Slicing with Occam's Razor

Thoughts on the Cloud

2011-07-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

I hope you are all enjoying the celebrations of our nation's founding!(jet laggin my way back to home time zone)The buzz for a year or more now is "keep it in the cloud"There is some rational for this although I'll confess having lived through the old mainframe with terminals through having it all on your desktop PC and now (almost) full circle back. There are a few differences though - back in

More Green Math

2011-06-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

another does not quite add up article on Solar PowerUkiah Daily Journal... will provide a $55,000-per-year return on investment - of $750,000 - (with $47K still outstanding)

better pay that student loan

2011-06-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Dept of Education breaks down Stockton mans doorwords fail melink down (should have grabbed a screen shot) - here is the textSTOCKTON, CA - Kenneth Wright does not have a criminal record and he had no reason to believe a S.W.A.T team would be breaking down his door at 6 a.m. on Tuesday."I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers," Wright said.Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts

EBS

2011-03-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

Emergency Broadcast Systemjust had the 3rd (unusual for NorCal) tornado alert, gotta love the lack of local knowledge, from pronunciation of the areas affected to "the safest place is in a basement" er, this is California - doubt if even 10% of the homes in this state have a basement! the next best advice is to be in an inside hall and if outside, in a car or in a mobile home (after seeing the

End of a era or The CRT is dead!

2011-02-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

After 11 years (the first two traveling around the world as part of a matched set for trade shows) the 350lb, 36” Sony Wega (last of the great standard definition CRT televisions) stopped going “BOINK” when the power button was pressed.As someone who has been looking at “HD” video for well over 20 years and participating in some of the initial trials one of the early “take a ways” was; “at living

Flashback

2011-01-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

way back when we were all warned about the dangers of flashbacksJerry Brown was just sworn in as gov of CA - againwho knew the flashbacks would take so longthe 100watt incandescent light bulb is now verboten in CA but somehow we're going to plug in a fleet of electric cars? how many more avian Cuisinart forests will we need? ban Mercury in thermometers but mandate Mercury in light bulbs? - oh,

Green Math

2010-10-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital unveils solar power system Solar3000 Solar Panels installed - cost of 6 Million US Dollarscost savings estimate over 25 years - $2.5 Millionaside from the absurdity of spending 6 Million to save 2.5 Million over 25 years, the effective life of the panels is 10 years with effectiveness decreasing every year after.

well that lasted...

2010-10-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

in case you missed out on the fun the youtube link below did show the now infamous 10:10 exploding skeptical children, office workers, "footballers" and Gillian Anderson with Radiohead musicmore WattsupDelingpoleDelingpoleWattsup

Don't know what to say

2010-09-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

BNC

2010-09-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

The humble BNC (Bayonet Neill-Concelman) connector is the most common connector found for connecting video signals between professional video production devices.Until the advent of reasonably priced Serial Digital Interfaces (SMPTE252M or CCIR601) in the early 1990's the common practice in television facilities was to use 75Ω cable with (lower cost) 50Ω BNC connectors, at the frequencies of a

back to posting

2010-09-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

after a long hiatus, mostly due to work demands I'm attempting to resume more regular posting.the past 18 months have been a blur for both a political and personal reasons - added to long hours on a keyboard - without internet access is not conducive to then picking it up during the little down time.This past year I've been in France, way too much time in LALA land and recent ongoing work at

updated survival tips

2010-09-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

if you're in the northern hemisphere the satellite dishes point southwhen they point straight up, they're either not working or your near the equatorCan we get some cleaner for that?in this case 12° south

still kicking

2010-08-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

long time since last post - more rants and observations to come soon

Don't tread on me

2009-07-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

OK long neglecting my blog – excuses;have been way too busy – and thankful I’m lucky enough to still have a job I enjoygobsmacked by the changes that have happened since late January attempting once again to start regular postings

someone does not quite get it

2009-02-21T16:03:00.000-08:00

or is very optimistic on the side of the mailbox (click on picture to enlarge)this was taped over the following noticehere kitty kitty kitty...

Stop Sylvia Browne

2008-11-04T15:00:00.001-08:00

update (and yes I know I'm late) the website run by Robert Lancaster has been hijacked - read about it at JREF

Hello Moto?

