The 4th D

DP World, I been sitting back and watching the flap over DP World managing several U.S. ports. In addition to that DP just announced this little gem:
http://www.dpiterminals.com/mainpages.asp?PSID=1
This should heat things up even more.

But then again almost everything we buy is made outside of the United States. Just the other day I went shopping and after I came back home the though occurred to me to look and see where each item was made. Yes they had names of U.S. based companies but none of the products were made in the U.S. An energy saving lamp being sponsored by and sold at less than normal prices by the former Governor Cody of New Jersey was made in China. The Energizer ‘bunny’ batteries were made in Japan. A Fruit of the Loom sweat shirt was made in Honduras. A Jerzees brand T-shirt made in Honduras. Another brand of T-shirt was made in Nicaragua. The Master Lock for my shed was assembled in Mexico.

So with these and a whole host of other products made everywhere but in the U.S.A., doesn’t make sense to have foreign company such as Dubai run the ports that import all these foreign made goods or does it?

Three D’s

I heard it on the news, all within the last three days.

Don Knots:
Don Knotts, TV's Barney Fife, Dies at 81
http://entertainment.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=216727

Dennis Weaver:
Dennis "McCloud" Weaver dies at 81
http://www.star-ecentral.com/tvnradio/tracks/tracks.asp?file=archives/tracks/2006/2/28DennisMcCl&date=2/28/2006

Darin McGavin:
Darin “Kolchak” McGavin dies at 83
http://www.spielbergfilms.com/news022606b.html

Will your digital photos still be around for your grandchildren?

Recently there was a discussion of the quality of film versus digital media on PC World’s blog site: http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/001323.html

I have been using film cameras and computers since the 1960’s and here is my insight on this issue.

Let see now, you bought that great top of the line digital camera, stored the photos on the best quality CD/DVD money can buy and let’s say the CD/DVD is still good 50 years from now.

I still have a 35mm camera I bought in the early 70’s; I also have paper tape used to load Fortran (a popular programming language in the 70’s, all but dead now) on an early computer, guess which of these items still works. I have a slightly newer model camera from around 1980 and 8 inch floppy disks, again guess which of these items still works. I bought a still newer camera about the time 5.25 floppies were popular, I use the boxes from the 5.25 floppies to store my CD-R(s) in.

The point is that all my old digital media is all but useless just like that CD/DVD will be when your grandchildren try to find a device to load and read today’s digital storage media. Will film be surpassed in quality, most certainly? Will we be able to use what we stored from that digital camera 50 years from now is the big question.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today we celebrate the life, times and dreams of Martin Luther King. But let me start by going back a few years to when John F. Kennedy was killed. Every year for a long time on the anniversary of JFK’s dead the media would ask if you remembered where your where when you heard the news that Kennedy was killed. My answer is yes, I can still remember where I was driving in my car and most likely can still mark the spot on the road to within a few feet when I heard the news on the car radio.

I have never heard this question asked about MLK’s death. No I can not remember where I was at the time, but I can remember with perfect clarity what went through my mind when I heard the news.

Imagine if you will a room with no furniture. In the center of the room towards the back wall is a single candle, it’s light illuminating the walls and ceiling. Slowly the flame starts to go out, it’s light receding back towards the candle, the walls nearest you slowly getting darker as the flame grows smaller. Smaller and smaller the flame becomes, as if in slow motion the light in the room seams to be going in toward the candle as the walls get darker. The flame finally goes out and the room is now totally dark, with nothing visible to your eyes.

That was the moment in time when I heard that Martin Luther King, Jr. had died.

Re-Bloging

In my January 2005 blog I mentioned outsourcing, so just like re-gifting I'll repost my old blog with a small update (new gift rap).

Outsourcing Is Bad

There are a number of companies that believe that Outsourcing is the key to profitability and the cure for all ills. If fact, the ideal goal would be to outsource all U.S. based jobs to countries with significantly lower wage rates. The logic would be that with no employees to pay, except for a privileged few, there would be nearly infinite profit.

But wait, with no employed U.S. citizens, who would have any money to buy their products, certainly not the people employed at their outsource locations as they are paid too low of a wage to afford what they make.

Think this is all a bad joke, take a look around your house and see how many item you own that are still made in the United States. Oh sure the name may be that of a company based here, but where is the item actual made?

For my money any company that outsourcers more than 50% of there product or gross earnings should not longer be considered U.S. based and therefore are subject to tariffs and other trade restrictions so as to truly level the playing field.

Fair Trade

2006 - GM and its parts suppliers are now in deep trouble, what was once known as 'The Big Three' auto makers may be in a short time mean a group of football teams, not U.S. auto makers.