Reinke Faces Life

FROM INPUT TO A STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PLANNING PROCESS

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I suggest that the strategic plan needs to adapt to some “new” trends:

(1) Zero footprint platforms. Non PCs. Strange forms like PS2, WII, pda, cell phone, kiosk. type technologies.

(2) Low cost storage. Amazon S3 offering might make sense in some scenarios.

(3) The trend towards mashable content impacts direction.

(4) Low cost high speed access; new technologies like wimax could change use and volume.

(5) Nearly ubiquitous access sets expectations in connectivity and service levels.

(6) Vista, linux, and mac may all present unique opportunities.

(7) RIAA has court success; in loco parentis, may get us in the deep end.

(8) Porn and gambling continue to abound; challenge to the … …

(9) Facebook as digital dirt needs to be brought to everyone’s attention.

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From: Reinke’s R&D Techie Nerd Persona []
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 2:24 PM
To: Editor
Subject: RE: Carry a flash drive instead of a laptop [Newsletter Comp Version]
Importance: Low

Well, hotel’s don’t necessarily give you access to the USB port. (I was
in vegas without my power cord but with my usb. And, was basically
screwed. See
https://reinkefaceslife.com/2007/09/23/rant-does-dell-suck-really-suck-or
-extremely-really-suck/ and my saga!) I think that the answer is g.ho.st
or a similar web os. fjohn

________________________________

From: Windows Secrets
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 5:50 AM
Subject: Carry a flash drive instead of a laptop [Newsletter Comp
Version]Carry a flash drive instead of a laptop
By Scott Dunn

You can avoid lugging a laptop everywhere by installing your favorite
apps on a USB flash drive and running them on any computer you want.

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DUH!

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http://www.techmeme.com/071006/p16#a071006p16

TECHMEME points out an interesting article
Securing Very Important Data: Your Own (Denise Caruso/New York Times)
Source: New York Times
Author: Denise Caruso
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/technology/07frame…

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Securing Very Important Data: Your Own — AS long as we are willing to relinquish some personal data, Web applications have long allowed us to create virtual identities that can conduct most of the social and financial transactions that typify life in the real world.

***and***

ONE way to change this, he said, is to make people more like organizations.

To this end, Mr. Neuenschwander and his colleagues have floated the intriguing concept of the L.L.P.: the Limited Liability Persona. This persona would be a legally recognized virtual person in which users could “invest” the financial or identity resources of their choosing.

Once their individual personas are created, consumers would be able to use them as their legal “alter ego,” even in financial transactions. “My L.L.P. would have its own mailing address, its own tax ID number, and that’s the information I’d give when I’m online,” Mr. Neuenschwander said. Other benefits include the ability for “personas” to limit their financial exposure in ways that individuals cannot.

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This is a most interesting concept.

The tin foil hat crowd always talks about the gooferment and all upper case names. So perhaps, a great gift for a child would be an LLP and their own name as a domain name (e.g., JOHNQPUBLIC dot something ink?).

Hmmm, certainly something to consider.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070928/ts_afp/irelandsmokingpubsmusicoffbeat_070928145420

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Interesting…they should try it in Vegas!

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Vegas has the smoking Nazis already.

It’s not complete, but it’s getting there.

It is the INITIATION OF FORCE. They are using gooferment to inflict their values on us. It’s OK because you agree with this one. What if it is one of your vices? Like golf? It very wasteful of time, energy, and attention citizen. Further, people get hurt at golf and miss work and can’t maximize their tax payments to the state. And, think of the ecology. What about all the poor animals displaced for your “golf course”. That money and land could have been given to the “poor”.

How does that fit for size? Little tight.

If some one can use gooferment to force YOU or ME or ANYONE to do ONE thing, then we are slaves and they can makes us do anything. Citizen, it unhealthy for you to go to Church, wear clothes, eat at mickeyd’s.

Look it from a freedom side. Does anyone FORCE those musicians to take their equipment to the smoke filled pubs? No, they can say “I only play at smoke free venues”. But, then they have to bear the COSTS of that action. And, who owns the pubs. Obviously, the gooferment since they call the shots. Is anyone forced to patronize the pubs? Yes, the gooferment “regulates” them.

Without the gooferment, there’s be MORE CHOICES. The marketplace would create smoke free Irish pubs.

