Obama/Clinton, Clinton/Obama YES! YES! YES!

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Yes We Can! Si Se Pueda!

Thank-you CNN!

Mapping Cell Phone Coverage and Failures

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I seem to recall that The Union or somebody took a crack at this a while back. I just located a site called www.cellreception.com which has a convenient but somewhat buggy reporting and listing capability. Make sure you check every box, or it erases everything and you have to start over. I always CTRL C, so I saved having to retype. You do not have to register at all to post. Having just recently graduated to a tethered cell phone for an internet connection, and after 30 days, having run into some problems with my Verizon Wireless XV6800 reception out here, I posted the following:

Typcially I get 3 to 4 bars. You have to go down Sweetland Road about 1/2 from the center of North San Juan on hiway49. We have acreage, and the phone works everywhere except in the deepest and most sheltered canyons. Our house is 3.8 miles from the tower on Oregon House Peak, across the Yuba river canyons.

The data side (1x, not full EVO) worked beautifully for the first 30 days, and then began pooping out. Three service calls, and now it would appear that the tower is conked for some reason, or else they've figured out how to fap me just when I'm at home. If the latter is the case, I will drop the service. It throttles down to 1/2 of dial up speed, or useless. If they do not get it up and running soon, I will report back. When it is running, I only see 1x, not full EVO. 1x is still two to 4 times faster than good dialup. Lat 39, 22 Long 121, 7.

The phone works fine at full EVO speeds just 25 minutes away in Nevada City, so the problem is not in the phone. I drive there, it works great. I drive home, it runs at 1/2 dialup speed.



***********************************************************************************

If enough people use this, then we can all get a better idea of what the companies are offering, and we can keep tabs on their "Fair Access Policies." I'm nowhere near the supposed 5 gig limit for Verizon. I did notice that the Oregon House Peak tower had an exceptionally bright strobe on it a couple of nights back, but is now back to the nice dim red bulb of yesteryear. Maybe Verizon's tower blew over ?

On Ghetto Schools. A Few Observations

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I've saved this from a post made elsewhere, in the LA Times Homeroom Blog. This is still rather rough as an essay, but it may prove useful anyway.

I have to jump back in here. Some of you are behaving as though the students are all the same, from the same background. They most certainly are not. Statistically, however, in a class of 30:

10 will be doing everything they can to get whatever education they can. If you had all thirty like this, there'd be no problems. This is why you can't blanket blame the class for tearing the place up. BTW, many of these ten would love to tell on the others, but will get beat up if they do, and even have their younger siblings attacked if they are too big to beat up.

Between 5 and 8 will be inclined to go along with these ten on many days, but they are not so desperate..

1 to 5 will have a serious educational problem, which requires special attention. They will not misbehave themselves, but they keep you from watching the remaining students.

Between 4 and 10 will be at school because that's where their friends are. You, and what you are doing, are a distraction from their main purpose for being. They will not often disrupt, but they will certainly not mind if there is a disruption.

Usually at least one, and sometimes as many as three students, will view making you miserable, by whatever means necessary, as a goal, at least 50% of the time. Classes with more than 3 such students go off like bombs, with a very short half life, and are quickly dismantled by saavy administrators, who cannot afford total meltdowns.

To make things worse, these students will have parents who were just like them when they were in school. And grandparents and great grand parents, and they are not necessarily stupid. In fact the are probably smarter than average, and each generation learns something new to pass on down to the next, Most importantly, how to scam school administrators and politicians at all levels. It's a perfect storm! Imagine 3 Chris Rocks in one room, and you get the idea.

Basically they are playing to the oldest game on the planet, "Look at ME!" For whatever reasons, some people do just not feel loved or acknowledged enough, and so wind up often looking for attention any way they can, including negative behavior. Trying to ignore them is the worst thing you can do. Give them what they want, but make sure each comment also prods them along into socially acceptable paths. If you can do this creatively, without being obvious or to the detriment of other kids, then you are a Master Teacher. I make no claims to being such a teacher, but will suggest that continually roving eye contact is one good tactic I learned back in Richmond Unified, from analysing videotapes I made of master teachers for Title One.

