Monster Noodle

Stephen Hawking just hit the proverbial nail squarely on the head. Hawking’s recent statements regarding the need to dedicate more resources to space travel and exploration could not have come at a more relevant time.

Global warming, dwindling oil supplies, economic turmoil and practically every other popular world problem have their roots solidly in one single issue, explosive population growth. The world has gone from an estimated 2.5 billion in 1950 to 6.6 billion today. Amazingly, there were less than 1 billion in 1800.

There are plenty of counter arguments but there is one simple truth. When population exceeds carrying capacity a system will collapse. We are not close to reaching the planets carrying capacity but this kind of growth is not sustainable. The world is only now beginning to see the results of increased competition for resources and that trend will only continue to intensify.

Mr. Hawking’s answer to this problem is the only viable long term solution. We as a planet must dedicate more resources to finding more resources. There’s only one way and that’s up. Carl Sagan often espoused the same views as have countless other progressive thinkers. 

There has never been a better time for humanity to look to the stars. We are in an age that can still afford to spend “venture capital”. It will not be this way forever. There will come a time that every patch of ground that we have must be used to feed us. That train is coming.

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: green, NASA, space

WARNING!!! Jargonistic Technobable ahead.

I suppose that the first question is “what the ^%$& is QR-Code?”. QR-Code is a proprietary 2D bar-code technology that allows for a considerable amount of data to be encoded within it. Traditional 2D bar- codes can store up to 2355 alpha characters while QR-Code can store 4296. QR-Code has been around in the automotive industry for over ten years to track the movement of parts through the manufacturing system.

Now the real question, “why do I care?”. The biggest reason that you will care is that Google has begun to care. Google has taken the stance that this type of technology has the capability to revolutionize print advertising. Google has adopted the technology in it’s “Google Print Ads” extension.   

QR-Code is already hot in Japan. They are already used to store information about products on shelves, magazine articles, newspaper ads and a slew of other applications. Most cell phones in Japan are equipped with a QR capable camera. This allows the consumer to pull up lots of information by simply scanning the bar-code on the product.

There have been similar efforts in the US to implement a code based system in advertising but at the time, the technology to tie them directly to a web enabled cell phone did not exist. Now that the stars have aligned, don’t be surprised if you see more of this kind of technology in the near future.

Interested? Try it yourself here.

Until next time, happy blogging.

QR code is trademarked by Denso Wave, inc

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: advertising, barcode, google

In www-land there are new sites popping up every day that promise to be the next big thing. Most of these sites struggle for a few months or even a few years and then realize that it’s often more difficult to do big things than a slick site design and a shaky business model. Other sites seem to hit the exact place at the precise time and make millions, literally overnight. Then there are those that you’re not quite sure about. In comes Fusu.com.

If you haven’t heard anything about it, you’re not alone. The site and it’s concept are new and have not had enough time to generate much in the way of buzz. Beginning it’s history only a few short months ago, Fusu’s concept is simple, find people who own potentially big domain names then issue stock for the sale of the domain. The domain owner raises initial capital from the issue of the stock while the investor reaps the benefits of lower cost fractional ownership. The big question is if Fusu can draw enough attention and produce enough results to continue to mature it’s business.

It is a very interesting concept but is it the next big thing? Who knows. Crazier things in recent years have made billions. One thing is however certain, Fusu will need a lot of buzz and even more luck to reach the critical mass that will be necessary to get this concept off the ground. Take a few minutes to head over and judge for yourself.

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: blog, buzz, Investing, new, squatting

WARNING!!! Strongly undiplomatic opinions ahead. If you’re easily offended, you likely will be.

