Teenagers: Don't blindly follow your parents' career choices

Parents: Don't blindly expect your teenager to follow your career choices

Back in the last century, I worked with a consultant fluent with SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software, Ravi Joshi. Ravi was born and raised in India, where his father worked for the railroad. But Ravi didn't go work for the railroad; he ended up being a highly-paid SAP consultant working in the United States. This is unusual for people in India as many families have a built-in career path: If your father worked for the railroad, it's likely that you will, too. The same thing applies if your father works at a steel mill.

That's not usually the case in the United States, although there are cases of multiple generations of police officers, firefighters and Kentucky coal miners. In the United States, teenagers do have a lot more flexibility in their career choices. This is especially good since many of their parents' careers, like mining coal in Kentucky, are quickly disappearing as well as being dangerous and causing long-term health problems.

A coworker of mine from many years ago wanted to go into the U.S. Army at 17. He lived in Kentucky with his family whom didn't put much emphasis in education. The Army requires a parent's consent to join at 17. This coworker's parents were against it. "Why don't you just work at your uncle's body shop?" his father asked. The body shop had been struggling for years and the future wasn't bright. "There's no need to go anywhere." His parents refused to sign the consent. The coworker ran away from home and never looked back. When he told me this story, he was in his early 30s, working full time and finishing up his bachelor's degree.

So, if you are a teenager, what does this mean to you? You need to look out for your long-term interests, not your parents'. Your parents shouldn't encourage or request that you join the family business, or even the same business that they are working for, right out of high school. Do you have the desire and financial means to get a bachelor's degree or at least an associate's degree? Are there other fields of work that you are interested in? If possible, you should go to college or at least get away from home for a few years. After at least five years of work experience, post college, you (now definitely an adult) can come back to the family business with a wealth of new knowledge to share and a clearer idea of what your goals are in life.

If you are a parent with a teenager, what does this mean to you? You need to look out for the teenager's long-term interests, not yours. Don't encourage or request that the teenager join the family business, or even the same business that you are working for, right out of high school. Does the teenager have the desire and financial means to get a bachelor's degree or at least an associate's degree? Are there other fields of work that the teenager is interested in? If possible, the teenager should go to college or at least get away from home for a few years. After at least five years of work experience, post college, the teenager (now definitely an adult) can come back to the family business with a wealth of new knowledge to share and a clearer idea of what his or her goals are in life.

My personal situation fits this post, although I didn't follow the advice I just gave. After high school, I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Then, instead of talking to recruiters at the university, I went back home and started working full time for my father, Richard Hobbs, for $100 per month plus room and board. I still think that was a good decision for me as I was not ready to go out in the big world. I did contribute to my father's company and I took over ownership five years later. But I do wonder how my life would have gone if I had interviewed with IBM for a position in Rochester, Minnesota (I still have the telegram they sent me). In retrospect, I would have thrived in Minnesota.

If you know me, you are suspicious of the timing of this. I know a situation that this addresses. I am gently hoping that someone reads this post and that it gives them something to discuss with their parents, spouse and teenager, who is rapidly becoming an adult.

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Footnote: I normally don't mention people by name in my blog posts, but I would like to get reconnected to Ravi Joshi. The last I heard, he was working in the Detroit, Michigan area. I tried to contact him after Sept. 11, 2001 but found that there were too many people with that name in India.

Counterfeit laundry detergent fading

On Oct. 15, 2013, I posted an entry talking about counterfeit laundry detergent. I won't say that that post went viral, but it accounts for over half (15,800 views as of today) of the total page views of this blog. I checked today and Procter & Gamble has done a good job of stopping the Internet advertising of the counterfeiters.

Looking for counterfeits today, I only found two YouTube videos that were mislabeled (which I commented on), an entry on Craigslist that I reported and a couple of entries on local advertising sites (one of which I reported; the other required me to create an account which I skipped).

So this is a celebratory post for my followers. I take joy in allowing people to avoid the rashes associated with counterfeit detergent.

I don't recognize this country any more

As I read the news and some Facebook posts, I feel more and more disconnected to this country, the United States of America. From the House giving sacred Apache lands away to a mining company to ruin, to Duke Energy polluting numerous streams in North Carolina (which would cost $8 billion to clean up but they aren't going to be cleaned up), to CIA interrogation techniques on a par with Hitler's SS, to a friend being stopped by police while literally walking across the street from work to home (he looked like someone they were looking for [not]), to the average CEO earning 331 times of the pay of the average worker, I don't recognize this country any more.

I vote in virtually every election but my vote simply doesn't count. Many people are swayed by hundreds of television ads encouraging them to vote against their own interests. We have troops fighting for our freedoms, we're told, but are they really fighting for the freedom of celebrities to drug and rape young women without punishment?

