Buy US Only?

Some are starting to tell us to protect our economy and buy only US made products - sounds sensible but how practical is it? Lots of news today about a new website designed to assist you in 'buying American'; www.madeinusa.com
I tired to use it pretending I was buying a new Television: came back with 671 listings!
One was LG Philips and bragged that it had 15 US Employees ----15 employees making Televisions? WOW! Also had a weblink that did not work. This is a bad site that is throwing junk data at us to sell advertising. Also, note the rules surrounding suggesting a business: Suggested Businesses MUST be US based and not use foreign manufacturers or call centers.
Don't waste your time with this site......

Who is more engaging, Palin or Obama?
You might be surprised and the liberals still can't figure it out - how can an Alaskan ex-governor who certainly is not part of the elite demand more engagement? She doesn't even know which papers/magazines she reads!
Want proof? WSJ ran two opinion pieces today:

1. Opinion by Sarah Palin, on Healthcare and Obama's decisions
2. Opinion, Obama to endorse Public Plan

The Palin piece was commented on 1318 times (by both ends of the political spectrum) - the Obama piece 424 times. Not sure I can figure it out but she is genuinely engaging, and proving it over and over. Media, start scratching your head again......

Obama needs to address the Teachers/Administrators

Lots of controversy over the speech to the school kids yesterday - can you imagine the uproar if President Obama would have addressed the teachers/administrators/school boards? He could have done the speech in 5 minutes with this outline...but the Teachers Union would not have liked it.......

• Education Next Survey, 2009
• 25% of Adults gave public ed an F or D Grade
• 18% of Adults gave public ed an A or B Grade
• Math & Reading Scores have been stagnant for 40 years
• US ranks 24th in Math Skills
• Only 67% of Ninth graders graduate on time
• Public School teachers have an average pay of 47K$, not the 33K$ most believe. The best and worst are paid the same......
  
• Public Ed got 100B$ of the Stimulus fund, double the annual federal ed funding
• Schools spend an average of 10K$ per pupil per year

He could have closed the speech with a question; 'How much more money do you need to fix public education'? The sad part? Most would have a dollar figure ready to share......

Is it a Cloud?

I am still trying to understand solutions delivered via cloud computing - In studying this area, I ran across James Governor's blog on this subject.
Sometimes the best description is what it is not! I actually encourage people to put the 'what this is not' or 'does not include' statement in business plans, etc - helps clarify.

15 Ways to Tell Its Not Cloud Computing

1. If you peel back the label and its says “Grid” or “OGSA” underneath… its not a cloud.
2. If you need to send a 40 page requirements document to the vendor then… it is not cloud.
3. If you can’t buy it on your personal credit card… it is not a cloud
4. If they are trying to sell you hardware… its not a cloud.
5. If there is no API… its not a cloud.
6. If you need to re-architect your systems for it… Its not a cloud.
7. If it takes more than ten minutes to provision… its not a cloud.
8. If you can’t provision in less than ten minutes… its not a cloud.
9. If you know where the machines are… its not a cloud.
10. If there is a consultant in the room… its not a cloud.
11. If you need to specify the number of machines you want upfront… its not a cloud.
12. If it only runs one operating system… its not a cloud.
13. If you can’t connect to it from your own machine… its not a cloud.
14. If you need to install software to use it… its not a cloud.
15. If you own all the hardware… its not a cloud.
16. If it takes 20 slides to explain…. its not a cloud

finally, Wikipedia says:

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them.

What to Read? Look @ Level of Engagement

I read the online WSJ daily and am often faced with what to read and what to ignore - my time is limited. I have discovered a unique way to help decide - measure the community engagement in the article. What does this mean? - WSJ Online has a a tab on most stories that you select to read readers comments - on this tab they list in (parenthesis) the number of comments.
I use it as a quick way to see which stories I want to read - general rule if it is over 300 early in the day, I must read. The reasoning is this: if the article is engaging, the community (subscribers/readers) will respond by joining into the conversation. The more that jump into the conversation, usually the more interesting the article is.

To quickly view the articles most commented on, look for the Most Popular section on lower right side, select commented tab:

• Opinion: Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care 1038 comments
  

• Speech to Students Puts Politics Aside 426 comments

• Obama to Endorse Public Plan in Speech 386 comments

• School Speech Released in Bid to Quell Controversy 265 comments

• Opinion: Obama and the Left 254 comments

While I am still old school and really enjoy reading the paper version, this is one of the advantages of the online version. BTW, I do not ignore articles with less engagement - I still scan to see if I am interested. Enjoy the news - that's fit to be engaged!

House Supersizes Jet Order

Representative Jared Polis, You voted yes on HR3326, the Defense Appropriations Act of 2010.

1. In this act, the defense dept requested funding for two executive equipped jets for 150M$.
2. The House then super-sized this to eight jets for 550M$ and added 60 pages of earmarks.
3. Please thank your leadership for now saying that they will not force the Pentagon to buy the four new jets specified in the bill.
   

Do you realize why Americans are so angry with Congress? - why we think you are out of touch with us?
Do you understand why we don't trust an incomplete 800 page healthcare bill when this one was only 170 pages?
I think Congress needs to 'ride in coach' more often and I appreciate that you actually did that in one of your trips to Iraq!

