esrosedotblog

I used to work in the field of warehousing.

It was a grocery chain store, so order picking was oriented to a store order selecting from a huge inventory of items.

Recently I saw the new bots that are used at Amazon and was fascinated by the simple sophistication of these devices.

I like the way they use all directions of action. The pod platform turns as does the pod itself. Watch it.

It effectively carries a shelf with just the right stuff in the right place so that the order fillers only have to reach for an item to fill the customer order.

Labels: technology

I have to say that while I can't argue with the technology, I can say that it doesn't look like him.

To me.

It is pretty interesting and the technology has to be "right". But the product doesn't sell it.

At the end, the idea of a third revolution. Huh?

Labels: obama, technology

BACK TO THE FUTURE

I went to the ATT store today to get a bill error fixed and, at the same time, bought a new old cell phone. Mobile phone.

This is the old clamshell, simple real buttons, one little screen, no chance of "pocket calls".

They made me pay for it as I am not "up for a new one" until the fall. I paid for it gladly.

I have tried to live with the Samsung which you type on screen. It has functions so available that they "fall out" of their little hiding place onto the screen. It makes calls for me without my knowing. It is a royal pain in the ass.

It is now at the ATT store, in the recycle box.

So glad to have it over with.

This is what I wanted when we switched from Verizon but I was too impatient to wait for it. I took the Samsung and have been punished for my compulsiveness ever since.

Labels: technology

WE STILL SAY "DIAL"

When I was a kid, we had a telephone, at first, with no dial.

There was an operator. You told her (always a her) the name of "the party" you wanted.

Then, my god! A dial.

This is how it worked.

At first there was a party line, shared with others. But that didn't last long. It drove my Dad nuts to wait.

I wasn't old enough to enjoy listening in but later, a few cousins were on party lines and I got to eavesdrop.

There is no mystery to using a dial phone but it apparently flummoxed some people enough this had to be prepared.

In the old days, where I lived, there were just four numbers. I can still remember my cousin Phil's number: 3431.

In larger locations, they added prefixes that had a name. Like "Columbus". When I went to MIT, I lived in "University". Then in other cities, my memory fades. I think, maybe not, when I lived in Plymouth MA, the prefix was PILgrim. I don't know. It is fading.

Now, we live in an area that has two or three area codes and we have to dial the three digit prefix. My phone "dials" the one. For international I have to put in 01.

And so it goes.

Thanks to I Love Charts

Labels: technology

PERSPECTIVE

Thank you: Ark

Labels: ecology, nature, technology

FOOTWORK

When I was a kid, my Dad went out before each election and knocked on doors.

We lived in a town of less than 2000 people and he knew who most of his supporters were. He knew the kids in school and who their parents were. He knew the people who would put a little money in the hat or go drum up some more votes or call their own neighbors.

He had a little machine going. Well, it was part of the local Democratic machine.

It was systematic.

When I ran for office, I mostly didn't know anyone. Plymouth, MA. In those days maybe 20,000 people. The elections that I ran for were non-partisan.

The first one, the school board, I was the sock puppet for the school administrators and existing school board. No one liked them. I became part of that gang. I lost.

The second time, I ran for Moderator of the Town Meeting and I had learned my lesson. I took non-partisan a step further and ran on my independence. I had been the Chair of the Finance Committee, the group that makes recommendations to the Town Meeting and I had a reputation.

While I often took the side of the establishment, I, or we, actually, frequently took the side of the "outs". Or the gad flies. Or the disenfranchised. Yes. There even those in a small town. Especially in a small town.

I had given equal fervor to all our positions which were most often fact based and thorough. Our job.

When I ran for Moderator all I had to do was have a few huge signs on the expressway saying MODERATOR ROSE.

I had already elected myself.

I also had a unique position. Every one of those signs were in the yards of the most notorious trouble makers in town meeting. People who were shit stirrers. And popular.

This was not lost on the general public.

I also had the support of the Selectmen, the shadow Democratic polls, the shadow Republican polls, the administrators or civil service in the Town and so on.

My opponent? Both times, a chairman of the Public Safety Commission with dirt on his hands. A bottom of the heap surgeon/doctor, a womanizer. A sleazy guy who was popular because he was also a shit stirrer but not as popular as mine. He was a friend of the police and firemen. Not that I was an enemy but they fell behind him. But that was good for me. Everyone has it in for the police. Not so much the fire.

Anyway, picture my fascination with this.

The Socially Networked Campaign

An app! I saw them. I got them in the mail.

The Obamas knew that I was in the sphere of the Cathedral City phone bank. I was available, if I wanted, to go to Las Vegas for a weekend or, for that matter, to Nevada for a month.

They knew how much money I had given so far and how much it would take to get to the max.

I did, incidentally.

