About that new Microsoft Answers service

A report in  Ars Technica describes Microsoft's attempt to replicate Apple's Genius Bar by offering high-quality technical support for a Windows and Office products. Prices range from $49/hour for one-on-one online training up to $99 for two hours of virus removal, malware protection, or PC performance tuning. All of the services are handled remotely.

I'm relying on the Ars Technica article for this information because Microsoft, geniuses that they are, require that I agree to their terms of service before I can read their Frequently Asked Questions page.

[caption id="attachment_3020" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="(click to enbiggen)"][/caption]

Dress for success in the 21st century

Older workers, take note. A lifetime of gravitational effects makes us shorter. That may have an effect on your income. What medicine can't correct can be helped by fashion.

The correlation between height and income has been known for a long time, although a U.S. study suggests that the correlation only works for aggregate numbers, not for individuals. If you chart the height of 1000 people, for example, the income distribution curve will match the height distribution curve. If you compare two individuals, however, too many other factors come into play to make the height difference significant.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="303" caption="via Statistics Say These High Heels Will Get You A Pay Raise"][/caption]

That distinction, however, isn't stopping a German shoe company from running a series of ads suggesting that this set of bright red high heels would do wonders for your income.
The ads show a closeup of the heels, with headlines such as "Men over 180 cm earn 10% more money" and "80% of top managers are over 180 cm tall."

So, if you see me in a pair of these shoes, know that it's only for the money.

Online newspapers not ready for the web

The Boston Globe introduced its HTML5 paywalled edition in October. The paper works well on a variety of devices, including the iPad. It's easy to read and navigate. We have free access to the online version because we subscribe to the Sunday print edition. (Some papers, including the New York Times, are seeing a slight increase in the number of print subscriptions because of the online paywall.)

The content, however, hasn't made the jump. Two stories in today's paper illustrate the problem. Scott Kirsner's Is the price right? Mobile apps can help you find out story profiles several interesting mobile phone apps that let you make quick price comparisons while you're out shopping. The online version would be more useful if there were links to the app's website or to the iTunes Store and Android Market.
Similarly, On the Hot Seat with Martin Romitti by Megan Woodhouse mentions that Romitti, director of the UMass Donahue Institute's Economic and Public Policy Research, was editor of "the UMass journal on the economy" without naming the publication or providing a link. It took a while to locate MassBenchmarks.

A web-first editorial policy could mitigate these issues. Writers and editors would realize that the story isn't complete unless it's sourced with links.

[Full disclosure: I am a part-time correspondent and blogger for Telegram Towns, an online publication of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Both the T&G and Boston Globe are owned by the New York Times. ]

Keeping WiFi awake on my Android phone

The other day, I described a problem I was having with my Android phone. When the phone went into sleep mode, the WiFi connection would break. Even after setting the Wi-Fi Sleep Policy to Never, the connection would drop when the display shut off. It made listening to a music or radio stream or downloading anything pretty much impossible.  Security settings on my wireless router didn't matter. The only consistent workaround was to keep the phone plugged into a power source (wall connection or USB). When away from home, the WiFi connection seemed to work as intended.

None of the keep-alive apps had any effect, nor did reinstalling the phone's operating system.

I called Verizon tech support. Their conclusion was that there was probably something amiss with the phone. There were other reports in various forums around the 'net that supported this idea. Because my phone is out of warranty, I couldn't get a replacement. I started thinking about a new phone and gave the iPhone serious consideration.

One Android app, WiFi Analyzer, showed that the neighbors have a couple of access points that occasionally reach into our yard. All of the access points were broadcasting on channel 1.

With nothing better to do and nothing to lose, I switched my router to use channel 6.

Joy.

Since making the channel change, my WiFi connection has not dropped when the phone sleeps. Declaring the problem solved to the extent that anything is ever solved.

