Airplane Pilot Stories as a Library display

Captain Sully landing in the Hudson is one more story added to the lore of flying.    New York Magazine 2009 February 9 had a good article about pilots.  Libraries looking for a subject to display should consider flying and airline pilots. 

  The novel “Airport” by Arthur Hailey was made into a hit movie, and the movie spawned sequels.  The movie was better than the sequels, and the book was better than the movie.  The novel “The Right Stuff” by Tom Wolfe was made into a movie.  In that movie, Pancho was played by Kim Stanley.  The local library had a copy of the biography “The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes”, but it was weeded a few years back. 

 

It was loosely adapted to a TV Movie “Pancho Barnes” starring Valerie Bertinelli.  An earlier novel was “The High and the Mighty”, which was made into a movie starring John Wayne.  I consider the father of this genre to be the autobiography of Ernest K. Gann titled “Fate is the Hunter”.  This was loosely adapted into a couple of movies:  “Fate is the Hunter” starring Glen Ford, and “Island in the Sky” starring John Wayne.  The movies were average, but the book is among my favorites.  Hollywood seldom makes the movie as good as the book, and script changes sometimes drastically alter the facts.  Other books of interest are “Hard Air” by W. Scott Olsen and “Flying’s Strangest Moments” by John Harding.

Kids ARE allowed in Libraries after Feb 10th, BUT …

That collective sigh of relief you heard is from Libraries across the U.S. See:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6633893.html?rssid=192

While most books may be presumed safe for now, note that Libraries are still on the hook for kid books that contain plastic softeners or lead.  Thus, all kid books that may contain softeners or lead should be pulled immediately.  Electronics commonly uses solder that contains lead.  All Kid books that play music, talk, make sounds, or have flashing lights should be pulled.

In the plumbing world, it was decided  a while back that lead should no longer be allowed in contact with drinking water.  Copper pipes are joined by soldering.  The solder was about 60% lead.  The reason lead was originally used is because it created a solder with a low melting point close to eutectic.  To create a lead free solder, the lead was mostly replaced with silver.  To handle the higher temperatures needed for the silver solder, instead of using propane in torches, MAP gas is usually needed now.  I remember back in vacuum tube days that silver solder was used in the electronics of Tektronix Oscilloscopes.  The electronic chips of today can be degraded by heat, so higher temperature soldering makes manufacuring  with them more difficult and expensive.  The bottom line is also that silver is a lot more expensive than lead.

With that in mind, acquisition of any kid book with electronics from now on had better include safety certifications that the book meets the present and future standards for lead in  the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. 

 Eventually, ALA will promulgate some official standards, and advise what to do with the pulled books, but your liability starts February 10th.

———————————————————————————————————–

**Update** 2009 Feb 14  Kid books printed with lead ink before 1985 are in danger of violating the law.   See article:

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0212wo.html

Big Brother Bugs Books! Libraries and RFID

Public libraries  have thin budgets, so are easily tempted by cost saving promises.  As a child, I concluded that automation could improve mankind, and I became a gadget guy.   Here comes RFID for libraries.  I think the amount of improvement gained over barcodes is minimal, and not worth the cost.  One promise is that automatic checkin  can save labor costs.  Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a safety guideline on how close workers can be to a RFID reader for a period of hours.   I used to work around kilowatt radio transmitters, and know there can be hazzards.  Also, a RFID reader doesn’t inspect the condition of the library material being checked in.  The best way to do that is to have a human to look for damage.  See my old blog:

 http://thedonofpages.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/automatic-checkin/

Librarians talk about the importance of privacy, but talk is cheap and people’s privacy is a commodity worth money.  Industry and Commerce will increasingly use RFID to track people (”to help with consumer preferences”), and Readers will become widespread.  Readers are placed at access points such as building entrances, mass transit, retail stores, parking lots, even floor tiles and shelving.   Woodward Labs has a Reader hidden in a liquid soap dispenser.   Thus, if you are carrying a library book at any of those locations, you could be scanned and identified.  The book will say what you are reading.  The travels of the book itself from scanner to scanner can reveal your path to Big Brother.  Your employee badge identifies you, or perhaps your customer loyalty card will.  If you aren’t wearing your employee badge, maybe those Levi jeans you are wearing or other RFID tagged clothing you purchased will identify you.  See:

http://www.nonaiswa.org/?p=1222

 See patent 6,348,640 granted 2002 Febr 19.