We may be in a correction, recession or whatever you want to call it but we’re definitely in the process of paying for some long-term debts owed. For the past several years the US economy has been artificially inflated by loose lending and overly ambitious development. We’ve ignored a trade deficit that has robbed us of our fortunes and instead fueled our economy by building more of what we didn’t need and purchasing it for more than we could afford. These are the things that I see that have really crippled our economy:

1. The automotive industry: If you don’t understand that this was one of the backbones of our economy you need to really get in touch with what has been happening in Detroit. When the Japanese manufacturers decided to enter into the larger consumer truck market, we lost the backbone of our industry. For years Japanese manufacturers have avoided this market to ensure that American consumers had plenty of money to pump back into Japan. When Toyota made the decision to climb to the top at any price, it killed the goose that laid the golden egg. Bad for the US you say? Maybe, but the kamikaze tactic will ultimately cost Japan it’s place in the world economy. Toyota will finally achieve its dream of being number one. Good luck selling cars in China.
2. The housing industry: For two decades or more contractors have been building houses as fast as they could grab the land and put them up. For the most part, these houses are vastly inferior to the construction of a half century ago. In many cases, the land may be worth more in ten years without a structure at all. At the same time, the consumer has cut his own throat by leveraging as much of his pay check as possible to buy the biggest house that a bank would finance. If you paid more than three times your annual salary for a house and you didnt’ have significant financial reserves, you’re part of the problem.
3. The banking industry: Keep on loaning to people that can’t afford it, for things that are not worth it. Enough said.
4. Commodity prices: We have been in a relatively calm area for commodities for the past couple of decades. However, a little pressure in this area can cause mass devastation. All it really took was for oil prices to surpass current cost of living standards. Guess what, it happened in the 70’s too. I guess that we forgot. 
5. Fiat Currency: I hate to jump on this bandwagon but for all that is holy, you can’t print money without something of value to back it up. It used to be enough that the US government backed it and the world believed it but terrible lacks of judgement in how we print money in the past few years have damaged our credibility. Sure, it may help to keep our business back here in the US but there is a fine line between manipulating a currency and destroying it.

In the end, the US has a lot of work to do to reclaim it’s dominance in the world economy. At some point, we must create something real value and sell it. Wow, what a concept.

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: banking, credit, economy, ford, gm

If you haven’t heard the term before, give it a little time. You will. Mandatory wellness is the concept that your employer has the right to modify your behavior if your lifestyle choices adversely affect their bottom lines by adversely affecting your health. With ever increasing insurance premiums this is a trend that many companies will consider if they have not already.

I’ll skip the obvious problems with this concept in a free society and instead focus on the facts. Your company has the right to ask anything from you that is within the confines of the legal system. The real question is “Are mandatory wellness programs legal?”.

Companies are on a slippery legal slope when it comes to “mandatory” wellness and they realize it. There are a few cases that are in the process of setting precedence regarding what is and is not considered legal (Rodrigues v. The Scotts Co; Anderson v. City of Taylor). These cases show that companies are increasingly finding that employees are reluctant to accept this kind of infringement into personal space and that the courts may not uphold the companies decision to do so. If you find yourself in the position of being forced to accept a mandatory wellness program, an excellent article was composed by hronline.com that will help you to understand the reasons why your company wants this kind of policy and what rights you have as an employee.

In the end, it’s up to you to set the boundaries of what you are willing to accept. Chances are, if you’re serious about not complying with this kind of policy, it is highly likely that your company would rather hear out your concerns than argue them in a court of law. Just make sure that you seek the advice of legal council before you start burning bridges.

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: employment law, employment rights, HR, legal

The world is something that you may want to relate to and that you may want to change but the bottom line is that you better understand it. Take care of yourself.

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: green, iraq, islam

WARNING!!! Jargonistic Technobable ahead…

Recently the Gartner group presented their views on the state of the future of Windows as well as a their assesment of the problems with the current MS operating system, Windows Vista. Leave it to the boys at Gartner to take a relatively simple issue and make it complex. Vista’s failure is about hardware requirements and performance. It’s that simple.

The gaming industry was slow to adopt Vista because quite simply, XP is faster. When it’s about speed, why pay more for less.

Corporate environments could have made very good use out of the inherent security features that were central to Vista but the required hardware to effectively run the software was cost prohibitive. Having managed a fairly sizable client base, I can tell you that IT has become a cost to be managed instead of the first line provider of business solutions. When you operate under that model, budgets don’t lend themselves to a $1500 PC to run standard office software and a mail client.

Vista has been adopted fairly widely by the standard home user. It has been a stable platform to operate on and that is what most average users care about, well that and the eye candy.

According to Gartner’s annoucement, the future is hypervisor and virtualized machines. Didn’t I hear the same thing about Java years ago? Wasn’t java supposed to make us OS independant and replace old warhorses like RPG and C++?

