STAR 2013 Route to Lexington, KY

Assuming we actually get to go, here's my tentative route.

Day 1: KC to West Plains MO.  Nice older motel there with doorside parking.  About 275 miles.


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Day 2: West Plains to Dover, TN Another cool older motor lodge, the Sunset Motor Lodge.  On a hill, overlooks the lake. About another 275 mile day.



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Day 3: Dover, TN to Lexington (via Land Between the Lakes NRA and Mammoth Cave NP) - about 295 miles, long Sunday, but some gorgeous riding and a luxury hotel waiting for us!


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Looks like some fan-tastic riding.  The whole outbound ride on one map:



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Cutting the Cord

Cutting the cord - dropping your landline service to use just a wireless phone.  I was thinking about that today; I was quite an early adopter.  I moved to Wichita in 1994 and didn't spend the money for a Southwestern Bell landline.  But I did have the money to see Blake at Baysingers Police Supply and get an Audiovox Bag Phone.  It had no battery; that was an extra cost addon.  I ran it from a 12V adapter in the car and a battery charger in the house.

Had a 'great' plan - 60 minutes talk time a month!  It was OK for ordering pizza or having a phone for quick calls.  But for long calls I'd drive out to the Airport and use one of their comfortable pay phone kiosks and my MCI calling card.  Ah, oldschool phones.  No text, no data, just 800mHz Analog with a 5 watt peak power radio. No dead spots with that beast!

That lasted till I moved out of the overpriced apartment and across town to an amazing 1 bedroom shack, for $200 a month.  And about that time 'da innernet came along, so I had to have a POTS line for dialup!  Cut the wireless and went all wired again, rockin a pager from Boeing.  A few years later Boeing got with the times and assigned the field support reps (me) Motorola Star Tac phones!  We were stoked - real flip phones with *two* batteries!  You could usually get through a whole 8-hour day on the first battery, then swap when you got home to the spare battery.  Still had the landline -- gotta have that dialup!

Moved to Overland Park in 1999; didn't check the DSLAM locations; over 20,000 wire-feet from the CO (no DSLAMS back then), so no DSL; barely could hold a 56K dialup connection in that townhome -- until Everest came along.  Crazy startup ISP running fresh fiber to the neighborhood and brand new copper coax to the houses, plus clean new twisted pair for a real analog phone line - none of this dodgy VOIP over Cable stuff.

Kept their landline until the 2004 election season - the political calls on the wall phone got to be too much -- I'm paying for this?  Cut the cord again 10 years later.

Point?  Not much.  Just a dive into history.

2012 Riding Map

Great year of riding - all local stuff, nearly 2,000 miles on the new CBR250R!  Got married, my new bride is learning to ride and we have two brand new CBR250R's.  Sold the Ducati and the broke ass BMW.  Lots of local destinations on the USA Grand Tour.

(nearly ran out of Google Maps pins - you can only do 21 destinations on a map!)



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2011 Riding Map

Got a 'new' 1994 BMW K1100LT in preparation for a multi-thousand mile ride to Nelson BC, Canada this year.  Check ride to Arkansas came out great!  Then 45 miles out of KC near St. Joe MO the rear main seal went out oiling the clutch.  Turned around and got the Subaru to finish the Canada trip.  But miles on the motorcycle were down - just over 800 for the year.  Riding also got put on the back burner - I met my now wife!



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2010 Riding Map

2010 - a bit busy.  Burned out on riding.  Or something.  Went to a lot of baseball games with the boy.  And Cub Scout camps.  But I did get out a bit (1600 miles)



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Career Advice from CEO's at CES

My VP got (had?) to go to CES and took some notes from a CEO panel.