We lament what happened to the slaves and indigenous people in a previous century but are blind to the atrocities being committed every day in this century. To quote LeBron James, "I can't breathe."

Soon, I'm going to a Christmas concert with live singers (no "live" television with lip-synching) and try to get the cynicism out of my system. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas, everyone.

Updated Dec. 10: Corrected LeBron's name. How embarrassing!

On Facebook? Buy an ad and quit beating up your supporters!

Years ago, I was Facebook friends with WVXU public radio and, of course, received their Facebook posts. Then they started a begathon and started bombarding me with solicitations on Facebook. This despite my wife and I being sustaining members, meaning that we automatically donate to WXVU on a regular basis. The solicitations became so annoying that I stopped following them although I'm still friends with them.

Yesterday, I unfollowed three more Facebook friends who have been recently bombarding me with fundraising solicitations. It wasn't just one event or fundraiser; it was a whole group of things. I'll miss their regular posts.

If you are involved with an organization on Facebook, don't use it to beat up your supporters with endless solicitations. Buy a Facebook ad instead. For $50, you can reach out to tens of thousands of people, many of whom may not even know you exist. You'll get better results without losing good will with your dedicated supporters.

The Cincinnati Reds' roster as it stands today

The tables below include the players with contracts with and/or under control by the Cincinnati Reds and their status today. I have tried to organize these tables in a way to make it easy to find the information you're looking for. Within each table, players are sorted first by the year their contract ends; second (descending) by their 2014 salary; and third alphabetically by name. Well-known players (i.e. the starting pitchers and relief pitchers as well as the starting position players) are listed first with less-well-known players included later.

Please let me know, either with a comment or by email, if you find any errors or omissions. Note that I do not intend to update this as contracts are signed, etc. This is intended to be a snapshot of the situation today.

Starting Pitchers

Player	Position	Year Contract Ends	2014 Salary (Millions)	2015 Salary (Millions)/ Status	Comment
Johnny Cueto	RSP	2014	$10.00	$10.00	Reds option for 2015
Mat Latos	RSP	2014	$7.25	Arb.
Mike Leake	RSP	2014	$5.93	Arb.
Alfredo Simon	RSP	2014	$1.50	Arb.
Tony Cingrani	LSP	2014	?	?	Under control
Homer Bailey	RSP	2019	$9.00	$10.00	Mutual option for 2020

Relief and Closing Pitchers

Player	Position	Year Contract Ends	2014 Salary (Millions)	2015 Salary (Millions)/ Status	Comment
Aroldis Chapman	LCL	2014	$7.84	Arb.
Logan Ondrusek	RRP	2014	$1.45	Arb.
J.J. Hoover	RRP	2014	$0.52	?	Under control
Nick Christiani	RRP	2014	$0.50	?
Carlos Contreras	RRP	2014	$0.50	?	Under control
Jose Diaz	RRP	2014	$0.50	?	Under control
Sean Marshall	LRP	2015	$5.50	$6.50
Manny Parra	LRP	2015	$2.00	$3.50
Sam LeCure	RRP	2016	$1.20	$1.85

Starting Position Players

Player	Position	Year Contract Ends	2014 Salary (Millions)	2015 Salary (Millions)/ Status	Comment
Ryan Ludwick	LF	2014	$8.50	$9.00	Mutual option for 2015
Chris Heisey	LF	2014	$1.76	Arb.
Ramon Santiago	2B	2014	$1.10	FA
Jack Hannahan	1B	2014	$1.00	$4.00	Reds option for 2015
Zack Cozart	SS	2014	$0.60	Arb.
Todd Frazier	3B	2014	$0.60	Arb.
Devin Mesoraco	C	2014	$0.53	Arb.
Tucker Barnhart	C	2014	$0.50	?	Under control
Billy Hamilton	CF	2014	$0.50	?	Under control
Donald Lutz	1B	2014	$0.50	?	Under control
Jason Bourgeois	LF	2014	?	Arb.
Kris Negron	IF	2014	?	?	Under control
Brayan Pena	C	2015	$0.88	$1.40
Jay Bruce	RF	2016	$10.04	$12.04	Reds option for 2017
Skip Schumaker	IF/OF	2016	$2.00	$2.50
Brandon Phillips	2B	2017	$11.00	$12.00
Joey Votto	1B	2023	$12.00	$14.00	Reds option for 2024

Other Players

Player	Position	Year Contract Ends	2014 Salary (Millions)	2015 Salary (Millions)/ Status	Comment
Trevor Bell	RRP	2014	$0.50	Arb.
Carlos Contreras	RRP	2014	$0.50	?	Under control
Dylan Alexrod	RSP	2014	?	?	Under control
Daniel Corcino	RRP	2014	?	?	Under control
Ryan Dennick	LRP	2014	?	?	Under control
Juan Duran	OF	2014	?	?	Under control
Jake Elmore	OF	2014	?	?	Under control
Édgar González	RRP	2014	?	?	Under control
David Holmberg	LSP	2014	?	?	Under control
Curtis Partch	RRP	2014	?	?	Under control
Yorman Rodriguez	CF	2014	?	?	Under control
Netftali Soto	IF	2014	?	?	Under control
Pedro Villareal	RRP	2014	?	?	Under control
Raisel Iglesias	RSP	2020	$1.21	$1.71

Position Key

Note that many players play more than one position. For example, in 2014, Todd Frazier (3B) played first base as well as playing third base.

