The valuation of electrons

Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand about financial news, Facebook will be offered to investors as an issuance of stock. Since this is the first issue of stock to the general public, know as an IPO, there has been some speculation as how much the stock will be offered and at what price each share will be. Estimates would value Facebook at $95 Billion. !!!

What exactly is Facebook ? Oh, it’s a social network  (internet) site that just about anyone on the internet knows about.  But what IS Facebook, is their headquarters worth billions? You can’t touch Facebook unless you want fingerprints all over your display, monitor screen or smart phone.

What you getting for your share of stock is a bunch of electrons. These electrons of course are arranged by the knowledge workers at Facebook. It’s the softwear or instructions that allow users to interact or more importantly format information into a readable and interact able design (website). It’s customizable  within formats to allow the user(s) to have their contacts, friends, relatives, likes and dislikes organized for easy viewing and feedback. Facebook doesn’t build hardware like computers and smartphones. Facebook just arranges electrons in a way that’s popular to the general public.

This isn’t a new concept,  software isn’t a new concept. If a product can be digitized , it can be bought or sold with out it physically existing.  Did your ever open a video game cartridge to actually see what was in it. Basically circuits to order the electrons of your game console. A floppy disk, just a collection of magnetic pulses, optical disks? the same, just a collection of miniature reflections from a rotating surface to order the electrons by instructions and information read by a light (laser) beam.

Enter the internet, we even don’t need the media anymore, the electrons are passed back and forth by computers now globally connected. Over a period of time, by digitizing,  media formats were laid to rest, photography went digital, now publishing actual print is dying. Music, download is the key word. Even financial,  a swipe or pass of the RFID plastic is all it takes, the obsolete media is paper money and checks. 

  What the winning element is is that the software is a generally accepted user interface.  If a software company can get it right and accepted by the masses, grow and improve the interface, it wins. Popularity makes up a good portion of the value. So does it’s ability to be a place for  advertisements and ripe for data mining of it’s customers.

How much are we willing to pay for the orderly arrangement of electrons? Time will tell, maybe the next consideration won’t be what OS (Operating System)  you’ll have on your digital device but what AI system you’ll have.

Rotating hearts LED display

“An unique gift for any romantic occasion” reads the advertisement from Ramseykits.com. It’s been a while since I built a hobby kit and the last one I built  years ago was the Flashing LED Sweetheart. This year the Rotating Hearts LED display was ordered. It’s a CANA kit, made in Canada and for $29.95 seemed slightly expensive over the $6.95  Flashing LED Sweetheart, but it has 2 double sided  circuit boards, 46 LEDs, and an assortment of resistors, transistors and capacitors.

Lets take a look:

 

 

You’ll need a soldering iron, rosin core solder (I can’t believe how expensive solder is now) , a set of nippers for clipping the leads flush to the boards, a small place to work and good lighting to identify the marking of the components, such as the color bands on the resistors.

The Rotating Hearts LED display Cana kit contains 2 instructions sheets. One general assembly guide sheet, and an assembly guide sheet specific to the Rotating Hearts LED display.

The general assembly guide sheet contains info on soldering tips, diagrams and instructions for mounting components, their orientation, and charts for reading component values. 

Unpack the kit and sort out the components, read through the instructions sheets before starting.

The circuit boards are  well laid out and marked for proper placement of components. Observe closely the parts that are polarity sensitive to avoid damaging them or resulting in inoperative results.

The assembly guide gives you the order to install components and as in the General assembly guide specific diagrams on component placement.

 

Neatness counts, avoid solder bridges and cut off the leads close to the board.

 

 

 

Double check all the components ,If all goes well when you apply power it should create a moving light display,

the speed adjustable through a trimmer potentiometer.

 

Kit building is fun and if you interested in electronics, educational. This Cana kit provides a schematic but no theory of operation.

The small parts and small solder pads gives you exercise of manual dexterity and if needed, troubleshooting skills.

Assembling kits also can make handmade gift that is special.

This Cana kit  provides a power jack for a wall wart power supply but I used a 9 volt battery for now.

