The thieves cut the locks on numerous metal lockers in the school’s band room, apparently searching for the sousaphones, she said. When they didn’t find any, they broke into Chaves-Rasas’ <Ligia Chaves-Rasas, the school’s band director> office, where the uniforms and tubas are stored under lock and key.

“We have the best doors in the district — the ones with the metal plates on the outside and no handles. They still got in,” she said. Cut locks were strewn around the band room.

The thieves stole only the two metal sousaphones and left two less-expensive fiberglass sousaphones and dozens of other instruments behind, she said.

“In the fight against climate change, the Mojave Desert is about to take one for the team.”

An article in the L.A. Times entitled, “Sacrificing the desert to save the Earth” describes environmentalists agonizing over the high cost of breaking the reliance on fossil fuels (gasoline consumption is DOWN in California) to combat climate change.

Reporting from Ivanpah Valley, Calif.— Construction cranes rise like storks 40 stories above the Mojave Desert. In their midst, the “power tower” emerges, wrapped in scaffolding and looking like a multistage rocket.

Clustered nearby are hangar-sized assembly buildings, looming berms of sand and a chain mail of fencing that will enclose more than 3,500 acres of public land. Moorings for 173,500 mirrors — each the size of a garage door — are spiked into the desert floor. Before the end of the year, they will become six square miles of gleaming reflectors, sweeping from Interstate 15 to the Clark Mountains along California’s eastern border.

Photos of the environmental compromise are here. BrightSource Energy‘s Ivanpah solar power plant construction has meant mowing down desert plants, displacing dozens of animal species, and relocating scores of desert tortoises, which biologists say may kill up to a third of them.

An artist’s conception of the Ivanpah project shows the magnitude of the Ivanpah solar farm. A graphic description of the environmental impact of a solar farm displays some of the living components of the desert ecosystem. A map of planned solar farms on mostly government land in California illustrates the number and locations of planned development. Interestingly, the map also shows rough locations of natural preserves and military reservations.

Industrial-scale solar development is well underway in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The federal government has furnished more public property to this cause than it has for oil and gas exploration over the last decade — 21 million acres, more than the area of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties put together.

The BrightSource solar plant illustrates a technology that can be used to derive the maximum amount of energy from sunlight.

The $2-billion plant is an amalgam of gadgetry designed to wring the maximum energy from the sun. Computers continually focus the field of mirrors to a center tower filled with water, which will heat to more than 1,000 degrees. The resulting steam drives an array of turbines capable of generating 370 megawatts, enough to power roughly 140,000 homes during peak hours.

So why is the large-scale development of solar farms in the Mojave happening now?

What has opened the way for such a costly source of energy is the dramatic turn in federal policy. As early as 2005, the Bush administration established generous programs to reward renewable energy developers. The Obama administration sweetened the pot, offering $45 billion in federal tax credits, guaranteed loans and grants.

On the state level, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger freed large solar plants from property tax and handed out $90 million in exemptions from sales and use taxes. Under Gov. Jerry Brown, the state invested more than $70 million in clean energy research last year, funded by a ratepayer surcharge.

Jeffrey Lovich, who studies desert tortoises for the U.S. Geologic Survey, in the preparation of a research paper found ONE prior work that analyzed the effects of large solar farms on wildlife. Essentially, Lovich said that no one understands what will happen to wildlife in the Mojave as the result of the large solar farms.

“This is an experiment on a grand scale,” Lovich said. “Science is racing to catch up.”

The urgency resulting from climate change (oh, it’s real) has forced difficult trade-offs.

Mainstream environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council, have been largely mute, having traded the picket line for a seat at the table when development plans were drawn.

The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the nation’s most aggressively litigious environmental groups, has not challenged the Ivanpah project. It signed a confidential agreement not to oppose the project in exchange for concessions for the desert tortoise — mandating that BrightSource buy land elsewhere for conservation.

Some 24 environmental groups signed statements largely supporting the aims of solar developers. National environmental groups joined BrightSource and other solar companies in a letter sent Dec. 14 to the White House, asking the president to continue a federal renewable-energy subsidy.

The national office of the Sierra Club has had to quash local chapters’ opposition to some solar projects, sending out a 42-page directive making it clear that the club’s national policy goals superseded the objections of a local group. Animosity bubbled over after a local Southern California chapter was told to refrain from opposing solar projects.

The most opposition has come NOT from the environmental groups that you might have expected, but instead, from the federal government. Opposition has come from the National Park Service, since Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and the Mojave National Preserve are situated close by. The Department of Defense, with the China Lake weapons testing facility, Fort Irwin, Edwards Air Force Base, Twentynine Palms Marine base and the Chocolate Mountain Naval Aerial Gunnery Range nearby has also raised questions. Pilots flying at 200 feet (or lower! ) are concerned with flying around 460-foot solar towers. The Marines have asked about glare from the arrays of solar reflectors. The Federal Aviation Administration is concerned about the heat plume from the Ivanpah towers as well as possible radar interference.

Meanwhile, experts estimate that, IF the solar farms fail economically, having secured billions of federal dollars, it will likely take hundreds of years to restore the desert.

In the search for clean energy, easy answers seem hard to find. Wind energy now supplies nearly 4,000 megawatts of electricity, 5% of California’s total energy needs, making the Golden State third nationwide, behind Texas and Iowa.

-Bill at

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The unemployment numbers for January from the Bureau of Labor Statistics came out today, and the news was good! Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2% to 8.3%. “Job growth was widespread in the private sector, with large employment gains in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing. Government employment changed little over the month.”

