Ride the New Current: Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

 When you type “Virginia Electric Ch...” into a search engine, results for the Electric Chair come up. Electric Charging Stations, the wave of the future, are an afterthought. As far as the adaptation of green transportation solutions go, this is a sad state of affairs, but an opportunity.

DC Fast chargers (DCFC) operate on 450 volt power, which is provided to every commercial and industrial property. There is no fuel leak hazard or noxious fumes. There is no logistics chain- no fuel laden hazmat trucks. The downside is that these fast chargers cost $50000 each, currently. This is one-tenth the cost of a new petrol station, but a price that prevents rapid proliferation.

Drive Electric Virginia has set a goal of making charging stations available to 95% of residents, within 30 miles of their home. This is a barebones system. A short term goal should be saturation in suburban and urban areas, and a charging station at every freeway interchange.

Multiple car and charging station manufacturers are condensing on a standard type of charging outlet, and electric car manufacturers, even Tesla, are providing adapters to their early-adopting car owners. Say goodbye to proprietary standards in the next 5 years or so.

EVgo Triples Fast Charging Network Through The Drive Electric Virginia Program - EVgo

The Classroom and Coronavirus

In privileged quarters, students of elite colleges are asking for a “universal pass” on this semester’s courses. These colleges have returned the favor with Pass/Fail grading. (Anemona Hartocollis, NY Times, 3/28/20). Who are they to speak? Meanwhile, in the K-12 environment, contingency plans “tore off the bandage”, revealing deep discrepancies in our first-world society.

Internet access- Many families with broadband internet access face strict bandwidth limitations, which prevent full utilization of online meetings and classwork. Many rural households rely on dial-up internet, running over phone lines placed during the 1930’s Rural Electrification Act.

Technology- Among the working class, cell phones serve as the family’s primary link to the internet. Household surveys focus on whether or not a family has a home computer, etc. It does not consider if each member of the family- adults and school-age children- has a way to work online.   

Childcare arrangements- Among working-class and poor families, we might as well be back to the Upton Sinclair’s Chicago stockyards. Because of smaller and atomized families in a more mobile America, teachers have found that older children are taking care of younger siblings. In other cases, small children follow their mothers to attend chores outside the home. In certain quarters, teachers and the school system have been equated to child care providers; Kamala Harris was of this opinion.

Economic strategy for adverse time- This comes up in crisis management training for EMTs and fire squads: keep track of your receipts so the governor can hand FEMA the bill. Yet prior to this outbreak, the US had no clear strategy to handle the personal and small-business economic fallout of contagion. We are highly leveraged as a society, and run on thin margins as household budgeters, landlords, and business owners. Our savings rate is much lower than in Asia. Over the next year, displacement and eviction, as well as household consolidation into shared quarters, pose a risk of disruption to student’s learning.

Control of contagious diseases- Special protections for service workers, such as Plexiglas shields, were introduced too late. Outside of the medical field, transportation workers, police, and cashiers have been punished hard by the virus, with many untimely deaths. COVID joins a handful of other maladies whose patients receive care at government expense. Each of these diseases has a chapter in American history: Polio, leprosy, kidney failure (ESRF) and, until 1981, shipboard medicine.  

New Smartphone Features I’d like to See

Lie Detector

Imagine how many lies and mistruths tell their parents over a smart. Polygraph and chest leads are optional, since this function will use GPS data and tone-of-voice analysis

Tactical Grenade

We already know that lithium batteries explode at the wrong time, in the wrong place. We’re just making it predictable.

Mood Ring

Consumer Therapy has been the American cure-all since World War Two. Get ads that relate to, and “fix”, how you are feeling.

Hormone Sensor

Picks out the meal that matches your feelings: pickle and ice cream; or bison and elk meat, this app knows it all.

Driving Mode

Because clicking seven times to get to the GPS map just isn’t safe

Hot Pack Mode

Boiling water and rubber pouches are so last century. Apply phone directly to aching body part. Notice hoe warm your phone gets in the car already.