1B  First base

2B  Second base

3B  Third base

C  Catcher
CF  Center fielder
IF  Infielder

IF/OF  Infielder/outfielder

LCP  Left-handed closing pitcher

LF  Left fielder

LRP  Left-handed relief pitcher

LSP  Left-handed starting pitcher
OF  Outfielder

RRP  Right-handed relief pitcher

RSP  Right-handed starting pitcher

SS  Shortstop

Salary Abbreviations

?  I don't know the player's salary for 2014 and/or 2015.

Arb.  The player is eligible for arbitration in 2015.

FA  The player will be a free agent in 2015.

Sources

The original source for this information was Major League Baseball.

I used three web pages to compile these tables; one from The Cincinnati Enquirer and two from spotrac (first and second).

I am assuming that this information is in the public domain for non-commercial use.

Today is the second anniversary of this blog

Today marks the second anniversary of this blog with this being the 101st post. Google reports that I have had over 21,200 page views, which is a lot more than I expected. Set your expectations low, and you're more likely to meet them.

I started this blog so that I could post entries and not offend my Facebook friends. I was losing friends due to my posts and that stopped once I started posting away from Facebook.

So let's keep going with this. Originally, I wanted to post daily but I couldn't take the time to do that. I looks like I'm averaging one post per week, but I will try to increase that number over the next year.

2013 Windows April Fools' joke becomes 2014 Windows reality

"Microsoft skips 'too good' Windows 9, jumps to Windows 10," blared the headline April 1, 2013 on Infoworld's web site.

Today, the real headline is "Microsoft Offers First Peek at Windows 10," confirming that the April Fools' joke is correct: There isn't going to be a Windows 9.

(A tip of the hat to John Gruber who writes Daring Fireball.)

Milestone today: 20,000 page views

My milestone today: This blog reached 20,000 page views today, with this being the 99th post. I'm not sure what I expected when I published my first post on Oct. 12, 2012 but I am pleasantly surprised that people are finding my posts and reading them. I hope readers are benefiting from my posts. Now, have you sold your stocks yet?

Sell your stocks now!

Update January 24, 2015: My brother got back into two stocks and an index fund.

Update October 29: The small, -7.4% correction appears to be over and my brother is looking to get back into the stock market. Will there still be a larger correction? I will write another post in November to discuss this. Still, the advice in the last paragraph stands.

My brother, based on my recommendation, sold the index fund and both stocks in his IRA yesterday. Many stock advisors are saying that the S&P 500 is due for a "correction" of 20% to 30% by the end of 2015. But nobody knows when. So, instead of trying to time the peak, he went ahead and sold his index fund and captured a 22% gain.

The problem with waiting is that when you realize that it's time to sell, so does everyone else and it's too late to keep from losing large sums of money. The stock market can drop over 22% in one day, like it did on Black Monday in 1987.

The next step is to find a bond fund that invests in short-term corporate bonds (one to two year maturity) and try to capture a 2% to 3% return until the S&P 500 has its correction. Then we can sell the bond fund and get back into an index fund.

Ultimately, the S&P 500 will undergo its correction and then start heading back up. That's when you get back into stocks. Despite many advisors saying that this is time for that now, it isn't simply because it hasn't hit bottom yet. In my opinion, timing the exact peaks and valleys is really difficult and I don't try to do that. But timing 20% corrections and 20% increases isn't as hard.

Before making any investment decisions based on this blog post, please read my investment advice disclaimer.

I've found rather few investment advisors who are willing to recommend selling 90% or more of your stock holdings at the peak. To me, this is one of the keys to long-term gains in the stock market. If your investment advisor isn't willing to make dramatic changes to your portfolio, you should find one who will.

Scorecard: How good is my prediction?

Date	S&P 500 Close	Change From Recent Peak	Change From Sale Date	Comment
Sept. 18	2,011.36			Recent peak
Sept. 23	1,982.77	-1.4%		Sale
Sept. 30	1,972.29	-1.9%	-0.5%	One week after sale
Oct. 6	1,964.82	-2.3%	-0.9%	Two weeks after sale
Oct. 13	1,874.74	-6.8%	-5.4%	Three weeks after sale
Oct. 20	1,904.01	-5.3%	-4.0%	Two weeks after sale. Correction is over.
Oct. 27	1,961.63	-2.5%	-1.1%	Three weeks after sale

Updated Oct. 29 to add figures and a paragraph at the top about getting back into stocks.