Ramseykits.com has a wide assortment of kits and electronics.  

After the Valentine chocolates, flowers and dinner fade away, two hearts remain.

A cloud for my recipe collection?

Pepperplate is a web based recipe app storage. Now probably I’ll get to store and index all the recipes I like while  browsing the internet

or picking up my emails, twitter feeds  etc.

Pepperplate manages your recipes by allowing you to Import and edit recipes from the most “popular recipe sites”  by simply pasting a URL.

If that fav food site or blog of yours is not supported, you will have to either type in the recipe or do a cut and paste.

The manual entry screens are divided into fields that you  add the recipe text.

Enter the recipe screen by screen, Ingredients, instructions, notes and other.

 

Once you get the recipe entered, edit the recipe title to get this screen where you can add images etc.

Some fields didn’t seem to save the text, like the URL field, so I cut and pasted it into the “Notes” area.

Some recipes I just added a title, which is the only required info, and pasted the URL into the note area.

Now when I bring up the recipe from the index I can go to the URL and get the recipe.

So now I started with an index of 10 recipes

As far as I can see just by cutting and pasting from emails or web sites, Pepperplate formats

the recipe into this type of display if, you paste it into the correct fields.

There are other functions such as a menu grouping,  calendar planner, and shopping list that

automatically list the ingredient and groups them for a list.

Included is the familiar print , share and fav tagging functions and a sliding widget for scaling up

or down the ingredients amounts.

So far I’ve spent a bit of time entering 10 recipes, some full and some just URLs.

Since I’m not the fastest typist  Pepperplate seems to fit the bill so far.

With a huge amount of stored recipes on my system in the form of emails,

bookmarks, and saved URLS, hopefully Pepperplate will make them more accessible once

I take the time to get all of them in the cloud.

I had thought of just storing recipes and tagging them in this  blog, but I only post recipes I

have cooked and photographed . Being Web based, Pepperplate could add enhancements

like the possibility to change skins.

And if you have a mobile device the Pepperplate apps can:  

• Carry your shopping list with you and add to it in store with your recipe collection (no internet connection required).
• Monitor cooking time without being tied to the kitchen.
• Track and update timers remotely.

 

 

 

 

 

Pepperplate sure beats looking in more than one place on my computer or using a search function for a recipe I want to make.

Most likely one day I’ll have a mobile device so my recipe collection will be more like an E-book which is more functional

in the kitchen.

Pete

http://www.pepperplate.com/

It only requires an email address and password to register

apple- America-and-a-squeezed-middle-class

This is mostly a food blog , but sometimes a tech article I read on-line sparks my attention.

and now the news from the current political elections is un-escapable for the most part

 How U.S. Lost Out on IPhone Work

NY Times, Business Day ,The Economy

By CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER

Published: January 21, 2012

my comments:

Asia is the leader of large scale manufacturing. This

article focuses on the electronics industry.

notes:

“Companies once felt an obligation to support American

workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,”

said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor

Department until last September. “That’s disappeared.

Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”

(a)this was creating jobs for the sake of creating jobs.

 

    "…a current Apple executive said. “We don’t have an

obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only

obligation is making the best product possible.”
(b)this is  focusing on making a product, not influenced by political distractions

…

    "For technology companies, the cost of labor is

minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and

managing supply chains that bring together components

and services from hundreds of companies. For Mr. Cook,

the focus on Asia “came down to two things,” said one

former high-ranking Apple executive. Factories in Asia

“can scale up and down faster” and “Asian supply chains

have surpassed what’s in the U.S.” The result is that

“we can’t compete at this point,” the executive said. "

    "Another critical advantage for Apple was that China

provided engineers at a scale the United States could

not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about

8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and

guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually

involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s

analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine

months to find that many qualified engineers in the

United States. In China, it took 15 days. "
(c)Other countries are set up demographically and geographically to make efficient use of manufacturing

supply chains and labor for mass production in shorter time spans. They have the resources and control

mastered.

 

Other governments support and motivate a national pride towards production and manufacturing versus individual

financial gain (very debatable) and have the qualified work force ready.   Some governments are better at a

growing a service economy.