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.7 percent) and blacks (13.6 percent) declined in January. The unemployment rates for adult women (7.7 percent), teenagers (23.2 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and Hispanics (10.5 percent) were little changed. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.7 percent, not seasonally adjusted.

The number of people who LOST jobs and those who completed temporary jobs FELL to 7.3 million in January. The number of people among the long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more) remained roughly the same at 5.5 million and represented 42.9% of the unemployed. Similarly, the number of people who were employed part-time for economic reasons, because their hours had been cut or because they could not find a full-time job, remained roughly constant at 8.8 million in January.

Some 2.8 million people were “marginally attached to the workforce in January (not seasonally adjusted). “These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.” Among these people were 1.1 million discouraged workers, who are not looking for work because they believe that not jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.7 million had not searched for work in the 4 weeks before the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Here is what the report said about employment in various industries in January:

Professional and business services continued to add jobs in January (+70,000). About half of the increase occurred in employment services (+33,000). Job gains also occurred in accounting and bookkeeping (+13,000) and in architectural and engineering services (+7,000).

Over the month, employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 44,000, primarily in food services and drinking places (+33,000). Since a recent low in February 2010, food services has added 487,000 jobs.

In January, health care employment continued to grow (+31,000). Within the industry, hospitals and ambulatory care services each added 13,000 jobs.

Wholesale trade employment increased by 14,000 over the month. Since a recent employment low in May 2010, wholesale trade has added 144,000 jobs.

Employment in retail trade continued to trend up in January. Job gains in department stores (+19,000), health and personal care stores (+7,000), and automobile dealers (+7,000) were partially offset by losses in clothing and clothing accessory stores (-14,000). Since an employment trough in December 2009, retail trade has added 390,000 jobs.

In January, employment in information declined by 13,000, including a loss of 8,000 jobs in the motion picture and sound recording industry.

In the goods-producing sector, manufacturing added 50,000 jobs. Nearly all of the increase occurred in durable goods manufacturing, with job growth in fabricated metal products (+11,000), machinery (+11,000), and motor vehicles and parts (+8,000). Durable goods manufacturing has added 418,000 jobs over the past 2 years.

Employment in construction increased by 21,000 in January, following a gain of 31,000 in the previous month. Over the past 2 months, nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 30,000 jobs.

Mining added 10,000 jobs in January, with most of the gain in support activities for mining (+8,000). Since a recent low in October 2009, mining employment has expanded by 172,000.

Government employment changed little in January. Over the past 12 months, the sector has lost 276,000 jobs, with declines in local government; state government, excluding education; and the U.S. Postal Service.

Average hourly earnings for all employees on private, nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $23.29. In January, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 2 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $19.62.

There were UPWARD revisions to employment figures for November and December. Total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised from +100,000 to +157,000, and the change for December was revised from +200,000 to +203,000. Monthly revisions result from
additional sample reports and the monthly recalculation of seasonal factors. The annual benchmark process also contributed to these revisions. The benchmark revisions are extensively discussed, and tabular data are presented.

-Bill at

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Of the part of my high-tech life spent in California, almost all was spent in some type of customer service (the customer service groups were PROFIT centers, NOT cost centers!), even the project management part of my high-tech life. This fact accounts for my strong belief that customer service is a core part of any business -  a belief that I have incorporated into my OWN business. So… I was amused and delighted to read Rafe Needleman’s Groundhog Day article, “From Dell Hell to Genius Bar: a customer service journey.” I recently had an experience with Intuit’s outsourced Indian technical support that reminded me of Needleman’s experience with Dell, EXCEPT that the Intuit representative actually HUNG UP on me after telling me that he would help me! Irony? Maybe he did!

I first wrote about outsourcing and offshoring (“A few words about outsourcing/offshoring“) in the very first month of this blog, in September 2007. The support call mentioned in that blog was with Adobe Systems. It seems that the stupidity of offshoring is only NOW, almost five years later, starting to bite some of the companies that were responsible for so many layoffs in high tech. I, for one, was glad to hear of President Obama’s initiatives to reward companies that keep American jobs on American soil (or that RETURN them to American soil). Many businesses are not run by anyone intelligent enough to see the obvious – that destroying your employees is destroying your customers.

But I digress….

Rafe Needleman admits, “I didn’t get how important support was.” He still used the wrong verb tense – he means, “…how important support IS!” His comment about his experience with Dell…?

“Nobody disrespects a customer like that and keeps their business for long. No matter how great the person is who tries to make up for it.”

Remember that statement, GOOD customer service people who work for companies that don’t care. You cannot save such companies, and such companies will not recognize and reward your work. Go work for a company that “gets it.”

Rafe contrasts his experiences with Dell and Apple. As for Rafe’s bad luck with Apple hardware… maybe he does not know that Apple machines can pick up on the “bad vibes” emanating from long-time Windows users, and the boxes have their own ways of making these users “repent.” Rafe notes that: “With Apple, you can just tell: service is part of the product. It’s not an afterthought, farmed out to subcontractors. Apple, clearly, takes a service call as an opportunity to reinforce the brand message, not just to fulfill a contractual duty to honor a warranty.”

The best two sentences in the extremely well-written article…?

“Every time I have had to deal with a broken Apple product, the experience has left me liking Apple products more. That is one hell of a trick.“

And it is a “trick” that ALL smart businesses should learn….

-Bill at

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The HUGE amount of data gathered on the HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of Facebook users means a vast audience for targeted marketing!

Facebook listed among its business opportunities offline branded advertising, online ads–including click-based and display advertising–and mobile advertising, stating its intention to go beyond the online world and go after more traditional streams of advertising revenue.

