ForbesOnTech

Trying to Garden in Soil That's Been Compressed by Tons of Remodel Trash

For most of the gardening season this year, my best plot was rendered unusable by a  hulking construction debris box chock full of tons of lumber, plaster, concrete, and the detritus of our remodel.

            The debris box was hauled away, emptied and returned three times, to it’s spot over where for the last five years I’ve grown vegetables and been tormented by a clan of truly evil field voles.

            So when the debris box was finally removed a little more than a month ago I had feint hopes of getting at least one crop of tomatoes from the plot, and I sincerely believed that the local snakes would have wiped out the shallow burrowing voles. But when I got around to preparing the soil in the upper garden for planting, I quickly discovered the effects of tons of trash sitting in a metal box on what previously had been “perfectly balanced lose soil”. One week of using a pick and Maddox later, I was able to use my tiller to build two small rows for my last of the season French heirloom beefsteaks.

            How hard was the soil?  Well I’ve had to reset and sharpen the tines on my mighty Mantis two-cycle tiller and I’ve added 10 cubic feet of soil amendment to get the dirt back to a Ph level that’s conducive for tomatoes. And even after all that, four of my prized French beefsteak heirlooms, croaked within one week of going in the ground.

            On a whim I also planted Mad Max giant orange pumpkins in the just-reclaimed upper garden patch.  They took off right away, giving me just enough false hope to believe I might actually get something out of the beloved patch.

            And two weeks ago I discovered that the local vole and rattlesnakes were working in concert with the damn debris box to dash my hopes for produce in my upper garden this year.  

Unbeknownst to me, the voles and rattlers had signed a mutual non-aggression pack while living quite happily under the debris box. The net effect of this is that the voles now frolic in my garden, free of concerns about being injected with venom and subsequently eaten whole.

How was I to know that every vole in the county has an insatiable hunger for tender young pumpkin plants? Four plants in two weeks?

I surrender—until this winter during which season will have eradicated each of the little pests.

In the mean time, I have nearly two score tomato plants down in the lower garden, free of attacking rodents and later this evening. I may excavate and harvest the last of my Kennebec potatoes.

Of such small victories are smiles on a gardener’s’ face created.—Jim Forbes 07/20/2008.

Wild Things and butterfly 101 for Second Graders-- San Diego Style.

OK, so I love most things natural: from playful skunks and other mustids to the local colony of gangster hummingbirds that pick on juvenile hawks.But caterpillars in my garden? not so much.

Having made that confession, I hastily admit to planting milk weed and other wild butterfly attractors in my back yard, far away from my vegetables. I mean, is there anything more abhorrent to your average gardener than an ugly green tomato caterpillar munching on the yellow flowers that would otherwise have turned into delicious one keelo grum plump French heirloom beefsteak tomatoes?

But there is a buterfly culture here in northern San Diego County that puts second graders in front of monarchs, yellowtail swallow butterflies and even mundane painted lady and yucca moths. I think that's a very good thing.  Thr buterfly program is headquartered in the nearby town of Encinitas. In it's near 20 year history, this program has turned out multipe generations of nature lovers here.

What's not to love about butterflies or a butterfly house?"

Here they can pet the caterpillars and a lot of them are very soft," Marriott said. In addition, there are caterpillar races, where children choose a particular caterpillar that they drop through a hole in a special box made with narrow lanes.

"They give them names, and scream 'Common' Fred!,' " he said. "It's a lot of fun."

"If you go to other butterfly houses, all you see is butterflies and there isn't a docent to explain things," he said. "Our main goal is to educate people about their life cycle and how they fit into our ecosystem."

The children also can hold out a slice of watermelon and watch the butterflies drink.

Close encounters of a natural kind

The program opens its doors on certain weekdays from April through November for field trips and is generally open to the public Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons in the summer. Admission fees of $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $4 for children older than 3 go to underwrite nearly all of the costs of the program.

It's programs like this as well as the local White Sea Base nursery program that I vote for with my check book.

