Writing and Technology

Twitter, anyone

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:14:26 GMT

Is anyone else trying twitter for mico-blogging? Really a rather strange little program. Still, it's growing on me.

Stepping out of the Tardis

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:59:58 GMT

I haven't written a blog here is years. Feels good to be back, tho I don't have anything to say right now. Still recovering from a business trip. more soon. - DF

Is anyone out there?

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:13:26 GMT

Haven't posted here in a long time. Anyone still out there? -- DF

Dusting off the cobwebs

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 03:56:54 GMT

October is the proper month to return to cobweb covered haunts. As long as my identity is still secret, I think it's safe to post again. -- DF

Apocalyptic Horseman Rides for High-Tech, US Companies

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 04:32:45 GMT

Ah, the bliss of anonymity. Under my nom de plume of Mephisto's errant student, I can write about most anything without the need to weigh my words for "correctness." For example, I really want to tell my readers about an investment banker forum I recently attended in Silicon Valley. "The women were lovely, the wine was superb" but there was something about the presentations that disturbed me. Most of the high tech company’s presentations said almost nothing meaningful about new products or innovation. Instead, they highlighted the fact that they had laid-off significant numbers of people, close facilities in the US and generally outsourced a great deal of work. They boasted about the low debt level and high level of cash. In other words, they were positioning themselves to be bought by another firm, preferably a foreign power with lots of money like China.

In a time when the US must really assert itself to remain competitive, the model being followed by more and more companies in the high-tech arena is one of being acquired by a foreign power! We are so screwed, folks, it is no longer funny. If the four horsemen of the apocalypse were adapted for modern sensibilities, surely one of them would be a myopic (short-sighted) business riding abreast the horse of greed. But maybe that’s what the apostle John meant when he wrote about, “a black horse, whose rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand, symbolizing famine and economic depression.”

Hmmm….getting that off my chest feels better. Not much, but a little.

Welcome to Doomsday

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 05:04:19 GMT

Welcome to Doomsday
By Bill Moyers
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17852

Where ignorance reins, beliefs will masquerade as wisdom and the masses will confuse their opiate for reality. Those of us who can still think for ourselves must use caution, lest we be discovered and burned as heretics. “By the pricking of my thumb…”

Say, is that a banana in your pocket, or....?

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 04:56:55 GMT

This is just weird:
http://www.bananaguard.com/index.php

Looking for a few good hackers

Sat, 12 Feb 2005 02:53:13 GMT

Found this rather dated (1998) job posting while researching an article.

The National Infrastructure Protection Center is looking for a few good hacker-trackers. The multiagency government group's purpose is to respond to "cyber-attacks," mostly hacker intrusions into government and private-sector computers. Qualifications for the job include outstanding technical expertise -- or counterintelligence and counterterrorism analysis and operations. Fax your r sum and cover letter to Linda McKetney at (202) 324-0311. No e-mail address is given.
http://lists.virus.org/isn-9804/msg00052.html

Interesting thing is that this post occurred before Microsoft and the big boys announced their hiring of known "hackers." If you can't beat them....

Build your own Tardis!

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 05:42:28 GMT

OK, time traveler wannabees; Here are detailed instructions for building a Tardis (Time And Relative Dimension In Space):
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~trekker/policeboxes/myplans.html

Just remember the cardinal rule of time travel; No one gets a second chance to change their past. Those who try lose their sanity, at the very least. The only way to effect the past is by living fully in the present as you travel to the future. No time machine needed, tho a journal does help.

For those who need a little more aid with the physics of time travel, visit this promising site:
http://www.biols.susx.ac.uk/home/John_Gribbin/timetrav.htm#time_travel_possible

Worst day of the year? Why, Jan 24th, of course!

Fri, 21 Jan 2005 17:07:31 GMT

Hmm... who would have guessed? But seems plausible (see below).

Monday, Jan. 24, called worst day of the year
British psychologist calculates 'most depressing day'

LONDON - Is the mid-winter weather wearing you down? Are you sinking in debt after the holidays? Angry with yourself for already breaking your New Year's resolutions? Wish you could crawl back under the covers and not have to face another day of rain, sleet, snow and paperwork? Probably. After all, it's nearly Jan. 24, the "most depressing day of the year," according to a U.K. psychologist.

Dr. Cliff Arnall's calculations show that misery will peak this Monday.

Read full story at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6847012/

One must try new things...