See in a free market, no one is compelled to do squat. Everyone would get to make choices. When you spend your certificates of appreciation give by your fellow workers for something you’ve done that they like, then it’s like having a mini election. AND, everyone is allowed to decide. Sort of like democracy without the force of mob rule.

See no one can be “wealthy” without serving their fellow man. The free market is essentially a coordination mechanism that allows us to cooperate. Socialism is enforced slavery; free markets are a very complex calculus that allows everyone to be satisfied with what’s available to the maximum extent possible.

Socialism’s mantra “from each, according to ability; to each, according to need. The Free Markets mantra is “serve your fellow man and be rewarded to the extent of your contribution”.

See first, you have to dig the well, and then you get to drink. Catch 10 fish and the market can equate that to 2 loaves of bread. If you catch 10 fish and I catch 5, you get two loaves and I get a lesson in motivation and ability.

It’s a complex mechanism, since if fishing is bad and you only catch 5 and I get 1, then the price of fish will rise. If the baker doesn’t lower his price of bread, he winds up with stale bread. So magically, there will be fish for the baker and bread for us.

It’s when force aka gets involved that the mechanism breaks down.

Argh!

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Once again, this whole nonsense about time zones and daylight savings times aggravated me.

(I got up an hour earlier than I had to for my morning call.)

As a globe, we should all be on GMT.

Who cares if you work 9-5 in eat or 1400-2200 Zulu?

If you talk to someone in another time zone, the conversation has one variable extracted.

And, maybe Microsoft Outlook would work correctly.

Argh!

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FYI, to anyone who is interested or cares, I participated in a conference call from the Denver Tech Center Marriott using SKYPE from my personal NOTEBOOK over the Verizon Wireless Broad Band. And it all worked.

Call was FREE, VWBB ain’t, and quality was acceptable.

So in essence I have turned a very expensive notebook into a free semi-mobile phone.

A sort of large cell phone? A funny phone booth?

Demos available at a modest fee.

Love it when stuff works.

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http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2007/092607backspin.html?page=2

The industry’s soft underbelly
Backspin By Mark Gibbs, Network World, 09/26/07

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What are the big issues that people outside of the computer business should really pay attention to? More important, if we believe that outsiders should be paying attention, then what will it take to clue them in? So, you tell me: What is the computer industry’s soft underbelly? What should consumers know?

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I think there are several “hot issues”:

1) Computers don’t necessarily make one more productive. The certainly don’t make organizations more efficient. And, the noise level of electronic communication is such that it really prevents concentration, attention, and focus. Computing can effectively conceal process problems.

2) The novice, and most experienced, users have no clue how fragile everything is. Hard disk failure is the easiest understood. Data corruption by — malicious, corrupt, buggy, or poorly designed — software is the hardest to understand and protect against.

3) Similarly, software sucks. It’s rare that it works with 100% reliability. If you could keep it locked in a box, then maybe it would stay uncorrupted, unupdated, unfixed, uncustomized, un-what-evered. Put it in use and stuff happens. And, some of that stuff ain’t good. For example, look at Microsoft SUS updating “silently” regardless of what your settings are.

4) Now let’s talk about costs. You don’t “buy” software. “barbara streisand” You give the vendor your money and that the last you’ll get any attention from them. So you don’t “buy” it, but you pay thru the nose. If you’re an old pro, you use Open Source Software where your upfront cost is zero and you can buy some support as you need it. (A better model imho).

5) Companies want your credit card so they can keep billing that card month after month. Good luck getting them to stop. Plan on changing your number to get rid of them. AND, Intelligent Designer help you if you want a refund!

These vex pros and novices alike. And, no one talks about it. But, these are the 800# gorillas in the room imho.

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Lessons Learned: Putting all your data on a fob is useless without a USB port to plug it into. Seems obvious now.

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http://www.liberty-watch.com/volume03/issue06/gopgeorge.php

TIP-TOP TAXING
The new IRS tip compliance program really sticks it to Nevada’s gaming workers
BY GEORGE HARRIS
George Harris is publisher of Liberty Watch: The Magazine. He is also a political activist and successful Southern Nevadan businessman.

