Watt Thoughts Blog

Bucket Lists (Watt Thoughts)

2012-02-07T15:23:00.000-05:00

Bucket Lists (Watt Thoughts)
It has gotten popular to talk about bucket lists or what things people intend to do before they die. Life dos not tell us how long we have so we may have short or long lives and we really can’t plan for which as accidents occur and cause unplanned untimely deaths.

After having taken a major trip last summer out west I have had lots of people say that must have been on my bucket list and what else is on it. Given that and seeing untimely deaths close to me recently I have reflected back on what goals earlier in life were and how well have I done.

Thinking back to high school and college and as I was looking at what I hoped to accomplish in life these are items I remember. A few will be noted as high school or college as they changed then.

1. To see all 50 of the states in the USA
2. To get bachelor’s degree and probably master’s degree
3. To teach biology (high school)
4. To teach about computers (college)
5. Be a successful computer person (college)
6. To write a book
7. To write a newspaper column
8. To travel internationally
9. To do some type Christian ministry including preaching
10. To make enough money to do things want to do and to help others
11. To have wonderful close friends
12. To succeed in politics in some way
13. To do lots of photography
14. To do some type of art

So how have I done?

1. I have been to 49 states and flown over and taken pictures of the one I have not touched which is Alaska. I am pleased with that it is accomplished. I may set foot in Alaska still, but the mission I accomplished.

2. I got a BA in Political Science in 1977 from Winthrop University and then got a MBA in 1979 from Winthrop. In 1983 I got the opportunity to enroll in a doctorate program at University of Georgia and Georgia Southern. In 1989 I earned my EdD thereby going well beyond my education goal. In 2007-2009 I took 3 online graduate courses in computers at Georgia Southwestern toward a graduate certificate in computers but did not complete other the classes. I was busy with consulting work and teaching fulltime.

3. I gave up on the biology teaching idea in college when got into computers. However when I moved in current office at GNTC I sort of completed this one as I am sharing the office with the biology instructors and am across the hall from the biology lab.

4. I have been teaching about computers on the college level since 1979. I have taught programming to microcomputers to networking to database to Internet. I have served on the Georgia statewide committee of CIS technical college instructors as an officer for most of the past 20 years that develops and maintains the state curriculum. I am currently chair of networking and was just re-elected for 2 more years last week. I have served several times as overall chair and also as chair of the programming, microcomputer specialist and database areas.

5. I have done computer consulting on a part time basis since 1979 and di that successfully on a full time basis from 2005 to 2007. I worked as computer operator/assistant programmer back in 1981 at Sea Island and was a Senior Programmer Analyst for PMSC in 1996-97. From 1981 to 1996 in addition to teaching at Swainsboro Tech I developed and maintained their IT structure including writing a multi 100,000 line COBOL program for student records and also did programs for payroll, accounting, etc. I networked the college. I have developed and maintain web pages for a number of organizations starting in 1995 and continuing to now.

6. I have authored one book Structured COBOL for Technical Students which was published by Prentice Hall in 1996. I also have co-authored a book on reviewing for the A+ exam which was published in 1997. I also wrote my dissertation which was printed in hard back form in 1989. In addition I have gotten to serve as a reviewer for a number of technical books and some fiction books also.

7. My watt thoughts article that I started on the Internet back in 1997 has been published at different times in a number of newspapers. I started a question answer article a couple of years ago that is published in the Swainsboro Forest Blade, Walker County Messenger and Catoosa County News each week. I also did a column for about 5 years on technology about once a month for the Georgia Kiwanian. For the last 2 year I have been the editor of the K-T Notes (newsletter for the Kentucky-Tennessee Kiwanis) and do a short article in it.

8. I traveled in Mexico and Canada and the Bahamas in high school and college. In 1999 I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Brazil. In 2005 I got the opportunity to go to China with a group of presidents of Georgia technical colleges which was a really neat but busy trip. So I have been half way around the world.

9. In high school I had the opportunity to preach several times on youth Sunday. For the past 20 years I have run the sound system at my church which included recording on cassette tape for many years although now on the computer. I put many of those sermons on the church web site. For the past 6 years or so I have also run the video system at church which puts words and notes on screens in the sanctuary which helps many people to follow the sermon or read words to scripture and songs. I have taught Sunday school for about 20 years and for many years was every Sunday but now about once a month. I have been a conference Certified Lay Speaker for the United Methodist church for a number of years and fill in for ministers at several different churches. In addition I speak at the Sunday night service at my church about once a month. I have gotten lots of opportunities to speak in SE Georgia. I also do the web site for two Methodist churches and send out their bulletins each week by email to members.

10. Although I have never made huge amounts of money I have always made enough to do the things I want to do and to be able to help others. I support several ministries and charities and help individuals. I have been able to travel and live a comfortable life. I have also had a couple times where money was tight (fall 1980 when I was unemployed it got down to pennies literally to pay rent and I was doing any type job including cleaning after banquets, cleaning houses, cleaning racquet ball courts including the locker rooms so I have literally cleaned toilets.

11. I have had a number of wonderful friends over the years that I have done lots with and have learned to love and have gotten loved. My friends have been there for me in the good and bad times and meant a lot and I hope I have been the same for them. Who knows how many people I have helped move and how many times people have helped move me. They have listened to me at times and me to them and we have also shared the high moments of life.

12. I majored in Political Science in college. I ran for a number of offices in high school and college serving as student government treasurer in high school and college. Although I won a number of races I also lost my share, but getting my message out was fun. In Jaycees I served on the local level in a number of positions including as president of my club that had about 75 members. I went on to the state level and served as district director, region director and as a state VP. I also served in a few appointed positions. On the national level I served as national representative for the Shooting Education (gun safety for kids) program for three years and traveled to a number of states. In Kiwanis I have served as an officer in 2 different clubs and served as technology chair for the Georgia Kiwanis for about 5 years and am serving for the past 2 years as editor of the K-T Notes for the Kentucky-Tennessee Kiwanis. I am pleased how I have done politically on the local to national level being able to serve people. I have also held positions on local and state levels in several other groups.

