The Wall St journal had a front page story about transatlantic airliners making emergency fuel stops at strange locations like Goose Bay Labrador and Iceland. Turns out a certain cheap ass airline has been flying 4100 mile range 757's on transatlantic runs of 3900 miles. Leaving just a few hundred miles of reserve range in the tanks. When the winds are against them, they run out of jet fuel and have to make unscheduled stops in the boondocks. Making the flight VERY late and causing passengers to miss what ever connections they had booked.
In USAF mission planning we were supposed to have enough fuel on board to divert to another airport should the weather get bad at the airport you planned on. Sounds like the airlines are no longer bothering.
And guess which airline is inflicting this inconvenience upon long suffering passengers. My old favorite, Continental. Good thing I have avoided flying Continental for the last 40 years.
Incidentally, you also want to avoid Air-Trans. They are prone to canceling flights for the convenience of the airline. Leaving passengers stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
The need for numbers
There's been a bit of talk about the defense budget. Obama and Panetta have been on TV talking about how great our armed forces are. But they gave no numbers.
We ought to know how many regular combat troops we will have. There was a time (WWII) when we had ten million men under arms. That's probably more than we need in the 21st century. But it does seem prudent to have enough regular troops to do down a third world pest hole like Iran or North Korea. Say 140,000, which is what we had in Iraq at one point. When doing the counting, we ought to count regulars separately from reserves. And we only want to count real combat arms, infantry, tankers, gunners, and combat engineers. Public affairs officers, contract administrators, motor pool, logistics, POL, finance, base housing, and MP's are not combat soldiers.
In the case of the Navy and Air Force, the numbers that matter are the number of operational warships and aircraft. Don't count rustbuckets in mothballs or antique aircraft parked at the Davis Monthan boneyard.
There is probably some fat to be trimmed out of the defense department. Parkinson (of Parkinson's law fame) once observed that the Royal Navy back in WWI had a large number of ships and a small number of clerks. By 1960 the navy had half the number of ships and ten times the number of clerks compared to 1914. That's an example of cuttable fat.
Then there is military procurement, so beloved of Congressmen. We could start by burning the 100,000 pages of procurement regulations that just add cost and slow deliveries. Insist that the services go out for competitive bids on EVERYTHING. Don't accept excuses that there isn't time for bidding. Accept bids from close allies like Canada and Britain.
Knock off the gold plate. Buy Jeeps for $22k instead of Hummers for $60K. Buy off-the-shelf equipment rather than design special stuff at extra cost.
We ought to know how many regular combat troops we will have. There was a time (WWII) when we had ten million men under arms. That's probably more than we need in the 21st century. But it does seem prudent to have enough regular troops to do down a third world pest hole like Iran or North Korea. Say 140,000, which is what we had in Iraq at one point. When doing the counting, we ought to count regulars separately from reserves. And we only want to count real combat arms, infantry, tankers, gunners, and combat engineers. Public affairs officers, contract administrators, motor pool, logistics, POL, finance, base housing, and MP's are not combat soldiers.
In the case of the Navy and Air Force, the numbers that matter are the number of operational warships and aircraft. Don't count rustbuckets in mothballs or antique aircraft parked at the Davis Monthan boneyard.
There is probably some fat to be trimmed out of the defense department. Parkinson (of Parkinson's law fame) once observed that the Royal Navy back in WWI had a large number of ships and a small number of clerks. By 1960 the navy had half the number of ships and ten times the number of clerks compared to 1914. That's an example of cuttable fat.
Then there is military procurement, so beloved of Congressmen. We could start by burning the 100,000 pages of procurement regulations that just add cost and slow deliveries. Insist that the services go out for competitive bids on EVERYTHING. Don't accept excuses that there isn't time for bidding. Accept bids from close allies like Canada and Britain.
Knock off the gold plate. Buy Jeeps for $22k instead of Hummers for $60K. Buy off-the-shelf equipment rather than design special stuff at extra cost.
So what does it all mean? NH Primary that is
Well, it certainly puts more air into Romney's balloon. And that's a good thing. So says Captain Obvious.
Just as good, it takes a lot of air out of Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich. Both of whom would IMHO be disastrous GOP candidates, easily beaten by Obama.
Too bad Ron Paul is still flying fairly high. The TV pundits all dismiss Paul saying "he could never get the nomination." I hope they are right, but I don't see what makes the pundits so sure. This is a democracy, votes are votes, and Paul has a goodly number of them. He sure has a lot of yard signs out up here.
The opposition started whacking Romney about his days at Bain Capital. Bain is venture capital/private equity and their business was investing in shaky companies hoping to turn a flake into a winner. Sometimes Bain won it's bets and sometimes it lost them. Romney should be saying something like, "At Bain we financed this winner and that winner and this other winner and today they are all in business, employing this many people, people who would be out looking for work if we hadn't financed the company that employs them today. Sure we had some losers that didn't work out, but our winners employ far more people than the losers laid off. "
Just as good, it takes a lot of air out of Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich. Both of whom would IMHO be disastrous GOP candidates, easily beaten by Obama.
Too bad Ron Paul is still flying fairly high. The TV pundits all dismiss Paul saying "he could never get the nomination." I hope they are right, but I don't see what makes the pundits so sure. This is a democracy, votes are votes, and Paul has a goodly number of them. He sure has a lot of yard signs out up here.
