Z1485 IS. Replace Kodak Easyshare with Picasa

Had another go round with photo management software. First thing was trying out the memory card slot on the front of my Compaq Presario. Wonder of wonders. Pull the memory card out of the camera and stick it in the slot. Presto, Windows Explorer can see the card pretending to be a plug in disk drive. Just drag and drop the .jpg files off the memory card into the disk folder of your choice. Even cleverer. In Windows Explorer set View to "Thumbnails" and instead of random number file names you see thumbnail pictures. With that turned on, the odds of finding the pix you want are greatly improved, and sorting the photos into file folders (e.q. graduation, wedding, party, children, cat, model trains) is trivial.
So, using the memory card slot completely replaces the need for Kodak's Easyshare.
I then downloaded Google's freeware photo management tool Picasa. It will resize, crop, do slide shows, red eye reduction and other simple photo edit tasks. It has excellent instructions and help functions, it's only 6 megabytes. Loads in a flash. Only uses 38 megs of Ram. Whereas plump Easyshare eats up 150 megs of disk and 500 megs of Ram and takes for ever to load or do anything.
Big breakthru in Picasa. It supports disk folders. You can sort your pictures into folders using Explorer or Picasa. It sticks. You can back up a disk folder to CD with your ordinary CD burner.
EasyShare only supported "albums" and the albums are internal to EasyShare. Moving a picture into an EasyShare album doesn't move it on disk. Backup of the photo folders does not retain the "album" information. You can sort your pix in Easyshare, but all that sorting is lost when you roll in the backup CD to a new machine.
With Picasa, the sorting happens into real windows disk folders which can then by backed up, copied, emailed, whatever using ordinary Windows tools like Explorer.
And, Picasa can download photos from the Z1485 camera over the USB cable, should your computer lack the handy memory card slot.
My recommendation. throw away the Easyshare CD that comes with the Z1485. Download and use Picasa. It's faster, more dependable and less aggravating.

Who needs 38 special design cargo planes?

The Air Force is buying 38 C27J cargo planes. It's a nice looking twin engine turboprop military transport. This is a new aircraft going into the inventory. That means we will pay the one time costs, "non recurring engineering costs", buy the tooling, set up the production line, write all the unit test procedures, write all the technical orders, buy spare parts, develop training for air and ground crewmen, and then train said crewmen. That's a lot of money. And we only get 38 airplanes for spending all that money.
What do we get in the C27 that we don't get in the tried and true C130? We get half the cargo capacity and half the range. Whereas the already in the inventory C130 can haul twice as much stuff, twice as far, and land and takeoff on just as small, maybe even smaller airfields than the smaller C27. Take off distance is a little bit variable, depends upon load and willingness of the aircrew to take risks, but the specified take off roll of a C130J is 1950 feet, loaded. The C27 takeoff roll is 1903 feet. Plus, the C-130 can do considerable better than specified. Back in the 1960s a C-130 made repeated takeoff's from, and landings on, a Navy aircraft carrier, and those things are only 1000 feet long.
So we are spending serious money to buy a few, new, cute little airlifters that aren't any better than the C-130. Serious waste of taxpayer dollars in the estimation of this taxpayer and Air Force veteran.

How many people die of flu? Swine or ordinary?

Good question. Today's WSJ shows the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimating 36,000 flu deaths per year. But, only 849 death certificates list "influenza" as the cause of death in 2006. CDC's estimates are way way over reported influenza deaths. CDC clearly thinks that doctors all over the country cannot diagnose properly. On the other hand, who do you believe, front line doctors or research guys on a sunny campus in Atlanta?
So how dangerous is this month's media darling disease, swine flu? Compared to regular flu? If you believe CDC's estimate of 36,000 ordinary flu deaths a year then the handful of swine flu deaths is lost in the noise. If you go with reported flu deaths of only 849 the handful of swine flu deaths becomes a bit more meaningful, although still not much.
Every death is a tragedy, each human life is precious. But life is full of risks, and if the risk is small, we shouldn't get too bent out of shape.

