A Few Thoughts…

If you haven’t read Cory Doctorow’s post about the iPad, you should go read that first.  No really, go read it.

Okay, now that you’ve read that, here’s a response/continuation from a college student named Carolyn referencing Doctorow’s with some expounding on the potential issues resulting from the iPad’s closed-ness.

Now it’s my turn – to start, I am not an iPad owner and I do not plan to be in the near future.  Though I would not turn it down if one was offered to me, I do not see the benefit of this particular device at this particular time in my life.  Rather, I should say I cannot justify the expense for the benefit gained from it.

I have a problem with Doctorow’s argument at the root.  He basically ascribes a desire to tinker with a product he owns is his right, and I completely agree.  Where his argument becomes invalid is when he makes this statement:

The original Apple ][+ came with schematics for the circuit boards, and birthed a generation of hardware and software hackers who upended the world for the better.

What he fails to mention is the price point of that Apple ][+.  According to wikipedia, that would be $1200 in June of 1979.  According the the March 2010 Consumer Price Index (pdf link) (CPI) from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the June 1979 CPI was 72.3.  In January of 2010, when the iPad was announced with pricing, the CPI was 216.687.  To calculate the value of the 1979 $1200 with the value of today's dollar, we use this equation:

Year A Value * (Year B CPI / Year A CPI) = Year B Value

Which, for our numbers yields:

1200 * (216.687/72.3) = $3596.46

So for the equivalent price of a new Apple ][+ you could buy more iPads than one person needs (7 of the base model at $499 and 4 of the top-end model at $829).  All of the above was said to make a single point: comparing the iPad to the Apple ][+ is completely and totally ridiculous.

The state of the economy of tinkering no longer relies on a completely developed product like the Apple ][+.  With products like the Arduino, PIC, and AVR, and sites like Sparkfun and Adafruit, the barrier for entry into the tinkering market is incredibly low.  For tens of dollars you can get a basic toolkit, and a project kit to learn about how to program a microcontroller and make it do something.  And if you break it, well, another part is only a few dollars away.

The iPad is not a toy for a tinkerer, it wasn’t designed to be.  Do I like the fact that I can’t tinker with it if I want to – not particularly.  I also don’t have to buy one because it’s not the only option available!  The advancements that have come along with making the home/handheld computers do things that no one could have dreamed about in the late 70s has come at a cost – they aren’t open to someone wanting to learn about the principles of engineering.  Luckily, in the advancing world of mass-production and feature size reduction, the physically larger components now are available at prices which make learning fun and easy on the budget.

Doctorow’s statements are legitimate, and he’s entitled to his opinion and decision to not purchase an iPad.  But I think to limit his opinion to the iPad is a little silly.  But that’s just my opinion…

This is just stupid. Go read this article: iPod touch—not[sic] lies—sets kid’s pants on fire; parents sue

Okay, did you read that? Apple and the Apple Store employees are being held accountable for not informing this lady that putting a lithium-ion battery in your pocket could, potentially, result in physical harm if something is messed up. So here’s my thoughts: the kid probably didn’t treat this thing too well, and some piece internally got busted resulting in an over/under charge on the battery somehow (I could be wrong, I’m not an EE after all). Guess what lady, your cell-phone can probably go up just as easily.

I think if it can be proven that there was a legitimate manufacturing defect, then yes, Apple should pay for the doctors fees, and there shouldn’t be any time needed in front of a judge. However, I would also ask – why did the kid have it in his pants pocket while at school? Granted this could have happened at any time, but ‘back in my day’ (and I really feel old when I say this) we weren’t allowed to have that kinda stuff on our person during the school day. Not that anyone had things like that to begin with, it was more likely someone would be carrying a cell phone, minidisc player (remember those?) or a CD player…MP3 players were just a little too expensive at the time.

So, let this serve as a warning – lithium ion batteries can be dangerous, but they’re also everywhere. An electronic device is not like a car – you can’t leave it out in the snow/sun/whatever and expect it to work like it did the first day you bought it…of course, I guess you can’t really expect that with cars either…

I sit here in Caribou Coffee trying to work on some homework, I can’t help but overhearing people sitting near me who are apparently campaigning for one of the major candidates (which will remain unnamed in this post). But it’s making me finally move to write this post, which I’ve been thinking about for some time regarding the topic in the post title.

First off, I understand that it takes a lot of money to run a national campaign. It’s nothing new, and it’s been happening for many years. Clearly though, the cost of a national campaign today is much higher than that of some of the early campaigns in our country. And I would argue (though I have no hard numbers to back this claim up) that it is MUCH higher than the cost of inflation over the past 200 or even 100 years. I arrive at this conclusion based on the number of media adds which wouldn’t have existed before.

