High tech adventure – my latest journey

It seems that every so often I get carried away with the availability of some new technology that calls to me like the Siren called Odysseus. I can’t resist. The first major case of this was getting a new, more expensive, smart cell phone. I had a very nice “flip-phone” for several years. It made and got phone calls, a primary use of a cell phone. It cost me $35 and was easy to slip onto my pocket. I liked it. It didn’t sing, dance, or allow me to play “Angry Birds.” It was a phone.

Then, along came Uber. A perfect add-on career for my retirement situation (needing money) and completely under my control: “Drive when you want for the time you want to drive and make tons of money in your spare time.” Sounds great!

But! you have to have a smart phone, a small computer to give you the path you would have to drive, take the payment, all automated for the happy Uber driver. So, I shopped around and my cell phone service provider had the best pricing for a moderately powerful unit. I think it was one of the “left overs” as the manufacturer was switching to newer, more expensive, powerful and function overloaded phones. I signed on, and started researching how I could become a happy Uber driver. Perfect!

Then I hit a very interesting road block: reality. As I researched I found more and more that Uber, which serves a very desired service, and one which makes a lot of sense from time to time for the public, had its dark side. I was in Georgia for my son’s wedding. Everything worked well. After the event and following evening, he called for an Uber to pick me up at the hotel and whisk me to the airport. In the morning, there was a bit of a problem connecting with the Uber driver. I guess I’m a little hard to notice. Anyway, when Uber came it was a pleasant trip to the airport, and all prepaid by my son. Nice. Then I heard from my son that the driver had taken longer than he should have and took some weird path to the airport. My son called Uber and they said they were giving him a rebate since the driver had done the drive wrong. I find this amazing. They knew how long he took and what route he drove, etc. Like magic, they have all the information they need to run a great business. But, after analysis, I have come to the end point to believe that the drivers don’t really make as much as it would appear. Hourly, at any rate, I can’t afford to become an Uber driver.

Fortunately, I’ve been doing calligraphy for many years (over 50). I did it free for organizations and political parties, personal events, and so on. My seating chart for my son’s Bar Mitzvah was great (a torah scroll with the attendees seats, written on a model scroll that I built). So, it was a new revelation that people could make money selling art and products they create. Etsy! and there are several others, I gather. I discussed this with my son and he said we could set up a “store.” He would do all the planning and I would do the calligraphy. I started studying how Etsy works, how you get a sale, how you send out a product, etc. Etsy makes it all pretty easy, and I can see that there is a lot more under the covers that you have to do to understand what you have to do to get results you want.

Along with all this is the requirement (at least from my point of view) to produce a high quality product that people cannot get easily on the open market. I, for example, hand create all my calligraphy, do all the design and layout, work in various hands, and can customize anything in many ways. How to communicate all this and do the jobs and get the product out is a real challenge. As starters, my son had me research what were products more people wanted, and in what sizes, and what hands, and papers, cost out all the elements, and then get busy and create an inventory of some calligraphy that would be our store’s starting products. Whew, this was a lot. As we worked on this I found I needed to have some tools to handle the work I do and produce final products that would be the best I can do.

There turn out to be a lot computer programs that would be of help to us, including things like having shared and synchronized data points that would keep us on the same efforts. Thankfully, my son knew that kind of thing because that’s what businesses do, and he’s an MBA from Pepperdine. And it’s the kind of thing he does in helping people set up new or renewed businesses. My background is in computers, so finding and evaluating programs to do what I need to do graphic processing wasn’t a big problem for me. I found a lot, and as I found them I read a lot of reviews and analyses of them. Then, I had to find, test, and use them myself. I learned a lot!

After seeing all the really great programs, and some of the most expensive, I have found a flock of “free” programs and services that I could be using. The learning curve on some of them is pretty sharp, mostly because they have so many ways of doing all kinds of graphic processing, and the language used in describing them to the user is an unknown argot to me. So, I am learning, trying, and amazed at all the things I have to absorb and use properly. As it is coming along, it is streamlining the work I do, and makes very good products at a pace that makes them available relatively quickly, compared to what I used to do in the old days. I have pretty much settled on Krita (a free graphics program similar to Paintshop Pro, which I used in past years for editing my photos, and Photoshop which I can’t afford) and I’m looking at ipiccy, which is an on-line graphics program that runs in your Chrome browser, but puts you work in the ipiccy servers. Until I understand the complete meaning of that I won’t use it.

Anyway, this is a long trip, and we are just starting. It takes a long time to expose people to your work, and the Internet is a gigantic place (a universe) and getting them to look at my work is a daunting task, which I have to figure out. We are starting to get some “looks” at the products, and have even sold a few which our buyers have said they are pleased and happy with. Since the startup investment isn’t overbearing, I am pleased to see anything working. As each day goes by I learn more and more, and I am willing to try things that I am just beginning to understand. I’m even starting to look at “trade shows” where I can display some of my work. Maybe that is another thing to learn about.