Configuration notes

Phone

HTC Incredible on Verizon Wireless
Android 2.3.4. (Gingerbread)
Build version 4.08.605.2 CL185897 2011

Router

SURFboard SBG900
Software version: SBG900-2.1.15.0-SCM00-NOSH 
Hardware version: 3

Bridge

Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS 
DD-WRT v24-sp2 (07/22/09) mini - build 12548M NEWD Eko

When good people let us down

On this evening's PBS News Hour, Jim Lehrer asked David Brooks and Mark Shields for their comments about Barney Frank's decision not to seek re-election. Both praised Frank's formidable intellectual and verbal skills as well as highlighting his ability to get stuff done in Congress.

About Frank's impatience with stupid questions there is little disagreement. That's fine and often funny. Brooks went on, however, to characterize Frank as a bully.

You know, you go to Capitol Hill, and we see -- just on the show today -- there are these scrums, where these reporters surround the politicians. And most of them are like us, who are sort of middle-aged guys, and we can take it. But there's always a bunch of young people who are just learning the trade. And they're nervous.

And I just saw Barney Frank as cruel to them on a couple of occasions, needlessly cruel. And I'm sure he did a lot of good things, but that needless cruelty always put me off. And that's the lingering memory I have.

Shields, Brooks on Gingrich's 'Skeletons,' Bill Clinton's 'Second Act,' Tax Cuts | PBS NewsHour | Dec. 2, 2011 | PBS 

I have no direct experience with Barney's behavior. Sandra and I saw him in downtown Boston one time years ago. My impressions of him are based on what I've read, heard, and seen in the media. Reflecting on those stories and the reports from people who have met and worked with him, Brooks's comments are credible.

There are always times when it's necessary to speak truth to power. There are always times to afflict the comfortable. Mike Benedetti and I spent a good bit of time talking about those themes last night. #Occupy has carried hard messages but has done so with self-deprecating humor.

Barney used to do that, too. A campaign ad in the 70s clearly showed that he understood that his sartorial abilities rarely reached a passing grade.

When campaigning, Barney could be funny and smart, but also charming. That happened when he needed something - a vote or a favorable press piece.

In his non-reelection announcement, he said, “I don't have to pretend to be nice to people I don't like.” His political insights were sharp enough to know that he couldn't be successful if he was his natural self. By dialing it back, he could champion the liberal causes and get a lot of good stuff done.

His true perspective, though, seems to be that, for whatever reasons and for whatever purposes, he knew that he was smarter than the rest of us and that he didn't respect us for that.

Damn.

Say it ain't so, Barney.

Bankruptcy as a competitive strategy

Let me see if I understand this. AMR, the parent company of American Airlines, is declaring bankruptcy because it's the right time. All of its competitors have already done so. In the process, they shed expensive debt and pesky labor contracts, resulting in lower operating costs.

The Wall Street Journal reports that [t]he company decided a filing now would be from a relative position of strength by avoiding a tangled relationship with creditors who might want to control how the company restructures itself. Unlike many other companies that have sought bankruptcy protection in recent years, AMR didn't file for Chapter 11 with a reorganization plan in place supported by creditors. Instead, AMR must develop its plan during bankruptcy proceedings.

Filing for Chapter 11 reorganization will cost AMR millions of dollars in legal fees. The corporation, however, has $4B in cash.

Meanwhile, the company's employees are still bitter about the millions in stock bonuses paid to the executives who made lead the company to $10B in losses in the past decade. Granted, AMR stock plummeted 84% today. It may take a while for new AMR CEO Thomas Horton's 300,000 shares to be worth his effort to trim $1B from the the employees' pension fund.

[Update 11/30/11: upon further reflection, I realized that AMR shares will become worthless as the result of the bankruptcy and reorganization. As a result, the executives who received stock grants that vested after this filing will be out of luck.

[Update 12/1/11: The New York Times editorializes that  Mr. Arpey may be the only airline C.E.O. who regarded bankruptcy not simply as a financial tool, but more important, as a moral failing. Arpey held out against bankruptcy. When AMR's board overruled him, he left, with no severance and his stock holdings nearly worthless.

“Our bankrupt colleagues all made net profits, good net profits last year, and we didn’t,” Mr. Arpey told me a few months ago. “And you can mathematically pinpoint that to termination of pensions, termination of retiree medical benefits, changes of work rules, changes in the labor contracts. That puts a lot of pressure on our company, not to be ignored.”

