Posts Tagged: ‘Miscellaneous’

Cruising 2015 – Originally Published March 2015

March 8, 2015 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been cruising again!  You may or may not know that I’ve been busy relaxing with the Mrs. on one of our cruise vacations.  It’s been two years since I last wrote about my thoughts on technologies aboard the ship.

One thing that hasn’t changed since the last time was the ship wide WIFI at a decent 54 mps.  The internet junkies can get their fix for a mere $0.75 per minute.  Of course, you could always sign up for the 480 minute plan and pay only 33 cents per minute.  I found it amusing that there was also a $3.95 sign up fee the first time you used the service.  Personally, I’m just fine with waiting until we enter port.  I’ve always been able to go ashore and find free WIFI somewhere.  That gives me a chance to check my email and do a little browsing.  It’s not a big thing. After all, I am on vacation.

I left my laptop at home again.  I brought a seven inch tablet to watch some videos.  It spent most of the time on the desk in the stateroom.  I ended up using my pocket computer (a Samsung Galaxy Note II) for all of my book reading and most of my video viewing.  I kept my folding Bluetooth headset and an extra battery in my pockets.

On this cruise, it seemed that a lot more people were reading actual books.  I’m not sure, but I think this might have been due to the fact that there were a lot more older passengers.  There were still a lot of tablets and e-book readers in sight though.

I was one of the few passengers that had a camera.  Most people used their cell phones for picture taking.  A few people were using an I pad.  I hope they got good pictures because they sure looked stupid to me when they held up a tablet at the dinner table.

The shops, bars, internet cafe, coffee bars, etc. do not take cash aboard the ship.  Your room key not only electronically unlocks the door, but it is also your on board credit card.  It only takes a matter of seconds before your purchase is charged to your account.  Interestingly, the casino takes either cash or your key card.  If you use the card, there is a 3% service charge.  Go figure!

The key card is also used as a passkey to get off the ship in port.  At the start of the cruise, a web cam is used to take each passengers picture.  When going ashore, you just stick you card into a machine that looks like an ATM.  It beeps and you get off.  Coming back aboard is the same process, except for a Security Officer that checks your face against the picture in the file.

We took the ships “Behind the Scenes” tour.  This was a guided four hour journey through various crew only areas of the ship.  Technology was in abundant use throughout.

We didn’t get to see the engine room, but we got to walk through the Engineering Control Center.  It was about the three-fourths size of our meeting area at Sugarloaf Community.  Two officers are on watch at all times.  In addition to the engines, all of the ship’s auxiliary systems such as the water distillers, sanitary disposal tanks, fuel tanks, electricity generators, etc. are monitored and controlled from this station.  They kept a close watch on me as I studied the setup.

In the galley (kitchen), there was a monitor at nearly every piece of cooking equipment.  The displays had instructions for the cooks instructing them what to cook and when to cook it.  A computer in the head chef’s office allowed him to input his instructions into the system.  He was also able to order supplies from the storage areas.

The crews living areas had berthing, recreation and galley facilities.  They had their own cooks that used the same system as the passenger areas.  There was a large room with two or three dozen internet capable computers for crew use.  Many crew members had their own computers which they could also use.  Another thing that was available for the crew is college credit courses via the internet.  I don’t know if there was a fee or not.

By far, the most technology was visible on the bridge.  The first thing you see is a huge monitor displaying the radar for several miles.  The ship’s location is accurately displayed with GPS coordinates.  Another screen displays up to date weather data and the forecast.  Several other stations had monitors with vital ships information.  Almost all of the sailing is done by auto pilot.  The Captain gives his orders and the crew enters the data into the computer.  About the only time it is done manually is for practice in case the systems go down.

When we were on the bridge, many small fishing boats could be seen in the area.  One of the other tour members asked if we should be worried about them.  I got a few glares when I said that maybe they should be more worried about the fact that Windows XP is still being used.  I don’t know what system it was, but one of the monitors was in screen saver mode.  Windows XP Professional was being prominently displayed.

Almost all of the technology I saw had a backup system that was the exact same as the original.  It was interesting to see two computers with the same data on the screen.  Now that I think about it, there was one system that didn’t have a backup.  I guess we can only hope that the windshield wipers on the bridge don’t fail.

