Faster, better…

Archive for July, 2009

This is a an eye opener.

EyeOnAnnapolis.net 071609: “Comptroller Peter Franchot released Maryland’s June revenue figures in an open letter to Governor Martin O’Malley, Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller.”

The Democrats in Annapolis are just now getting it. Click the link above to read the entire story at EyeOnAnnapolis.net. This isn’t about slots, this is about financial malfeasance and incompetence in Annapolis by our elected law makers there.  They had several opportunities to stop this madness they now tout as a crisis. Where are you Democrat property owners and business people? We have to move the statists and progressives out of Annapolis in 2010. We just have to if we are to survive as a state.

WUSA9.COM: ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — “A Montgomery County judge has thrown out speeding tickets issued to four county police officers.” Click the WUSA9.COM url to read the entire article.

A summary of the story is that a circuit court judge threw out the speed-camera tickets of four police officers because their “right to due process was violated.” Apparently the police department requires a written policy for speed camera violations for on duty police.

I found this excuse wanting for common sense and on its face – ridiculous. Using the judge’s logic this must mean that if my family has no written policy on speed camera tickets I can escape prosecution for the same lame reason. The camera caught a police vehicle speeding with no emergency lights activated. I would bet there is a policy that when an emergency vehicle is operated at high speed those emergency lights must be on. You think? It might even be a state law as is the case in other states.

Public safety culture does seem different on the East coast than elsewhere. In California at the agency I used to work for, we were trained to operate police vehicles with emergency lights activated when traffic laws were broken while responding to a call for service. There were plenty of on-duty safety regulations regarding the safe operation of police vehicles to deal with situations like these. We all knew that if we operated a police vehicle in an unsafe fashion and there was an accident we as officers would be held responsible.

What I have seen in Maryland often escapes the bounds of common sense. In a few cases I have even called and spoken to Calvert County Sheriff Evans about the behaviors I have seen. Sheriff Evans was very concerned about what I had to say. I told him my impressions of Maryland public safety was that either training is not what it should be or the employee culture is different here and members consider themselves a privileged class that is above obeying the traffic law. I said that it frustrated me when I saw sheriffs and police chiefs gathering on television commercials to talk about traffic safety and seatbelts when day after day I see emergency vehicles and private cars with public safety vanity plates operated outside of the law and all common sense.

It abhors me to make these distinctions because I worked for a police department in California. As a rule I think most officers do not like to call the bad behavior of others to the public’s attention. But this just cannot continue without people getting hurt. Where I worked officers  had training in the proper operation of police vehicles.

I know what officers are up against on a day-to-day basis. That has not escaped me.  In this state, however agencies push their luck allowing bad behavior to continue. The officers in this story were caught and should have received a citation and a conviction. The ticket should have reflected as a mark on their personnel record as well.

This lack of care for public safety extends to drivers of private vehicles tagged with public safety vanity plates.  Some years back I watched with amazement as an FP plated vehicle traveling over the limit was waved through a speed trap as cars traveling at the same speed were stopped and cited. I stopped to ask the officer why and was asked to keep moving. I regularly see holders of the vanity plates violating Maryland traffic laws. Why do they do it? In my time, law enforcement officers held themselves to a higher personal standard. What I see in Maryland are officers and their families using the badge as a means to an end and that end is to avoid a citation. This acquittal in Rockville, Maryland only served to support the out-of-control subculture.

I also know that not all officers behave this way. Thanks to Sheriff Evans and thanks to the excellent training many of our Calvert County Deputies have received I see FEWER (but I do see some) officers violating traffic laws. My sense is that Sheriff Evans has instilled in his department a personal standard and a department standard that the rights and privileges of a police officer to take emergency action are better protected and safer when policy is followed.

Judges need to hold police to a higher standard. The police unions need to hold officers to a higher standard. The public MUST hold their officers, fire fighters, and emergency medical providers to a higher standard and contact agencies when emergency vehicles and holders of public safety vanity plates violate traffic laws. Agencies need to take the complaints SERIOUSLY. The rights and privileges associated with emergency response are fragile. The dangers in driving a public safety vehicle are many and the consequences of bad behavior can be devastating. Public safety professionals are expected to behave like professionals and to fraternally hold each other responsible for law-abiding driving behaviors.

The officers in this WUSA9.COM story should ask the court to hold them personally accountable for their actions and to accept the speeding tickets and the consequences regardless of the judge’s opinion.