A quick glance at some numbers from the website opensecrets.org gives me a rough idea of how much money has been spent by all of the presidential candidates currently making national campaign runs. The total: ~$700 million. This of course doesn’t include all of the congressional races which also regularly run into the millions of dollars for a campaign.

Now, a quick what-if scenario for you. What if this money (which in the case of at least one of the candidates has been raised completely from private sources – no matching dollars from the government’s campaign financing fund) was put towards researching a cure for juvenile diabetes, or cancer, or leukemia & lymphoma. Or what if it was divided equally among all of the house of representatives (~$1.6 million for each of the 435 voting members, and the sole non-voting member representing the District of Columbia), with the goal of use for social programs like helping fund soup kitchens, or job retraining programs for those who have lost jobs.

What could be done, if every person who donated $5 to a campaign (which they’ll never see again) decided to donate that $5 to a charity of their choice? What social ailments that our country is seeing could be cleaned up, and prevented in the future. Maybe this next statement is a little pie-in-the-sky, but what if all of us just helped each other? Not rely on campaign promises, not rely on federally funded social programs, not wait for someone else to fix things for us. Clearly it doesn’t take much for the $5 contributions of many to add up to a large sum of money which could be used to help the country.

Regardless of your political affiliation (and I hope I managed to keep my political bias mostly hidden in this post), please consider helping out those in need this year. If you contributed to a political party, or if you didn’t, please contribute to the organizations in your community who are trying to help out those less fortunate than you are: be it a church organization, a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, or all of the above. And think for a minute what could be changed if all of the people who are helping out with this year’s presidential campaigns exerted half of the effort to help out their community.

What do you want to see achieved? Please, leave your comments! If there’s an organization you work with, let me know! Or if there’s an idea that you would like to see get more traction, write it here! Maybe this can be the spark to connect people who have the same passion for helping people!

Now, back to my homework….

I enjoy being a HAM. I feel like it ties my modern-day activities as a computer scientist to the hard engineering roots of the past that gave us many of the technologies we have today. But many of today’s HAMs are the same HAMs of the past 30+ years. And in no knock to them at all, the pushing-the-edge technology is kinda hidden behind outdated looking (or just plain not updated) websites. And many times, there’s virtually no presence on the web at all – even from vendors! What’s a HAM to do!?

Well, luckily there are a bunch of us who are looking to bring the world of HAM into the 21st century. I just ran across Ham Twits, a list of HAMs on twitter. Granted, not a pushing of the technology, but certainly a group of individuals who are merging modern technology trends with a beloved hobby (and they’re listed alphabetically by last name, so KC8APF, you can make the top of the list!).

I’ve been trying to think up something that might make my HAM hobby have a wider acceptance in the general community. Something that has a some ‘Wow’ factor with it. Simply put, kids are so used to long-distance communication, and most of them don’t even care to think about how the connection happens to impress them with satellite communications (though moon-bounce can be kinda cool still). If you have any ideas for something that has some wow-ness, leave a comment!

Section 9 of the Ohio Drivers Law, Special Conditions, under a section heading of “Inoperable Traffic Signals” states:

“By Law, except when a law enforcement officer is present to direct traffic, drivers must treat a non-working traffic signal as a four-way stop.”

Miriam-Webster defines ignorance as:

“the state or fact of being ignorant: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness”

Theme for the day

“I got a rock….“

After the weekly HTG meeting at Panera this morning, I ran a few errands an came home to find the power out. People were ignoring the non-working traffic light at the end of my street. At a break in the traffic, I proceeded through to my subdivision and went inside to drop off the groceries I picked up. After calling my dad to find out if Duke Energy already knew about the outage, I decided to go out and get lunch since I couldn’t fix anything here.

I called Sheri to see if they had power since they are basically just up the street. They did have power, so I went that direction to eat at McDonald’s. The wind was quite strong, which must have killed the power. I got my hot, though not-so-fast, food and ate quietly at my table.

After getting back in m car, I decided to just go back home and have a relaxing afternoon and evening. The power was turned off at the intersection of Smith and 747, and for a few seconds, people ignored that. Then people started obeying the non-working traffic light = four-way stop law. The car in front of me went through, then the people on 747, then it was my turn. I checked to make sure the cars were stopped, and then proceeded.