Women play a big role in computer programming

The stereotype is that is that all computer programmers are men. This is false. The first programmer was Ada Lovelace, who worked with Charles Babbage. Rear Admiral Grace Hopper is credited with developing COBOL, a programming language still used every day. I work with women all the time who are good programmers. Similar to playing the piano well, some people have a knack for programming but many do not. However, the people who have the talent can be female as well as male.

Walter Isaacson has written a book about the women who were involved with programming ENIAC during World War II. Click here for an excerpt from "The Innovators" that is in the current issue of Fortune magazine.

Beware of phish messages

This was my response to this image of an email message that a friend of mine shared on Facebook. It was originally posted on May 26 by Country 93.3:

"If you get this, you need a better email provider. Phish messages should go into your spam folder.

"Alternatively, use this as a educational message to learn about phish messages. Phish messages may be one way celebrities' nude photos were stolen from Apple's iCloud.

"Another rule: Don't click on the link in the message. Go to a new window or, better yet, a different browser and sign on the regular way. Then you can see for yourself if the problem really exists.

"Sadly, this may based on a real Netflix message. Many big companies are clueless where security is concerned and actually send phish-like messages to their own customers."

Saturation in gaming venues

I think we've reached saturation with casinos and racinos. For every one that opens, another has to close.

Sorry, Atlantic City, but your oil wells are going to run dry. What are your plans for the next job generator? Oh, so you got addicted to gaming and didn't make any plans. Sheesh! The smart people will move elsewhere, if they haven't already. And Donald Trump doesn't want his name on his failed casino, either, so he's suing to have it removed.

Huffington Post shows child porn to claim that it isn't

On Aug. 21, 2014, the Huffington Post ran an article defending an artist who published pornographic pictures of his two-year-old daughter and called it art. And, in order to generate page clicks, they included some of the pornographic pictures so you could see for yourself that they are pornographic. In my world, any public picture of a boy's or girl's genitals for a child under the age of 18 is child pornography.

Showing child pornography is a new low, even for HuffPo. Of course, they won't be prosecuted and the father probably won't either. He's an artist victimized his own daughter for his personal gain, you see, not some dirty old man passively downloading pictures from the Internet.

Once the pictures are on the Internet and downloaded to myriad child porn collections, they can't be deleted. Imagine 20 years for now and the daughter is in college and some guy comes up to her and says, "I've seen nude pictures of you!" She will be scarred for life. The justifications that the father gives for doing this are the same justifications that pedophiles use. Either the father is incredibly naïve or enjoys exploiting his daughter but, either way, she should be put into a home where she will be treated properly.

I'm all for the innocence of children. But when you photograph children in this way, you have perverted this innocence into something so much worse. Considering how much sexual abuse of children exists these days, we have to draw the line to avoid even the appearance of exploitation.

No, I'm not going to include a link to the story. If you're into child porn, go find it yourself.

Updated Aug. 27: Revised wording and added a paragraph.
Updated Oct. 4: Changed "image" to "imagine" and changed "naive".

Google News has flaws

Google News, viewed with Google Chrome on my Apple iPhone 4S, has five flaws. When I view Google News, I am signed on to my Google account. This customizes the news for me.

First, look at these screen shots, taken today, one at 8:30 a.m. EDT (United States) and one at 8:32 p.m. Do you see any difference with the news? Nope, neither do I. The thing that bothers me the most is the age of the stories. In the a.m. version, the China story is supposedly one hour old. Shouldn't it be 13 hours ago 12 hours later? How do I get new stories? Eventually (overnight), they will be updated but during the day I have to manually refresh the display. Even after I manually refresh, it still tends to revert to the early-morning version.

Second, as you know. Major League Baseball games are played in a series of two or more games (up to five when the Chicago Cubs played the Cincinnati Reds recently). Google News has no concept of separate games, completely mixing up the stories about the games in the series. I would prefer that each game in the series be listed separately with the pregame and postgame stories shown together.

Third, Google News does not evaluate the quality of the news sources but figures that the last news source is the best. This results in the main story being from a dodgy source (like a site that scrapes stories from other sites) or an Associated Press story instead of the breaking story from the local news media. Take the first story above. The main source is a newspaper in Nigeria. Nigeria? Clicking on "More sources" gives you stories from Sydney Morning Herald (yes, Sydney as in Australia) and Daily News & Analysis. If I click on "all 397 news articles," I get a list of articles about sending advisers to Iraq and not a peep about China (this normally doesn't happen; it's just a glitch). Normally, I get the better stories only if I click through.