From panel with Marissa Mayer (CEO Yahoo) and Laura Desmond (CEO Starcom MediaVest) 

Marissa:

1.       Don't let the urgent drown out the important (I love this one)

2.       Work with smart people

3.       Do things you're not ready to do (push yourself, don't get comfortable)

4.       Find comfortable work environments (culture, peers/boss, etc.)

Laura:

1.       Talent is the most important thing (similar to Marisa's 2 - surround yourself with it and nourish your own - to managers nurture and foster culture to embrace it)

2.       Shadow technologists (follow tech, be smart, understand how things work even if you're a marketer or whatever)

3.       Go live in China (kind of like Marisa's #3 but better)

First week of 2013

First full week of 2013 is in the books. Good week. Scouts. Karate. Cub Scout Recharter went far smoother than expected. We even got the gold Excellence Award for our pack. Kids kicked off youth group with a timely session on bullying. Friday night was dress up and photo fun with my wife. She is learning new makeup and hair techniques,  and we're both learning photography skills.

Weather is changeable; grey and warm one day, clear and cold the next. Snow later Saturday.  I think the grey and short days are wearing us down. We're having great times, doing amazing things, but just not feeling it all the time. Hmm. Waiting for summer.

Summer - riding season. New Grand Tour announced ; the Z to A tour. Ride to and photograph towns starting with Z or ending with A. Good times! Cannot wait. Even Nikki is getting excited about riding again. I think I may have burned her out a bit on the BS Rally ride. :-/  500 miles in 2 days, on 250's.

This also marks the first full calendar year Nikki and I have been together. We're getting better at this and having far fewer problems than expected. I credit Nikkis forgiveness and both of our flexibility. The kids have been amazing, blending together without any real problems.

Enough for now, posting mobile on the phone...

-w

Car Camping Tips

I love to travel.  And I've got a great station wagon for camping.  Been reading up on some tips for setting the car up as a mini RV.  Particularly helpful on the slog out to the mountains and back; just hit up the back of a truck stop for a parking spot, set up the car and you're in business.  Also great if it just gets too cold out in the tent, especially if you have insulation for the windows.  Or at Bluegrass festivals where you have either room for the car, OR a tent.

Ideally I'd have a VW Vanagon Westfalia, but failing that, lets see how we can set up the Subaru for in-car camping.

The list, in no particular order:

• Solar tinting for the back half to cut down on heat loss / intake.
• Blackout curtains or shades.  Harder in a wagon, easier in a conversion van.
• For ventilation without bugs, use fairly heavy screen spline to hold the top and sides of the fine mesh plastic window screen material in the groove the glass rolls up in and  tape the bottom.
• LED lighting is power efficient and no risk.
• For winter, cut foil backed foam to shape to fit in the window openings.  Cover with neutral colored fabric so you don't look like a trash can.
• Keep everything clean, neat and put away while parked or traveling.  Avoid looking like a ragamuffin.
• Toilet?  If you're doing dispersed camping (boondocking) a 5 gallon bucket, a toilet seat lid, several odor proof trashbags and some cat litter make a great under $20 portable toilet.  Using the trash bags keeps cleanup easy and you can store other supplies in the bucket while traveling.
• A couple gallons of gas; if you have to run the engine overnight for heating (or cooling) you may find you're low on fuel.  Can also be used in your Coleman Dual Fuel lantern and stove.
• Well maintained car.  Ensure exhaust, cooling and lubricants are in good shape.
• Small portable 12-volt DC powered ATSC (digital over the air) TV for weather and local information
• Small portable AM / FM radio. No need to power up the whole car to listen to news, weather or music.
• Solar panel to trickle charge the battery and / or charge gadgets.
• 500w power inverter to charge AC items.
• Battery or 12V DC powered fan. 

Other great ideas that won't work in the Subaru:

• Long, heavy duty drawer runners from a scrap yard used in hearses or ambulances make great full length drawer slides.  You can install a 6" deep drawer on the floor of a van or Suburban, slide it out 6 or 8 feet and have compartments for everything.  Saw a guy in Montana with this setup; he had over 20 cubic feet of hidden storage in the 'floor' of his Suburban.

Add your ideas for camping in your car in the comments!

Interesting point of view on full capacity magazines

Used to be all in the gun rights issues.  Now reading both sides of the aisle.  I still have my opinions, but I tend to keep them to myself.

