,000,000).
           Next I demonstrated the progress with the antennas. Dave-O was impressed and he directly tore off $40 for parts for a model for himself. The club now has money. And the club is very aware the same antennas are selling on the Internet for $150 apiece. For some reason the entire antenna technology is shrouded in mystery. But if the public will pay $150 for it, needless secrecy they shall get. They must be unacquainted with the fact the sniffing and scanning software is downloadable for free. Don’t worry, you are safe since that same software requires brains to interpret.
           No jumping to conclusions. We have not yet produced a single useable result and have not connected to even one signal. It is not any practical function that amazes the onlooker, instead the amount of development in such a short time. That can be misleading. What we need are economic kill ratios. Are you going to pay $30 to $80 per month for service so you can get free information, or will you invest in a perfectly legal antenna?
           Concerning free service, I see the end of general access to the Internet (a.k.a "net neutrality"). The big providers (Comcast, AT&T, Rogers) want to charge you per usage, something the phone company calls “metered service”. When it gets busy, you will be prompted to enter your Paypal account number to bump somebody else off the waiting list. I believe this situation is unavoidable because so many of the rich want it that way. In a sense, many of the clueless are already paying with their personal information.
           On the other hand, metered service could produce two good results. Since the revenue would go to the telecommunication companies and not the web sites, it may cut down on the sheer number of crackpot outfits that only get visited because they are free, goodbye Twitter. And it will encourage the ultimate replacement of the Internet with something that actually works. Metered service restores the old order, where the poor are effectively cut off from the mainstream of financial opportunities, job listings and general flow of power.

May 17, 2011

           This is a set of metal plates destined to become a variable capacitor. Neither Agent M nor I have any idea how to do it, but here is evidence we started from scratch. We have defined our first project and it is to build a good old-fashioned AM radio receiver from junk parts. I do the research, he builds the parts, along the way we share the techniques and results.
           He is profoundly amused by the process of logical thought, that state I call “disbelievement”. There are two types of people: those who will doubt everything you say because they “don’t know about that” or “never heard of that before” and those who recognize they have learned something in the immediate past. Disbelievement.
           When I demonstrated inductance (which I first saw myself last month) on his kitchen table, he was captivated as much by my think-out-loud observations as the moving needle. “As it presents a positive and negative that reverse over time, we recognize it interstitially meets with zero, therefore we conclude this current must be alternating, and that if it so behaves, it follows we need only find a means to detect it . . . .”
           We conducted a further set of experiments, mostly with his unknown antennas and components. Agent M spotted in a few moments a problem I spent much more time investigating. I was looking at the code; he was looking at the wiring. He now has first hand experience watching what the Arduino can do, that’s a lot more than I got.
           This one-hour club meeting wound up taking all afternoon and early evening. We have succeeded in picking up transmissions from two miles distant, but not in connecting. At that distance, the maximum data speed is 2 MB/sec, barely enough for email. I have cataloged all the free sources, the strongest signals being Hollywood Wireless (31%) and Oceans Free, the pub (37%). The strongest signal overall, probably too strong, is a heavily encrypted and secure (TKIP+AES if you must know) signal from the El Rancho Motel. That link has everything, right down to MAC addressing.
           The reason we are using scrounged parts is plain. The club is broke at this time. Empty coffers. We have established a short-term and long term schedule. The AM radio and the robot, respectively. Most prototypes are constructed from LEGO, something neither M nor I have ever used. The local stores sell only LEGO kits which contain customized parts for that one set, which we are not willing to pay for. How I wish I could find a source of good old Meccano sets.
           It is easy to imagine how this new business dominates everything. There is nothing else to report. But once we are up and running, that will be a different story. Meanwhile, the Internet is the most important communication device and has been for me since 1996. What sewing machine?