• Whispernet has spotty coverage in Southern Maryland. Why hasn’t SPRINT found new tower space YET to improve coverage? This has always been a VerizonWireless county but come on folks. In Calvert County we have huge dead spots for SPRINT service where Verizon Wireless picks up the slack. It has been that way for years. SPRINT does its best to cover the highways but leaves the neighborhoods along the bay wanting. I hope the Kindle is impetus for SPRINT to FIX coverage. I might even be tempted finally to switch allegiance.
• The experimental browser is still experimental. It’s not Firefox or IE7. It is years behind anything you have ever used. It is text based. It is very primitive. It is pig-dead slow and the displayed results of a URL will test your ability to read gobbledygook.
• As a book reader the DX is wonderful. I ENJOY reading books with it.
• As you may have already read I also bought the Kindle to read PDF files. I’m satisfied for the most part. As long as I have m,y reading glasses PDF works for me.
• MP3 works. You cannot use the Kindle like an iPod apparently. I still have some experimenting to do but I don ‘t think the unit will play a playlist of music files. The functionality appears to be for audio books and podcasts. Bummer! All of your indexed audio files are mixed in with your books. Dumb idea Amazon. I sure would like to group PDF files, books, and audio in different directories. I cannot even imagine having to wade through page after page of book titles, MP3 titles, and PDF file titles to find what I want. The organizational philosophy of the device needs to be reexamined. It too is primitive.
• Menus are simple and easy to find. Bookmarking is cool.
• I like the size of the DX. Anything smaller and I would not enjoy reading as much as I do.
• Battery life is nothing short of amazing.
• Turning the unit off requires you to wait four or five seconds. I’m used to it now but sheesh!
• I have had the unit freeze in one more or another for no apparent reason. Holding the off button over for longer than for seconds seems to help.
• Really pleased with no contract or commitment. Had Amazon made a a cellular specific offering millions would have eventually opted out. 
• Typing using the chicklet keyboard is difficult and non-standard.

I keep evaluating and writing as I learn more. Mostly I am very pleased and am not bothered by the price I paid for Kindle DX.

The Orlando Sentinel whined that the Kindle DX did not do enough for the newspapers.  The headline was, “Amazon’s Kindle DX: Not the answer.” There were several clues in the article that the paper clearly understood the nature of the Kindle and why, but was ignoring some current truths about newspaper success in general and their own role in utilizing new technology.

First newspapers were on the decline before the recession hit because of their progressive liberal editorial views and what I call “anger news.” Like the failure of liberal talk radio, the American market has spoken. No one really wants to listen to or read propaganda. There was also the rising cost of energy to run the presses and newsprint was more expensive. The Internet played a roll as people began to get their news from on-line sources. It isn’t the Kindle spoiling the newspaper’s success. No I think the Kindle is another potentially positive tool for the paper that decides to use the Kindle to its fullest advantage.

The medium in the Kindle’s case may not be the message.  the newspaper still has that roll but through a new and very speed-and-size-conscious digital delivery format. The media (newspapers) may have to adapt to the Kindle – you think?  Are we at the start of a paradigm change like we were in the 70’s with the invention of the digital watch? Watchmakers sloughed those off remember. I understand the concerns in the Sentinel article about graphics, pictures, and charts, and the positioning of headline text. The presentation is new. Be creative with headlines to attract attention.  Make the Kindle work for the paper now and support it as it begins to succeed as a delivery system.

A third party news distributor now sells a book reader/newspaper reading device that is subscription free to the customer. The customer decides which digital books they buy and which newspapers to subscribe to using the Kindle as a delivery device. The business model appears to be that Amazon pays its Whispernet charges out of book sales and newspaper subscriptions. Amazon also needs to make a profit to stay in this business.  In the article I believe the Sentinel acknowledges the model.

The paper wants to use the Kindle as a means to instantly deliver news.  It seems reasonable to me that unless the newspaper actually develops a subscription base on the Kindle to support additional payments to Amazon to develop such a mode, that Amazon’s one download a day is enough. In the Sentinel article the paper’s progressive entitlement mentality is showing through. Perhaps some focus on the part of newspapers to create thoughtful Kindle editions of their papers that take advantage of the available technology without trying to mimic paper media is in order. This has been a problem for newspapers since the creation of the world-wide web.  The Kindle offers newspapers another way to help the newspaper succeed in the digital age. Newspapers can either adapt or sit back with their arms tightly folded across their chests, chins up, teeth clenched and watch others succeed. Their choice.

I’m not so sure that, at least ion my case, that newspapers or even instant news is actually an attractive option for the Kindle. I get this elsewhere and the size of the DX and the way in which I use it doesn’t make it an attractive option. Except for the Wall Street Journal, most newspapers are suffering from a lack of journalist excellence which cause me to take no interest in their content. That and I purchased the Kindle to read books and PDF files and not newspapers. Newspapers and blogs were not even on my list of desired content for the Kindle. Living in the country as we do we have our own newspapers, some of which have minor on-line editions that I can read on a larger computer screen. My Twitter feed from Fox News and Drudge serve me well and a visit to the local grocery puts a newspaper in my hands. Old fashioned but adequate.

