Doctrain - Day 3

- Good stuff, if a bit breathless about what's new and cool.
- The hotel/conference organizers caught a clue and gave out free wireless access. Unfortunately, they told us the morning. Most folks had left their laptops at home because they hadn't been able to connect during the first two days.
- Don't laugh at people who ask for books about a topic. Maybe the stuff is online, but don't demean people who haven't yet made the change.

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required): 

Holden

Monday, October 20

6:53 a.m. Caller reports smoke alarms going off; will try to take batteries out; requested assistance
12:03 p.m. Resident on Torrey Lane advises finding two flat pieces of wood outside residence; may have been used to try to enter house; unfounded
3:45 p.m. 911 hang up from pay phone at high school; kids found hanging out, but nothing out of the ordinary

Tuesday, October 21

7:44 a.m. Caller asking if it's hunting season; advised that it is
8:12 a.m. Business calling about parking tickets being issued to customers
3:36 p.m. Two flat tires reported on Bailey Rd.; state trooper investigating also got flat tire

Wednesday, October 22

8:00 a.m. Caller from Main St. business asking to speak with supervisor regarding parking tickets given to patrons
8:44 a.m. Caller regarding problems with parents
1:10 p.m. Report of 21-year-old leaving home
1:25 p.m. Rock that was protruding in Putnam Rd. removed
8:23 p.m. Backhoe traveling down Main St., possibly unregistered, barely visible reported; no contact

Thursday, October 23

2:00 p.m. Small child reported standing beside road on Main St. with sign saying "I failed 4 classes." No contact

Friday, October 24

3:41 a.m. Caller from Pilgrim Dr. reports hearing noise outside; could have been cruiser radio as vehicle passed house
2:28 p.m. Weapons; business owner in to pick up guns
2:53 p.m. Multiple calls about suspicious male lying in street on Reservoir St.; party taking nap
5:09 p.m. Caller reports phone taken at Dunkin Donuts today; called the number and man answered and said he'd bring phone back

Saturday, October 25

7:11 a.m. 911 Caller reports screaming and four shots coming from Kenwood Rd. area; neighbor believes screams were animal
12:04 p.m. Two calls regarding Obama signs stolen or vandalized during nighttime

Sunday, October 26

1:44 a.m. Caller says son at club in Worcester texting that he is afraid to leave, 10 guys outside waiting to jump him; Worcester PD said they're too busy; advised out of Holden's jurisdiction, only Worcester can handle call

Paxton

Thursday, Oct. 23

10:08 p.m. Caller advising of raccoon in yard making his dogs bark. Told if raccoon isn't rabid, it's caller's responsibility.

Rutland

Thursday, October 23

8:32 p.m. Older car trying to get into Treasure Valley the back way, Wildbrook Dr.

Sterling

Tuesday, October 21

6:26 p.m. Dog acting strangely trying to get through door, Clinton Rd.

Wednesday, October 22

7:24 p.m. Cat 30-40 feet up tree, North Row Rd.
8:58 p.m. Large raccoon in trash can outside home, Leominster Rd.

Saturday, October 25

11:49 a.m. Men in woods cutting down trees, Redstone Pl.

Return to the world of work

Today is Day 2 of Doctrain, a technical documentation conference. Here are a few quick notes:
- The presenters have generally been excellent, providing good insights on business, technology, and process.
- The facility - Burlington Marriott - is sub-par. They didn't provide electrical outlets for the sessions that required laptops. There was a charging station where you could plug in and leave your laptop; the station was next to the front door.
- I haven't been with this many white people since the last time I went to a hockey game. There's lots of talk about international audiences, but this seems to be the last fortress of white, middle-aged workers.
- It's been good to see some friends from a long time ago.
- It's been good to revisit businesses and technologies that I find very interesting.
- It's almost like going back to work.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Winter's first glance

The strong northwest winds are shaking some flurries out of the sky. Other parts of the Northeast picked up measurable snow, including the first lake-effect snow in upstate New York. The chilly wind is also sneaking through gaps around the back door, a reminder that I need to stop at the hardware store to pick up a weatherstripping kit.
On mornings such as this, it's important to build a small, hot fire in the stove. The two parts of the house create a canyon effect that pushes air down the cold stove pipe; unless there's enough heat in the stove to push the exhaust up and out, we'll get a houseful of smoke. Once the stove pipe is warmed, the natural flow takes over.
 It seems a shame to leave a house that's so nice and warm so that I can rejoin the madness that is the eastward commute. It's part of the adventure. Today is the first day of a four-day technical documentation conference in Burlington MA. I'll take the familiar route - the Pike to 128 - today. I have my insulated coffee mug and I'm ready to go. Well, almost ready, but I'll go anyway.