I hate computers, little ones even more

For a while, my phone (HTC Incredible) hasn't been able to keep a wireless connection when it goes into sleep mode. I've set the Wi-Fi Sleep Policy to Never, but it's had no effect. When the screen goes dark, the WiFi connection drops out. If I ping the phone from another system, I can watch it go away.

I've tried various configurations on my routers with no consistent good result. Y'see, sometimes it works as intended. The screen goes to sleep, but the WiFi stays connected and I can listen to music or news or whatever. Most of the time for the past few weeks and constantly now, there's no joy.

I've done several reinstallations of the phone's operating system (Gingerbread, for those who care).

Now, sitting in NuCafe, it works fine. Now, using an open access point, the furshlugginer thing works fine. I have less of an idea why it works here than why it didn't at home.

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):
[Editor's note: There were 7 suspicious items this week. There were 5 lockouts, including one perpetrated by a dog.]

Holden

Monday -- November 14

12:34 p.m. Suspicious parties on foot, Broad St.
1:13 a.m. Suspicious vehicle, dragging front end, Main St. Driver says it is from a February accident
7:33 a.m. Party requesting officer regarding ongoing dispute with neighbor, Main St.
9:37 a.m. Female reports to post office personnel that a male is lying on the post office lawn, “groping,” Princeton St.
10:08 a.m. Caller reports canvas bag in front of Honey Farms, Main St. Turns out to be child’s toy
11:00 a.m. Caller reporting confused elderly gentleman asking for directions, Holden St.
11:28 a.m. Walk-in reports receiving a check for $1,000 more than asking price for a vehicle being sold on Craig’s list. Advised that it is a scam.
5:23 p.m. Motor vehicle lock-out, Holden Pizza, Main St.
8:19 p.m. Man with question regarding his wife buying a fake Northface jacket

Tuesday -- November 15

12:51 a.m. Shrewsbury St. Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through window is open. Notified owner, who declined walk through
4:23 a.m. Private investigator in lobby to drop off information. Will be in Appletree Ln., Harrington Dr. area all day
9:58 a.m. Mom’s Club into station for a tour
11:08 a.m. Party in lobby to report that on Sunday, she saw a 10-year-old operating her father’s construction equipment, Bullard St.
2:09 p.m. Party at station to gather information on private citizen, asked to see logs dating back two years
4:37 p.m. Water/sewer supervisor is putting out a Code Red alert for Jefferson, regarding water flushing this week.
8:26 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle in parking lot, Sunnyside Ford

Wednesday -- November 16

8:53 a.m. Caller checking on private investigator parked outside his house, Harrington Dr.
9:08 a.m. Caller reports bobcat in her yard 30 minutes ago, Canterbury Ln.
10:03 a.m. Call from Boston Medical Examiner’s Office regarding bones found at Vicksburg Cir. Information relayed to state police
12:14 p.m. Holden Water worker reports finding several foil wrappers he thinks may have been used for cocaine near the sewer station. Requesting officer.
1:38 p.m. Caller found black Lab with license tags
6:16 p.m. Cub Scout troop touring station
11:07 p.m. Two white vans and red pickup truck at Fallon Clinic, Shrewsbury St.

Thursday -- November 17

11:49 a.m. Dog that looks as if it has been hit by a car walking down Newell Rd.
2:01 p.m. Loose dog, Forest Dr.
5:51 p.m. Walk-in advising of neighbor dispute. Would like officer present when he speaks with neighbor.
5:56 p.m. Motor vehicle accident, car vs. deer, Wachusett St.

Friday -- November 18

8:59 a.m. Man says his wife threw a rock at his vehicle during an argument, Main St.
5:15 p.m. Motor vehicle accident, car vs. deer, Main/Millbrook Sts.
5:18 p.m. Complaints of youths in roadway, General Hobbs Rd.
6:03 p.m. Caller reports jewelry stolen from her residence, John Alden Rd. Called back, found rings under some paperwork

Paxton

Monday -- November 14

7:50 a.m. Caller requesting assistance with vehicle lockout, Maple St.
12:35 p.m. Police assist person locked out of vehicle, Pleasant St.