I recently wanted to read about an incident in Miami, Florida. The first story was an AP story in the Seattle (Washington) Post-Intelligencer. I had to dig to get an actual story from a television station in Miami. I miss the days when there was only one copy of Associated Press stories. Now there are dozens of them, all repeated ad nauseam as if they were unique.

Fourth, I have local news sections for two cities (Norwood, Ohio, where I live and Brookville, Ohio, where I work some of the time). These sections were rarely updated, although that may be fixed once I complained. Here is an example from April 1 (no fooling):

So which is it? A delay or an approval? If you look closely, the first story is dated March 18 and the second April 1. In those days, a story could stick for a month or more even though there's always new news to replace it. I had a disgusting Brookville child molestation story stuck on there for so long (over a month) that I finally flamed Google and it was fixed within hours. (There is an option to provide feedback about News separately from feedback about Chrome.)

Finally, on my iPhone the page takes at least 15 seconds to load (Aug. 13: 29 seconds). To load Google News on my MacBook Pro, using the same wireless Internet connection, takes three seconds. I suspect the problem is with either DNS lookup or SSL negotiation. Update Aug. 24: The problem is a Chrome problem that affects other sites as well. I have filed a report with Google but no fix yet.

I will still use Google News but I am still frustrated with its limitations. Thanks, Google, for letting me vent about this on Blogger, operated by Google. I will update this post as the situation improves.

Updated Aug. 13: Added/changed load times.

Prayer: Creating the illusion of helping

Recently, the college-age daughter of a friend of mine, let's call her Jennifer (not her real name) got drunk and slipped on a boat dock, fracturing her spine. The doctors were able to patch her up and she has no paralysis now, but she will be forever vulnerable to further injury which could cause her to become a paraplegic.

When my friend posted this news on Facebook, there was an outpouring of support: "Sending prayers to both of you." "Prayers, love and hugs" "Praying for her, for you, for the doctors and nurses." were just three of the messages.

Let's get this straight right now: There is no "Prayer Central" in Heaven with operators standing by. You can pray all you want but they go nowhere. How do I know? Are you telling me that nobody prayed for Jennifer before she broke her back? Of course they did! Her mother did, at a minimum. And yet, despite these prayers, she got drunk and slipped and fell. You have two choices here: Either prayer is ineffective or God (or Jesus Christ, if that is your God) listens to your prayers and decides to totally screw up your life because She didn't like the way you prayed.

I do not believe in a vengeful God. The God I believe in represents Love, Spirit, Truth, Kindness and Light and would never do something to hurt one person for the benefit of others. Praying to God for victory in either sports or war is meaningless.

Friday, my wife and son, who car pool to work, were five minutes late. As they merged from one highway to another, they found the new highway to be almost vacant. A concrete mixer had tipped over before the merge, blocking several lanes. Did God tip over the concrete mixer, injuring the driver and delaying hundreds of cars, so that my wife and son could get to work on time? Of course not!

If prayer doesn't help a situation, it must have some benefit. It does. The person doing the praying, and posting about it on Facebook, receives the illusion that they are doing something positive about a bad situation. In reality, they are doing nothing but they feel good because they think they have done something good. Also, in the case of Jennifer, her mother benefits because she found out that there is a whole community of people who are there to support her. But did the prayer affect the outcome? Not a bit. Jennifer will never be whole and will have to live with a partially mended back for the rest of her life.

The good news to me is that I see no harm in prayer. It is not going to make things worse. And I'm sure people who pray are better off for it. But thinking that it changes events in life is false.

People will disagree with me. Feel free to post comments. But if you feel hate, remember that hate has no place in God's world. If you believe in a Devil, hate is one of the Devil's tools. Hateful comments will not be allowed but you can go ahead and tell me I'm going straight to Hell because I don't believe in Hell.

Do Republicans really want another 9/11?

When I read this story from CBS News, I was struck by what was implied but not said: The Republicans want ISIS* to launch a 9/11-style attack before the mid-term elections so they can use it to campaign against President Obama.

Sadly, the Republican party has become the party of tearing down America and attempting to blame this destruction on its opponents. Will you agree that Republicans want to reduce the deficit and the national debt? Then why did they shut down the Federal Government last year, costing the economy $24 billion (source: Time magazine)?

I, for one, am hoping that the Republicans are not successful in encouraging another 9/11-style attack.

* ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (but is alternatively translated as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria orIslamic State in Iraq and al-Sham).

64-bit mobile processors? Only in the Apple iPhone 5S!

John Gruber, writer of Daring Fireball, wrote a four-part post titled "Only Apple." I'm going to look at one statement he made in the second part: "No one else is making 64-bit mobile CPUs and Apple sold tens of millions of them immediately." "Immediately" in this context means beginning with the release date of the iPhone 5S, Sept. 21, 2013.

