Yet another reader has chimed in on our discussion of strange noises (other than cell phones) coming out of radio speakers:
“Hi George!
I too have been plagued with ‘code’ from my computer speakers, but I finally figured out what it was (took me a couple days though ha). Bear hunters (we’re in the boonies) and whatever communications device they use (CB, etc), was interfering with them. Was looking out my window one day while they were driving by, saw them talking on something then whamo, out of my speakers comes that “code” that had been driving me nuts for the past week. Such a simple thing! ugh
Then there was this:
“George,
I’m not from ‘Bama… But I’m willing to bet that the reader that sent in his experience with his cell phone has an AT&T phone (or Tracphone, or any other GSM-850 phone). This is typical for these devices to cause RF interference with anything near them. We just happen to hear it because the harmonics of the interference are within the range of normal human hearing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM
There is no “satellite” communication going on with these phones… It’s all between the phone itself, the towers and the switching office. And yes, you can tell if you’re about to receive a call if you have your phone next to, say, your computer speakers. It will start the “codes” and shortly thereafter the phone will ring. The same is true for texting, or even the routine communications between the phone and the tower. There is ALWAYS a small amount of traffic between the phone and the system as long as the phone is ON… Imagine the system is asking your phone “are you still there?” and your phone either replies with “yes, I’m here” or the system gets no reply. If no reply, calls to your phone are more quickly routed to your voicemail instead of trying to ring a phone that is “unavailable”.
This “morse code sound” doesn’t happen with Verizon or Sprint phones since they use CDMA, not GSM. OK, I should say we just can’t hear it, since all RF causes interference somewhere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDMA
However, these technologies have been blended into a new standard called
UTMS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTMS
And that is developing into LTE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP_Long_Term_Evolution
If you’re interested, I can give you a rant on the old analog cellular technology…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Mobile_Phone_System
But that rant goes off on another tangent…”
Meantime, our reader in Alabama with the ‘mystery code’ has a recorder ready for next time it shows up – and no, it was NOT a cell phone. Reader happens to be quite computer savvy and ruled that one out right away. We continue tracking this…
Sarbanes and Servers
The other day I was just thinking out loud that not keeping server logs would be an easy way to prevent too much collection of people’s ID & IP info. Got a couple of very good replies including this:
“George,
RE: “legal requirement to maintain server logs,” consider a corporate officer in a commercial (public) or financial trading institution, accessing corporate accounts from a laptop computer using a VPN (virtual private network) or similar enterprise system remote entry process.
The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act requires all corporations to log all FTP server activity, then report on that activity, which requires a “maintained server log.” The log lets one recreate a sequence of changes to the database in case of a system crash or other problem, and to validate the legality of each activity affecting account value. The system must thus Capture Client-Server connections and activities related to the storage and transfer of files, and maintain a managed backup of those log files.
Log files can provide information on logon success or failure; system file read, write or delete; host session status; and account management. These logs provide a trail for forensic investigation. Section 802 of SOX mandates that records, including system logs, are maintained for seven years after an auditor concludes an audit.
SOX applies to all public company boards, but not private ones.”
Upshot of it seems to be that private entities could just not keep server logs – and thus – nothing to produce if subpoenaed. I know, too simple, LOL.
Brazil Is Not Alone
…when it comes to power outages, says a reader in Ecuador:
“Hi George:
Brazil is certainly not the only country suffering blackouts in South America. Here in Ecuador we have been twice a day electric outages for the past week, and no one seems to be all that upset. The electricity goes out promptly at 6:00AM and turns back on approximately three hours later. Depending upon usage, there might be another outage in the early evening for an hour. All of this to relieve the burden on our inefficient electrical grid system due to a lack of power generation. As it is, a good percentage of our electric needs are imported from Columbia, and they are beginning to have problems, too.
Our one hydroelectric power plant is located in Cuenca in the Northern part of the country, where there is a continuing draught caused by a lack of rainfall. This is normally our “Rainy Season”, but El Nino has decided to visit our coast changing the weather patterns. The gov’ment informs us that we may have these residential blackouts for up to six month, if the climate doesn’t change. Hm-mmm, sounds like preparation training for 2012 to me.
The point is that all of us simply do a “work-around” to fit the circumstances. Everyone in the country now seems to arise with the sun at 5:30AM, to make their coffee, cook their breakfast and use what appliances are absolutely necessary. No big deal. Since I’m prone to oversleeping now and then, I’ve had to learn how to make “camp coffee” with candle heat, if I need my caffeine hit. Food doesn’t spoil in three hours and there is still good fresh water to drink. And most importantly, there has been NO reported increase in crime within this wonderfully safe and peaceful country. Maybe that’s why they call the place where I live the Valley of Longevity.”
Mr. Science has a different idea: You only think it’s longevity because the clocks weren’t running much of the time….it’s always later than we think…just sayin’…
Reset Jitterz
Several readers have asked me if there is a Big Worry in all the mortgage resets coming next year after reading the headline “US foreclosure filings surpass 300,000 for 8th straight month.”