They passed my name to the Raul Ruiz campaign which was the local Demo Congressman and has been elected. They had me targeted too.

If I ran for local office, of course, again non-partisan, it would still be like Plymouth. But the high tech stuff now available says to me that it is only a matter of time before everyone will have this level of stuff.

Of course, the main thing is to have supporters who are interested in doing anything. That is still the basic thing. People to knock on doors, drive car pools and the like. The army.

Romney's ORCA was supposed to do the same thing but failed in the middle of the election day. Buckled. There are a lot of reasons for that. One of them is that despite his rep, Romney is a shitty manager. In fact he is not a manager at all. Unskewed pollsters? Yes men? Too bad.

Here is another fun article on the tech campaigns and why Obama beat their ass.

When the Nerds Go Marching In

And finally, some door knocking basics from, I think, the other side of the pond. Same thing different place.

Labels: computer, elections, technology

ON THE SPOT

There is no doubt in my mind that the US has teams of commandos in Iran as I type.

And everywhere else.

And this will expand.

Friends of SEALS families know that there is always something afoot. And now there will be even more.

All the stuff I learned in the military, now 50 years ago, is long gone.

I was in the Quartermaster Corps. Not the safest place to be as you had to be out there feeding the troops while they were firing on you. Unless, like me, you got an admin job running an officer's club in CONUS.

There is no feeding in the field that way. It is all EZpacks and god knows what.

Everything is micro-sized. Small units. Invisibility. No more landings on beaches.

More of this on its way.

US to send floating commando base to Mideast

Drones. Action teams. Covert missions. A war with no front.

What I learned is that you moved from place to place by long truck caravans and flew to the action by a huge cargo/troop train. Not now. The soldiers take a commercial flight to the area from where they deploy small missions from a base near the action.

Now, on water. Which is a lot better since they can't get to you and they can get to them. Very few of the bad guys have any air or sea abilities.

Most of our stuff is only seen incoming. Bam.

I had to learn how to fire an M1 rifle. Not very well, actually. I was better left at the OClub. Now it is all joy sticking and sattelite shit doing the guiding.

I couldn't even see through the peep sight on the rifle. These guys can see right down into the target's asshole.

Labels: military, technology

OVER THE BUMP

I have made a call, received a few calls, listened to email and more or less figured out how to handle all the phoney stuff on my new cell phone.

The main trouble has been fat fingers. All thumbs. Hitting the wrong key.

I figure that I had to make, at least, this step into the new device world. The only key phone they had was more like a brick than a phone. Cream colored so, I suppose, the "old" could find it. Maybe it glowed in the dark. It looked like shit.

This one has too much stuff on it. I will remove a lot of it when I get settled.

For now, I am happy to be operable. The swiping and punching of virtual buttons will come with practice.

Labels: technology

QUIET BROKEN

Did I say that nothing was happening?

All that went by the board today.

John wanted to get an iPhone which, for reasons which are a bit more than I can summarize here, involved switching services from Verizon to ATT.

So far, I am an innocent bystander.

Now add. My old phone won't work on ATT so I need a new one.

I fought, I wiggled, I swallowed hard but went along bravely proclaiming that I would be happy with a plain old vanilla keyboard phone. I don't do text. I don't take pictures. None of that. I am a dinosaur.

We went to Target which has an all in one operation for services and phones. Re-upped the ATT and that all went quite well.

They did not have a plain phone, well they had one in another store. I decided on the spot that I could use two things. One is a screen keyboard and maybe, possibly, some day I would like to text so there was a Samsung, no LGs, with a pullout keyboard and pictures. Not much more expensive. There is no logic to the pricing systems.

I got a short course on operations and away we went. An hour and a half. Not bad, in my experience. And the young man was nice and helpful and frank about better and worse options.

OK.

I got home. Started to set it up. No help in the fact that I was looking at John's iPhone setup instructions. When I figured that out, I got out the Samsung sheets.

I finally got that I had trouble with a security feature that requires pressing a button on the side to do any operation.

It was a mess.

I got in the car and went over to have him run me through some operations which he did. Nicely.

He had to call the ATT service but it worked out.

I set up my voice mail, setup the password, got a call and so on.

But it is rough rough rough. The push a button thing isn't quite right. A new behavior, easy enough.

The screen scrolling is OK but, it seems, very sensitive. I get a lot of shit I don't want. Solutions are there but they require fumbling.

My fingers are too big. Scroll on the left side or you will get a lot of stuff you don't want.

I was using my thumb. Not a great idea.

Awkward as hell. But I have the fundamentals.

Somehow I want to get through this learning curve. I have thirty days before the promise to exchange for the pushbuttons runs out.

I have seen people with this screen thing hold the phone out from their face and push the buttons carefully with the little finger extended and light taps being given to the "keys".