13. I sot tons of pictures using film for many years. I shot about 1000 slides and lots of prints. In 1999 I started shooting digital and have shot 10s of thousands of pictures. Last summer while assisting with the DNBBGCM (Daisy National BB Gun Championship Match) I shot about 100 pictures which you can see on their web site and I have done that several years. I also shot about 2000 pictures during July on my trip west. (I am still working on them as I shoot in raw format and then do basic editing to them to get exposure correct). They are at http://tripwestjuly2011.shutterfly.com You can also look at many of the pictures I have shot digitally over the years (and a few show on film) at dwightwatt.shutterfly.com You can see the 1000 or so pictures I shot in China there

14. Although I have never seen myself as an artist I have done a number of different artworks. In college I did some paintings. Since then I learned to do stained glass and did a number of pieces an have several pieces in different stages of development. I learned to blacksmith a few years ago and have done a few items by blacksmithing. I also learned to do molten glass and did some neat things but never have done any more. I have also done lots of photos that I have put in art shows and am proud of the art touch.

I have accomplished the many things I set out to do and if you notice I am still doing a number of them like being elected last week to networking chair again. I am constantly learning new stuff in computers and technology and lots of people showing me things. Working on my trip pictures last night reminded me of several things Michelle had taught me to do when working with my pictures. I continue to shoot pictures and am doing some videos now. I shot a number of one minute or so videos last summer on the trip and at match but have not looked at them yet or posted them but hope to do so soon. The newspaper column gets harder coming up with different topics after over 120 of them.

The debt ceiling fears (Watt Thoughts)

2011-08-10T22:00:00.002-04:00

Just over a week ago congress passed and President Obama signed a bill to raise the debt ceiling of the USA. In the debate leading up to Tuesday we heard many stories on what was going to happen if the debt ceiling was not passed. It has been 8 days now, so lets look at some of them and what has happened.

The biggest one spread all over was if the debt ceiling was not raised the stock market and economy was going to tank. Lets look what happened in 6 days of trading since. Five of those six days the stock market has not just closed down but 100s of point a day. Wonder what it would have been if this was the good?

We heard from commentators and politicians that if we did not raise the debt limit that the AAA rating the USA had would fall. Notice I used the word had. It fell on Friday when S&P cut it. If you had listened to the rating organizations they were not threatening to cut because debt ceiling was being hit, but that we have possibly out borrowed our ability to pay our bills. So one agency did cut and the others put out stronger language that a cut is possibly imminent.
We heard the economy would fall apart. Now we have heard all week that the risks of another recession (called a double dip) is now rated as about 25% possible by economists, much higher than before.

We heard that interest rates would go thru the roof if we did not raise the ceiling because we would lose the AAA rating. Well we lost the AAA rating and we find people and institutions are doing like always when stock market goes bonkers and buying gold and US Treasuries which has run the rate down

What do we need to do now? Get the federal spending in control. First that means actually doing a budget. (ask anyone who counsels individuals with debt problems and this is step 1). Second we need to pass real spending cuts but spending cuts that will take place in 5 or 10 years. Cuts now will take effect. Cuts in 5 or 10 years will be ignored by Congress and the President then. Look at cuts that were put in some medical programs on payments to medical providers but were to start a year or two down the road. Each year congress votes to kick the can down the road and to delay implementation. It does no good for me to say that I am going to reduce my budget in 2012 or lose 40 pounds in 2012 now. When 2012 gets here I will say lets just wait to 2013. Congress is the same.

The choices are cutting spending and raising taxes. We need to look at what the government needs to do and start cutting wants to do or would be nice to do. It needs to be real cuts now. We need to look at our tax structure and simplify it. We can probably get more revenue from it by cutting the different deductions (called loopholes when someone else uses it) and cut rates at the same time. Make it more fair. We hear Social Security is headed fro going broke and what did our leaders do. This year they cut payroll taxes, which are individuals contributions to Social Security and now I hear they want to keep the cut. If you are not collecting enough to make it solvent how does cutting amount you collect help, This is not part of the normal cut tax rates and we will get more. That argument is if we reduce the tax rate people will produce more to earn more. This was simply a case of cut the payroll taxes to give people more money. The group that most vocally passed the payroll tax cut are anti tax cutters.

Now the good news. Since we raised the debt ceiling oil prices (September futures) and wholesale gas prices (September futures have fallen about 15% to around $80 a barrel.

The deficit and debt crisis is real and we must get them under control.

Debt Limit

2011-07-31T13:30:00.000-04:00

The debt limit debate continues today with possibilities of agreement today (Sunday).

Couple of things to consider on all you have been hearing on the debt limit.

First we keep hearing the dollar will decline and interest rates will go up if the ceiling is not raised. Has anyone noticed that for 3 years the dollar has gone down? It will probably continue to fall some in future particularly if the US government does not control the deficit spending.

In 2002-2007 the deficit ran 250-400 billion annually. Since 2007 it has been over a trillion dollars. This was supposed to be a one year increase in FY 2009 but here we are in 2011 and headed to 1.4 trillion.

Pay attention to deficit and debt. The debt is how much does the US owe. The deficit is how much more are we spending in a year than we take in. They are different although many stories and people mix them

Interest rates will rise whether the debt limit is raised or not. The Federal Reserve has had the benchmarks at about zero now for several years to try to encourage growth. Many of us are concerned this will cause hyper inflation. Somewhere in the near future the Federal Reserve will begin raising the interest rate benchmarks.

Why is it that when congress and the president talk about budget/deficit reductions they can only talk in goals fro 10 years and not how much to cut now. It is like me saying that I will cut my gasoline usage over the next ten years instead of talking about now. We can talk on that but unlikely when then gets here we will do it.

The credit rating of the united states is not being threatened by the debt limit being met. The rating agencies are concerned the US has gotten to much debt. Raising the debt limit will not prevent them cutting the rating. Cutting the deficit will.

Congress and the president are the only organization I know that decides how much they can borrow. If I decided to raise my debt limit ceiling to one million dollars and went in the bank tomorrow do you think my friendly bankers would tell me they are glad to loan me one million dollars since I raised my debt limit ceiling to that? No they would sit there and go that is a good joke you came in and told us today Dwight, have a good day.

IBM celebrates 100 years

2011-06-18T13:53:00.002-04:00

Today, June 16, 2011 , IBM celebrated its 100th birthday.