Is it 47 Million or 13M?

Jared Polis, Congress, Colorado says on his website; "The staggering 47 Million Americans without health insurance". This is an oft repeated lie which orginally started with Michael Moore in Sicko/movie. Dr. Gupta from CNN got into a real argument with Michael over the accuracy of this data. Repeated often enough, everyone is believing it, but...

10 Million of this number are non-Americans
17 Million of this number make more than 50K$ per year and still refuse to buy insurance
7 Million are between jobs at any given time, they probably need insurance but it is a ever rotating group of people, not the same families.

this leaves 13M un-insured people who can still get healthcare (emergency care only, btw - which every insured one funds)
Do we still have an issue in the US? Absolutely, but the argument will be better if based on facts as they are - don't make up higher numbers to justify your argument.

What will Kill you?

CDC has published a 14MB pdf report, Health, United States, 2008 with lots of interesting data - studying it for proof that the US Healthcare system is as broke as our Congress would have us believe.

Interesting on what the primary killers are by age:
Age 0-1 Conginital Malformations
1-44 Injuries from Accidents
45-64 Cancer
65 and up Heart

Overall as an average, the Heart is the biggest killer out there.

this poor cowboy was certainly going to die of a bad heart.....

I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought,
And dunno if my legs or back or heart is most wore out;I've got no spirits left to rise and smooth me achin' brow --I'm too knocked up to light a fire and bile the billy now.
Oh it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin', in flies an' dust an' heat,
Or it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-a-mpin'through mud and slush 'n sleet;It's tramp an' tramp for tucker -- one everlastin' strife,
An' wearin' out yer boots an' heart in the wastin' of yer life.
For it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin' thro' hell across the plain,
And it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-mpin' thro' slush 'n mud 'n rain --
A livin' worse than any dog -- without a home 'n wife,
A-wearin' out yer heart 'n soul in the wastin' of yer life.
Knocked Up, Henry Lawson

Can an iPhone save money?

I have been taking Bass Guitar lessons and found myself in need of a good metronome - about 20$ at Guitar Center. I thought briefly about the Apple iPhone App Store and decided to search for one - turns out there are plenty to choose from and most cost 99 cents. I settled on Tempo, added FretBoard for my chord listings (books cost 20-30$) and use iPod software to play along with. I use Voice Memos to record a bass lick the teacher is demonstrating so I can replay later in the week. Guitar instructor was very impressed and I saved a bunch of money which can go for a new 1000$ guitar! There is a bunch of junk in the app store but plenty of jewels too. BTW, guitar tuners are also available - I had already spent 30$ for mine so not using one.

Words Matter

The WSJ ran an article today that displayed data in a useful format - you could easily display a word and see how many times it was used in any candidates acceptance speech. For instance McCain referred to Obama only 6 times, Obama referred to McCain 20 times. Interesting view, let me know what you think. The graphics at the site are interesting because they show the word sized according to how many times it was uses in the speech (larger = more frequent use).

Top 5 words used in order by candidate are:
McCain: Obama:
America America
Fight McCain
Government Economy
Jobs Family
Life Democrats

Barack Obama

Speech accepting the Democratic nomination, Denver, Aug. 28, 2008

Click on a word to highlight each instance in the speech

afghanistan........
whiners

John McCain

Speech accepting the Republican nomination, St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 4, 2008

Click on a word to highlight each instance in the speech

admiration
......, win

A Cowboy to beat all..

If you like cowboys and want to hear one who can really is smart, take a gander at Baxter Black.
I got acquainted with him on a local radio station here in Denver on a Peter Boyles show - really is enjoyable to listen to. Friend Danny Smith sent me his latest video clip - great way to get introduced to him.
I have read only one of his books; Hey Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky?, a great story about the rodeo circuit.

'Printing' Buildings now possible

A discussion with my Jim (Brother in law) a few years ago has led me to watch the computer modeling space. His idea was to build a 'printer' to build scale models of products. This concept has now morphed into printing ...well, buildings.


Caterpillar, the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment, is starting to support research on the "Contour Crafting" automated construction system that its creator believes will one day be able to build full-scale houses in hours. This is concrete-jet instead of inkjet printing technology.

The current state of the art is printing concrete walls.

New Google Web Browser: Chrome

Today, Google will release a new browser that holds great promise - I was a very early adopter of the Google search engine in my work group and will be early on this one too.

Here is an easy to read comic book story on the new browser and many of its design differences:
http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

Here is some screen shots:
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007645.html

Click for Download site (but unavailable till later today (2pm EST)

Helping to translate Docs?

Take a look at this - this is neat stuff - using the security matching dialogs to convert books to digital. Every time you are answering a security question, you are actually helping translate! The character recognition software still does not match the Human ability so after the computer finishes, the words that could not be translated are given to multiple people who answer security questions meant to prevent computers from flooding sites with bots. You are given two words, one is known, the other is the mystery word from the translation. The first use is to convert early century NY Times papers - not my first choice but a start.

http://recaptcha.net/learnmore.html