Besides the Encinitas Butterfly House has caterpillar races and those are almost as much fun as horse races. "Ride the wind, Fred. Show the world how fast a monarch butterfly caterpillar can go."-- Jim Forbes, 08/20/2008

Why Lab-Based Reviews Hurt Notebook Marketing -- Part II

Looking critically at the coverage of Intel’s Centrino 2 announcements this week leaves me solidly convinced that the PC Press is stuck in a rut racing head first over a cliff.

            Let me ‘splain: Beyond a certain point increases in the speed of a processor are as fractionally important as the actual speed improvement. Based on about 20 years of testing notebooks, I never once encountered a new processor that was 15 or 20 percent faster than a previous family member deliver the same level of increased usability of system throughput.

            I know this and magazine tech editors know it too, yet they continue to parrot Intel and other manufacturer’s claims that a bump up in speed is equivalent to the Second Coming.

            What’s important today isn’t processor speed, it’s the new capabilities included in core logic that accompanies many new processor launches. And it’s this last set of capabilities that get the shortest shrift from computer magazine editors.

            What I find really annoying are editor’s spending three of four paragraphs to statistically quantify increases in processor speed as demonstrated by the performance results of obscure software benchmarks or battery run down loop tests.

            The real news in most processor manufacturer announcements is the new features made possible by the addition of new capabilities in core logic or related chipsets.  And it’s this part of the computer trade press’ coverage of Intel’s Centrino2 announcement that demonstrates how stuck the press is in it’s old lab-based methodology.

            Let’s consider for a minute that Intel claims its new core logic improves graphics performance and enhances Bluetooth connectivity. Both of these features help to enhance the user experience—a critical component in the “What makes a good notebook” success equation.

            In the lab-based quantification model used by most computer magazines, they may chart graphics performance but most often leave out specific examples of what that number means to a user.

            I’ve become an NCO in the Bluetooth Borg Army and I’m extremely interested in whether or not Centrino 2-based systems improve my Bluetooth experience. Again, lab-based magazine benchmarks omit any quantification of this feature, or of improvements made to 802.11 components in new notebooks based on Intel’s recently announced products.

            The use of Power Point decks by product marketing managers to highlight features may actually hinder product launches. As someone who sat through more than a thousand such pitches I always found hands on demonstrations by product designers to be a much more effective demonstration mechanism. A couple of examples: two of the pros who fueled my interest in notebook technology were IBM Think Pad Brand Manager Kevin Clark (now with Lenovo) and Gary Elsasser then with Toshiba (now a VP with Gateway/Acer). Both of these professionals knew their products inside and out and related the benefits of those features to the user experience. Those two professionals weren’t the only ones whose work on product introductions turned dry marketing matrix entries into important points in the user experience. 

            Two other people who deserve mentioning are: Guy Kawasaki --A member of Apple’s second-generation evangelist staff-- and Dave Winer --founder of Living Videotext (now the voice of blog site Scripting.com). Both were the kings of positioning a product based on suitability or usability without ever dipping into the bag of dry as dust performance metric results.

            The lab-based mentality that permeates most of today’s computer magazines may have suborned, marketing efforts that emphasize the user experience over performance metrics. Most of today’s notebook marketing is done using presentation graphics software, which does absolutely nothing to illustrate how a set of features binds a user to a brand or particular machine.

            And that’s my take on notebook marketing.

            Damn the metrics! Now sit down in front of a notebook and see why you like the experience. Now  vote with your pocketbook, not a year’s subscription to a product based on dead trees and testing methodology from the last century.—Jim Forbes on 07/18/2008

 

           

Why is Today's Portable Computing Marketing Stiill Stuck in the last Century's Model?

 

Portable computer technology is at a seminal point in history, yet most portable computing marketing is still mired in 1990’s marketing that’s little more than a feature checklist that’s been stuffed into a spread sheet and then turned over to a graphic artist before it’s posted on the web. And all of this flies in the face of tha availability of flash-based animation or video technology that can be used to highlight great portables.

Nothing makes this more apparent than this week’s rollout of Intel’s new chipset and Centrino II brand. My overwhelming reaction to the is a yawn and a direct phrase words: “Get out of the 1990’sm marketing model and break new ground!”