Facebook also listed payments for goods as another revenue opportunity. The social network serves as a platform for developers to sell their goods–virtual and otherwise–and from which the company takes a cut. The company said Zynga, which makes games like Farmville on Facebook, represented 12 percent of its total revenue in 2011. No other customer accounted for more than 10 percent of revenue, but the company warned that it would suffer if it didn’t maintain a good relationship with the social-gaming company.

The payments business still remains a small part of the total company’s revenue. Advertising in 2011 accounted for 85 percent of its revenue, although that chunk had shrunk considerably from 2010.

Facebook does not display ads in its mobile app, which could be a risk if more users check in using their smartphones. “Other risks included government actions in different countries, new products and services failing, and a slowing rate of growth over time.”

As for Mark Zuckerberg, he owns 28% of Facebook and is the single largest shareholder.

-Bill at

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Spokesperson Jennifer Manfre told the L.A. Times:

“The potential leak poses no imminent danger to the plant workers or the public.”

Crews are assessing the situation to determine whether a leak had occurred. There have been no evacuations so far.

The press release states that Southern California Edison had begun a precautionary shutdown of Unit 3 because of a possible leak. There has been no release to the atmosphere.

Unit 2 is currently offline for a planned maintenance, refueling and technology upgrade outage. Southern California Edison has ample reserve power to meet customer needs while Unit 3 is offline.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was immediately informed of this development.

Updates concerning the shutdown can be found here. A Twitter update two hours ago, as I write this, said that the possible leak is inside the containment dome, with no release into the atmosphere.

-Bill at

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There have got to be FEW people on the planet who are as “hard to see” as the President of the United States. First off, the matter had BETTER be important! This afternoon, President Obama held his first Google+ “hangout” with a handful of voters. The President answered a question about whether the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) would levy “too much censorship on the Internet,” but stopped short of saying that he opposes the legislation (he is a politician, after all, and the bills are largely supported by Democrats ). He urged Hollywood, the Recording Industry Association of America, and Internet companies in Silicon Valley (I used to “live” in a few of them) to work to “come together” on the issue.

“I think that it’s going to be possible for us” to find a workable approach, Obama said during the event broadcast on YouTube, predicting that it’s possible to protect Hollywood’s interests without “affecting the fundamental integrity of the Internet as an open, transparent system.”

“What I’ve suggested is that both sides–the content side and the server side–come together and work with us to create a system where there are strong protections in place,” and the Internet as an open and transparent system can also be protected, he said.

I applaud the President’s attempt to bridge the gulf between the “old world” of the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and their allies and the “new world” of Internet and high-tech companies who actually UNDERSTAND a bit about the Internet, users, and civil liberties groups who actually CARE about the Bill of Rights! These “new world” folk OPPOSE (PDF) the two bills, which would allow the Justice Department “…to obtain an order to be served on search engines, Internet service providers, and other companies, forcing them to make a suspected piratical Web site effectively vanish.”

After Obama downplayed the significance of a New York Times article reporting that Iraqis are protesting “a small fleet of surveillance drones” patrolling Iraq’s airspace even though U.S. troops have left the country, one participant wondered: “Do they send the message that the U.S. is interfering in other countries’ affairs?”

Obama paused and retrenched. In general, he said, drones are a “targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists” and the program has “not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.”

“This thing is kept on a very tight leash,” he said.

Maybe drones are a “targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists” in Iraq, but the “small fleet” of Predator B drones that patrols the northern and southwestern borders of the United States has been used for far-less-significant things, like examining suspected cattle rustlers (six cows!) in North Dakota!

Something seems amiss when drones target terrorists abroad and suspected cattle rustlers at home! I’ll bet that many American citizens who are AWARE of the domestic drone surveillance are probably pretty “steamed” about it, too!

-Bill at

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(I wrote about photography at ANOTHER series of preserves, the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge comples, north of Sacramento, in October of 2007.)

On Friday, the photography department of Consumnes River College and Canon hosted a free, two-hour seminar with bird and wildlife photographer George Lepp. On Saturday, stations were set up to photograph birds with telephoto lenses of 200mm  through 800mm (mercy!) – the cameras and lenses were provided by Canon for free! Photographers were asked to bring their own memory cards.

The Consumnes River Preserve is 20 miles south of Sacramento, on Interstate 5 and one of the largest preserves and land partnerships in the region. All in all, the partners manage over 46,000 acres! Local farmers flood their fields in the winter to provide additional feeding grounds and nesting areas. Over 250 species of birds have been recorded on the preserve.

If you are a bird photographer, the Department of Fish and Game and California Watchable Wildlife sponsor a photography contest with cash and merchandise prizes. The contest runs until Feb. 29, 2012.

And for goodness sake, take your tripod!

-Bill at

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Money ALSO can’t buy intelligence, balance, wisdom, or good taste.

You think about such things a lot, as you watch the antics of rich people in California, or anywhere.

A New York hedge fund manager and his wife, who bought the one-acre Point Dume property at 28827 Grayfox Street (Google Map) told the City of Malibu that the 7,000-square-foot house on the property, a series of diamond-shaped rooms designed by Bart Prince, which cascades down the slope, does not meet their needs or taste. The couple plans to DEMOLISH it and build an almost 6,900-square-foot compound with a two-story residence, a detached garage, and a pool and cabana.

“The Rich Are Different.” (1)

Well, of course SOME of the neighbors are upset, which would happen anyway when someone NEW moves into a neighborhood, even without the wanton destruction of a Bart Prince home that was once described as one of the most significant new structures in Malibu.