Princeton

Monday -- November 14

9:18 a.m. Driver reports hitting large white Labrador-type dog on Gregory Hill Rd. Dog is heading up Mountain Rd. Owner picked up dog
7:30 p.m. Report of person jumping off motorcycle and running into woods, leaving bike on street, Thompson Rd.

Tuesday -- November 15

12:19 a.m. Police assist motorist with flat tire, Rte. 140 N

Thursday -- November 16

8:20 a.m. Caller reports her recycling bin has been taken the last two weeks when she puts out her trash, Worcester Rd.

Rutland

Monday -- November 14

4:55 a.m. 911 call for two suspicious people walking toward Birchwood Rd. and Inwood Rd.
11:13 a.m. Caller reports strange pickup truck came up driveway, has happened before, Campbell St.
12:38 p.m. Caller requests officer to Maple Ave. to view tape
5:03 p.m. Vehicle hit deer, Barre Paxton Rd. Deer ran into woods, vehicle has minor damage

Wednesday -- November 16

11:16 a.m. Caller requesting log entry for suspicious call she received from someone claiming to be from car insurance company. Male caller yelled, Turkey Hill Rd.
12:25 p.m. Suspicious vehicle with three young males stopped in front of house, threw something into Dumpster, Wildbrook Dr.
1:36 p.m. Business owner reports someone put mattresses in his Dumpster, Main St.
7:12 p.m. Suspicious truck parked at vacant residence, Maple Ave. Found to be septic contractor

Thursday -- November 17

11:00 a.m. Female locked herself out of vehicle, Glenwood Rd.
1:18 p.m. Caller reports her dog locked her out of her vehicle, Barre Paxton Rd.

Sterling

Monday -- November 14

8:30 a.m. Follow-up on missing person, Princeton Rd. Party no longer resides there
4:23 p.m. Caller reports theft of cord of wood from property, Worcester Rd.

Tuesday -- November 15

8:07 p.m. Motorist reports hitting deer, Metropolitan Rd.

Wednesday -- November 16

8:02 a.m. Report of animal on house, Hilltop Dr.
10:14 p.m. Caller reports unoccupied vehicle with lights on, Leominster Rd.

Thursday -- November 17

12:10 a.m. Two people walking down Muddy Pond and Boutelle Rds.

Don't touch the future. It might break.

Recently, while waiting my turn for a haircut, the customer before me got to talking the plan to give iPads to kids in school. "What happens when they drop it?" she remarked. They're always dropping things and losing things. You know how irresponsible our kids are.

Read more on TelegramTowns.com - A product of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Dept. of Tunes - The late teens

Those last teenage years start with a scream. Alice Cooper's I'm Eighteen grabbed that age with broad, crashing chords and trails off with a haunting organ solo. I don't know what eighteen-year-old girls felt or feel, but suspect that the milestone is all testosterone-driven. It's something about breaking free.

Breaking free.

Just like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff.

And then you realize that you're 20. You can't be where you were, on Sugar Mountain, and you aren't where you're going to be.

You're in mid-air.

Yikes.

This week in job search

I took a test as a part of a job application. It was a writing test. The company provides a badly-written, three-page procedural document. I had to rewrite it so that it a) made sense and b) was an example of good technical writing.

It was a good test. The piece was laden with passive voices, bloated phrasings (lots of utilize), and a couple of incomprehensible tables. I eliminated the tables because they added no value.



The procedure resembled dance instructions for an octopus with hiccups. It probably could have been better rendered as a flowchart, but I was limited to words. I think that I got right, but I won't know for a few days.

Twenty-five years ago, I had to take a short test as a part of an interview for a software development job. I was a self-taught programmer. I solved the problem, but not elegantly or efficiently. I took another position before learning if I'd done well enough to get the job. That company didn't make it out of the 80s. The other company didn't make it out of the 90s.

I'd learned of this recent opportunity through an email. I sent a resume, but most of the vetting took place on my LinkedIn profile. Gone are the days of resumes printed on high-quality, off-white paper. Because each job has its own particular requirements, I need to keep several versions of my resume. To keep things in sync, I use Microsoft Word's master document feature to assemble pieces that emphasize one aspect or another of my background.