And all this is because of high tech. If I was living in a small town, where social media was a weekly column in the newspaper, and you already knew a lot of people from daily contact, it would be a handout, maybe a sample, and word-of-mouth to build a following. In today’s world it’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and what else is out there that are like my new smart phone replacing my flip-phone. I have to learn the new stuff to make my way in the world. This blog is my “flip-phone” stage of reaching out. I guess I’ll have to move on. BTW, that media I listed above are things I have never used more than a few times each! I haven’t figured out yet how to use them, either.

Look out world, here comes my store: LabowCalligraphy on Etsy. It should have said “Father and Son,” which is “Gary and Dave.” If you have a moment, just take a look at https://www.Etsy.com/shop/LabowCalligraphy and see if you like it. I’d love to hear from anyone with comments on the store. Thanks.

Guns, Guns, Guns, vs Laws, Laws, Laws

The new mass shooting (how many makes it “mass”, BTW) in VA brings up all the old canards:“action on suppressors, a ban on assault weapons, and expansion of local authority to regulate firearms,” and more and more.

Thinking on just these three, which are from a statement from Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, I come to some conclusions. Let’s talk.

 Suppressors, by which I think he means “flash suppressors,” which are attached to the barrel of a weapon to shield and reduce a flash at the exit point of a rifle by dispelling the hot gases and as a way of reducing or eliminating a flash that gives away the location of the rifle. For someone in an exposed position, this wouldn’t seem necessary since a mass shooter is usually easy to locate. If shooting from cover it might give an advantage and make it much harder to locate the shooter. I can think, off hand, of two incidents/crimes where this was the case. But generally speaking this wouldn’t have much impact on mass shooting sprees that I know of or can imagine. So, in this case, the governor is “blowing smoke.”

The ban on assault weapons is merely nonsense. I would bet the governor, and most people who oppose “assault weapons” don’t really know what they are. Some are just cosmetic, giving a tough look to the weapon. Some are relatively useless, and I suspect rarely used in mass shootings, like a bayonet mount or a grenade launcher. In general, specific weapons and models that are frequently mentioned are only produced and legal to be sold to military and paramilitary group members. One, usually described as a large capacity clip (and what exactly is “large”) could have an impact on number of firings before another clip must be loaded. I suspect a “devoted” shooter can change clips in a few seconds. But even this might help. The sale of “assault weapons” is banned in most cases to citizens. Nevertheless, the very description gives rise to vague and whimsical application to many weapons that aren’t really used in an “assault.” Note that the use of a flash suppressor is not needed to make a weapon an “assault weapon. If the barrel is grooved or threaded for allowing attachment of a flash suppressor, that makes it one.Other stuff, like a folding stock or a stacking buckle, has nothing to do with the application of a weapon. A flash suppressor, for example, does not enhance the damage potential of the weapon. The semi-automatic nature of most of the legal banning characteristics is a red herring. Almost all weapons made and sold today (and since the Wild West days of the revolver) are semi-automatics. Otherwise, we are talking about the single shot weapons which require loading, or cocking the hammer, etc. to set the weapon in a condition that allow it to be fired. Semi-automatic weapons use systems that eject the spent round, replace it with a new round, and sometimes cocking the hammer mechanism using springs and/or compressed gasses produced by the round just fired. Everybody has seen the action of doing this manually for a weapon that hasn’t been fired yet (usually in movies) when they see the actor pull out the weapon and pull the front of the weapon’s barrel back and let it snap back. That’s loading a round and cocking the weapon for firing. Handguns are pretty much made that way at this time. [Aside: there are other little differences to this action, such as the first part of a trigger pull performing this “loading” action and the rest of the pull operating the hammer. Don’t just use my brief description as a formal explanation of all semi-automatic weapons.] 

