The Exciting Conclusion

Yesterday we took a quick look at the history of the 700 MHz frequency range and what it’s good for. Now we got all the background stuff out of the way we can get into the really good stuff.

There are two large blocks of the 700 MHz frequency range that are being auctioned off; they are referred to as blocks C and D. These are the ones that everyone wants to get their hands on. There have also been a lot of people worried about the auction. The main concern is if you auction off the rights to build the wireless network of tomorrow it’s obvious who will win - the entity willing to spend the most money. Who will be willing to spend the most money? They’ll need deep pockets and want to change the industry….or, more likely, they’ll need deep pockets and want to keep their strangle hold on the status quo. Many worry that AT&T and Verizon will snap up the spectrum and under-utilize it.

So here’s the twist. The FCC decided to make some rules that the winner of the auction will have to follow. Whoever wins the rights to block D will also have to build a nationwide wireless network that is good enough to meet public safety specifications for coverage and redundancy. Basically, they have to build a first responder wireless data network, which is cool.

The really big story is whoever wins block C (which is the one with the most commercial promise) has to follow open access rules. There are two open access rules that the FCC has set. The network must be open to devices and open to applications. That’s huge. Basically it says if Verizon wins they can’t dictate which phones are allowed on the network and what software they can download and use.

Anyone who has used Verizon in the past knows they have a penchant for crippling their handsets so all the features the phone is capable do not function, then they usually try and nickel and dime you for some form of partial functionality. Remember when camera-phones came out and they claimed that the only way to get the photos off the phone was to pay them to email them to you? Ever wonder why is so damn hard to move your phone book on and off their phones (but they can do it for $15), ever wonder why saints and babies cry? Verizon’s anti-user business practices are the answers.

The winner of block C will have to compete against any phone that comes to market and meets the interface specs. That means we might start to see cell phones in the States that are as cool as the one in South Korea. For those of you that don’t know, South Korea is way ahead of the US in cell phone technology. Do you think we were the first ones to get the Chocolate? Bah. South Korea had that phone a year or two before we did….and when they had it; it was dark brown like a chocolate bar (thus the name!)

Not everyone is happy with the open access auction rules. Google had been pushing for more rules. In addition to the open device and open application requirements, Google wanted to see open service and open network rules. Basically Google wanted the winner to have to provide access to block C at wholesale rates so smaller companies could be created to compete with the winner using the winner’s own network! I believe this is sort of how the landline phone system works. That’s why there was an explosion o f the cheap long distance companies…they’re using the big boy’s phone networks.

Verizon on the other hand has gone to court in an effort to sue and get all the open access restrictions dropped from the auction. In Verizon’s twisted mind the open access rules will "limit the introduction of new and innovative wireless services." I personally think they will prevent Verizon from limiting the introduction of new and innovative wireless services…

So that’s why the 700 MHz auction is cool. It might mean wireless broadband access with new devices that are not strictly dictated by the two big cell phone companies. Sounds pretty awesome to me.

For the record I am a Verizon customer. I think they have a good network with craptastic customer relations and crippled handsets. Anything that might force them to improve in their two weak areas is ok by me.

Watch your toes. I'm about to drop some knowledge.

Why should you care about the 700 MHz auction? What, you don’t trust me that it’s cool? You want a reason? Well Ok. Do you like cell phones and broadband internet connections? I’m being silly, who doesn’t?

Well the 700 MHz auction is being billed as the possibility to deliver a “3rd pipe” of broadband internet access to consumers. The first two pipes are cable modems and DSL. The cool thing about the “third pipe” is that it wireless. Meaning that if you live out in the boondocks you don’t have to wait until a cable or phone company decides to make service available at your house. The coverage of the “3rd pipe” is supposedly going to be pretty complete; meaning only the most rural of the rural should be outside of its range.

So if there is this new wireless broadband connection, imagine what that can mean for your cell phone… really good coverage and really fast data transfers. The promise of mobile internet will finally be realized in full. Imagine what it means for all the wonderful devices you want to connect to your cell phone… you won’t have hunt for WiFi hotspots because the whole country is a hotspot (if you have service some whoever the 3rd pipe provider is.) So that’s what it means to you, the possibility of better coverage and faster internet access.

