Kurt's Thoughts

It’s pretty easy to avoid getting longhauled from McCarron airport.  (Just tell your driver  ‘shortest distance’ – and to really emphasize it, “DON’T take the tunnel.”)  But I was asked the other day:

“How do you keep from getting longhauled on the Vegas strip?”

It’s basically all about incentives.  I’m incented to get there in the shortest time, with the least amount of cash.  The cabbie is incented 1st & foremost to get the best tip, but not knowing that, to secure the largest fare possible.

SOLUTION:  THE SLIDING TIP
So it’s simple:  Incent the cabbie with a sliding tip before you start moving.  This is what I say:

“I’ve got $10 for this fare.  Anything left over is the tip, got it?”

You’re not only letting your cabbie know that you’ll tip him/her, but that their tip is directly proportional to how much the cab fare is.  Bigger fare?  Less tip.  Simple as that.

With this incentive, I assure you that this will be the fastest, shortest, & possibly wildest cab ride you’ll take in Las Vegas.  You’ll be beating lights, cutting through parking lots, taking shortcuts through dark alleyways you didn’t know existed.  In many cases, you’ll find that the meter “suddenly & curiously” gets shut off as you’re driving into the destination property.

Now, the trick to this is preparation.  You need to know what is a REASONABLE estimate to throw at the cabbie.

PREDICTING A REASONABLE FARE
This is the guide I go by from Mandalay Bay & a pointer to the map I use to make estimates from.  Some of these are a little liberal but this is to take into consideration traffic during conventions & such. 

• Mandalay Bay
  • $8 to Luxor, Excalibur, Trop, Hooters
  • $10 to Monte Carlo, New York, MGM Grand, Aria, Vdara, Mandarin
  • $12 to Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, Planet Hollywood, Paris, Bally’s
  • $15 to Caesar’s, Mirage, Venetian/Palazzo, TI, Imperial Palace, Harrah’s, Casino Royale, Wynn/Encore, Fashion Show Mall, Rio
  • $18 to LVCC, Riviera, Circus Circus, Stratosphere, Palms
  • $18 to McCarron International Airport
  • $30 to Downtown anywhere

Note that the cabbie will probably take Frank Sinatra Drive for properties on the westside of the strip or Koval Dr for properties on the eastside of the strip.  This is normal.

A BETTER ALTERNATIVE:  A TRUSTED CABBIE
I’ve assumed that you aren’t going to call a cabbie that you have a personal relationship with.  I actually do have a good relationship with two cabbies whom I “incent” well and they’ll be at my hotel doorstep in 15 min if I call.  This overrides these rules above & you usually don’t have to go through this if you have a trusted driver that you know’s not going to longhaul you.  I recommend everyone get the phone number of a cabbie that they like & start calling them directly for rides.  Why?

1. LINE CUTTING:  Cabbies that are called don’t have to wait in the cab line at hotels.  This allows them to cut the line at your hotel, thus making fares faster.  Additionally, you don’t have to wait in the cab line either since the cab is specifically for you.
2. CONSISTENT TIPS:  Cabbies want tips.  (Or “tickets”)  If you tip, they’ll prefer a sure thing over someone that might stiff them.  Plain and simple.
3. GOOD FARES:  Cabbies want decent fares.  Don’t call a cab if the fare is $4.50.  Example: Wynn-to-Mirage * Venetian-to-Caesar’s are not decent fares.  Remember that the cabbie waited probably 15-30 min in a line of taxis for you to load up.  The only time you pull this is if you have a girl with heels on.  And then you ought to compensate with a good tip.

I was watching a podcast rant by Adam Sessler from G4TV called “I Hate Numbers” – whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for by the way for his energy, passion, intellect, and capacity for introspective thought – and he was raving, once again, about how he hates summarizing games into a rating from 1-5.

His rant revolves around what he considers the near impossibility of trying to be objective about something he considers art, the difficulty of comparing one genre to another, and the need to declare one game ‘better’ than the other in some sort of competition.

But he never mention the intent of the reader.  During his diatribe about the art of gaming, the inanity of summarizing reviews into a number, the difficulties of violating his principals, how a “little part of him dies”, etc. etc. he never once mentioned that the whole reason people read G4TV’s reviews is to answer the question…

IS THERE A POSSIBILITY THAT I SHOULD I SPEND MY HARD-EARNED, LIMITED QUANTITY, CASH ON THIS GAME?
Let’s say I can buy only one game this month.  There’s 8 amazing titles out there that I’m interested in.  Should this game be in the running? 

• Are the controls flawed? 
• Is everyone saying the game plot is boring? 
• Are there bugs in the game play?
• Is it an unoriginal carbon copy of another game I already have?

Before these questions are answered, I couldn’t care LESS about art, genres, and principles.  It’s my dollar and I’m depending on industry experts to tell me if I’m dropping cash on something that the rest of the world – in general – thinks is crap.  Metafilter, G4, IGN, and other sites are just tools to help me understand that quickly & at a glance because I’m a gamer – not a reviewer – and all I want to spend time on is knowing “MAYBE” or “NO”.  And even after this I need to then ask…

WOULD THIS GAME ALIGN WITH MY TASTES?
After it passes the “is it broken” test, then it’s possibly about art & subjective opinion.  But even then, there are factors that allow a viewer to make an

1. ONE VOICE, ONE OPINION
   A reviewer’s voice doesn’t represent everyone’s.  Only theirs.  And that’s fine.  For example, I don’t listen to the movie critics from the Los Angeles Times.  I think their opinions do not reflect my opinions AT ALL.  If people don’t find that G4’s opinions aren’t in alignment with theirs… they’ll simply disregard it.
2. WE NEED TO KNOW HOW THE GAMES BREAK DOWN
   Breaking down a game into its facets and analyzing them is something any reviewer does.  This needs to be done because the rest of us don’t have the game yet, and this is the only feedback we get.  For example:  for many, the VATS autolock system in Fallout 3 is heinous because it diminishes the FPS elements of the game… for others, it’s glorious because it keeps the focus on the rest of the gameplay & story.
3. LIMITED TIME, LIMITED MONEY
   Viewers are not in the business of gambling with our dollars & we don’t have an infinite amount of time.  Like it or not, people make BUYING DECISIONS based on opinions of reviewers and they need to make those decisions quickly.  Why?  Because we don’t have all day.  Gaming is supposed to be a recreational task – not some arduous critique of “one company’s ART versus another’s”.

