¢ Millions of Neros ¢ 10-15-09

Pyre smoke a mirrored dream
glows red horizon seam to seam
constant forms melt from the scene
struggle to make it mean
something isn't right.

Angry roar of flame and hiss
on something wet a flatulent kiss
poison steam belches boils
clouds of gas from chemical spoils
Accusing eyes fade into night.

Rubber screams the road hogs' need
Sell their grand-children for speed
Cram troughs slopped by careless greed
that pumps corroded tankers' bleed
painted green to hide the blight.

Ice to water water to steam
strives to lift me in my dream
sometimes heart and hopes renew
considering a larger view
altitude improves the sight.

Above the layers of gritty air
You see things here that you don't there.
A wrenching sickness twists my gut
when looking down I see little but
millions of Neros playing guitar heros.

¢ Is the internet slowing down? ¢ 05-17-09

For a while I blamed my computer, which is something I am apt to do. I cleaned it and defragged it and edited my start up menu. But I would still go to websites that took such a long time to download. Sometimes my browser would act like it was frozen for minutes and finally finish opening a page. Maybe it was my high speed internet connection? My computer told me it was fine and displayed the right b/s.

So what is the problem? I tried other browsers and went to friend’s computers and I found out it wasn’t me and my computer. Even the big websites that do a healthy business on line are taking longer and longer to access. What is going on? Well, since it looks like this isn’t my problem, we need to look at the websites themselves. What is different? There are a few things.

First, it must be said that there are just more people accessing the internet. Server capacity that was good even a year ago, is probably not enough now. This is a problem that will only get worse unless web servers are ready to upgrade and increase capacity.

The second problem is complicated by the first problem. It is becoming increasingly popular to embed RSS feeds and other actionable code from other websites and other servers in web pages on a website. Google, Yahoo and many others offer embedded code to display news, aid in search requests and to track traffic. All this makes the web page dependant upon other web sites and servers to complete the opening of the page. When their server gets bogged down because of high traffic, so does your web page. If you have several of these feeds on a page, the problem is exacerbated and possibly exponential.

A third problem exists which I know some won’t want to hear about. That is embedding video into a web page. If it is from a popular video site like U-tube, you will find the second problem above to be the case as well. But even if the video is on your server, embedding it on a main page can be a problem. Video players that are embedded in a web page access the server that holds the configuration for the specific video file type and version. If that server is busy, there will be delays in opening the video and in many cases delays in opening the page itself.

What is the solution? Well, you can’t do anything about other websites, but you can do something about your own.

The main pages of your web site should not contain any code that interacts with servers other than your own. This is especially true of your Home Page. Main web pages should open as quickly as your server allows. (This also helps when you are trouble-shooting slow loading pages because you know the problem is your fault.) This does not mean that you shouldn’t offer videos and RSS feeds on your website. It simply means that these functions should be linked to sub pages on your website that contain the code. The advantages of this are more than that your main pages open more quickly. It is also a courtesy to visitors who will be given a choice of whether or not they want to view a video or read outside news. They are not forced to download or open things they are not interested in.

"Want to see a video of a cat in a hat? Click here."
Versus
"Here is a video player that is looking up its configuration while attempting to show the first frame of a video of a cat in a hat and a menu of other videos you can see at the same video website. Please wait for the whole thing to load."
OR
"Read the latest news from Yahoo. Click here.’
Versus
"Here is a section of news items from another website that you may or may not be interested in, please wait for it to load."

Which do you prefer?

Another thing that can be done to make your website open more quickly is to make certain that you are using functions that come with your website whenever possible. For example, it might be cool to have the latest Google traffic gizmo, but your web host probably already has a very good traffic tracker installed on your server. Most web hosts offer this. Sometimes it will be running on the server whether you use it or not. Why add to the work a web page must do by adding some other tracker that depends on another server?

Of course, there are going to be times when the situation can’t be helped. Some feed or code can be crucial to the function of the web page, for example, when using the UPS website to calculate a shipping charge. But it is always important to consider the consequences of relying on servers that are not in your control and to prepare for delays and interruptions that most certainly will occur from time to time.

Yes, the internet is slowing down. A favorite saying of mine is "as if we could make things better without making them worse." It is not that I don’t think we should try to make things better, but we must always look at and prepare for a down side that will always come with improvements to anything. The internet is no acception. High speed internet is great. Much much faster than dial-up. But because we have all this speed, the rationale is that we can now use bigger files, larger web applications, and increased server interaction. But should we? Will we reach a point where a High Speed internet connection brings back memories of dial-up? The day may be closer than you think.

¢ Burning Rubber ¢ 05-15-09

I remember as a kid growing up in Kansas watching the smoke from the tire fire just outside of town. Most of the time it was just a column of grey soot rising up from the horizon. Now and then, when the wind was just right, it was impossible to miss, as the smell of burning rubber filled the air. You could even smell it in the classroom now and then at school. It was normal. Usually no one even commented on it. I even liked the smell when it was diluted with fresh air.