A Bit of History
Where does this wondrous 700 MHz range come from and why haven’t we exploited it before? Have you heard about all the hubbub of network television stations having to switch over to digital broadcasts? If you’re a cable or dish TV subscriber it really won’t affect you, but if you get your TV the old fashion way, over the air with an antenna (hopefully with some artfully placed coat-hangers to augment it) then it might be a big deal. Basically the government is forcing all television stations to switch over to digital broadcasts, which will mean you’ll need a digital tuner to pick up the station. If you’re using an antenna to pick up your TV you probably don’t have a digital tuner built into your television. That means you’ll need to get a digital tuner to pick up over-the-air broadcasts before February 17th 2009, that’s the deadline for the transition.

So the magical 700 MHz range comes from reclaiming the old analog television broadcast range. The government gets to turn around and re-lease the frequency range to another industry. It is expect that the government should raise ~10 billion auctioning off.

Tomorrow, technical details and political intrigue!

A Prelude to an Auction

Has everyone else being following the 700 MHz auction with as much anticipation as I have? What, no one? Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Sigh.

I’ve got a busy morning so I don’t have time to track down all the details like I should. I was going to try and do a quick post about what the 700 MHz auction is and what it might mean to you. The more I started to research it the more I realized that there is far too much information for a single post. Plus I wanted to take my time with it and try to make sense of what’s really going on. So instead of a shoddy quick post that glosses over some of the fun and exciting details I’m going to put this teaser up and start taking the issue apart in future posts.

Sorry I don’t have something more substantial to tide you over until I get around to writing some more. Perhaps you can try doing what I did yesterday… look at this Luxist Estate of the Day and imagine hunkering down there for a nice snowy Christmas. On that note, if anyone is looking for a good Christmas gift idea for me this estate would make a dandy gift.

Coffee is there anything you can’t do?

I think if it were not for digital cameras, at some point I would have tried to develop my own film. I remember wanting to take a photography class as an undergrad, but never being able to work it into my schedule. With D-SLR cameras being readily available these days I don’t know if I’ll ever summon up enough curiosity to want to play around with all the chemicals that traditional film developing entails. Once you develop the film negatives you have to figure out how to get it on paper. Seems like a lot of hassle. Also seems strange that it was pretty much the only option about 10 years ago. Actual film is such an anachronism these days.

If I do end up playing around with traditional film I know something I definitely want to try. I read about how you can develop black and white film with instant coffee. How cool is that? (Answer: pretty cool).

The results look pretty evocative in that way that good black and white photos always look. I’m sure a digital camera can produce similar results, but I factor in the journey as part of the fun. It has to be a good story to tell people who you developed the picture using coffee.

Come to think of it, it makes me a little sad that I’ll probably never play around with real film camera. That was something I had always wanted to do…but now there is absolutely no reason to do it. Kind of strange when you keep putting something off and realize that technology has nullified the option. Not that I’m complaining. I’ll just have to look forward to getting a fancy D-SLR and playing around with that. Actually that’s kind of exciting. Sadness all gone.

Slightly Better than the Tell-Tale-Riblet

Last week I insinuated that I wanted a tech topic to blog on and like a wretched monkey paw the gods granted my wish.

Over the weekend Dawn and I came to the sad realization that our media PC was sick. Specifically, it no longer could be trusted to record television shows for us without replacing the audio with hissing static. This discovery coincided with Dawn anxiously attempting to watch the first part of the season finale to Dr Who. The SciFi channel showed the finale twice, we attempted to record it both times and both recordings are damaged. So sad. It doesn’t look like they’ll replay it until after the show has wrapped up.

I built our current media PC from scratch as “fun” side project. This was before Vista came out and Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005 was the only viable choice. At the time MCE 2005 was considered OEM software, meaning it wasn’t an end-user product but one intended for original equipment manufacturers (OEM). As such, it didn’t have robust hardware support, and in fact, I had to buy a second motherboard to build the system just because MCE 2005 didn’t like the flavor of the first one. The most expensive part I put in the computer was an ATI All-in-Wonder card that does the job of both video card and video encoder card. Since that’s on the fritz I now have to replace both functions of the computer. I suppose that’s the dark side of multifunction devices.

By Saturday morning Dawn and I had somewhat recovered from the staggering blow that we might have to watch television when shows were actually scheduled like a common plebeian. We decided that by the time we replaced the malfunctioning hardware and made other routine upgrades (I’d been thinking about upgrading the OS to Vista) we might as well buy a new media PC…which is exactly what we did.