To Those Who Are Blaming the Teacher: Under these conditions, with this diverse population, I don't care how many kids you've raised or babysat for, how firm as an adult you try to be, the odds are your classroom will be described as at least, "a little out of control."

One solution for this situation is found in juvie. There, a teacher, at least in Nevada County, can say, "you're out of here," and in come two burley guards, who lead the problem child back to his cell. It's wonderful! In 11 days of teaching I only had to do it once. The fear of it happening kept the rest of them in line.

I'd envision a ghetto school with plenty of cells, each one wired back to the classroom for full video and audio from the classroom, and a keyboard for text messaging out to the classroom, as the only means of communication for the wayward student. At the end of the day, the student is let out, to the custody of their parent(s) or guardian. The teacher's decision is never questioned. If America wants ghetto America to get an education, that's the kind of setup that will work.

These observations are based on my year at Gloria R. Davis in San Francisco, as "da Library Man."

Gene Burns on KGO 810 talk show radio in San Francisco the other night was asking for analysis and solutions, and these are mine.

I reserve the right to make posts in the middle of the night with lots of spelling errors and then to come back and correct them the next day. I don't see as well as I used to.

Composting Toilets As Emergency Backups

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This is in regards the Royal Gorge proposal to stack miniMaco-miniums as high as possbile at Serene Lakes, near Donner Summit and Sugar Bowl, and to dump the sewage into the Yuba river.

My first suggestion is to monitor the UKnowWhat out of the river (pun intended). If the limits set are ever exceeded, even once, all the owners forfeit their property to the county, which will tear down what's not needed and build a park and homeless shelters, treading lightly on the land. Fines merely get passed on to the new owners in the fine, fine print, and are thus ineffective. Build it right the first time, or don't build it at all, and sell the land to someone who can figure it out correctly. Oh, you lose money ? That's called the invisible hand of the market. Nobody promised develpers a rose garden.

My follow-up is:

Actually, Composting Toilets Should be Required...

should the pollution limits be approached within 10 % of the maximum allowed. Each dwelling would have to have at least one. Install remotely activated valves to cut the water off to the regular toilets to insure compliance. Of course the developer will design the system so that these composting toilets, "should never be needed, except in extreme emergencies." A simple closet, with a simple toilet. That's all I ask. The closet will probably be instantly filled with stuff, and since the toilet platz itself takes up very little room in the closet, it will hardly be noticed, until it is needed.

by Keachie on Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:25:06 PST

This system could be made a part of permitting in all environmentally sensitive areas where Macs and mini Macs are to be built.

Nobles vs. the Serfs, On the Internet

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Well, it the Beginning of the End. The Wild West Days of the Internet as going to fade as fast as the sun sets on the knife edge of the Sierra from the eastern slopes after a thunderstorm.

The following article outlines a plan to start charging for net usage the same way they charge for peak cell minutes....minute by minute. With that will come the ghetto kid who can't get the answers on-line, while his competitor downloads entire papers with pictures and all, and a PowerPoint presentation with videos to boot. Think of the small businessman too, unable to pay for information that allows the big box stores to crush on through. Day Traders ? Ha! As UC sociology prof emeritus Harry Edwards (architect of Black Power salute at 1968 Olympics) said in a lecture which was kind of a revelation for me at age 19, having grown up in the cozy womb of the Berkeley campus, 'Life's Not Fair!"

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Time Warner To Test Pay-Per-Download Plan
by Wendy Davis, Friday, Jan 18, 2008 7:45 AM ET


IN A MOVE THAT COULD reshape the debate about net neutrality, Time Warner will start charging some broadband users access fees based on how much they download each month, rather than assessing a fixed fee unlimited service.