Ship Mode

Equal representation of those who travel by a ship at sea instead of an airplane. Detects chokepoints like Gibraltar or the Strait of Hormuz that might have cell service. 

Branded by Social Media

The month of June means time for Beach Week, an annual, mid-Atlantic tradition. Celebrating the end of an academic year, unchaperoned high school and college students rent houses, inhabit hotels, and populate the beaches. It is a tradition dating to 1982 or earlier, when the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh, now the most junior US Supreme Court Justice, infamously attended.  During his recent Senate Confirmation process, lawmakers perused fading photographs, yearbooks, a Mark Judge novel, and hazy memories; looking for evidence of unsuitability and lapses in personal judgement.

Times are different today for the young. Smartphones and social media eliminate the possibility of plausible deniability; instead indemnifying any young adult who made a juvenile decision. Such is the case of Kyle Kashuv, whose admissions to Harvard University in Boston was rescinded for social media posts made at age 16. 

Laden with casually-strewn racial slurs, the posts reflect on Kashuv’s maturity at the time, and on the society in which he was raised. That was in Parkland, Florida. Rachel Slade, author of Into the Raging Seas, noted the state’s proclivity to racial slurs and use of the n-word. Fittingly to this case, William Faulkner’s  The Sound and the Fury, set in the 1920’s, demonstrated the culture clash between Southern racial hierarchies and Boston’s progressive attitudes on racial equality.   Today’s Harvard talks the talk of promoting racial justice. Does it walk the walk?

  Since World War Two, the US Army has taken a proactive role in fighting this kind of ingrained racism. In an era that still had segregated lunch counters, Blacks were assigned as Sergeants in charge of turning Southern White recruits into soldiers, physically and morally. Fixing prejudice hands-on, as the US Army has done, is something Harvard has shown unwillingness to do, in rescinding a young man’s admission letter. A more important observation, though, is that the digitally-native Generation Z is coming of age in a zero-defect culture; while previous generations got a pass on their youthful indiscretions- even into the Ivy League.   

“We are sorry about the circumstances that have led us to withdraw your admission, and we wish you success in your future academic endeavors and beyond”, wrote Dr. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions in a personal letter to Kashuv. 

(Source: Patricia Mazzei, NY Times, 6/17/19)

The Old Technology Review

Typewriters
Apparently still a favorite of police departments. Accosted by word processors, and the ease of sending emails. Wounded by the fillable PDF.

Desktop Computer
Preferred by the government, cash-flush companies, and extreme gamers. Also used by those with work-life balance, who leave the computer in the home office.

Laptop Computer
Digital natives adapt seamlessly to smartphones, leaving heavier Windows-operating machines to suit-and-tie professionals. Where's the USB port on the Apple iPad? There is none. Low-cost Netbooks fill gaps which smartphones are ill-adept, such as word processing.

Vinyl Record Players
They're coming back, right? You can get your favorite alt-rock hits on new vinyl.

Telegram
They have a bad rap for being associated with bad news, whether in 1928 (1) or in WWII. But they could also be used for good news as well.
It was more convenient to use a telex or fax machine than walking to the telegram office. Long-distance phone calls and later email displaced the messenger boy.

Telex
Reliable, lower cost international phone service and the internet banished the typewriter-resembling device from land. Still reigns with pilots and mariners in the air and at sea. 

Fax Machine
Dogbert from the Dilbert cartoon may have hated the fax machine, but I. Technophobes in some state legislatures have not allowed signed emails to hold the same legal status as faxed documents. For this reason, lawyers and doctors err on the side of conservative caution and continue to use fax. From my point of view it is a convenient way of sending medium-sized documents, as an alternative to priority mail. Fax machines work on the basis of dial-and-send. To email a document, you must fire up the computer, scan each page, create an email and attach the scanned files. Beware: smartphones, with snap-and-send features, are eliminating this advantage.