2008-10-07T07:36:00.001-07:00

Razor does guitarorTeenage anger management

I call BS!

2008-08-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

In homage to that great dynamic duo of Penn & TellerLast week’s home newspaper pile (I tend to collect them for a week and then kill a few cups of coffee on the porch Sunday mornings, as there are only a few pages that I glance at its not a time consuming endeavor) ran across this gem on the front page Ukiah Daily Journal and call up July 28, 2009 pdf and check out the lead article “Pond system

One summer day in NorCal

2008-08-09T18:13:00.001-07:00

(all pictures - click to enlarge)Oh, that’s not something good Don’t know the details of how or exactly where it started – from my vantage point it looks like somewhere between the gun club and the reservation but there is brush and terrain in my line of sight so that is preliminaryUpdate; fire was stared at the gun club Its good to see the aircraft I know from more trying times still active,

Hum, fly etched in the urinal, ah, must be Schiphol

2008-07-25T23:36:00.000-07:00

Been an interesting month or so, on June 15th (the weekend before the ‘dry lightning’ and the subsequent fires in NorCal) I was with daughter and her SO seeking a Geocache upon Sanhedrin Mountain near N 39° 30.00 W 123° 05.00Funny thing, the cache was hidden in some rocks like thisaccording to the geology textbooks this type of rock is laid down in layers of sediment far out in the ocean at

Touching history

2008-07-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

Long time between posts, real life does intrude!In the past two months I’ve spent time in the Temple Complex (as close as they let us infidels get) and had lunch in Brigham Young’s house that he built for his affectingly termed ‘heffers’ er, that would be in today’s PC world “alternative polygamous fundamental LDS life style” er, his many wives. Good lunch, no ice tea or coffee though…As a self

It’s still an Analog world

2008-04-28T09:18:00.001-07:00

“Television is great for engineers, you get to deal with a frequency range of DC to beyond daylight, power levels from Pico Watts to Mega Watts, computers and software that run the gamut of user indifferent to downright user hostile, with enough analog left to require some precision” Another two month lacuna in blogging. I must admit continual wonder at those who are such prolific posters,

In praise of POTS

2008-02-29T16:40:00.001-08:00

As in Plan Old Telephone ServiceIn this age where a growing minority (according to some reports now the majority – at least in the USA, several developing countries have bypassed land lines and gone directly to cellular) of folks have abandoned traditional land line telephone service in favor of either cellular or VoIP. While there are compelling economic reasons for such a shift there are a few

Neglecting my blog

2008-02-29T16:39:00.002-08:00

Once again its been busy time for whatever it is that I do for a living, since the calendar flip I’ve been to France for a few days, two trips to Indiana, landing at Newark and dealing with the NJ Turnpike at 1am the day of the worst snow to date, dodging rampaging 18 wheelers and attempting to avoid crossing the GWB (twice) arriving at the hotel before 3am and no one at the reception desk, so I

Latest Skeptics Circle

2008-02-29T16:39:00.001-08:00

Is up over at Conspiracy Factory

Zen and the art of Muscle Car Maintenance

2008-02-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

With apologies and deep respect to Mr. Pirsig.The beast (as announced below) has been here for 3 months now and as proven to be yet another avenue for irregular Zen lessons First, it lost all but the headlights one rainy (of course) night, after visually inspecting the fuses and confirming that the wiring was intact to the tail and interior lights decided to replaced the light switch (which

The camel has slipped out of the tent – for now

2008-02-01T16:16:00.000-08:00

Regarding the subject of the previous post - due to the minor but national firestorm kicked off by the initial post over at The American Thinker, the state has backed down and has removed the mandate for PCT from the 2008 California building standards – however the announcement goes on to say;“The Energy Commission strongly supports demand response strategies, and believes that the programmable

Is it just me?

2008-01-07T12:58:00.001-08:00

First it was the toilet, mandating the installation of lower volume flush designs that cost more and often require more then one flush to get the job done. Then Freon was outlawed (one more thing to cross the border for)California even mandated MTBE as an ”oxygenate” in gasoline only to find out that it cause more problems with groundwater pollution than any supposed benefit - of course the price

Calendar Flip

2008-01-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

a new year has started and I’ve not posted in over a month once again, even missing the 2nd solar orbital anniversary of the blog, oh the shame

Hollywood Goes Green?