It seems that Asia is the only place to build fast moving (changing technology) products in great numbers at a price that makes

them affordable.

What does that leave us, the U.S. ? In the technical field; programming? software development?

So here is a follow up question , if you will: Multiple choice, no correct answer(s) at this time

What is the United States better suited at producing?
What ones will grow or shrink or remain the same?
(a) legal professionals
(b) Doctors
(c) political parties/ politicians
(d) health care systems
(e) financial/credit systems
(f) welfare systems
(g) an up to date infrastructure
(h) discourse
(i) non-profit organizations and exemptions(too many to list)
(j) Research and development
(k) Political Action Committees
(l) an affordable education system
(m) a chaotic tax code (AKA red tape)
(n) regulations
(o) benefit packages
(n) small businesses/manufacturing
(p) artistic expression
(q) agriculture
(r) defense/law enforcement

(s) computer programming/servicing/software development

add your own

I’m  poking fun at the USA, this is who we are. A diverse culture. Asia has it’s problems too, and no telling where they will be after 15-20 years.

No doubt though that hobbies should be encouraged as they were in past. They are the first step in education of the trades.

Have they been displaced by dismissing them as nonsense as they have no social redeeming value? Personally speaking, a home with out a work bench is not a home.

The Kodak Moment that didn’t develop (yet)

http://business.time.com/2012/01/20/in-kodak-bankruptcy-another-casualty-of-the-digital-revolution/#ixzz1jynCGLwu

 

 

There have been many articles posted on the internet about the filing of Bankruptcy by Kodak, I have read a few and here are some of my comments:

   WHY?

• too iconic, “Kodak” was always associated with photographic film technology, at least to the average consumer.
• businesses that don’t take into account the value of internet feedback and it’s ability to bypass the word of mouth recommendations to buy a product. For instance a purchase decision influenced by online reviews rather a recommendation of a friend or family member. The ability through on-line social networking to get the opinions of experts and many users to weigh a decision BOTH on a purchase and a business practice (bank fees)
• Realize that if a current product,  a sale, or a service can be digitized, (audio,video, text) and accessed by a internet connection,creation and/or distribution can be radically altered and time lines shrunk. Example : books, E-readers, personal publishing, movie streaming, downloading audio. The On-demand generation ?

 

In the same realm, here an article about big box retailers:

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/01/sears_and_kmart_how_the_great_recession_may_have_killed_big_box_chains_forever_.html

Will the following increase, decrease, or remain the same?

• Ordering or receiving a product to your door by the internet (or even by mail order or phone) vs. a Brick and Mortar  purchase. 
• A consumer custom designs  a product or service to his/her preference via computer and internet.

Walkman E464

Note: I haven’t anything to compare this to other than the Creative ZEN as a portable storage mobile device  and don’t use ITunes or a smart phone.

                 One of the gifts that I had a choice to receive, through an awards program with my employer for 10 years service, was a Sony Walkman. The Creative 5 gig mp3 player I previously used did not want to hold a charge despite having replaced the battery.  I liked all the features and capabilities of the Creative Zen player but I couldn’t pass up a chance for this free replacement.

                 The Walkman NWZ-E464 is not what considered state of the art, no touch screen or even WI-FI capabilities but It does have video playback  and color screen (320×240) something the Zen (gray scale LCD) did not. The accompanying software is loaded on the player so no disk/CD is included. It’s not necessary to use the Media GO software as the Walkman shows up on Win XP once It’s connected by the supplied USB  data/charging cable.

 

                The Media Go is another playlist manager import/export styled software suited for the Walkman.  The Sony Media go software has an analytical feature called SensME Channels which I didn’t use at first. In addition to the usual ability  to bookmark and index songs\video by playlist the SensMe analyses songs according to a “12 Tone Analysis” and places them in one (or more than one) SensMe channels. 

 

List of channels

Channel    Description

[Morning]  Plays music for various times of the day.

[Daytime]

[Evening]

[Night]

[Midnight]

(These automatically change with the time)

[Shuffle All]  Plays all songs in random order.