Found this quote from Massad Ayoob:

The cops are the experts on the current criminal trends. If they have determined that a “high capacity” semiautomatic pistol and a .223 semiautomatic rifle with 30-round magazines are the best firearms for them to use to protect people like me and my family, they are obviously the best things for us to use to protect ourselves and our families .

Interesting point - I have noticed every patrol car in our white-bread suburban non-crime-ridden neighborhood has an M4 clone AR-15 clipped to the dash.  And every officer has a 12 to 17 round magazine in their semi-automatic pistol.

Thoughts?

GOODING "Crash" Live

One of my favorite bands out of Wichita (now LA) has a new video out from their last tour.  Wish we could have caught them!  Next best thing, eh?

What Would Help?

In Connecticut, the following gun laws applied to the crazy bastard that shot up a school:

• Permit to purchase handgun
• FBI and State background check
• Training course
• Fingerprints
• and a high licence fee
• 14 day waiting period to purchase handgun
• Permit required to transport handgun, even to the range
• Guns must be stored unloaded in a locked container 
• All transfers, even private party sales, are subject to having a permit and are registered and tracked through a state database
• All 'assault weapons' are registered since 1993.
• Cosmetic features and some functional features are banned (bayonet, pistol grip, etc) since 1993.
• Allowed police seizure of weapons with sworn warrant of 'danger to others'.

My question - which of these laws prevented this crazy person to obtain firearms?  What law, regulation, training requirement, etc. will prevent future crazy people from obtaining guns and doing bad things?

"Easy - outlaw private possession of firearms!"

OK - would the billions of dollars it will take to register, sieze and destroy some or all private firearms be better spent on expanding and improving mental health programs so people can actually get the help they need?  

Your comments?

Softbank and the Long Now

My director at work brought up a 30 (or 300) year plan from Softbank in todays Ops review.  For the impatient, you can find the slides or a 2-hour video of Masayoshi Son presenting his 30 year vision.
http://www.softbank.co.jp/en/info/vision/next30/

What's this all about?  It's a long term vision - not quite on the 10,000 year scale of the Long Now Foundation but far more forward thinking than the typical quarter by quarter lurching of modern Fortune 500 publicly traded companies.  What is the vision all about?  Not profits, income or OIBIDA, but human knowledge and satisfaction with life.

Personally I've always worked toward making Wireless better for people.  Not selling phones, not checking boxes on spreadsheets, but making the whole wireless experience better for humans.  Helping people communiate with other people.  Do that right and you'll get the sales, the retention and the trust that makes a company profitalble. 

SOFTBANK works to make people happy
through information revolution.

The presentation starts out starkly - death, lonlieness, suicide and despair, quickly moving to what makes people happy - reaching directly into Maslow's Hirearchy of Needs, speaking to connecting with people and self actualization. After a quick comple slides on the company past and metrics, they jump right into some rather unique goals for a corporate entity:

Endeavoring to benefit society and
the economy and maximize enterprise value
by fostering the sharing of
wisdom and knowledge
gained through the IT revolution.

After a brief review of the past 300 years, they dive right into the Singularity.  Softbank forecasts our computational power will exceed the human brain in just 6 years; far faster than Ray Kurzwiel or Vernor Vinge or other futurists are predicting.  Softbank doesn't mince words - they simply state that one of their goals is to bring the brain / computer to life.  Son and Softbank aren't just futurists or tinkerers like Kurzweil; they are directly working to bring the future to life with cloud computing, instant speed networks and unlimited bandwidth.

They close out with this from Albert Einstein:

We exist for our fellow-men
- in the first place
for those on whose smiles and welfare
all our happiness depends,
and next for all those unknown to us
personally with whose destinies
we are bound up by the tie of sympathy.
-Albert Einstein

Originally published on the Sprint Community in our internal group.

WiFi density as an Economic Indicator

It's interesting that the neighborhoods with known lower income families have far less wifi access point density - the South West corner of the KC metro area is very high income and is nearly full, while the North East corner and North West corner of the KC metro area are lower income.

I'm sure someone with more time on thier hands could pull down the datasets and create a statistical correlation between income level and wifi access point density. 