2007-12-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

RightJust received an invitation to attend “Hollywood goes Green” event in a few weeksThis is an industry that is one of the most wasteful around, a typical movie shot on location involves a fleet of vehicles, most of them are larger and few carry more that one or two people getting to and from, not to mention generators and catering trucks, and of course all the crew and talent drive solo to and

The Car

2007-12-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

Again, for those of you who live where decent public transit exists this will seem to be an extreme example of indulgence but the simple fact remains for almost any California kid, particularly those of us who manage to live in the more rural areas, wheels are a necessity. And since this is, after all, California, image runs a close second. So just any wheels won’t do (unless, like your humble

1989, October 17th 1704 PDT

2007-10-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

(that’s 5:04 pe-em for those that can’t handle a 24 hour clock) One of those moments that anyone who was there and survived will never forget where they where or what they were doing.Some were sitting in the rare sun at Candlestick Park for the first “Trans-bay World Series”.Some were on the Cypress freeway or on the Bay Bridge or down in the Marina and were not so lucky.I was sitting in the

HD-DVD vs BluRay

2007-09-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

I’ve blogged about this before Part oneGiven Paramount’s (including most of Dreamwork’s output except Spielberg and Dreamworks animation) recent decision to side with Universal and only release their movie in the HD-DVD format (until this point they have released selected titles on both formats).In the opposite camp, Sony/Fox/MGM/Disney exclusively release on BluRay, coupled with Blockbuster’s

80 years ago today

2007-09-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

it was 80 years ago today when the first electronic television image was transmitted.And since I’m attending the IBC conference I’ll me sure to tip a pint or three in Philo’s name.

And good time was had by some

2007-07-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

Once again I see I’ve been neglecting my blog – I’ve got the best excuse this time though, I’ve been on "vacation" and have managed to spend almost two weeks out of Cellular & WiFi range, not a mean trick in NorCal these dazeI’ve missed commenting on Al’s big flop concert, but did note that a Prius can actually make it past 100mph (although having driven a few I’m not sure I’d like to push one

Video wars part MXXLIV

2007-07-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

A town in miniature High Noon Thursday 21 June 2007 N45d51’24.19” W96d55’8.10” Main Street, New Effington SDFirst thought – why is he trying not to swear? 2nd thought, what the heck was Old Effington like? I don’t think I want to even know where it is/was. I’m not sure how that works This is what brings me to this isolated area, the latest battle in the distribution wars between

“…he always cited original sources”

2007-06-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

Obscure reference I’ll admit – if my few remaining neurons are firing correctly comes from time spent at law school but the reference also applies to science, most of the more vocal proponents of both sides of the Anthropogenic Global warming debate rely on summarized and ‘corrected’ data.When it comes to surface temperature measurements, your measurements are only as good as the device used and

On posting

2007-05-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

I know, I know long time between posts – since Feb I’ve been “on the road” and the list start to sound like that Johnny Cash song Southwick MATucson AZNevada City CASouthwick MANevada City CASouthwick MASterling VAPhoenix AZLas Vegas NV New Effington SD (more about that place in a later post)Indianapolis IN (current location) Next week – Fargo ND and another visit to New Effington Week after -

(sort of) Bloging from NAB 2007

2007-04-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

(I’ve been here since mid last week and leaving in a few hours so, like I said, sort of…)O.K. I know, No posts in over two months in cyber time and I’m not even a footnote in the blog-o-sphere, shame on meIn my defense I would like to submit the following excuses;1. the muse has not been upon my shoulder when I have the luxury of time to capture, let alone express such2. reel and real life have

Skpetics Circle redux

2007-02-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

Late update: Sandy over at Junkfood Science got lost in the missing bits when word poofed last night – please check out on Hidden fats and cautionary tale of poor science, politics and money gone astray Sorry Sandy

Skeptics Circle #53

2007-02-01T00:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my obscure corner of the internet, glad you found your way here, please pardon the clutter and allow me to clear some chairs and stools we’re not accustomed to too many visitors these days.Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth (don’t I wish) and taste (urm, does Monty Python count as a + or -?)Whoops, wrong tapeBlogging under the non de plume of Occam’s Edge, I’m

Randi takes the Offensive!