There is a whole lot of shit on this. Even apps.

All I know is that the service is less expensive than the Verizon, unexpected, and so far I have the basics sort of down.

I will have tomorrow to work out any more wrinkles.

It may take another trip back to Target and help from the guy to get me over the freakout period but that is OK. Sort of.

There is no use in looking back and asking why we did this. It is a better plan. The phones are going to work out. I may never text but if I feel like doing so it is easy to set it up and then I can fumple with the teeny keyboard.

I have come a long way today. I am not better off than before but I did my part to help John get an iPhone. Obviously I cannot help him with his problems but he has several friends who are just dying to show him how.

Labels: technology

EARLY ADOPTER

Labels: Barack Obama, macintosh, technology

I AM WITH THE TEA BAGGERS ON THIS ONE

Give Up Familiar Light Bulb? Not Without Fight, Some Say

Even a blind pig will find an acorn once in a while. Stopped clocks tell the correct time twice a day. And every so often the tea bags find an issue I can agree with.

I am down with repealing the incandescent light bulb law which is really a performance requirement law which most incandescent 100 W bulbs can't meet.

I will not use the mercury loaded curly cue bulbs that are made outside the US.

Look at this if you doubt their safety. Un-fucking-believable.

Cleaning Up a Broken CFL

Air the room. Get kids and pets outside! Keerist!

When we bought the condo they had some of the CFLs in place. They have been removed. I just bought a bunch of 100W incandescents. I might stockpile some more.

It is probably too late. GE just closed their last US plant for the grand old bulb.

We shall see what we shall see.

Here is another set of ten steps. You don't have to clear the room for this one, I guess.

Labels: environment, tea party, technology

THE MOTHER OF INVENTION IS GETTING OLD AND CREAKY

This is not news. The Patent Office has become a major hindrance to innovation and growth of the economy. Nothing has been done until now by the Obamas. The Republicans, the party of business, paid scant attention for all the years they governed. Another example of how the GoOpers can't govern. Or don't. Even for their constituency.

Austan Goolsbee, my man-crush in the Obama Administration does another great White Board on the process of obtaining patents. And how tough it has gotten to get one.

I know, his tie is a bit too long but that is part of his charm.

He is really good at this stuff.

Labels: Administration Obama, technology

BUY THEM OUT

I thought this was pretty good.

Apple Buys Up Touchscreens, Limiting Supply for Rivals

They say 60% and climbing. That is quite a lot.

No one ever thinks about the manufacturing or the hard side of these businesses any more. But is as much about the ability to deliver as anything else. If you can't supply the innovation you don't have one.

The great fear in our business, management training, was that we would not have the capacity or the distribution to serve the clientele. There is no coming back from telling someone they cannot have you now.

Undoubtedly, there was some value in delay. The caché of being popular and just enough hard-to-get a-date-with. It was a stimulant and excitement to have us. But you can't go too far with that.

It is a limited spark and incentive to continued sales. After the first one, you become a commodity to the customer, the luster is gone. They move the business to the buying department. Now they want you to deliver and on time too.

This screen thing has to be killing the competition.

Just think. You have a cell phone or handheld of some kind and you can't get the screen or can't get enough of them when you need them. Things are so fast paced to day that your 15 minutes of fame can be gone in a minute.

Labels: computer, technology

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Ken Olsen, Who Built DEC Into a Power, Dies at 84

I made a lot of money out of Ken Olsen.

His was one of the first big companies to adopt our training programs when we started our company in 1973.

He was an autocratic manager but he sought to make his company's managers flexible in how they dealt with other people. Autocratic leadership is OK until it isn't and Olsen had a grasp of that concept even though he could not practice it himself.

His insistence on his way or the highway led to the end of his company. He did not believe that PCs were any more than toys for gamers.

Digital did, however, contribute majorly to a necessary phase of the computer's evolution. They made and designed mini-computers and systems which took the industry away from the huge mainframe and brought the equipment into the office directly.

We were in that company a long time. They had their own trainers but then would hire us to do the work anyway. They bought a bunch of books.

I remember once that Ken showed up at one of our seminars. The trainer called all in a panic about it. He came, he watched, he kept his mouth shut and he left. What more could you want from him? And there were no followups of any kind that I know of.

DEC or Digital was ahead of its time in other matters as well. We had a contract trainer working there who, somehow, made what was considered an inappropriate remark or two to an attractive participant. We got a call and he was out of there within the hour. Never to return again. It was a zero tolerance climate for sexism or any other form of illiberal behavior.

I would run into people from DEC all the time when I lived in Boston. Inevitably they would turn out to have gone to one of our Programs. It was a nice feeling to see that reach in the area where I lived. More often, big clients were away somewhere around the world.

