But I have been able to travel back on my computer screen using Google Earth. While not the same, it does allow for a couple minutes of nostalgia. Not remembering all the details perfectly, it took me a few minutes to hunt around to find the places we lived there, and where I went to school.

However, while I was hunting around, I became aware of something that was very profound to me. Looking at the city where I lived from a completely different perspective, I realized how narrow my experience had really been there. While I was familiar with the street that I lived on, I don’t think I had ever explored the street just up from the one I lived on.

Isn’t that the way life is sometimes? We fall into a rut and get in a routine that is safe and comfortable. But the possibilities around us are so vast, when in a normal routine, we would become crippled if we had to process each possibility. But the possibilities are still there even if we are unaware of them.

However, there are seasons in one’s life where you do need stop and contemplate the possibilities. I think for many people they are chosen for you through the actions of others – a 9/11 event or a job layoff. There are some who have the courage to choose them for themselves. I applaud those people.

What struck me most was a comment she made about how to get out of this crisis (if you listen to the interview it’s near the end of the interview.) It’s a question I had begun asking myself as the crisis unfolded. What she basically said – and I am paraphrasing here – “For the economy to recover we need productivity gains. Focus on education – not just No Child Left Behind.” And most importantly the quote that has stuck with me –” In the great depression, people needed shoes so they could stand in the job lines, today people can’t get jobs because they don’t know Java.”

My conclusion is we need to focus on developing human capital to help offset the lack of financial capital. Productive human capital will help generate cash either through cost savings or through increased revenue. Cash on the balance sheet will increase equity and make it easier to issue debt. And increasing access to credit is going to be essential to our economic recovery.

A great example of this came a couple of years ago. Taco Bell was doing some research for a healthy menu. They wanted to know how people would put together a menu item using the ingredients that Taco Bell already had in their stores. They assumed since everyone they surveyed said that they wanted more healthy items on the menu that people would put low fat ingredients on the menu items and reduce the overall calorie and fat counts. So they setup a website for people to log into and virtually create the healthy menu items they were claiming they wanted to buy. To Taco Bell’s surprise, the customers did the exact opposite. People loaded up on high fat, high calorie items, even as they were made aware of what the calorie and fat levels were. Taco Bell realized that what they needed to do was create more low cost, comfort food for people to buy.

Now, I am not here to debates the nutritional value (or lack thereof) of Taco Bell’s menu items. What I am here to say is that marketers are becoming more sophisticated in the ways that they find out what you truly want – which can be a good thing – less money wasted developing products nobody wants, better standard of living by making your life more complete. Of course, this wouldn’t have been necessary if people had simply been more transparent in communicating their desires and less concerned about repeating what they think society wanted them to say.

However, one thing I’ve noticed after a few days with the Wii is that while great, it could be little bit better.  The Wii system uses an infrared sensor bar to read the movements of the controller.  The sensor bar is a thin bar about 8″ in width and about a 1/2″ tall.  It is intended to be mounted either above or below the television.   The player then takes the controller, points it at the TV and plays the game. If the game is Tennis, from the Wii Play game, then the user swings naturally at the ball on the TV. Contact is made with the virtual ball in virtual space.

The first problem that I’ve seen is that there are two slightly mis-aligned systems being used. The first is the visual feedback system of the gamer – television – human visual system. The second is the infrared sensor – controller – hand system. Both connect through the users mind, but the natural eye-hand coordination instinct directs the player to aim more directly at the image of the ball on the TV instead of the virtual ball being tracked by the infrared sensor system. Given that those systems are not completely in line, this frequently causes the feeling of “Why did I miss the ball?” or “Why is the bowling ball not going straight”.

Another limitation is in the sensor bar – being wide and thin with a fixed focal length. Think of when you take a picture of someone. If you stand too close while taking the picture, all you will get is a good picture of their nose. Most photographs are taken from 6′-8′ away. That way you can get the proper field of view. The same principle applies to the Wii. Standing too close to the Wii’s sensor bar will limit the up and down range of motion available to the player given its thinness and increases the acceleration of the movements as they diverge away from the center line of the sensor bar.

So what would be a better design?

My first thought was to embed the sensor bar electronics into the TV in order to correct the visual misalignment. While ultimately that may become the case, that would require a very expensive redesign and would be very time consuming.

My second thought then was to correct the two problems by creating a sensor bar system of two independent sensor bars mounts at opposite corners of the television. I had considered putting sensor at each corner of the television, four in total, but that would actually collect redundant information. By putting the sensor at the opposite corners you correct for the limitation of the sensor bar in the up and down direction and provide the necessary information to align the eye-hand coordination.

And in politics, with the ever slick marketing and carefully crafted sound bites, when we elect someone, particularly for the first time to an office, we are playing a version of ‘Name that Tune’.  The only way we’ll know the truth if someone can perform the job, is after the  song has been played and they’ve been in the job.

But one way we can improve our chances of making a good choice in the voting booth is to look for other examples of people like the candidate we are evaluating.

And that’s where Illinois’ current political crisis is instructive, if not a little too late.