The company Thursday said it planned to start testing the new pricing system this year as part of an effort to manage traffic. "We want the network to maximize returns for all of our customers," said spokesman Alex Dudley, adding that a small number of users currently consume a disproportionate share of bandwidth. "Ninety-five percent of our users would not be the extreme users who are driving this."

Once the test starts, new customers will be offered a choice of four plans that allow them to download set amounts each month--5, 10, 20 or 40 Gigabytes. As with cell phone service packages, those who go over their allotment will be charged extra. Time Warner hasn't yet determined the price of each tier. The test will start later this year with new subscribers in Beaumont, Tex.

Some advocates for net neutrality--or the principle that Internet service providers should treat traffic equally--said Time Warner's plan sounds like a better approach to traffic management than some other alternatives.

"It's entirely fair and appropriate for carriers who choose to do so to vary their charges to users based on how much those users are consuming," said David Sohn, senior policy counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology. "The key is to be agnostic as to what the bandwidth is being used for."

Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn (no relation to David Sohn) also supported the decision. "There are neutral ways to manage the network, this is a good one," she said.

By contrast, Comcast has drawn fire from advocates for slowing down visits to peer-to-peer sites in what it says is an attempt to manage traffic on its network. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating complaints by Public Knowledge and others that the company violates net neutrality principles by treating traffic to BitTorrent and other bandwidth-hungry peer-to-peer sites differently than traffic to other Web sites.

While net neutrality advocates say that Time Warner's metering plan is preferable to interfering with traffic to some sites, some are also afraid that moving away from unlimited pricing will discourage people from using the Web.

"Telling consumers they must choose between blocking and metered pricing is a worrying development," Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, said in a statement. "The best answer to any capacity crunch is to build the kind of high-capacity networks available in the world's leading broadband nations."

Public Knowledge's Sohn agreed that any long-term solution to bandwidth problems requires improving the infrastructure. "The ultimate goal has got to be a fatter pipe," Gigi Sohn said.


Today's Most Read
1. As Luxury Brands Sputter, Saks Tests New 'Off 5th' Concept
2. Time Warner To Test Pay-Per-Download Plan
3. Unilever Targets Young Women Who Watch Super Bowl
4. Ripple Effect: CBS Extends Reach Of 'Outernet' From Borders To Jiffy Lube
5. Apple Leads, The Entertainment Universe Follows"

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Having free and universal Internet access will probably make or break this country. Many do not know that the first "Internet" was developed for the Moon Shot back in the 1960's. Essentially it was an on-line database that all the engineers poured their work into, along with "key words" (today's "tags") so that the 20,000 or so scientists nationwide could log in and be sent printouts of work that was related to their own efforts. It was slow, it was clunky, it was invaluable.

As a sideline to the space shot, to pacify those that wanted money spent on education, they set up the same system, but filled it with every article they could find on the subject of education, again using key words and a search system. This was called the "Education Research Information Clearinghouse," or ERIC, which I first used in 1973 at the San Francisco State University Library. It was a free service, the government paid for the voluminous printouts, which I passed out to my amazed students in my Ed Tech classes. I customized each one to their area of specialty, and essentially handed them a bibliography for a doctoral thesis on a platter.

Boeing 777, Safety for the Crew & First Class

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If you look at the photos of the Boeing 777 at Heathrow, with all its airslides deployed, you can't help but note the spacing, and how it favors first class and the crew. Probably by a factor of two to one.

Pictures at BBC of Boeing 777

California Losing Tax Revenue, Closing Parks, WHY?

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The Bigger Picture..."I Have a Scheme..."

Bush's "I Have a Scheme," plan leads to a war which must be financed, where to get the money ?

Business will not grow without consumers, so start making ridiculous offers both in the consumer credit industry and in the housing market to gullible idiots produced by schools that do not teach how the world really works (ANYONE CAN GET RICH IN THE USA, but NOT EVERYONE can get rich, the system would FALL APART, that's the UNTAUGHT LESSON.). Encourage the banks further by making bankruptcy pay, for them, in most cases. The cash flows for seven years and then peak oil comes along and trashes the consumers' even faintest hopes of getting free of debt.