Addendum:
           May is the month I traditionally do a review of past performance (as opposed to November when I plan ahead). For a lark, I dug out my old copy of “How to Profit in the Coming Devaluation”. Who remembers this book? It was, in 1971, a shocker to the public of its day. It was not influential to me since in 1971 I had no money to invest anyway. I re-read it to refresh the memory of what it predicted.
           Devaluation hurts people who buy imported goods. Don’t confuse devaluation with deflation which is the lowering of local prices. Inflation is caused by a surplus of money, deflation is caused by a shrinkage of the money supply. I’m in favor of deflation. The easiest way to lower the money supply is to cut off credit. Like has happened in the past two years. Just you try to get a mortgage.
           Like most investment advice, the book seemingly talks in circles. But it was curious to see which predictions which did not take place. The law has since changed to allow Americans to own gold. That law on that was no more effective than any other type of prohibition, though we still pretend to regulate booze, gambling, sex with teenagers and narcotics. If there is no legal way to make money, people will find an illegal way.
           One major area that has changed is that it has become entirely possible to lose money by going to school. I won’t delve into it, but college is still geared toward getting a job rather than making money. It took me 16 years to pay off my student loan, by which time all hope of youthful riches was long gone. My own dentist (at that time) told how he graduated so far in debt it would take him until he was 48 to break even. But on paper he was rich.
           The book was right about one particular thing. I learned early in life to do those things which cannot be taken away or split up. Invest in any general form of intellectual enjoyment. (It is pretty hard for parents to force you to share your piano lesson with your brother, although in their own way I’m sure mine tried.) Anything else can be taxed away or taken away, as is about to happen to the houses of more than half the population. Even if the government lets them keep the property, the “store of value” is already lost.
           I like deflation, I hope credit shrivels up to the point nobody can buy anything except for ready cash. Working people will hate it. When prices drop, they will still be stuck paying off huge chunks of credit from former years out of their paychecks. (Gee, and they can’t run and start over somewhere else like before since they gave up their right to do so, sound familiar? They had nothing to hide, right?)
           I hear tell “they” (the average American between 50 and 59, the age where borrowing even one more red cent is stupid beyond belief) owe about $42,775 (depending on your source) each although I suspect the real total is twice that if one includes the debts of the government they elected. I consider voting these days to be co-signing a loan for some stranger. Get ready for a cash buyer’s market.
          Can you see me dealing with a credit junkie? Yeah, I’ll give you $5,000 cash for your house. No? Then try selling it to somebody else. See how many $600 lawn mowers I buy. You want what for that Toyota? How about no payments until never? Is never good for you?
           While I’m in the mood, let me have a Michael Moore moment on that Toyota issue. I mean any car, but the idea holds. I tell the salesman I don’t have $30,000 for a car. He says no problem, just fill out the credit application and make bank payments over the next five years. I reply saying I’ll give $3,000 for the car.
           He goes ballistic. How will he pay his bills and the rent and the workers who built the car? I say no problem, just fill out a credit application and make the bank payments over the next five years. He cries out that will bankrupt him, and I say, “Yeah, but you started it.”
           There is a good reason salesmanship and economic theories are not bed partners.

May 16, 2011

           First, antenna news. Following some tiring outdoor testing, it seems both Agent M and I may live in areas of poor cellular and wireless service. These dead spots are not uncommon in Hollywood, Florida. All of my neighbors get free Internet from the local coffee shop whereas I can barely pick up a 10% signal on the very best days. We have learned to try the cheap fixes first: get a longer antenna or go higher.
           Here is a photo of calibrating meters from the most expensive left to right. The situation rapidly is becoming if he can build it, I can make it work, and vice versa. Agent M is wide-eyed that coordinated effort can produce such splendid results. He has never glimpsed the discipline I import and consider ordinary.
           Progress is more than satisfactory. We are rapidly learning the central facts where too often the textbooks are silent. My antenna mast may be an ordinary dowel placed inside a PVC plumbing pipe. If that does not work, we have investigated rigging up two antennas in tandem, something known as an array. And we’ve learned a lot about waterproofing the hell out of everything. Admittedly, we have little to go on but his designs and my studies, but tomorrow or Wednesday, up go those antennas.
           This month the real seasonal downturn begins in Florida. Driving to Wal*Mart this morning I saw seven cars on the road where there should be two hundred. It has been a slow time for me already, but that means you get more music, antennas, robots and model Eiffel Towers. And more planning. I’m $400 short of the funds needed to go to Texas next month. That is not bad considering the circumstances.
           Keeping capabilities in mind, I took a very close look at the road atlas. If I had to, I could make it to Texas in five days on the scooter. What an adventure that would be! Furthermore, the entire trip would be on paved highways nearly paralleling the Interstates and I’d see more of the country. What’s stopping me has a lot to do with not having the $400 toward accommodation for the ten-day round trip. The soonest I can afford the trip is November and that is winter in Texas.
           Never in modern history has a working man’s future finances been so thoroughly analyzed as my own. I do these calculations around every six months, picking a night when I’m not tired enough to sleep. If I choose to buy a house in Ft. Lauderdale, it is almost assured because I could get a demand loan for the full amount right now despite having zero earned income. Since my first retirement projection at age 27 (although I could claim earlier I did not write it down), I like to compare that amount with the true amount which becomes more certain as time advances. As of today, my total was only $7.12 per month off target if I retire now instead of many years in the future.
           Sometimes I wonder how the rest of America will fare without a plan? A good plan is the only thing that really separates those who will thrive from those who will meet destitution. Historically, 96% of people die with less than a week’s wages put away. Although pensions in the western world tend to cloud matters, the poverty line in America is $13,740 per year per adult. If you make less than that, you are poor. And a wanker loser, too, ha-ha.
           That 96% ratio has persisted for a thousand years and is not likely to change just because all the boomers want to sell their houses. A big issue is lifestyle. Too many people associate enjoyment with spending money. I listen to a radio station that gives away cash prizes of $1,024. When asked what they will do with the money, most say they will “go have some fun”. Winners, my eye. I state with conviction it requires five years to break that "broke-means-bored" habit, or about the same time it takes from scratch to grow a brain and start thinking, if one applies oneself.
           And may I add a few words about lifestyle. I have always suspected that idiocy, senility, Alzheimer’s, and all dementia-like conditions are not diseases but symptoms of mental inactivity. If you sit around thinking your family is the best and the world done you wrong, of course your brain will atrophy. Boredom is merely the worst consequence of that sordid lifestyle. Thinking people don’t have time to get lazy and gloomy.
           To me, these things are as plain as the nose on your face. It is no shock that recent studies are confirming these hunches. Just look around. All thinking people are unique in their own way. But the rest are identical right down to their heads full of misinformation, their argumentative natures and the talk shows they are addicted to. I mean think about it, what are the odds of two educated, thinking people having the same prescriptions? Yet the town is full of losers who take identical anti-depressant drugs.
           [Author's note: for reasons unknown even the cheapest dollar store digital (I said digital) multimeters proved to be phenomenally accurate. That suggests any meter is better than no meter, so get one if you don't already have. These gadgets are vastly overbuilt and do the job. The one I own was cheaper than the battery inside it.]