Faster processor speed for me is a yawner.  I’ve come to expect them from Intel. What are important today are the increased and new capabilities of chipsets. Better WiFi range, or integrated support of WiMax are very important, but unless you see or experience their tangible benefits, they’re just words in a self-serving marketing presentation.

I’m not ashamed that I spent a portion of my professional life as a PR person. I learned a lot working the opposite side of the table from editors. And foremost among the things I understood was whenever it was possible I should show the direct benefits of something, rather than merely gabbing about it.

If I were working in PR today for Intel or one of its portable computer marketing partners, I would have set up tables with new notebooks that incorporate the new technology in a parking lot or field. Each of the tables would also have an older notebook with legacy wireless networking chipsets.  And each of the tables would set in front of as range marker listing the distance between it and the WiFi router.

The very visible point of the demonstration is that the new chipsets free notebook users from being close to a WiFi access point.

Now let’s think a minute about Intel’s WiMax WAN technology. Want a fun way to demonstrate it?  Set up a test network along Amtrak’s Oakland, CA to Sacramento right of way. Now load up 15 reporters, editors or industry luminaries in several of the cars on a train’s consist ( the term used to describe an engine and cars expressed as a single unit). Let them experience true persistent mobile connectivity, sit back and wait an hour or so for the rave reviews to appear.

Mobile persistent connectivity is a transformational experience for most users.

I’m an occasional user of Verizon’s Edge network when I ride the train between San Diego and eastern Los Angeles County. It turns my commute from a passive to an extremely productive experience. Great wireless, and most of all persistent wireless connectivity is something that’s so transformational you often wonder why it’s not more pervasive.

To restate my original premise: It’s time for notebook marketing to catch up with the times.  Notebook product managers shouldn’t being showing big PowerPoint decks, they should have their audience out in field 150 (or more) yards away from an access point, doing what I’m doing right now, writing a blog post underneath a fruited peach tree in my front yard.

It beats sitting in a conference room looking at a Presentation graphics marketing deck with a product manager or PR person who refuses to go off message for even one second.—Jim Forbes 07/15/2008.

 

 

 

A Winning Strategy for Riding Mower Blade Replacement-- Bloody Knuckle Technology

Ok, all you lawn tractor operators, it’s time to deal with the one task you’ve put off since the start of summer, get down to some serious sucking on bloody scraped knuckle sucking fun and change the blades on your deck.

But first let’s talk tools and false assumptions:

1.                  Because you bought an American branded lawn tractor at a store with a nationwide presence don’t assume it uses SAE standard bolts and nuts.

2.                  If you’re reusing blades from previous seasons, do not grind them razor sharp. Over heating blades weakens the steel making it susceptible to breaking or chipping if you run over objects such as rocks, metal sprinklers, or even metal water lines. The best way to sharpen old blades is to sharpen the cutting edge using a shoulder pattern—just like an ax blade.

3.                  You may be strong, but the two most important tools for replacing blades may be a container of fine penetrating oil and a three to four-foot length of one-half inch (inside diameter ) galvanized or iron pipe.

Required tools:

A selection of metric or SAE standard sockets

A 10 to 12-inch long breaker bar

Hammer

Ratchet wrench

Six, eight or ten-inch extension for ratchet wrench/breaker bar.

Container of penetrating oil such as Liquid wrench or gun oil. WD 40 will work in most cases and it comes with the vitally important ten-inch spray tube.

Cold beverage

Car ramp, ATV/motor cycle loading ramps or steps around outside of house or patio.

 

Drive lawn tractor up ramps or partway up steps. Lock brakes on mower and chock back wheels.

            Lower mowing deck to gain access to top of blade mounting bolt holes. Drench top of holes and face of mounting bolts with penetrating oil. Do this to both set of blades.  Let set five minutes. Now take stout hammer and tap both sides of the bladeset to help penetrating oil seep into threads. If possible, also tap the top and bottom of the blade-mounting bracket with the hammer.

Repeat process on other blade.

            While you’re down there, determine if the mounting bolts are either SAE standard or metric. Connect correct socket to the extension, mount it all on the. breaker bar and seat the socket squarely on the bolt’s face.