Thanks for reading.

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Why You Should Get Your Own Domain – Originally Published February 2015

February 7, 2015 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve owned my domain name since May 10, 2001.  No, this article isn’t going to be a long plug for my website.  I’m going to try and convince you to register your own domain.  I’ve long believed that everyone should have a presence on the internet.  It’s kind of like having a phone number.

The biggest reason you should probably get a domain name is so that you can easily control your e-mail.  If your e-mail address is YourName@suddenlink.net, you would lose it if you want to change your Internet Service Provider to AT&T or another company.  It would be a real pain in the you know what to have to change your e-mail address with all of your contacts.  For me, it would be even harder to have to make the change on all of the websites I’ve registered with.

If you had your own domain, you could have the e-mail address of YourName@yourdomain.com or .net, or .org, etc.  You would keep that e-mail for as long as you owned the domain.  Never again would you have to change your e-mail address.

Many people avoid those problems by registering their e-mail with Yahoo, Google, AOL, etc.  One of the problems with this method is that you are often limited in your mailbox storage, size of attachments, composition tools, security, etc.  Free e-mail also usually includes free advertisements.

Many computer users have a “junk” mail address.  This is one that they only use for message boards, free offers or other sites that you don’t want to have your real e-mail.  With your own domain, you control all your e-mail addresses.  For example, I often create a one time address for sites.  I usually make an e-mail like del0201@tinys-bs.com.  This lets me know that I can delete the mail address on February 1.  One more advantage to having your own e-mail control is that if you give an address to a specific place and all of a sudden you get spammed at that e-mail, you know who compromised you.  You can then delete the address and never deal with them again.

Owning your domain isn’t expensive.  For instance HostGator, the club’s web hosting service, charges $12.95 a year to register SWLAPCUG.org.  Hosting services are $7.16 a month.  If you sign up for three years, the rates drop to $12.98 and $3.96.  If you do a web search you will find many companies and many different pricing plans.

For that low fee, you get unlimited e-mail addresses, disk space and bandwidth.  There are several other hosting features that you may or may not want to use.

E-mail isn’t the only reason you might want to consider having your own domain.  You can easily make a website to show off your hobbies, a family photo album, share recipes, or do like me: just plain BS.

Other things I’ve used my domain name(s) for is to give family members their own e-mail address, host private chat rooms, store files, etc.

That’s all of my thoughts for February.  My mind is empty again.  Thanks for reading.

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Obsolete Technology A to Z – Originally Published January 2015

January 11, 2015 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Over the years, I’ve written many articles on technology terminology.  This is another one of them.  It originally started as a Mind Bender quiz, but soon evolved into a list of obsolete technology, terminology, companies, etc.  I hope you enjoy learning the alphabet from A to Z.