Once I got a chance to see the tire fire up close. It was an amazing display, with huge billows of smoke erupting from bright orange flame that flared in contrast to the black rubber tires. But I remember thinking then, what a waste! Not that I was thinking about pollution at all at that point.

I was thinking about all the cool things you could do with all those tires. For one thing, you could make one heck of a fort! I imagined climbing a pyramid of tires and thought it would be perfect on the playground. Much better than the steel monkey bars. You see, I was one of those kids who ended up smacking a shin or my chin on those metal bars on a regular basis.

This past week, I have been working on a section of the Eco-$mart Catalog. The product is called Eco-Rubber. It is a whole line of indoor outdoor surfaces made from recycled rubber tires. It got me thinking about my childhood and how much we didn’t think about what we were doing to the earth back then. There was this idea that we were in control. That the earth was here for us to do what we could with it. It was so big. How could it run out of anything?

Now we know we have to get serious about keeping our environment clean and green. We can’t just take for granted that we can keep taking and taking from the earth and it will still be there for us. You can be certain it will be here for a very long time. But how long will it be here for us if we don’t take care? The alarm is growing and more and more people are reacting and making changes in their life styles and habits. We must make sacrifices to "save the earth".

Sacrifices? Wait. Back when I was a kid I didn’t think about pollution at all. I didn’t think it would be a sacrifice to have all those tires to do cool things with. I would have rolled them one by one back to my house. Sure we can think in terms of sacrifice and extra effort. But I think we can do better if we look at it as an opportunity. They are doing some really cool stuff with recycled rubber these days. Positive stuff, beautiful stuff. I think there are a lot more ideas that are just waiting to spring up. And if I get my wish, over the next few years we are going to see a lot fewer cars on the road. That means a lot more tires that will need to be used for something else. Maybe with a positive approach to being green, we actually have a chance of preserving our environment for generations to come.

¢ A Christmas Tradition. ¢ 12-24-08

I have heard concern from several people this year about the "destruction of Christmas". A diatribe I endured on cable news, for the sake of hearing the argument, set me to writing this. I remember, as a child, repeatedly hearing the song, "Put Christ Back Into Christmas", a musical polemic against the growing use of "X-mas" to shorten the name. The annual out-cry has changed a bit over time, but it has become a Christmas tradition.

Currently the discussion is over the use of "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". Just the other day, I was told a story of "Christian businesses" that refused to participate in community celebrations because the community had decided it's annual celebration was for all the holidays that come during this time of year. The community voted to replace the traditional name "Christmas Celebration" with "Holiday Celebration", so some of those who celebrate Christmas took their toys, and their usual contributions to the event, and went home. That seems to be a bit childish to me and decidedly not the "good will" that supposedly accompanies Christmas.

The whole fuss seems to be centered around a group of people who haven't learned to share. They cannot accept that there are other holidays this time of year that are just as important to other people as Christmas is to them. They are probably projecting and think that if they can only keep the other holidays of other religions from being recognized that those people will keep their toys and stay home. Problem solved. Christmas RULES!

The truth is, these selfish people don't just want an exclusive holiday season, they want an exclusive religion. Their Christmas wish each year is that all the other religions go away. Celebrating other religious holidays that coincide with Christmas is the slippery slope to recognizing other religions as equals. And that is going to require some Theological adjustments.

You know, Christianity picked the date for Christmas knowing full well that it conflicted with other religion's holy days. This could be viewed as contentious, but it must be remembered that at the time, Christianity expected to be the only religion in the world shortly. But now, here we are, in a diverse society that holds sacred the right to religious expression. Intentional or not, there is conflict.

To me, the situation takes little thought as to the right thing to do. If I greet a person I know celebrates Christmas, I say 'Merry Christmas'. If I greet a person who celebrates Chanukah, I say 'Happy Chanukah'. I don't know anyone who celebrates Kwanza, but if I did, you bet, 'Happy Kwanza!'

Otherwise, if I don't know the person or am addressing a group of people it is always "Happy Holidays". This is not because I don't wish to offend anyone. It is because, no matter what holiday they celebrate, I wish to wish them well.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

¢ A Long Due Reply. ¢ 01-17-08

I have received a number of emails like this in the past few months. Below is my reply.

<< Read the last paragraph even if you skip the rest ~ this woman is a nut case!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits (including Retirement funds, 401Ks and Mutual Funds - all to help the 12 million illegal immigrants and other unemployed minorities!

Boy, are we in trouble... This woman is frightening. Take special note of the last paragraph. Is she really this whacked out?

Nancy Pelosi condemned the new record highs of the stock market as "just another example of Bush policies helping the rich get richer." "First Bush cut taxes for the rich and the economy has rebounded with new record low unemployment rates, which only means wealthy employers are getting even wealthier at the expense of the underpaid working class"

She went on to say "Despite the billions of dollars being spent in Iraq our economy is still strong and government tax revenues are at all time highs. What this really means is that business is exploiting the war effort and working Americans, just to put money in their own pockets."