Now, wish on star, click heels together, take deep cleansing breath and gently apply pressure to the handle of the breaker bar in the right direction. Increase pressure on breaker bar, exhale, curse loudly when socket slips off the bolt face because it wasn’t mounted squarely and suck blood off your scraped knuckles. Repeat process on other blade.

            If the mounting bolt is still stuck, use more penetrating oil and gently wang mounting bar with hammer to get oil to penetrate into the thread grooves.

            Do not beat the living shit out of the blade mounting bar since you can easily damage the blade spindle in its housing. Strike it sharply several times on both sides of the blade and if possible on top of the mounting bar.

            Now go back and try to get the bold loose using the breaker bar. Again, gently apply more pressure until the bolt begins to turn or you realize its frozen in place. If bolt is frozen, go on to the next step.

            Slip one end of a three or foot of sturdy pipe over the end of the breaker bar, find something you can brace against and use the leverage of the lengthy piece of pipe to break the nut loose. Loosen all the nuts on both blades.  Take deep breath, drink the remainder of your refreshing beverage and use your ratchet wrench to remove bolts.

            Place cruddy looking bolts in significant other’s good crystal or Tupperware or small jar with lid and let them soak in WD 40 or penetrating oil.  Hide Tupperware or other sacred female domestic vessel where significant other is unlikely to detect your fragrant misuse of a special container.

            Take a hammer and firmly tap one end of blade until it falls off the mounting bar.  Now take a putty knife and clean the face of the mounting bar so the new blades will go on easily. While you’re down there and the blades are off, use the putty knife or other scraper to remove caked on grass sludge on the inside of the deck.

            Compare old blades to new blades, wondering aloud how you managed to cut anything. Gaze in wonderment at the old blades, which appear to be one-half inch shorter than the new blades.  I’ve seen blades with one-inch of wear on both ends..

            Clean threads on mounting bolts and attach new blades by running in and tightening the bolts with your ratchet wrench. Uncouple the extension and socket from the wrench and reattach it to the breaker bar.  Firmly tighten the bolt down but first make sure the socket is squarely on the face of the bolt.

            Admire work and then hide and clean significant other’s sacred special container taking great care to remove all evidence of rust, grease or yard crud.

            After you’ve changed the blades, take a moment to clean the contacts on your tractor’s battery connection.

            Save and sharpen old blades for future use, unless they’re missing one or two inches of metal on their ends.

            Put tools away, apply bandages to skinned knuckles, unchock rear wheels, release parking break and, with refreshing libation in cup holder of tractor, cut lawn.—Jim Forbes 07/13/2008

 

(the management of ForbesonTech does not endorse or suggest the consumption of alcoholic beverages while replacing mower blades or operating power equipment such as riding mowers or small wheeled or track layer tractors.)       

 

Midomi Mobile, Perfect Harmony in Music Search-- Right Place Right Time With an iPhone App

Apple opened it’s iPhone online applications store concurrently with the public release of its new 3G iPhone this week. I guess we can all relax now, the sun is coming up in the post-launch world and there appears to be an initial strong flood tide of applications for Apple’s mobile platform.

            There are few surprises in the first round of iPhone applications; location-centric, business, entertainment and personal productivity applications are a;; represented.

            But initially I wanted to focus on an iPhone version of an application category I’ve watched since the 1990’s—music. High on my list of “hot iPhone apps” is  a music search application called Midomi Mobile. What this application does that’s heretofore been missing in music search, is allow its users to hum, sing, and use multiple modes of inputting rough data to find individual or groups of songs.

            Midomi Mobile is from a Sunnyvale startup called Melodis Corp, whose sound recognition-based search technology is something that’s been missing in Internet –based music services until very recently. Midomi Mobile works even if you can’t carry a tune, or if your singing voice sounds like a bullfrog being castrated. Melodis claims it’s musical search technology is extremely accurate.