IBM has been a leader in technology for over 100 years. From being a leader in punched card technology, to original computers, to the various components to major breakthroughs in the 60s to the first large scale use personal computer in the 1980s to other machines like the AS/400 and the ATM and the self checkout register at the grocery store to over 5000 new patents in just a recent time period.

IBM for most of that time has been considered the benchmark of technology although it has had its ups and downs. Well known for the dress code of the 60s and 70s and into 80s of long sleeve white shirt, dark tie and dark pants and coat. A relaxed code today.

However IBM goes before June 16, 1911 . That was the day that several companies merged (Computing Tabulating Recording Company was the resultant name) and made what became IBM in 1924. In 1924 the company was renamed to IBM (Internation Business Machines) In 1911 when the merger of several companies took place one was a business machine company who had the roots in punched cards. A number of computer companies we know today or did up to the late 1990s trace back to then with punched cards and adding machines. Burroughs and NCR to name two.

Tabulating Machine Company was the company on working with punched cards. It was founded by Herman Hollerith in 1896 after he had invented the punched card (80 column and the size of punched cards used until recently, which was the size of the dollar bill then, yes the dollar really is not as big as it used to be)while working for the census bureau in 1887 to do the census in 1890 as it had been by hand until then and was expected to take more than 10 years to compile the data. He also made the original card punch and reader. He had left the government and created a business for his invention.

So although IBM traces their 100 years to 1911 and had a major birthday today, it really is an older company and is really 115 years old.

Happy 100th or 115th birthday and hop you continue to lead in finding new technology to improve the world.

Observations on various stuff (Watt Thoughts)

2011-01-10T15:21:00.002-05:00

Observations from recent events

During the holidays Walmart sold small round bottles of Coke looking line ornaments. They had them in large display boxes with a large picture of the bottle on each side. On one of the panels it stated in large letters that "Can contains 140 calories". Two problems: 1. it was a bottle not a can even in illustration and 2. the bottles themselves said contained 160 calories.

We have been hearing that the Social Security system is going broke so what does Congress do before Christmas but cut the contribution rate by employees about 30% (2 point reduction in the rate from just over 6% to just over 4%. No arguments like income tax cuts that this would cause more people to contribute more money to SS but just reduced income for a year. Sure way to bring a system back in balance that is losing money.

One of the ads fro the drugs on TV always catches my attention. The ad says if you are a loved one have suffered death or other things while taking it you may be entitled to a settlement. I am glad that i don't work for their call centers. It would be scary when people who have suffered death start calling.

Wasn't it odd the tax bill in December. They claimed it extended unemployment benefits and cut income taxes. The truth was it kept income tax rates the same as fro last 10 years and it allowed people to collect the same number of weeks of benefits as had been occurring. Both were expiring.

Dwight

Mid-west travel observations

2010-12-18T20:39:00.000-05:00

Mid-west travel observations (Watt Thoughts #224)

During my travels to Kansas this summer I had several observations. First was the area in eastern Kansas was a little hillier than I remember from 30 years ago, but still relatively flat. It was fun seeing the area where the book about a character named Dwight Watt is coming out in the near future written and published by a couple of guys in Kansas. (I have no association with that book, the author had created the name Dwight Watt, but I am looking forward to reading it)

In Kansas I encountered a number of roundabouts which are being discussed in other areas of the country. They are traffic circles that we used to have in the cities but discontinued in many places in 1960s and 1970s although these were smaller. Traffic yields entering to traffic in roundabout but mean you often do not have to stop for a left turn and going across at intersection not having to wait clearance both ways. No waste of gas sitting at red light and no other traffic around. The last was a reason right turn on red was universally adopted in the USA in the early 1970s.

In Missouri they have some very interesting sinks in the rest stops. First thing was I had to look carefully to spot the sinks in the rest room as they were in the wall not extending out. The next was relative easy that the soap was automatically supplied and the water turned on when extended hand in the fixture. Then I looked around for paper towels or driers and did not see one and realized I had felt air when removing my hands. Leaving my hands in the enclosure withdrawing slower caused the drier to work and I had clean dry hands. I have driven all over the United States and this was a unique rest room experience.

Dwight

Obama's veto part 2

2010-10-13T15:15:00.000-04:00

The bill that was passed unanimously was changing requirements on where papers had to be signed and notarized for foreclosures. I am not really sure my opinion on the bill. I was just commenting on the odd processes occurring in DC.

The bill allows electronically notarized documents and documents notarized in a different state than filing in the foreclosure process. Electronic signatures (and I had not heard of electronic notarizing, wonder if my uncle who is a notary and does not use a computer knows about it) raise questions to many people. I would have thought a duly notarized document in one state would be recognized in another state, i.e. interstate commerce. The concerns are that it will make it easier to and quicker to foreclose and whether documents were legitimate. Questions we need to consider but I still find it odd that the House had passed it twice before and then it made unanimously in the Senate this fall and had passed the House on a voice vote in the spring and no one had thought of concerns until Obama. There seems to be agreement that some type way needs to be found to accept notarized documents across state lines. Apparently you can use non-embossed from out of state in some states and others say it can only be embossed from anywhere and no agreement on that, much less using electronic notarizing. Hopefully they can find way where notarized documents are known to be done right and usable across state line but also that the documents really were signed by the person signing it. There is no way I can think of that we can really make people have really read before signing and know if info is really right they signed. That is what courts often have to decide whether the document is is truthful.

Further consideration of the bill is needed, but a real veto would have been more straight forward, not try to slip a pocket veto, and our representatives who are now saying it needs refining should have thought more before voting. It remains hard to believe though that it managed to go thru Senate unanimously, I am not really sure we could pass a bill unanimously there that the sun rose this morning.

Dwight

Last Week’s Veto by Obama (Watt Thoughts)

2010-10-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

Last Week’s Veto by Obama (Watt Thoughts)

The party of no combined with the Democrats to unanimously pass a bill and the guy up the street who says that the party of no is blocking anything from being done in DC vetoed it. Yes that is correct the House and Senate unanimously (meaning all Democrats, Republicans and Independents (and anyone else I missed) all voted for it) and the president vetoed it because they may not have thought about the ramifications. I have no question that some did not, but I doubt 533 of them did not and one man living up the street did.