A is for Amiga computers, the last product line of Commodore International.  That was the company that brought us the VIC-20, the Commodore 64 and many other great computers.
B is for Beta Max tapes.  They have become obsolete along with the letter V.
C is for Circuit City.  After the bankruptcy, the brand name was purchased by Systemax and lived for a while on the internet.  Even that is no longer with us.
D is for dial up modems.  I imagine that someone somewhere is still using one.  Can you remember calling someone on the telephone and getting that unique sound?
E is for ENIAC, the first computer.  It was initially designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army.
F is for floppy disks.  They started big and got smaller.  Finally they disappeared.  CDs and DVDs probably won’t be around very long.
G is for Google Reader, which was an RSS aggregator operated by Google.  Although it was still popular, Google discontinued it.
H is for Honeywell computers.  Still in business today, Honeywell International ceased manufacturing computers in 1989.
I is for Infocom.  If you’ve read any of my past articles, you’ll know that I think they produced some of the best games ever.  My all time favorite was Suspended.
J is for the Jupiter Ace.  In 1983, it was advertised as possibly the fastest computer in the universe.  Instead of BASIC or CP/M, the machine’s default operating language was FORTH.
K is for Kinescope, at one time the cutting edge of video technology.
L is for Laserdisc, a video technology that never really made it to the big time.
M is for Mosaic, one of the first graphical web browsers.
N is for Netscape, once the dominant browser for surfing the internet.  The final version was released in February 2008.
O is for Olivetti, once a well known typewriter manufacturer that branched out into making computers.  They are still in business as a subsidiary of an Italian telecommunications company.
P is for Pager.  It used to be the machine that made the noise in movie theaters.  Supposedly, you were important if you carried one.
Q is for Quantum Link which later became America Online.  Q-Link was one of the first on line bulletin boards.
R is for Rolodex.  Does anyone still use these index cards to keep track of their contacts?
S is for Slide Projector.  The only time you hear about slides anymore is when someone wants to know how to digitize them.
T is for typewriters.  There is still a company that makes them, but you won’t see them in use very much.
U is for UNIVAC, the first general purpose computer for commercial use.  It was also the first computer to correctly predict the outcome of a presidential election.
V is for VHS tapes.  They have become obsolete along with the letter B.
W is for Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, Windows 3.0 Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows Millennium, Windows 98, etc.
X is for the xD-Picture Card.  These flash memory cards were only used in Olympus and Fujifilm cameras.  They were expensive and replaced by SD cards.
Y is for Y2K which on January 1, 2000 was going to be the end of the world because computers wouldn’t be able to correctly calculate the date.
Z is for Z-DOS, a forked version of MS-DOS designed to run on the Zenith computer.  I was originally going to make Z for Zenith, but they are still around.  LG owns the brand and sells a few items.

That’s all of my thoughts for January. My mind is empty again. Thanks for reading.

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My Thoughts on the Sony Data Hack

December 12, 2014 Posted by Tiny

If you read a newspaper, watch the television, surf the internet or probably even have a casual conversation on the street, you’ve probably heard someone’s opinion about the Sony data breach.  I’ve got my own impression.  Want to hear it?

HO HUM!  What’s new?  I’m not surprised.

In October of 2012, I wrote an article titled “Companies I Dislike a Lot“.  One of the companies I mentioned was Sony.  I haven’t changed my mind since then.  With the exception of watching Jeopardy and a few Sony movies, I haven’t put any of my money into their coffers.

This isn’t Sony’s first data problem.  In 2009, George Hotz (the first person to jailbreak the iPhone) announced that he was going to hack the PlayStation 3.  The following year he did so.  Sony retaliated by suing him.  They went so far as to obtain the IP addresses of everyone that visited Hotz’s website.

In response, the hacker group Anonymous sent this warning to Sony:

“Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing. Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products? In light of this assault on both rights and free expression, Anonymous, the notoriously handsome rulers of the internet, would like to inform you that you have only been ‘renting’ your web domains. Having trodden upon Anonymous’ rights, you must now be trodden on.”

About two weeks later, Anonymous launched an attack on the PlayStation Network.  They shut the network down for 23 days and obtained the personal details of about 77 million PlayStation customers.  Even with advanced warning, Sony didn’t protect their customers.  Doesn’t that seem like a company that doesn’t care?

In the next several months, there were many attacks on Sony servers.  In June of 2011, the hacker group LulzSec broke in to the Sony Pictures servers and obtained private information including passwords, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, etc. of over one million customers.  Why did they do it?  This was their statement.

“Our goal here is not to come across as master hackers, hence what we’re about to reveal: SonyPictures.com was owned by a very simple SQL injection, one of the most primitive and common vulnerabilities, as we should all know by now. From a single injection, we accessed EVERYTHING. Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?“

The hackers said that all of the extremely sensitive data was easy to find and stored in plain text.  Does this sound familiar?  Compare it with the recent hack.  I’ll repeat myself, “HO HUM!  What’s new?  I’m not surprised.”

Why does Sony keep getting hacked?  I think it is for two reasons.  Sony doesn’t care about their customers.  Starting with the DRM rootkit, they have made decisions that are both legally and morally wrong.  Many of these customers are also hackers.  They get upset and retaliate.

Secondly, Sony makes it easy for hackers to hack them.  They obviously have not learned any lessons from previous attacks.  They don’t seem to have done much to fix their security problems.