Suprisingly as you zoom in the 'Leawood Hills' neighborhood in Johnson County is nearly blank, but the income levels there are off the charts.  Perhaps another statistical correlation - that's a lot of old folks living there who haven't caught up with technology yet.  Neighborhood age vs wifi denisty?

Or, since most of the data has been obtained by 'war driving' (driving around with a specific piece of software marking down the GPS location of each WiFi access point), perhaps that's a gated community with no access for the war drivers.

It's not 100% accurate - it has my neighbor, Flip, with his access point nearly a half a block away.  Mine is recorded twice  about 50 yards apart.

anyway...

(data and map from http://wigle.net/ )


anyway...

Watching TV

Cable is easy.  And boring.  But over the air TV reception is interesting.  I've always loved finding radio signals over the air - fascinating.  So, to watch TV in the Overland Park area, here's a few things I'll need.

First, an antenna (UHF will get all the stations available for 100+ miles).

Next, a wall mount - not drilling holes in the roof and the chimney is on the wrong side of the house for where I want to put the TV.

Since I want to get both Topeka and KC stations, plus try for some crazy stuff when we have storm conditions (tropo-ducting), I'll need an antenna rotator.

Wire that up with a bunch of wire and holes in the wall, then hook it to a good TV.  LG has the best reputation for OTA tuners followed by Sony and Samsung.  See what's on sale next year when I get around to doing this!

Who's Softbank? And did they just buy Sprint?

SoftBank, while not well-known in the United States, is a major player in Asia, where it’s one of the biggest Internet and telecommunications companies and is Japan’s third-largest wireless provider with more than 30 million customers.

Headquartered in Tokyo, the company has 22,500 employees, 196 subsidiaries and 97 related companies. SoftBank has a market capitalization of approximately $45 billion.

And the name? Software is called “soft” in Japanese – “SoftBank” literally means “a bank of software,” reflective of its aim to be a major services provider in the information era.

SoftBank operates as a holding company with five segments:

• Mobile
• Broadband
• Fixed-line telecommunications
• e-Commerce services
• Information technology-related products 

The company has a very successful track record of improving its competitive position and driving mobile growth and financial performance in prior acquisitions. Softbank established Yahoo! Japan through a joint investment with Yahoo in 1996; subsequently they acquired Japan Telecom in 2004. In 2006, SoftBank acquired Vodafone K.K., the #3 mobile provider in Japan. Since the Vodafone acquisition, SoftBank has outperformed every other carrier and doubled its subscriber base. SoftBank also holds a large stake in China’s largest e-commerce company, Alibaba.

The company is headed by CEO Masayoshi (“Masa”) Son, an entrepreneur who founded SoftBank in 1981 as a distributor of computer software.

A third-generation son of a Korean family in Japan, Masa studied English and computer science before moving to the United States at the age of 16. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in economics and studied computer science.

And yes, they just offered to buy a majority stake in Sprint.  Sprint and SoftBank, a Japanese telecommunications and Internet corporation, announced a transaction that would give SoftBank a 70 percent ownership of Sprint for approximately $20 billion with $12.1 billion to be distributed to Sprint’s shareholders and $8 billion to strengthen Sprint’s balance sheet. 

 

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son made the announcement at a press conference in Tokyo.

 

This transaction would create a new, stronger Sprint. It would provide the kind of financial flexibility we need to grow into a stronger #3 wireless provider competing against much larger competitors. That’s good news for Sprint customers and all U.S. consumers of wireless services.

 

An improved cash position will allow Sprint to invest further in our network and customer experience. SoftBank is a leader in providing Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology to its subscribers and will provide valuable knowledge to help support Network Vision.

Planting grass

Summer heat killed off all of my bluegrass. Instead of renting a power rake and clearing out all the dead grass, I decided to turn the weed eater sideways and cut some stripes down to the Dirt. Then I seeded in with some Revolution fescue. A weeks worth of gentle watering and TahDah! grass stripes!

Revolution fescue grass seed blend is really incredible. It stays green all summer and winter long and never requires watering. When it is 115 degrees it will go dormant but comes right back once the temperature drops.