Here we are, almost nine months after Apple began shipping 64-bit mobile processors in volume. My question: Is anyone other than Apple shipping a mobile device (phone or tablet) with a 64-bit processor? The answer, as you will see below, is "No."

I found this article in PCWorld: "Qualcomm overtakes Apple with eight-core, 64-bit mobile processor." The money quote: "The Snapdragon 615 will go into high-end smartphones and tablets, which should become available in the fourth quarter." We're not even in the third quarter yet.

MediaTek has announced the MT6732 64-bit mobile processor. According to their news release: "The MT6732 platform will be commercially available by Q3 of 2014, with devices expected by the end of the year." So no devices shipping yet.

Samsung, of course, will also have a 64-bit mobile processor. The best information I can find says that these processors will be under the Exynos brand. However, Samsung appears to be waiting for 64-bit Android to be released later this year. Again, no shipping devices yet.

Intel issued a news release touting the "2.13GHz Intel Atom processor Z3480 ('Merrifield')" that is a "64-bit ready SOC" (SOC means "System on a chip"). Intel explains that "64-bit ready" means that the processor will run at 32 bits until 64-bit software is ready. It doesn't actually claim to be a 64-bit processor. It is expected to launch the second quarter of this year. I looked for devices with this processor and found this article from the Motley Fool: "Was Intel Corporation’s Atom Z3480 a Failure?" It claims that Dell is going to begin shipping Venue 7 and 8 tablets with this processor by July 1. I did find the Venue 8 Pro shown on Dell's web site but it is running an Atom Z3740D which is a 32-bit processor although it supports 64-bit instructions. It has the Windows 8.1 32-bit operating system installed. Dell may be shipping a device in the third quarter but it may only have a 32-bit processor, not a 64-bit processor.

Finally, Nvidia has announced the Tegra K1 processor in two versions, one 32 bit and one 64 bit. The 64-bit processor is expected to ship in devices in the second half of the year.

I have to conclude that Apple is the only company shipping a device with a 64-bit mobile processor even though it's now nine months after the iPhone 5S began shipping.

Sam's Club $3,000 in online savings

Sam's Club sent me an email message today advertising a sale with $3,000 worth of savings. Just what do you have to buy to save $3,000? Here are the items, ranked first by savings, high to low; then sale price, low to high [or highest percentage savings high to low]:

Item	Savings	Sale Price
Sectional Sofa	$500	$1,997
Treadmill	300	1,199
Sonoma Gazebo	300	1,399
Storage Shed	300	1,599
Mattress & Box Spring — Queen	200	499
Sectional Sofa	200	999
Asus Laptop	150	349
Sanyo 58" TV	150	648
Mattress & Box Spring — Queen	100	296
Dual-Monitor Workstation Stand	100	398
Mattress & Box Spring — King	100	418
Reclining Lift Chair	100	489
Sectional Sofa	100	898
Sectional Sofa	100	898
Heavy-Duty Shelf	90	149.98
Vision 48" TV	80	646.88
Snap & Grow Greenhouse	75	574
TCL 50" TV	70	428
KitchenAid Mixer	60	239.98
Vitamix Kitchen Set	60	539
Vertical Gas Smoker	50	279
Sno Cone Machine	40	436

At this point, in my opinion, there is no reason to include any further items in the sale. I am not going to make a trip to Sam's Club to save $10 on Kleenex. If it is on sale when I'm at the store, sure, I might buy it. But I would buy it whether or not it was on sale.

Item	Savings	Sale Price
Asus Tablet	30	168.86
Video Baby Monitor	30	189.88
Electric Pencil Sharpener	27.50	112.48
Monster Tablet	25	99.86
Baby Monitor	20	119.88
Bonded Leather Massage Chair	20	159.98
Newport Air Purifier	20	164.88
Portable Charger	12	28.88
Kleenex Tissues, 36 boxes	10	39.98
Elephant Pendant	10	49
Dragonfly Pendant	10	59
Butterfly Pendant	10	59
Bluetooth Headphones	10	89.88
Double-Window Envelopes	7.50	26.48
Double-Window Envelopes	7.50	28.78
Clorox Wipes — Fresh Scent	6.25	25.33
Clorox Wipes — Lemon Scent	6.25	25.33
Mattress Protector — Twin XL	5	19.98
Mattress Protector — Twin	5	22.98
Memory Foam Pillow	5	23.98
Memory Foam Pillow	5	23.98
Mattress Protector — Full	5	24.98
Memory Foam Pillow	5	27.88
Mattress Protector — Queen	5	29.98
Mattress Protector — King	5	34.98
Mattress Protector — Cal. King	5	34.98
Gevalia Kaffe, 84 count	5	34.98
30-Day Food Storage	0	78.98
Food Storage, 4 Pails	0	174.98
Hearing Aid, Pair	0	718
Totals	$3,537	$18,076.98