[Energetic]  Plays up-tempo and high-energy music.

[Relax]  Plays calm and relaxing music.

[Upbeat] Plays cheerful and uplifting music.

[Mellow] Plays soft and slow-tempo music.

[Lounge] Plays jazz and easy listening music.

[Emotional]Plays ballads.

[Dance] Plays rhythm, rap and R & B music.

[Extreme] Plays loud and powerful music.

With a 8 gig capacity this type of analysis can be useful to divide up your music if you don’t want to manually place every song in a playlist or edit the properties of each selection. Media Go analytics gives you a Tempo and Mood rating for each song.

The software does have the ability to sync with Gracenote media database if you are  connected to the internet to download track information if you want and album graphics covers if you don’t want to manually enter the info. There are many fields in the database properties where you can enter much information. It’s also possible to import and manually add lyrics for a Karaoke style playback option.

The Walkman also has an FM Radio tuner, a voice recorder function, sleep and alarm timer,and many settings for each function. One function I miss from the Zen is the ability to directly record from the FM radio tuner which allowed you to create your own mix file from recorded audio from the FM Tuner. (back in the day we used cassette recorders and the like to record audio from the radio\records\TV  and made mix tapes “for our own personal use”)  Now with software such as Sound Engine, Audacity, etc. it’s all done digitally. A recorded sound/video file can be edited on your computer, leaving out the commercials, then exported  from your computer and stored on the Walkman, if you prefer the small screen and need portable video. 

The supplied Ear buds, come with small medium and large adapters to use according to the size of your ears.

The sound quality, is only as good as the source, and the Walkman E464 supports many file types and bit rate and sampling  settings. The Media Go software can rip CDs. With the maximum bit rate and sampling settings the sound is as good as it gets. Of course if you have the proper cable and stereo amplification equipment you can use the Walkman as a source and hear your tunes through traditional speakers. Even though the ear buds give you decent sound, in my opinion, nothing can replicate the sensation  and sound of speakers moving air and the feel of the low end of frequencies, and the  heterodyning caused by room acoustics . Over the years I have used earphones when private listening or music monitoring was required, but with the shrinking size of portable media devices it would be impractical to carry around earphones (Koss pro4a) with the Walkman. Earphones and ear buds give a totally different sound by my standards, the acoustics are totally different. Since no one carries boom boxes any more it’s a trade of having all your music with you in such a small package. Ear buds are OK, I’ll have to get used to them, and if you wear hearing  protection at your job having ear buds for listening is something else you have to jam in your ears.

Having been looking frequently for a replacement to the Zen player and it being on the back burner, the Walkman fits the bill and the price was right! I can slip it in my pocket with the ear buds easily and the battery life is excellent so far.

Real time blogging?

12/24/2011

Tiny Chat is a real time audio/video streaming 2 way conference type website. Having a broadband connection and camera enabled computer (I don’t know if this is available for mobile devices, yet) it’s possible to have a live audio/video interactive feed in a chat room setting with your friends. The technology is not really new but the fact that broadband connections are becoming more common nowadays allows more households to participate and collaborate on projects.

computer, broadband and network access, Renee Metro

Is this the future of cooking programs?

Face Book Time Line

face book time line,  (mine is going live tomorrow), has more of a Blog look to it ,as most Blogs are laid out chronologically.  Most of my old photographs etc.  are located there, but the main food and recipes postings will be here at WordPress. One of my New Years Resolutions will to be add more old pictures/recipes at both sites.

Toyota headlamps

Both headlamps were installed and fit the vehicle. The details follows for a 1993 Camry.

Plastic headlamps (and other vehicle lamps) are a problem as they age, they get cloudy, and have moisture problems and UV  exposure make them brittle and prone to cracking and breaking. There are many remedies available that claim to restore the the lenses but they can be expensive and the lens cleaning may not last. If you provide the labor, installing new replacements is the best way to go.