This is the same White House that the Attorney General works for and the Attorney General blamed congress for being opposed to the president and not doing anything about immigration. He failed to apparently remember that he is a Democrat and the Democrats have large majorities in Congress and normally when you campaign against Congress you are campaigning against a Congress held by the opposite party or the opposite party is almost exactly same number, not when your party is fully in control since you were appointed Attorney General with the new president taking office. Odd that the Democratic attorney general would be advocating the American people elect a Republican Congress. This is much worse than Gibbs (White House press secretary) telling the press that it is likely the Democrats will lose a number of seats in Congress in a couple months when there was already general agreement that will occur.

Odd also that the controversy whether Obama can veto this bill about foreclosures the way he did. He announced he is using a pocket veto and that can only be used when Congress is in recess, and the Senate has pointed out they made sure they were not going in recess. Reason is to block recess appointments and that was an action agreed on by the Republicans and Democrats, a bipartisan maneuver to stop the presidential powers.

The Republicans may not be the party of no after all, it is beginning to look like Obama has finally achieved one of the items he said he was going to do and that was bipartisanship in Congress. We appear to be having it occurring but it is not what Obama had intended, but bipartisanship against the president.

Dwight

Oil

2010-10-01T18:37:00.002-04:00

For the past 2 weeks the price of oil has risen significantly. No reasons have been given. It is not the beginning of driving season (reason given every spring/early summer, although gas usage is just a part of oil usage), no hurricanes threatening gulf, no war in mid-east (peace talks occurring although dispute on building freeze end in certain territories), reports are inventories have been at highest levels fro several months compared over many years and other usual stuff.

The only reason I have best figured is the US government has been claiming the economy is improving and the group that decides recessions has declared we are out of recession (a year ago). Oil over $80 a barrel by my my watching and analysis just knocks the economy back down and today we have passed that number again. Less money for people to spend on other stuff than gas, less money for businesses to build and expand as the money is going to oil products.

Although we had the BP disaster in the gulf this summer, expectations are currently at many places that we are no where near peak oil (meaning that the amount we will find and drill is in decline). Since the 1973 in the first oil crisis we have heard continuously that we have reached peak oil and will be out of oil in 30 or less years. We have discovered massive amounts of oil in last few years and although it is not all easily accessible I believe we are probably years from peak spot. Since the 70s we have also become much more energy efficient in the US and the world. Our cars today get much higher MPG than back then. WE have developed and are developing a number of alternatives including recycling and using green sources. Electric cars are not necessarily a way to reduce oil usage and carbon footprint depending on how that electricity is produced.

The rising of oil prices leads me to think that the economy will continue in its doldrums for a long time. People controlling the oil market can cause the economy to rise or fall. Either that or we have another balloon and it is oil and by November/December we will see the effect of oil prices too high and them fall in the $40-50 range which is probably unrealistically low. $60-70 strikes me as a realistic range that both is low enough for good economy and high enough to encourage being more efficient.

Definition of recession by the authorities is not when economy is still bad but whether it is getting worse. Basically if you fall out a 3 story window the time while you are falling to ground is a recession after you hit and people come over to help you are no longer in recession as you are no longer falling but you are major hurting now with broken bones and body but you are recovering and not in recession. For the general public we would define recession when things are not as good as they should be (unemployment above 5-6%, growth of the economy less than 2% and most of the decision based on employment).

Remember when they tell you we can cut oil dependency by just raising the price of gas $1 a gallon we did that in 2005 and have stayed pretty consistent with it and they are still claiming that is what we need to do.

Dwight

Warning about messages about e-mail accounts

2010-05-16T13:29:00.003-04:00

I have gotten several e-mails entitled "Your e-mail Account Suspend Notification" in the last few days. These are not from your e-mail provider (yahoo, hotmail, bellsouth, att, comcast, whoever) but are phishing e-mails. They are the usual phishing e-mails with a new subject line. They are wanting to get your personal information including account numbers, passwords, checking account number, etc to then be able to steal money from you

Do not reply to these e-mails or click on the link. If the e-mails were real they would have your specific name in them and the links would go to your e-mail provider not to some long strange one like these have in them. The address they are coming from with be the address of your e-mail provider. The ones I have gotten show admin@mil.com and my e-mail is not at mail.com.

Just delete these e-mails just like you do other phishing e-mails and selling crazy things like body part enhancers.

If by chance you did click on a link in one of these and put any info contact your bank and local law enforcement ASAP. If you did not supply any information and send, but did go to the link then still run a full antispyware and antivirus scan on your computer

Dwight

K-T Notes editor

2010-05-07T16:26:00.000-04:00

Last month I was appointed editor of the K-T Notes by the governor, Glen Kleine, of the Kentucky-Tennessee District of Kiwanis. K-T Notes is their publication (quarterly) of the news of the district that is for all the members of the district. It is published electronically by e-mail and posted on there web site.

I complete the first issue under my leadership a week ago. You can view my efforts at http://www.dwightwatt.com/dwatt/articles/articles.html#k-t It took a decent amount of work but I am proud of the final version. I did it in Microsoft Publisher and converted to Adobe Acrobat. I did have a few people give me feedback in the final stages, Glen and Clay, which was real helpful

I am a member of the Swainsboro Kiwanis club and the Ft Oglethorpe Kiwanis club. Both clubs meet in Georgia but the second is in the K-T district. I have been active in Kiwanis for about 15 years belonging to those clubs and also clubs in Columbia SC and in Elberton GA Prior to that I was a member of the Jaycees for many years and active on local, state and national levels.

Dwight

Political year length

2010-03-27T19:47:00.002-04:00

In the past little over 9 calendar years I have learned that political years are not the same. My bachelor's degree is in political science and I do not remember them ever teaching us that political years are more like dog years than human years.

Think back to 2000 when George W Bush was elected president and the House and Senate were controlled by the Republicans. We were told we had entered a new era of politics in Washington and the Democrats were going to be the minority party for the next 20-40 years. We heard that story on thru about 2005.