Kinkos
Forget putting dimes in the copy machine. The all-in-one machine meant that a family could get a full-color printer, a copier, scanner and fax machine for the price of one machine. 

Letters
As far as old technologies go, sending a letter is really easy. Stamp and envelope and go to a blue mailbox- or raise the flag on your own mailbox.  And for those dreaded bills, you can save a stamp and pay online. It also helps the business save on data entry staff.
Regular correspondence is cheaper and faster by email, unless it's the US Navy. From boot camp letters to family photos sent to sailors on ships, snail mail is slow but ultimately reliable.

Telephone Operators
Direct dialing of long distance calls began in the 1950's.  Local calls in big cities were automated even earlier. Large businesses and institutions kept telephone operators until relay electronics and computers became widespread, allowing extension lines to be dialed directly. If you are feeling nostalgic, call a friend in his or her hotel room. You will likely be connected through the front desk.

 Dial Up Internet
According to Time Magazine, about 3% of internet users in the US still use a dial up service. In the 1990's, dial-up was slow but awe-inspiring. Today, it's fairly slow, and the modern age has adapted to DSL and other high-speed services. You can't watch videos, but you can check basic email. Better than nothing.

Landlines and DSL
The younger generation wants their smartphones, and want it now. This increasing traffic has proven a challenge to wireless data providers on 3G and LTE networks. A sober approach would be to increase use of wired internet through seamless WiFi connections in public spaces; providers must adapt to the reality that "millenials" are choosing to forgo wired services like landlines and DSL internet. 

Overnight Letters
Fred Smith thought that the Dilbert-era 1990's fax machine (and later, email) would kill his Federal Express business. Instead, the need for overnight parcels kept increasing.  Overnight mail is my preferred method of transmitting large documents from overseas, since some fax machines reject international lines.

Camera Film
It used to come in rolls of 24 exposures.  You paid for the roll of film and you paid for the development at a photo lab. You made three trips to get a photo: one to buy the film, one to drop off the completed roll of film, and one to pick up the developed pictures. For this reason, places like convenience stores and groceries were 'in' on the photo business. Polaroid was a bit different; my family never had one but the photos would be ready after a few minutes.

CD Players and Walkmans
"Want to buy a Tower Records?" asks Sean Parker, the founder of Napster. Still used by my family's 2006 Volvo and durable home stereo. With a near-ban on USB sticks, Uncle Sam is propping up the decades-old CD-ROM industry. CDs were replaced by the MP3 player for music, notably the iPod and Zune, which were supplanted by smartphones. Files went to USB sticks and cloud services.

Floppy Disks, Cassette Tapes and VHS
Navy ships commissioned in the early 1990s used state-of-the art computer technology, including floppy disks that saved engine performance data. Comparison with today's readings would guide maintenance planners as the ships enter mid-life.

For tapes and VHS, remember to be kind and rewind.

Punch Cards
Unlike most of today's electronics, the machines were pretty durable, and some served into the computer age. I have come across these cards in the back of library books.

Carbon Copies
Today, making a copy of a saved document is as easy as Control+P.
Carbon copies are still used on handwritten forms like sales receipts of small businesses. 
Handheld tablets and the ubiquity of credit card use meant that  manual imprint machines gave way to point-of-sale receipt printers.

Rooms filled with Filing Cabinets
I like to keep paper records for the day we are hit by solar flares. Many people go full electronic, and for many businesses, retaining paper records means paying for storage space in the tunnels of Iron Mountain. You can sympathize with the secretary who was replaced by Control+F on the keyboard, with which you can find a long-lost e-file in a few seconds.

Flip Phones
Once a technological breakthrough. Today, they are relegated to 'late adapters' and business that hand out no-fun dumbphones to employees.

Blackberry
Creative destruction at its finest. Mobile internet became more widely available and ended need for proprietary services; but more importantly, seemed to fall behind learning curve.