The opposition started whacking Romney about his days at Bain Capital. Bain is venture capital/private equity and their business was investing in shaky companies hoping to turn a flake into a winner. Sometimes Bain won it's bets and sometimes it lost them. Romney should be saying something like, "At Bain we financed this winner and that winner and this other winner and today they are all in business, employing this many people, people who would be out looking for work if we hadn't financed the company that employs them today. Sure we had some losers that didn't work out, but our winners employ far more people than the losers laid off. "
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The NH primary day finally arrives
So I got up and rolled down three mile hill to vote. Town Hall was open for business, polls open. I faced 30 choices for Republican president, most of whom I had never heard of. Chatted with a number of friends and acquaintances about the surprising lack of poll watchers. There was nobody out in front waving signs for any candidate. Possibly the so-so weather (30 degrees and threatening snow) drove them off, or perhaps the great excitement with this primary exists mostly in the minds of the newsies. Or perhaps we voters aren't really very fond of any candidate, certainly not fond enough to stand out in the cold all day.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Fix for Microsoft and/or Windows update.
If Windows or Microsoft update stops working, it may be that wuaueng.dll has been "deactivated".
You can "re activate" same by typing this command into the Run window on the Start menu:
You can "re activate" same by typing this command into the Run window on the Start menu:
%SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\REGSVR32.EXE %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\WUAUENG.DLL
It works for me. I found this gem on the Microsoft Web site here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-windows_update/windows-update-error-number0x80070424/95998d7e-9e38-4599-a6cd-fd201447fa92
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Broadband dies
Yesterday I powered up trusty desktop and oops, "Network Cable disconnected" said Windows, and sure enough, no Internet. I looked in the rats nest of cables behind the computer, and the network cable was plugged in and the green LED was glowing. Huh? How come Windows says the cable is unplugged when the LED says it is plugged in?
So I wiggled some cables and started up the hardware troubleshooter program and bingo, the cable became connected, Internet returned, and I could read my email. This lasted for about an hour and then that pesky cable popped out and the Internet went away.
After a while the urge to get on line became irresistible. Maybe it's something wrong with trusty disktop? I pulled antique laptop out of its carry case, unpacked, unrolled, and plugged in the power pack and the mouse, and booted antique up. She was unable to find the house wireless router signal. Argh. Must be something wrong with the broadband.
Maybe that flaky router is finally dying? Router will lock up and refuse to connect until it gets "reset" actually I pull his plug out of the wall for the count of ten, then plug him in again. And, believe it or not, I have a spare router, just lying around the house. So I swap out the router, see the new router's LEDS light up, and go back up stairs to my computer farm. No luck. No Internet.
Well maybe Comcast is down? That happens now and then. So the rest of the day goes by, I go to bed, and next morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I try for Internet. No dice. Windows still thinks the cable is unplugged. Just to be sure I look at the cable again, it's plugged in, but the LED that was glowing green the day before is out. I inspect the router, and notice, the router ain't showing any lights either. I check the wall wart that powers the router and AHAH, it ain't giving out 12 volts like it ought to. It's showing a measly 2.46 volts DC on my new-to-me B&K DMM.
I rummage in my junk box, and wonder of wonders, I have another 12 volt wall wart, and it still works. And the plug matches! So I put the backup wall wart to work, and lo and behold, Internet returns.
Anyhow, that's why no post on Saturday. (Is that a Harry Potter line?)
So I wiggled some cables and started up the hardware troubleshooter program and bingo, the cable became connected, Internet returned, and I could read my email. This lasted for about an hour and then that pesky cable popped out and the Internet went away.
After a while the urge to get on line became irresistible. Maybe it's something wrong with trusty disktop? I pulled antique laptop out of its carry case, unpacked, unrolled, and plugged in the power pack and the mouse, and booted antique up. She was unable to find the house wireless router signal. Argh. Must be something wrong with the broadband.
Maybe that flaky router is finally dying? Router will lock up and refuse to connect until it gets "reset" actually I pull his plug out of the wall for the count of ten, then plug him in again. And, believe it or not, I have a spare router, just lying around the house. So I swap out the router, see the new router's LEDS light up, and go back up stairs to my computer farm. No luck. No Internet.
Well maybe Comcast is down? That happens now and then. So the rest of the day goes by, I go to bed, and next morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I try for Internet. No dice. Windows still thinks the cable is unplugged. Just to be sure I look at the cable again, it's plugged in, but the LED that was glowing green the day before is out. I inspect the router, and notice, the router ain't showing any lights either. I check the wall wart that powers the router and AHAH, it ain't giving out 12 volts like it ought to. It's showing a measly 2.46 volts DC on my new-to-me B&K DMM.
I rummage in my junk box, and wonder of wonders, I have another 12 volt wall wart, and it still works. And the plug matches! So I put the backup wall wart to work, and lo and behold, Internet returns.
Anyhow, that's why no post on Saturday. (Is that a Harry Potter line?)
Friday, January 6, 2012
Polyanna rides again
Yesterday we had Obama and Panetta on TV talking about the defense budget. To listen to them, you would never think that they were planning to cut same. They talked about adequacy of the armed forces, leanness and meanness, retention of veterans, upward and onward. Sounded like everything was going to get better and better.
No talk about how much defense we were giving up. Like how many combat soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and Navy ships the US would have this coming year. For extra credit they could tell us how many we had last year. Nor did they mention the number of dollars involved. Chalk this up partly to the general innumeracy of the chattering classes, and largely to a desire to conceal the size of the armed forces under Obama's new regime.
Citizens who bothered to listen to this drivel learned nothing worth learning.
No talk about how much defense we were giving up. Like how many combat soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and Navy ships the US would have this coming year. For extra credit they could tell us how many we had last year. Nor did they mention the number of dollars involved. Chalk this up partly to the general innumeracy of the chattering classes, and largely to a desire to conceal the size of the armed forces under Obama's new regime.
Citizens who bothered to listen to this drivel learned nothing worth learning.
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