Time zones

Well, it turns out we didn't get up an hour early -- the train is an hour or so late. Amtrak may be able to make up some of that time, so our layover in Chicago won't be shorten by much.

Ohio

I woke up in Toledo, Ohio this morning. Sleeping on a train isn't unlike sleeping on a war ship -- plenty of noise and motion. I slept reasonably well, so I'm well-rested this morning.

We didn't account for the time zone change, so we got up an hour early, but that's okay because it helps beat the breakfast rush at the dining car.

This is what it all looks like when the lower seats are extended, and the top bunk is lowered. It's just about time to hit the rack!

Verizon BroadbandAccess (again)

I continue to be happy with the Verizon BroadbandAccess service. I wish it were more affordable, but it certainly does work. I'm looking out the window of an Amtrak sleeper car, while downloading email and writing this blog entry, maintaining good connectivity as we go.

Emily remarked that I have now entered the "have all the toys" category, since I finally have a personal cellular telephone (after having a work cell phone off and on for nearly twenty years).

What's next on the technology horizon?

Departure

Well, we're on our way to Montana. We got out of the house about 1320, and arrived at Union Station at 1400. I took the truck back to the office, then took the Metro to Union Station to meet up with Lorraine, Emily, and Joe.

The train left on time at 1605, so we're off to Chicago.

Lorraine in her seat. My seat faced hers; both folded down to make the lower bunk. The upper bunk is triced up, and out of view in this photograph.

Pretty cool, eh?

Pretty exciting! We're moments away from getting settled in our compartments....

The beginning....

We're packed, and our bags are checked through to East Glacier Park, MT.

We're in the lounge at Union Station, waiting for our train.

I dropped Lorraine, Emily, and Joe at the station, then drove back to Arlington to park the truck (and, as I would learn in a few weeks, leave the overhead light on!).

The pack-out....

And it's all got to fit in my pack?

Summer heat

We're back into a string of Code Orange "unhealthful air" days here in our Nation's Capital again. Hazy, hot, and humid are the watch words in July and August, and this year is no exception. It looks like we're getting record highs both here and in the Pacific Northwest. I'm hoping that the weather moderates significantly before we arrive in Oregon and Washington.

Verizon Wireless and the Gateway CX210X

I've had the Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess service several weeks now, and I'm increasingly pleased with the performance of the system.

I'd been having problems with Internet Explorer 7 (running on Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium) that, at first, seemed exacerbated by the use of the PC5750 air card. After getting "on the air", I was having problems either opening IE7 at all, or after getting an instance up and running, subsequent use of that instance or starting additional instances would fail to completely open. The process would be started (as evidenced in Task Manager), but the window would fail to open. I noticed that during shutdown, all the windows would open (just before they closed to perform the shutdown). That led me to believe that some process was interfering with the initialization process for IE7.

After some detective work (okay, it was really "easter egging" -- getting into a situation where the problem was occurring, then terminating processes one by one until the problem cleared up), I was able to determine that Google Desktop was the culprit. For some reason, the unconfigured Google Desktop was intermittently interfering with IE7. To properly configure Google Desktop, I had to uninstall it, then reinstall and configure. I got the impression that there were still a few issues that had to be worked out between Google and Microsoft Windows Vista.

Anyway, everything seems to be working okay.

Rhue Hollow

We closed on the Rhue Hollow Road house on Thursday. I had a chance to stop by and see the house after we finished with the closing, and it's even better than it shows in the photographs.

Nelson County will be an interesting place to live. It's funny that Nelson County has fewer traffic lights (one!) than Inuvik, NT.

Gateway

I've been intrigued by tablet computers since they came out on the market. I liked the form factor, the portability, the ability to hand-write notes and have them converted to other forms, and so on. I was concerned about being an "early adopter" of technology that I perceived needed some time to "mature", so I held off. Held off, that is, until about two weeks ago.

I had shopped around at a few integrators (e.g., Gateway, HP, Mobile Computing, Panasonic) to see what features were available and to see what trade-offs were necessary to get something like what I wanted. I've had very good luck with Gateway over the last fifteen years, so was a little biased, but tried not to let that bias affect the selection.

After the research and shopping, I decided to go with the Gateway CX210X, which coincidentally had promotional pricing at the time I was ready to make a decision. I upgraded almost everything to get as much performance as I could. I learned that dealing with a salesperson by phone was better than shopping solely online because the salesperson could make last minute price "adjustments" to provide an even better deal (in my case, the price was reduced an additional $200, well worth the time of a phone call).

I placed the phone order on 3 June 2007, and was told the machine would be at the house before 3 July 2007. I figured that it wouldn't really take a whole month to arrive, but since I wasn't in a hurry, it didn't matter much. I checked back on the order over the next couple of days, and learned that all the parts were available, and that my order was queued for "manufacture" (really just integration, since all the parts are built somewhere else). I was surprised to learn that just a few days later the finished machine was shipped from Shanghai via Federal Express. I didn't have a sense for how long it might take for the computer to arrive, so I was amazed to learn that Federal Express had attempted delivery at the house on Friday, 8 June 2007. Fortunately, Federal Express is open until 2000, so I was able to stop by the house to grab the door tag and head over to pick up the computer.