I'd prefer to keep everything in LinkedIn, but companies have recruitment software that generally require a file of some sort. It would be an interesting project to have a company's recruitment software use the LinkedIn API to fetch information from a person's public profile. I'll look around to see if anyone's done it. I have plenty of important things to do and so am always eager to be distracted from them.

Using LinkedIn when you already have a job

I received this piece of marketing email today.

It's a reminder that we should have someone else proofread our mass mailings.

3+1 things about the tablet wars

Apple doesn't have to worry too much about the Kindle Fire or Nook Color or their kin. The people who buy a tablet based on price will still wish that they'd bought an iPad.  The people who buy a Nook have a specific reason for doing so and most will be happy with their choice. Apple would not have reached them anyway.

The people who buy iPads (iPad buyers are exactly who you think they are, but with pets (infographic) | VentureBeat), may not know quite why they did. Or, they probably knew exactly why they bought one, but are embarrassed to give the real answer. (Sort of like saying you bought Playboy for the interviews.)

Apple has managed the near-impossible: they became the generic name for a type of product while retaining their distinct intellectual property rights. (See their series of brutal take-down suits in Europe and Australia  over the Samsung Galaxy. Nilay Patel explains it all in Apple sues Samsung: a complete lawsuit analysis on The Verge.) Apple won the music player (iPod), integrated monitor-system (iMac), and ultra-ultra notebook computer (MacBook).

1. The iPad still defines the terms of engagement. It's iPad vs. not-iPad, even when it isn't. When Jeff Bezos announced the Kindle Fire, he didn't mention the iPad at all. He didn't have to and shouldn't have.


2. Retail strength trumps specs. Barnes and Noble makes better systems than Amazon, but Amazon can and will deliver anything to you effortlessly.
   Buying books and magazines on the Nook and iPad has been a confusing and unsatisfying experience. Amazon figured out how to do that a dozen years ago and no one else is close.


3. When the battle moves to the Cloud, Amazon may be able to get the upper hand. Apple's never done really well with Internet services. iTunes works because they control the start and end of the pipe and there's no chance to get lost.  Their servers rarely handle peak loads well.
   I think that Google should buy Barnes and Noble. Then it would be a fair fight between the Kindle and the Nook.

+1
None of these is a social product. Social media is glued onto each product like an afterthought. Apple doesn't know how to do social. (Remember Ping?)  The promised deep integration of Twitter is nowhere to be found in iOS5. Amazon doesn't even have the native Android Twitter client in its app store. The Nook leaves a bag of tools on the table and says, "Here, you do it."

By the way, there are plenty of tablet comparisons and reviews out there. You don't need one more from me.This one is pretty good: A human review of the Kindle Fire – Marco.org, as is the venerable CR: Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet: How the specs compare.

My own experience is that I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire, received it on Wednesday and boxed it up for return yesterday morning. I have a Nook that's now running CyanogenMod. Much of the time, I bring my iPad to meetings instead of my laptop.

For the next year and probably two, Apple will own and define the tablet market. One of these companies still has to figure  out a coherent social strategy for tablets. If Google doesn't buy B&N, Facebook should consider it make a serious social tablet.

Remembering where your friends are

We're told that our social networks helps to make us smarter. This Scientific American blog post, Social Networks Matter: Friends Increase the Size of Your Brain, reports that we have individual traits that make us more or less social, but, even so, being in a social setting causes positive brain changes.

It's been more than five years since I've worked in an office. I have to be intentional in my efforts to keep in touch with people, personally and professionally. Ideas need people to thrive.

For example, I worked at Rational Software during the time that it was acquired by IBM. I have kept in touch with many former co-workers in person, through email, and in social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+.

This morning, I read this article, IBM in the software era: Big Blue man gives HP a seminar • The Register. The piece includes an interview with Mike O'Rourke,  VP of Rational's  strategy and product management, a division of IBM software. O'Rourke became VP a couple of years after I left IBM. He has some interesting perspectives, however, on the evolution of Rational's products from the time of the acquisition. My former co-workers might be interested in this. Where, then, should I post this link?