2007-01-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

Following what sounds like it was a great time had by all (other then being in lost wages)one of the great skeptics of our time has announced a change in the million dollar challenge – check out the announcement Reminder that submissions for this weeks Skeptics Circle are due by midnight EST Wednesday 31 January 07 – please forward your submissions to OkcamsEdge(at)gmail(dot)com

Rare political comment

2007-01-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

re: Pres. Shrub SOTU address Well woop di do… what a waste of air time (apologies for the ellipses but they are required at this time) so which People Mag person did he miss? Have to cringe though, Today’s mail had a “Special Notice for… It’s the 2007 Grassroots survey of Democratic Leaders (I’m not, but Rational Anarchist is not – and most likely will never be – a recognized

Global Warming

2007-01-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

Well perhaps, depends on the what your baseline is – compared to a measly 10K years ago when most of the north America landmass was under hundreds of feet of ice or even the “little ice age” (1300 to 1850CE) yes – compared to Jurassic and Cretaceous – or even the medieval warm period (900 to 1300CE) of the current interglacial time - no Historic records – both direct observation and various

Latest Skeptics Circle

2007-01-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

is up over at Frank the Financilly Savvy Atheist

The 50th Skeptics Circle

2007-01-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

The 50th Skeptics Circle is up over at See you at EnceladusPost holiday recoveryReel (and Real) world have sucked most of my time for the last month and I’ve neglected my blogging duties.A few brief notes, this blatheing excuse for a blog has passed its first Solar Orbital Anniversary last month, many thanks for the encouragement and links, please peruse the links to the right when you have the

I love this town

2006-11-16T19:09:00.000-08:00

File under a fit of self indulgenceSanatorium sanctum lies a few miles east of a small town – here are a few things that are unique to the areaFor starters, a few year ago some book proclaimed it as in the top 10 places to live in North America (number 6 actually) and number one in CA zzzz’sThe Doobie Brothers dedicated a song to it (On the Captain & Me) We have a bit of last century Americana

Airport insecurity part, er, whatever the next one is…

2006-11-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

For a more detailed story please see linkAs a video ‘pro’ one thing I learned early on was that a graphic was a graphic, as long as it wasn’t on too unique of a paper - if we wanted an extra back stage pass or two it was simple enough to scan and make our own and laminate as required, since then any paper or even lamented cred is easily scanned and duplicated Since 1999 starting with Alaska

Format wars – Consumer Video

2006-10-29T11:57:00.000-08:00

Format wars – Consumer Video(O.K, I know, it’s been over two weeks – I do have a life)For those of you old enough (and most of my 5 readers are) the Beta vs. VHS format wars on the home front along with the much smaller market of VideoDisk vs. PhonoVision and the DVD vs Dvix Now there is a another battle looming between the “Blu-Ray” and the HD-DVD camps, for those of us who live outside of the

Skeptic's Circle

2006-10-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

The latest Skeptics Circle is up over at The Inoculated Mind

Q&A

2006-10-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

Got a set of questions from a gate keeper at some 800lb gorilla of a company on at least it’s 3rd attempt to control a portion of the glass teat (nod to Harlan Ellison), makes one wonder just how anything gets done there1) What are the NTSC & PAL frame rates?NTSC (color) is 29.97 Frames per second (Monochrome - B&W) is exactly 30 Frames per secondPAL (and SECAM) is 25 Frames per second 2) Are

Where have you been?

2006-10-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

file under interesting time sinkscreate your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Skeptics

2006-09-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

Real World is sucking most of my time at the moment, I’m working on some upcoming entries when I can, until then browse on over to the latest Skeptics Circle over at Salto Sobrius – don’t forget your tinfoil hat!

Science in Action

2006-09-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

Astronomy text books have been re-written a few times since I last took an astronomy class (back when the Steady State Theory was leading - OK so I’m dating myself, nothing new, move along now) one of the enduring unsolved questions that has interesting implications (as well as more than a few tenures and seats at various institutions of higher learning) is how galaxies maintain their shape.

Who’s the UbberNerd?