May 15, 2011

           Those not curious about antennas can skip a few paragraphs. I’ve learned the figure eight design shown here is a compromise. The signal comes in from the X direction passing over the “sides” of the antenna wire, each of which are a quarter wavelength. Thus, they intersect the incoming flow at an average of 45 degrees on either side of the exact centerpoint, shown here as a red dot. Since the incoming signal is a full sine wave, each half or the antenna will catch any portion missed by the other. I think.
           The explanation for my sudden antenna research is to establish communication from home as opposed to using the library system. Once home service is working, it will become far easier to conduct regular electronics research and carry on with robotics. I’ve found that books on antenna theory are horribly written. They start off well enough but quickly lapse into egghead terms when the author loses his sense of audience. You might say a lot of the well-intended books wind up staying in the MonkeyZone (see below).
           What I’m covering now is subtle knowledge of why our bowtie or zig-zag antenna is underperforming. There are no serious errors in the design. I’ve learned the core of all design is the ¼-wavelength arrangement, and the bowtie is known to the scientist as a “bi-quad” antenna. My book-bound research has led me to beamwidth and reflector technology. I know the signals are there; do I require a parabolic reflector to gather them? I never went this far before. Where before my antennas either worked or didn’t work, I am finally asking why.
           Finally, I rigged up a magnet and a coil and measured an induced electric current of 2 millivolts. It’s one of those things you read about and I finally got around to doing it. I moved three fridge magnets between an old radio antenna. It was necessary to see it for myself and I observed it closely. The voltage swayed between negative and positive values, meaning it is an alternating current, at least the way I moved the magnet. Sorry, no picture since foolishly I bought Kodak camera batteries.
           I’m doing what civilized people ought to do on Sunday’s. I’ve read five chapters of antenna theory, which is easier reading than the book on microbe research. I figured out that RHDP on an LED stands for “right hand decimal point” and how not to make onion rings. Now onion rings, there is a topic that’s the right intellectual depth for the Internet. Bet I’ll find a dozen recipes next log-on.
           With that in mind, allow me to define the “MonkeyZone”. This is the narrow range (in IQ) of material on the Internet that is too shallow for somebody to sell or turn into an on-line course, but barely important enough that somebody with half a brain will publish it and consider themselves an author and a gentleman, as the case may be.
           This would explain why the Internet is full of schlock, half truths, and urban legends. These are the crowd for whom they have to print “place stamp here”. The mob who cannot mention a black hole without also adding nothing escapes it, “not even light”. (That is one scientific tidbit that truly impresses idiots.) Leroy, that is why it is called black, you numbskull. The MonkeyZone accounts for up to 90% of most web publications.
           A band called “Smoking Aces” is ardently on the hunt for a real bass player. What makes this group different is their ad copy. It is clear they have met all the wannabees and other flakeheads who infest the Florida musicscape. I have to chuckle at their descriptions of the losers and hired guns because it mirrors my experiences with guitarists. The jerks who lie about knowing the material and try to chord-read my left hand. The bozos who show up thinking the entire rest of the band should learn their personal favorites. In a sense it is a smug rush to read how that door swings both ways.
           These “Smoking Aces” seem so earnest that I read their song list. I know roughly a third of the material, but have not played rock in 15 years. I haven’t really listened to ir for much longer. I have my reasons, one of which is the music is at the level of teenage boys. The “Iron Man” gang. This new band is established and has paying gigs. I’ll keep an eye on things but as far as the bassist blues, serves you right because guitarists invented that bad behavior.
           Most of this research was done on the computer and all I can say is I dream of the day that IBM computers and Windows drive off a steep cliff and never come back. Nothing ever works right on that crap in the long run. The true purpose of PC computers is to sell you another computer in six months if they can. You want to know why Windows will ultimately fail? Because their operating system “prefers” their own applications. If any other industry did that, they’d be hauled in front of a jury for violating anti-trust laws.
           [Author’s note: When it comes to black holes, I am well aware that black is also a color. In fact, black holes are a dull red color. The reason for the notice of where to place a stamp is a result of English tax. When all the stamps were in one corner, the tax man could quickly ruffle through a pack of cards to make sure all were stamped. I’m using artistic license to make points, not to educate the world.]