We ordered a new PC to ascend to the title of media PC. When I say new I really mean refurbished, but it will be new to us. The new PC is also one of the HP slimline computers, one of the cute little ones. I’m especially excited that the media PC will be an attractive little box instead of a giant black eyesore like our old one. In addition to being a giant black void on the floor it has a series of multi-colored LEDs that constantly flash when it’s on. That’s a feature I wasn’t aware of when I bought the case. So our media PC has always looked like it might be a small discotheque in the corner.

With any luck I’ll get all the new equipment in this week and get it setup and ready to go by next weekend.

Guess what, you’re all superfluous!

I’ve developed a new talent, evolved a new life skill if-you-will. It’s not big secret that I’m a card carrying introvert and sometime amateur misanthrope. I’ve developed a technique to converse with all my friends while taking the human element out of the conversations….what’s more is it’s even better than email or this blog!

I simply have the conversation with you in my head and then record that as an actual real conversation. I get the benefit of talking with you with having to actually deal with you. It’s a beautiful thing.

I first noticed my new skill last weekend when a friend absolutely denied having a conversation with me even though I was sure we had one. Turns out I just did all the heavy lifting on the conversating side in my head and let them be. That means less effort for you! I’ve done it with Dawn a couple of times this week as well.

I’m not sure if this is the first step on the road to insanity or if I’m about to enter a new era of social bliss. Are the two mutually exclusive?

Bill's Guide to Whipping a Dead Horse

I thought I had made my peace with Tim Gunn’s show yesterday. I complained about it, I poked some fun at it. Time to move on, right? Wrong.

Dawn and I watched it again last night….and the first five minutes of the show, of all of his shows, are unbearable. They drive me crazy. It’s like they flagellate temporal continuity.

The show opens with Tim and whats-her-name talking about this week’s subject. They decide she needs help. Fine, I’m with the show so far. They call her and the show cuts to the person answering the phone. They are surprised to learn that Tim Gunn is coming to help their fashion crisis….surprised? Oh really? Did the camera crew following her around town and being completely mic’ed not arouse any suspicions?

Then Tim says he’s going to be there in 20 minutes so they better be ready. The person freaks out because they have race back home and get ready for Tim. Tim is supposedly placing this call from his office in New York. Most of the subjects so far have been in New Jersey. I don’t think there is a chance in hell that Tim can even make it out of the city in 20 minutes. Why place a ridiculous, arbitrary, unbelievable time here?

Tim eventually shows up and the person is a mess. They are so shocked that they’ve been chosen to be on the show. They look in the closet. THEY ASK FOR THE PHOTOS THAT THE PERSON HAS TAKEN OF THEIR OUTFITS FOR THE LAST FIVE DAYS. The person who didn’t know they were going to be on the show twenty minutes ago. Arghghghghg! Kurplow [head explodes].

I don’t get the show’s dependency on needless, hopelessly artificial, staging. It hurts my head and diminishes the shows credibility. Tim, why do you hurt me?

I could go on and on about all the other things the show does that bother me (and there are many)…but let me highlight just one example of the show making my brain bleed.

Last night they determined that the subject felt guilty about taking care of herself, so they made her put on a weighted vest to help visualize the problem. They had her write things that she felt guilty about and attached the tags to weights. They proceeded to weigh her down with her guilt and then made her walk back and forth like a dunce. Then to free her from the guilt they had her cut the tags……but left the weights attached to the vest…. I can only assume the purpose of the exercise it to show her that she needs not know the name of her guilt…that she should just become accustomed to living with the crushing weight of impending nameless dread. Nice one Tim.

Ok, phew. That was cathartic. I promise no more posts in the near future of Tim Gunn’s show. I made the show the one thing I was going to do last night that wasn’t studying or homework. I feel like I did not reap any rewards for my investment.Didn’t I used to talk about technology? That always made me happy. Maybe I should focus the blog a bit more on that.

Why Do I Watch Crap?

God help us, Dawn and I have started watching two new reality shows. We didn’t used to be these people; we used to sneer at the idiots who patronized reality TV. Oh how far we have fallen.

We’ve been watching Tim Gunn’s guide to style, and as of last night, America’s Next Top Model.