(1) http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/telegram.html

When a Vacation Gets Busy

While I was at work, it was easy to say "I don't have enough time" to be worried about activism and protesting. Now on vacation, 'not having enough time' is my own problem, not one I could attribute to my boss or shortened days caused by time advances. At the same time, while at work I could shout as loud as I could off the gunwale of the ship, and no one would hear me. It was an eye-opening experience to trade a weak satellite connection for wifi and broadband; to use internet configured for me rather than one optimized for sending simple text emails. Yes, I did some of my recent blog posts through a satellite connection. I'd write ahead of time, and then wait for early morning to access blogger.com, when the absence of "higher priority" traffic allowed me a connection to the host website. I will be the first to tell you MSNBC clickbait, used as my ship's internet homepage, does not an informed citizen make.

When I was traveling for work, I sectioned attention to friends and family into a 20-minute phone call or a paragraph email, and a twice-weekly Facebook check. Otherwise, my afterhours were my own to plan and divvy. So when I got home at the beginning of the four-day Independence Day weekend, I was surprised by how much time went to 'family time'. A devotee to an art would tell his or her associated to "leave me alone". A dilettante like myself seeks to appease, placing others' desire for attention above attention to the craft.

For me, the 'staycation' does not work. I created, and am working through a punchlist of items that I couldn't readily complete overseas like tax adjustments, ordering books and videos, and making appointments, visiting Mr. Liedman, my coin dealer. Things I guess people do over lunch break, or late afternoon at work, for the lucky ones. So to get away, I take a 'real' vacation, like my week tramping around the old Austro-Hungarian empire of Central Europe (material for another blog post). I left the US on Inauguration Day (faster than a talking head celebrity), and arrived back after five months away. I was quickly reintroduced to American culture: upon arrival in the US, it appeared that half the border control agents took Friday afternoon off! This was only unusual to me since six full days of work a week is the norm on my ship, and seven days is normal too. Instead of "getting ready for the weekend" on Fridays, the anticipation was "getting ready for the overtime".

I feel like a have just a handgrip keeping me from obsolescence. Tinder, where women sort through virtual binders of men, and men do likewise, was the butt of jokes when I was in college just three years ago. Now I've read that online dating had replaced the 'bar scene' as a matchup forum. I landed at the airport alone in one's own city: In Washington, DC, the summer social calendar is light; and none more so than the week of July 4th. As the weeks away from the US turned to months, I needed to take the time reconnecting with friends. They said Mitt Romney was stuck in the 1950's; he missed the 1960's and ensuing cultural changes as a husband and a Mormon missionary. If I wanted to, I could become a virtual hermit on the ships, with a W2 wage statement and a portfolio ledger as my sole concerns in life. That is not the life for me.  To know that I will go out again, I vow to have all matters better organized for my next vacation!

Pioneers, Oh Pioneers

When I think of patriotism, I conjure up memories of Reagan-era glories such as Rambo, the Battleships Iowa and New Jersey, tractors, Top Gun and Full Metal Jacket. I also think of hot dogs and the traditional family, with an overweight Dad with a suntanned neck. 

I do not forget the real patriots:  the daughters of pilgrims, the sons of Ellis Island, and the brides of World War Two. There is no more American story than one’s ancestors looking for religious freedom in the 1700’s; or arriving on the streets of New York in the 1890’s, penniless but ambitious and willing to work hard; nor the brides of Europe arriving home with ordinary soldiers who defeated the Axis in 1945.  This is a beautiful story, encompassing the narrative of (Caucasian) America.  In remembrance of our ancestors who embodied masculinity and the risk-taking of new ideas, it is due patriotism to “use government policy to incentivize work” (a.k.a., cut welfare), in conjunction with “letting the bull loose”, to recreate the Gilded Age that created the American Dream in the minds of our great-grandfathers. 