I have more to say about this but the bottom line is this:

As a viewer, I have a very limited budget, and a very limited amount of time.  I respect Adam Sessler’s opinion & think that it likely reflects much of my own tastes – otherwise, I wouldn’t bother watching X-Play or G4 or Sessler’s Soapbox or whatever the hell he’s on. 

So do I want a numeric score for each game reviewed?  HELL YEAH.  Is it meaningful?  HELL YEAH.  Does it make Adam cringe when he has to summarize games in this way?  MAYBE.  But that’s the job & that’s the way it’s done & that’s what I need as a viewer. 

So quit your bitching & suck it up, review boy.  Now get back to work.

I saved this article from back in 2008 and I only recently found the original article.

DEAL BREAKERS
MIT’S BRAINY BLACKJACK MASTERS EXPLAIN THE ODDS BEHIND THEIR CASINO SPREE IN THE NEW FILM ’21’

reeddottuckeratnypostdotcom

March 23, 2008 — YOU can leave the disguises, the tunneling and the elaborate capers to George Clooney and his “Ocean’s” gang. Jeff Ma and his crew robbed Vegas blind by walking right through the front door.

From the late 1990s until about 2002, Ma’s team racked up winnings approaching $5 million by using that bane of SAT takers everywhere: math. The team employed an elaborate system based on card counting and probability to turn the blackjack odds slightly in its favor and beat the casino at its own game. In a place where most people walk out with empty pockets and scrounging for next month’s rent, Ma was strolling out with a suitcase full of cash.

Somewhere, Joe Pesci is itching to cram this dude’s head into a vice.

Ma’s story and that of the so-called MIT blackjack team was chronicled in the 2003 book “Bringing Down the House” by Ben Mezrich. That best seller has now been (very loosely) adapted into “21,” starring Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth.

In the film, which opens Friday, Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, an MIT student who joins an underground gambling team to pay for medical school.

In reality, Ma (who did go to MIT) got into card counting because he was bored.

“My roommates were going away to play blackjack every weekend,” he says. “I asked them where they were going and when we’d ever hang out again. And they said, ‘We can. You can come with us to Vegas if you learn this system.’ It sounded kind of sketchy, but they convinced me to do it. My primary motivation was to hang out with them in Vegas.”

…

[read more at http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/
deal_breakers_YDHI7chvbmmikv0kS6NvYO]

There’s an decent list of basic rules in the article that I thought might be useful for the beginner.

HOW TO WIN AT BLACKJACK

Former members of the MIT team offer these tips:

• Buy a reference card at the casino gift shop telling you when to hit and stand in certain situations. Following it religiously will bring the house’s advantage down to about one half of a percent. And yes, it’s legal to bring it to the table.
• Stick to tables dealing fewer decks. Six or more in one shoe is bad news.
• Make sure your table pays 3-2 for blackjack, not 6-5.
• Never take insurance.
• Always surrender when you have 15 or 16 and the dealer has a 10.
• Remember that you’re not trying to get 21. You’re simply trying to beat the dealer.
• Ask the dealer for pointers. Many of them are well-versed in basic strategy and will be happy to offer insight.
• Decide before playing if you’re there to have fun or make money. If you’re there for fun, don’t worry about losing – because you will.
• Don’t tip the dealer unless you really feel flush. It cuts too far into your profits.

• NYPOST: Deal Breakers – Reed Tucker
  http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/
  deal_breakers_YDHI7chvbmmikv0kS6NvYO

As seen at Mandalay Bay.  The casino knows that Microsoft’s search & advertising framework is solid.

I stay at Mandalay Bay these days.  This is a photo of something I saw last year while at CES 2011.  (Yes, only an entire year late to post.  Sigh.)

1. WINDOWS XP EMBEDDED
   Given that the dialog box format is that of Windows XP, and it’s in an appliance, I’m pretty certain that it’s based on Windows XP Embedded.  Not terribly surprising considering the number of embedded systems out there running on our software.  ATMs, kiosks, digital signage, casino games, video telephones, etc. all run on Windows XP Embedded.
2. VISUAL FOXPRO
   This is the thing that surprised me:  The casino ticket redemption system used Microsoft Visual FoxPro as it’s local database – probably version 9.  I know that xBase applications have been popular for a very long time but in a relatively new bill changing/ticket redemption system?  (Recall that ticket-based gaming has only really been going on in the last 5 years or so)

Of course I told the cashiers about the failed system.  Based on the fact that it couldn’t make a temp file, I would hypothesize that the drive was likely full.  Maybe something was misconfigured in the logging/event system or the database has somehow grown too large.

But it led me to looking into the companies that build ATMs on Windows Embedded in general.  I used to work with the financial services industry and had 4 banks that all used Windows Embedded based ATMs.  Yes, they were on an Active Directory domain, and yes, they all ran Windows ATM software.  But I never knew the breadth of ATM solutions out there since it was never something I needed to research.