I’ll start with Tim Gunn’s show. I’ll be honest, it’s a disappointment. I had such high hopes. What I wanted out of Tim Gunn’s show was Tim showing up and walking through someone’s wardrobe and explaining what did and did not work and why. I wanted an analytical show. Oh sure, along the way I wanted Tim to use big words and occasionally shriek, but mostly I wanted a cerebral guide to style. But that’s not really what we get.

The show’s producers decided what we really needed is yet another show that forces someone to go through an internal and external transformation in under a week. The internal emotional transformation is key to them….and I couldn’t care less. What, do they think a bunch of women watch this show? Personally, I doubt someone can really undergo a complete internal transformation in a week. Secondly, the show also uses such lame ploys at emotional manipulation that I feel embarrassed for Tim for being associated with it. “We told you your mother couldn’t be here…..but she is” and my personal favorite. “Here, give her this wedding ring that has no significance to either of you…but it’s expensive. She’s a whore and she needs to know her price.” Bleh.

America’s Next Top Model is no better, but I feel less disappointed by that show. I expect crap from ANTM, the show has been on the slide for awhile. It is by far my most guilty of television pleasures. At one time I might have expected to glean some sort of photography tip from the show…but those illusions are long gone. I expect to learn nothing from the show and feel dirty for wasting an hour of my life afterwards.

I found the new season to be unabashedly bad. Especially the panel interviews, “it says here on this paper in front of me, that everyone on the panel is familiar with, that something tragic and horrible happened to you….cry for us.” No amount of euphemisms would satisfy the panel, they craved the salty tears of young, dumb, models.

I couldn’t tell if they cut the girl who was from Yale out or not. I kind of wanted her to stay in, although I know she will be a sacrificial lamb on the show. Her role will be to show that being smart has nothing to do with being a good model…..and she will be criticized for thinking she’s smarter than everyone else and not having the drive to be a model. Her narrative was written before she step foot on set.

I think Dawn has picked her ponies already. I guess I need to go to the website and see which train wreck I want to bet on.

This one's for my homeys

Let’s take a moment to contemplate all those people who supposedly have blogs but haven’t updated them in two weeks to a month…
My Google reader is lonely and you’re not helping.

The Most Buoyant Duck

I was poking around the FoodTV website and I ran across this recipe for duck sausage. Mmmm duck sausage. I know I have some duck meat in the freezer at home, I wonder if I have what it takes to make duck sausage?

Here’s the ingredient list from the website:

Duck Sausage:
2 tablespoons ground duck meat
1 cup diced duck meat
2 tablespoons ground duck fat, plus more for cooking sausage
1/4 cup flour (add enough hot water to make a small pastry dough, about 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons port wine
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
Salt and pepper
Sugar
1 egg white
1 pound foie gras
Duck skin
8 pounds duck fat

I was with it right up until the last three ingredients. A couple of tablespoons of this, a cup of that, no problem…..but what kind of duck yields a cup of duck meat to 8 pounds of duck fat!?!? Obviously this recipe is meant to use up duck leftovers instead of being the reason to shop for duck.

What's Riblet's Bean Doing?

I guess all of Riblet’s plantation work is starting to pay off. This weekend I was shocked to check out the coffee plants and see that one of the beans is changing color. I’ve had the coffee plants for years and this is the first year they’ve ever bloomed. I was really surprised to see that after blooming they started to bear fruit, did Riblet pollinate them with her tail?

The green beans have been on the plants for months now, I have no idea what is considered the normal amount of time for them to grow. I’ve been told that they would eventually turn red and that would mean it’s getting close to harvesting time. I have absolutely no idea how I get the red fruit off the seeds. Basically I’m coffee clueless.

I suppose there is the very real possibility that I might get to collect a few beans this year and roast them (that I do know how to do). Then I might get to drink what will probably the worst half a cup of coffee known to man. I figure if coffee characteristics are determined by growing environment, then my dining room is probably pretty far down on the list of desirable coffee growing environments.

Still it’s all kind of fun and exciting. I recommend that everyone take five or so years and try it out for themselves.

Mega Awesome Weekend

It’s rare that you capture the perfect weekend. I think we did a pretty good job this last weekend. A couple of friends came up Friday evening and we were able to go out for drinks and Thai food. Saturday morning we woke up and made hash browns and sausage in the evil black egg. Then it was off to Chattanooga to take in Wine Over Water. All the while the weather was perfectly sunny and in the 70’s.

This was my second year to take in Wine Over Water. We were able to find a bed and breakfast within walking distance of the event. The bed breakfast was very nice and trumped staying in a hotel. From now on walking to Wine Over Water is a must-do.