Among Point Dume residents who are urging preservation of the house — as well as million-dollar views — are Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, Don Rickles and Chad Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“In my wildest dreams, I would never, ever have thought it would be possible for someone to build closer to our home … and also into the view of what you know is so precious to us and our family,” said Smith, who lives next door and is leading the effort to stop the project. “It blows me away that this is possible.”

Malibu does not have an historic preservation ordinance, which likely would not apply anyway, since the home was built in 2005. For that reason, the Los Angeles Conservancy has chosen to stay out of the matter so far.

The one-acre Point Dume property at 28827 Grayfox St. was bought in 2010 by the Sogel Family Trust for $6.2 million, down from the original listing price of $9.9 million, after 318 days on the market.

Behind the trust are Sean Fahey, a co-founder of Claren Road Asset Management, and his wife, Robin Luce.

The couple and their two children are “…excited to come out to Point Dume and be part of the community.”

Good luck with that.

Building the house for its original owners, Mark Lever and Alisa Morgenthaler, was no small feat, architect Prince recalled from his base in New Mexico. The design was constrained by rules intended to protect the canyon, some of which have since been lifted. Prince’s “organic” architecture was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, who promoted harmony with nature.

Prince said it was his aim to let the house follow the slope of the land. The structure is steel on a masonry concrete base, with glass and copper as the main exterior materials. It was built to last, with mitered joints and custom doors and windows that open at the corners and slide back.

“It took forever to build that house,” said Robin Poirier, a contractor who supervised much of the carpentry. “The house was perfectly tailored to fit that site … so that it does not obstruct anyone’s view. … The new house … is like a gigantic billboard.”

(In an “unrelated” story today, deputies arrested three of four fleeing suspects early this morning and seized a boat carrying 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of marijuana that was docked illegally in Malibu’s Point Dume State Preserve. )

-Bill at

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“I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this,” Jobs wrote to Schmidt on March 7, 2007.

According to the exchange detailed in the filing, Schmidt then sent the request on, saying “I believe we have a policy of no recruiting from Apple and this is a direct inbound request. Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening? I will need to send a response back to Apple quickly so please let me know as soon as you can.”

This resulted in the immediate firing of the recruiter who had attempted to hire the engineer in question, with Google’s staffing director writing back “please extend my apologies as appropriate to Steve Jobs,” and noting that it was “an isolated incident.”

The case (PDF), which seeks class-action status, against Apple, Adobe Systems, Google, Pixar, Intel, and Intuit alleges that a no-poaching agreement was made among each company’s top executives. That suit claims that the companies entered into an unofficial agreement not to hire talent away from one another, while working together to set and control employee compensation.

“…this recent filing includes details of an Apple employee attempting to apply for a position at Pixar and being told that “only problem–we can’t poach from Apple,” from an employee there. In another e-mail exchange between two vice presidents at Google, the pair talk about ways to “never get into bidding wars” on potential talent with Schmidt and longtime Apple board member Bill Campbell being copied in on it.”

What can I say? In addition to things like widespread age discrimination, requirements for W2 forms to be hired, and RAISES being “pro-rated” for the amount of time spent with the company in the previous year (I never experienced “pro-rated raises” before coming to California) the allegations above, if true, would just be more examples of how employers in Silicon Valley collude to control worker wages and benefits and limit their opportunities for movement and advancement. That is before you get to things like abusive treatment on the job.

When politicians ask why more American kids do not pursue careers in engineering, the sciences, and math, you can tell them that talented engineers and Ph.D. scientists may wind up working for college dropouts (even if one of them was my FAVORITE college dropout ) and others who allegedly collude(d) illegally in unfair and illegal business practices.

We shall all have to follow the case and find out if any of the allegations turn out to be true.

-Bill at

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Now, the Navy is testing an autonomous robotic plane without a pilot anywhere.

Oh, it will be HEAVILY armed.

The X-47B drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay (Hey! I’m glad that it’s on the “RIGHT coast” this time! ) can fly autonomously using onboard computers without a pilot ANYWHERE and will learn to land on an aircraft carrier. Humans will program an autonomous drone‘s flight plan and could override its decisions (hmmm, what about interference or jamming? …or viruses?), but technology is once again way ahead of ethics.

“Lethal actions should have a clear chain of accountability,” said Noel Sharkey, a computer scientist and robotics expert. “This is difficult with a robot weapon. The robot cannot be held accountable. So is it the commander who used it? The politician who authorized it? The military’s acquisition process? The manufacturer, for faulty equipment?”

Representative Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita, CA) are the co-chairs of a bipartisan drone caucus (yeah, “drone on!”) that is officially known as the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus, a pane in 2009 to inform members of Congress about the applications of drone technology.

“It’s a different world from just a few years ago — we’ve entered the realm of science fiction in a lot of ways,” Cuellar said. “New rules have to be developed as new technology comes about, and this is a big step forward.”

Or a big step BACKWARD…! Hey! I wonder if any of the autonomous drones will someday carry nuclear weapons. It seems as though it will only be a matter of time…. (Omigosh! I just had a very scary thought. What if the drones are running Windows? )

Don’t you wish that these folks had read their Asimov? Specifically, the Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

According to the L.A. Times article:

Aerial drones now piloted remotely have become a central weapon for the CIA and U.S. military in their campaign against terrorists in the Middle East. The Pentagon has gone from an inventory of a handful of drones before Sept. 11, 2001, to about 7,500 drones, about one-third of all military aircraft.

and:

The Air Force wrote in an 82-page report that outlines the future usage of drones, titled “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047,” that autonomous drone aircraft are key “to increasing effects while potentially reducing cost, forward footprint and risk.” Much like a chess master can outperform proficient chess players, future drones will be able to react faster than human pilots ever could, the report said.