When I think about the latest Sony hack, my first thought is, “Great.  I still have not forgiven them for putting a root kit on my computers.”  I do feel sorry for all of the Sony employees whose data is readily available for downloading.  They did no wrong.  Too bad that corporate thinks as little of their workers as they do of their customers.

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Christmas Gifts – Originally Published December 2014

December 7, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

It’s that time of year again. Santa Claus is coming to town. Every year, my daughter asks what I want for a gift. Every year, I tell her that I have everything I need. I’ve never been one to wait for a special holiday or a birthday. If I want something and the price is right, I buy it.  That said, I’m going to share with you my list of things that would be nice to have.  Of course, it’s all stuff that I don’t need, can’t afford or would probably only use one time.  You can feel free to give me anything on this list.

Solid state drives are all the rage this year.  They are speedy and use less power.  Is bigger better?  I don’t know but as I write this, a 4 TB OCZ drive is on sale for $665.27 off.  That brings the price down to a reasonable $7499.73.  Free shipping is included to make the deal even sweeter.

I guess if you wanted an off brand tablet, this 10 inch model has decent specifications.  I’m a little leery of buying something that doesn’t specify the operating system version.  Then again, it must be great.  It’s the KomandoTab.  For your money, you not only get the machine, but a years membership in Kim’s Club.  Best of all, it includes an autographed picture.  I’d like to see Apple top that deal.

Every time Woody demonstrates his quad-copter, I say to myself that I should get one.  Maybe Santa will bring me the Walkera Scout X4.  For your money, you get a drone that can convert from four blades to eight.  My favorite feature is that you can set the GPS to “follow me”.  I can see me slipping the control into someones pocket and watch them wonder why they are being followed by a drone.

Why settle for a lousy picture from your cell phone?  This Hasselblad H5D-60 Medium Format DSLR Camera will take digital pictures with 60 megapixel resolution.  I’m surprised that the $66,000 selling price doesn’t include a SD card.  At least the shipping is free.

It would sure be nice to replace all of my monitors with this 84 inch Planar UltraRes LED monitor.  Only problem is that I’m not sure my floor can support the 24,000 pound weight.  Oh yeah, the $30,000 price tag is a little bit of a drawback too.

This Bluetooth Toothbrush has more calculating power than the Apollo 12 guidance system.  If I get this, I’ll be looking for a Bluetooth toilet cleaning brush to complete my bathroom ensemble.

Wearable technology has been in the news all year.  You can buy eyeglasses, watches, heart monitors, jackets that recharge your electronics and many other new items.  Never again will I lose a remote controller if I get this remote headband for Christmas.

I’m not sure what Santa will bring me this year, but I don’t think that it will be any of this stuff.  That’s all of my thoughts for December.  My mind is empty again.  Thanks for reading.

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Turkey Technology – Originally Published November 2014

November 10, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

It’s November again, the time of the year when we gather to feast on a large gallinaceous bird, Meleagris gallopavo, of North America, having a bare wattled head and neck and a brownish iridescent plumage.  This would probably be a good month to talk some turkey.  To be more specific, I’m going to talk turkey from the slang section of the dictionary.  Not a stupid, incompetent or unappealing person, but a thing that fails.  This month is about technological turkeys.

The Affordable Care Act brought us the Health Care Website, which was such a big initial failure that it was the target of joke on every late night show.  My personal observation is that this was just one of many medical websites that are lacking.  For example, the portal for my doctor’s medical group will only allow me to request prescription refills from certain pharmacies, many of which aren’t in Lake Charles.  This is just lousy website design.  They wonder why more patients don’t use it.  The website where I actually get my medications from is down more than it is operating.  I’ve found it’s easier to just make a telephone call.  Then there was the time I had to get three blood tests in one day because the medical community couldn’t share the results.  I’m just happy that the doctors and nurses seem to be programmed much better than their computers.

The Google Nexus Q was announced in June 2012 and officially dropped in October of the same year.  I think David Pogue described the Nexus Q perfectly when he said, “I can think of only one class of customer who should consider buying the black Nexus Q sphere: people whose living rooms are dominated by bowling-ball collections.”