An email to selected friends would have been most direct and probably the most likely to generate comments. The problem is that those comments would, at most, be seen by the people on the email thread. Others who currently work at IBM and people with whom I don't regularly correspond wouldn't have a chance to join in.

Facebook would be good. It is possible to post a message that's seen only by friends who worked or work at IBM Rational. That's a good-sized list. Some people, however, don't use Facebook with (former) co-workers; they only permit connections with friends in real life. I've had Friend requests turned aside by co-workers whom I thought of as friends. So it goes.

Google+ has lively discussions, but a limited audience.

I finally decided to share it in the Rational Alumni group on LinkedIn. More of my former co-workers are there and there's a greater likelihood that others would find this interesting. I'll report back on the results.

Local News: Chair City Signalization

The Sentinel and Enterrprise reports that city has received $500K for its Main Street Signalization and Roadway Realignment project. (An anagram for signalization is "I nail a zit song".) The Telegram story puts it into plain English:

Gardner was awarded $500,000 for Main Street signals and road realignment to develop 120,000 square feet of new commercial-office space, and to help with the redevelopment of 400,000 square feet of industrial-warehouse-office space near the project. The money is expected to generate more than 100 construction jobs and more than 150 full-time permanent jobs.

via Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com - Grants will pay for development work

The New England Post offers a fine summary of the statewide grants: Patrick-Murray Administration Approves 23 New Massworks Infrastructure Program Projects To Support Job Creation

If you want to find out more details about the project, well, good luck. The city's daily, The Gardner News, has its story, City gets grant for traffic signals, locked behind its paywall. The city's website shows nothing if you use their search. Google does show mention of something like this in the July minutes (PDF) of the community development committee.

So, a half million dollars of your tax dollars will help Gardner signalize. Whether that's a good thing or not apparently isn't any of your business.

More on education and politics

[caption id="attachment_2836" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Tim Connolly and Rep. Jim McGovern"][/caption]

The other day, Rep. Jim McGovern spoke at our WISE politics and media class. Tim Connolly, communications director for Worcester County D.A. Joseph Early, Jr., is leading the class. McGovern took questions for the full 90 minutes. As you might expect, topics ranged widely from Worcester politics to the pile of rubble that is the Washington political process. "If you wanted to chose any time in history to be president," said McGovern, "this is not the time you would choose." (Ref The Onion's on-point headline in November 2008, Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job .)

We talked redistricting. More than half of his district is new to him, now anchored to the west by Amherst and Northampton. (I corrected him on the pronunciation of Amherst, with a silent h. The townspeople notice such things.) The discussion about education included the usual topics of improving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) as we try to prepare young people for jobs in the emerging green economy and medical technology.

In a bit of topic drift, we noted that a 20% turnout, coupled with Joe Perry's 48% plurality, means than fewer than 10% of Worcester voters chose their new mayor. "We are ultimately responsible for whom we elect," noted McGovern. By comparison, 40% of Fitchburg electorate voted. They re-elected Lisa Wong as mayor.

In addition to the usual concerns about civic detachment, the class agreed that civics should also be included in any education reform.

I know that it's comparing apples and dump trucks to relate my personal educational experiences with the practices and people of these times. There are a few dynamics about growing up, however, that are somewhat enduring. So, here are a couple of points:

• I loved history, social studies, and political science. I even got an award as best social studies student in my graduating class. My first college course, taken when I was 16, was political science. I grew up in a household where both parents voted regularly, where my mother campaigned for Ed Brooke as senator.
  I didn't vote until I was 30.


• There were several classes - Shakespeare in freshman English, shop, and gym, notably - that caused me not only not to learn the subjects but also to hate them later in life. Part of it was bad teaching, more of it was due to an inept student forced to display his ineptitude for the world to see.

These are notes of caution about what we can expect from education of any type, be it our public schools or even a parent to a child. We can give skills and knowledge, knowing that some of that will land on fertile ground and some will land on the rocks. The skill of the teacher and the aptitude of the student are the major factors here.

Much, much harder, though, it teaching people how to care when they don't. Even if we can identify root causes and remove those impediments, our successes are less than hoped for. It's pretty easy for people who are passionate about a topic to share why they're excited. The stories that are most interesting and, I think, most instructive, are the ones where someone once didn't care and now does. What happened? Is there anything transferable from those life lessons?