Electronic Pearl Harbor - Haven't we heard this before?

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta smirked his way though a press conferece, apparently sourced from the 1997 recycle bin.  He claimed that we are on the bring of a 'Cyber Pearl Harbor', where 'terrists' would take control of our systems, introduce foreign substances into our precious bodily fluids, contaminate our water supplies and crash our trains like a giant Gomez Addams.

“The collective result of these kinds of attacks could be ‘cyber Pearl Harbor,’ ...” he said. (military.com)

Sounds familiar, eh?  At least to people who've been reading for a few years.  George Smith, security researcher, editor of Crypt newsletter and author of Virus Creation Labs has discussed this since the early 1990s.  The Pentagon has consistently refused to provide substantive proof, other than its say-so, and they continue to do so in the current warning from Panetta, as he spoke with business leaders in New York.  "No one explains precisely the how, whys, and wherefores of these apocalyptic scenarios," says George Smith, the editor of Crypt Newsletter, which covers computer security issues. "You always just get the assumption that chemical plants can be made to explode, that the water supply can be polluted--things that are even hard to do physically are suddenly assumed to be elementary because of the prominence of the Internet." (2002, Washington Monthly)

We've seen this before: 1997, "Experts prepare for 'an electronic Pearl Harbor'" (CNN); 1998, "U.S. Studies a New Threat: Cyber Attack" (Washington Post); and so on and so forth.

George Smith debunked this in 1998; most of the threats posed are overblown, bored kids, and realistically if your PC crashed 10% more, would you even notice?  Smith calls for more attention on basic computer security: 

"If organizations don't intend to be serious about security, they simply should not be hooking their computers to the Internet. DOD in particular would be better served if it stopped wasting time trying to develop offensive info-war capabilities and put more effort into basic computer security practices." - George Smith, 1998 (Issues in Science and Technology)

Fortunately, Panetta seems to be on a similar page, exhorting the business leaders to (after they get done lobbying Congress for more billions in defense dollars for cyber-war), 

"Help us innovate. Help us increase the nation’s cyber security by securing your own networks. Help us remain ahead of the threats that we confront,” he said. “By doing so, you will help ensure that cyberspace continues to bring prosperity to your companies and to people across the world.” - Leon Panetta, 2012 (military.com)

Disclaimer - I've been reading this stuff since it first came about in the mid 1990s.  I haven't a dog in the fight, but I do like to call bullshit when I see it.

How To Register Adults with Trailhead BSA

Hmm.  Learning fast as a Cubmaster.

When registering Adults as Cub Scout leaders,  you'll need to bring in all the training print outs. Youth Protection and  Job Specific.

Sigh.  Going to be a second trip to the HOAC service center.

Saturday

First free weekend in a while. Been camping, riding and blowin and goin the last few weeks. Up next: two campouts in a row! Troop 387 shooting sports then the Trailhead family campout. Then the final baseball tournament for the fall season.

Not a lot of time for updating this here journal. Posting this one from the phone at 3&2 ball field while Hunter warms up for his game today.

Up next today: lawn work.  Cut and seed my lawn, mow and edge my moms. Tomorrow,  another game and possibly church.

Quite the contrast from 2 years ago where the most exciting thing going on was getting a new stack of Louis Lamour books from the library!

Game is about to start, signing off!

Gangnam Style - with lyrics

Ganganm Style has hit bigtime - it was on Good Morning America this week.  Nice to see KPOP and dubstep hitting the mainstream...  

Lyrics:

Oppa is Gangnam style
Gangnam style

A girl who is warm and humanle during the day
A classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee
A girl whose heart gets hotter when night comes
A girl with that kind of twist

I’m a guy
A guy who is as warm as you during the day
A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down
A guy whose heart bursts when night comes
That kind of guy

Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end

Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

A girl who looks quiet but plays when she plays
A girl who puts her hair down when the right time comes
A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all
A sensable girl like that

I’m a guy
A guy who seems calm but plays when he plays
A guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comes
A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles
That kind of guy

Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end

Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two

You know what I’m saying
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh