Despite losing wireless, tropical storm wasn't bad

OK. Survived Tropical Storm Hanna without any problems Friday night. A lot of wind and rain. The whole region basically shut down at 1 p.m. We were taking this thing seriously in Charleston.

I knocked off from work at 11:30, but not before some of us tied all movable things down (I still wonder if any of our guys checked the porto-let to see if anyone was using it before roping the door shut and lashing it to a concrete barrier? Would have been a long weekend for somebody!)

Stayed home that night and monitored the storm's progress on the radio. What didn't help was that around 1:45 p.m. the emergency broadcast warning tone sounded on the local radio station. I kind of sat upright, notebook out, waiting for a new dispatch on the storm. Not quite. This was only a test of the emergency broadcast system.

A great time for the monthly test, I thought.

About the only possible effect I could point to was that my wireless Internet was out of commission until Tuesday. Could have been from the storm, but possibly not, too. May have just been one of those things, like the monthly emergency broadcast test.

Had the usual flooding downtown, and a lot of rain everywhere else. But it wasn't bad here.

How to recycle an old Navy Base 101

Before -- Not long after the Navy base shut down



After: Now part of Riverfront Park





Anyone who knows me will tell you that land developers are among my favorite people, right up there with politicians and lawyers. I have this inability to keep my mouth shut or pen still when I feel a project or subdivision is being built to everyone's detriment except maybe to a few people's bottom lines. Unfortunately, that's what happens more often than not.

Let's be fair about this, though. When a developer does something to truly upgrade a community, I'm right there in line to say, hey, good job.

I'll let these photos do the talking. Same spot, a few years apart. The site: Charleston's old Navy Base, which shut down in the late 1990s, and is now home to the ambitious Noisette Creek project in North Charleston. The photos were furnished by Jim Augustin of Noisette Company.

A few months ago I took a bike trip through the old Navy Yards and Old Town in North Charleston, and was properly impressed by what I saw.

Good job!

Did I mention that dogleg right turn?

For those watching what Hanna is doing, here's the latest as of 5 p.m. A lot more encouraging, anyway:



But the folks in my neck of the woods are not in the clear yet. A whole lot of slop is expected in the South Carolina Lowcountry tomorrow. To my understanding, the ports may remain open.

Encouraging news, yes?

But no overconfidence just yet.

There's more.

Meet Ike.




So the topic of conversation in my part of the world has switched, though from one storm to another.

Stay tuned.

(Graphics from the National Hurricane Center)

Today's freshmen don't recall life without Pearl Jam, Favre

Today's college freshmen would have to ask their elders about X-rated movies, IBM-made typewriters, or stopping at the gas station for directions.

And this thing called DOS? Forget it,. There has always been some form of Windows.

This is according to the annual Beloit College Mindset List, put together to see where new college students are coming from. Interesting, especially to us oldsters who may think the world is indeed in the southbound handbasket.

====================

According to the mindset list:

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

=============

No wonder I feel ancient.

Getting conked by bunya bunya can hurt

Some of those tree-lined streets in my home town might as well be a hard-hat zone right now.

On second thought, leave the hard hat at home and just take another route. Or pack plenty of Goody headache powder (those not from the South, ask me what that is). You'll need it.
Blame it on the bunya bunya.

It seems nearly every area in the United States has some flora or fauna that was imported and no one's sure why. Out here in the Southeast we have fire ants (which I'm sure are not from around here), kudzu (which chokes off every living plant and nothing can kill it), and the land developer (see: kudzu).

In Riverside, California, where I spent my formative years, the oddball species is the bunya bunya tree.

They're from Australia, and you might remember those Foster's Lager ads. Great White Shark = Australian for guppy.

Now, the bunya bunya is a pretty nice tree. Nice enough to be planted several places in downtown Riverside, which is too arid for a lot of plant life. It's a conifer, like the pine tree.

When pine trees drop their cones, it's not a big issue. The problem with the bunya bunya is that, when it drops its cones, everyone knows it. These babies are about the size of a pineapple, and weigh about the same as a bowling ball.
Ouch! = Australian for pine cone.

And this is the time of year when the bunya bunyas drop their cones. The parks department in Riverside is ready. Barricades. Signs. Probably some of that yellow crime-scene tape. Part of it, I'm sure, is a litigation thing. Getting conked by a foot-tall, 10- to 15-pound cone from a tree owned by the city would be a bonanza for someone, especially if he has the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe in his corner.

(Personal footnote: My mom swears to this day that I was not dropped at birth, but who knows? Maybe I had an encounter with a bunya bunya and didn't tell anybody? Sure would explain a lot of things.)

If you go traveling in Riverside, enjoy the sights and the great weather. But watch out for the bunya bunya.

(Photos from the Riverside Press-Enterprise)

Global warming + Hurricanes = Disaster?

Mention global warming to some folks (including some readers of this blog) and they'll tell you you're totally full of it.

Sorry, folks. It's real stuff, though the projections of how warm we'll be in 50 or 100 years may or may not have anything to do with reality. But it is happening.

This is from USA Today, which suggests the strongest hurricanes in the Atlantic are more intense than they used to be, because the prevailing temperature is a bit higher than it was.

I'll have to admit, this does make for edifying reading while I wait for Hurricane Hanna to create some new gullies in the Charleston area.

Florida State University geography professor James B. Elsner, after studying some 2,000 hurricanes and cyclones worldwide from 1981 to 2006, said the strongest hurricanes were around 140 mph in 1981 to 156 mph in 2006. The sea-surface temperature where these storms blew also showed an increase, from 82.8 degrees to 83.3.

OK. In my own mind, an increase of less than half a degree in 25 years isn't all that much.But maybe that's enough to breed stronger hurricanes, as Elsner suggests.

"As seas warm, the ocean has more energy that can be converted to tropical cyclone wind," he said.

National Hurricane Center scientist Christopher Landsea (love that name) challenges these findings, though.

"The paper has some elegantly calculated
statistics, but these are generated on data that are not, in my
opinion, reliable for examining how the strongest tropical cyclones
have changed around the world," wrote Landsea in an e-mail.

Elsner does acknowledge that "we still do not
have a complete understanding of why some cyclones intensify, sometimes
quite rapidly, and others don't."

But global warming? You bet it's real, although the causes are murky. Right now the favorite culprit is carbon dioxide emissions from industry, from cars, from people.

Maybe. But in my book, the chief cause of global warming is from all these blasts of hot air emanating from Washington, D.C. All this governmental bloviating has to cause some damage.

Poll: Where do you get your news?

You know where most of your information comes from. Or not. Or maybe you won't admit it. Or something.

But please take a moment to reflect on this, check out The Column, Reloaded poll, and fill in your answer(s). I'll probably have something to write about when the results are tabulated.

OK. I'll start it off ...

Notes while waiting for a hurricane

(graphics from the National Hurricane Center)

It was deja vu all over again Monday as I sat in my so-called home-office, one eye on my news feeds and NOAA maps, one ear on the radio, waiting for a hurricane to hit New Orleans.

I did the same thing a few years ago when Hurricane Katrina rolled into the Crescent City. I watched the the first footage from the Weather Channel, which showed a casino riverboat thrown across a parking lot somewhere. I waited for the first word from New Orleans, knowing this was The Big One.

New Orleans was taking no chances with Gustav. Mayor Ray Nagin called it "the storm of the century" and told residents they "need to get your butts out of the city." A little heavy on the hyperbole, I thought, just a few years after Katrina.

I don't even live in New Orleans. I've never been there (though I wouldn't mind going sometime). I have no connection with the place. In fact, I've never seen a full-blown hurricane before.

Let me repeat that, especially in light of the fact I've lived in the South Carolina Lowcountry for 12 years. I've never seen a full-blown hurricane before.

Out west they don't have that kind of thing. They have earthquakes. They have Santa Ana winds, those hot dry blasts that gust at better than 70 mph. They have brush fires, which come in abundance after the Santa Ana winds dry everything worse than it already is. But no hurricanes.

Out here, they still talk about Hugo. It's been 19 years -- one of my co-workers told me today that she was born the same year as Hugo, which made me want to look in the mirror for wrinkles (that's another story). It wasn't until a few years ago that the rebuilding job was complete in Charleston. There are still reminders, such as that lifeboat on Folly Road as you enter Folly Beach. It's stayed there, and people paint new messages on it every day. Call it the Folly Beach Daily Tribune.

My first almost-hurricane was Earl, back in 1997. It hit Beaufort, corkscrewed back out, and hit the Atlantic over Charleston. By that time it was merely a tropical storm (sustained winds of less than 72 mph). I was in my taxi, driving over the old spaghetti-thin Grace Memorial Bridge when it blew overhead. My passengers were convinced they were going to die, and I was absolutely convinced I should gag said passengers. I watched the rain fall sideways, watched the bridge wobble back and forth in my rear view mirror, felt my bowels lock up. We did get where we were going, and my passengers were grateful to be alive. They were most generous in the tipping department.

I missed Gilbert, back in 1999. That one was more false alarm than anything. It buzzed the coast and spurred the most bollixed-up evacuation you'd ever want to see. OK, where was I? Living up in Johnson City, Tennessee. I worked for a cab company, and between calls watched the big-screen TV in the dispatch office. That's when I knew I belonged here; I referred to Charleston as "back home."

I almost caught Isabel. A few friends and I were playing at an outdoor hurricane party, and we took a hasty break to put plastic sheeting behind us on the gazebo so the keyboards wouldn't short out, and grabbed a bunch of extra towels. But Isabel kicked up some wind and waves here, but not much else.

I also missed Gaston, which assembled itself out of spare parts and slammed into Charleston. Wasn't even a hurricane; the only thing it had going for it was the element of surprise. But most hurricanes form deep in the Atlantic, and radar follows its path the whole way. Projections are made the whole route. A few had Charleston lined up in the ten-ring before taking a dogleg right and hitting Wilmington instead.

Now, I'm watching the NOAA website and tracking Hanna. As I write this, it's temporarily dwindled down to tropical storm status but is expected to perk back up. It's expected to make landfill around Friday, and the odds-on favorite target is ... Charleston.

We're talking about it at the train yard. If it hits Charleston we'll probably get an unscheduled day off. And that's the way it should be. We have all these shipping containers around. The ports usually close in a sotrm like that, and the containers are restacked (none of this seven-high stuff you see on normal days). Everything kind of shuts down.

Meanwhile, I watch. And wait. The NOAA map isn't carved in granite, or even in bologna. But one would be a fool to be unprepared.

Tech matters and penguin dust in new blog

As you may have noticed, I'm very interested in technical matters. One only has to run through a few headlines in this space to figure that out.

Sometimes -- just like computers themselves -- it gets in the way.

My emphasis with The Column, Reloaded is in news and commentary. Of course, that covers a lot of bases, but with all the tech stuff in here one kind of wonders what this blog is all about. Like, where's the focus, man?

Because of this, The Column, Reloaded has its own spin-off, its own sister publication. Say hello to The Workbench, Reloaded.

In Workbench, you will find all the geeky things that I have this tendency to write about, and then some. A few hacks. Maybe a review or two. Some stuff that makes you want to put on the ol' tinfoil hat. Some tech toys coming down the pike. Ways to make a computer that should have been retired functional again. My own garden of how-I-dunnits. It'll all be there.

Be warned, though. I'm not big on Microsoft Windows. This is not for political reasons; I don't have any particular ire toward Bill Gates or MS. Instead, I like choice. I like my system my way, customizable to the hilt. So Workbench will have a definite Linux slant to it.

Yes, I've been snorting too much penguin dust. Don't tell anybody.

But there will still be stuff for the Windows user, particularly the one who wants the most function for that old computer you found at the yard sale.

Anyway ... enjoy!

These tools better than a tinfoil beanie

(Disclaimer: I just love these mailbag requests. It indicates someone's reading, paying attention, and maybe doing something. Or making suggestions. This one came from Kelly Sonora, who has a tech blog, "All Things Internet/Web World Wide." The article she sent me was interesting -- especially 'cause I'm interested in Internet security and I like free stuff.)

In the past I'd written about how public the Internet really is. In cop-show parlance, every time you surf, your business is hung out on the street.

This is indeed true. To illustrate, scroll down to the bottom of this site and check out the box called "About You." (For those who are reading this in RSS-land, hop over to the blog site and scroll to the bottom.) You'll probably see your approximate location,your IP address, and your operating system and browser staring right at you.

Us oldsters remember when things were a lot more private. Plus, the world has changed since 9/11, Homeland Security, and all these other events that changed our world. Civil liberties just ain't what they used to be. Even if you're a normal Joe, not any more paranoia than the next fella, one quick dip through the news may make you think a tinfoil beanie is a pretty good idea.

Paranoia or not, it's just good sense to surf defensively when you go on line. A lot of valuable information -- credit card and bank account numbers float around in cyberspace all the time. Weirdos lurk all over the place, and that nice fella on myspace could well be a 55-year-old Michael Moore lookalike, sitting buck naked at his terminal (for the visually minded, "buck naked" means he's not wearing any socks, either). People work overtime to put together worms, viruses, Trojan horses, and spyware to either cripple your computer, mine it for information, or just scare the spit out of you. Every time you surf, you leave little bits of code on the hard drive telling exactly where you've been, and those pieces of code are as good as a fingerprint.

But you get the point. It's a jungle out there. But there are tools to hide you, to cover your tracks, and to protect your information. And if you're feeling paranoid without reason, there are tools and sites guaranteed to give you something to be paranoid about. Whether you're normal (whatever that is) or a screaming nut job, there's probably a tool for you, too.

Here are some of my favorites from "50 Free Internet Tools for Tin-Foil Hat Wearers", written by Alisa Miller:

Portable Firefox: I love this one. I used it quite a bit when reduced to library computers, which ordinarily means being stuck with the porous Internet Explorer. Portable Firefox comes with a suite of open-source applications which I use a lot anyway -- the AbiWord word processor, Audacity sound editor, and a handful of others. I carry them on a thumb drive with some of the documents I'm working on, which basically gives me a computer in my pocket. Ad I leave no trace on the host computer. My bookmarks and cookies -- those little bits of code that can tell you where I've been -- also stay on the thumb drive. And surprisingly, I've been able to download stuff using a library computer. Good luck doing that with the as-is system. I highly recommend this one.

Bugmenot.com: Of course I resent the idea of having to register (and get on a mailing list) just to read a few news articles, so of course I swear by this one. I use it via a Firefox extension, and I can't think of the last time I've registered for anything.

GrandCentral: It's by Google, and supposedly it consolidates all of your phone numbers into one that's untraceable. Sounds intriguing, but it is by Google, so take that any way you want.

Clusty and Scroogle: Search engines. Clusty is supposedly highly secure. To my experience it's also slow. Scroogle is a front-end for Google, which uses encryption and a few other things that supposedly mask your existence while you use Google.

ShieldsUp! and Junkbusters: Both will let you know how secure your computer really is. The more information your computer puts out, the more vulnerable you are to attacks and attempts by nefarious types to sip into your information. ShieldsUp! tells me my computer is practically invisible.

AVG Anti-Virus: It's virus protection. They update regularly -- more often when some real baddie comes down the pike. And it's free. That was my guardian during my Windows days (viruses are not an issue with Linux). The on-the-fly virus protection is, last I looked, somewhat lacking, but the program picks 'em off the hard drive with ease. Virus protection is big business, and it's a cash cow for some large software companies that play on people's fears, so if a free one does the job for you, go for it. I understand they've added spyware protection since I last used it; a good thing.

Avast! Another free virus protection program. I tried it years ago, and found it to be slow but thorough. For ease of operation -- based on my tests then -- I'd give the nod to AVG. But unlike spyware programs, you can only run one virus checker at a time.

Ad-Aware: By Lavasoft. One of only about two spyware-sniffing programs that is worth anything. The other one, which is not mentioned in the article, is Spybot Search & Destroy. And unlike virus scanners, you can have several spyware checkers on your system. In fact it's recommended, because each of these two will occasionally miss something. Whatever you do, DON'T order spyware protection from any Internet source that plugs its product through a pop-up box on your browser. Not only will those not work, they're probably not free and they're usually spyware themselves. I told you it's a jungle out there.

SiteAdvisor: Haven't used this, but heard good things about it. Supposedly lets you know that you're going to a site that is loaded with spyware or harvests your information. Worth a look.

This isn't on the list, but if you really want to play it stealthy, you can try one of the small Linux systems loaded via QEMU, an emulator. I have one (with the ultra-small Puppy Linux) on a USB thumb drive. Plug it in to a USB port, click on the icon, and you're running Linux on top of Windows. it's so secret even the host computer doesn't know what you're doing. There are some real drawbacks -- it's extremely slow, and you really need to be fluent in Linux to use it well. And it can't print or play music, but I can surf on a library computer and leave absolutely no traces.

===============

Anyway, that's my own list. Some things worth checking out there.

In fact, I recommend the whole blog. It's full of good security information.

How to get a human on the phone

It's part of progress. I think. Take certain, repetitive jobs away from crazy unpredictable drama-queen humans and give them to more sane, predictable machines.

(No wonder our economy is in the toilet!)

If you're like me, though, you'd get tired of talking to machines awfully quickly. Most of the time I'll hang up when calling a friend and his answering machine or voice mail picks up the call -- and I have that same technology on my cell phone.

But what about all those companies where you're going through prompts, punching in account numbers, hitting 1 for English, and hearing some computer-generated voice. Whatever happened to real live customer service?

Here are a couple of Web sites that supposedly give you the workarounds so you can get a real, live, warm-blooded human being in customer service land: dialahuman.com and gethuman.com. I haven't checked these workarounds out myself so I can't vouch for them, but you might find them interesting.

An article in Lifehacker discusses the Dial A Human service, and I urge you to scroll down to the comment section there. Readers submitted their own workarounds to getting away from the computer phone system. Some of these -- including pretending you're on a rotary phone (which I've done) -- or cussing like a sailor (which I've also done but not intentionally) seem to work.

Now, if there was some way to get a real, live, warm-blooded, intelligent human being in customer service, I want to know.

Computer system bites back; flights delayed

Man puts reliance in machine. Machine does everything man used to do. Machine bites man on the butt.


Or something.


It does sound like fodder for a fiction writer. In fact, novelists have picked up on the theme ever since, well, since there has been progress. Classics such as Fail-Safe and The Andromeda Strain, all the way down to the cheesiest sci-fi, went there.


As I write this, no one's real sure what happened to the Federal Aviation Administration communications system near Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport Tuesday, resulted in hundreds of flight delays.


Interestingly, once the first bulletins came out, the incident had very little news play. The story peaked for about 15 seconds, then got buried by other stories such as the Democratic National Convention, the Russkies, and Michael Phelps.


But in case you blinked, here's what happened:


According to CNN, flights at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport were delayed Tuesday afternoon. The airport was having problems processing data, requiring that all flight-plan information be processed through a facility in Salt Lake City, Utah -- overloading that facility.


The two facilities process all flight plans for commercial and general aviation flights in the United States, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. So the delays were not restricted to Atlanta -- Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports were reporting delays of up to 90 minutes.


But this was one of those coulda-been-worse scenarios. The FAA said there were no radar outages and said they had not lost contact with any planes. The roughly 5,000 flights that were in the air when the breakdown happened were not affected -- just those that were waiting to take off.


This all really isn't as bad as it could have been. Maddening though delays are at the airport (I speak from experience here, sitting through a 10-hour delay at O'Hare in Chicago due to weather), this is one of those things that, well, the imagination can run rampant over the results.


But the story itself went from news to snooze very quickly.


Things got kind of interesting when I picked up the news bulletin (which was texted to me by a local radio station). This was during a slow period at work, and some of us were tossing around possible scenarios.


Elaine, the office manager, suggested it was something terrorists would do -- anything that would upset the system, throw people into a tizzy. But Allen, who works the access gate with me, had his own immediate take:


"Hackers got 'em," he said immediately. Allen's pretty knowledgable about computers and has a slightly off-kilter outlook on life. (He also needs educating on what a hacker does. Those kids that break into computer systems for fun & havoc are crackers. Hackers play with code to improve a system, build a better mousetrap.)


It was interesting what was going through their minds. However, my own scenario was less malevolent forces and more idiocy. Systems break down, I argued. When they're sensitive systems they must be constantly monitored, and they still break down. The more convoluted the system, the greater the potential for a mass failure -- and the harder it is to diagnose and fix the problem.


Especially when man relies on the technology to do the work that used to be done by humans.


I've gone into convenience stores and could not buy something because, well, the computer is down. The place is out of business. Same thing with computerized cash registers at fast food joints.


Back in my taxi driving days, my company used what was called a computer-aided dispatch system. Computer-aided, my butt. A few times the computer crashed and we were out of business until the tech guy could bring us back up.


What really hurt was that no one in the office remembered how they dispatched calls without the computer. If we had, there may have been a fighting chance to keep up with things. (Another cab company I worked for had no computers, so calls were written on a legal pad and dispatched. We even had some quick-and-dirty protocols that would allow us to run in a power failure, but we never had to go that route.)


Where I work now, we check in trucks and containers using a mainframe, handheld computers, and a company-wide database system. A few weeks ago, the whole thing went down for about a half hour. We gate clerks continued to work, writing the info down by hand. A little slower, but we were able to pull it off. And this company is probably the least forward-looking operation I've ever worked for. Company attitudes are locked in the dark ages -- blame an employee rather than look for a glitch in the system -- but we still were able to do our jobs when the computers went toes up.


In Atlanta, the FAA was going back to the old days a bit, working by hand, releasing flights one at a time. Slower, but at least something was getting done.

Goodbye to my favorite hack

In the past I was able to post short entries by remote control, but those days are now over.

I'd submitted a number of shorter entries using a service called Jott, which allowed me to use my cell phone, call in news, and have it automatically posted into this blog.

A few days ago, the folks at Jott changed things around some. The system is now out of beta, and is considered ready for the masses. As a result, what used to be a free service is now something I'd have to pay for.

No complaint there. Jott has the right to charge whatever they want for their product and/or service. And as a consumer I have the right to determine whether the price they ask is worth it to me. And I stick with free (free as in choice AND free as in beer) software on my computer. I'm not about to break that tradition right now.

The original concept of Jott was a system that lets you dictate little notes to yourself, and it was expanded to let people send short messages to things like TypePad, WordPress, Blogspot, Google Calendar, and text/voice emails to people.

The free version still allows me to do a few things, including post short pieces to this blog. Very short. Like, very very short. In the past I had 30 seconds to say my piece; now I now have 15. Not even enough to kick out a short paragraph. If I need more time I'll have to subscribe.

The free version, I understand, is ad-supported. Which I can understand. So, too, is this blog, but at least on the ads in The Column, Reloaded I do get a (small) piece of the action.

The subscription price is not much -- it's chicken feed, in fact. But I'm not going to mess with it, so that will be the end of an era.

Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted. And I did enjoy beta-testing it.

Don't forget the hip waders when you surf

I love the Internet. I have to, for I spend so much time on it.

You can't beat it for research. In fact, just about everything you've ever wanted to know is probably in some cranny in cyberspace.

The downside is, just about everything you've ever wanted to know is probably in some cranny in cyberspace.

It's real easy to get crammed up in a state of information overload, even if you're a dedicated RSS'er like I am. I use Google Reader for my news feeds, and right now my reading list is several thousand articles. Of course, I'm not going to read all of them. I might not even scan all the headlines.

But what's even worse is that there's no real way of knowing, on the surface, what's true and what's not. Face it. Most of the stuff you read on the Internet will be pure, unadulterated crap.

That's often what happens when there's such a free flow of information. And the flow is a lot more free than it was even 20 years ago. But you sometimes get what you pay for.

Back in the day, the only way I could write this column so it can be read by more than a handful of people is to hook on with a newspaper. That means polishing up my resume, finding a publisher crazy enough to hire me, and cracking the editorial page. By then I will have been vetted, somewhat. The publisher could make a few phone calls to learn I'm OK as long as I take my medication, that I can be trusted with the news content, and that I wouldn't get drunk and file stories about the UFO landing on my roof. OK, a few Janet Cooks and Jayson Blairs may fall through the cracks, but for the most part the publisher can rest assured he's getting the genuine article (though no promises he's not getting a loose cannon in the bargain, but let's not go there).

Now, it's a lot easier. I just set up an account on Blogspot or some other blogging service (cost: free), set up my graphics, and write whenever I get a hankering to do so. It's up to the reader to determine whether I'm dumping a whole load of snow in his lap, and if I am, so what? Let the buyer (or surfer) beware.

This is why the so-called establishment press holds bloggers with disdain. Anyone can blog, while not everyone can report the news with some semblance of accuracy. A real journalist usually has some sort of college training, and he has to have a certain mindset to do the job. All a blogger needs is a computer.

Iin truth, though, it's a lot harder these days to find real reporters who produce the news without worrying about the consequences. To be done right, the reporter has to either own the presses or be kindred spirits with the guy who does. Either that, or get used to being fired a lot.

Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian thinker who foresaw the global village long before it happened, said it best: "Whereas Caxton and Gutenberg enabled all men to become readers, Xerox has enabled all men to become publishers." MacLuhan has been dead since 1980. What would he think if he was around to surf the Internet today? Might he give up all his credentials and raise hairless chinchillas instead?

Develop enough Internet presence (and really, it doesn't take much for Surfin' Joe) and your email box will soon be crowded with a bunch of communications marked Fw: -- and when I see these, my delete finger gets itchy. About the only exception I make is Fw's from family members, because sometimes they become subjects for ... this blog.

In your Fw's you might get a list of quotes attributed to George Carlin, or something else like that. Not too long ago, I got one from Mom sharing an essay from former Chrysler head Lee Iaccoca. When I get these, I always feel the need to go to the filter: the debunker's site snopes.com. Here are some of the things I checked out:

- Putting I C E (In Case of Emergency) on your cell phone -- true, sort of. It's one of those things that can't hurt.
- Dialing *77 for emergencies -- false, and a total waste of valuable time.
- Most recently, the piece about the USS New York, a ship with some parts made from steel recovered from the World Trade Center site -- it's one of those feelgood stories, and surprisingly, it's true.
- A very scary plug for DriveCleaner, which turned out to be one of the bottom feeders in the computer security industry. OK, this is an older one. It's in my old blog, and you'll need to scroll down. Still relevant.

Warnings and Swiss cheese

My brother Rick (who suggested this subject in a recent email) and I are of the same mind here. I can't remember all the particulars, but it was a virus warning Mom sent along. It was great, well meaning, but it was misinformation. Anyway, Rick and I researched the subject independently, and we discovered the same thing -- it was indeed misinformation. I sent a note to Mom saying so, while Rick went a little further. His missive went out to all the folks on Mom's mailing list, reassuring them that they can enjoy their computers now.

OK, what's the harm in sending out a little misinformation?

On the surface, not much. You, the sender, have your 15 minutes of infamy. It'll be forgotten tomorrow. Besides, there's so much crap on the Internet that looks so good, it's easy to pass something along as the real deal.

But, I'm convinced the more misinformation goes out, the more our brains turn into Swiss cheese. Most people won't trouble themselves to research something; they'll believe it and pass it along instead. But then, many folks will believe something because their favorite pop icon du jour said it's so. That's why Barbra Streisand carries so much weight. Instead of yet another former performer, she's a political pundit. Same thing with Michael Moore, the Dixie Chicks, Paris Hilton, or whoever.

It's already a given that people these days are a lot smarter in some ways, and a lot dumber in others, than they used to be. You can sit and place blame all day long, but what used to be an ironclad set of facts is now elastic. Subjects like history and the sciences are quite unforgiving and narrowminded with the facts -- either something happened or it didn't, either something works in this manner or it didn't. Some things just can't be rewritten no matter how hard you try.

And some things -- yes, like history -- do get rewritten a lot. Back in the days of the Soviet Union, the citizaens were told the Russkies invented the car, television, and anything else of any consequence.

When misinformation is repeated often enough, then a lot more people will take it to be fact. But just because the majority may believe something to be fact doesn't make it so. It doesn't even matter what sources you cite; you still can not change black into white.

Unfortunately, so many people -- and those numbers seem to be growing -- are easily impressed when you mention sources. It makes no difference whether the source knows anything about the subject he's sounding off about. What does a washed-up pop singer know about politics? What inside information does an ultraliberal movie director have on 9/11?

And you say you heard about such-and-such on the Internet? Boy, I'm impressed ...

Let's cut to the chase here. Surf away. Have fun. But keep in mind there's a lot of crap out there in cyberworld, and so much of it sounds good. Surf with your hip waders on. Best to practice that credo that was part of the indoctrination of many an old journalist (with apologies to my own mom, who loves me):

"If your mother says she loves you, check it out."

Baggy pants law may see the light of day

After similar laws were debated -- and tried -- elsewhere, the Charleston City Council spent several hours discussing the merits of an ordinance that would ban baggy pants before putting it on the back burner.

I'm talking about the low-slung, down-to-the-knees, prison-shuffle pants that the younger set finds so fashionable.

I wrote about this a year ago, when the subject was under discussion in Atlanta. This was while several rights-groups jumped on the cause saying it was targeting young urban black males -- who particularly favor the loose-fitting look.

It's interesting that the three Charleston council members pushing the hardest for a ban -- Wendell Gilliard, James Lewis, and Robert Mitchell -- are also black, and represent districts with a large black population.

"It's not going to be just targeting young black men," Lewis said. "Lots of people have baggy pants."

"You'll be in the mall having to walk behind these guys, having to look at their underwear, and it's just not appropriate," Mitchell said.

Gilliard, who brought a mannequin to Tuesday's council meeting to illustrate the clothing style he wants outlawed, said such fashion is a gang symbol, something he doesn't want in his district.

After some debate, the council voted 7-4 to put the matter on hold. But the battle lines are drawn, and I'll expect to see it up for consideration again before long.

Meanwhile, a state lawmaker is watching what happens in Charleston. Last year, state Rep. Robert Brown, D-Hollywood, called for a state ban on saggy pants before pulling back. "The ACLU and the NAACP — I didn't want to fight that battle at that time," Brown said. "I may still consider it, now that Jasper County has done it and Charleston is thinking about it."

State Senator Robert Ford -- also black -- said he also wants to see a state ban despite the opposition such an idea would surely face.

"If these guys want to look like prisoners, what's the next step?" Ford said. "If the civil liberty boys don't have enough sense, let them fight it. We won't stand for it anymore."

The American Civil Liberties Union hasn't made an official stance, but interim ACLU state head Graham Boyd, suggests a ban wouldn't stand up in court. "The government can't tell the general public how to dress," he said.

In getting such laws approved, timing is key. Whatever it is, you don't want to be first to propose or dispose anything earth-shaking. That is, unless you want a reputation for being different.

Let the folks Up North, or the weirdies in California be first. Then you can laugh at them, wait a few years, and do whatever it is they've done when no one's looking.

Smoking laws are a perfect example of this. I still remember people out here laughing their butts off when California made all places of businesses -- including bars -- into smoke-free areas. The laughter doubled when New York did the same. But a couple of years ago smoking was banned in all businesses -- including bars -- in Charleston. While mildly convtroversial, it'd already been done. The timing was safe.

This wasn't Gilliard's first trip in the fashion trenches. A few years ago, he sought to run sunbathers out of Marion Square downtown. The highly-visible park facing Calhoun Street was a favored site for college students to catch some sun. His efforts went nowhere, and college coeds continue to strip down to their thongs on sunny days. (Not coincidentally, this was about the time that businesses across the street from Marion Square became sought-after properties. Something about the view.)

As I mentioned a year ago, the baggy-pants situation is more of a generational thing than a racial one. White and black kids wear the 15-sizes-too-big pants, and it's oddly reminescent of my own battles with Mom and Dad over hair length. And if I was raising a teenager now, chances are we'd grapple over some fashion issue. It's just a part of growing up, I guess.

(Photos from the Post & Courier)

Iaccoca: Where Have Our Leaders Gone?

My mailbag is busy lately. This was sent to me today, and it's attributed to former Chrysler head Lee Iaccoca.

Unlike most of the garbage that finds its way in your email box (anything with Fw: in the title), this is the straight stuff. I checked with snopes.com, my favorite debunker of all things Internet, and this passes muster over there (unlike various things attributed to, say, the late great George Carlin).

(Just for grins, here's the Snopes page)

Anyway, here goes:

===============

Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from its deaththroes.
He's now 82 years old and has a new book, and here are some excerpts:< BR>


'Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course'

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned 'Titanic'. I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the bums out!'

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom-poms ' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the ' America ' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.

I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. The Biggest 'C' is Crisis ! (Iacocca elaborates on nine C's of leadership, crisis being the first.)

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A Hell of a Mess! So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan f or winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: 'Where have all the leaders gone?' Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker f or alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.

Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan . Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when 'The Big Three ' referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem.The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America . In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America 's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: the 'Great Depression', 'World War II', the 'Korean War', the 'Kennedy Assassination', the 'Vietnam War', the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.

If I've learned one thing, it's this: 'You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to 'Action' for people who, like me, believe in America . It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the crap and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.'

Make your own contribution by sending this to everyone you know and care about. It's our country, folks; and it's our future. Our future is at stake!

===============

I like what he says, myself.

School ... then and now

My brother sent this email to me today, and (maybe 'cause I'm old enough to remember those days) this sure strikes a chord with me.

Check it. Would make good reading as you pack your young'uns off to school for another year:

======

Scenario:


Jack
goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with
shotgun in gun rack.


1957 - Vice
Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets
his shotgun to show Jack.


2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to

jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for

traumatized students and teachers.



Scenario:


Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.


1957 - Crowd
gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.


2007 - Police
called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with
assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.





Scenario:


Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.


1957 - Jeffrey
sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to
class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.


2007 - Jeffrey
given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School
gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.





Scenario:


Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a
whipping with his belt.


1957 - Billy
is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and
becomes a successful businessman.


2007 - Billy's
dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and
joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she
remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's
mom has affair with psychologist.





Scenario:


Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.


1957 - Mark
shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.


2007 - Police called,
Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs
and weapons.



Scenario:


Pedro fails high school English.


1957 - Pedro
goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.


2007 - Pedro's
cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally
explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is
racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and
Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro
given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he
cannot speak English.



Scenario:


Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in
a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.


1957 - Ants
die.


2007- BATF,
Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism,
FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers
confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never
allowed to fly again.



Scenario:


Johnny
falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found
crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.


1957 - In a
short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.


2007 - Mary is accused
of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in
State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

======

If this fills you with a fine sense of outrage, congratulations. You're old enough to remember. If this doesn't, therapy won't help.

Answers to recent quiz

OK. For those of you who were wondering about that quiz from a week or two ago, the one listing grocery stores with the states, here are the answers:

Smith's ----------> D: Arizona
Ingles -----------> F: North Carolina
Super WalMart -> E: Just world conquest, baby!
White's ---------> B: Tennessee
Stater Bros. ----> C: California
Piggly Wiggly --> A: South Carolina


For the record, I scored 100 %. Well, I should. It's *my* quiz.

How much is gas really costing you?

Here's a way to find out ...

Column is back with new look, features

You might have found this page by accident or by the whims of your favorite search engine. If you have, hope you stay a while. If you're a regular, I have a few new useful toys on this blog.

As you explore this site, you may notice a few things here and there. I've juggled the layout, hoping this cleans things up a bit. There's a lot less clutter at the top of the page -- when I ccouldn't even find my own postings right away, I knew that was a problem.

What I did leave at the top is a news ticker. The headlines will rotate in and out, so it's a pretty handy device.

In the left-hand column you'll find two ways to subscribe to this blog, by RSS or email (it is essential reading after all).

Pay attention to the boxed item, "News that caught my attention." It's pretty cool. I use Google Reader for my own RSS feeds, and I have the option of sharing news that way. In it you'll find some news and feature stories I found interesting. The box shows my five most recent additions to the reader's "shared items" page. Clicking on the headline itself brings you directly to the story. But if you click on "read more" at the bottom of that box you'll go to my actual shared-items page. You might find that particularly interesting because, not only will you see the links to the stories, but also my comments on some of these stories. Think of it as a blog-within-a-blog. My hope is that the shared-items page may become yet another reason for the Web traveler to stop by.

I especially like the "Playing in traffic" section. It's gratifying to know I get readers from places I can't even find on a map.

Down at the bottom of the page you'll find a search box, a handy way to get to Google. Also there's "About You," my favorite bit of Web mind-diddling. Do not adjust your set; that's really you and I know all about you. You think browsing on the Web is private? Guess again. Your location, IP address, and some aspects of your computer are public as soon as you crank up your Web browser. I think I've commented on that before.

My own "About You" reminds me that I live near Goose Creek, SC (where my Web service is based), that my wireless signal is from Comcast, that I'm runing Linux and using a "Mozilla/Netscape 5" browser. All of which is true, by the way. My operating system is indeed Linux, and I'm using Seamonkey, which is based on Mozilla's old browser after they began throwing all their resources into Firefox. I found the graphic on someone else's Web page, thought it was a real hoot, got the coding for it, and pasted it into my own page. So enjoy -- once you get over the panic attack, that is.

A footnote here. A friend turned me on to Google Mail a couple of years ago, and while I was a little goosy about getting text ads based on certain key words in my email (that part still freaks me out -- but forget about any email being totally private anyway) I've come to love it. Now I use Google services for nearly everything. I can store some files in my gmail box, I use Google for occasional on-line chats, and I've played with some online Google applications. But my favorite Google feature by far is the RSS reader. If you haven't played with RSS feeds yet, ask someone about it (maybe even me) and give it a try. You can waste many hours going through your RSS feeds, but at least they'll all be in one place.

Another bit of technology I sometimes use on this blog is Jott. It allows me to add short postings by phone. It's a bit of a throwback to the old days of journalism that I know and miss. Back in my days of deadline reporting I'd rough out the story, find a pay phone, and call my editor. Jott is something like that, though it's so tempting to preface my phone-in posting with the old "gimme dictation." Actually, I can. (Note to self: Change Jott entry code for The Column.)

One of the goofy things about Jott is that things sometimes get lost in the translation. Words get mangled. I don't know if it's because the people at Jott don't speak Southern, but messages are not always received as sent. So if the entry looks like it was typed in by a Martian on mushrooms, you'll know why. But until I edit my Jott-sent submission, you'll find a "Listen" link that will allow you to hear what I'd phoned in.

The page design remains simple, uncluttered, no-nonsense, designed for fast loading. There's a reason behind the color scheme, too, reflecting back to the days that my journalism critics (mostly politicians and land developers) claimed I practiced a certain type of reportage reflecting on said color and said so in uncomplimentary terms.

OK. I was out of commission for a little over a month. Most of this was while shaking out my new schedule -- I recently started full-time work at a railroad yard. Also, I've been without a computer, so any entries were typed in and sent from the local library. But I recently picked up a used computer, set it up the way I like, and am good to go. My Internet connection is wireless, for now. The problem is it's unreliable; it comes and goes. That situation will soon be mitigated.

Anyway, it's good to be back.