Consumers begin defaulting, begin getting worried, stop buying stuff, other consumers now out of work because if they make or sell stuff, nobody buys, downward spiral. What to do, what to do ?

Dump it in the lap of the incoming Democratic President, and continue to provide shareholders with dividends (Bush's real beneficiaries, it's so, so much easier to hide maxi greed in dividends and acquisitions than in corporate salaries), and have no taxes on the wealthy or corporations.

Oh, yes Virginia, there are causes of park closings way beyond, "the state hasn't got enough taxes." Pin the rose on the Elephants in the Room, still stupidly trying to make cash out of polluting black painted oil guzzlers, instead of designing transit worthy of the American Tradition of Invention, both in design and sources of power.

Too Many Lawyers, Or Just Out Of Control Attorneys

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Actually, A Country For, and By, Lawyers

Most Congresspeople have staff lawyers who actually do the work to make well researched laws. The Congresspeople merely take suggestions from their constituencies. Thus, anyone could be a Congressperson, with maybe one more explaining lawyer in the chain.

However, many, if not most, laws come pre-written by the lobbyists and their sponsoring corporations. Why something 100 million per year successful should have the right to bend laws even more in their favor is beyond me. Corporate Personhood may ultimately doom the USA.

Every law written has one extra beneficiary beyond the corporations, and that is one class of occupation. Can you guess which one ?

Case in point, will we ever have a tax on fees earned, by issues settled in or out of court, where there is a court filing, which helps support the court system ? Lawyers benefit from the court system the same way truckers benefit from the Interstate highway system. Truckers pay pump taxes, as do the rest of us, to maintain the roadways.

Do lawyers pay anything to maintain the court system, to hire more judges, to built more courtrooms, to make for speedier hearings and fewer post-phonements ? I don't think so. They like the system just the way it is. Bill both clients for the same hours spent waiting for things to be heard.

I'd suggest a flat tax of 10% on all income derived from a situation where there is a court filing, and an agent (lawyer, attorney, whatever), earns cash. All settlements must be known in detail to the IRS anyway, so there are no privacy issues here. The money collected goes to the court system in the county where the case is filed.

I'd also suggest a law that holds the spot of any working citizen who chooses to run for office, for that citizen, when his/her term(s) is(are) up. I would do this by paying the employer the citizen's full salary to help with finding a temporary replacement for the duration of the term. Should the employer go out of business, I'd provide severance pay for the out of work Congressperson for a time equal to the time served in Congress. This would bring other occupational groups into Congress, for a much needed change. Becoming a Congressperson is great for a lawyer's career. It's terrible for just about anyone else, especially those near the bottom of the economic chain, so they don't run for what would be economic suicide, unless they were guarranteed a win.

Do I think there's a snowball's chance in Iraq this will ever come to pass ? Not as long as Americans remain ignorant of how the world in general is out to screw them, and the powers that be continue to supply plenty of distractions. Just the top 10 advertisers in this country spent over 16 Billion last year. P&G at 2.36 Billion tops the list. Do you stink today ? We spend 2.36 Billion educating people on how not to be stinky.

You can thank Michael Dougherty, of Oakland California, an attorney, for my hard earned and expensive education in these matters. Without his amazing shinannigans, I would have never have thought this up.

BTW, a third young adult was involved and got killed, and will probably get a ton of money for his parents too. I'd love to see the money all go to videocams that watch...the crowd to catch other idiots in the act.

It happens everyday, I watched it growing up, but did enjoy throwing peanuts to the monkeys on the island, after a dip in the magnificent 1,000 foot long Fleishacker Pool, which was literally paved for a parking lot, about thirty years ago.