Although I am a management geek by trade, not an economist, I have nevertheless mastered the fine art of talking out of both sides of my mouth; to wit:
No, there’s nothing to worry about because most of the rates will reset to at – and in a good number of cases actually lower than where they are now.
Yes, because no one will have a job.
There: See see how much clarity that brought to your life?
A Proud Fathering Note
Every so often someone sends me an email demanding I ‘put more good news in your column’…so when my son did a ride-along with Medic One up in Seattle yesterday as part of his EMT recert, I thought it would be interesting for him to write something up on it – you know, some of the hints that our medically focused readers might find useful.
But after saying – in so many words – that Medic One has already been written up in all kinds of places and just keeps getting better all the time, he shared this:
“I can’t sit and rewrite a story about a program we all know works, that does not appeal to me in the least.
But what I dream about is being the guy with the vision and making it happen.
For example taking some of medic ones tactics and some of my own and making a rural fire department have a kick ass BLS response team that causes lives to be saved. Then take that same recipe to other places.
I remember you teaching me all about the lily pads and thinking in ways of the “George Ure SR. recipe work the system” way of doing things. Well good news your teachings have worked.
I just want to get out and do it because I need to serve something much greater then myself that helps people and in turn if I am doing that I am also helping me because I am only happy when I am doing such things.
Write back to me tell me what you think?
I wrote him back to told him he was a genius – and one with focus at that – and that a thoughtful note from son to father like this makes me proud as hell. (don’t think he’ll mind me sharing it)
“What about the lily pads?” you’re wondering…”What’s that part about?”
Ah! The lily pad theory is one I don’t think I’ve shared before but it goes something like this: If you envision a possible future…and can get a really clear vision of it, then it’s only a simple matter of working backwards to figure out the steps to get there.
Just like a frog sitting on a log in the middle of a pond: He sees his objective is getting to shore where the bug hunting might be better. From the moment he sets his little froggy-sized brain on “get to shore”, something almost automatically happens when it comes to the jumping. Without too much thought to the matter, he simply picks out the best set of lily pads to land on to get him to his objective.
Like my ‘recipe system of learning’ – which empowers me (and you, too) to do anything by simply finding the ‘recipe’ for it – so too, the “lily pads to the desired future” concept should be incredibly obvious.
But it’s not. All too often it’s so much ‘taken for granted’ that it’s not stated and that’s how a lot of plain common sense gets lost between the generations. The simple stories, and information framing concepts are the keys and few people spend much time figuring out ‘how they frame’ things in their heads. Get the framing tools right and the world changes – to the good.
As my son is learning, once you empower yourself to learn and do anything and once you get the lily pad approach to the future worked out, then you can become a powerful agent for change in the direction of your personal vision of the future. Oh, and you also wake up a bit more.
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Send your comments to george@ure.net
The UrbanSurvival Mall:
Peoplenomics This Week
The Single Person’s Marketing Plan
Common economic wisdom is that a home is the most important investment most folks make, but I respectfully disagree. I’d suggest it’s the partner you choose to put in the home that is really the biggest investment you make in Life since you can lose money faster than any market in history through the mechanism of divorce. Half to 65% net worth – or more- can disappear in an instant. And you thought stocks in the ‘pink sheets’ were risky? See this divorce rate chart. A number of subscribers who are single have asked for advice, so I thought it might be useful to apply some basic marketing principles to finding a significant other. This may seem a little irreverent here – and to be sure the line between sociopath and social butterfly is a thin one – but it won’t be the first time one of these in-depth reports has stepped over a line or two. Such is the danger of inquiry.
More For Subscribers Subscription Information
“Live on $10,000″ A Year
With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move? Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California! A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”
It’s an automatic download. It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left… Click here for the index and details.
MyGroPonics
My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics. It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space – like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight). Sound interesting? It’s just $10 bucks here…
No, when you tell your browser to ‘empty your cookies’ of web sites you’ve visited, it probably won’t get them all. Why? Because there is a whole class of ‘browser-independent’ cookies that will gobble up space on your hard drive, but more important is they will sneak out information about you without you being aware of it. Ever week I get emails like this one:
“Thanks again for the Maxa Tools recommendation, I never knew how much additional garbage gets attached every time I browse. “
Test drive it free by downloading it. To upgrade to full functionality will be $35 bucks. Is your privacy worth it?
Once you try it out, click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those nasty and highly intrusive ‘non-browser specific’ cookies. Bonus: You computer may run faster. I’ve taken 1,000 37,970 41,837 cookies off my machine now. It’s just amazing. (I might ask their CTO to add one more digit to the “Total deleted till now” window…)
Attn: Mac Drivers: MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world….so far. Given Jens and the other engineers time…
Pass It On
The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh? Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….
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