The next moment is kind of a blur – but the end result is that my shiny new car, is now a shiny wreck. I’m okay – I’m not injured in any major way, though my knee is going to be bruised up a bit. My car, however, is not is such good shape. Thanks to the ignorance of others, my new car is now undriveable, sitting in a lot waiting to go to the body shop. My driver’s side door wouldn’t open more than a few inches, and I had to get out on the passenger side. As you an see, coolant is leaking, though I think that’s because the coolant tank is on the side that was hit – that’s my hope anyway. My joy of owning my first new car is now crumbled in pieces.

So, now I’m sitting in my house, watching “Remember the Titans” and feeling pretty bad. There are so many other things I want to put here. But, what’s left of my better judgement tells me that because of the people who read this (or, who I think read this anyway), that some things are better said in person. So I’ll keep those things to myself. For now though, I’ll leave you with the words I’m trying to comfort myself with:

” And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:28

Hopefully I have some “after” pictures before too long, but for now I have my parent’s van.

Every now and then I go to digg without having logged in and I’m bombarded with left-wing-political craziness or anti-Christian “authorities” who seem to blast everything in the Bible. Usually these two go together. Digg was a great place when it was about technology. But when they decided to have extra news, things went from good information about new products/tech stuff to a veritable soap box for people to shout from about their personal beliefs about things, and then berate those who might disagree. (more…)

I so wish I had the time (and cash) to do cool stuff like this

[gv data="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-274981837129821058&hl=en"][/gv]

For those who don’t know, a numismatist is someone who studies and/or collects coins, paper money, or medals. And no, I don’t mean collecting money as in earning interest. My grandpa had a coin collection – and I hope to receive it one day! I remember many times looking through the books of coins when I was younger. That and stamps – which is a collection from both sides of my family.

Coins, however, have always had a certain allure that I just cannot explain. Old coins, coins with special historical meaning (1909 V.D.B. for instance), and modern coins with investment value (How cool would it be to have silver, gold, or platinum bullion as an investment), all of them I have an interest in. Unfortunately, I don’t have the income to support this hobby, let alone in addition to the hobbies I currently claim to have! Oh well, time to save a bit and hope that one day I can pass on to my kids/grandkids a piece of history.

As a side note – the US Mint is starting a couple of sets of coins that just might have me spending some money purchasing money.  The 2006 American Eagle Platinum Proof coins begin a three-year series honoring the three branches of our government.  Beginning in 2007, the mint is beginning a run of $1 coins honoring the presidents of our country in the order they served the office – 4 quarters a year up to Nixon at this point, but that’s in 2016, so I’m sure they will update it before then!  Additionally, the first ladies will be honored on $10 gold pieces with their husbands.  Watch for a new $0.01 coin design in 2009 for the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth!

If you spend much time reading various information from car manufactures/reviewers (especially ones who spend time reviewing cars in the country which they are made) you will notice a common theme when referring to American car owners: We apparently love big cars. It’s not hard to see that the statement is true for the most part: the shear number of SUVs on the road gives a good indication. The sad part is that it is taking a crunch at the gas pump to move many Americans to even consider smaller vehicles.

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It’s not yet memorial day, but this sentiment is not reserved solely for one day. Memorial day has been held yearly since 1866, though wasn’t officially know by its current name until after World War II. It is intended to be a time to remember those who have died in combat for this country.

I enjoy watching war movies – especially some of those made recently like Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, and the HBO series Band of Brothers. These movies are violent, gruesome, and probably only show a very little part of the life the soldiers lived. They open a window to a world that you and I can only imagine the pain, suffering, grief, and shear courage of the men and women of the United States armed forces. But because of their dedication to this country, and all it stands for, I can sit in my condo typing whatever I want, whenever I want to. And you can sit anywhere in the free world and read this.

Both of my grandfathers fought in World War II. I do not know the full details of either of their times on foreign soil because they died when I was very young. They lived through the war, and came home. If there was one thing I could change about my childhood, it would be to have them around so I could talk to them, listen to their stories, and learn lesson which only they can share.

The men and women who have given their lives for this country must never be forgotten. Even today, they make the ultimate sacrifice so that you and I can live our lives in whatever way we choose. You may not approve of the war, but don’t hate the warrior for doing their job. I urge all of you, if you know a veteran, thank them, and ask them about their story. Find out about any honor services happening in your area on Monday from the local VFW post. And if you are a veteran, thank you for all you have done.

My salute may not mean much to those, as I do not hold a position of distinction in any way shape or form. But to all the fighting men and women, if any may read this, I salute you, and sincerely thank you for the job you do.