If you go back in time this was a first for most Americans as always during our lives the Democrats had controlled at least the House or Senate and usually the other. When the Senate went Republican in Reagan's era it was big news but 14 more years before House went Republican and then there was a Democrat president. In 2000 the Republicans in control of all three parts of elective branches was different. You have to go back to 1948 when the Republicans had controlled the House and the Senate and Truman, Democrat, was president.

Then in 2008 Obama was elected president and with him the House and Senate went Democrat. Suddenly we heard pronouncements everywhere that we had entered a new era in politics and that the Republican Party was dead and the Democrats would be in control for the next 20-40 years.

It is now early 2010 and the predictions are that Republicans will make gains this fall and could be major gains and some are calling for them to again control the House and/or the Senate. The Republicans are not behaving like beaten elephants but are giving appearances of expecting the change. We are watching predictions from Democrats on whether they will do lose control from a group that was on top one and a half years ago. Many I read say Republican gains this fall and in 2012 with majorities changing then. We are watching both sides saying a couple of issues will be the big
decision this fall (healthcare/insurance, Afghanistan and the economy), but I will wait to summer as new issues could rise.

So the Republicans were going to control it all for 20-40 years was 6 calendar years, the Democrats are going to control for 20-40 years but may be only 2-4 years, and only nine and a half calendar years. I originally was thinking dog years but now looking at that maybe it is nuclear half lives. I know there are some that think politics probably ought to be handled like nuclear waste, so maybe nuclear half lives is way to measure.

Dwight

Haiti – Robertson and Chavez and others (Watt Thoughts)

2010-01-24T09:09:00.001-05:00

Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake a week ago. The US and others have jumped in with aid to survive the effects of the hurricane with the US leading many of the efforts there. A smaller airport that suffered damage and a destroyed port have hampered these effort. Even before the earthquake Haiti has been a very poor and devastated country.

Three people have not helped the matter any; US politicians, Pat Robertson and Hugo Chavez.

The US politicians have been trying to fly in there to get their pictures taken in the destruction to show their concern for Haiti. However the airport can only service a limited number of flights each day and there are more relief planes than landing slots available. To fly a plane in there with politicians and not relief crews (doctors, medicine, recovery experts, etc) means one less plane that could carry that stuff in there. Besides just being able to land there is limited space for paring the planes. If the politicians think need photo about Haiti go to their airport and helped load plane with supplies and get their picture helping load the plane and then get out of the way.

Pat Robertson has come on and blamed the earthquake on something that happened 220 years ago. How the Haitians got their independence and has his story on it. If the story was correct, there is no reason that God would be punishing them with an earthquake 220 years later. The Haitian people have been suffering in misery for many, many years so they don’t need more of that.

Hugo Chavez has sent little to help his fellow people living in the Americas. He has come out claiming that the US caused the earthquake by testing some super new weapon. Instead of blaming it in the US it would be a lot more helpful if he sent relief material. Chavez claimed for years that Bush was the devil and now appears to have decided that Obama is just the devil’s partner.

We could use less people and behavior like the Robertson, Chavez and the politicians. We need more of the Christian missionary type people and UN relief people that were there already providing relief and trying to improve the lives of the Haitians. Some of the deaths were these people, the international head of the Methodist church died in the quake, and many UN staff who were there doing the same. The survivors of these changed from long term poverty relief to immediate quake relief.

We need to try to improve the conditions of the Haitian people so that they have responsible good government that can lead them to posterity, just as the other side of the island is a much better living spot. Give your money to groups that will spend it on relief, not themselves and continue to pray for relief and improvement for the Haitians. If you have abilities they can use in Haiti consider going now or in the future to help, but not just to get seen. The world needs to unite here to get the relief, not just certain countries. This is not a problem we will solve and can ignore in 6 months.

Dwight

Terrorism hits US - Whose fault? (Watt Thoughts)

2010-01-02T23:31:00.000-05:00

We have now seen terrorism strike at about the same time in the last two US presidencies. Stories everywhere each time and afterward on whose fault is it.

On 9/11/2001 we saw terrorism strike New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. George Bush had been president almost 8 months. We heard stories from many people saying it was all Bush's fault because he was president. A few placed blame on Clinton as former president and a few back to GHW Bush, Reagan and even Carter. The claim was Bush should have known and done something.

Now on 12/25/2009 terrorism tries to blow up a plane in Detroit and there are similarities and differences. Obama has been president for 11 months (longer than Bush at 9/11) and the blame is being put by people as either Bush or Obama.

Both presidents had 8-11 months to implement their new polices to protect the American people. If they thought the previous policies were wrong they should have been able to have been changing them. We elect presidents for only 4 year terms. There is no guarantee of a second (ask Carter and GHW Bush if you doubt) so a president should hot the ground running and implement major items like ways to protect Americans immediately.

Now for the Blamers (these are Republicans and Democrats and others and ones in both administrations). Keep your stories straight. If 9/11 was Bush's fault then you must blame Obama for 12/25. If 9/11 was to early in Bush's administration for him to be responsible then in all likelihood 12/25 is too early in Obama's administration for him to be held responsible for 12/25. You can blame both attacks on Bush. You may be able to blame them both to some degree on the bureaucracy for not doing their jobs, but it comes back to what is the leadership doing?

More than likely both are a test by the terrorists to see what type presidents we have and what can they get away with. Also they are a wake up call to both presidents and to the congresses serving at that time that terrorism is real and not just something that happens in other parts of the world but not in the USA. People hate what America stands for, although huge numbers of people hold the American ideal very high. The American ideal and a loving people through their government, christian religion and as individuals is a threat to dictators and leaders who hold their power by dominating and they want to destroy it.

When blame is placed on Bush or Obama for 12/25 stop and think were the Blamers consistent about 9/11 and weigh their views.

Dwight

more on book with Dwight Watt character

2009-12-24T18:38:00.001-05:00

More about book info I sent earlier today.

I only learned of the book when I Googled myself today. I know nothing about the authors. However i do intend to get a copy and learn about this Dwight Watt.

There is a Dwight Watts on MySpace that is not me. His tag line says he is "America's new Jesus". Do not confuse him with me. I do have a myspace page which is at myspace.com/dwightwatt I never have gone in all the settings.

book with Dwight Watt as character

2009-12-24T15:18:00.002-05:00

Here is a scary thought, a novel that has Dwight Watt as a major character. http://www.flinthillsstories.com/?page_id=46

Apparently the book is not available yet, but I will get and read. And what is really scary are the similarities in the description of the character and me. The character is head of a department at a university, I was head of the IT department at HGTC. It is in Kansas, I own 80 acres of the land my dad and previous family members had in Kansas. Now you will not find me looking for caskets.