I voted for the first time because I was friends with people who were active in politics and who voted. The friendship preceded the act of voting. (This, by the way, is why social networks can be so compelling.) It's not about trust in the political arena or in the classroom, perhaps, but in the coffee shops and living rooms and other social places, where change happens. I voted not because I trusted the politicians so much as I trusted my friends.

November is the February of autumn

We now have more leaves than snow in the yard. Not all of the leaves are down yet. This season is running about two weeks late, not influenced by that freakish storm on Halloween weekend.

On this foggy morning, the Moses bushes in front of the house are bright. I wouldn't have noticed had I put out the trash last night. We're not apt to look at the font of the house except when we're coming or going and then we're often in a hurry. This morning, though, I had a moment.

This looks to be a typical day, meaning that there's nothing routine about it. After a reviewing the overnight news, I will take a look at a problem that one customer is having with QuickBooks and online banking. Then, I'm off to MWCC to talk with the very nice webmaster about work on new web, Facebook, and LinkedIn services for the alumni. Next will be a meeting with one of the professors and perhaps an administrator or two to see how we can integrate Twitter with Blackboard for an online course. I'm trying to rouse someone in marketing at a company so I can finish a blog post about them. I have a couple of other news stories in various states of unreadiess. You get the idea.

It's easy to lose track of details. Many of my contemporaries are complaining about age-related memory loss. I'm not ready to give in to that narrative yet. There are plenty of reasons to forget things. For example, this article, BPS Research Digest: How walking through a doorway increases forgetting, shows that going from one room to another resets our memory because our context shifts to the new place. There's no correlation with age or other condition; it just happens. If we're expecting events to be attributed to a cause, be it sugar-induced hyperactivity or the effect of the full moon, we'll regularly find events that fit our expectations. (We'll also discard, minimize, or explain away things that don't fit those patterns.)

I forget stuff, but I've always done so. Nothing new here, meaning that nothing's the same.

Note on Fitchburg politics - thinking beyond tomorrow

[caption id="attachment_2825" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong addresses a Massachusetts Broadband Institute program"][/caption]

As noted yesterday, I attended a presentation Monday by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute at Fitchburg State University. Mayor Lisa Wong introduced the program and noted the imp

ortant advancements brought about by having good broadband and wireless connectivity in the city. She presented a proclamation (full of details, she noted, gathered from the Internet) for MBI director Judy Dumont.

Most of the people in the audience were out-of-towners. This was the night before Election Day in the city. Mayor Wong was in close and tough race for re-election. She chose to be in a place that offered little immediate political advantage to talk about a program that would have a long-term benefit for the city.

This morning we learn Mayor Wong was re-elected to a third term by a record turnout of Fitchburg voters.

Mr. Hakkarainen goes to Helsinki

[This post is one of a series about Teuvo Hakkarainen, the newly elected True Finns Party MP from Viitasaari. For the record, my grandfather was born in Viitasaari.]
Banishing gays, lesbians, and Somalis to the Åland Islands isn't likely to be part of the immigration/emigration platform for the True Finns. The party leadership reprimanded MP Hakkarainen, who is on sick leave, for his recommendation that sending certain groups away to the islands in the Gulf of Bothnia would be good thing for them and for Finland. He later claimed that his comment was intended as a "joke."
A Swedish MP Elisabeth Nauclér, from the islands said, "Åland is home to 92 nationalities,” said Nauclér in Tuesday’s Iltalehti, adding that, “even Hakkarainen is welcome."
Hanna Kaarto said, in the Hesingin Sanomat, "The whole affair is so disgusting that it would be easier to plug one’s ears, shut one's eyes, and make loud noises just to keep from hearing it."

Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?

Staples has added a nice feature to its USB package, allowing you to test connection on your phone. It is, of course, made necessary by that cadre of evil-doers known as USB connector engineers who don't understand the meaning of the universal.

Unfortunately, packaging engineers are on the next layer of Hell. So, getting at the actual cable requires cutting devices and brute force.