The bridge didn’t seem quite as crowded this year, I wonder if that is fact or if I had added extra people in my memories. There definitely seemed to be more food booths, which was unfortunate because we had just eaten and I was stuffed. The food looked and smelled really good though; I was nearly tempted by the lamb-chops. The cynical part of me wondered if they had taken out wine booths and added more food booths because they don’t earn any additional revenue from having more wine on the bridge, but food is a pay-as-you-go deal. However, looking at the list of wineries that participated I don’t think I really have cause for concern.

The bridge was the usual game of trying to find the good wines and avoid the nasty ones. There was ample sport to be had. Tent 40 won the “Avoid At All Costs” prize for having fruit wines, one of which, was the ominously titled “Orange Squeeze.” I imagine that Sterno was an ingredient. In addition to wine tasting we were playing a lively game of tattoo-spotting. I wonder if, in the future, seeing our generation’s old and withered tattoos will put a future generation off tattooing?

In addition to Wine Over Water everything was within walking distance of our B&B. Chattanooga has really come a long way in regards to setting up a pedestrian friendly zone downtown. The Art Museum, the Aquarium, the North Shore were all within easy walking distance. Coffee, Clumpies Ice Cream, used books…Chattanooga is there any way in which you can’t satiate a Dawn?

So our weekend rocked. Food, friends, wine, and good weather. Who can ask for more?

A Morning with Riblet

Getting ready for work in the morning is a pretty active time in our house. Dawn and I are zipping back and forth, and in the middle of it all is Riblet. Usually Riblet moves from person to person uttering vague and sometime very specific threats. She was especially on form this morning so I thought I’d give everyone a taste of classic Riblet banter.

As soon as someone gets out of the shower Riblet comes along to inspect the water. This is sometimes accompanied with a song that is vaguely set to “I’m a little teapot.” The lyrics change up depending on Riblet’s mood but they always start with “I’m a little Riblet, short and stout.” The shower water Riblet “inspects” is strictly referred to as soup, I assume that’s because we’ve been “simmering” in the hot water. She will normally make some comment about the soup and how she will be accustomed to the flavor when it comes time comes to eat us.

I’ll warn you, the following is nightmare fuel. I know I might not sleep as soundly tonight. This morning Riblet allowed Dawn to roll her over and pet her tummy. Of course there had to be something in it for Riblet. She’s been asking Dawn for a set of thumbs for ages now. Riblet often asks Dawn for thumbs, matches, or money. This morning she asked if the thumbs could be grafted to her tummy. Tummy thumbs. Riblet then explained that with tummy thumbs she could hold a knife or gun against her tummy. When she was in a fight and gave her opponent a big Riblet hug (which is her standard move) she could hold them close and use her tummy thumbs to shiv them.

Of course Dawn and I didn’t take her too seriously; we just made jokes about gangster Riblet and her tummy gun. Still I can’t quite shake the mental image of Riblet with a set of thumbs grafted to her tummy.

Riblet swore at us for our impertinence. She promised Dawn would be the first to taste the cold hard bite of her tummy knife. The morning more or less ended as we were about to leave and Riblet full out attacked Dawn’s arm. Fortunately there was no tummy knife involved.

She sure is a strange and deranged cat. To illustrate her commitment to nefarious and malicious deeds I’ve attached a photo of a slightly younger Riblet on her “Throne of Bone.”

What's the Asymptotic Limit of Culture?

I dress slightly nicer than most people I work with. This has more to do with the fact that T-shirts and polo shirts are the norm around here then it does with me being the fashion-plate oracle of the first floor. As such I stand out at bit and occasionally take a little ribbing for always being “dressed up” (ie I can figure out buttons on a shirt). I often respond that the wardrobe is part of the computer science lifestyle I subscribe to. I’m working on starting a new stereotypical computer scientist.

My computer scientist will always carry their passport on them, because brunch in Brussels and drinks in Prague are all potential happenings of any working day. Basically I want to cross computer science with James Bond. I’ll keep all the women and drinking from James Bond but loose all the gun play and torture.

