Gimoblog

It's Independence Day (July 4th) here in the U.S. I have been listening to all the programs, news items, and other material about the country and it has brought back my thoughts about a National Language for the U.S. Unlike a lot of countries, we don't have one. English is the predominant language, but not the official one. I think English should be the official language of the country.

Let me pause for a moment and state that I am all for bilingualism. My kids are fluent in English and Spanish and I think it's a great thing. I'm also all for celebrating your heritage. It's great that your relatives are from this country or that country. But, after a couple of centuries, don't you think it's about time to say you're an American and not Italian or polish or African or . . . For most people in the U.S. their heritage is no more from that country or continent than it is from the moon. Just because you enjoy pizza, doesn't mean you are celebrating your Italian heritage. You are Americans, period.

OK, so let's say your ties to another country are a little more recent. Say you or your father or mother decided to some to the U.S. for whatever reason. You are still natives of whatever country you came from, but when you come to the U.S. -- primarily for economic reasons -- learn the language.

I don't have a problem when any business or group decides to conduct their business in a foreign language. For example, when I drive through the Korean part of town and see shops with their signs in Korean, don't resent it. I just don't stop. These shopkeepers have chosen, because of their use of the language on their signs, to not do business with me and that is just fine.

What I DO object to is schools and other tax supported institutions having to spend millions of MY tax dollars printing things in foreign languages and dealing with people who don't learn the language. This affects me directly and I think it should stop. If you wish to do business with the U.S. government and take advantage of programs which it supplies, learn the language! I don't like seeing dollars which might be spent to benefit my children, used for printing in multiple languages just because you do not want to learn the language.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008

Hands-Free Cell Phones in Cars

A new law goes into effect in California July 1st -- you must use a hands-free device when talking on your cell phone while driving and teenaged drivers are not allowed to use cell phone at all. It's a pretty good idea. People are very distracted by cell phones. I once saw a woman talking on one cell phone and dialing another while driving. The question is driving with what!? I suppose she could be steering with here knees. I don't want to think about any other part of her anatomy being used to steer and letting go of the steering wheel completely is unthinkable.

With the new law coming into effect, I decided to do an informal survey of people driving on my way into work. Today, I didn't see that many people on cell phones -- just one or two. Of course, I come into work rather early and, perhaps they didn't want to disturb their co-workers, family and friends at that hour. I did see one woman applying eye make up while traveling at least 65 miles per hour. And one gentleman was looking something up in a notebook. Presumably, they were just as distracted as anyone else on a cell phone.

Fri, 13 Jun 2008

99 Bottles . . .

Yesterday, we drove over and spent the day in San Francisco. On the way home, my kids decided to sing and, for the first time in my life, I heard 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall sung in its entirety. Considering that I'm an old guy, that's pretty impressive. The three of them did it in about 15-20 minutes and well sung, I might add.

They might have made it because they weren't actually taking the beer off the wall . . .

Mon, 09 Jun 2008

Meals on Wheels

What an unfortunate combination. Both food and fuel are going up and these programs are, quite naturally, suffering from the effects. Food costs are causing some programs to cut down on the number of meals they deliver or the type of food that they include in these meals. The cost of fuel is causing some programs to deliver a hot meal once a week along with four other frozen ones for the rest of the week. Yes, you noticed that is only 5 meals. Seniors have to fend for themselves on the weekend.

And the cost of basics is affecting all charities through their donations. Donors have less to give after taking care of their own necessities. You really wonder what will become of the nation as these pressures continue to put the squeeze on all of us.

Thu, 05 Jun 2008

Antimater

I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but I have thought periodically about the word

If, when you repeat something you say it again, the first time you say it do you peat it?