We will wait and see what this book is.

2009 (Watt Thoughts)

2009-12-18T00:10:00.000-05:00

2009 (Watt Thoughts)

It has been an interesting year with lots of experiences.

Career wise, I changed and stayed the same. The college I teach for merged with another in July and became Georgia Northwestern Technical College, was Northwestern Technical College. No effect on my job other than changed supervisors and the administrators are now 50 miles away from me. Then in October I began teaching at York Technical College in Rock Hill SC (where I taught my first two classes). However that was not the right job for me and I had the opportunity to return to my position (including desk and office) at GNTC and I did in November.

I moved from LaFayette GA in October to Rock Hill and then for the first three weeks in November I stayed at Key West (Inn, wish it had been the beach) and then got a bigger apartment than before, but as nice and from same landlord. I was in the area of the floods in September so rental property is still tight. Finally got all my stuff back to LaFayette the first weekend in December

I have continued riding my bicycle this year regularly, but was able to only ride in one event, the Savannah Century on Labor Day weekend and rode 55 miles that Sunday. I had pneumonia in April which blocked several rides. I have joined the local gym and now am on treadmill for 30 minutes most days and cycle machine 15 minutes. From November to early March it gets dark to early in NW Georgia to ride or run safely when I get home so I think this will work well.

I have continued my contract work with businesses. I also am the sound and video technician for my church’s service each week. I do the web pages for several organizations.

I started writing a column for three newspapers (Swainsboro, LaFayette and Ringgold, Georgia) that is a question answer type article about computers for the average person. I have done 35 of them and they have been received well. I still do my Watt Thoughts column via the Internet and wrote my 200th column last month since I started it in 1998.

Travel wise I went to Kentucky in July for IBBGCM, to Washington DC in March with my uncle to see my mom, on a cruise to Key West (the real one) and Nassau in June (that was my cousin’s honeymoon that she invited the family to go with her) and this fall to DC again to see my mom and I went to Gettysburg one day. I also took a number of nearby trips. If you want to see pictures go to dwightwatt.myphotoalbum.com or dwightwatt.shutterfly.com or some are on my Facebook page (amazing the number of people I knew in college I have found there, I do have a blackberry now also, just no texting yet).

My webpage is www.dwightwatt.com and e-mail address is dwight-watt@att.net (same e-mail since 1996, but now I can see on Blackberry also)

The year has been good overall. Made some good new friends.

Hope you had a good year

Looking forward to next year, but no idea what may be in it. Hopefully more learning, new professional and personal experiences, travel, reading and time with friends

Dwight

Vaccination e-mail virus/phishing

2009-12-03T12:38:00.001-05:00

The current phishing e-mail floating out there that also loads the Zeus virus on your machine appears to be from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) or other government agency which requests you click on the link and do a vaccination profile.

The e-mail says the government is building a required database of those that have had and not had their H1N1 shot so to determine how to continue the vaccinations and deal with the pandemic. There is no program to do this. The e-mail is just a vehicle to put a virus on your machine and may have a phishing component. Just opening the e-mail is not going to be a problem, but if you click on the link you will be exposed to Zeus (not H1N1) and depending on your virus protection (notice similarity of human disease to computer diseases like viruses) your machine may be infected. DO NOT click on the link.

If you already have clicked on the link then run your anti-virus program (after making sure latest updates are installed) or get a anti-virus program if you do not have one (if you don't have one, get one whether you clicked or not).

Be safe. In any e-mail before clicking on a link make sure the link is not a spoofed one (going somewhere different that it says. Two easy ways to watch, 1. hover your pointer over the link and see what appears in the small pop-up type box and if different, don't use, or 2. when hovering over the link with the pointer, look at the bottom or the screen and you will see the actual link, make sure it is the same before clicking on the link. You may see in an e-mail that has a link showing h1n1.cdc.gov but when hover over it (I am creating this from imagination) http://www.foolsareus.com.bg/stealtehiercreditcard/aisoufd8f8duajkcasdu8o/h1n1.cdc.gov/stealitpage.htm

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-12-03T12:37:00.001-05:00

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving Thursday.

As we have this holiday let us remember what it is and is not.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday developed as the eve of Black Friday, but a day for us to give thanks and celebrate our many blessings. Although we are going through difficult economic times and many people are facing health crises, we still have blessings around us.

For each of us we need to look tomorrow at the what good things have happened to us in the last year. This may be friends of a long time, new friends that may now be our closest friends, for some of us job opportunities that have appeared, the food that is available to us (although some do not have enough, our living facilities (varies by person but those with small may fee more blessed for that roof over their head than those with mansions), family, freedoms, and heath breakthroughs may have occurred. Whatever the good things were let them overshadow the bad things that have occurred for at least this one day.

Remember the Pilgrims when they celebrate Thanksgiving originally had been through a miserable trip from England, many had died on the way and after arriving, starvation, warfare and finally things had gone better as they had learned from the Indians (savages as they called them in the proclamation that showed them how to survive) with crops and bountiful animals that meant they would no longer starve. However they still faced cold weather (no gas or electric heat), death, diseases, but they chose to celebrate and give thanks for what they had.

Be positive and look at the blessings you have first Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holidays and the price of gas

2009-11-19T23:15:00.005-05:00

You can tell Thanksgiving is one week away by driving by your local high volume gas station. Stop in your retail stores and watch them cutting prices trying to get sales for Christmas.

The wholesale price of oil has held between $77 and $80 per barrel for about a month now with ups and downs from 50 cents to $3 per day. In the last two weeks I have watched it drop about 10 cents in a lot of places. However this morning I discovered it had jumped 12 cents at my local high volume dealer after sitting steady at $2.42 to $2.43 for a week. Now it is $2.55.

The price for a barrel of wholesale crude dropped today and the retail price of refined gas jumps. Logical plain economics to some, but I would not have passed Economics 101 in college using that approach.