“Increasingly humans will no longer be ‘in the loop’ but rather ‘on the loop’ — monitoring the execution of certain decisions,” the report said. “Authorizing a machine to make lethal combat decisions is contingent upon political and military leaders resolving legal and ethical questions.”

Sure, the X-47B was built in California, in Palmdale at Northrop Grumman Corp., where the B2 stealth bomber was manufactured.

Funded under a $635.8-million contract awarded by the Navy in 2007, the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration program has grown in cost to an estimated $813 million.

Last February, the first X-47B had its maiden flight from Edwards Air Force Base, where it continued testing until last month when it was carried from the Mojave Desert to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in southern Maryland. It is there that the next stage of the demonstration program begins.

The landing on an aircraft carrier is slated for 2013.

The X-47B will not only land itself, but will also know what kind of weapons it is carrying, when and where it needs to refuel with an aerial tanker, and whether there’s a nearby threat, said Carl Johnson, Northrop’s X-47B program manager. “It will do its own math and decide what it should do next.”

Maybe someday, its offspring will decide, like Skynet, that human beings are too unstable to have control. From the looks of things, the machines would likely be correct. Maybe the machines, just like the HAL9000, will assimilate the mental illnesses of their creators and controllers.

Let’s hope that the machines develop the wisdom that their human creators clearly lack.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

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“They chopped up the car,” Molina said. “We have interior and some exterior body parts.”

Although the men apparently specialized in stealing classic cars for their expensive body parts, authorities say that the operation itself was not sophisticated. Last fall, officials got a break in the case when Santa Monica police got a tip in response to a flyer they released concerning Travolta’s car. The tip identified suspect Michael Green, which led to his arrest on December 6. Green was on probation for stealing jewelry from a Sears store, after he pleaded guilty, with priors. L.A. County prosecutors say that D.L. Rayford Jr. was also arrested in the case, has pleaded guilty to grand theft auto, and has been sentenced to 16 months in state prison.

John Travolta’s car was stolen in September when he parked it for 10 minutes in a residential neighborhood in Santa Monica. Detectives had obtained videos of the vehicle and suspects as the car was taken from the 1400 block of Berkeley Street (Google Map). Green told police, in December, that he had stolen Travolta’s car and a second car that was described as a 1962 Mercedes 220 SE. The other car was reported by LAPD in 2010 as being pushed off the 101 Freeway at Cahuenga Boulevard by a gold Chevy Cavalier. When police investigated, a suspect jumped out of the hot-wired Mercedes 220 SE and into the Cavalier and escaped. The Mercedes 220 SE was returned to its owner.

Travolta was not so fortunate with HIS classic Mercedes.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Last quarter, Apple sold 37 million iPhones (twice that of last year’s quarter) and ALSO DOUBLED the number of iPads sold, as compared with last year’s quarter, to a record 15.4 million. Unsurprisingly, at least to me, Apple also sold 5.2 million Macs, the first time that the company sold more than 5 million in one quarter! Also, 15.4 million iPods were sold during the holiday quarter, which ended December 31. Those sales make for $127,8 billion in sales during the 2011 calendar year. Apple is in a “dead heat” with Hewlett Packard, the largest tech company in the U.S. and is on track to beat Samsung to be the number 1 tech company in the world, by revenue!

Apple said that its first quarter profit increased to $13 billion ($13.87/share), more than DOUBLE its profit of a year ago. Apple is sitting on most of those profits, and now has $97.6 billion in cash. I know. “Cash is King.” But you can do a lot of GOOD with even a tiny piece of $97.6 billion…. My next question? How much of that $97.6 billion is stored in the United States?

Apple’s quarterly profit is second in history ONLY to that of Exxon in the fall of 2008. Personally, I FEEL better about Apple’s!

The iPhone sales alone were $24.4 billion during the quarter. An amazing graph of iPhone unit sales is here.

Apple has sold 315 million devices that run the iOS operating system. Some 85 million customers have signed up for iCloud.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” Cook said in a prepared statement. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

There is no doubt in my mind!

(A friend and I stopped into the Apple “Company Store” in Cupertino last week, after a great lunch and reunion at the restaurant at Infinite Loop and De Anza. It brought back fond memories.)

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

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In a UNANIMOUS decision today, the United States Supreme Court ruled that police violated the rights of Washington D.C. co-owner of the nightclub, “Levels,” Antoine Jones, when they planted a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking device on Jones’ Jeep OUTSIDE the TERMS of an issued warrant and used the device to track him for 28 days. The tracking led to almost 100 kg (220 lbs.) of cocaine, about $850,000 in cash, and a life-in-prison sentence for Jones. The case is U.S. v. Jones (10-1259) (PDF).

(For those who have been “living in a small cabin in Montana” for a number of years, GPS systems allow the real-time tracking of the movement of individuals through a system of orbiting satellites.)

FIVE of the Justices said that secretly placing the device and monitoring the movement of Jones for several weeks constituted a “search” by the government and violated the Fourth Amendment Constitutional Rights of Jones.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights states:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”

The other FOUR Justices concluded that the search was improper but reasoned that it was improper because the 28-day search violated the suspect’s expectation of privacy.

In the case, a warrant had been granted to authorities, but the installation of a GPS unit was authorized ONLY within 10 days and ONLY within the District of Columbia. Agents did not install the GPS until the 11th day, and they secretly installed in in the state of Maryland. Then, agents monitored Jones as he traveled around for 28 days.