The concerns some folks have about being able to save newspapers in quantity on the Kindle or moving them across Kindle devices and saving back issues at Amazon.com also concerns me. There doesn’t appear to be a solution for that so if I eve need to read or search a paper I will visit its website.

It is hard to tell where the Kindle will actually be in one year or two or even five. Grumbling by newspapers early in the game doesn’t help much. I suggest they get some Internet savvy people on board, retire the marketing people that don’t get it and move forward with some alacrity lest they be left gasping for breath in the dust of newspapers passing them by.

Since Amazon first introduced the Kindle I have watched and waited. Watched because the Kindle was due. It was time for a personal reader. Technology had gone beyond paper years ago and it was time for a device to carry the written the word. Waited because I didn’t want to be first. Sometimes first is disappointed and that wasn’t going to be me.

This terrific reader has so much inside that I want to write separate articles as I master the options in the DX. First I want to share what I know about reading PDF’s.

My needs in a personal reader included PDF capability. Having joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary in 2008 I was regularly printing large, multi-page PDF files used for personal study. My home library already had at least two wheel barrels full of training materials. There just had to be a better way.

When the Kindle DX was introduced in June 2009, I figured I was ready to make the purchase. The DX was a larger size and to me size mattered. The closer the Kindle was to 8 1/2 x 11 inches (actually 9.7) the fonder I would be. Larger is readable when your eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be. I’m one of those that carries reading glasses to read the fine print. The Kindle DX was bigger and therefore better.

The price was a tough one at first but what finally sold me was that no subscription was required. Subscriptions ruin my appreciation for a service when the subscription prices begin to climb. I like the idea of being able to read my own PDF files, and purchasing Kindle books when I wanted to. What a great surprise to also find that Amazon.com has some free titles that include genres of interest to me! When you compare what you get with some of the other high tech devices out there today and you don’t want a cellular telephone contract to enjoy book reading the Kindle looked great at $489.

The Day Came

The Kindle was delivered to my mailbox. Strange that $500 worth of technology is delivered by the post office to a rural mailbox but that’s how it came. It even sat in the mailbox overnight because we didn’t check the box on a Saturday afternoon. Thank goodness it wasn’t stolen or that the Summer heat didn’t bake it. The box it was delivered in was obviously from Amazon but to the casual observer it probably looked like a book. Save the box and packing kit when you get yours. It was substantial and may come in handy someday.

When I opened the box there was the Kindle DX , an AC charger/adaptor and a tiny getting-started pamphlet. The Kindle had a half charged battery so I was able to try it right away. The actual manual was inside the Kindle as a readable book file. It’s been a week and I have yet to read the entire manual. Basic operation for the computer geek and former software professional was intuitive. My guess is the average reader will also find it as easy to use.

First on My List was the PDF

First on my list to try was reading Pmy DF files. I connected the supplied USB cable to my computer and the Kindle and then copied several PDF files to the Kindle. I was pleased but on a scale of one to ten I give the Kindle DX only a seven with the current implementation. Here’s what I discovered when reading PDF files:

There is no control over character size in a PDF. Zooming in to make the page bigger isn’t possible. Small text is very small requiring reading glasses and occasionally a little eye strain.

While in PDF mode you can’t highlight text and save it to the clippings file. When I read my paper files I mark text with yellow highlighter regularly. Adobe and Amazon need to get together on this with a version of PDF for the Kindle!

Large PDF files take a little longer to load than smaller PDF files.

When you use the “Go to Page” menu function you get to the right place but you cannot use the back button to return from whence you came. You must go back to the page number you left. Going to page 608 takes you to page 608 but pushing back takes you to page 607. Perhaps the button could work two ways or it would wait until you push page forward and a new return default of “the page you actually left” could be bypassed. That’s an enhancement request from me to Amazon.

PDF document search works very well. I searched for a combination of two words in a 618 page document. The Kindle found all of the occurrences I expected it would find. You can also bookmark a page. A very tiny, and I mean very tiny folded page corner appears on the upper right corner. You have access to your bookmarks from the menu button. This is an appropriate way to save an important page. The keyboard on the DX reminds me of the keyboard on a cellular telephone. In order to access numbers you first press the ALT key, find the number and press that key. Numbers are shared with the first row of letters. Using the chicklet style buttons requires my reading glasses.

So far images in PDF files are reproducing just fine. When I run into one that doesn’t appear correctly I note it under this article.

Anytime I’m going somewhere where I expect to have to wait I take my Kindle. Hey if the other geeks are all wearing their Bluetooth© headsets I can carry my Kindle. It goes to work so I can read on my lunch hour and with me to the doctor’s office.