The Union Eats KVMR's Lunch Interactively

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Currently local The Union newspaper is beating the pants off our local public radio station, KVMR, in the area of two way, reader/listener interaction.

Where the KVMR 89.5, is all about "here's us, here's what we do, like it ? join here, thanks for the cash," the newspaper is set up with a clunky but usable interactive forum, where readers can comment about the news, and about one another's posts.

Why doesn't KVMR get a full blown forum going like can be created with the software, vBulletin, so that listeners can talk amongst themselves about the shows and events, especially the pre-taped shows where there is no call in activity possible ? Just asking. I'll personally stake 1/4 the cost of vBulletin for the first year, do I have three other supporters ? My guess they'd attract more members than necessary to offset the cost of additional web management, but of course, the possibility of negative notions about management is a risk they'd have to take. The Union seems to be taking that risk in stride, and Jeff Pelline regularly jumps into the fray.

Pick your favorite hobby or activity, punch it into Google search along with the word, vBulletin, and I'm sure you'll be intrigued with what the cat drags in.

Beating Heart Created in Lab, Consumer MegaHelp

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The Minnesota Lab that has revitalized a mouse heart by removing all the damaged tissue, and then bringing it back to life a week later, should probably get the Nobel prize for Medicine this year. So you live on an artificial heart for a week while your heart gets a complete rebuild, wonderful!

Want a human instead of a computer when you call into a MegaCorp? There's a complete guide for many major corporations at www.gethuman.com. very, very, useful!

This link came from reading:

consumerist.com

(no www)

Which is the American consumer finally fighting back.

The Beautiful American, check out the Microsoft exec who started, "Room to Read." Website to follow in update.

The Not so Beautiful Candidate.

Obama has just trashed himself with his attempt to capitalize on an out-of-context quote that mis-represents Hilary's views on the Civil Rights Movement, by ignoring the words, "get the job done." I will vote for Edwards (most forthright about the problems of American corporations) or Hilary (my wife says I'd better...:).

Osama Traumas Over the Long Turn

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For some reason 1% is given as the percentage of potential nasty persons hiding amongst the 3 to 4 million Muslims in this country. My guess is that number is ridiculously high, as most who immigrate to this country have found it to be a great place, or at least, a lot better than where they came from. I assume this, because most of them have the option of going back to where they came from, and they are not taking it. Here's part of a response of mine in the The Union newspaper to one who was fearful of Islamic snipers popping up from behind billboards like just so many Southern Sheriffs of yesteryear.

"I'm not sure there's any reason why your number of 1%

would be any more accurate than mine, but even if we use your number, the rest of the USA way outnumbers them. Should any small groups start a shooting war guess whose got the most guns and the most people who know how to use them? Besides, a couple more mall and campus shootings and everyone will begin carrying a nicely balanced tire iron and will be well practised in how to throw it.

I am much more worried about a nuke in the keel of a FedShip (super classy motor yacht) or old tramp steamer in a harbor. If Osama's goal is disable the USA, the only way that would work would be massive explosions in all our ports. 75% of the population of the USA lives within 75 miles of the seacoast. Remember Osama's thinking long term, 20 to 30 years is nothing to him.

The other problem is of course, if nukes go off, you cannot assign blame, as there is no evidence left to show who made it. Even if it is an obviously sophisticated Russian made H-bomb, there is no way of telling who go it here. What are we going to do if even one goes off ? Bomb every country on the planet ?

We need to diffuse the situation ASAP by going energy independent, and driving the price of oil into the toilet by all means possible, including of course researching and developing and spreading world wide, much cheaper and cleaner forms of fuel, most likely based on the sun, one way or the other. Nuclear graphite pebbles are nice as a safer source of energy, but they are not cheap enough to drive the oil back into the ground, which is what we need to defang the Osamareaneans. Better scrubbers for coal plants ? Gotta do something.