As I walked with my family in Washington, DC to the Fireworks on the National Mall on the Fourth of July, I saw many young Americans sporting attire boasting of American pride. Seeing the first several groups, I suspected that they were southern frat boys and sorority girls: Washington, DC is still the gateway to the South, where country music plays at large gatherings that include suburbanites, and talk of “open season” is not just a figure of speech. But it became clear to me that these Chubbie shorts-wearing, boat-shoe sporting, patriotic tank-top bearing, Oakley-popping peers represented a greater demographic than I had imagined.   

Here is some background: Facebook counted 26 million profiles bearing rainbow flags- enough, upon rough estimate, to represent one in seven Facebook profiles in the US. In addition to those “out and proud” about their sentiment on gay marriage, there must be many quiet allies who choose to appear neutral on the issue. I had reason to believe that a number of those young people I saw dressed like “Born in the USA” patriots…must support gay marriage. 

Smart and wonky conservatives sense something in the air. Editorialists and targeted papers, such as the Washington Examiner, have been poking holes in the presumption that the liberal consensus among young people is permanent. They have pointed to cases where young people have been more enthusiastic than their older counterparts in supporting Republican newcomers like Ed Gillespie and Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia, or Republican Patrick Mara’s base of support in DC’s shoebox-condo neighborhoods. (Perchance, Gillespie and Mara are moderate and liberal, respectively, on bedroom issues). With young voters, Republican luminaries accept that no news is good news: many young people are apathetic about politics or are registered Independent- an opportunity for party growth. They look at young people and their love for disruptive technology like Apple’s I-Phones or Uber, and their impatience with government interventions like liquor license moratoria. Furthermore, they don’t like being un-employed or under-employed, and have an aversion from joining unions (Chicken or Egg?), instead, preferring to “compete on the open marketplace under a new relationship with their employer, where individual initiative is rewarded”. That phrase- originally a talking point in the Washington Examiner- slipped into my subconscious and got me in trouble with a relative last Thanksgiving. To these editorialists, the app-using, uber-riding, condo-living, “millennial” young people; who are mostly pro-gay marriage, but delightfully queasy on abortion and undecided on immigration; are patriots who are looking for direction from the fatherly hand of the Grand Old Party, with reasonable accommodation for their support of gay marriage. 

Neither is every Chubbie-wearing bro a member of the College Republicans. (They are the group whose 2013 report shocked the Party leadership’s assumptions about young adults).  You can be patriotic, and staunchly liberal. The thirty-something financial analyst who licks his chops about putting a true conservative on the Supreme Court to reverse a punch-list of 5-4 decisions, has no higher moral ground than the twenty-something arts major bemoaning the democratically elected Republican leadership of Capitol Hill. Better, ask this question: do your liberal friends love to participate in flag burnings? No.  John F. Kennedy, a so-called Cold War Liberal, had this to say in his Profiles in Courage:

“If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.”

Kennedy may have identified himself as a liberal for that era; yet it is hard to deny him his status as a true American patriot. Despite the media narrative, it’s important to remember that we are not divided as ‘red states’ and ‘blue states’; but the shared experiences of rural, suburban , or urban life, with regional variations, unites communities across state lines and the two great continental mountain ranges, the Appalachians and the Rockies. We are one nation under Oakleys, Chubbies, and Vineyard Vines.

First blog from wireless device

I'm blogging from an iPad right now as I return from Pennsylvania to drop off Little Brother. I'm just getting the hang of this device; it's an adjustment to get used to using two keyboards (one for qwerty and the other for numbers).
Now I've got a bit to write about; first off is the DC Special Election that occurred on April 26th. Turnout was higher than expected (I got to participate). Surprising enough, the Republican on the ballot, Pat Mara, came within 1,200 votes of winning over the widely recognized Vince Orange. That is a 5% spread in a highly Democratic city.

Next is our own school elections. Seniors don't vote in these, but it was interesting to see that the students elected the kids with the "too cool" attitude. They are the people whom the Seniors "like, but..."; this nonchalant attitude swill give the second place candidates a heavy say in how things are run.