Then I found this.  Look at this list.  Wow:

• ATM solutions-focused Windows Embedded Partners
  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/partners/find-windows-embedded-partners.aspx?=undefined&WEDeviceTypeID=71

Names like Wincor Nixdorf and NEC stick out.  I also know that there are some big names in the ATM industry that are NOT listed on the above link that use Windows Embedded.  I’m kinda curious as to why there’s no entry for them.  Probably because they don’t need the publicity – the companies I’m thinking of are huge and probably don’t need it.

I’ve been a fan of Fallout for a long time and was really excited about Fallout: New Vegas – outsourced by Bethesda Softworks to Obsidian Software, based on the original Fallout 3 game engine. 

I love the games environment, the open play, the story… everything.  Fallout 3 lasted me nearly 9 months of play with all the downloadable content packs.  And for that, Bethesda will always have a soft spot in my heart.  The only game I can ever recall playing that long was Starflight from Electronic Arts back in 1989.

But enter Fallout: New Vegas.

This game has been plagued by bugs and crashes since day one.  But I played through them.  I found workarounds.  I waited for updates.  Probably 80 hours of game play – and I wasn’t even close to finishing the main story line.   Then my world was turned upside down by a sudden change in my job and I was pretty much forced to put down the controller for more than 4-5 months, may be longer – I don’t remember.

So it’s Christmas 2011 and I finally have some free time.  Time to start playing again.  Apparently they’ve patched this game… like FIVE TIMES since I left it.  So XBox 360 auto-downloaded the patch and away we go.

THE PROBLEM
Holy jeezus.  My game saves won’t load.  It just sits there for 10 min doing nothing – no matter how many times I try.

Alright.  Don’t panic.  Search the Internet.  Go to the support forums.  Figure out what the solution is…  WHOOPS!  The Bethesda forums are ablaze with angry players & apparently these patches have resulted in the same experience that I have.  Game saves that won’t load, people losing their progress.  Frustrated people threatening Bethesda.  Some blaming it on the DLC.  Others on the patches.

THE SOLUTION.  SORT OF.
Finally, I start to delete the DLC and the game patch #5 from my Xbox 360.  SYSTEM SETTINGS – STORAGE – GAMES – “Delete Game Patch #5 & anything else”.  I run the game again, decline the patch, and lo-and-behold, my game saves now load in 3 seconds.

So what of all the patches they made over the past 6 months.  5 patches must be pretty significant.  Surely they’re going to fix this, right?  This can’t be the end of the line.

Then I read on the forums:

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS, Jason Bergman:

“Sorry guys, this is it. I’m the last one on the project, and I’ll be turning out the lights after this week.  It’s been a good run, but everyone is moving on to new projects. (9/26/11)

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1233827-why-the-upcoming-final-dlcs-may-not-be-it/page__view__findpost__p__18671523

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS,  Jason Bergman:

“No plans for another patch.“ (9/26/11)

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1233827-why-the-upcoming-final-dlcs-may-not-be-it/page__view__findpost__p__18672577

WTF.

I mean, I get that it’s just a game, and I get games have only a certain lifespan… but after a year, they still don’t have the game in a functional state – so they just decide to pack it in and call it a day.

I can’t say that I’ll ever purchase another Obsidian Software product.  Unless I hear otherwise, to me this is may be a Bethesda problem… but it’s mainly an Obsidian problem.

What a waste.

With CES 2012 just around the bend, I figured it might be good to write down my rules of Vegas.

Kurt’s Rules of Vegas

Rule #1: Never let the taxi longhaul you through the tunnel.

Rule #2: Always use the $20 sandwich at reception.

Rule #3a: Bring the vitamins, the homeopathic junk, & the antibiotics.
Rule #3b: Know where the Walgreens is on the strip.

Rule #4: Sanitize the remote.

Rule #5a: Eat with a Restaurant.com coupon.(http://tinyurl.com/restaurantlv)
Rule #5b: Use a coupon with Restaurant.com.

Rule #6: Always leave $5 & a note for housekeeping Day 1.

Rule #7: Don’t complain about the line if you had to get in it in the first place.

Rule #8: Protect. Hydrate. Humidify.

Rule #9: Always make reservations two weeks in advance.

Rule #10: Always bring shoes w/ good support.

Rule #11: Pay with cash.  Play on credit.

Rule #12: Cocktails never belong at the tables.

Rule #13: Never pass up the entertainment.
They don’t burn your bankroll & they keep your mind fresh.

Rule #14: Obey the rules of the club.

Rule #15: Losing is never considered ‘having fun’.

Rule #16: Always make sure you have a reliable cabbie in your contacts.

Rule #17: Andrew Jackson always has a reservation.

Rule #18: Taking a bathroom break is always better than playing a bad shoe.

Rule #19: Dressing appropriately is almost as important as the tip.

Rule #20: Always eat breakfast in the morning.

Rule #21: Keep a Vegas lawyer on speed dial.
Nersesian & Sankiewicz, (702) 385-5454 528 S 8th St, Las Vegas, NV 89101

Rule #22: Always know what conventions are going on during your visit. (http://tinyurl.com/lvconventions)

Wow.  There’s a lot of drama right now on all the UCLA sports feeds – especially the subscription forums that people pay to be on – due to:

1. The firing of Rick Neuheisel, our head football coach
2. UCLA going to the PAC 12 championship game despite being only 6-6
3. The active recruitment of Chris Petersen, famed coach of Boise State (never had less than a 10-2 season in 8 years at Boise and always been in the top 10 of the BCS rankings)
4. The record breaking money donated by the alumni boosters – reportedly $30M total over 5 years was committed:  $4M for the coach’s salary every year for 5 years and $2M for the assistant coaches over 5 years)
5. a. This will be more money than is paid to USC’s coaching staff, Notre Dame’s coaching staff, and put it in league with Michigan’s coaching staff.
6. The reported (as of last night) TURNING DOWN of our offer by Chris Petersen.  (He had a falling out with the Boise State Athletic Director which is why he was considering going to UCLA but Boise State at the 11^th hour FIRED their Athletic Director to appease Petersen to keep him at BSU so…)
7. The recruitment of up to 6 other potential coaches ranging from Herman Edwards (from the NFL) and Mike Belotti (Oregon’s former coach who retired but shown interest in coaching again at UCLA) USC’s offensive coordinator Kennedy Pola, etc.
8. The signing of big name coaches to other PAC 12 schools including Mike Leach at Washington State, Rich Rodriguez at Arizona, etc.
9. The reported quashing of the Chris Petersen-declines-UCLA-offer, which was apparently a false rumor.
10. The elimination of Herman Edwards as a candidate for the head coaching job – as reported on the radio.

Like a damned soap opera.

Dear Mandalay Bay & MGM Marketing:

Thank you for further validating the reason I play at your tables and not at Steve Wynn’s or Sheldon Adelson’s casinos or eat at Mandalay Bay’s restaurants and not at Caesar’s Entertainment businesses.

Sony laptop. Nice.

Yup.  I noticed.  Because it’s rare moment these days when a marketing department decision maker decides NOT to stick a trendy, overpriced MacBook in their advertising.

Signed – your loyal M-Life Player:

Kurt

————–

In case you’re actually interested in this deal, it’s something that came through my player’s card, M-Life.  I don’t know if it’s a public offer but here are the specifics:

Cyber Monday Sale

Reserve a room on select nights* and receive $100 Resort Credit.
November 27-30
Dec 1, 11-28
Book Now or call Mandalay Bay Room Reservations at 877.632.7800 and ask for offer code PCYMON.
*Two Night Minimum

Promotion Runs

November 28, 2011 – December 29, 2011

https://reservations.mgmmirage.com/bookingengine.aspx?pid=MBH&host=offer&code=PCYMON

Dear UCLA Athletics Director, Dan Guerrero:

My name is Kurt.  I’m a UCLA Alumnus and a lifelong UCLA sports fan.  Most importantly to you, I have been a season ticket holder for UCLA Bruin Football for the last 18 years.  Prior to that, when I was an undergrad, I attended every single home game as part of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band and annually travelled to Stanford/Cal, and sometimes ASU.

NO, SERIOUSLY.  WE’RE DIEHARD FANS.
I’ve had the same seats in the same area of the Rose Bowl for close to 2 decades now and I know the people around me like family.  We’re the ones that stand up for the whole game and scream our collective butts off.  Not just on 3rd down when Geoff says so… every down.  It’s like we never left the student section.

I have the same routine, eat the same garlic fries/nachos, tailgate with generally the same people I have over 18 years, and listen to the same post-game report/Bruin Talk on 570AM/1150AM as we have each year.  In fact, with the exception of 1995, when I had a job interview that I had to prepare for over the weekend (the current job I now hold) I have never, ever, ever missed a home game.  So my message to you, Dan Guerrero:

You have a very serious problem.

WE’RE NOT ATTENDING GAMES ANY MORE.
Over the last 2 home games, I’ve done what originally I thought was the unthinkable:  I’ve voluntarily stayed home.  And today, I made the very conscious decision not to attend again.  What’s more… I’m liking it.  I’m tired due to work in these economic times, I have obligations to my family, I don’t like how I’m now paying $20 to park & 2x what I used to for nachos, & I have other entertainment options – all of which have trumped my interest in attending UCLA football home games.

The quality of UCLA football has dropped below the threshold of capturing my interest relative to alternative ways of spending my weekend.

Now I’m not so egotistical to think that I as a fan am anywhere near the end-all-be-all metric of “the loss of fans” for UCLA athletics, however what should be distressing to you is that I’m not the only one:  My entire crew of Bruin ultra-loyalists have collectively bailed on UCLA football, and you will notice a sizable set of unused seats in Section 1-H.  Not even during the Dorrell era did this happen:  Despite owning season tickets, we simply don’t attend any more and it’s a trend I’m noticing more and more across diehard fans/alumni I know.

WE HAVE BETTER WAYS TO SPEND OUR TIME/MONEY.
The logic is that now that we’re “at that age”, we’ve all got limited energy and we’re not really enjoying ourselves at the games.  We can all find other forms of entertainment that are more worthwhile.

For instance:  Today, I’m not attending this milquetoast of a game against Colorado.  I’d rather spend my time:

• going out to dinner with my family
• playing “Legos” & watching “Sprout” with my son
• mess around on my Xbox 360 playing Halo
• watching the game on the DVR, skipping past lulls, timeouts, etc.
• eating good, affordable snacks from my own refrigerator

Conversely, I just don’t feel like:

• expending the energy to drive 45 min all the way to the Rose Bowl from Westwood
• making the hike from Lot 6 (yes, I have reserved pre-paid parking) to the entrance
• getting ranted at by the Christian fundamentalists hanging out at the Rose Bowl entrance (Seriously Rose Bowl staff?  You can’t keep them from using those megaphones?)
• buying the tasteless hot dogs, poor quality nachos, and overpriced Diet Coke at ludicrous prices during a down economy
• parking my car in the mud then taking 30-45 minutes just to get to the 134 from the golf course

EVEN DIEHARDS HAVE LIMITS.
UCLA’s literally losing diehards.  Diehards with disposable income.  Typically, our crew are the ones that illogically spend money on Bruin branded crap, establish tailgating routines before the games, create marketing buzz, hang out on UCLA forums like Rivals/Scout, buy officially licensed jerseys at ludicrous prices, take advantage of the 5%-25% discounts at the student store, (when we actually win a game) etc.