PS, if we can afford to lose 3,000 Americans every month to car crashes, without affecting the economy or emotional balance of the USA, the external terrorists have got a huge hill to climb to do anything to bring the USA down. What's the difference to the victim and their family between a sniper bullet and a police chase that broadsides their car ? Just as dead, just as unpredictable, and just as unavoidable. "

Of course, if you equip police vehicles with forward firing paintball guns using globs the size of tennis balls, and offer a reward to cell phones that call in the location of the fluoresent splashed vehicle, we could avoid many high speeed chases. Another Keachie Koncept for the public domain.

Two Possible Futures

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Osama is brilliant as a PR person. First he got everybody's attention.

Now it's possible, he builds for the long time conquest. He knows darn well that anything short of an economic (China and India) takeover or a nuclear attack at multiple sites, will fail to destroy the USA. He has successfully attracted the attention of those envious of the USA throughout the world, and enlisted them in his cause. He most likely will not make any further attacks on USA soil until he has the nukes in place in 15 to 30 years. Then comes the knockout punch. I recall a 17 year old genius in Florida who actually built (had machined, after designing it) a nuclear trigger that caught the attention of the FBI/CIA. That was back around 1991, and I haven't been able to find it yet on the Net, but I'm sure every country and person with nuke interests have got all those details.

So Bush is accurate to say that Iran is a real concern if they are busy refining the core fissle materials for the bomb. They've already built the trigger, that wasn't a problem with all the hints available around the world, and so no more "development" is needed. The program merely needs to take the final output of the centrifuges and voila, they have a working bomb. Once they have the genie, how long will it stay in the Iranian bottle ? Of course, Pakistan has way too many bottles and not enough security for them, and I think represents way more of a threat.

Stiffler's ( a local handle at The Union newspaper) 99.999% non hostile Muslims will not matter in this equation. They are merely pawns, if they are even consciously involved (which I doubt very much, as they would be vaporized too), serving as a smoke screen for a very dangerous situation. I really hate religions that go beyond telling you what to expect after death, and how to get along peacefully with your fellow travelers on this rather limited planet while alive.

The alternative is that Bush already knows where Osama is, and is waiting for just the right time to capture him, like say in October 2008, to maintain Republican control of the White House. The excuse will be, "we wanted to get as many subordinates as possible."

A Fistful of Dollars, Trying to Make Cents

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How to Stop Terrorists, the Quick Answer.

Stop giving them money.

Develop alternative energy using current technologies, and go on to invent more efficient and cheaper versions. American is more a nation of inventors than a nation of Christians. just look around at the companies in Nevada County! If you ask a foreigner to name 20 famous American inventions/inventors, vs. naming 20 famous American Christians, what quantities of correct answers will you get?

Move the religious shrines of Jerusalem to different locations, as they did when building the Aswan Dam during the 1960's.

" The reservoir raised concerns from archaeologists and a rescue operation was begun in 1960 under UNESCO. Sites were to be surveyed and excavated and 24 major monuments were moved to safer locations (see Abu Simbel) or granted to countries that helped with the works (such as the Debod temple in Madrid and the Temple of Dendur in New York)." (From WikiPedia)

Remember, that in any sense of absolute space, we are moving at a terrific velocity just spinning on the planet, which in turn travels around the sun, which in turn is traveling towards the Dog Star, in a galaxy which is but a glimmer on a soap buble in a cosmos we barely comprehend. "It happened "here," is all very relative. "It happened within these walls," is still valid.

So much to cover! 20 respected anthropologists who know a given area well must review and comment before any more cowboy Presidents start military actions on foreign soils.

To a certain extent, the Osameraneans, a group which contains some Wahabi's, but which does not contain even 1% of all Muslims, (we'd have a real problem if it did), are doing the old dog in the manger stunt. They don't want to be as happy as we are. They want us to be as miserable as they are. Thus there is not much to do in the way of reasoning with them.

Cut them off at the pass. Go solar now! Homeland Security begins with panels on your roof or yard. It's the sign of a true patriot, not a hummer vehicle with a flag paying for excessive oil and lining the terrorists' pockets. Besides, solar cuts your PG and E bill and gives you power when storms knock down lines.