The bon vivant computer scientist has been a running joke of mine for a couple of months. Lately (for some reason) I’ve been imagining what grad school for the bon vivant computer scientist would look like….and I’ve fallen in love with my creation. I imagine a curriculum that teaches the software engineering process along side international social mores and etiquette. There might be classes like “CS-617 Design and Analysis of Martinis and Algorithms” or “CS-690 Advanced Operating Systems and Haberdashery. “ Perhaps I feel that my grad school experience is a lacking a bit of a Tim Gunn aspect.

I suspect the particular niche for my vision of computer science is not very large, but as the world’s technical workforce becomes increasingly mobile the bon vivant computer scientist can be relied on to travel to foreign countries, accomplish astonishing feats of computer science, all the while reflecting a positive professional image. Extroverts need-not-apply, private jets will be provided upon graduation.

Extroverts Go Home.

I got a crazy busy morning today….so this morning’s thought has got to be a quickie. I heard about this on the way in to work this morning. Perhaps it made me angry because I was physically in the act of commuting to work.

Morning Edition did a piece about people who get to telecommute but get all bored and lonely working from home….the solution is to go out and find other people to work with. They don’t go and find people from their company to work with (which is good)….they just find random people to spend the day with (which I think is probably worse). They call it Jelly. I call it stupid.

As a certified introvert I don’t know where to start with this. It’s wrong on so many levels. I’ve been to telecommuting paradise and it is a rich land abundant in milk and honey. It drives me crazy to see these weak, sniveling, extroverts desecrate nirvana. Bah.

A Bit Early to be Ruining Christmas

Don’t you think Christmas gifts are best kept as surprises? I prefer to have no idea what my gifts may or may not be. Before you carefully peel back the wrapping paper (and fold it neatly) anything could be in the box. This is why I was so conflicted about asking Dawn if she’d like a particular item for Christmas.

I found an item that she might really like to have… or she might think is completely stupid. I could see how she could form one opinion or the other. Unfortunately it was a bit too expensive just to buy and hope for the best. I wanted to be sure she would like it. So I came clean and asked. She indicated that she would be very receptive to the gift. Which is great….or maybe it’s not. I’m not sure. All I know is that I’ve robbed her of one Christmas surprise. I suppose I’ll have to buy her an extra gift to make up for that.

Over Already?

Where the heck did the weekend go? It doesn’t seem like I got much done this last weekend. I remember prepping some pork wellington, going to a party, and working on the book shelves…but that doesn’t seem like enough memories to fill an entire weekend.

I made a bit more progress on the bookshelves. It doesn’t seem like I got a whole lot accomplished in the big picture. I think I got sucked into one of those steps that get mentally glossed over when planning. Cutting the wood gets a lot of time budgeted for it, assembling the pieces gets time…and in between those two I’ll quickly make sure everything is sanded. Sanding takes time…and how. So I got a lot of sanding done and started boxing in the smaller shelves.

Dawn and I visited Lowes again this weekend. We just needed to pick up some extra stripping compound (Dawn is stripping our bar stools so she can re-stain them to match the house). We decided to make the trip a little bit more dangerous by bringing some dishes along with us. We’ve been toying with the idea of getting a new dish washer. We really wanted to get one of the new fangled dishwashers that are really two drawer dishwashers. However after eyeing the floor models in the store we’ve been worried that they don’t offer enough vertical space to wash our larger plates. We bought a couple of dishes along to see how they fit in various models. The two drawer dishwasher got knocked out of the running. A KitchenAid model is now in first place. Great we got the unit picked out. That’s step one down the dangerous path of purchasing.

While we were there we decided to talk to one of the helpful employees about new counter tops. He gave us the Lowes spill, which is basically, “You don’t really want granite.” He was very helpful and laid out all the small steps we would have to take in order to find out how much they would really and truly cost.

More and more it looks like next year is going to be a choice between Scotland and kitchen.

A University by Any Other Name

People keep coming up to me and asking what I think about UAH trying to change its name. I usually respond “Wha?” I had been dismissing it as a strange rumor, but enough different people asked me that I took the time to look it up…and what do you know. UAH is trying to change its name. Kind of.

Evidently the problem is no one outside of the south east (or maybe just north Alabama) knows what the heck UAH is. Fair enough. The solution is to change UAH to UAHuntsville or UA Huntsville or UA-Huntsville depending on which source you read. This is supposed to make the university more identifiable.

I don’t understand why they don’t just spell the whole thing out if they want people to know who they are and use the acronym in contexts where people should know who they are. Isn't that the point of acronyms? In addition to that UAHuntsville seems like a cumbersome acronym. Aren't ancronyms supposed to be something that’s quick and easy? I guess technically it’s really a more of a pseudo-acronym then an honest to god acronym.