The U.S. Supreme Court was asked whether such covert surveillance violated the Fourth Amendment rights of Jones and whether the surveillance should be considered to be a “search,” a “seizure,” or both! One of the issues under consideration was whether movement in a “private” vehicle on city streets is “public” in nature.

Although the nine Justices decided unanimously in favor of Jones, their different legal analyses will likely create confusion among those in the Executive Branch of government, who are charged with enforcing the law.

Good.

The difference will ALSO cause the Justices additional reflection upon extensions of their decision, particularly as it relates to that far-more-common GPS tracking device that is required by law in every modern cell phone in the United States, and perhaps worldwide.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion of the Court, that a person’s property is legally sacred and that the government must JUSTIFY placing a GPS device on the vehicle. Scalia opined that modern technology does not change this centuries-old concept! Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor agreed.

“The government physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information,” said the ruling. “We have no doubt that such a physical intrusion would have been considered a ‘search’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when it was adopted.”

However, a group of four Justices led by Samuel Alioto (including Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan) concluded that the reasoning in the majority opinion was “artificial” and did not address the larger issues of the electronic age, including GPS. Alioto wrote that the Court should have used this decision to clarify the limits of the police in monitoring Internet use and wireless personal communications devices like cell phones.

“The availability and use of these and other devices will continue to shape the average person’s expectations about the privacy of his or her daily movements,” Alito wrote. “In circumstances involving dramatic technological change, the best solution to privacy concerns may be legislative.”

Good luck with THAT, Justice Alioto! Intelligent decisions about individual privacy, or about constitutional rights, in Congress (especially RECENTLY) seem a bit much to expect! I would prefer to trust the courts.

Alioto said that the U.S. Congress and most states have not kept up with the times (and whose fault is THAT? ) leaving a citizen’s expectations of privacy in the hands of the courts. Four weeks of tracking was more than enough time to justify police getting a search warrant, he reasoned.

The U.S. Supreme Court Justice MAY choose to take on a related case, that of an inmate in Oregon, Juan Pineda-Moreno, who was tracked to a marijuana farm that he was cultivating, using a GPS tracker. The Federal Appeals Court in San Francisco UPHELD his conviction, ruling that the placement and tracking was not a “search,” and therefore, no search warrant was needed.

Personally, I would like the Court to consider a case in which someone was tracked using his/her cell phone, but perhaps we’ll get there eventually.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

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Well, they have to recoup billions lost in the failed T-Mobile merger, somehow!

I missed the announcement on January 18 that AT&T, the WORST wireless carrier in customer satisfaction in 2010, and again in 2011, according to Consumer Reports, has decided to raise the rates on the data plans that are required with the purchase of every smartphone. Existing customers can keep their current plans (until they expire, of course).

According to CNET:

“The company’s previous bottom-tier $15 plan will go up to $20, although the amount of data allocated also goes up to 300 from 200 megabytes. Likewise, the $25, 2 gigabyte plan goes up to a $30, 3GB one. Its high-end $45, 4GB plan–which includes the mobile hot-spot capability–goes up to $50 for 5GB.”

“The company also tweaked its tablet data plan, increasing it to 3GB for $30 a month, up from 2GB for $25. There’s also a new higher end plan that offers 5GB for $50.”

The new plans start TODAY!

Last week, Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T’s mobile and consumer divisions, told CNET that making smartphones more affordable is a major initiative at AT&T.

Does the data plan announcement mean that AT&T doesn’t like “initiative?” Or something more sinister…?

Yes, I am still waiting for an iPhone (the most popular smartphone among mobile workers) to be available on the LTE network of Verizon, the highest ranked wireless carrier in customer satisfaction. AT&T is  still lagging in rolling out its LTE network. Ralph de la Vega said back in June of 2011 that AT&T’s data network will not be on a par with Verizon’s until 2013 or 2014 (1). Thousands of L.A. area AT&T customers were without wireless service in September 2011, and back in June of 2010, an AT&T Web site hole exposed 114,000 iPad user email addresses. Also in June of 2010, AT&T announced then-new data plans that included a $325 early-termination fee.

AT&T was the first major carrier to push through the idea of “capped data plans.” AT&T has been dealing with increasing data consumption and looking to “throttle” the connections of people who exceed their limits. The company is also working to create a “shared data plan” that would allow multiple devices to connect to the network, with one bill, “…but De la Vega said there have been complications with getting that plan rolled out correctly.”

(Hint: It’s “new.” )

Meanwhile, Maggie Reardon got busy answering the question of a reader who asked:

“When AT&T first switched to the tiered pricing plans, they claimed only a fraction of their users ever use more than 2GB of data per month. It seems like they are basically implementing a $5 price increase on all of their smartphone users with no added benefit. Right?”

Reardon answered:

“…in 2010 when AT&T introduced its tiered services, the company said that 98 percent of its subscribers don’t need more than 2GB of data per month.

When I asked AT&T’s spokesman Mark Siegel what percentage of consumers still fall below the 2GB mark today, he wouldn’t answer me. Instead, he said that traffic on AT&T’s network is increasing 40 percent each year. And he said that is why AT&T has lifted its data caps and started charging customers more for the service.”

and:

“But AT&T’s motivation for increasing the price of its service doesn’t seem to have anything to do with offering consumers more choices. It seems the real goal is to increase revenue and to get more unlimited users to choose the tiered offering. Even though $5 more a month may not seem like a lot of money, it adds up for consumers and for AT&T.”

and:

“My guess is that these new plans are designed to get more of those customers who were grandfathered into the unlimited data plan to convert to a tiered plan. AT&T has already tried to limit usage of unlimited data plan users by slowing down service for the top 5 percent of data users each month.