If you haven’t read Gartner’s last announcement regarding the future of Windows, you should give it a few minutes to at least get a chuckle. At least they were spot on with licensing. MS licensing has become more convoluted than the tax code.

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: it, java, tech, windows

One of the most common causes of hardware failure in a PC is power fluctuation. This is one of the most often overlooked areas of PC stability. Cumulative damage from these changes in power can result in crashed hard drives, fried processors and a host of other maladies that can easily be avoided.

Many consumer grade UPS systems offer basic protection for your machine but many are weak sources of controlling power fluctuations. Some consumer grade UPS systems offer automatic voltage regulation (AVR) but they can be an expensive options and are often not available at your local retail outlet. Couple this with the disposable nature of most consumer grade UPS’s and in time you can spend a considerable amount of money keeping your power clean. 

Another solution is to buy a good voltage regulator to use in line with your standard UPS. The best bang for the buck on the market today may be the Opti UPS SS1200. At around $20 street cost this little monster can save you a bundle in damaged components. Not only will the SS1200 handle power spikes quite well but is an excellent solution for dealing with brown-out conditions. I have used one of these for over a year and have had excellent results.

So, if you notice your lights dim the next time your AC kicks on, it might be a good time to invest in an AVR solution. If you don’t want to spend a bundle the SS1200 might be for you.

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: AVR, OPTI UPS, UPS

I don’t know much of anything about the “Free Tibet” movement. I can see that it is an embarrassment to the Chinese government at a time when it is vulnerable. I can also see that there are those in the world that will benefit from the timing of this issue but I don’t have a clue about who’s really right or wrong. Can someone with a real life experience of the situation help me to understand what’s going on and why the US should be involved?

I’m not interested in “subjective reasoning”. I want to understand the facts of the matter, as best as they can be understood. If your arguments cannot be supported by verifiable fact or real life experience please do not post.

Update 4/10/2008: Kudos to Ron Paul for not blindly following the crowd.

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen

I can’t tell you how glad I was to read the recent Forbes article on server Virtualization dangers. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, virtualization in a nutshell is the process of putting multiple discreet OS installs on a single server via virtualization hardware or software.

First off, let me say that virtualization is a great tool under the right circumstances. It allows the distinct advantages of leveraging a single machine with excess hardware capabilities to gain the greatest return on investment for your hardware. It is a technology that has been around for many years and it’s use is wide spread. Couple the technology with a beefy SAN and voila you have a server farm in a single rack.

All of that is great but there are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of disadvantages for choosing this infrastructure model as the sole model for your enterprise.

1. Virtualization puts all of your eggs in one basket. Sure, there are plenty of ways to mitigate this risk with clustering technology but the reality is that several virtual servers on a single machine is simply more risky than having dedicated equipment for each application. Having managed a reasonably sized data center (>100 real servers and several virtual), I can tell you from personal experience that compartmentalization and redundancy cannot be overstated as a method to mitigate risk.
2. Virtualization has a longterm cost. The major selling point for virtualization is cost reduction. However, many of the long-term costs associated with virtualization are ignored in order to realize the short-term gain. Heat, power consumption, complexity, and performance all become issues when moving to a virtual environment. These costs may seem small but a deeper understanding reveals that these costs become fixed costs now associated with running your business.
3. Virtualization is a hacker dream. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s easier to take over one machine than to many. With a single attack on a virtual server’s hypervisor your whole security system can be overcome. With the ever increasing need to keep data secure, this is a risk that must be considered when considering to virtualize.

Virtualization has been well marketed. Much in the same way that the Microsoft server was well marketed back when a small company called Novell owned the IT infrastructure market(remember when it just worked?). In much the same way, the trend is toward a solution with lower initial costs that requires more in the long-run to manage.

The prudent IT professional would do well to consider when to use and when not to use virtualization. As for replacing your entire infrastructure with virtual servers, I have two words: Caveat Emptor… 

Until next time, happy blogging.

Megadisclaimer: Take nothing at face value. Everything on this blog is for entertainment purposes. It won’t change the world, or even your opinion in most cases. If you believe everything that you read stop reading now!

written by Lochshen \\ tags: it, security, technology, virtualization