Have a good and safe Thanksgiving and hopefully the price will drop a little (we can dream a lot) by then to make your travels a little less costly. I drive about 700-800 miles for a normal week so I watch gas and oil prices closely.

Health-care or Health-care insurance reform

2009-11-16T21:28:00.002-05:00

As I have listened to and read the debates all summer and fall about the proposed reform bills on Capital Hill I have been struck by one item. Hardly anyone seems to know what they are trying to reform from Obama down to the columnists and talk show hosts (right or left).

You hear the terms health care and health-care insurance used interchangeably by almost all of them as if they were the same issue.

Health-care is the treatment, prevention and diagnosis by professionals out there. The USA has probably the best system in the world as far as the health-care that is available. It is not the same level everywhere. The question is not that I hear of improving the health-care but improving the availability. If you are not sure if the best health care in the world is here in the USA then look and see where the rich and powerful around the world go when they get bad sick, it is most often to the USA. There are some good places in other countries but we stay on the cutting edge of health-care developments in the USA.

Health-care insurance is not the health-care but how is it paid. For a large majority of Americans this is by insurance. There is a number that are not covered by insurance for a variety of reasons and those of them who do not have the resources to pay seems to really be the issue. The proposed solutions are to change how it is paid.

So the real issue appears to be health-care insurance reform and not health-care reform, and often you see the debaters say to reform health care so everyone is covered, and then follow with that we don't want to lose our world class health-care level, just make sure all can use it easily.

Major concerns are getting people diagnosed and cured quicker and take the weight off the emergency rooms and that we all can get world class health-care at the same time. And allowing the quality health-care to be in all communities once money for the people there is available.

Let's make the debate easier by using correct terms and ten maybe we can reach consensus on the best way to do this and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Mozilla Firefox may have just converted me

2009-11-16T20:16:00.000-05:00

I will probably use Mozilla Firefox more now than the rest of the web browsers. I was writing a reply to an e-mail earlier tonight and my computer did the blue screen of death. (See Watt Thoughts 193 at www.dwightwatt.com about that) It fixed as easily as those articles state. However everytime before I have been working in Internet Explorer (IE) in webmail in similar situation and I lost everything I had written but not sent.

Tonight I was in Firefox 3.5 and when I restarted the machine I started Firefox and it opened the compose box I was in automatically and showed all but the last few words. It was a message I had spend 15 minutes or more composing. Way to go Firefox. I already had started using Firefox for doing webmail for two reasons. First was in IE 8 (32 and 64 bit versions) often the pop-up compose box would not fully open or the spellcheck box would not. No problem in Firefox. Second was I like the way it does the webmail spell check box. In IE after each correction it goes back to the top of the message and I had to scroll back down to the spelling errors. In Firefox it stays at the point where I corrected the spelling error.

I will still use IE, Safari and Opera to check pages and sometimes some pages work better in one over another. But I will be moving to more Firefox usage.

Ahead and did not know it again

2009-11-11T23:08:00.001-05:00

For at least the second time I have discovered that I had learned how to do something and was doing it on the computer without realizing what it was. Then thinking I needed to try to learn about this new programming concept I realized I had been doing, but not knowing what it was called or that it was something really special.

Back in the 80s I wrote an extensive student records program for Swainsboro Tech that was used by a number of people on the system at one time. The system was written in COBOL on a Burroughs 1900 midrange computer. The total code for the system was about 200, 000 lines of COBOL code. It ran one copy on the computer and the different users logged in at their terminal and did different things. For instance it maintained registration, grades, transcripts, attendance, financial aid, and the book store among other items. Different people did the work in the system for the different areas.

I realized as I started developing the program in the early 80s that having different people using and to put in one program that centrally controlled everything (including security to certain parts on top of system security) meant I needed a way for the parts for different users to peel off and run their code and then join back on central control module. I studied for a good while the Burroughs manuals (this part of COBOL is machine dependent) and found what would work and it worked well. I also set the files in a way that as I got in databases deeper I realized I had set them up in the approach a good database would take.

Then in the late 80s I heard people talking about doing multi-threaded programs and I wanted to learn what that is and how it was done. As I started digging I realized that what I had done in my students records program was multi-threading and that I had been doing this for more than 5 years. Multi-threading and applications for multi-users was neat and still impresses me.

Back in 2004 I started working on a real estate web site and one of the items was we wanted the site I developed to allow the agents to take care of the listings (enter, change, delete and post pictures). It was to be simple enough that they should be able to do with just knowledge of how to browse the Internet and to find pictures stored on their computer. I had not done a site with that before but I set out to learn how and discover how to do and I learned the PHP programming language and MYSQL database would work well (I used what I already knew about SQL and databases to learn MySQL quickly and I realized I understood PHP from my experience with doing reveal codes in WordPerfect and my knowledge of BASIC and FORTRAN). I have developed the same feature for another couple real estate sites and a donkey farm (they list donkeys for sale) and an arts council site for events. I use the code developed from one site to modify and use for the next as far as the management side of the site for them managing their content.

Over the last couple of years I started hearing about Content Management Systems (CMS) to do web sites and have been trying to learn what is different about them versus what I do in developing websites in the actual HTML/XHTML code. I started studying a book on a free CMS called Joomla and talking with others and suddenly this week realized what I had done with those real estate and other sites was CMS. The people have the control of putting and maintaining the information on their sites, instead of me having to do it all. I had basically developed my own specialized CMS systems without realizing it.

As I tell my students being in computers means we have to keep learning and changing. And sometimes I amaze myself with having known something just not the proper term for it.

Rainy Monday

2009-09-21T08:58:00.004-04:00

It continued to rain thru the night and still is this morning in LaFayette. Has come down heavy at times during night and on my drive to work this morning. Low lying areas are covered in water, but they do seem to have it moving now.

Apparently Georgia Northwestern Technical College is closed due to it today as I got to college 1 hour late and the doors are locked. Did get a few pictures of flooding on campus.

