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May 31, 2004: Memorial Day
The Big one by J.R. Snyder Jr. (internal link)
Let us not forget today the people who quietly go about their daily duties that keep us safe. In our hurried and busy routines, in a society that is still relatively free, where we truly can reinvent our lives with ambition, hard work and a measure of luck, we can forget that it has taken a lot of lives over several centuries to keep the peace.
This Memorial Day, we should especially remember the veterans of World War II, "The Big One." My father was a U.S. Navy veteran of the war and my mother grew up in England while the bombs literally dropped out of the sky into the cities and towns. It changed their lives and ours. A memorial is being dedicated today in Washington, D.C. while there are still some veterans alive to tell the tale.
WWII was the war that for most of us, whether we remember it or not, was a war that perpetuated to this day our way of life. We could likely be living in tyranny to this day if the forces of freedom hadn't won the battles that made that war "The Big One."
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Sir Winston Churchill.
May 30, 2004
Happy Memorial Day weekend to those in America. Thanks, veterans, for your service. I spent seven hours hiking yesterday around Horsetail Falls in El Dorado County (internal link), about a half hour drive from Lake Tahoe. Beautiful day. The pictures I took a few years ago were made with an early, low resolution digital camera but they still give you an idea of what a great area this is. If you go bring enough water, wear good boots, not tennis shoes, and take gloves for scrambling on the rocks. Warning: the descent is treacherous. Although many beginners make it to the top, this is not a beginners' hike.
May 28, 2004
Rattlesnakes to the fire department
Texas 911 operator Smarty Jones saw the paragraph for the 27th below and had to comment:
"Lubbock County has two "primary" PSAPs, the Lubbock County Sheriffs Office ((LCS) and the Lubbock Police Department (LPD). The majority of 911 calls come to us first. We answer for the unincorporated area and some small towns in it. If it's fire, medical or animal control (we have bobcats, coyotes, javelina and the like in Lubbock) we transfer them to the appropriate agency in their area. Rattlesnakes go to Fire -- not sure why."
"The southwestern javelina is really a collared peccary that is mostly found from Eastern Arizona, through Southern New Mexico and into Western Texas. These mean critters are always fun and challenging to hunt, and can be hunted with muzzleloader, bow, handgun and rifles year-round on private land in Texas."
May 27, 2004
Do you know we still have local operators? These aren't telephone company employees but rather government or private contract workers. These are dispatch and 911 operators handling emergency service calls. The centers they work in are called Public Safety Answering Points or PSAPs. In the old days of the telephone system, before consolidating them into regional centers, nearly every town had a local operator. In the same way, for some of the same reasons, many PSAPs are now being consolidated. This graphic shows a welter of PSAPs covering one small state. Do you see a need for streamlining? Or perhaps not? Local conditions, local control? Warning, this is a large graphic. Click to view (317K)
May 26, 2004
Have you listed your cellular telephone numbers with the government's Do Not Call Registry? Better do so soon. The Los Angeles Times reports the CTIA will publish a wireless directory, destroying the privacy we've all enjoyed since cellular started. Most mobile telephone contracts, deep in the fine print, give the carrier permission to disclose and publish your number. But listing your numbers should overide your contract. Take a moment or two to go here:
https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx
May 25, 2004
Get your checkbook out! On June 3d Bonhams (external link) holds an outstanding auction of antique telegraph, telephone, and scientific items. I doubt you can follow the auction on the web but you can bid through it. Bonham's web site makes fascinating reading but I am cautious. Is this sale well intended or is Bonham trying to create a demand for communication technology? Are they, in other words, catering to truly interested people and institutions, or are they trying to make a market for speculators? If the response to this collection is good then prices on all such items will rise throughout the world.
May 24, 2004
I made excellent progress yesterday converting old pages to new, changing at least 30 files. As that work continues, let's consider a real challenge: determining which facilities based wireless carrier has the most unusual name. What do you think? Without much research, I'd nominate ElephantTalk Communications out of Hong Kong. They're a big company and they issue things like Bruce Lee commemorative calling cards. Of course.
I'm sure more bizzare names exist so let me know. With American landline telephone companies I think the choice is easy: The Volcano Telephone Company, titled after the small California foothill town of the same name. They've missed missed their chance, though, to be creative. Instead of the staid logo pictured to the left they could have presented a rock chucking, lava spewing, death dealing volcano. I think my vision on the right is quite restrained. But companies never listen to me . . .
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