New Star Trek Movie

Just got back from seeing it. Pretty good. whole new crew of actors, most of them pretty good. Lots of action, explosions, starships ramming each other, car chases, etc No real love interest. We have Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Chekhov, and Scotty from classic Trek. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are plausible as younger versions of the classic Trek characters. Uhura, Chekhov and Scotty are less convincing. The over all plot is the standard save the universe one. If you are any kind of Trekkie or have children, you (and they) will enjoy it.

Health Care is expensive 'cause of crooked bills

Last year I was buying my prescription drugs at Walmart. Cost $48 for three months. This year they added a prescription drug benefit to my medicare advantage plan. According to the plan my prescriptions had an Average Retail price of $1002.50 for three months. Plan discounts brought that down to $119.31, which the plan paid.
In short, the plan claims an astronomical average retail price, twenty times the actual retail price. Then they claim to have achieved discounts (kickbacks) bringing the drug cost down to $119.31, only twice retail price, and then "paid" for it all. Right.
Imagine the billing scams possible under Obama's yet to be announced, health care plan.

Weep for the Chevy Impala SS

Rumor has it that Chevy is going to drop the "SS" trim level on the Impala sedan for 2010. Currently Chevy offers the Impala in 4 different trim levels (LS, LT, LTZ and SS) There is little to no difference between the 4 trim levels, they all have same standard equipment, same engine, same transmission. The top of the line models get a few frills like leather seats and a fancier radio, excuse me "audio system". Cruising the Chevy website shows no visible external differences, no extra chrome strips, no two tone paint, no bigger grill, nada, zip.
Chevy marketing asks $24K for the bottom of the line LS and $32K for the top of the line SS.
And marketing expects customers to pay up to $8K more for just a badge on the trunk lid? I don't think so. In actual fact, customers are going to pay the same price for all four trim levels, cause they all look the same. Customers will walk into the dealer and ask for the bottom of the line LS cause it's cheapest. If the dealer doesn't have one, he is going to sell them the "higher priced" LT, LTZ, or SS models at bottom of the line LS prices. Especially this year when the dealers are so desparate they will do anything to make a sale.
What any sensible marketing department ought to do is simplify things for production. An Impala is an Impala, with one list price. Deal with the frills as options.
Unfortunately Chevy marketing is stuck in a time warp going back to the 1950's. Back then they offered Chevy's as 110, 210, and Bel Air. 110 was the plainest model, sold to fleets, 210 got some extra chrome trim, and Bel Air got a lot of extra chrome trim. In those days you could tell the difference between the cheap body 110 and the flossy Bel Air from 200 feet away. Not any longer, the 2009 Impala's four trim levels look exactly the same from 200 inches away. But marketing still wants to charge extra for invisible non-differences.
Well, the enthusiasts are all crying 'cause Chevy is dropping the SS trim level for 2010. Somehow I don't think those enthusiasts have ever tried to sell a real car to a real customer.

Torture IAW written legal opinions?

I don't think so. The CIA agents were interrogating important sources in accordance with written legal opinions. That's not torture, that's legal. Now that Obama foolishly published John Yoo's memos, the CIA agents are off the hook. Can't prosecute a man for complying with written policy.
The author, John Yoo, was trying to be a useful lawyer at the time. He provided a readable and understandable guide to what was legal and what was not. He answered the question "How far can we go?" (Useless lawyers, of which there are many, furnish bafflegab that can be read both ways) They are after John Yoo, but probably can't get to him 'cause his superiors OK'd it (at least they didn't trash can it). Plus there is a small matter of statute of limitations. John Yoo apparently doesn't think it's illegal torture unless blood is drawn, marks are left, or the subject's health is impared by the interrogation.
Personally, I have no problems with making Al Quada terrorists hurt a little bit.
Some NPR talking head kept raving on and on about "Torture is illegal." So it is. But CIA wasn't torturing, they were interrogating terrorists in accordance with written legal advice.