So Illinois has a crooked politician.  What else is new?  Turns out 4 of the last 8 govenor’s from the Land of Lincoln has either been indicted, prosecuted, or investigated.

Not a good track record, by any measure.

And as it turns out the illustrious Gov Rod Blagojevich, aka Blago, is probably headed to the pokey.

But what I found most interesting last week when I was reading a piece on the NYT were the characteristics they used in the story to describe Blago’s political playbook:

Whatever his [Blago's] current motivation, he came into office with a very different persona. As a young congressman representing the North Side of Chicago, Mr. Blagojevich was pegged as a rising star with a populist touch. Undistinguished as a lawmaker but with proven likability in and out of Chicago, he seemed hellbent on pushing reform and cleaning house in a state with an embarrassingly overt culture of political corruption.

Running on a do-good theme as a candidate of change, he swept into the governor’s office earlier this decade mainly on promises that he would be different, that he would restore integrity to the governor’s office after the previous chief executive, George Ryan, was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for racketeering and fraud.

“Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, Illinois has voted for change,” he told a crowd at his victory party on election night in 2002.

Back then, it was not a secret that Mr. Blagojevich had big dreams for himself that included the White House.

I got chills down my spine when I read that.  Eerily that reminds me of another Illinois politician who was just elected.  But this time it was for a much bigger office, the presidency.

Now, I don’t know anything and I am certainly speculating.  But the takeaway for me is clear.  I think this country has yet to learn the lesson well enough (as they didn’t learn it from Bush 43′s stance of “bringing a different tone to Washington”) that change can be co-opted by politicians to mask the lack of values and intellect so badly needed to lead this country to prosperity and freedom.

For the sake of this country and my children’s future, I just hope Barack Obama proves me wrong.

It’s been in the news – GM – one of the nations largest corporations and certainly a very important manufacturer is about to go under. To get a great backdrop on the drama, I refer you to the recent article in Fortune magazine which nicely chronicles the history of GM.

But something had always been striking me as odd when it came to the desperation of the Big 3 when it came to how much they needed the bailout and by when.

“By the end of the year.”

“Immediately.”

Sounds like my twelve year old son begging for a new cell phone. The one he cracked because he was outside snowboarding with it.

So today, my suspicions were confirmed.  As seen in this quote from the Associate Press

GM has hinted it might not make it through the end of the year before running out of cash. But GM board member Kent Kresa said earlier this week that the company might make it into the first quarter, depending on auto sales.

“Certainly it has been stated that we need the money quite soon,” Kresa told The Associated Press. “I can’t specifically state before the end of the year, but certainly in the first quarter and early in the first quarter.”

original article here

My gut says – look I know times are tough, and certainly they are not out of the woods, but I think we should all take this away – the bailouts have become too politicized.  Another bailout is throwing “good” money after bad. GM should declare bankruptcy and use the expertise in the courts to remake themselves and come out a stronger company.

Get used to it. It’s going to be the story for a while.  Don’t think it’s going to end anytime soon.  As soon as you let yourself relax, there will be another shock, and another, and another. We’ve been living on easy street for sometime, and we have a lot of dues to pay.

PS – I’m not a crazy, I just am telling you what I think.

(If you are not familiar with the way this played out and the real impact it had in determining the outcome of the race, catch up on the details at Newsmax.com)

You gasp? What is this? You thought liberals were always in favor of big government solutions? Well they are, just not for themselves.

Originally, Barak Obama committed to use public (government) campaign financing. But when he saw the success he was having with fundraising over the internet, he changed his mind. Let me repeat, when he saw that it was better for him, he did what was better for him. Now you say, it’s a free country and he didn’t do anything illegal. All true. But when he had the money, he used the freedom it provided him.

But just wait until he, as our 44^th president, had worked with the liberals in Congress to pass so many more laws that take away the freedoms you enjoy today – the freedom to choose your own health care, right to bear arms, drive an SUV. Those laws when passed will take away those freedoms and change the dynamic to where you will face jackbooted thugs who come with rifles to enforce will of the people on you. But the liberal elites will take their money and pay doctors to take care of their children, own guns for personal protection, and drive around in their gas guzzling.

Don’t be fooled. It’s not a question of “if” but “when.”

BAR STOOL ECONOMICS

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for

all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go

something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar

every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one

day, the owner threw them a curve.

‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, I’m going to

reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes

so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they

divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they

subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the

sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the

bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill

by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the

amounts each should pay!

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing–(100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 —————(33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7———— (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12———— (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ————(22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59———— (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four

continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began

to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20, ‘declared the sixth man. He

pointed to the tenth man, ‘but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a

dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10

back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’*

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get

anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine

sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill,

they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money

between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is

how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most

benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for

being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they

might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat

friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible

Times are such that I now need to be more direct in this blog about that aspect of my life. Part of it is self-preservation, part of it is because where I work is a large part of who I am. Believe it or not, I am passionate about hard drives. Even when I was at the science museum with my sons last week – we went to the Star Wars exhibit which was totally cool – I took the time to explain how some of the experiments actually demonstrated basic technologies employed in hard drives.

So don’t be surprised when you see more entries that are related to storage and hard drives and wonder where that is coming from.