Notes:
• There are indeed $3,000 in savings but you almost have to buy four sectional sofas, three mattress and box spring sets, three televisions and something for the outside (a gazebo, a storage shed, a greenhouse or a gas smoker) to achieve those savings.
• I'm not sure what the point of this sales flyer is. Sure, I might buy online when I see the flyer and I'm in the market for a big-ticket item. But how many electric pencil sharpeners am I going to buy in my lifetime (just one so far and it still works)?
• I did comparison shop one item, the KitchenAid mixer, and found it at about $450 other places. So the sale price on this item is legitimate.
• Yes, I did mask the specific products sold. The pricing compared to other stores is not the point of this post. The point is that I think these sales flyers, even if just sent by email, have no value and the money Sam's Club spends on them is wasted.

Wall Street Journal survey

I just took a survey for the Wall Street Journal. I currently subscribe to the digital edition only. In the survey, they ran various pricing scenarios past me including an option to receive the print edition at no extra charge. That was the only pricing option where I selected the print edition; otherwise, I stuck with the digital-only edition.

They never asked me why I didn't want the print edition. The reason is simple: In the six months that I subscribed to both the digital and print editions, I received the print edition exactly one time. That's it. They didn't miss it 10% of the time and there was no way it was stolen every day; they just never delivered it. I even changed addresses to my home address thinking there was something about my business address they couldn't handle. No paper. Now I was getting the digital edition every day and only paying $2 per month extra for the print edition but I thought that it might be nice to read a real paper once in a while. Not a chance unless I wanted to go the newsstand and pay even more for it.

It makes me wonder how many others don't get their paper and just don't take the time to complain. Maybe they should do an, gasp!, audit on their circulation!

Wayne LaPierre, you are a fool

In December 2012, Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association, was quoted as saying, "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun."

Today, two Las Vegas police officers, good guys with guns, were shot in the head and killed.

Last Wednesday, June 4, three Canadian police officers, good guys with guns, were shot and killed.

On Friday, May 30, a Norfolk, Virginia police officer, a good guy with a gun, was shot and killed even though he knew the person he was looking for was armed.

That's six police officers killed by bullets fired at them by bad guys in 10 days. Good guys with guns can't always stop bad guys with guns. Mr. LaPierre, you are a fool.

150+ OUPS utility poles in Norwood, Ohio?

On Williams Ave. at
Hazel Ave., Norwood

Duke Energy has been aggressively replacing old utility poles in Norwood, Ohio with new ones. In many cases, the old pole has other utilities attached, typically Cincinnati Bell phone lines or Time Warner Cable cable lines. Duke's contractor cuts the top of the old pole off, leaving the other utility lines attached, and may mark "OUPS" on the old pole with white spray paint (see picture). OUPS stands for Ohio Utilities Protection Service and it means, in this case, that the pole is slated to be removed.

The other utilities move their lines to the new pole and then the old pole is removed. That's the plan, at least, and many times it works well. But here in Norwood it hasn't. I estimate that there are over 150 old, OUPS utility poles lining our streets.

I have embarked on a project to document these poles and report them to city officials so that they can take action. I have a lot on my plate right now and this is a low priority so it will likely take me at least a year to do this. I'm hoping that some of these poles will be removed before I finish my project. As I do, I will publish the results here; there is no reason not to make them public.

At the same time, I have noticed a set of steel utility poles on Montgomery Road that are rusting and need to be scraped and painted. Some are currently being used but many no longer have a use. As a related project, I'm going to document these and see if someone (the City of Norwood or Duke Energy) can repair or remove these eyesores.

It's all about improving the city that I live in.

May 31, 2014: This blog passed 10,000 page views

On May 31, this blog went over 10,000 page views. I am pleasantly surprised at this and am inspired to keep on blogging.

And no, it's not just me admiring my posts; I set a cookie in my browsers that keep my views from counting.

I changed comments to full page today. I read that this allows posting comments even with third-party cookies disabled in your browser. Email me if you are having a problem posting a comment.

Updated June 10.

Illegal phone calls to my business — June 2014

For the month of June, I'm going to log illegal phone calls made to my business. As a business, my phone number is easy to find and is not on the National Do Not Call Registry. I'll let you research why these calls are illegal and you can submit a comment if you disagree. I have checked each number using Google search to insure that it isn't for a legitimate business.

June is done. Almost 50% of the calls to my business were illegal. My conclusion: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is responsible for enforcing the laws and regulations, has totally lost control over the marketers.