Golf Carts

Each year, more and more houses are built further and further away from city cores and reliable transit services. While many developments are intentionally planned for walkability to a "town center", many homes are built out of this range. Then consider this: how many car-enabled residents would value the two-minute drive over the twelve-minute walk? Then consider the implications for the non-car enabled- say, younger teens. Are we sure that all of these pre-adults want to "endure" the round-trip walk? (Take Mom's taxi service out of the picture for now). Simple solution- bicycles. As I believe, most American kids have one in their garage. Bicycle infrastructure- either a wide shoulder for the road or a wider sidewalk, and bike racks in good repair- would enhance this transportation mode's appeal for all, and increase younger teens' sense of mobility.

In the meanwhile, as developed areas have continued to sprawl, States have been raising minimum driving ages, although the trend has cooled off in the past year. (Thankfully, the Allstate-insurance sponsored National STANDUP Act failed after the last election). What this has likely led to (I should find evidence or uncover it myself) is that teens are probably spending more time at home. Furthermore, another issue with higher driving ages is reduced employment opportunities because of lack of transportation. I suspect that the decrease in teen (ages 16-19) summer employment is at least in part directly linked to this issue. (Mama and Papa have been your chauffeur for so many years now...).

Working close to home has its perks, but America has a mobile workforce, teens traditionally included. If the teen is lucky, he or she will find a job within their means of commuting- by foot or bike. So how do we extend the mobility range of pre-licensed teens? Give them powered wheels. Easy-to-use and maintain powered scooters and mopeds are practical options that can give "reliable transportation" to more teens, thereby increasing their competitiveness in the entry-level job market. Such scooters are common in Europe, although less so in America.

Part of this is a culture thing- in days past, before 17 yo driving ages and passenger limits- teens in high school probably had little problem finding a ride, so there wasn't too big of a suburban teen market. The next thing is that a number of states require license plates on select classes of scooters and licenses for operators. However, in many states, golf carts, even when driven on a public street, are exempted from these vehicle and operator licensing requirements- and are ubiquitous in a number of communities. So perhaps we could see more of these vehicles around in the future.

Note that I did not list socioeconomic implications on the diffusion of teens in the workplace: many licensed teens don't have access to cars due to economic factors. The effect of this can be quite pronounced; at a park where a car is a virtual necessity to access, the high-school aged waterfront lifeguards were clearly a standard-deviation-plus above socioeconomic norm even for the tony County the park was in.

Brief Points

*Mole Day was yesterday, 6:02am- 6:02pm (6.02 x 10^23). It's nice to see science being relevant in culture.
*Computer is running excessive virus scans. There's nothing to fear but fear itself, "radialpoint".
*Watched "The Social Network" on the silver screen yesterday evening. Very well presented; sad that it ended after 2 hours (just about on the dot). There were racy scenes; probably not suitable for little kids or grandma. College students seem to appreciate this movie the most.
*Finishing up on that college essay. Found a hook and a decent line and typed it up. I just need a few transitions.

Fall and a Server

Today us in the National Capitol Region experienced the simple delight of cool, clean, crisp air in the morning. A forebearer of fall, the darktime cool will extend into the daytime hours. After plugging college applications for a good part of the afternoon, I decided to learn more about the heart of computer-to computer communication; ie, the basis of the internet.

A student whom some would attest is morally opposed to computers was plugging lines of code into Java for AP Comp Sci. It's easy to teach a young dog new tricks. On that basis, I quickly learned how the digital world works.

The internet is not exactly a bunch of tubes with trucks. It is, however, an efficient post office system of sorts. Your computer request information in a protocol manner and the server responds, possibly asking you for your credit card number. This back and forth happens frequently on your trip to the WWW. These days, the dialogue is continuous. The tube concept derives from this development. In more primitive days, the information would travel via regular phone lines (ohh- graphics were such a pain to load!) By the way, the computer would tie up the phone line while using the internet!