Wed, 05 Jan 2005 05:15:01 GMT

Looks like the on-line, graduate engineering program that I helped start 6 years ago is on its last leg (www.cecs.pdx.edu). Just not enough students. It's a self-supporting program (required by our short sighted state budget cuts), so with too few students, the program can not survive. Damn! The program attracted some of the real giants in the systems engineering profession (e.g., Mar, Blanchard, McKinney). Students came from across the country and outside the US to attend our program. Why, I had students from Canada and Austrialia in my courses. Some courses even attacked wider attention, e.g, a version of my technical risk course is still being taught at the Nat. Security Agency in Baltimore, MD.

Don’t get me wrong; I have no regrets for the time and energy devoted to the program. Above everything else, it was a bold experiment! We were one of the first university programs to enter the world of on-line learning by in the 90’s. Needless to say, there was quite a learning curve for both instructors and students.

Another plus was the growth of my friendship department chair. We still share a wine-and-cigar chat whenever we both can break free from our regular jobs. Plus, most of the material from my risk and hardware-software courses will find a new home in my Elsevier Press book (supposed to be finished by this April – which means I have many, MANY, long nights ahead of me).

One must try new things, even if their star will only blaze for a short time. Guess the Sword of Damocles swings for both mortals and their noble creations. C’est la vie!

The grave's a fine and private place...

Wed, 29 Dec 2004 04:51:47 GMT

Yesterday, I bought a $6 book at B&N called "Brush Up Your Poetry." Came across the end to a poem by Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress":

The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace ...

Don't know why, but those lines strike the right cadence and meaning to really ring in my thoughts. Strange, eh?

Down dump in my heart....

Wed, 29 Dec 2004 04:47:02 GMT

Just tucked my little girl (5 yrs old) into bed. She gave me a big hug and said: "I love you down dump in my heart." Took me a minute to figure out that she meant "down deep in my heart". I couldn't help but smile.

Outlook for 2005: More of the same, at best

Tue, 21 Dec 2004 05:00:46 GMT

Last week was crazy. Went on my first editorial calls with the sales director. Visited the usual "suspects" in the EDA world, plus a fab. Ads look as flat next year as they are this year. We're a smaller pub, so should get by ok. But it's still going to be tough, since all the major vendors seem to be scaling back even further on their print ad dollars.

What's a technology writer/editor to do? Not surprizingly, the market for contract writers (including ghost writers) is growing nicely. But the logic is crazy. Cut ads to magazines that cover your products, but increase dollars for folks to ghost write about your products to be printed in the magazines that you no longer help to sustain. It's enough to make a fellow want to return to engineering.

Onto bigger and better things ...

Sun, 28 Nov 2004 04:49:38 GMT

I'm still here: same place, same professional, but new job. As of last week, I’ve taken over the helm of a technology magazine called Chip Design. Should be about the same amount of work as with WSD, but with much visibility. I’ll also have much more control over what goes into the pub. Should be fun.

I'm just about the last one left standing.....

Sun, 19 Sep 2004 23:45:45 GMT

Well, it finally happened. My manager, the editor-in-chief of our magazine, was laid off last week. Now it's just me and a copy editor. I'm sure that the end is near for the magazine. Damn...

Publisher wants to turn it into 6 e-Newsletters. Probably the right thing to do, since his goal is to quickly make money. But not sure it's what I want to do.

I'll be brushing off my resume this week, while the other editor and I try to do the work of three. Bummer....

Fixing my time machine

Sun, 05 Sep 2004 04:24:04 GMT

I really must fix my time machine..... time is running out. Soon the rains will come and I'll be stuck here, again.

Dark side of defense industry

Fri, 20 Aug 2004 16:42:01 GMT

Here's an interesting discussion thread that I've been having with amylgam. My main reason for reposting this thread it so that I don't lose it . The secondary reason is that I'm just not sure how to link back to the original thread on amylgam's journal. Also, I wanted to change it to a reverse order, i.e., so I could read the most current posting first.