Here is some advice when dealing with an aged vehicle, there are a few things that you should consider: ( I did not have a repair manual available)

Before even staring the job, unpack and check the new replacement  headlamps to make sure they are the correct replacements and see how they  mount. Beforehand, check how the headlamps are attached to the vehicle, what type of hardware is used and what size  and type of wrenches/tools will be needed. The vehicle may have been worked on before and when replacing exterior hardware, such as headlamps, the fit may be difficult or mixed or improper mounting hardware may have been used. On an aged vehicle rust can be a problem, the day beforehand it is recommended that penetrant (WD40 or liquid wrench) be applied to the places where the headlamps are bolted in. Before replacement, insure that the headlamps are properly functioning ,electrical problems should be corrected before replacement. Get an idea of how they are aimed, there are various methods to check alignment. Check the connectors and wiring harness for damage, oxidation, fraying etc. The headlamps that I purchased included the bulbs, so it would be a simple matter of plugging in the electrical connections. Some mounting hardware (bolts, screws) may snap or the heads of screws strip or rust out. Have a drill with small bits available to drill them out. You can re-tap the holes if you have proper taps, either metric or SAE and have the correct replacement hardware, or nut and bolt the drilled out mounting location. Plug in the headlamp electrical connections first and test them, then finish bolting them in place. Alignment varies with the type of headlamp there are usually two axis  of adjustment. Other note, If the gas struts that hold the hood up are worn, prop up the hood, in this case I used the grille that had to be removed for the headlights to be replaced!

Old lamps

New Replacements

Now, my wife is satisfied with the results, she can see much better at night. Next will be replacement of the front side maker lamps (Toyota) and the headlights on the Topaz .

windows live writer

As with everything else, downloading apps is the standard practice these days, which is about the same as installing software instead it’s function may be associated with a particular program. Puttering around wordpress.com and checking out recommended apps, windows live writer was on the list. At first look it appeared to be a fancy HTML editor/composer but what the heck I could always uninstall it if I found it to be unnecessary. One of the points of the live windows live writer (why does the word “live” seems to be a favorite buzzword now for titles ) is that you can write up and post directly to your blog, simple if it’s on the list, otherwise If you post to an off beat blog you have to supply a URL address so it seems. Down loading BTW prompts you to download other windows (live) items which I unchecked.

I’ve always at one time or another used a HTML composer editor  that being, I could whip up a quick page using the email composer of Netscape 7.1 or it’s html composer and cut and paste into a blog or website.windows live writer  has most of the bells and whistles you need without being too heavy. Some of it’s strong points are the ability to save drafts locally, off line composing, and the direct line connection with your blog that imports certain elements of your blog editing capabilities and feel. When I switch from wordpress to live journal in windows live writer, it even uses some elements of the theme, background colors etc. Another point is that you have a dedicated window for all the composing/editing chores that I find sometimes is difficult to do in your blogs cloud because of the limited size of the editing window, all the ancillary menus and dashboard controls take up screen space. Also editing and/or correcting or reposting within your blog, say a large post with graphics, is cumbersome  because of the large amount of info you have to navigate through within a limited size editing window.  If you have a slow connection, at times the text/graphics may stutter or drag while your typing away, the effect of going back and forth between the cloud of your blog. If you want to update or edit a previous blog posting in windows live writer, pull up the published blog, edit,  and simply re publish and the blog is updated, something that is not readily noted. (if the draft is used it may publish a duplicate posting though).

 

Getting back to installation, it was flawless and gives you  the standard desktop icon to launch windows live writer as needed. One thing is that you are prompted to supply your blogs user name and log in info so it can integrate with the blog. Once  live writer downloads the editing elements of your blog is done, you only need to log in to your blog through live writer when you hit the publishing button.

I haven’t used  windows live writer long enough to test all of it’s features, if indeed i need them, but overall it’s a plus for  me by being able to compose off line in a large scalable window , have all the necessary editing elements (including easy graphics editing property features) and the ability to save and/or auto save drafts offline (local) and save\auto save drafts to your blog site, for  “when i get around to it” finishing of your postings.

Surprised, no buttons for facebook/twitter posting though I have that feature through my blogs.

LiveJournal Tags: windows,test