Dwight

Rain in NW Georgia (or Rainy night in Georgia)

2009-09-21T01:55:00.000-04:00

I made it back to LaFayette safely tonight but took longer than normally due to rain and flooding. My apt is fine. On the 30 miles on the Hwy 136 from the interstate to my house it rained all the way. Normally takes me about 35 minutes to 40 minutes. There were a number of paces where dirt had washed over road. About 5 miles from my apt I had to stop as road was under water, it was up to window air units in houses there. Fire truck was sitting in road (if you know LaFayette it was by skating rink). A truck came thru and told us it was passable but about 6 inches deep. my car made it thru safely. They at intersection with bypass it was deep under water on side but made it thru on shallower side. It is raining again now.

I had done the devotion at church tonight after tutoring a lady on java this afternoon and did not leave until about 6:45 and with stop to eat supper should have been here about 12:15 but it was almost 1AM.

Dwight

Computer oddities (power supply and Windows backup)

2009-09-11T11:04:00.000-04:00

Last night I discovered two things about my computer. One was where the keyboard ceased working and the monitor got no signal after the blue screen of death (bsod). Second was a backup I had done using Vista backup would not work with restore.

First was where my 64 bit quad core machine had seemed to blowout a video card three times and a keyboard once in the five months I have owned it (built from a kit). I knew the last time I had realized that one of the "bad" video cards had worked when I put back in when the PC had crashed and lost signal to the monitor. Likewise I discovered then that the keyboard that had been replaced one of the times when the keyboard and video signal went dead after crash (blue screen with full memory dump) worked on my laptop. At 5 this morning when I discovered the crash I got the two "bad" cards and the "bad" keyboard out. I then replaced both with no effect. No signal to the keyboard or monitor but there was disk activity. I then pulled the power cord going to the power supply from the outlet for some reason and plugged it back in. Hit power switch and PC was happy again. Now I know what the problem has been the whole time is power supply is flaky and that I had not realized I was unplugging the power supply before putting in a new card was resetting in the power supply. I will cure that later today by stopping by the computer store in Marietta and getting a power supply.

Second was trying to get some pictures back from a backup I did using the backup program in Vista. I had backed up a student's pictures from her laptop that she was sending back to Acer (would not turn on) and she had no backup. (the disk ran fine in my machine but Acer claimed when they sent it back that she had a bad disk.) The backup ran fine. Then went to restore the pictures last week, I am on Windows 7 now, and got a message about a bad mediaid.bin file. Found that it is a separate file stored in the root and that Restore needs it. I had not deleted it. I looked at the backup and noticed it was lots of folders and they had sub-folders inside and I did not look further. After trying several methods to fix the mediaid.bin file I realized backup was on the external hard drive so I put it in my laptop that runs Vista. Tried it there and got the same error and then access denied. Decided to look at the backup a little further as I was convinced it was good. Realized they were all zip folders and when going in them discovered the pictures were in there fine (showed in show thumbnails) and they were just zipped. Thought they can't be just plain zips but tried the extract on the Windows Explorer view of the folder and they extracted to my new location fine and the pictures are all there. Just they are in 15 zip folders and were in about 5 folders originally and after extracts back to about five folders as originally. So time to go in each and un-zip. However I now have her pictures back and I can burn then on CD for her. Moral of story is that the Windows backup program is no longer a special compressed file, but is just a set of zip files that has been split in several zip files and if the Restore does not work, (the easier way) then you can unzip each of the backup folders manually.

Dwight

So much for trying to slow down

2009-09-11T09:07:00.000-04:00

Last weekend has led me to the conclusion that it is fruitless to do try to do what I have tried to do for about 5 months and that is slow down.

Agreed it was a 3 day weekend, but just thinking about what I did tires me now. Friday evening I drove from LaFayette GA to Swainsboro GA for about 5.5 hours and 300 miles.

Saturday morning it was leave just after 8 am and head for St. Simon's to the King and Price to attend a friend's wedding. I had not been to King and Prince before and it is nice. They had a fabulous breakfast and lunch buffet for the reception. Eli and Ann's wedding was on the lawn on the lawn by the ocean and nice. Then I headed to Savannah to the bike shop to use a gift card I had been given and picked up several items and registration for Sunday. Then on to Statesboro GA for the Georgia Southern football game at 6PM. GSU won with 40 seconds to go in the game. Back to Swainsboro for the night.

Sunday morning I was on the road at 6:30 am headed to Savannah to ride my bicycle in the Savannah Century. The ride starts going over the Savannah River bridge and then stays flat. It got hotter on Sunday so part way on the ride I decided I would just do the 50 mile route which turned out to be 55 miles, but I did it. Then drove back to Swainsboro. Took a nap (that is slowing down).

Monday I went to the duplex I rent out and cut grass for just over an hour and then that afternoon drove back to LaFatyette getting in at 9:30pm, a little earlier than normal.

So for the weekend I drove my car about 1100 miles and rode my bike 55 miles (and it was on the car for about 800 miles).

More on schools wanting passwords to social sites

2009-09-02T09:30:00.000-04:00

In this case they are wanting the students passwords to MySpace and Facebook even if they do not use at school. Getting the password means the school can then pose as the students and post as them and you could not prove students did not post. I understand the school and workplace has legal basis for saying what you can or cannot do when using a computer or network owned by the school or business, but they do not need passwords to see what people posted. Google and other search engines can get them to it. (as a warning that I tell my students, employers HR offices, and colleges admission offices will search and see what you have posted and turn down people for jobs and admission for information that is not a good reflection on them.

If I give you my Facebook password then no one can tell (including Facebook) that what you post to my account was not posted by me. If someone wanted to smear or libel someone and damage someone else, they would be to get the second person's Facebook/MySpace password and post the smear on the second person's MySpace/Facebook page and there is no trail to the real poster except thru some detailed computer forensics that may or may not lead to the true poster.

Would the school require all students who drive to give the school a copy of their car keys? Do they expect to have a key to every students home? Those are similar situations.

Dwight

School wanting students Facebook/MySpace passwords

2009-09-02T08:57:00.000-04:00

I have a problem with schools or businesses wanting students or employee passwords for something not used at work or school and/or not part of the business or school. Sounds like Big Brother. The schools can find ways that are legal and ethical to see what is posted ion MySpace/Facebook. Check with HR and admission offices as they know how to look and see what people post.

This story which is video at CNN also has a glaring error. They place North Augusta in GA, not in SC, and even say in story the school is following a SC group's guidelines.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/news-article.aspx?storyid=144283&catid=5