Just for reference:

1. Defense Labs Hustle To Regain Wireless Expertise (Sep'03, WSD magazine)
http://www.wsdmag.com/Articles/ArticleID/5970/5970.html

2. History Repeated Over Mojave Desert http://www.wsdmag.com/Articles/ArticleID/8367/8367.html

3. IEEE I&M article on defense and generational gap (just can not find the article, at the moment.)

++++++++++++++
From: [info]dark_faust
Date: August 20th, 2004 - 04:28 pm
Good points. I'd forgotten about the "terminal" salaries, as well as the generational expertise gaps. Both are serious issues, but the later should be of particular concern to our nation’ leaders. Combine this "expertise gap" with the troubling educational deficiencies in the US and we are heading for real trouble. I just finish a piece that touches on some of the related issues; mainly focusing on the point that the US is losing it's technical and education expertise. Very serious problems....

Nevertheless, I'm very glad to have started out in the defense sector. I gained enormous technical experience, since I was allowed to build things that I could never do in the private, non-defense sector. But maybe those day's are gone, with all the base (and national lab) closings and such.

Well, I'm back to work. Cheers

From: [info]amylgam
Date: August 20th, 2004 - 02:04 pm
Well, I've been private-sector from the beginning, so I can't really compare. (I did have an internship at BLM and a scholarship with TRW, but TRW didn't make me fulfill the summer internship part of the scholarship because they didn't have anything for me to do). We have several engineers who are in their 50's and early 60's--more in the mechanical side than electrical, though. I don't know where they sit as far as earning goes, but I do know that even my grade (Principal Engineer) is considered 'terminal', meaning I could be here for the rest of my career.

Our biggest problem here is that we have a pretty significant gap. We have a lot of engineers who are close to retirement, and a lot of engineers in their late 20's or early 30's, but not many in between. Those who are in mid-career are often being pushed into project management or other non-technical positions (because they have the experience to do so, but they're not so "crusty" that they won't get jiggy with the New And Improved Project Management Process). The thing is, though, that as our senior staff retires, there are going to be some gaping holes in some areas of expertise. Not to mention, a lot of the younger engineers are looking elsewhere, because there really is not a feeling of stability here.

From: [info]dark_faust
Date: August 20th, 2004 - 02:32 am
But there you have it, eh? At least in defense work, older engineers are pretty much forced to become contractors (i.e., job shoppers, not like TI, Hughes, Northrup, etc) or work as civil servants. Contractor work pays well (in $$, not benefits), but it is rather transient work and frequently requires moving one's family. On the other hand, working as a civil servant is fine, but the pay is so-so (even with the DP system). Plus, there are only a few DOD labs/bases that provide worthwhile challenges for engineers. (I spent my first 5 years working for the DOD at China Lake, then the next four working for major defense contractors (not job shops).

Don't get me wrong, working for the DOD it great work when you’re just out of school or if you don't have a family. But it’s a problem later on, especially since the funding is so cyclical – seems to run in 5 year cycles. Working on black programs, which can be very interesting from a technical standpoint, further limits your career choices later on.

The private sector's ok, tho harder to join if you're coming from defense. Still, it has problem with older engineers, too. Just look at the IEEE static’s concerning the age groups that are most likely to be laid-off. It's the folks over 40.

From: [info]dark_faust
Date: August 18th, 2004 - 05:01 pm
Short answer: Because of job discrimination that exists for older engineers (from about 40 to 45 on...), no matter how good their skills or experience. Since I have a family to support, I had to find something that I could respectfully do as I got older. For me, that has turned out to be writing.

Is the TI plant in Tucson really the old Hughes missile facility? Or is that in Phoenix? I don't remember anymore... not that it's important. Cheers.

From: [info]amylgam
Date: August 18th, 2004 - 06:28 pm
A lot of the contractors we get in here are in the 50-60 age range. Most come up from Huntsville. Are you talking about problems looking for new jobs, or staying in an existing job? Or both?

TI: I think it's the old Hughes. Raytheon is in there somewhere too (?). I haven't quite sorted it all out yet.

rom: [info]dark_faust
Date: August 18th, 2004 - 05:01 pm
Short answer: Because of job discrimination that exists for older engineers (from about 40 to 45 on...), no matter how good their skills or experience. Since I have a family to support, I had to find something that I could respectfully do as I got older. For me, that has turned out to be writing.

Is the TI plant in Tucson really the old Hughes missile facility? Or is that in Phoenix? I don't remember anymore... not that it's important. Cheers.

From: [info]amylgam
Date: August 18th, 2004 - 02:02 pm
Yep, EE. What changed your mind?

From: [info]dark_faust
Date: August 18th, 2004 - 03:35 am
Work with TI, eh? Are you an EE? I worked as such for about 16 years, before leaving the profession. Cheers.