Dr Phil and the CyberBullies at XBox Site

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Quite a good show tonight, and for me an intro to the forum at Dr Phil's show site. They are quite long winded, but much of it is intriguing. This one post below, from Dr. Kardinal, is probably good reading for anyone involved with online gaming, or who has kids involved.

"Re: Cyber Bullies - The Harassed Man on Xbox Live
I am glad Dr. Phil addressed this problem, because it is way out of hand.

I am an avid on-line gamer, it's a great way to pass time when my knee injury flares up and I have to force myself to take it easy. I don't know how far I can go without sounding like I'm plugging something inappropriately, but I've been made one of the administrators of a gaming community called Sonic Army (website is www.sonicarmy.com forgive my plug, please), and I've taken on a campaign to improve the behavior of on-line gamers. I've tried creating my own website for helping people like this gentleman, but due to some technical difficulties, I've resorted to enlisting the resources of my fellow Sonic Army friends to continue both gaming and promoting better on-line play. One of my contributions is a "Multi-player's Code of Honor," in which I call upon fellow gamers to think about how they play on-line and how it affects other gamers. Here is a link to the Code of Honor:

http://sonicarmy.com/atoms/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?50519

In regards to the gentleman whom encounter the potty-mouth sore losers:

I find it bad on Microsoft's part that it takes a call from Dr. Phil in order to get a problem addressed on Xbox Live. They have a wildly successful product, but it has grown to the point that they can not police their service effectively. However, given the size of the problem, we as gamers have to understand that for most part - the on-line community is much like the wild west. Xbox Live's community tools are the closest thing we have on any on-line game that gives us some controls - such as the "Player Review" that helps us pick who we like playing and who we want to avoid, and the Friend's List that allows us to control who we play on-line.

Where Xbox Live fails is on the games that block the friends options, such as the "Ranked" play lists where gamers are prevented from stacking the games in their favor by playing with friends whom will help them cheat. It is in these sessions where you will encounter the worst of what this gentleman encounters.

Troublemakers on On-line Games come in two general varieties:

The "Chipmunk." This is the slang term for the very young players, usually ages 7 to 12, whom try to trash talk like an adult. It it quite obvious that there is no parent in the room when these kids play (or at least one that Dr. Phil should do an intervention on.) I will spare you the details on what they say on-line, just imagine what the man on this show heard - but by someone too young to know what those words are. If my mother ever caught me saying what some of these children say on here, she would make me go to the back yard and "break a switch."

Then there's the grown up trash talker, whom this gentleman encountered, whom knows exactly what he was saying over the mic. Most of this kind of talk is a combination of "smack-talk" used to intimidate the other player and affect how he plays. The rest of it is just sour grapes for losing.

The best advice I can give for dealing with these trouble making gamers:

1: Use the Player Review and File Complaint systems. As the show pointed out, it takes up to ten complaints for Microsoft to take action. I am glad for that, because some of these sore losers will file complaints against you just for beating them at a game - and if all it took was one complaint, there would a lot of good people being banned from Xbox Live as well as bad people.

2. When possible - always play with friends. My game clan is full of people whom I know, people who will watch my back if someone tries to cause trouble, and I will also do the same for them. Besides, if it takes 10 complaints, its much easier to have a pad player banned if you have nine friends to witness the bad player and file a complaint with you.

3. "Do onto others as you would have done unto you. . ." It was sound advice in Biblical times, it's still sound advice today. If you play respectful to your fellow gamers, it rubs off. Even when you tell a potty mouth player "Good Game," even if he replies with an obscenity - it still rubs off on him a little.

4. Parents of young gamers - GET INVOLVED WITH YOUR CHILD'S GAMING. An Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii is NOT A BABYSITTER! Game publishers rate their games just like movies are rated. And if the game has on-line options, all on-line games have the message "Game Experience May Change During On-line Play." This means that even on a game as innocent as "Uno," even the best player will let slip a few bad words when he or she loses.