The third thing mentioned is the one I will find greater exception to. Expanding the local authorities’ regulations is opening the can of worms. Most local authorities approach this task as one of eliminating types or specifically named weapons, use of a variety of attachments, ammunition, and technical enhancements (like aiming systems). This gets the authority into the area of bans, punishment, confiscation, etc. for weapon purchase and possession. All of this, I say in general, is a change to the Constitution. But local authorities can’t just change the overall law of the country as applied to citizens. There is a way to modify the Constitution, purposefully made difficult to do. We have a “guarantee” that the Constitution is the law of the land, specifying how the government is organized, what powers each component of the organization may or may not do, and what conditions are guaranteed to each citizen. It says that citizens have a right (always) to own and bear arms. A store owner who posts a sticker on his window saying the store is a “No gun zone” is taking the citizens right to bear arms. But a store owner can’t just cancel a Constitutional right by his decision and putting up a sticker or sign. That would lead to chaos. It’s already a bit like that when you go from state to state, and one allows you to carry a firearm in their jurisdiction and the other doesn’t. Many people think it’s the weapon that is “dangerous.” They want to take “dangerous” weapons away from everybody (except police, the military, and themselves and their armed guards). Of course, true criminals and psychotic persons don’t care about “laws” and will carry weapons anyway. And mass shootings seem to be oriented to being carried out in “No gun zones” so that the gun-free citizens there are simply helpless victims. One can’t even rely on the police to be alerted, get to the scene, and actually take some action to stop a shooter. Sometimes the police are just chicken and don’t do the (very difficult) job of challenging a shooter. Sometimes the police wait around until they have enough of a group and information to challenge a shooter. This last actually has some sense when they don’t know just how many and where shooter(s) are. But sometimes the authorities are so worried about offending someone (a voter or supporter) that they just can’t bring themselves to allowing the citizens to defend themselves by having at least some of them in a “soft target” group to have weapons for defense. 

Often some sensible ideas are put in place. If I am carrying and I have to go into a large government building where sometimes contentious situations happen, with perhaps angry, frustrated people have to interact, citizens coming in have to “park their guns at the door,” just like in the old wild West. In cases like this, however, provisions are made to place your weapon(s) in a locker to which you have a key or ticket, and armed guards and police are in the building to provide safety at quick response times. Pretty sensible! Not perfect, of course, because no policies can ever address everything that could happen, like people having a small weapon in their shoe heel. 

If someone came to believe that robberies were almost always carried out by people who drove in get-away cars that were four door sedans, wouldn’t it be sensible to ban sale of four door sedans? That would stop all those robberies.Well, anyone thinking about this would come to the conclusion that it was silly. The cars (four door sedans) didn’t commit the robberies. Did they? Guess how this applies to stopping felony use of weapons in killings: ban the sale of those weapons. But robbers are clever; they will switch to using two door sedans! Okay, ban all cars! Simple. My example: ban all weapons! Simple.The only problem is both of these attempts are stupid, too.Where is the problem and what can be done? It’s the person doing the killing, robbery, etc. that is to be stopped. How? The answer, as I see it, is to stop the person from buying and possessing weapons of the type used in the felony. And how can we do that? 

Think about this: could be set up a system that could prevent (to a high degree) the sale and possession of a person who can be shown to be a risk to have a weapon of one or more types? I have tried to come up with such a system, which doesn’t try to control the “gun” (gun control), but tries to control the “gunner” (gunner control). My initial system for doing this I first came up with some 45 years ago. I have modified it from time to time, and currently have a system I describe in a blog entry that hasn’t gotten much traction.I have been on a popular call-in radio show with it, have sent it to my senators and representatives and have gotten such stupid letters back from them that I know they (and probably staff members handling their mail) didn’t read it. Useless. It’s comical how I know this; ask me about it sometime if you are interested.

My current suggestion is in my blog for October, 2017. You can get it using link https://garythecommonman.blogspot.com if interested.
This, plus my rationale above is the current argument.
Thanks for reading.

TV Flim Flam Revisited

Well, he have a nice patio out back with chairs for the adults and a sandbox for the kids. Nice, but gets hot or annoying when it rains. The sun is in your eyes if it's late in the day because it faces west. Looks like time to think about an awning!
Sun Setter starts advertising in the Spring to sell them for your Summer use. Good thinking. But their flim flam gives me the willies. (That's a retro comment.) Here's what they say.
First they show a bouncy, friendly couple who decided they need an awning. We are told they got theirs for "less than $700 dollars." Then we are told we can get one for as little as $599 dollars. Then we are told we can get a certificate (for a limited time only, so get with it) for $200 off. Here's my analysis.
Less than $700 is probably $699. That's the most it could be to fit the claim.
$599 as a price is the starting point the "bare bones" system. No size is given and no installation cost is mentioned, and the only add on I remember was a motor to open and close the awning rather than using a hand crank, which they show an older female using. See, it's easy to open and close.
Then there's that $200 discount coupon. If they used it when they paid under $700 dollars it would mean that their cost was as much as $899. Almost $900.
If you want a motorized system, at some size that fits your area, and have somebody else install it, it's all add on to $900 (less discount which is for a limited time only, perhaps for a year!). This could start reaching into the "over a $1000" range! There was a little mention that it is "assembled in the USA." Great. I'll guess it was made somewhere else: China? Peru? Mexico? India? Who knows?
My next step would be to seek out an internet site for Sun Setter and find out more details, but frankly, after watching the TV ad I just give up.
No awning this year! I rate this ad as poor, but I guess it will excite some folks to call up for their certificate and get on the contact list for interested buyers. They'll probably regret that. I know I would.
I still enjoy my patio, though.