AT&T has never defined how much data on average someone needs to use to trigger the throttling. And that’s because it’s a moving target. But the company hasn’t really defined how it calculates the which customers are considered in the top 5 percent. For example, are these customers being compared to other unlimited users only? Or are they being compared to customers on tiered plans? Is the usage percentage calculated by region or is it nationwide?

AT&T has left its policy as vague as possible so that it has more flexibility in enforcing it. Meanwhile, it can still claim that it offers an unlimited data plan.”

I don’t know. Reardon sounds a little frustrated with AT&T to me! After you work with some of those folks for awhile (as I did), you REALLY start to “love” them! Personally, I would worry about “vagueness.” In my humble opinion (IMHO), some areas of that company are not very good with math. Do you see why customer satisfaction might be “a little off?”

Also, according to CNET:

“Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, has been testing out a 300MB plan for $20 a month in select markets in the south. It previously ran a promotion for 4GB of data for $30 a month, but it expired Sunday.”

Maggie Reardon offers EVEN MORE good advice in that particular column. If I had to make any wireless decisions anytime soon (I don’t! ), I would READ it!

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

I saved her for today. She was a “California original.”

Her death was reported by her friend and manager, Lupe De Leon, who worked with her for over 30 years.

I sit here tonight listening to “Masters of the Blues: The Best of Etta James” playing from my CD on this MacBook Pro, through iTunes. The second song, now playing is “At Last,” a favorite at weddings. As Etta James died, from complications of leukemia, her husband, Artis Mills, and her sons were by her side. She was diagnosed in 2010 with leukemia, and she also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C.

Over the course of Etta James’ career, she suffered from heroin addiction, opened for The Rolling Stones, won SIX Grammy Awards, and was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! Through it all, she kept her optimism.

Etta James died in a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have been 74 on Wednesday.

De Leon said:

“She was a true original who could sing it all — her music defied category.”

“Etta James is unmanageable, and I’m the closest thing she’s ever had to a manager,” Lupe DeLeon, her manager of 30-plus years, told CNN in admiration.

Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, to a teen mother and unknown father. James suspected her father was the pool player Minnesota Fats. Her mother showed little maternal responsibility, and James was raised by a series of peoples, in particular, a pair of owners of a boardinghouse. Her powerful voice was recognized and showcased in a church in South Central Los Angeles.

Her birth mother took her to San Francisco in 1950, where James formed a group called “The Peaches.” In San Francisco, she was discovered by singer Johnny Otis, known for “Willie and the Hand Jive,” who had her sing his song that he wrote with Hank Ballard’s song as a model – with responses from Richard Berry, the composer and original performer of “Louie Louie.”

So… as a mere teenager, Etta James sang to Number 1 on the R&B charts in 1955 with “The Wallflower (Roll With Me, Henry)” – an “answer record” to Hank Ballard‘s “Work With Me, Annie.” In 1960, she joined Chess Records and enjoyed a string of R&B and Pop hits.

Chess Records brought Etta James to a much broader audience, since the co-owner of Chess believed that James could sing Pop hits. Among her hits was the Lena Horne classic, “Stormy Weather,” originally from 1933, “A Sunday Kind of Love,” originally from 1946; and most notably, “At Last,” a 1941 song that became a hit for Glenn Miller. “At Last” made it into the R&B Top 10 but failed to reach the Top 40 when it was released in 1961. Taking a back seat to the “British Invasion” in the mid-1960s, she bounced back in 1967, with a soulful, hard-edged sound.

In the 1970s, after entering rehabilitation, she bounced back with live performances and an album produced by noted R&B mastermind Jerry Wexler. After yet another round of rehab, at the Betty Ford Clinic, she came back with the album, “Seven Year Itch,” in 1988. Quite coincidentally (but I am not a strong believer in coincidence), I just replaced the “Best of…” CD with the “Seven Year Itch” comeback album, starting off with “I Got The Will.”

Although Etta James mastered a variety of styles and musical genres, she always seemed to be one step behind the popular music of the day. She was plagued by health problems, and gastric bypass surgery in 2003 reduced her weight from reportedly over 400 pounds in the late 1990 to less than half. By the end of her life though, James had created such a volume of meaningful music that she was considered to be a living legend!

Music lovers will miss her, and cherish her contributions.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

“People tend to think of psychopaths as criminals. In fact, the majority of psychopaths aren’t criminal,” said Hare, a pioneer in the study of psychopathy who developed the first diagnostic test for the mental disorder in 1980. “They don’t go out and maim, rob and rape but find other ways to satisfy themselves without doing something necessarily illegal … such as taking risks with someone else’s property or money.”

If you are a LONG-time reader of this blog, you may remember the “Snakes in Suits….” book. I wrote a blog entry on February 13, 2008 called “Workplace bullies and psychos…” that cited a BankRate.com article in which Dr. Hare’s work was quoted. Also in that blog, I mentioned the award-winning film, “The Corporation,” which examines the question, “If corporations are people, then what KIND of people ARE they?” The conclusion was that they are psychopaths, and the evidence is substantial. My 2008 blog entry seriously underestimates the number of likely psychopaths in my life. The one in graduate school clearly remains, but I think that I can safely increase the estimate in business from 1 to 4.

Most of us have an image of psychopathy that’s inaccurate — we think of the killer, a crazy person … the fact is, psychopathy is a personality disorder that may or may not result in criminal behavior,” said Paul Babiak, a New York industrial psychologist who has teamed with Hare on “Snakes and Suits” and a range of studies on psychopaths in the workplace over the past 16 years.