On June 10, I removed all of my blocked numbers. Calls to a blocked number go directly to voice mail without my phone even ringing. Also note that I don't use the word "Hello" when I answer the phone; some systems incorrectly key off of that. I have Reveal from Cincinnati Bell which makes it harder for anonymous or private callers from calling my business. I did not include missed calls and there were a few of those the last week when I was on vacation.

If one of these phone numbers is yours and you want it redacted, please contact me by email.

Phone Number	Caller Identifier Name	Date, Time of Call	Type of Call	Business Mentioned or Note
402-260-1555	West Point, Nebraska	June 4 1:21 p.m.	Hang up
458-201-0551	Eugene, Oregon	June 4 5:10 p.m.	Robocall	Business loan
678-606-5652	GA, USA	June 6 11:06 a.m.	Robocall	"Google Maps service provider"
458-201-0419	Eugene, Oregon	June 9 1:13 p.m.	Hang up
714-233-2319	Huntington Beach, California	June 9 2:02 p.m.	Hang up
714-233-2319	Huntington Beach, California	June 9 2:34 p.m.	Robocall	"Small business loan up to $250,000"
661-295-8596	Palmdale, California	June 10 8:41 p.m.	Robocall	"Political call," "SBA grant for exports"
215-383-1717	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	June 11 4:33 p.m.	Silence	Waited for 30 seconds after answering.
216-278-0121	Cleveland, Ohio	June 13 3:56 p.m.	Hang up
206-858-8178	Seattle, Washington	June 16 1:47 p.m.	2-second rule
661-295-8596	Tullahoma, Tennessee	June 16 9:41 p.m.	Robocall	Recycle your electronics.
727-938-0000	Tarpon Springs, Florida	June 18 1:44 p.m.	Robocall	U.S. Federal Data Corporation (see note 1)
253-236-2670	Kent, Washington	June 19 2:52 p.m.	Hang up
361-400-1007	Yorktown, Texas	June 23 12:18 p.m.	Hang up
513-452-5045	Harrison, Ohio	June 23 12:47 p.m.	Robocall	"Someone has claimed your Google business listing."
513-247-****	Cincinnati, Ohio	June 25 4:03 p.m.	Spoofed; Silence	See note 2.
214-440-0271	Plano, Texas	June 26 2:17 p.m.	One ring	See note 3.
800-646-6942	Toll Free	June 30 7:24 p.m.	Hang up
800-646-6942	Toll Free	June 30 6:45 p.m.	Silence	Waited for 20 seconds after answering.

Times are in Eastern Daylight Time (U.S.A.)

Explanation of type of call

2-second rule: The marketer must talk to me within two seconds after I have finished my greeting. This marketer violated that rule.
Hang up: I answered the phone and the marketer hung up on me without speaking.
Robocall: An automated system called me.
Silence: After I answer the call, give my company name and say, "This is Bruce," the marketer does not respond. The note shows how long I waited for a response.
Spoofed: See note 2.

Note 1: The Better Business Bureau has given the U.S. Federal Data Corporation an "F" rating.

Note 2: The caller actually spoofed my company's fax number. When I answered it, there was silence and I hung up after 15 seconds. There is no way my fax machine placed this call. I don't know if this is technically illegal, but I'm wondering how many other people they're calling using my fax number.

Note 3: This call only rang one time and left the caller identifier but hung up before the second ring. My understanding is that marketers try to time the number of rings to avoid voice mail.

There are a number of services for tracking these types of phone numbers but there are too many to choose from. I will use the format here instead but just for one month.

Updated July 6.

Security alert fail

News flash to IT security professionals: If you are depending on an alert system that generates 10,700 messages a day that require manual processing to determine if any are fraudulent or not, your alert system is not working.

This article says that this is exactly what happened at Neiman Marcus while credit card data was being stolen. The investigators reported that the 60,000 alarms over the three and a half months of the attack were not noticed because they represented about one percent of the total number of alarms (which I extrapolated into 10,700 alarms per day).

Alternate suggestion for federal minimum wage increase

An open message to Senator Sherrod Brown, representing the great state of Ohio:

I have a suggestion for minimum wage legislation. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour with the new desired minimum being $10.10 per hour. My suggestion is a law that limits executive compensation for each executive to $1,000,000 per year unless the company's lowest paid employee is paid at least $10.10 per hour x 30 hours per week x 52 weeks per year (or $15,756). This gives companies a choice: Limit executive compensation and pay the current minimum wage or provide employees with the new minimum wage and executive compensation is unlimited as it is today.

I could see using a multiplier. $1,000,000 / $15,756 is 63.47 so executive pay could be limited to 63.47 times the lowest paid employee's annual pay. Note that my suggested new law would automatically exclude small businesses from the higher minimum wage because they only dream of paying their top executives $1 million per year.

If you like this idea, feel free to take it and run with it. I don't need any credit for it.