2006-09-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

Open challenge – somewhere out there are an elite few who scored higher, I bow to those few Arising to Janet's challenge – and ably answered by PZ and Orac among others and no I can’t top PZ’s portrait 1 yah, punched cards, learned COBOL, watfour, watfive, FORTH etc but due to the slowness of the hardware any real time work was done in machine code – same with FORTRAN and promptly

Further adventures in air travel

2006-09-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

AirTran Flight 47 1 September 2006 With a larger than normal crowd at Atlanta airport the Friday evening before the long holiday weekend Just checking in to the flight was an exercise in standing in lines, once actually checked in there was some minor gate shuffling after the pleasantly brief security check. Flight was scheduled to depart ATL at 2122

Odd Jobs

2006-08-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

Traveling this week, Atlanta On one of my few forays outside of “TV” I worked for an analytical instrument company that made some interesting lasers and laser based instruments (this is late 70’s) – with one YAG model you could get several watts of power – continuous, they also made a flash lamp pumped tunable dye laser that depending on frequency could give instantaneous peak power levels of

Television History part one

2006-08-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

HDTV Production TruckFor all of you out there who work in or watch “TV” did you ever wonder who invented it? A brief, non technical history and minor Who’s who of the folks who helped couch potatoes everywhere. Now, obviously today’s TV in all its digital high definition, PVR’d and PVP’d glory is the result of hundreds of different inventions and developments - most of them by corporate

Airport insecurity

2006-08-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

I’m on my way back from a brief trip to Mexico (left Monday at 3:30am, should get home about 1am Wed) for a demo as I write this – both jr Edge and Mrs Edge were still up watching horror movies when I left. Airport insecurity these days is, um ‘interesting’ is a polite way of expressing it, I got to SFO 2½ hours before my flight out Monday, cleared security in 10 min. (leaving me sitting in

More Science Fun

2006-08-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Over the years I’ve participated in some of the various distributed computing projects, first donating (few) spare CPU cycles from i286 & i386 machines on one of the Pi projects, then on to the classic SETI@home and now the current BOINC offerings. As cool as these things are they are mostly passive eye candy as a screen saver - however there is some real active science you can do at home –

More of histories mysteries

2006-07-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

I’ve been neglecting my blog again - lots of travel of late and just about every trip has had delays, 20 hours to get to Denver from Sacramento, a day trip to Seattle that ended up being a 25 hour day – it does not matter which airline, what day of the week or where.Here are a few things that I’ve been followingThe Antikythera MechanismElias Stadiatos, a Greek sponge diver working off the island

Past lives

2006-07-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

No, not that kind - just the phases of lifestyles my path has taken. File this entry under a fit of self indulgence A bit over 30 years ago I found myself the managing resident in a communal home that had gradually passed out of a borderline Pentecostal cult with a strong personality driving the local congregation that had a network of (single sex) communal homes to just a communal home – the

Blogging from my front porch

2006-06-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

My Sunday ritual (when allowed – perhaps 5 or 6 time a year, I guess Fathers day qualifies) is to take my coffee and local Sunday rag on the front porch, I’ll usually finish the rag before the first mug - the New York Times it’s not – which sort of explains why I’m blogging from my front porch Sanatorium Sanctum lies near the end of the road about 3 miles from town and during the morning hours my

Still kicking

2006-06-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I’ve woefully neglecting my blog for the last month, I can only plead work overload with too much travel.A few subjects have crossed my FOV this last month. First off, I’m on some strange email lists (beyond the mass that the first layers of filters catch). One of which is a conservative book and DVD club - filtered into the ‘right wing agitprop’ folder along with missives from the GOP and

The joy of business travel

2006-05-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

well, I might make it to Billings in with enough time to do the demo and hop back on a plane hope I make it back to SMF before midnight Friday, as it is I’m spending the night in SLC as a guest of Delta – got two $7 meal chits – after all the airport concessions have shut down for the evening. But for once I happened to have 2 large Guinness in my bag so I’ll manage to survive the evening as a

NAB 06

2006-05-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

Year of the mergers (following paragraph is pure techno babble) Just prior to NAB several “Glom and devour” acquisitions (CISCO buys SA, Tandberg buys SkyStream, Avid Buys Sundance etc) MPEG 4 (H.264) HD STB are (almost) ready for deployment (I have emails promising me H.264 STB’s over a year ago, at least there were units on display that had real circuit boards and drives – but none were

100th anniversary of the Great Quake in 1906

2006-04-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

lets face it folks – if you live in California (actually, the entire west coast) as I’ve noted prior, you live on or near a known, suspected or unknown fault – deal with it!The 1989 Loma Preita quake was one of those ‘life path altering experiences’ for me. Aside from missing the only air date in my professional career it also clearly marked my shift out of production and back into pure