Psychopaths are drawn to powerful people and positions. “They like to play head games with people and make good money at it,” said Babiak, who coaches executives on dealing with psychopathic colleagues — and most of his clients are in the financial services industry. “They’re not stupid. They can decode what’s expected of them and play the part.”

Dr. Hare notes that it far easier to study psychopathy in prisons than in corporations, because the psychopathy of prisons is well-documented, but in corporations, “…companies don’t want to know.”

The difference between “high-flyers” and psychopaths is that high-flyers exhibit different personas at work vs. at home. (If you think about it, this is ANOTHER kind of mental illness. ) Psychopaths do not vary their behavior and treat friends and family as badly as they do colleagues at work.

The CNN article notes that “…these are golden times for cold, career opportunists like psychopaths, psychologists say.” The damage done in terms of bad morale, poor teamwork, and ineffective execution of strategy can be hard to quantify, unless the psychopath deviates into actual crime. I have seen the negative effects in corporations, and the likely psychopaths involved were rewarded.

And crime in the workplace is rising. A November report from PriceWaterhouse Coopers shows global economic crime is rising — a 13% increase since its 2009 world survey, with an average cost per company of $5 million. And most of the crimes are inside jobs: 56% of companies say the offenders were employees.

“You may have people who defraud your business ranging from taking change out of the register to stealing tens of thousands,” Babiak said. “The psychopath sees no difference and feels no remorse.”

Some of the likely psychopaths for whom I worked were laid off, but most have been promoted.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

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The security company, F-Secure presented an analysis of Macintosh malware released during Q2 through Q4 of 2011. There were ONLY 58 new variants released between April and December of last year, most of which were Trojan horse of backdoor attempts. NONE were viruses or worms! When taken in the context described by the UK security company, DGata, that the number of new malware threats for computers and Web-based services HAS SURPASSED 1,000,000, STARTING IN 2009, “…the overall number of 58 threats is nothing when compared to other platforms.”

This HUGE disparity in malware attacks, between the few experienced on the Mac platform and the VAST numbers experienced on OTHER platforms is why I think of malware attacks on users of the Windows platform, especially in large “we-know-more-than-YOU-do” corporations, as “self-inflicted gunshot wounds.”

The CNET article notes that:

“Therefore, even though the threat level for OS X is higher than it has been in past years, when compared with the rest of the industry malware on the Mac is almost negligibly minuscule.“

Although it might seem “logical” to expect that the number of threats might increase as Macintosh market share increases, “…the data from F-Secure suggests that this may not be the case.” Those of us who have studied the sciences have learned that what SEEMS logical often is NOT, and that it is usually best to go in open-minded, get data from dispassionate observations, and to see what the data tell us. The human brain is not naturally logical, in any case.

“Tiny Bubbles”

The F-Secure study clearly shows two time frames in which malware was released for Macintosh in 2011: one around June and another around October. F-Secure described these releases as “opportunistic bubbles” surrounded by periods of inactivity. These dynamics of malware activity on the Mac ARE VERY DIFFERENT “… from the steady rise in the Mac’s market share in the past year, which according to NetApplications has increased by 17 percent from February 2011 to 6.36 percent worldwide, and which has recently surpassed 12 percent in the U.S., according to Gartner.”

Like any good scientific study, the F-Secure study “hedges its bets” by noting that the TINY sample size of 58 threats against a background of MILLIONS makes it difficult to say whether the bubbles of malware releases may merge into an increasing trend in the future. I’LL say!

The CNET article concludes:

“Overall while these observations are interesting, ultimately it is important to keep in mind that despite the reports of malware throughout the past year, the level of malware for OS X continues to be minuscule when compared with the millions of malware programs released through the year.”

Overall, the data make it harder and harder to be charitable to Windows users in the face of such overwhelming evidence, but I have decided to continue a personal program of EDUCATION, and to let the numbers speak for themselves! Except for corporations (and government agencies), of course, some of which are BEYOND education….

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

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Lately, I have been working with the nice folks at Thomasville of Dublin, CA, who are partnering with some local art organizations to host a display of about 60 pieces of art from January 20-30 in their showroom on Dublin Boulevard. We will be receiving and hanging art tomorrow for the show. Once again, I have probably taken too big a chunk of the work for myself, but I believe this is going to be a wonderful show, with paintings, drawings, several types of 3D art, and photography. The show follows a successful show that Thomasville hosted in November.

I still have more work to do tonight, and students to teach tomorrow, so I will just attach a slightly amended press release about the show. I hope that you local folks can attend. I will have two pieces in the show, so that Cheshire Cat Photo will be represented.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20, 2011
Thomasville of Dublin partners with local art groups for exhibit January 20-30
“Art is the HeART of the Home, Part 2”

Dublin – From January 20 through 30, during store hours, Thomasville of Dublin (7460 Dublin Boulevard, Dublin, CA 94568; 925-479-9630) will host the “Art Is The HeART of the Home, Part 2″ exhibition. Artists from the nonprofit organizations, EkowArt/Say Thanks, the Livermore Art Association (LAA), and the Pleasanton Art League (PAL) will exhibit their artworks throughout the Thomasville showroom. Most artworks are for sale. The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served. For more information call Jaclyn Zoccoli at 209-839-0889.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

There is nothing more important that I could write about tonight.

Take the time that you might have spent reading the rest of this blog, and sign Google’s petition to the U.S. Congress to OPPOSE SOPA and PIPA (4 blanks to fill; “piece of cake” ) HERE:  https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

End Piracy, Not Liberty! Keep the Internet FREE. Thank you!

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.