I don’t have a lot of sentimental attachment to “UAH,” but I’m having trouble understanding how the purposed name accomplishes the stated goals. The stated goals are to make it easier to recruit out of state students and raise name recognition. Fine, those sound like good goals. Does the new name do that? Maybe. There’s no doubt that UA is more nationally known….for its football team and partying. To me it seems like UAH is trying to ride on Tuscaloosa’s coattails, which seems a bit disingenuous.

On top of that it seems to me that it actually diminishes UAH’s standing. In most states a city name is tacked onto a university name when it’s a satellite campus. UA-Huntsville makes it seem like UAH is UA’s satellite campus. You know if you’re not good enough to get into UA you might get stuck at UA-Huntsviile.

Even if the above points don’t hold water here is the just plain bizarre thing. They are only planning to change the logo for some things. The new logo will be used for recruitment and maybe a “signature element” or two while the old logo will stick around for other things. How does having two logos, a split brand, help with recognition and confusion? It seems like that would actually be counterproductive to the stated goals. Unless that’s not the real plan. Maybe they’re just spoon-feeding the new logo to quell the sentimentalist.

Oh well. As a Friday bonus here’s a picture of Riblet tending to her coffee plantation. She spends a bit of time every day making sure her coffee plants are doing well.

Further adventures in woodworking

This last weekend had a lot going for it. There wasn’t a heat-wave in progress. I wasn’t feeling ill. It was a weekend we were at home. As such, I actually got some work done on my labor or love, the bookcases.

It’s been so long since I last got a chance to work on them due to illness, temperature, school, traveling, etc, that most of my seething hate for the project had subsided. In fact it was actually fun again! More importantly, I was able to evaluate my progress with a clear head and realize I was at a pretty important decision point. Most of the atomic parts of the first bookshelf have been assembled. There are a few connector pieces missing, but those have mostly been purposely postponed to make sure they are cut to fit the actual bookcase, not the one that only lives on paper.

After surveying my work-to-date I came to the conclusion that I might need to make small change to my plan. The original plan was to build a huge, free standing, backless, bookcase of Dawn’s design. I was at the point where I could just start assembling all the pieces and see what happened, but I beginning to have my doubts about free standing. Free standing seems unnecessarily risky. What happens if I get all the pieces together, and to spite all my careful measuring, my workmanship shows through and the errors all add up? The whole thing might be a wobbly, or worse yet, too dangerous to put books on. This thing is going to be of considerable size and weight and I don’t want Dawn crushed in an unfortunately bibliophile related accident.

The safer course of action seems to be assembling the bookcase in components. This will entail first assembling the outer frame (the two sides, and four major shelves) and attaching it to the wall. Once the outer frame is in place and secure I’ll go about filling up the outer frame Tetris-style with the remaining components. The advantage of this approach is that if any single area is too far off I’ll just have to replace that one section instead of the cursing and swearing and tearing apart the fully assembled bookcase with my bare hands. The probability of overall project success seems more likely, which is a good thing. If these bookcases don’t work out I think a little part of my creative soul might die.

Gobbling Not Necessary

One of our weekend home projects was to replace the exterior door knobs and locks on our house. The primary reason for doing this is the older door knobs were nasty. The finish was worn off the door knobs and they looked decrepit. The door knob at the back of the house was covered with some sort of black gunk which I always imagined to be death mold. I doubt it was actual death mold, but that’s not the mental image you want to conjure as your moving food in and out to the grill.

Of course there is also the added bonus of getting to change the locks at the same time. We didn’t change the locks when we moved into the house. From all neighbor accounts the previous owner’s ex-wife is a raving lunatic. It nice to know that there is now 0% chance of finding her (or the previous own for that matter) in the house one day because they discovered an old key and decided to take a look.

At Lowes I got a really helpful employee who claimed he used to be a locksmith. He dropped some door knob related knowledge that I suspect Dawn and I would have learned the hard way. Namely, that the door knob manufacture we were looking at made their knobs such that they turn freely on the inside even when locked. Meaning you can lock the door then come back later and freely open the door and then close it behind you only to discover you just locked yourself out. He recommended using the passive door knobs below and relying on the deadbolts for actual security. The upshot is you actually have to use a key to lock the door….so you can never lock yourself out.
Replacing the locks was a breeze, although I did have to drill a new hole in our front door for the new fancy handle. I had a little bit of trepidation on that count. It’s not like you can un-drill a hole in a steel door… or even really patch it. It’s pretty much new door time. However, measure 57 times and drill once seemed to work out in the end.