Defend Science

2006-04-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

Please check out this site and do as you need to. while we only have the fundamentalist religious right to deal with – at least so far they’ve not killed anyone over a cartoon – some of the soundbites from the religious right differ only in a matter of degrees from the imams. While science has its share of frauds and scoundrels it does tend to be self correcting – at least in the hard sciences (

Back in the saddle again

2006-04-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

Home again in mendoland after a week in ATL for The National Cable Show.As “one of those” (tech nerd) trade shows like NCTA (mostly programming and regulatory) are not my true venue however when you have such interesting juxtapositions as the Gospel Music Channel stuck behind Hustler TV and next to Penthouse TV (O.K. - I’ll concede 2 points for ‘creative layout’ but I’ll say it again in case you

No one bothers the astronomer with a .44

2006-04-06T21:54:00.000-07:00

…at least, not more than once…don’t get me wrong, given the opportunity, I’m a coward – but read Hienlein’s definition before ye judge me One of my life long interests has been astronomy, initially specifically optical / photographic and then as technology advanced attempting realtime and compressed time video sequences of Halley’s comet and others since, and on to other wavelengths/energies

One of history’s mysteries

2006-03-30T19:53:00.000-08:00

How & why did beer become a historically universal beverage?The why part is the easy one, because it gets you intoxicated - Making beer however, is nether a natural or intuitive process and to extrapolate lifetimes of trial and error happenstance that somehow cumulated in drinkable beverage is a true corundum, one of those problems where the end is known (how?) and the path there is not obvious –

Rabbit holes

2006-03-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

JFK, The Gemstone File, KAL 007, TWA 800, 9/11These events have had path altering effects on my life from the obvious travel related concerns to a three year hiatus in international work of any sort.As I sit here on the eve on yet another solar orbital anniversary (never mind which save to say if I was sipping Arminac of the same vintage it would cost me deep in the purse) the following comes to

Random thoughts on a spring drive

2006-03-14T00:12:00.000-08:00

Drove from sanatorium sanctum in mendoland down to so-cal Santa Barbara, a pleasant 7 hour spring drive - hey, limited phone, can listen to what I want and no one bothering me? And all I’ve got to do is keep it between the dotted lines? - and I get paid? My first day at new job.O.K. I’ll admit it, I’m prejudiced and opinionated, having traveled and worked over a fair portion of this rock (mostly

Mortality, we’ve all got one.

2006-03-08T14:25:00.000-08:00

Was just informed of a long time friend and coworker’s passing posted with permission Mercury NewsPosted on Wed, Mar. 08, 2006 Chung: Chu Lin paved path for journalistsBy L.A. ChungMercury NewsIrascible, abrasive, utterly professional and exhaustingly demanding, Sam Chu Lin would have been hard to duplicate. And now that he's gone -- too soon -- at age 67, that high challenge is nigh

O.K, so I've been busy

2006-03-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

Ack, its been almost a month - somehow I find myself once again in 'max' mode, the esoteric techo world I inhabit has gone hot once again and doing my best to avoid a “dooce moment”, names have been redacted so the last week went something like thisSunday evening DD decided to cause undue angst and I did not make it to bed before 0130 with a 440 wake up for a 1000 meeting at a partner site, with

Was there a game yesterday?

2006-02-06T10:52:00.000-08:00

Did not watch the game, even the $2M commercials and in general don't follow sports. Last week I was asked by local paper "question woman" what my favorite winter Olympic sport was, my reply " …having worked several Olympics the favorite crew event is how many wine bottles we can snatch from the celebrity table" and they published it in Sunday’s paper

Old News

2006-01-30T22:45:00.000-08:00

A long time friend of mine who defines Marin New Age recently sent me the followinglink as if it were recent revelationGoogling some of the relevant names reviles a history of fantastic promises the never seem to be delivered.The interesting part is that there is a real ‘Zero Point Energy’ – google ‘Casimir effect’anyway, my reply;um, hate to be the one to point out that's talking about four

NAB

2006-01-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

Those simple initials mark the annual haj that I’ve embarked on for over 30 tears now (I think I’ve missed 4 or 5 over the years) and right now about evenly split between ‘Exhibitor’ and ‘guest’.NAB and it’s international cousins IBC and Communications Asia are where the software, hardware and services are sold to the folks who sell you everything you see or hear on your TV or radio.The National

Truth and lie part II

2006-01-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

While I've never been a fan of 'the richest woman on TV' I owe her a profound apology. Not only has she recanted her endorsement of his fiction she confronted James Frey and his Publisher called them to account on her show.When is ratings week?