With the advent of DSL, this problem disappeared. I remember the surprise the first time a call came through while looking up info (that's all there was back then!) Back in the dial-up days, blogging might have been done on computer software, then with modem flipped on, the text would be transmitted to the server. Doing work online (ie writing blog posts) was, to my knowledge, not common. Back then we also relied on landline phones and couldn't tie them up for an hour.

Now who wants to be an internet historian?

Don't Judge a Concept by its Title

There has been discussion on the topic of "net neutrality". Some internet service providers (ISP's) have a propensity for judging web content and determining an "appropriate" speed at which you can access it. Some in Congress want to bar this practice. What this proposal is is essentially banning a book based on its partiality (no-it's not a radio fairness doctrine matter- read on). What is more disturbing is that people who like the sound of "neutrality" but do not understand the heart of the matter are passing judgement- this is Congress.

You may like a lesson in IP jargon:
Key people:
ISP--Utility Co.--Data Transmission--You-- The Fed

For those who don't understand the technicalities, there is a difference between ISP and "The Internet". An ISP is an internet service provider that provides your portal to the internet. Your ISP provides the software and a home modem and DSLAM (server) that get bits and bytes over the phone or cable line (but does not necessarily set you up with a browser). Think of the internet as a fancier way of talking over the phone. More often than not, the ISP will foot the data transmission bill (read on); if you get a flat rate bill for internet service regardless of how much time you spent online, this is you. Think AOL or NetServe. As a limited-supply utility, the utility company is required by law to allow any ISP to operate on its phone lines- and give a good bulk rate for data transmission to the ISP. In fact, this applies to any ISP who asks. Essentially,ISP's can start up when they want, like a private business in a unregulated sector. While Congress is not proposing a Control Board, this proposal demonstrates either the lack of technical awareness or the desire to strongarm private endeavors. If you are offended that your ISP prioritizes web traffic you're not a part of, switch to another provider. Or take the can-do American approach- build your own system!

Caveat- If you happen to be somewhere that there is only one ISP, your rights to impartial service may be ensured by antitrust/monopoly policy. Check US and Sate code to determine if this applies to you.

The Ag Preserve

City of 2050.
Washington Area real estate is inflated in price for a few reasons: desireablility, and increasing scarceness of developable property. If trends keep up (which they have even amidst a supposed construction slowdown), cities will extend straight out to the-farm. Yes, next to the skyscraper is farmland. No discernable suburbs.
But what about the farm? It's part of the Agricultural Preserve meant to protect farmland, wilderness, and wildlife. It also protects real estate prices by squeezing demand. It's a suburban version of 'historic district'. Even now, one can travel from pure farmland and 'the forest' to an urban, high-rise environment in 15 minutes. I remember when I realized the quick change: I was coming home from "Science City" on the tech corridor, cut though the woods as a short cut, drove by some estates doubtlessly owned by lawyers and Beltway Bandits. Then, a few traditional style suburbs, and then the high rises. 15 minutes. It made a profound impact on me (Cliche :)). Just imagine being a city person, but your neighbor is a cow.

Some prospective Detroit investors plan to use this method to revitalize the city, or, at least, make a quick buck.

Peace with you!

A More Intellectual Night Out

"Let's go to the JHU place at Sceince City and watch cells multiply, then, we can watch a techincal presentation on neurology as we eat 'dippin' dots'." That's the sceince cityt lifestyle. Just like Tyson's Corner is remaking itself from blacktop and office towers and a fantastic mall into a full-service city (that is not totally contained within the mall), Montgomery County, Md, just across the river, wants to turn a starship research cewnter, The Shady Grove Life Science Center (it already has a Metro station nearby!) into a 24-hour destination. Granted that it's already a 7am (some scientists like to start early) to 1am destination (some scientists try to get home for dinner). It'll cause a traffic jam! It'll be like Tyson's Corner! Then there is, "It will be a fabulous opportunity to show that Montgomery County is a first-rate center for research (it already is).", claims some.