I never met Olsen. I only knew him by reputation and dedication to our stuff.

May he rest in peace. I am probably still spending some of his money.

Labels: technology

THE GEEZER MARKET

I hope to take advantage of some of this stuff, eventually,

A Greying Population Spells Business Opportunities.

Right now it sounds like horseshit.

Good and well meaning horseshit but still.

Horseshit.

A lot of it is trivial.

Look at the video from the MIT AgeLab.

AgeLab. One of those mashed brands. Two caps, one word. Oh, Jobs what have you wrought.

Look at that age suit. She says it is for someone my age. I mean that us emulates someone in their 70s. The restrictions.

I tried all the things the suit seems to say I have trouble doing and I can tell you the suit is a lot older than me.

I suppose there will be a time when my kids will want to monitor my pill intake and when I turn on the goddam lights but I don't plan on reaching that any time soon. It is true that they have no idea what pills I take and so be it. The dependent become more dependent. If they know it all then I can forget it. No.

Do you note a hostile tone here?

You are right.

This kind of thing is so condescending as to be meaningless. These young whippersnappers have no idea what aging is like and they will not until the day it starts to happen to them, assuming they don't get the big A first and get silly.

They will find that life in the 70s is not a burden. That a lot of the things they want to do, we do not want to do anymore, and are glad to be rid of it.

And I can put my arms over my head full and touch my hands and so they can take those silly elastic bands off the suit.

What they need to know is that the Boomers who sat on their ass (them) and couched their way through life aren't savable. The ones who got wise to all this and started working out and eating right and quit the drugs are way ahead of the AgeLab. We are part of the new 70s.

There is my hero Jack Lallane drinking his "cocktail" probably at 80.

I am pre-Boomer. Just the right age. Not too old to have seen the handwriting on the wall about being in good health. Not old enough to be some new niche market for the hucksters.

Now I suppose, ironically, I will drop dead tomorrow and prove the point of the article somehow. But I will have cheated the business men who wanted to make a buck out of my geriatricality.

Fuck 'em all.

Labels: aging, gay life, MIT, technology

DIY

I bought a new battery for my mobile three months ago.

I have been loathe to open the case and exchange it with the old one because "I didn't know how to do it" and the battery had no instructions.

I can get struck dumb over this kind of thing, I mean stupid not speechless.

But the last few days my recharge has lasted about a day and then out like a light. Out like a dead cell phone.

So I was going to take it to a meeting and get one of the young guys to put the new battery in there for me but then Igot some balls and opened the back of the phone. It is easy. The back comes off frequently by accident.

And there is the battery. Just like the new one I have.

I snap the old battery out and put the new battery in.

Voila!

I am not as ham handed as I thought.

Of course it is as easy as, well, putting in a mobile battery.

It took awhile to charge up. A friend told me 6-8 hours. I wasn't there at the end but that was about it. And the phone works. Nothing is erased. No explosions. Brilliant!

Labels: technology

LOOKS ARE DECEIVING

Nothing in this video is real. More at The ultimate in CGI trickery

Labels: technology

LIGHTS ON

I got my replacement watch today. The Casio G-shock model 1545

I bought my first one in one of those bargain electronic shops in Pennsylvania Station many years ago.

It is the minimum model. Four functions. Time, alarm, countdown timer, stop watch. Light.

It has cost the same amount for all these years. Twenty years, $35.00. You never ever pay list price.

I am amazed that they still make them. A cash cow.

They last about three years and then start to gain a bit and the light goes out. Gotta have a light.

I figure I have spent $350.00 on them. Maybe I could have gotten a fancier longer lasting watch but I think not.

My idea is that you either walk the lowest road (like this one) or go to the top. In between is not economical.

I like that this is black. No nonsense. And it is relatively small. No big chunk of plastic on my wrist.

That is about it. Another three years, another watch.

Labels: life, technology

POWER SUCKERS

I am beginning to believe that there might be an alternative to incandescent bulbs.

I have ranted here about the fluorescents which suck. Now LED. Maybe. How much are they going to cost?

LED Bulbs Save Substantial Energy, a Study Finds

I remain, as always, skeptical.

This is, incidentally, about the power absorbed in manufacture. The power in use is a fraction of any other alternative.

They look ugly though. Oh well.

Labels: technology

FLYBY

We saw the International Space Station (ISS) last night.

One of the MIT kids turned me on to the Flyby site.

It was very bright. Exciting.

It will go by one more time tonight at 5 before it tracks out of our area. Some are seeing it in twilight it is so vivid.

We missed the combo sightings earlier in the week. The Atlantis and the ISS.

I actually found this through Spaceweather.com which is now on my daily bookmark tour.

Labels: astronomy, astropix, technology