The town water department was out looking for a leak. They walked up and down, located everyone's shutoff valve, and left the street covered with blue graffiti, obscure symbology to locate stuff. Then they pulled out two or three fancy electronic instruments that made funny noises when they detected underground pipes.
After a lot of high tech stuff, one of the workers pulled a pair of dowsing rods off the truck and sure enough, the dowsing rods detected pipe about where the fancy instruments did. These guys clearly believed it worked. And they are not new age hippies, they are just plain middle aged working stiffs.
Told my daughter this story, and she came back with a long tale about how dowsing is a con game, and only the superstitious believe in it. That may be. There is certainly no explanation of how dowsing might work to be found in physics, geology, or chemistry. Be that as it may, the Franconia water department uses dowsing and believes in it. Long as they keep the water running to my place I ain't gonna say anything about their methods.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
52% of companies cannot find qualified workers
Fox News ran this piece three times yesterday. Companies belly aching that they just cannot fill job openings for lack of qualified people. The scene shows an ultra modern light manufacturing facility, brand new Butler building, tiled floor, suspended ceiling, rows and rows of sleek modern machines, mostly electronic. And they cannot hire anyone checked out on all this stuff.
Sounds like Fox was talking to someone in HR. The HR droids think they control hiring, but they don't. They know zip about the company business, the manufacturing technology, or any thing else. They ask for qualifications that nobody will have, like 5 years experience on a technology that has only been on the market for 6 months. Or two masters degrees and 20 years experience. When they fail to find candidates with impossible qualifications at entry level wages, they blame the public schools. They sold the Fox newsies on this fairy tale.
In the real world, companies have to train up their employees. Hire guys right of of high school as apprentices, and train them up to be journeymen. Treat them right so that they stay with you rather than joining your competitor after they learn the trade. If the public schools have taught them reading, writing, and rithmetic, plus perhaps algebra, they are doing OK. For extra credit the schools could give them high school physics, chemistry, and biology. The decent public high schools can do this right now. Industry needs to do it's own training in specific technology on the job.
Sounds like Fox was talking to someone in HR. The HR droids think they control hiring, but they don't. They know zip about the company business, the manufacturing technology, or any thing else. They ask for qualifications that nobody will have, like 5 years experience on a technology that has only been on the market for 6 months. Or two masters degrees and 20 years experience. When they fail to find candidates with impossible qualifications at entry level wages, they blame the public schools. They sold the Fox newsies on this fairy tale.
In the real world, companies have to train up their employees. Hire guys right of of high school as apprentices, and train them up to be journeymen. Treat them right so that they stay with you rather than joining your competitor after they learn the trade. If the public schools have taught them reading, writing, and rithmetic, plus perhaps algebra, they are doing OK. For extra credit the schools could give them high school physics, chemistry, and biology. The decent public high schools can do this right now. Industry needs to do it's own training in specific technology on the job.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
V/Stol version of F-35 fighter faces cancellation
The so-new-it-isn't-in-service yet F35 fighter was supposed to come in three models, "A" standard for the Air Force, "B" Vertical/Short Takeoff and landing for the Marines, and "C" carrier equipped for the Navy. The B model is in trouble. Important pieces of the lift fan need to be redesigned, it's late, and it's getting expensive. The Pentagon (or someone) floated the idea of cancelling the B model to save money in Aviation Week.
The Marines wanted the B model, probably 'cause they could operate it off the big helicopter ships. These ships are built to carry and support Marine landing parties. They have a big flight deck for helicopter operations but it isn't big enough to fly fighters. The F-35B would be able to operate, giving the Marines fighter support flying off their own ships. Marine Corps institutional memory reaches back to WWII when the Navy would dump the Marines on a beach and then pull their precious aircraft carriers back out of danger, leaving the Marines to tough it out without Navy air support. The though of having Marine Corps fighters to support Marine infantry must be very appealing.
Actually, they could probably save money by merging the A models and the C models. The only real difference between a carrier fighter and a land based fighter is the carrier fighter needs a tail hook and must be more stoutly built to withstand the tail hook yank, the catapult heave, and the carrier deck whack. No reason the Air Force cannot fly the same plane. Granted, a special model that doesn't have to do carrier landings could have a little more range and payload, but the difference is small and the savings in having just ONE version of the fighter are huge.
The Marines wanted the B model, probably 'cause they could operate it off the big helicopter ships. These ships are built to carry and support Marine landing parties. They have a big flight deck for helicopter operations but it isn't big enough to fly fighters. The F-35B would be able to operate, giving the Marines fighter support flying off their own ships. Marine Corps institutional memory reaches back to WWII when the Navy would dump the Marines on a beach and then pull their precious aircraft carriers back out of danger, leaving the Marines to tough it out without Navy air support. The though of having Marine Corps fighters to support Marine infantry must be very appealing.
Actually, they could probably save money by merging the A models and the C models. The only real difference between a carrier fighter and a land based fighter is the carrier fighter needs a tail hook and must be more stoutly built to withstand the tail hook yank, the catapult heave, and the carrier deck whack. No reason the Air Force cannot fly the same plane. Granted, a special model that doesn't have to do carrier landings could have a little more range and payload, but the difference is small and the savings in having just ONE version of the fighter are huge.
Monday, August 29, 2011
TV from your laptop.