On the plans is to include high-desity residences, an entertainment center, hotel, and research space, and so on.

Science has done so much for us and the world, prolong our lives, debunk prejudice, make the world a better place, and so on.

Naming Your Post-Apocalyptic Supercompany

Take a fancy number prefix, such as Tera, and add to name referring to planets or space in general or some technical term. This could be Farad, an unit for the capacitor.

So, Terafarad Evil Company

Now you can take over the world and make everyone submissive to you. I don't know how the big companies take over the world, I haven't read '1984', but the means is up to you.

Or, I like this one... large number, Googleplex, generic techy sounding name, Tron
Googleplextron

Well, there's already a Google that some say invades their privacy and is chewing up the internet as its own domain. So there you go.

WiFi Wishes

And for all the hotels and hovels that are willing to sell you an internet connection for $10, the local 3-star hotel (Washington Suites) will give it away for less. Anyway, I've been thinking of entering telecom as another aside for side cash, above Amazon who likes to take a 255 commission chunk. Anyway, what do they do with all the money?

Found It

What is in your bed? Mosquitoes, not bedbugs, two pillows, two sheets, a bathrobe, a heavy blanket that hasn't been used in two weeks except on cold mornings. And what about a digital camera? By four mornings of early waking and two other wake-ups, I did not see it up there. Last Sunday, May 31, was the last time I had it. I professed the wonders of ready-baked chicken and its lusciousness on a bed of lettuce between two pieces of whole grain bread, with some mayo. Then, after not bringing my camera on the bike ride, it went missing for a week.
I missed filming more JangooVision, and a shot of summer rolls with shrimp and cellophane noodles (no, it's not plastic). Other than that, I held up pretty well.
So as I was searching for my Lifeguard shirt on Saturday, I came across it. I found the shirt at the bottom of a hamper, and the camera, in bed, as well as my Smartrip card, in the bottom of my backpack, along with a bottle of water and muffin, date, May 29.

Cinco de Mayo

Back about 20 years ago, Canada had a $2 bill. You may have gone there multiple times and never come across one. That's because it was replaced (not just 'phased out')by the bimetallic tooney. That won't fly in America regarding $1 coins. For some reason, Americans love the Washington greenbacks, even though they aren't very pristine after a few transactions. Green with Envy? Or is it just that coins are all heavy and everything in the pocket.

Think of this: 5 dollar coins versus 20 quarters. That's what DC Metro farecard machines gave out as maximum change. Half a roll of quarters. Positive change?
And anyway, it makes one feel more international. Few countries have bills for 1 unit of currency anymore.

At least $1 coins make it through the wash pretty well.

Now is that $1000 Mexico coin worth $10 or a cash cow at $100?
Now about those half dollar coins and two dollar bills...

Now onto more serious and pertinent business:

Let's Find Atticus Sawatzki's 1 GB USB Plug-in flash drive.
It's a classic. And there's a $5 cash reward fund to find it and compensate the returner, thief or not.

Taken from a computer in the early afternoon hours of 5/4/09, and being handled like stolen property- no geribund piece of technology deserves to be treated that way!
So, let's find it!

A lonely CD

When sending big files just won't work... we have to revert to IP over messenger disk.

The technology existed in the late, late 1990's, but the fun has never been greater. In our new times of broadband internet, and those mp3 and sd cards and stick drives, the fun of sticking in a CD -and maybe it self-ejects when done, is lost. Yet, it can be recreated relatively easily. Copy your files. Make a music video. Trade the freedom of press around. But... don't copy my bloggy!

TIme Keeps on Ticking

So my little green alarm clock that likes to alaram me at 6am started to stop ticking when I roped around the clock to turn it off. Reseting the clock would get it back in motion. Then, yesterday, I find that the clock would noot respond. I spin, I hit, then I think of the little Energizer Bunny- The battery! Replacing the Rayovac with another off-brand got the clock back on beat with a snappy rhythm.