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IRS. No three letters spark disdain with the American public more than those. If it weren’t for the creative withholding tax — the bi-weekly theft that enables a majority of American employees to finance their annual IRS bill (for earning a living) — the “revenue service” would not exist due to public outrage. Too many people just could not fathom (or afford) to write a single check on April 15 for the lump sum that the agency collects each year. Having a compassionate heart, the IRS is aware of the trouble this may cause some families. So they assist us with the “service” of a withholding tax. Rather than think of it as bi-weekly theft, we should look at it as a savings plan to pay income taxes.

*** and ***

These consequences may sound frightening, but remember the IRS has heart. Even they know that tip levels can’t always be as good as $28 an hour. That’s why if business levels dramatically change like they did after 9/11, approved rates for each tip compliance position may be modified by the IRS due to a significant drop in revenues.

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How stupid are the sheeple here?

Very!

There’s a reason that election day is six months after tax day. There is a reason for the “withholding” service the gooferment gives you. There is a reason that they stick it to the people and let the powerful slide.

Working in the underground economy could become very popular soon.

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I found a series of deceptive slot machines in Las Vegas. (Unusual, because the Nevada Gaming Commission is unusually strict with stuff like that.) They were high top modern ones … penny slots … with 210 coins max bet. The deceptive part was that they reset after an idle period to indicate 1 coin – 1 line – 1 (something). Regardless of what the last play was. No accident I watched it happen. (Where’s a video cam or camera when you need one!)

It’s deceptive because there are slot players, like myself, who look for slots where the last player “tapped out”. Some people will play a slot down to their last credit. A 1/1/1 is a sign that some one just played out their allotment for that machine without winning. (Akin to the “jump in one’s grave” strategy where they watch you lose and then as soon as you leave, they play and hit “your jackpot”. Argh!) Some players, like myself, don’t like to play slots where someone has one big as indicated by a big cash out. (Not completely reliable.) Some players, like myself, like to play machines where there’s a big last bet and no big cash out. (Indicating a big player tapped out on the machine without hitting.)

So, I’ll be looking into what it takes to make a complaint to the NV state gooferment.

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HERE’S THE RESPONSE TO MY INQUIRY

From: Howie, Gordon [mailto:GHowie@gcb.nv.gov]
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 7:42 PM
To: reinkefj
Subject: Slot Machine Question

Mr. Reinke,  Unfortunately there is no requirement that I am aware of that a slot machine keep the information displayed relevant to what the prior player was wagering or cashed out.  In reality and statistically the information you think you gain some insight from has nothing to do with the outcome of the next game played. There are a lot of changes in the way modern gaming devices present the games and some do not keep any prior information available for the review of another patron who is trying to find just the right machine.  We are also receiving a lot of questions about why the tokens and coin hoppers are being replaced with ticket in / ticket out.  It is all part of the technology which is changing very rapidly in the industry. 

If I can be of any additional assistance please feel free to contact me.  

Gordon R. Howie, Jr.
Special Agent, Enforcement Division
Nevada Gaming Control Board
702-486-2020

Important: This communication, including any attachments, may contain confidential information and is intended only for the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. Any review, dissemination, or copying of this communication by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-Mail and delete all copies of the original message.

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So shut up and just lose your money quietly?

It was a prompt reply.   :-)

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From my recent trip, the hotel wanted $11/day for inet access. (The one at EWR wanted $9!) Figuring times 30 days, that’s a month inet cost of $330/month. Given a home account on an broadband is $50/month. That means that the hotel is pocketing a kool 280$/month. Pretty sweet. That a lotta R for very little I! As in ROI.

Taking a place like the big vegas hotel with 4k of rooms. Assume that they are 75% full each month. Assume that half will buy inet access from them. That’s 280 * 4 * .75 * .5 = 420k$/month!!!

Wow!

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From my recent experience, I’m going into the “rescue business”. If you find yourself stranded “electronically isolated”, then let me know. I’ll overnight you an old hunka junk. It’ll be enough to keep you going until you get home. In my recent experience, I have willingly paid $200 to use a laptop for a week. Plus shipping and handling. :-) Would you? Sounds like I have a business model. If the price of a new laptop is $500 to $750, then all I have to do is stay under that price point. I have an inventory of one right now. If demand warrants, I increase my inventory, hire staff, and retire rich. No?

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