What with TV programmng moving to the Internet, you want any new computer to be able to hookup to your TV set. Unless you like watching TV programs on your laptop's screen. Me, I prefer to get my couch potato fix sitting in my recliner in the living room. For this to happen the computer needs to drive a signal down a cable into the TV and both computer and TV need a connection (a port) compatible with each other. There are at least four common types of ports, trouble is, not all computers or TV's come with all four types.
Composite video. This is the single prong RCA type connector (phono plug we used to call them). All VCR's (remember them?) came with a composite video output jack, and all TV's made since the VCR age have one. There aren't all that many TV's still running from pre VCR times. Composite video is pure analog, and works reasonably well. Some but not all computers have composite video outputs.
S-video This has a 5 pin DIN connector, and is less common. But it gives a much nice looking picture than composite video, the colors are clearer and the video is crisper. The presence of a S-video connector on either the computer or the TV is a plus.
VGA A 15 pin three row DB style connector used on computer monitors. Many computers, including laptops, have a VGA output, and new TV sets often have one too. Gives VERY good video.
RGB "Red-Green-Blue" three RCA connectors and three cables DVD players often have RGB outputs. Few computers have them. New TV sets will have RGB inputs. Gives VERY good video.
Bottom line? If shopping for a computer, take a look to see what it has for video outputs. Some laptops have no video out at all, which means you will never be able to use it to show Internet TV on the TV. If your TV has one of the better inputs, like S-Video, or VGA it would be nice if the computer had a matching jack. If all your TV has is composite video input, your want your new computer to have a composite output.
Remember computers get replaced fairly often, and the brand new laptop you buy today, may well be your #2 machine demoted to living room TV watching duties in few years. Remember also that your children will grow dissatisfied with their current laptops, upgrade to something newer to run their games faster, and leave the old laptop with parents. My three children have gifted me with as many castoff laptops. The laptop you buy your child today may be a castoff left at the old family home sooner than you think. It would be nice if said castoff were at least useful for watching TV.
Composite video. This is the single prong RCA type connector (phono plug we used to call them). All VCR's (remember them?) came with a composite video output jack, and all TV's made since the VCR age have one. There aren't all that many TV's still running from pre VCR times. Composite video is pure analog, and works reasonably well. Some but not all computers have composite video outputs.
S-video This has a 5 pin DIN connector, and is less common. But it gives a much nice looking picture than composite video, the colors are clearer and the video is crisper. The presence of a S-video connector on either the computer or the TV is a plus.
VGA A 15 pin three row DB style connector used on computer monitors. Many computers, including laptops, have a VGA output, and new TV sets often have one too. Gives VERY good video.
RGB "Red-Green-Blue" three RCA connectors and three cables DVD players often have RGB outputs. Few computers have them. New TV sets will have RGB inputs. Gives VERY good video.
Bottom line? If shopping for a computer, take a look to see what it has for video outputs. Some laptops have no video out at all, which means you will never be able to use it to show Internet TV on the TV. If your TV has one of the better inputs, like S-Video, or VGA it would be nice if the computer had a matching jack. If all your TV has is composite video input, your want your new computer to have a composite output.
Remember computers get replaced fairly often, and the brand new laptop you buy today, may well be your #2 machine demoted to living room TV watching duties in few years. Remember also that your children will grow dissatisfied with their current laptops, upgrade to something newer to run their games faster, and leave the old laptop with parents. My three children have gifted me with as many castoff laptops. The laptop you buy your child today may be a castoff left at the old family home sooner than you think. It would be nice if said castoff were at least useful for watching TV.
Teach Languages in Public School
A Wall St Journal letter to the editor suggested that computer programming languages be taught in the public schools, just like we no teach foreign languages. This actually is a very good idea. In addition to the obvious employment benefits, knowing how to program gives great insight into how computers work and what they can and cannot do. A citizen today has to interact with computers in daily life. Knowing programming gives the citizen an useful edge in navigating the murky currents of cyberspace. Now that most students own computers, the school would be spared the the expense of setting up a computer lab.
Un fortunately the public school faculty, ed majors, are incapable of teaching programming, and few of them are capable of learning. So it won't happen unless enormous pressure is brought to bear upon the school systems. I don't see much sign of that happening.
Un fortunately the public school faculty, ed majors, are incapable of teaching programming, and few of them are capable of learning. So it won't happen unless enormous pressure is brought to bear upon the school systems. I don't see much sign of that happening.
All we got was a barograph trace
My barograph shows a dramatic dip, bottoming out a full inch down, around 6 PM last night. Other than a lot of rain, that was it, no wind, no lightening, zippo. We did have some flooding on rivers, but I'm up a thousand feet in Franconia Notch, so the rain all runs down hill away from my house. Except for the Cannon Cloud I'd have sunshine this morning. Electricity stayed on, not even a blip all night. I can tell, when the power goes blip, my clock radio forgets everything, clock setting, alarm setting and station settings. Clock radio was right at it, only at 6:55 the NHPR station in Lebanon 91.3Mhz, was off the air. They recovered and were back on the air by 7:30.
Bottom line, Irene was more TV news hype than hurricane.
Bottom line, Irene was more TV news hype than hurricane.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
More Weather signs
As I write this, the eye of hurricane Irene is inside the city limits of New York, some 300 miles away. Up here we have steady heavy rain which started around midnight. No wind. Barometer dropped from 29.2 inches of mercury to 28.5 over the last 12 hours. Rainwater is pouring off the roof and down the driveway gutter. The Cannon Cloud is down to the top of Gremlin.
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