5. Most important of all - DO NOT SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION on public chat rooms, blogs, or anywhere that does not offer privacy protection. The anonymity that gives these potty mouth troublemakers the freedom to threaten and insult also makes it hard for them to know who you are or where you are. And one good thing I can say for Microsoft, they make it very hard for the average troublemaker to get your personal information. For most part, these troublemakers are not "hacker smart," and if all they have is your Xbox Live gamer tag to Google, the less information you share about yourself while using that gamer tag, the less will show up on Google.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I hope I have provided enough expertise on how to deal with cyber-bullies while gaming."

Where Have All the Consumers Gone........

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....Long Time Passing

You might be interested in looking at the Federal Reserve Statistical report for October 2007. Credit cards are up "briskly."

The DoomsDay Report

The Consumers are All Busy Spending Tomorrow's Dollars today, and if they keep on having to pay more and more for gas to get to the jobs to make the money to pay food/rent/mortgages/etc INCLUDING CREDIT CARDS, something's gonna give.

You see, if those consumers no longer have the money or the credit to buy the goods that keep the other consumers working, then the other consumers won't be working to make the goods (or services) for which there are no buyers, and we finally discover the Flaw that Lies in House that Mastercard and VISA have built. This is an Economic CorkScrew pinwheeling itself faster and faster down to earth, with increasing oil prices adding an extra special boost.

The Republican Establishment Lies:

Businesses need more cheap money and labor to keep the economy going.

No they don't. They just need customers with money to buy the stuff or services they make or provide. If they don't have customers with cash, they are screwed. So, since all businesses know that expecting reliable returns above 10 - 12 % is completely unrealistic, they let the poor consumers take on the chin, encouraging interest rates all the way up to 30% these days, just to keep the mirage going a bit longer. When the bubble collapses, the banks wind up owning everything, and the cycle starts again. It's the Economy, Stupid!

MasterRetard Rides Again !

We need an amendment to the Constitution that limits interest (including all late fees etc) to never exceed 18% for the consumer on a nation wide basis. The California State Constitution limits usury rates to 10%, which is why the credit card cos are located in South Dakota, etc.

Eisenhower and Nixon Did Not Have Anything to

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do with the Moon Shot, despite what a certain former mayor of a large East Coast city might like to think and broadcast in a Presidential Debate . According to NASA history, Eisenhower argued against doing a moon shot, claiming it was too expensive. Nixon was there to welcome them back, but had nothing to do with getting the ball rolling and carrying it through to the end.

NASA History Website

30 Billion 4 Research, 60 Billion for Marketing, DrugCo's Revealed

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So you think those ads on TV are public service announcements when they talk about medical conditions and drugs ? Think again.

Drug Companies Expenditures.

Sunspots Endangering This Blog, PGandE Circumlocutes

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Apparently we're in for a bumpy ride with the new cycle of sunspots:

Sunspots Affecting Everything

This 11 year cycle may contain a greater amount activity which will adversely affect radio communications on and around the earth. Everything electronic will be affected, including the tethered cell phone that connects my computer to the Blogger server. Interesting reading, as the weather may be affected too.

36 hours of no PG&E on the ridge. Last night they said the "men were on site," but that a "key guy had not yet arrived." I really would appreciate it if they'd simply list our street and the number of jobs it takes to fix it and the priority of those jobs, instead of hiring, "make the customer feel good," operators. They are indeed nice people, but I'd like reliable data, so I could plan to: go buy a new generator; go stay with friends; or just sit tight until it is fixed in a few hours. I'm sure if I call in again I'll be told, "they're waiting for a part." Or, "a big emergency just came up." Just give us simple access to the work flow charts. Oh yes they do exist. If they don't, we are really getting crappy service, as this sort of this needs to be organised somewhere, for efficient service.