OK, that's pretty silly, but I wondered, so, tonight, I looked it up (on line, of course). At the Merrian-Webster site the Etymology is:

Middle English repeten, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French repeter, from Old French, from Latin repetere to return to, repeat, from re- + petere to go to, seek

OK, so it's to go to or seek, originally. I guess by some stretch, I can see that one. It's definitely better than peat which we know is

partially carbonized vegetable tissue formed by partial decomposition in water of various plants

Mon, 12 May 2008

Back At It

It's Monday. Do I have to say more? I'm back at work after spending last week at JavaOne in San Francisco. Things are going well. Same old stuff with the daily grind. Doesn't even really seem like I have been gone. All that technology and I'm right back where I was when it all started. I do have some new ideas. Now the only issue is seeing if I have the time and energy to actually try to implement some of them. Different tools (NetBeans vs. Eclipse), new languages (Ruby vs. Java), new thoughts. All dragged down by the reality of the day-to-day.

Fri, 18 Apr 2008

Accumulated Thoughts

Pfizer, the large drug company, recently reported their quarterly profits -- they're down. But don't feel too sorry for them. They're down to 2.78 Billion (yes, that's a "B").

Yamaha has a $45,000 player piano which connects to the Internet. You can download music of all types to have the piano play. But you may not be around to hear it since you will be spending all your time making the money for the payments.

I saw an interesting image the other day while driving home. It was a young man on a bicycle with a skateboard tied to his back. Sort of the long and short of human-powered transportation.

Heard the results of an interesting study which found that marriages seem to work better when the man is uglier than his wife. Nothing particular to say about this.

Jose Zapatero has appointed a cabinet with is majority female -- including a female defense minister who is seven months pregnant. I think this is wonderful. It is mothers who are very affected by war as they have to send their sons and daughters off to not have them come back. Good move Jose!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008

More on Greed . . .

I have written here about greed before as, perhaps, the major problem in the world today. I am not, of course, the first person to think this way. I heard an interesting factoid earlier in the week. The reference to the almighty dollar is actually from Washington Irving, the noted author:

Washington Irving (1783–1859), U.S. author. Wolfert’s Roost, “The Creole Village,” (1855).

Mr. Irving, is certainly not the first author to comment on greed as the foundation of many of the evils which plague our world.

O you who believe! Lo! many of the (Jewish) rabbis and the (Christian) monks devour the wealth of mankind wantonly and debar (men) from the way of Allah. They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of God, unto them give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom

Quran 9:34

I think that we need to work on the roots of most problems. We tend to focus on the effects of major problems, but really don't address the root causes. This makes us fight a war on drugs which sees one in ten people in the U.S. in jail, most for drug related crimes. We build more prisons while ignoring the basic problems with society which cause people to turn to drugs. We fight an obscene war in Iraq, spending billions each month to support a surge while ignoring the basic problems which cause dictatorships in the first place.

It we turned our attention to the basic greed which drives societies all over the world, we might not have all these problems in the first place.

Sun, 23 Mar 2008

Things . . .

Things are insidious. Copiers are the most obvious example. The likelihood that a copier will fail is directly proportional to the critical nature of the copy you have to make. If you need those copies for a meeting which starts in five minutes, the likelihood of a copier failure approaches certainty. If you don't need them until next week, it will work every time.

This law of nature was brought home to me in the simple use of the fob for opening the doors on my car. If I try to use the fob, it sometimes takes three or four clicks before it will function. But, simply stick it in my pocket or carry it along with an armful of stuff and it will go off at the slightest contact.

I don't worry all that much about terrorism, but I am concerned that things are plotting to drive me crazy!

Sat, 08 Mar 2008

Process to Product . . .

I am involved in developing processes at my company. I am also involved in following many processes. One thing I have noticed is that, often, people who develop processes loose track of the fact that the purpose for processes is to produce something!

I am specifically involved in information technology (IT). There, it seems, processes are either gordian or non-existent. There appears to be very little inbetween.

Most often, it seems, when a process is developed, it is so convoluted and requires so much paperwork, that you end up spending more time documenting than actually doing. Don't get me wrong. I know the benefits of appropriate documentation and process -- the key word being appropriate. But, a 10-minute change to a piece of code should not require hours of meetings and documentation.

The other thought about documentation is that, often, we appear to be documenting for the sake of documenting. I think that documentation needs to capture the

In other words, the documentation should be appropriate to get something done. In the same vein, discussions, meetings, and approvals should be appropriate to assure that the change is the right one in terms of economics and function and can be implemented into the system without undo disruption to the current operation.

Sun, 06 Jul 2008

A National Language