We simply choose not to participate any more.  Sure we have the cash to spend on attending a game, but it’s now become a matter of principle & energy expended:  The prices are insulting, we’re not having any fun at the games, and blind team loyalty only goes so far when you’re competing against family time & personal energy.

This isn’t a threat or an attempt to lash out mind you (well, except about the nachos – damn if those things haven’t turned to utter crap while doubling in price over the past decade) but rather a statement about where y’all are at.  Because I know we’re not the only ones ‘dropping out’.

CONCLUSION:
So am I spending my time thinking about UCLA sports at all?  Reading the articles?  Visiting the forums?  All the things about the ecosystem that makes an Athletics program profitable?  Nope.  My friends and I just shake my head in sadness, hopelessness, & resignation… kind of like the Lorax of Dr. Seuss fame.

But the end of the story of the Lorax revolved around the word, “if”.  The Once-ler, the individual responsible for the desolation of the Lorax’s land, says that “if” someone is brave enough to do the right things and “bring back the truffula trees”, then maybe.. just maybe, the Lorax will come back.

Sincerely,

Kurt

At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.

The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the “apex predator,” can still fall victim to implemented ‘team work’ strategy, made possible due to the tight knit social structure and “survival of the pack mentality” bred into the canines.  See the remarkable photograph below courtesy of Nature Magazine.

Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while another dog has a hold on the tail to keep it from thrashing. The third dog attacks the soft underbelly of the gator. Within minutes the gator is torn apart by the pack.

Not for the faint of heart…

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I love this photo so much.

Today, I told you, “Good night Sheepa – I’ll always love you,” as I have every day since you came to us… for the very last time.

DISCOVERING SHEEPA – 6 YEARS AGO
Six years ago, we saw you at a rescue.  We took you out for a walk after seeing you tucked in the back where no one else could see you.  According to the owner, no one wanted you and you could be had at a discount.

Your fur was matted & coarse, you were bony & malnourished, and you were riddled with fleas & ticks.  As we put you back in your kennel at the shelter, you licked my hand on the way in as if to say, “Thanks for at least giving me the chance,” before I left.

I came back 3 hours later, and we adopted you for a mere $100.  Because no one wanted a flea-bitten, ragged old dog.  Yes, you were on the clearance rack.

You were 10 years old then.

SHEEPA, MY BEST FRIEND
You more than repaid me for that day.

You became my loyal companion and the most consistent presence in all our lives.  You never failed to push the door open to “visit” while I was in the bathroom.  You waited by the glass door patiently while I took a shower.  You followed me up and down the hall in the mornings all the way until I took you out for your morning walk.  You put your paw on my knee or foot to let me know that you liked me and approved of me.

One day, Mommy came home from the hospital and there was a new ‘dog’ in the home named “Kyle” and suddenly he got a lot of attention that used to be directed at you.  He was fawned over with rattles & bottles and people sat with him as much as they sat with you.

You never complained.  You never bit anyone – especially not Kyle.  You let him tug on your ears or pull your fur as he crawled through your bed and other things.  It was as if you were saying:  I’m just happy to be here.

MY OL’ BUDDY, THE CHICK-MAGNET
On our daily walks, women would ask, “What kind of dog is he?” fawning over you like a rare breed.  We’d smile and say that you were an adoptee and that we didn’t know.  You’d prance around with a big smile & people would ask if we were interested in ‘breeding’ with you and we said that we couldn’t… for obvious reasons.

You’d come such a long way from those early days of having shagging, rough fur, a slow belabored walk, and an irritable, belligerent attitude.  With healthy top-notch food, frequent shampooing, an occasional good grooming, and lots of TLC, you became the greatest representation of what an adopted dog could be.

You sat, shook hands, high-fived, rolled over, laid down, and passed obedience school.  You were house trained practically from day one and you always let us know when you had ‘to go’.

And with that, there was always one common thread:  Everyone loves Sheepa.

OUR SUMMER OF 2011
I should have known something was coming.

I wrote a post a while back about your urinary tract infection and how it scared me so much.  I didn’t really think it might be connected to something bigger.  Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.  But I should have noticed something was coming.

• You fell in the condo.  You never just ‘fall’. I remember thinking that that was odd but I kinda pushed it aside since I didn’t see it happen again.
• You started sleeping in odd places.  You rarely slept at the end of the living room away from everyone else but you did the week before you left us.
• You wouldn’t eat your roast beef.  Everyday you got turkey or roast beef and you loved it.  You kinda took it then spit it out which was a problem because this is how you took your pain/arthritis/thyroid meds.  I had to mix your pills in with the chicken and rice Mommy made for you weekly and even that took a while to eat compared to how you used to scarf it down in 10 seconds.

You were probably hinting that it was your time but I didn’t see it.  Or maybe in the back of my mind, I didn’t want to see it.

THAT TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE PHONE CALL
You’d been transported by others to your veterinarian.  Dr. Schwartz said that you likely had a very serious stroke.  It all but incapacitated you and stopped your ability to stand, walk, eat, drink, even just sit.  You laid on your side for with Nurse Maggie turning you every 3 hours or carrying you around the hospital so you could move around.   You developed a small bed sore and had to be fed through a tube.  The hospital kept you on an IV to ensure you had fluids since you could barely drink.

I wrote a blank check for the doctors who said we should see if there was any improvement over the next 48 hrs, but you had a few more seizures and that took what little you had left. You couldn’t move your neck… you wouldn’t even eat your favorite:  Chicken.