One of the cool side benefits of replacing the locks is the knowledge that I actually made it tougher to kick down our doors. I don’t actually know anyone who has had their place broken into by a master thief who picked the locks. I do know of a couple of situations where someone simply kicked in the door. The fancy lock doesn’t really help if someone kicks the door. The point that fails is the metal bracket attached to the doorframe that the deadbolt slides into. That metal bracket wasn’t being held on by much with the older locks. Check out how much beefier the new screws are that hold the bracket on.


Of course now that we have pretty new exterior door knobs they just make the interior door knobs looks ugly. The exterior ones are brushed satin nickel finish, the interior ones are crappy cheapo brass finish. Looks like I need to find a contractor pack of nickel door knobs so I can go through the house and replace the all of the other knobs.

Death Is So Cheap.

I had wanted to post about the many house related tasks Dawn and I accomplished this weekend...but I forgot the memory card with the photos at home. And what fun would a home improvement post be without photos?

So instead I'll give a quick review of the new video game I've been playing, Two Worlds.

I've heard this game described as "the poor-man's Oblivion." I think the description is apt. Two Worlds does not have as much polish as Oblivion so it ends up taking a beating when compared toe-to-toe with Oblivion. The first hour playing the game is rough, because you spend the entire time cataloging all the ways in which Two Worlds comes up short when compare to Oblivion.

The Awkwardness
I've read that Two Worlds was basically designed for the PC and ported over to the 360....and it shows. The menus for the game beg for a mouse, it's a bit time consuming hopping all over the place with a joystick. The map in the corner is near impossible to read because it so damn small. I suppose if it were on a monitor a foot away from my face it might not be so bad. The text in the game is tiny, the myopic need not apply.

The World
The world is huge. I've read that it's actually larger than Oblivion's. The visuals are nice enough, and there are lots of environmental effects (it rains). The place is covered with tons of vegetation...which is actually a bit of a problem. Fallen foes fall into the vegetation and are hidden. That makes it hard to find and loot them. I now have an immediate loot rule. I loot as soon as I drop someone. I don't care if I get hit once or twice in the back by his friends. I rather take the damage than forget where this joker fell.

The Loot
I actually think looting is one place where Two Worlds compares favorably to Oblivion. There is a huge variety of weapons and armor. So far it's been pretty interesting seeing what people are carrying. If they have a weapon in their hands when they are a live it tends to be in their inventory when they are dead.

Two Worlds allows you to "double up" items...which means if you find an identical item you can "combine" it with the one you already have to make a better version. I don't know how combining 12 pairs of identical boots makes a better boot...but it does. This actually keeps looting interesting...instead of sighing when someone drops something you already have you get excited because yours just got better. It also makes picking up a better item more of a decision. There might be a new sword...but since you've cobbled together so many basic swords you're basic sword is now better than the new sword..but if you cobbled together a bunch of new swords it would be better than your uber basic sword. I wonder how many new swords you're likely to find.....?

The other genius thing Two Worlds does in regard to looting is it also displays what your are currently wearing or using for comparison purposes when you look at another item. No more having to page to your inventory to see if what you just found is better than what you have. All RPG games ought to adopt this function.

Life Is Cheap
In Two Worlds you can't really die. If you die you just get respawned at the closest rejuvenation point WITH NO PENALTY for dying. Heck if you even walk by a rejuvenation point it will top off your hit points. I find fighting monsters way over my level on rejuvenation points to be very convenient. My hit points are constantly restored and if the monster deals damage fast enough to actually kill me I just respawn right there to continue the fight. Cheap? You bet.

Almost too cheap. I guess it comes down to what is more fun, the illusion of your hero making it through every fight without dying (but probably being forced to reload your game a bunch to maintain the illusion), or just respawning to continuing your adventure. I know one thing for sure, not having the reload the game penalty will lead you to take bigger risks.

Over all, once I got past the initial Two Worlds is not Oblivion thing, I've started to enjoy the game...which is a shame because I don't have the time to spare for Oblivion-sized video game time commitment right now.