Skidding into hell ... What a ride!

Fri, 20 Aug 2004 04:18:34 GMT

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming WOO HOO - What a ride!"

Well put! Found on joannejacobs.net. She wrote an interesting viewpoint piece for my magazine back in March'04 [http://www.wsdmag.com/Articles/ArticleID/7776/7776.html]

We are guided by the unseen...

Tue, 17 Aug 2004 16:15:51 GMT

The older I get (meaning the more experience I gather), the more I realize that unseen forces shape our lives. O, we set the initial course. We make our plans, reason through all the angles and potential outcomes. But in the end, an unseen hand guides events in ways that no one can know.

This loss of control is nothing to fear. In fact, the unseen force often leads us to a better future – tho different than we first imaged. And, oddly enough, this force (or spirit) seems to work in concert with our original intention and action. For our action is the key. We must start the ball rolling before the "hand of providence" can make its appearance.

There is a light inside us that sparks to life when we are following our bliss, i.e., acting with sincere intention. Perhaps it's that light that first awakens the unseen force. But we must be the initiator. As they say, “God helps those who help themselves.”

Well, enough rambling for now. I've satisfied my muse, for the moment. Before the moment passes, tho, I must thank Sarah for her email this morning. It was this simple letter, in response to my own, that reminded me of the importance of taking action and watching the great and subtle interaction of the unseen.

Print is dead. Long live e-media.

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 04:19:55 GMT

Will the print magazine industry ever recover? I'm a senior editor for a technology magazine that survived the carnage of the last four years, only to find that we have about one more year to "make good." Seems our print costs suck up about half of our total revenues. We have an e-media component, but that doesn't bring in near enough profits ... nowhere near what we enjoyed from print ads. Very frustrating.

BTW: I still order most of my reading material as print. E-media is good for quick snatches of information, but for lengthy reading I still use print.

Words to "Hallelujah", from Shrek I

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 05:47:47 GMT

On more entry tonight; here are the words to Hallelujah (Shrek I). Will need these words soon .... very soon.

Artist Lyrics: Shrek
Song Lyrics: Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah
Album Lyrics:

I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled King composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Maybe I’ve been here before
I know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you

I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

There was a time when you let me know
What’s real and going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?

And remember when I moved in you
The Holy Dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Maybe there’s a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

And it’s not a cry you can hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

The day ends as it began...

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 05:42:52 GMT

This has been an odd day. I received an email from a reader that I met during my day's as a columnist for the IEEE I&M society. [Hi, Steve - I know you'll find my journal sooner or later.] He was responding to a brief piece I'd written about vampire bloggers and dead kittens. As usual, his insights challenged me to reconsider some of my assumption (more on that later). But in the process of responding, I was trying desparately to locate a piece I had read several months ago on the Internet. The piece was titled, "Don't Give Your Gold Away", by Benis Ledous. It was posted on The Lifewriter's Digest. [http://www.turningmemories.com/lifewritersdigest.html]

Anyway, I started the day trying to find this article on my computer. I looked under all my browser bookmarks, search through my most likely file folders, etc, but just couldn't find the piece. Of course, work intruded upon my search (as did my family, for which I'm glad). So it wasn't until the evening that the article was in PDF format. After searching for all PDF files saved in the last four months, I found the troublesome piece.

Why was this piece so important? More on that later..... now, I'm off to bed. Hopefully it will be a bit cooler than last night. And less muggy (not terrible for Portland, but still uncomfortable). Nite, all.

Lost in time....

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 05:34:58 GMT

Darkness has crept into my room. Nothing seems to inspire me. I sometimes think I've once again place my "ladder" against the wrong wall. (Joseph was right, it does happen to most of us.)

Still, I've had to re-invent myself so many times before (i.e., build a new ladder), that one more time shouldn't matter. But it just seems much harder to do this time. I must be getting older.

Also, I can not seem to find my muse. I must find my way out of this maze....

Popular Weblogs Are Not The Most Original

Thu, 08 Jul 2004 01:53:22 GMT

A bit dated, but still a fascinating article about “idea plagiarism” among weblogs. Seems that the most-read webloggers aren't necessarily the ones with the most original ideas, say researchers at Hewlett-Packard Labs, [http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62537,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1] . Hmmm....what does that say about the LiveJournal crowd?