You were so weak.  Dr. Schwartz & Nurse Maggie took good care of you, gave you sedatives and painkillers.  When I came to get you, you twitched really badly but you recognized me and tried to get up to lick me but didn’t have the strength in your tongue so you pressed your lips to me.

I held you for 30 minutes and we both cried.  I carried you out to the waiting room and the doctor said that you might not make it through the night but I said that I wanted you to come home at for at least one more night.  The staff provided me with painkillers for the night ahead:  “If you think he’s in any discomfort, Kurt, don’t skimp on these – okay?” is what they told me.

We drove home and I placed you in your bed one last time.  I spent the night by your side stroking your fur:  It’s grown coarse & rigid almost like the day we met you.  I saw tears in your eyes through my own tears and I gave you more of your pain meds which calmed you.  You got just a little sleep.  I got just a little too.

IN THE END
You died in my arms at 9:35AM August 25th.  Never, ever in my 40 years have I ever cried so hard, for so long.  Not when world disasters struck.  Not when relatives passed.  Never.

I have terrible crying fits every so often.   I think of you all the time.  God, I miss you so much, ol’ pal.

STILL SMILING, STILL HAPPY
After you left us, I strangely for whatever reason found myself inherently being kinder to people. Being less angry.  Never shouting.  I didn’t quite understand why, outside of just always being sad.  Then I saw this quote attributed to St. Roch, the patron Catholic saint of dogs, and it suddenly made sense:

They are our friends, partners, protectors, ever-loyal, all-forgiving, to their heart’s last beat… the least we owe them is to live a life worthy of their devotion.

And I knew you were still with me. Still following me around. Still licking my face.

Just happy to be here.

————–

Sheepa, my best friend
Rest in peace… and I hope
you finally catch that squirrel
across the Rainbow Bridge.
Adopted life:
October 2nd, 2005 –
August 25th, 2011

This article caught my eye and was so interesting I thought it was worth a redirect post:

The good people at Reddit recently noticed something peculiar and engaged in a spirited debate about it. The topic? A bete noir for many an e-book reader:

E-books priced more than their print edition.

How could this possibly be? Paper costs more than electrons, so surely e-books should be cheaper, right?

Believe it or not, this isn’t a glitch. And it’s not happening because publishers are asleep at the wheel either.

Come down the rabbit hole with me into the wholesale/agency tunnel, and I’ll tell you why this is happening.

…

Want more?  Go check out Nathan’s post here:

• Nathan Bransford:  Why Some E-Books Cost More Than the Hardcover
  http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/03/why-some-e-books-cost-more-than.html

A:  The old “give us your framework & we’ll do the work & cut you out” tactic.

What does this mean?  A friend shared the following link with me.

• Why Amazon Can’t Make A Kindle In the USA – Forbes
  I recently noted how conventional cost accounting inexorably focuses executives’ attention on increasing short-term profits by cutting costs.The same thing happens in economics. Take a recent study that set out to shed light on the role of Chinese businesses vis-à-vis American consumers. Galina Hale and Bart Hobijn, two economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, did a study showing that only 2.7% of U.S. consumer purchases have the “Made in China” label. Moreover, only 1.2% actually reflects the cost of the imported goods. Thus, on average, of every dollar spent on an item labeled “Made in China,” 55 cents go for services produced in the United States. So the study trumpets the finding that China has only a tiny sliver of the U.S. economy.  So no problem, right?

The story talks about the dangers of outsourcing oneself out of an industry & gives the example of how Dell outsourced their operations to ASUSeTek & in the end ASUSeTek came back as a Dell competitor and stole their market right out from Dell, selling Asus PCs into Best Buy at cheaper costs, cutting Dell out as the middle man, once they learned the business through Dell’s internal operations.

The Chinese are well-known for this “we’ll do the work for you, then we’ll cut you out as the middle man” tactic.  As you may know, consulting organizations get this from customer IT departments all the time, thinking they’re being ‘crafty’ saying, “Give us your full project plan as your proposal & show us a framework of how to do the deployment… then we’ll take your template & do the work ourselves.”

Fortunately there are limitations to this knowledge transference ‘technique’ – especially when the customer is in way over their head and doesn’t have the expertise, savvy, or vision to accomplish the job correctly:

Take the story of McDonnell-Douglas:
China pulled this exact maneuver back in the 1990s with MD telling them that if they wanted the multi-billion dollar China Air & Govt plane contracts they had to train Chinese to build & maintain the planes themselves:

• http://articles.latimes.com/1985-04-13/business/fi-12334_1_mcdonnell-douglas-long-beach

MD had no choice. The problem was, there was a massive language barrier that multiplied the time required to traing the students by 6-8 fold.  They ended up flying out to train on Chinese soil – very slowly – through translators using extra-demonstrative techniques like assembling engines with transluecent piping that students could visually examine & view thru, plastic parts that could easily be hand-assembled and snapped together to minimize the assembly time, during class, etc.  After the multi-year project was thru, the Chinese never called them back and went radio silent.

4 yrs later they were brought back out of the blue under very costly contracts to examine “what they did”.  To their surprise, the Chinese started fabbing the parts per the specifications given in class.  More surprisingly, they had put the plane together using ‘class parts’ – including translucent piping, snap-together assemblies, etc. and couldn’t understand ‘why things didn’t work’.

After ‘fixing’ the dozens of ‘misunderstandings’, 12 pilots were brought in to fly the first MD-80, assembled on Chinese soil.  6 knew the story about the plane’s assembly and refused.  I don’t know if the MD engineer who told me this story & was involved with the trainings was exaggerating but he told me, these 6 were all declared traitors of the state and sent to a firing squad.  The remaining 6 pilots went under duress.  The plane’s first flight lifted for a couple seconds before it was forced down. 