Hammers, not just for nails

2006-01-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

Wabbit Stew A friend of mine was the reluctant recipient of not one but two bunnies last Easter. As the bunnies grew and were adopted as family pets by his kids, his worst fears were realized..... he had a male and a female. As they matured he told me that he had no desire to be a wabbit farmer, so I sent him my special recipe for Roadie's Homestyle Wabbit Stew, hoping it could solve his

Truth and lie

2006-01-14T23:51:00.000-08:00

The real world is an infinite number of shades of gray. Social interactions and politeness often require us to shade our response (lest you end up a social pariah like this observer). Such is the social lubricant that allows most of us to slide though day to day life with our casual interactions.But, there are instances of definite white and absolute black.Since the turn of the century there

Worst job you ever had.

2006-01-09T19:46:00.000-08:00

In my youth I’ve sold fuller brush (2 weeks), sold cigarette and candy at the wrestling matches( for of all things, my local boy scout troop) cleaned out an enclosed pig sty (once) sheer and dip sheep, it all started to go downhill when I worked for the local cable television studio.My boot camp experience (USN) was a tad on the bizarre side, after a few days in a regular company I was

Somewhere between agnostic and atheist

2006-01-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

Semantically, there is no content difference between “In the beginning, God said “let there be light” and “from the singularity (the Big Bang) the universe exploded in a burst of energy”. There is a diametrically opposite world view between the two statements. For my simple mind the major difference can be stated thusly; The first statement implies explicit knowledge that is handed down from

Adventures in ‘reel life’

2005-12-31T22:02:00.000-08:00

Living in rural NorCal has its own set of unique demands often over looked by prospective residents and real estate folks. Rule number one. Do not live in the 100 year flood zone, especially if you are near a seasonal stream. NorCal manages to exceed the 100 year flood level somewhere every 7 years or so - often by significant levels, unless you have breakaway walls and keep every thing above

Adventures in Television - part one

2005-12-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

Having spent most of my alleged adult life in some role behind the camera doing my part to bring what passes as televised entertainment to the people who want to watch it there have been some moments more memorable than most – like the time the producer felt that having a live tiger on set was a critical element of a computer product launch(?) of course this was somewhat offset by the

Occam’s Razor

2005-12-29T11:39:00.000-08:00

Often invoked but not always understood, it can be thought of as; ‘A tool that can be used to critically examine anything’ William of Ockham Oxford educated, opinionated and not shy about expressing them, enough so that he was denied his Master’s degree by pissing off the theological faculty. His teachings came to the attention of the Pope (John XXII who held court in Avignion

Things that are never said in Theater or live T.V.:

2005-12-27T17:09:00.000-08:00

By the stage manager: It looks as though there'll be time for a third dress rehearsal Take your time getting back from break. We've been ready for hours No, I called that perfectly the first time- let's move on. The headsets are working perfectly. The cue lights are working perfectly. The orchestra has no complaints. The whole company is standing by whenever you want them

3rd post

2005-12-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

the result of over 20 years experience (what can I say, I'm a slow learner...). In a given installation there are never enough router x-points, patch bay, or DA's. In a given computer there is never enough memory (both RAM and Disk), nor is the processor fast enough. Although I'm told otherwise, I have yet to encounter a technical problem that the application of sufficient amounts of cash won't

Cultural Anthropology

2005-12-20T17:51:00.000-08:00

ANT201 Field notes on the Technology Nerd Subculture Synopsis: A brief exploration of the nerd subculture in and around “silicon valley” during the decades of the 1980’s and 1990’s through 2002 Preface; As a personal observation, most of this semesters reading and viewing can be fairly construed as a series of opinions in search of a science. The field of cultural anthropology

First Post

2005-12-16T19:47:00.000-08:00

This Site under disruption for the present, please check back in, oh, say, 6 months...