Does anyone remember the Iomega Zip Drive?  The problem was that thousands of them didn’t work.  You could hear the drive head clicking as it destroyed the data on your disk.  Rather than acknowledge and fix the problem, Iomega chose to ignore it until there was a class action suit.

In July of 2011, the HP TouchPad was an eagerly awaited tablet that was going to rejuvenate HP’s WebOS operating system.   The machine was buggy, slow and had hardly any apps.  In less than three months, it was history.

Whatever happened to the virtual optical keyboard?  This was a holographic keyboard that could be projected on almost any surface.  It was supposed to be the end of clunky computer keyboards.  I’m not sure, but I think the plans were accidentally rolled up in one of those flexible keyboards and thrown out in the trash.

The only good thing about Windows Millennium was that it had a cool name.  As an operating system, it was a real dud.  When the PadBot debuted, it was going to revolutionize the world as we know it.  All you had to do was attach your iPad and the machine would be “you”.  You could send it almost anywhere and view, converse and interact with people.  This device was so popular that I don’t know anyone that has ever seen one.

The Zune MP3 player was going to be Microsoft’s iPod killer.  It had a few problems.  It was ugly, expensive and had inferior sound.  Not only did it not put a dent in iPod sales, it didn’t manage to gain market share over any of its rivals.

There are many other turkeys.  I could talk about things like the Segway, Sony Betamax, Windows Phone 7, Apple Lisa and the wearable computer to name a few.  I think I’ll wait to write about them after I get my microchip implanted.

It may not be an official technological turkey yet, but I think the Amazon Fire Phone will soon be one.  Originally priced at $199 with a two year contract, the Fire Phone was reduced to 99 cents less than two months after release.  Although it has some impressive specs, consumers don’t seem to want Amazon’s forked Android system on their phone.  Even on the Amazon website, the phone only gets 2.2 stars.  Many of the reviews that are five stars are because of the year of Amazon prime that is bundled with the machine.

That’s all of my thoughts for November.  My mind is empty again.  Thanks for reading.

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Halloween Pranks

October 16, 2014 Posted by Tiny

Halloween Pranks
By Tiny Ruisch

October is my favorite month of the year.  I’ve always enjoyed Halloween.  I guess it is probably because you can usually get away with a harmless prank or two.  I personally would never flip over an outhouse, unhinge a gate or let the air out of anyone’s car tires.

In this modern age, Halloween pranks almost beg to be played on someones computer.  Almost every one uses a laser mouse these days.  They can be easily disabled with a small piece of clear tape on the sensor.  Many people won’t notice and will have a hard time figuring out why all of a sudden their mouse isn’t working.  You can confuse them even more by opening mouse properties in the control panel.  Changing the mouse speed to the slowest setting will make any mouse activities an ordeal.

Another prank that has been around forever can still confuse even a veteran computer user.  Simply take a screen shot of your victim’s computer.  Then hide all of the desktop icons and replace their wallpaper with the screen shot.  Sit back and watch them click on icons that won’t load a program.

Another quick prank is to open Google’s home page in a browser.  Click on preferences and change the default language.  You’d be surprised at how many people this trick will fool.

Many users don’t know about sticky keys.  Sticky keys changes how the Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Windows Key function.  Keys are serialized instead of operating together.  For instance, instead of typing “Shift – a” to capitalize, you would have to type “Shift”, release the key and then type “a”.  This key change will drive an unsuspecting victim crazy.  Sticky keys are enabled by pressing the “Shift” key five times in quick succession.

An evil prank that you should only play on someone that won’t beat you up is to cause their computer to shut down.  Right click on one of the icons on your victims desk top.  Type the following in the target box: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 100 -c “Your Message Here”.  Your Message Here can be replaced with whatever message you like.  I use something like “That does not compute so I am shutting down” or “I’m sleepy.  I think I’ll shut down and rest now.”

Whenever the victim double clicks on that shortcut, their program will not start.  Instead, your message will display for 100 seconds (unless you change the number in the target box.)  Then the computer will shut down.

These Halloween computer pranks are all designed for the Windows operating system.  Although they are non-destructive, you run the risk of aggravating the user and making him or her possibly want to harm you.  Use them at your own risk.

It would be nice if you fix their computer for them afterword, but who am I to tell you what to do?