Epilogue
The Chinese continue to purchase planes from Boeing & AirBus today.  They maintain the fleet they have but it’s a well-known statistic that China Air has the single greatest number of fatal air disasters in the world, next to Cubana & Air Zimbabwe, who are both statistically insignificant in relative volume. http://www.airdisaster.com/statistics/

I received a document in my email the other day that put into picture the situation America has with its debt & the problem with the recently confirmed budget cuts.  The full document is available for download here, originally from a law firm called Hailey, McNamara, Hall, Larmann & Papale, L.L.P.:

• http://evilkoala.org/documents/
  FederalBudget101Letter-LA.pdf

The document very succinctly put into 5 brief lines America’s budget/debt issue by simply removing EIGHT ‘zeroes’ from the end of each line and putting the US income/debt into numbers people can wrap their heads around by imagining a fictitious family named “Jones”:

• Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
• Amount of money the Jones family spent:  $38,200
• Amount of new debt added to the credit card:  $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card:  $142,710
• Amount cut from the budget:  $385

Now obviously the actual negotiated change is more complicated than that, but to be honest, that’s really what the outcome is at this point in time.  We cut <1% of the budget.

Wow.

UPDATE 8/6/11 9:07AM
And the sentiment continues.  Brian Hall has written a very poignant analysis of his concerns with Google and why Google’s supposed outcry is facetious & disingenuous.
http://brianshall.com/content/google-are-pussies

————

UPDATE 8/5/11 1:25AM
Apparently, I’m not the only one that thinks Google is whining pathetically.  ConceivablyTech has gone so far as to called Google’s David Drummond, the Chief Whining Officer.
http://www.conceivablytech.com/8699/business/google-designates-a-chief-whining-officer

—————

Have you ever seen someone on the losing end of an beating just keep jawing & talkin’ and digging themselves an even bigger hole – and all you can think of is, “Dude.  Somebody needs to tell him to shut up already.  It’s just getting sad now.”

Recently, Google whined about how the industry, Microsoft in particular, was according to them at least, ganging up on them by collectively buying a set of influential patents from Nortel and leaving Google out in the cold, vulnerable to litigation associated with the purchased intellectual property… then going off on a rant about how the patent system was evil & all that.

Microsoft fired back by producing an actual email where it specifically asked Google to join in on the purchase to ensure equal protection across all companies from patent litigation involving the purchased Nortel intellectual property… AND GOOGLE DECLINED.

ANNNNNNND GOOGLE RESPONDS
Y’know, Google had to be really embarrassed by being called out.  Sure enough though, they mustered enough gall to try to paint themselves as being ‘victims’ as described by Tom Warren in his post:  http://www.winrumors.com/google-fires-back-at-microsoft-in-public-android-patent-spat/

The key comment in Google Chief Law Officer David Drummond’s reply  (also known as wordsmithing, misdirection, or just plain ol’ lawyer B.S.) is in this line:

A joint acquisition of the Novell patents that gave all parties a license would have eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners.

(Underlining is mine.)

THIS IS AGAIN – OBVIOUSLY FALSE.
There’s two notable things you can derive from this puppet speak:

1. If Google, Apple, Microsoft and any other parties own the patents – they all share in the intellectual property use equally and negate the possibility of each using the patents against each other.  It negates the threat of patent litigation amongst the bidding partners.  This is the precise reason Google was invited to participate in the first place… TO CREATE A DÉTENTE! 
2. Interestingly… or maybe even laughingly, Google appears to be admitting that they are infringing on patents – because otherwise why would they need them to defend Android OEMs?

SO WAIT:  WHY WOULD GOOGLE NOT WANT TO PARTICIPATE?
The answer is simple:  Google can’t profit from this.  This Twitter conversation between journalists/authors Mary Jo Foley & Paul Thurrott was just too awesome not to write up:

• @DaQuantumFro: @edbott @maryjofoley @thurrott Having read the update to Google’s post, isn’t licensing what MSFT would’ve use the patents for
• @maryjofoley: @DaQuantumFro @edbott @thurrott  I don’t know what to think any more. I don’t understand Google’s argument here, I admit
• @thurrott: @maryjofoley It’s, we don’t want to pay. And we don’t understand why can’t just run roughshod over this industry without MS getting in way.
• @maryjofoley: @thurrott  Yes… good cliffnotes version
• @thurrott: @maryjofoley You have to think they really expected people to applaud them for this.
• @thurrott: @maryjofoley That and, “we would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those dang laws.”
• @maryjofoley: @thurrott  Funny thing is they are the ones who initiated the whole “patent attack” thing. So they brought attention to themselves on this

Then, Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s Corporate Communications lead responded on Twitter with this volley to explain Google’s likely motivations once and for all:

• @fxshaw: Hello again David Drummond. This is going to take a few tweets, so here we go. Let’s look at what Google does not dispute in their reply.
• @fxshaw: We offered Google the opportunity to bid with us to buy the Novell patents; they said no.
• @fxshaw: Why? BECAUSE they wanted to buy something that they could use to assert against someone else.
• @fxshaw: SO partnering with others & reducing patent liability across industry is not something they wanted to help do

Seriously, Google.  Walk away.  This is getting sad.

So for the past week or so, I’ve noticed that when I put my machine to sleep and wake it up later there is a ‘white box’ that appears in the upper left hand/top left corner of my my desktop that overlaps about 1/8th of my desktop, covering over the Recycle Bin and a few other folders I have.

And it’s completely immoveable.

It looks like it’s a window or dialog box that simply doesn’t have any borders or controls on it.  It can’t be dragged and dropped.  I can’t be right mouse clicked.  Nothing appears in the task tray below to represent it.  It just sits there. 