            In my continuing quest to fill out my 1970’s music catalogue, I’d love to try and hum a few bars from Little Feet’s “song “Red Streamliner” or the Allman’s Brothers “Les Bres in A Minor” to see if this service delivers on its promises. Or, I just might get up around 3 AM and record birdsongs in my orchard to see I it understands I’m trying to identify and locate the Beatles song “Blackbird (singing in the dead of night)”

            The online video demonstration of Midomi is one of the most compelling consumer technology pitches I’ve ever viewed. It’s exactly the sort of pitch that I would respond to when picking companies for Demo, before my retirement several years ago. Besides its apparent accuracy in returning results to difficult queries entered by off-key singing, humming or haphazard lyrics entry, Midomi also has features that let you annotate and share query results and in some cases music, with friends or readers of personal blogs. The new iPhone application also provides simple one-click links to music and related content from sites such as iTunes.

            But what really makes my heart sing about Midomi Mobile is that it’s a perfect match for two key Apple business strategies; iPhone and iTunes. It’s dificul;t to imagine this three-year–old start up not being pitched heavily by Apple when it needs to demonstrate technologies that bolster its key business units.

            Other music search services have come and gone-- but I suspect Melodis’ Midomi Mobile will set a new gold standard in this category. The technology is tightly linked to Apple and this developer is fosued sharply on an application category that show almost no signs of slowing its hockey stick growth.—Jim Forbes—07/11/2008.

Farewell Fake Steve-- Thanks for the Laughs

I guess it’s true; all good things sometimes come to an end. And it seems that the often-hilarious blog “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs” has reached that point, according to its author, Daniel Lyons most recently of Forbes and now in the process of moving over to Newsweek.

            In his most recent post here, Lyons announced he was shutting down the Fake Steve Blog, but planned to replace it with one under his own name in the coming weeks.

            For it’s much of its life, the identity of Fake Steve was the subject of a grail-like quest for many of Silicon Valley’s hoi polloi A-list editors. Most of which incorrectly assumed that the author had to be an Apple insider or most likely one of the several editors who have long-standing relationships with the Cupertino, CA, electronics manufacturer.

            The quest took a turn for the bizarre when Forbes’ publisher, Richard Karlgaard, offered a reward for Fake Steve’s identity. Karlgaard apparently couldn’t imagine that the blog’s author was one of his own staffers, which elicited gales of laughter from the small handful of people --mostly former co-workers who recognized his writing style-- who had correctly guessed Lyons as its writer.

            While the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs may be gone, Lyons did a blog to book move, and is offering a bound collection of “best of” posts for $25. The smallish book is being produced by Blurb inc. and can be ordered through Lyon’s Fake Steve blog.

            So long Fake Steve.  I’ll miss the stories of you and Larry rocketing up to San Francisco to go paint balling. I honor the place where your humor and the milk shooting out my nose are one.

            And, Lyons you are one of the funniest reporters I ever worked with. You made trekking overnight from the Foster City PCWeek Bureau to the Prudential Building on Boylston in Boston bearable. Namaste, Dude—Jim Forbes, 07/10/2008

 

Notes from a Conscript in the Borg Army-- How i've Come to Depend on Bluetooth

I’ve been shanghaied into the Borg army.

            As a Borg conscript, I was first armed with a simple headset. However, geek that I am, “I’ve promoted myself into the Borg’s heavy weapons section.

            My conscription into the ranks of the blue tooth Borg army began nearly six months ago, well in advance of California’s mandatory hands free headset law, which took effect last week. I had a difficulty adjusting to the rigors of Borg boot camp, trying unsuccessfully to connect two head sets to my LG and Palm Treo 650 phones, and a succession of notebooks (including a Thinkpad X60s and a MacBook Pro). Four headsets later, I’ve advanced through the ranks of the Borg Army and have added not only a Bluetooth speakerphone, but also a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to my arsenal, as well as some primitive weather instrumentation that sits outside my office.

What surprised me about adding Bluetooth peripherals to my computers and cell phones was that initially it wasn’t very easy to pair headsets with phones, which contradicts the basic premise of how easy it would be to use blue tooth peripherals for sort range networking.

My earliest experiences with Bluetooth were almost comical: I’d wave my headset around in the air, next to, above or below a cell phone or notebook, hoping to establish a link. One day, thoroughly exasperated. I made two trips to the local Fry’s electronics store to exchange headsets I thought were defective because I couldn’t get them to connect.