My mind is empty again. Thanks for reading.

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Reading List

October 16, 2014 Posted by Tiny

Reading List
By Tiny Ruisch

Ever since I learned how, I’ve always been an avid reader.  My parents didn’t have a television until I was about ten years old.  That never bothered me.  The library had a lot of entertainment.  In later life, when I was in the Navy, I seldom watched the ship’s movie.  I was busy finishing reading one more chapter before lights out.  These days, I still read at least a dozen magazines each month.  I am usually reading four or five books at a time.  I’ve got my bedside book, bathroom book, digital book and an audio book for my morning walk.

Accompanying the August 2013 club meeting library services topic, I thought I’d take a few minutes and share my books to read list.  With one exception, these are all books that I haven’t read.  I’ve included the Amazon link for each title just in case anyone else would like to read them.  I’m not sure, but I don’t think any of them are available from the Parish library.

The Manly Art of Knitting – The description says it all. Who am I to not read a cult classic.

Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World – With a sixteen word title, this just has to be a great book.

Winning Lotto / Lottery For Everyday Players – I’ll read this if I ever start playing the lottery.

The 2009-2014 Outlook for Wood Toilet Seats in Greater China – I’ve been to China two or three times and never realized this was a problem.

Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung – Confucius say, “Smooth words and fawning looks are seldom found with love.”

Much Ado About Nothing: The Restored Klingon Text – Shakespeare kind of looked like a Klingon.

Fancy Coffins to Make Yourself – I’ve been thinking of taking up woodworking and this looks like an interesting first project.

A Passion for Donkeys – I figure that any book that gets a five star rating on Amazon must be a good one to read.

The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America – I just hate going to the Walmart parking lot.

I guess you’ve probably figured out by now that I don’t really plan on reading all of these books.  I have read one of the books on the list.  I won’t tell you which one.  You can feel free to read any of them and post a review on our club website.

A final thought. Looking at this book list, I’m reminded of one book that it makes me want to read again.  It was one of Ray Bradbury’s best books.

My mind is empty again.  Thanks for reading.

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Medical Technology

October 16, 2014 Posted by Tiny

Medical Technology
By Tiny Ruisch

Unfortunately, I recently got to experience some modern medical technology up close and personal.  I’ve made a few random observations.

On a Saturday morning, I had some severe urinary problems and went to the emergency room at Christus hospital.  I deliberately picked Christus because that is the one my family doctor is affiliated with.  They are all on the same computer network and it should be easy for him to get copies of all the reports.  Guess again.

Of course, the first thing the emergency room did was take a bunch of blood for testing.  I explained that I had just completed my annual blood work that week.  I suppose those reports weren’t fresh enough.  After all, they were three days old.  Oh well. I was in way too much pain to try and reason with them.  They gave me some medications and sent me home with instructions to call if I wasn’t better the next day.

On Sunday, I disregarded the instructions.  I was in so much pain that I didn’t call.  My wife and daughter took me back to the emergency room.  If you guessed that I needed more blood tests, you’re a good guesser.  I asked if they thought my blood counts had really changed in the last 24 hours.  The answer was no, but rules are rules.  Luckily, I have a lot of veins in my body.

After a really painful day, I learned an important lesson about medical equipment.  Catheter should really be spelled with four letters.

My urologist scheduled me for surgery at the Lake Area Medical Center.  They have a real nifty system there.  Before being admitted for surgery, you have to spend a day doing all the pre-admission stuff.  Of course, this included another blood donation.  I was beginning to wonder if I kept failing the test.  I’ll bet the nurses said, “Keep sticking a needle in him until he gets it right!”

I also had the pleasure of another MRI to duplicate the one the emergency room people did.  I was beginning to see why health care costs are so high.  I also got an EKG.  That made me feel special since it was the only one.

I finally finished all of my tests and got all of my admission papers signed and copied.  I’ve seen plenty of long, complicated computer software EULAs.  They were nothing compared to the 28 pages it took to explain all of the rights and responsibilities etc. for both the hospital and myself.  I like to read anything I sign, so it took me quite a while.  I hope I didn’t need a lawyer.