When questioned about recent stock market highs she responded "Only the rich benefit from these record highs. Working Americans, welfare recipients, the unemployed and minorities are not sharing in these obscene record highs." There is no question these windfall profits and income created by the Bush administration need to be taxed at 100% rate and those dollars redistributed to the poor and working class." Profits from the stock market do not reward the hard work of our working class who, by their hard work, are responsible for generating these corporate profits that create stock market profits for the rich. We in congress will need to address this issue to either tax these profits or to control the stock market to prevent this unearned income to flow to the rich"

When asked about the fact that over 80% of all Americans have investments in mutual funds, retirement funds, 401Ks, and the stock market she replied "That may be true, but probably only 5% account for 90% of all these investment dollars. That's just more "trickle down" economics claiming that if a corporation is successful that everyone from the CEO to the floor sweeper benefit from higher wages and job security which is ridiculous." "How much of this 'trickle down' ever gets to the unemployed and minorities in our county? None, and that's the tragedy of these stock market highs."

"We democrats are going to address this issue after the election when we take control of the congress. We will return to the 60% to 80% tax rates on the rich and we will be able to take at least 30% of all current lower income tax payers off the rolls and increase government income substantially." We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income in our country and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest."

When asked how these new tax dollars would be spent, she replied: "We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profits taxes could go a long ways to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as 'Americans.'"

Send it on to your friends. I just did!! >>

In the past I have just trashed messages like this, but I have to say something. First, I will not be sending this on to anyone, because I don't know where it came from. There is no documentation or any evidence that Nancy Pelosi said any of this. The fact that this information is missing is a cause for suspicion. There is no way to verify that this is exactly what she said and that the words have not been changed around or edited to make her position sound worse to all those who do not agree with her position in the first place. And this is all something like this does; reaffirm the position of those who already agree that Nancy Pelosi is a "nut case."

Which brings me to my second point. Is anyone who doesn't agree with the current tax policy insane? The epithet "nut case" exposes more about this email than anything else. It exposes THE problem in the un-United States right now. We are un-united. And we will continue to be un-united until we can rise above the name calling and the down right dishonesty about our positions and the positions of others. WE can't have a legitimate debate and find solutions to these problems we face if we are constantly poking fun and disrespecting those who disagree with us.

I do not agree with Nancy Pelosi about many issues. But I do not agree with President Bush on many issues either. I believe they are both wrong when it comes to a FAIR tax policy. But I certainly don't think either of them is insane and I believe they have legitimate points of view. Unfortunately, we will probably never know what system is best. We just continually swing back and forth to the right and to the left and can never seem to find the middle.

And we ALL know for a fact that the middle is always best. Many of us do not want to admit this and swear it isn't true. But nature, physics, and history cannot be denied. If there is no compromise, there will never be any solution to the problems we face without conflict. If all of us cannot give some ground, these issues will never be resolved. If the people can not learn to discuss different points of view in an adult manner, our fate is to be a nation governed by children.

Please accept my thoughts in the spirit they are intended. This makes me sad, not angry. I do understand your position on taxes. I understand that you have earned your money and want to keep as much of it as possible. But I also understand those who say you would not have that money if you did not live in the United States; that you would not have had the opportunity for financial gain if it were not for the security and services that are paid for with tax dollars. I understand the position that all should pay the same percentage right across the board. I see our National Debt climbing by the minute and understand that if we do not raise taxes now, we are just raising the taxes on our children and their children. But that is not uncommon here in America. It just might be the norm. Me first!

¢ Formula for Search Engine Ranking Changes...Again. ¢ 12-23-07

Some of you may have already gotten the full benefit of my tirade on search engines. <G> They are a good thing. BUT they are not reliable as the sole source of visitors to your website. One thing the search engines can be relied upon to do is to bring the scammers out of the woodwork. Beware of any organization that guarantees your placement in the top 10 of any real search engine’s results. In order to guarantee that, they will have to scam the search engine too. If they are successful, it won’t be for long.

The skinny: Search engines change. They change because people find ways to manipulate them. The latest change is a case in point.

A new factor in ranking your website.
Search engines have been using the links on your web pages to determine ranking for a while now. They will continue to do that, but now they will now be doing it with a vengeance. Like before, good links will help. The change is that now bad links will hurt. Each link on the page will be analyzed and given a score. Points are added for really good links. Points are subtracted for really bad links.

What is a bad link? There are a few types of bad links.

• A dead link that goes nowhere.
• A link that is totally off topic.
• A link that is not reciprocated. ¡You lose even more points if the link is to a high ranking website that does not reciprocate!

What to do.

• If you have a link page on your website, it may be time for a thorough inspection. Get rid of the bad links. If you want to direct a visitor to a website that will not reciprocate, just display the domain name without linking it.
• Make your positive "on-topic" links more positive by "reciprocating key words" with a linked web site. Incorporate key words from the other website into the text on your page whenever possible. If the linked website is really on-topic, this should not be a big chore.

In my opinion, these changes in the search engines are an improvement. I have been saying it for a long time. You can attempt to manipulate the search engines to your advantage and the search engines will change to stop you. The most important factor in getting visitors to your website is to get your link out there.

Search Engines are free advertisement. You get what you pay for.

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