So I loaded up Security Task Manager.  Security Task Manager is a tool I’ve used for years to identify errant or weird processes that are loaded into memory.  It actually displays an English language description next to the running process in question which differentiates it from the standard Windows Task Manager.  It’s very useful in identifying issues – especially things that slow down your PC or might otherwise be a security threat.

In this case, I suspected that some process was lingering that was causing this ‘white box’ or window to exist.

A key indicator that a process is active in memory is that there is an entry next to the process for the amount of memory that it is actively consuming.  After all, if a process is dormant, it probably isn’t doing something like displaying an annoying ‘white box’ on my screen.

So I’m perusing the running processes and I notice that one of them is “SOLUTO”.  Soluto is a boot-time utility that monitors the execution of services at boot in order to allow the user to ‘cut down on how long it takes to boot the system’.  I found it strange that it was consuming 32MB of memory however when it’d been a long time since I booted up.

So I killed the process.  Lo-and-behold, the ‘white box’ disappeared.  Suddenly it started to make sense.  One of the things Soluto does at boot time is display a borderless window that iterates through all the processes still being loaded as part of the boot process, even though the user has already logged on.  This borderless window doesn’t have a means by which one can close the window without knowing exactly where the “X” is to close it.  I suspect that this window got whitewashed somehow and lingered in the OS after the system got put to sleep and woken up again.

So if you have a ‘white box’ on your screen it’s likely the remnant of a borderless window from another running process on your system.  If you wanna see what processes are still running and want a description of each of them, check out Security Task Manager.

UPDATE 10/26/16:
So I guess Chris Condon’s site is now down.  Luckily, I still have the stuff that was posted there.  So here you go:

• DATASHEET:  “Stupidamouse & Stupidakeyboard”
  https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ao0Dfn8MQdoAo-0sy8YoHtoxjrutKQ

ORIGINAL POST FROM JULY 11, 2011:
Holy crap.  I thought this was a joke but I guess not.

Apparently, Business Insider is reporting that Apple has filed for a patent on a “keyless keyboard”.

The moment I read this I thought to myself… haven’t I heard of this before?  And then it dawned on me.

A guy named Chris Condon created a series of ‘datasheets’ back in 1998 that were parodies of ads and such that people released back in the day.  One of them featured a series of devices without buttons called the “Stupidamouse” and a companion device called the “Stupidakeyboard”.

As luck would have it, I’m a packrat for these sort of creations.  Since Chris’ site has long since disappeared, here’s the full PDF.

Oops!  I just discovered Chris Condon’s site is STILL UP after all these years!  YAY!

DATASHEET:  “Stupidamouse & Stupidakeyboard”
http://www.dumbentia.com/pdflib/stupida.pdf

Wow.  This is one heck of a web site:  http://www.googleopoly.net

If you’ve been watching the government’s case against Google, you might want to take a look at this site as it appears to be a summary of all the other sites that have been published on the topic of Google and their agenda on the Internet business… and other industries.

This think tank appears to have left no stone unturned in creating this compendium of information about Google’s business practices and the Google-Yahoo! Anti-Competitive Case. 

They’ve put together a book entitled “Search & Destroy:  Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc.” which I picked up in Kindle form.  So far, they appear to have made some excellent points – especially around the subject that I believe is the most dangerous:  “Privacy”.  Of all people, Scott Cleland, the author gets a rather familiar name to comment on this recent publication:

“Scott Cleland’s new book explains what getting ‘Googled’ really means — having your private information exploited, your personal security compromised, your market choices eliminated, and your naive trust in the company’s public pronouncements betrayed. Cleland’s perspective will resonate most with conservatives and libertarians, but, in truth, every computer user needs to read this book before clicking on the Google site again.”
– Gary Reback, author of Free The Market! and the antitrust lawyer who spearheaded the Federal Government’s case against Microsoft in the 1990s

The web site specifically includes a 17-page whitepaper entitled, “Googleopoly VIII* The FTC’s Antitrust Investigation of How Google’s Deceptive & Predatory Search Practices Harm Consumers” as well as a briefer presentation entitled “FTC-Google Antitrust Primer:  Top Ten Q&A”.

I think I won a laptop.

I’m not really sure because everyone I know got a notification that we won a contest and we all got a new “ultra-cool laptop” as a result. 

Then only some of us got the 2nd notification that clarified the contest’s prize.  The 2nd notification said that the laptop we were getting was a Sony Vaio. 

And that’s the contention point, y’see.  The “ultra-cool laptop” in the Sony Vaio line is this one – the Z series:  http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644570897

According to this article from CNET, the stats on this thing are disgusting.

13.3-inch Vaio Z:

• Chassis: 0.66 inches thick, 2.6 pounds, carbon fiber
• Graphics: Internal Intel Sandy Bridge, external AMD 6650M GPU
• Processor: Sandy Bridge Core i5, i7 standard voltage
• Storage: solid-state drive only, up to 512GB
• Connector: Light Peak, aka Thunderbolt, and USB 3.0 on dock
• Broadband: option for wireless WAN (wide-area network)
• Display: 13.3-inch, up to 1600×900 resolution
• Battery: internal battery rated at 7 hours
• OS:Windows 7
• Price: As announced in Europe, standard configuration starts at over $3,000.

In short – it kicks my gen 1 Samsung Series 9’s butt.  Core i7 QUAD CORE, 512GB SSD, 1600×900 display, external discrete AMD/ATI 6650M GPU, with optional sheet battery for 14hrs of life?!?

Also, it comes with a TRUE VGA port without a dongle & a full size HDMI port, full size Gigabit Ethernet port, a full size SD Flash slot (and a MemoryStick slot if you care about that) and 8GB RAM max?!?

Um… wow.  Crossing fingers!