Finally, the big day arrived.  The first thing I had to do was sign the admission papers.  There were 28 pages of them.  Page for page they were exactly the same as I had just signed a few days earlier.  Only the dates were changed.  I guess that was probably to protect the innocent.

I finally got to my room.  The nurse came in and started to prep me for surgery.  The first thing she asked me was what I was there for.  I chuckled, told her and commented that I was sure nobody else wanted to go through my procedure.  She got me dressed in a technological advanced gown.  It was a simple, light weight and opened in the back.  I suppose that was for easy access to the bathroom.  She started my intravenous tube.  She also outfitted me with a pair of compression socks and an air pump to keep the blood circulating in my legs.

A little later, the operating room nurse came in to brief me.  The first thing she asked me was what I was there for.  She then told me what to expect when I got into the operating room.  She told me the anesthesiologist would soon come by to talk to me.

Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, there she was.  The first thing the anesthesiologist asked me was what I was there for.  I said I was starting to get a little concerned because everyone asked me the same thing.  She told me that they all asked me to avoid confusion and to make sure they were talking to the correct patient.  I immediately double checked my plastic wrist bracelet.  My name was still correct on it.

Finally, my urologist came in to tell me I was next in line and he’d be ready in about 20 minutes.  I was sure glad he didn’t ask me what I was there for.

When I woke up in my hospital room, I was hooked up to several monitors.  One measured the oxygen content in my blood.  Almost every time I fell asleep, my oxygen level fell and a piercing alarm would sound.  It made for a pretty miserable night.

I’d have to say that modern medical technology didn’t do much to give me a smooth, tranquil experience.  All I noticed was a lot of redundancy.  Then again, I’m pretty sure I’ve been cured.

My mind is empty again.  Thanks for reading.

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National Do Not Call Registry – Originally Published April 2014

September 15, 2014 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Does anyone remember the Perry Mason television show that aired back in the 1950’s and 60’s?  Perry was a lawyer that had an extra phone line installed in his office.  The only people that had this second telephone number was his secretary and a private detective.  That way, whenever the phone rang, Perry knew it was important and would answer it immediately.

Here we are, sixty years later.  Almost everyone has a telephone they can carry with them wherever they go.  Isn’t technology great?  Now we can get a call almost everywhere we are.  Gone are the days of running to the telephone from the other side of the house, picking it up and hearing a dial tone.

Hardly anyone has to miss a call anymore.  You can answer it in the mall, behind the steering wheel, walking down the street or sitting on your throne.  How wonderful!

Unfortunately, behind every silver lining, there is a cloud.  It is so easy for telemarketers to program their computers to call you and everyone else that has a phone number.  Don’t you just love all of those interruptions?  Me neither.  I sure wish the government would save us.

Wait a minute!  I nearly forgot!  The government is already protecting us from unwanted calls.  On March 11, 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Do Not Call Implementation Act.  The law established the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry in order to facilitate compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.  This law is working so good that compliance complaints have increased every year except one.  You would think that complaints would decrease until unwanted calls are a thing of the past.

Could it be that people are complaining because of the law’s exemptions?  A person may still receive calls from political organizations.  Luckily for me, I don’t get any of those types of calls.

A person may still receive calls from not for profit organizations.  Once again, I’ve been lucky.  I don’t get any of those types of calls.

A person may still receive calls from companies with which he or she has an existing business relationship for up to eighteen months after their last purchase, payment or delivery from it.  I can’t believe how my luck is holding.  I don’t get any of those types of calls either.

My personal favorite exemption is that a person may still receive calls from companies conducting surveys.  Turns out that some of these companies call with a survey and then ask for permission to make a follow up call.  The follow up is an attempt to sell you something.  Guess what?  My luck is still holding.  I haven’t gotten any survey calls.

Even though I have never registered for the Do Not Call list, I expect that my luck will continue to be pretty good.  I don’t really care who has my phone number.  If I receive a call from a number that isn’t in my address book, it goes straight to my voice mail.  When my phone actually rings, I know that it is a call I probably want to answer.  Just like Perry Mason, I don’t get calls from unwanted people.

That’s all of my thoughts for April.  My mind is empty again.  Thanks for reading.

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