            Eventually, I bite down on the bullet and finally got through to tech support. After installing new drivers on my notebook, my headset connected. But what I learned on that and subsequent phone calls with tech support is that the combination of Bluetooth and other wireless communications drivers can cause problems.

I found this to be particularly true when I first installed a Bluetooth keyboard to my primary computer. After spending about 20 minutes on the phone with the most patient tech support rep I’ve ever dealt with, I was able to get my keyboard and mouse working and quickly attach a Jabra Bluetooth speakerphone.

As a result of my experience with Bluetooth, I’ve made Jabra headsets and other Bluetooth accessories the de facto standard in my life. They’re easily attached to any of my multiple Bluetooth networks and they produce they best quality audio I’ve ever experiences with any portable device.

Almost nine years after it made it’s first commercial appearance, Bluetooth peripherals are a partr of my everyday computing experience. I use them on my cell phone, on my notebook and desktops and in ways that improve my ability to clearly communicate.

The best example of how Bluetooth really works for me is my dependence on Skype. With my Jabra headset or speakerphone, most people can’t tell I’m working at a table on my front porch—unless one of the local crows or mocking birds, lands in front of me and starts sounding off.—Jim Forbes 07/087/2008.

 

When Your Best Made Plans Go Horribly Wrong--Miss Butterfly Meets Mr. Horned Toad

Sometimes your best intentions can have very bad repercussions.

Case in point: My love of wild things.

When I moved to my little mountain here in Escondido, one of the first things I noticed was a large population of Monarch butterflies flitting about my yard and hanging around a patch of milk weed at the base of my hedge in the front yard.

Seeing the Monarchs triggered two memories: First, Escondido was right in the path of the Monarch’s migration from Mexico to Monterey, CA; Second, I vaguely remembered learning that Monarchs were attracted to milkweed.

In the fullness of time, I started cultivating small clumps of milkweed, carefully transplanting them into one-gallon pots set along the walkway to my front yard as they matured And, it worked.

For the last several years, the milkweed has regularly hosted several colonies of Monarchs. This year has been the best so far. I’ve watched about 30 Monarchs make the transition from caterpillars to adult butterflies. Watching this process is  one of my ties to the natural world. And, I really enjoy having my coffee while I watch butterflies.

But this year I realized I had done something wrong. Very wrong! This morning I checked the milkweed pot by my patio and saw about five just-hatched butterflies drying their wings. So, I go in to the house and grab my coffee. But, when I come back, there is only one insect and there’s none flying around in the rose garden.

I glanced over at the base of the planter and saw a big fat horned toad with Monarch wings hanging out of his reptilian mouth. Swear to God, I think I saw him burp butterfly dust. The glutton!

Honest to God, I thought cultivating a plant that attracted Monarch butterflies would be a good thing. I didn’t know that I was setting up a cafeteria line for the local reptiles. There was something horribly wrong in my equation, but it’s just dark enough to make me chuckle.—Jim Forbes 07.01/2008.

Ode to a Debris Box-- The Remodel is Officially Over

Oh green construction debris box

Mighty sides of steel

I happily overfilled you using loads of barrow wheel

You were one of three but the last

Now you’re gone, because the remodel has past

 

Packed with lumber, sheet rock and scraps

I ended up cleaning out the garage to rid it of crap

Your Portapotty cousin left too, last night

Now I’m free to garden with all my organic might..

The end.

 

Good friends don’t let their other friends remodel.

here's What Happens When you have Untamed Water Presssure

Woops ,I think I may have a tad too much water pressure on the circuit down among the fruit trees. the sprinkler on the left is gear driven and lated 20 minutes before it blew its top. the one on the right, which  cost half as much as the larger sprinkler lasted all of seven minutes before it too blew its head off.  thank God Home Depot is only 4 miles away. i replaced these sprinklers with a Rabid oscillating sprinkler and now only open up my faucet half way. Everything is working well. High water pressure can be a good thing in the fire season, but I definitely have to put a regulator on the circuit down the hill. 120 pounds of pressure is a bit much.--Farmer Forbes