So, the story went from a phone order to having the computer arrive at the house in about five days. Pretty amazing. And, after all that, I really like the computer. I've started to configure it with all the programs I like, with a special focus on mapping (GIS) and radio communication (e.g., radio control, APRS™). More on those configuration decisions later.

Astronaut's arrest tests NASA's mettle - CNN.com

Wow, is this bad news. A Navy Captain (sigh), a Navy Commander, and an Air Force Captain all wrapped up in this little story. It will be interesting to watch this play out.

Astronaut's arrest tests NASA's mettle - CNN.com

Anna Nicole Smith Is Found Dead in Florida - New York Times

Anna Nicole Smith nee Vickie Lynn Hogan (1967-2007): Media Icon. RIP.

Anna Nicole Smith Is Found Dead in Florida - New York Times

James Madison, Gun Nut (continued)

And there's more discussion of James Madison here.

James Madison, Gun Nut

I found this interesting post over at The Volokh Conspiracy (scroll down or search for "James Madison"). I suspect we'll see a lot more of this kind of good research over the next two years.

Gun Control Group Takes Aim at Redskins Sport Shooting Event -- 10/10/2006

I suspect that Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder won't be cancelling the upcoming "Redskins Sporting Clays Challenge"despite the dismay expressed by the District of Columbia chapter of the Million Mom March. See Meghan Mulhern's piece about this controversy at: Gun Control Group Takes Aim at Redskins Sport Shooting Event -- 10/10/2006

Ladd Everitt is the president of the D.C. Million Mom March.

"Repealing our gun laws would lead to more homicides, more accidental deaths by firearms, more suicides, basically more gun violence across the board by all causes. That is why we are opposing this event," said Everitt.

Mr. Everitt assumes a causal relationship between "gun laws" and homicides: the implication here is that "gun laws" prevent (or reduce the incidence of) homicides (think of the correlation between traffic laws and the incidence of vehicular manslaughter -- any connection?). Means, motive, and opportunity: "gun laws" haven't affected means, and can't be expected to have an impact (one way or the other) on motive or opportunity.

DC "gun laws" (D.C. Code 2001 ed. secs. 22-4501 et seq. and D.C. Code 2001 ed. secs. 7-2501.01 et seq.) are among the most restrictive in the nation. These "gun laws" haven't had the intended effect on the District of Columbia "body count" (up-to-date Metropolitan Police Department statistics available here). The U.S. Congress and DC Government have tried the gun control approach, and that hasn't produced the expected / promised results (a safer District of Columbia).

The "we need more vigorous gun control" argument is a emotion-driven side-show that has distracted the public consciousness from the underlying reasons behind the District's crime statistics: poverty, drug abuse, "nonmarital births", education, and so on. Let's try focusing attention on the causes of crime and get ahead of this problem instead of sitting around fretting about the results.

The people who are committing crimes in the District of Columbia that involve firearms are already violating numerous statutes (including the "gun laws"). Should we have even tougher "drug laws"? Could we have even tougher "drug laws"? Would any of that help? Cut down on drug crime...that'll cut down on crimes that involve firearms.

Would there be more accidental deaths as a result of realigning the "gun laws" of the District of Columbia to better conform with the rest of the United States? Perhaps; any time you put a device (such as an automobile or a firearm) that can cause death and injury in the hands of the general public, bad things will happen. Education and training will help reduce the incidence of bad things; I'll assert (without proof) that legislation will have a negligible impact. Legislation can't be expected to reduce the incidence of negligent discharge (you can't legislate against stupidity any more than you can legislate for morality), so if you have additional firearms and ammunition in the hands of the uneducated / untrained, you'll have an increase in accidental deaths.

Suicides aren't caused by guns; they may be facilitated by guns, but they can't possibly be caused by guns. For this reason, liberalization of the DC "gun laws" can't be expected to cause an increase in the rate of suicide in the District of Columbia. Having said that, don't be surprised if the proportion of suicides effected by handguns to go up in the face of liberalized "gun laws", but don't expect the overall numbers to go up. There are a lot of factors that spur someone to "check out of the program", but the availability of handguns isn't one of them.

And finally, I come to "...basically more gun violence across the board by all causes". This is the "kitchen sink" part of the argument. Liberalizing the laws of the District of Columbia to permit law-abiding citizens (who aren't part of the crime problem today, and aren't likely to be part of the crime problem in the future) to keep and bear handguns and other firearms can't be expected to increase the incidence of "gun violence across the board by all causes". This argument would have you believe that an otherwise law-abiding citizen is more likely to cause a crime simply by the act of owning a gun. That just doesn't make sense.

I urge the members of the District of Columbia chapter of the Million Mom March to invest time in the DC Government (reform the tax code, significantly reduce "overhead", and attract industry back to the District to provide needed jobs), fix the DC school system, get involved with the youth of the District of Columbia, and establish and maintain an effective Neighborhood Watch program. This kind of activism will have a much longer and broader impact than a demonstration at any sporting event (though it might not generate the same kind of headlines).

Second Annual "FIrearms Law & The Second Amendment Symposium"

I went to a great Second Amendment symposium today at George Mason University Law School in Arlington. I'm fascinated by the U.S. Constitution, and always look forward to opportunities to learn more. The speakers were great, and it was an interesting crowd with plenty of thoughful questions. I'd didn't do a head count, but I'd guess there were about 150 people attending the event. I'm looking forward to next year's symposium....