Sad, but not surprising

One of the best newspapers will cease daily publication in April. The 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor is facing the same problems that have pummeled circulation numbers for nearly all newspapers. This post in Worcesterite reports that the Worcester Telegram saw its circulation drop by 5.6%, a full percentage point worse than the national average.
Even as the Monitor plans to drop its daily publication, it's still offering subscription deals.

The Christian Science Monitor | csmonitor.com via kwout

Methinks someone in the circulation department didn't get the memo.

Suburban trash report

When Marley and I go for a walk around town, I try to pick up some of the trash along the side of the road, in part to make our town look better and also to see the kind of stuff people are throwing away. Kind of an anthropologist crossed with a trash collector.
Today's report:

• The folks in Holden are apparently doing ok financially. I found more Starbucks coffee cups than Dunkin' Donuts cups. I also found just one lottery ticket.
  
• Our litterers have good teeth. On more than a few occasions, I've found a Plackeron the roadside. They've always been the MicroMint.
  

Yes, I probably could use a hobby.

One more step away from landlines

This article, Unstrung - WiMax/Broadband Wireless - Verizon Eyes Femtos for 2009 - Wireless News Analysis, indicates that Verizon Wireless may introduce femtocells for home use next year. Femtocells are base stations that connect to your broadband connection and act as a mini cellular tower for your cell phone, giving you a high quality signal throughout your house. In our house, for example, our cell phones typically get one bar, sometimes two if the wind is blowing right. With a femtocell, we'd have a sufficiently strong signal to let us get rid of the landline.

Eleventh Commandment - Thou Shalt Always Spell-Check Thy Web Pages

Ten Commandments Day Commission via kwout

Your tax dollars at work - Banking

As a follow-on to my earlier post, we learn that banks that are receiving bailout funds from the gummint are using those funds not to make loans, but to buy other banks.
As one banking executive noted, "I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop...."
So, not only are the banks using funds intended for loans to finance acquisitions, but are also relying on the federal government to provide further supports should their misappropriations not work out as well as they hope.
Methinks the chutzpah dial just got turned to 11.

If they made a machine that told you when you talked too much, would you listen to it?

I've mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating until I get it. Some years ago, I was talking with a friend, eagerly recounting how I had reached a new insight about my behavior. I often used the time that other person was talking to think about what I was going to say next rather than listening. As a result, I was apt to interrupt often and hijack the conversation thread back to what I wanted to say. I talked about this for several minutes until my friend had to leave. It wasn't until later that day that I realized that I hadn't asked her one question about how she was doing.

So, now The New York Times reports that a scientist has devleoped a machine that will tell you if you’re hogging the discussion.

What do you figure? When this gadget becomes available commercially, it won't be a matter of if I receive one of these; it'll be a matter of how many.

Your tax dollars at work - GM and Chrysler

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), General Motors is planning to use loans "aimed at helping Detroit retool plants to meet new fuel-efficiency standards" to finance a purchase of Chrysler. So, not only is one failing automobile manufacturer planning to acquire another failing manufacturer to keep, but they plan to use money that was intended to help them change from their failing ways.

It gets weirder and worse:

GM and Chrysler's majority owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP, have been negotiating a complex deal in which GM would end up owning its smaller Detroit rival, but the parties have struggled to line up financing. The combined entity would need about $10 billion in new equity to cover the cost of laying off workers, closing plants and integrating the two companies, say people involved in the talks.

They need $10B to cover the costs of laying off workers and closing plants?!

[You can insert your own string of incredulous expletives here]

To Every Problem There’s an Answer that’s Simple, Fast, and Wrong

To Every Problem There’s an Answer that’s Simple, Fast, and Wrong : Real Worcester - Worcester News and Blogs

Spring forward, fall, um, er, hmm

If you're doing business with other parts of the world, particularly in the northern hemisphere, double-check your time and theirs. Some countries, such as Finland, ended daylight saving time today. Folks in the U.S. will generally have to wait another week to get back that extra hour of sleep. (Hawaii and a few other regions do not observe daylight saving time.) More about our time standards in this Wikipedia article.