So far I am very pleased with my Kindle DX. I hope to write as many more articles on using it as I find interesting topics to warrant the time.

[errata:  071109 DougWeb - It is possible to return to the page you came from after a jump to a page in a PDF file by pressing the "back button underneath the five-way control. The Prev Page button does exactly what it is supposed to do.]

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Glenn Beck, “Common Sense,” published 2009:

” Assemble with passion, peace, and power, and march on Washington. Let your voice be heard and your anger be seen. Some will label your words as inciting or dangerous; help them understand that the truth will always sound angry to those who can’t [ed. or will not] recognize it.”

If you haven’t read Glenn Beck’s new book “Common Sense” yet I strongly recommend it. Are you confused about the 9-12′ers that meet at Tea Parties across the nation? Are you wondering why some famous people call the 9-12′ers horrible names or why our own government seems to think we should be watched? Why are politicians making decisions about us that defy a common sense explanation? What has happened to our school system? Why do the American people seem so divided?

The answers are all in Glenn’s book. It’s a book, and you need not fear the book itself. Pick it up and read it, however, and the words will remind you how you can again feel about about life, liberty, truth, and your own pursuit of happiness in our United States. The words will inspire you to think and to take actions that can again bring America to its senses.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 6, 2009

CONTACT: Ron Miller, (410) 474-3778

Ron Miller Files for District 27 Maryland Senate Seat

Local Republican hopes to be the GOP challenger in 2010 to 34-year plus incumbent and Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller

ANNAPOLIS –Community activist, U.S. Air Force veteran and technology executive Ron Miller of Huntingtown filed his Certificate for Candidacy today at the Maryland State Board of Elections offices in Annapolis for the Legislative District 27 state Senate seat. District 27, which includes southern Prince George’s County and portions of Calvert County, is represented by longtime incumbent and current Senate president Thomas V. "Mike" Miller.

In announcing his candidacy as "the right Miller" for District 27, Ron Miller released the following statement:

"In just a few short years, Maryland has degenerated into a high-tax, high-cost, anti-business state, and our families are paying dearly for the lack of fiscal discipline in Annapolis. Maryland has the 4th highest tax burden in the nation, higher even than that of California which is in full fiscal meltdown. Our business tax climate has plunged from 24th to 45th in the nation, and we have the 6th highest cost of living, 5th if you exclude the District of Columbia.

"This free fall isn’t the result of chance. I fundamentally disagree with the policies I’ve seen Mike Miller shepherd through the Senate, including the largest tax increase in Maryland history. Now he’s talking about a gas tax on an already overtaxed public, and mocking those of us who believe government takes too much and spends too much.

"Policies affect real lives. Young families with children, working families, seniors on fixed incomes – all and more are hurting because it’s simply become too expensive to live here. Yet all we’ve seen out of Annapolis every year is avoidance where they put off fixing the long-term problems and hope for a miracle each year to rescue them from billion dollar annual deficits. The first year, they depleted Governor Ehrlich’s $1 billion-plus rainy day fund. The next year, they slapped us with a $1.4 billion tax increase which was supposed to fix our fiscal woes for good but didn’t. Now it’s the federal so-called "stimulus" package where the federal government is spending money we don’t have. I guess Mike Miller’s gas tax will be the next stopgap fix.

"I can’t stand by and act as if the status quo is OK. It’s not; people are hurting and all the special projects Mike Miller brings to the district to buy favor at election time aren’t doing anything for families who need more money in their pockets to make a living and build a life. As a veteran, businessman, and government and non-profit executive, I have the breadth of experience a 21st century leader needs to make sound policies that fix problems and help people. As someone who lives and works every day like everyone else and has personally felt the sting of this fiscal crisis, I have the heart to listen, learn and serve rather than dictate. I will always remember that I work for you.

"It’s your money, not theirs. You earned it and you should decide how it’s spent. I understand that and I need your help to carry that message to the Miller Senate Office Building and the State House in 2010."

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Doug Smith supports Ron Miller for State Senate, District 27, in 2010. Please vote with me and vote for the “right Miller” in 2010.

City puts large sign in front of church booths and Tea Party booth at 4 th of July Celebration blocking and sequestering the groups away from other activity. Sign infers the groups are hostile and that the city was forced to give them space or be sued. This is a pathetic and childish political tactic that I hope the citizens of Pt. St. Lucie are going to keep in mind when elections roll around. The city did its very best to marginalize religion and differing political views.

Thanks to http://www.twitter.com/TCTaxTeaParty for the link to the video!

The guys at CalvertNews.info provide a public service for your seasonal crab parties by demonstrating the fine art of getting the meat from a cooked blue crab:

Thanks guys!