Most Important Events of the Century

As the sand drains down on the current decade, it is a good time to take a look back on the events of the last 10 years and make a call on what was most significant of the young 21st century. Here are my picks in order of significance:

1. Indonesian tsunami - More than 230,000 people died in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The breath of human destruction was incomprehensible.
2. 9/11 - More Americans died in New York that day than on December 7th, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. Yet the American reaction was much different. We are so tolerant that the architect of 9/11 still lives.
3. Election of Barrack Obama - Whatever you think of the man's politics, the election of America's first black president was an historic event. We can only hope that breaking the old white man barrier will lead to the first woman president (Sarah Palin?) and the first Asian president (Bobby Jindal?).
4. Financial crisis of 2008 - What may go down as the biggest mistake of the Bush presidency, his support of TARP 1 handed the new president Barrack Obama with a pot of borrowed money he could use to finance his socialist agenda. What the democrats could never do legislatively, Bush enabled with the bail out.
5. Record Deficit Spending - In one year, Barrack Obama and an irresponsible Congress have run up more public debt that all past presidents combined! The consequences of their actions will linger for decades.
6. North Korea goes Nuclear - Our fear of the clinically insane owning an atomic weapon is now a reality. Will Obama's "can't we all just get along" approach work?
7. The Hanging of Saddam Hussein - If nothing else, it signalled to the world's despots that even they can be held accountable for their actions.
8. Invention of the iPod - This may seem mundane, but how many inventions will you see in your lifetime that completely change an entire industry in the matter of a few short years? Remember the 1990's. All music was bought on CD or pilfered from Napster and then burned to a CD. Music was listened to from CD, in cars, home stereos or portable CD players. Flash forward to 2009. iPods and other digital music players are the predominate method of enjoying music, and while the music can still be purchased on CD, the trend is to purchase and obtain music online from iTunes or the legitimate Napster service.
9. facebook - Those who are socially challenged, like I am, can now keep in touch with others.
10. Digital Photography - Is film even sold now?
11. The Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team win their 2000th game again proving they are the cream of the college basketball crop.

Wireless Wars

I have been amused by the recent war of words between Verizon and AT&T. Millions have been spent on several series of advertisements. It began with Verizon's "there's a map for that" campaign where they called out AT&T on their sparse 3G coverage. Verizon was spot on. AT&T has a very sparse 3G network footprint. AT&T has responded vigorously, and in much the same manner a Senator would when responding to a tough question on "Face the Nation". AT&T did not like the question so they are answering a completely different one.

To understand how AT&T is slipping the question to confuse the public, you must understand what Verizon is challenging them on. Wireless 3G technology is one deployed by the major wireless carriers to enable higher speed data services to wireless devices - phones or PC air cards. If a carrier is not offering 3G at your location, the data speeds delivered to the phone or computer card are slower. Verizon has simply stated that AT&T does not offer the higher speed data services to very much of their service footprint. They are absolutely correct. AT&T has only built out the higher speed network in major metropolitan areas. If you don't live in a big city, only AT&T's slower data network is available.

AT&T cannot afford to admit this is true, so they have deceptively answered a different question. They show their larger voice coverage area as proof that Verizon is making a big deal over nothing. Verizon never challenged their voice coverage. They were very specific in mocking the AT&T 3G coverage map. It is true that you can make a voice phone call withing the coverage area indicated in the AT&T rebuttal commercials, but making a 3G data connection is not possible in most of that area.

Now AT&T has decided to go on the offensive by pointing out that you can have a simultaneous voice call and data connection on their network using the iPhone. That is true. But is it a big deal? I guess it would be nice occasionally. But more important to me would be the ability to make a fast data connection wherever I currently am. That is much easier to do on Verizon than AT&T.

AT&T advertisements commonly claim the "fasted 3G network". This is also a ruse. The truth is the 3G technology used by AT&T is the theoretical fastest, and would be the fastest service if compared to other carriers technologies in a laboratory environment. But in order to really be the fastest 3G technology, you need both the technology and the capacity. The technology is easy - it is purchased from a vendor. Capacity is hard. It requires equipping each of the thousands of cell sites across the country with expensive circuits. AT&T's reluctance to purchase the capacity along with the iPhone customer base quickly consuming what capacity is provided makes AT&T the slowest 3G network in the real world. Nearly every 3rd party test of real world wireless data speed will rank Sprint and Verizon as the top 2, with AT&T and T-Mobile bringing up the rear.

Several years ago, AT&T discovered they could redirect capital funding from their network to the marketing department, stating they have a superior network, and the customer perception of network quality would improve. This is the same thing Verizon did many years ago, starting with their "Can you hear me now" advertisements. It was very effective for Verizon, mainly because they continued to invest in their network as they advertised its superiority. As a result, Verizon is the undisputed network leader, and the consumer is aware of it. It was brilliance on their part. AT&T is trying to replicate that strategy with an inferior network. The only way they can succeed is by hiding the truth and confusing the consumer.

I find the current wireless war to be entertaining, and cannot wait for the war to escalate. I am also curious as to why Verizon has not asked AT&T to answer the specific question instead of the one AT&T wants to answer.

My First Beatles Record

You might think this blog is reminiscing about a day in the late 1960's or early 1970's when The Beatles were popular and sold millions of records. No. I am writing about a day last week. You see, I was never a big fan of the Beatles. When they first began to sell their music, I was 8 years old and influenced by my parents disdain of their long hair. A few years later, I was repelled by their early "bubble gum" sound and immature lyrics.

I find it strange that over 40 years after the release of "Abbey Road", I decided to purchase it in it's new digitally remastered CD format. Even more ironic, Abbey Road was also the last new album released by the group. So I guess it is accurate to say I bought their latest album.

As far as the music and sound quality go, it is great. After the digital magic was applied, it sounds like a modern recording. I am considering additional purchases of the remastered CDs, going from newest to oldest. You never know, I might just become one of The Beatles oldest new fans.

2009 Thrown Shoe Awards

You probably remember the Iraqi newsman who threw his shoe at President Bush last year during a new conference. Apparently that is a sign of great disrespect in primitive cultures, so I thought I would metaphorically borrow it. The Thrown Shoe award goes to those individuals that I believe are the 1o most rotten scoundrels of 2009. Here are my picks:

10) Billy Mays - His face always reminds me how he would yell at me.

9) Senator Charles Schumer - The most outrageous liberal in congress. Thank you for sharing, New York.

8) Michael Jackson - I really don't care what he looked like, or what his father did to him - in the end he goes down in my book as an unconvicted pedophile

7) Tiger Woods - The greatest golfer ever to walk the earth, but not so good as a father and husband.

6) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid - His belief that any health care bill is better than no health care bill has brought us the current pile of rubbish.

5) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - She and Harry, two rubes cut from the same cloth.

4) Senator Barbara Boxer - She was able to fly under the radar for much of 2009, however her comment equating Viagra with abortion has vaulted her to the top.

3) Bernie Maddoff - After his conviction for bilking investors out of $65 billion, had the nerve to ask for bail because of the help he has provided prosecutors.

2) President Barrack Obama - His reckless spending designed only to create a European socialist government will cause American suffering for years.

1) Al Gore - For perpetuating the largest fraud on the citizens of the world in history.

Who did I miss?

Order of Magnitude Upgrades

I upgrade my personal computer about every 5 years, and my cell phone every 2 years. The degree of technology change at this upgrade cycle is amazing.

I was 13 when the Apollo first landed on the moon. NASA claims that many cell phones, cars, and even some appliances now have more computing power than the original Apollo lander used to guide it's decent to the moon. Ten years later I bought my first personal computer. It was an IBM clone with an 8-bit 8088 processor and 640 kilobytes of RAM. It had no hard drive. Instead, I had two 1.2 megabyte floppy drives. Very rudimentary programs could be run off the floppy drives. I once bought a simple adventure game that came on 3 floppy disks. Occasionally the game would prompt me to change to a different floppy disk. We have come a long way since then, but only in steps.

My next computer was a more powerful Hyundai (yes, they made computers too) with a 16-bit 286 processor. This computer had 3 big upgrades in addition to the faster processor. It had a 1.5 megabyte floppy drive, a modem and a 30 megabyte hard drive. I wondered how I would ever fill so much space as was on my hard drive, but over time I did. I upgraded it to a 40 megabyte hard drive at the cost of $400. Today you can buy a terabyte hard drive, 25,000 times the storage, for a quarter the cost. The modem was only useful to connect to a local community college bulletin board service. There was no widespread email, nor was there an Internet since Al Gore had not yet invented it. Bulletin boards were generally a waste of time, however you could entertain yourself for a few evenings downloading useless freeware games.

My next PC had a 386 SX processor which in theory could used memory greater than 640 kilobytes. In reality all it did was swap data and code from the upper memory to the base 640 kilobyte space when needed. The result was slightly faster program execution, but program size was still restricted to 640 kilobytes of memory. The innovation that came along with their PC was a Windows 3.0 operating system. Graphics could now be mixed with text, and clipboard became used to cut and paste between applications. I did not use Microsoft Word or Excel. At the time, WordPerfect and Quatro Pro were the applications of choice.

I completely missed the 386 DX, 486 SX, DX and DX4 processing platforms. My next computer sported a Pentium 1 32-bit chip running at around 200 MHz. It had a 400 megabyte hard drive and 2 megabytes of RAM. This was the first computer that could multi-task and access memory above 640 kilobytes. I ran Windows 98 on that machine. This was the first machine I owned that was used regularly for email and Internet access. At first, my connection was dial up over a phone line, but later became broadband cable modem service. I kept it for approximately 5 years and just recently retired it.

I now own 2 computers, a laptop and a desktop. The specifications of each dwarf my last computer. Modern day computers have processors with multiple cores, each more powerful that computers made 5 years ago. Memory and hard drive space have become so cheap, that they add little to the total cost of the computer.

What I find most interesting is that current desktop has 125 times the memory, 100,000 times the storage space, a CPU that runs hundreds of times faster and gobbles 8 times as many bits per cycle as my first computer - but they both cost about the same. What will the next 30 years bring?

The Christmas Story

2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

2:2 Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His Star in the east, and are come to worship Him.

2:3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

2:4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

2:5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

2:6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule My people Israel.

2:7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the Star appeared.

2:8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young Child; and when ye have found Him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship Him also.

2:9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the Star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

2:10 When they saw the Star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

The Christmas Story

Matthew 1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost.

1:19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

1:20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

1:21 And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His Name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.

1:22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the LORD by the prophet, saying,

1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God With Us.

1:24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the LORD had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:

1:25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn Son: and he called His Name JESUS.