A Patron checked a book out of a Library.  The self-checkout machine showed the book had the wrong title and subject, presumably because the RFID contained the wrong info.  The Patron showed the error to Library staff before leaving.  Some time after the book was returned to the Library, the Patron received an automatically generated overdue notice for the book.  The Patron had to go to the Library to pull the returned book off the Library shelf and hand it to them.  If you want to see less of a particular patron, try changing the RFID encoded subject of their book being checked out to “blowing up airplanes’ or “hostage taking”.   Sorry, Homeland Security, the library can’t talk about that particular patron and the book they had.  At a library, maybe you can get the book “Spychips” by Albrecht & McIntyre, published by Nelson Current, ISBN 1-5955-5020-8.  But better hurry before the library replaces the barcode with RFID, or Big Brother will know.

DTV Converter Coupon supply to Slow?

The question is, how much longer will the $40 granny box coupons be available?  Because there are so many variables, the best I can do is guess.  The Feds will issue 34 million coupons.  Of those, they have now mailed 40 million coupons.  Yes, the coupons are coming back from the dead.  Over half of the 34 million coupons died a quick death after only 90 days without being used.  That makes available 17 million zombie coupons.  But if half of the zombie coupons redie a quick death, that’s another 8 million zombie coupons, of which half can re-redie to create yet another batch of 4 million zombie coupons, etc.  So, the zombie coupons could number 32 million.  Optimistically, 34 million bleeding edge coupons plus 32 million zombie coupons equals 66 million granny box coupons to eventually be mailed.  But eventually doesn’t keep the pipeline full if the zombies aren’t rising from the dead quickly enough.  The number of coupon requests per day has recently doubled as The Transition looms closer.  A majority of the bleeding edge coupons became zombies.  Now with some Granny Boxes on store shelves without major bugs, only a minority of mailed coupons will continue to die at expiration to continue to rise again to become zombie coupons.  I’m guessing there is presently only a 2 week supply in the pipeline, and the pipeline could run dry.  To watch, see:

https://www.dtv2009.gov/Stats.aspx

I recommend the Zenith DTT901 as best for Granny, but consider getting a better remote and a better antenna.

On Wednesday, January 14 at 3:00 PM in the Sunnyvale Public Library (Silicon Valley), a representative from the FCC will talk about the February 17 Transition to Digital Television.

Update: January 10, 2009:  Yes, the pipeline did run dry, so it is too late to try to get coupons before the Transition.  See:

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2009/01/dtv-coupons-joi.html

A biggie Remote for Zenith DTV Converters

 The  Zenith Converter remote  is too small for Granny.  The buttons have small lettering that has poor contrast.  The Zenith Remote operates well enough, and can turn On/Off most televisions.  But for my Mom, something better was needed.  I briefly considered the Harmony programmable remotes.  Learning Remotes also could work.  In general, TV’s come with poor remotes. There should have been standards set decades ago.

 DigaDo said:  “The inexpensive Philips remotes ($6-$10) use code 0267 for the Zenith/Insignia converter boxes.”  From:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14995013&postcount=987

The Zenith Converters use some of the same  IR remote control codes used for Zenith satellite receivers.  With luck, the SAT button on some multifunction remotes can be used, if the remote isn’t an old design that doesn’t have the latest codes. 

Since I am out of coupons, I haven’t been hot on the CECB trail.  Want  more coupons! Oh well, can’t have everything. 

I don’t hang out at malls, but I saw a remote there yesterday on sale.  What caught my eye at Brookstone was the “Brookstone Super-sized TV remote”, model 538744, UPC 8 83594 00004 1.  I asked the clerk if the Remote would work with DTV converters.  The clerk hadn’t heard of them.  I asked if I could return the remote with its receipt if it didn’t function as expected, and she said yes.  Sold.  I found that programming the SAT button with code 013 did allow this Remote to mostly operate the Zenith DTT900 or DTT901.  The Remote is a huge 5 inch by 11 inch and 0.75 inch thick, and weighs nearly a pound (including a pair of AA bateries).

On the Zenith Remote, the 7 millimeter diameter button at the bottom right is labeled “RECALL” in letters 1.5 millimeters high.  Contrast that with the big bright “Z” logo at the bottom.  The Brookstone Remote buttons are 22 millimeters diameter.  I find that using the Brookstone Remote requires two hands.  It isn’t fussy about orientation, and easily sends its signal across the room.  The buttons that work with the Zenith are Power; numbers; channel+ and -; mute and volume + and -  which changes the sound on the Zenith; menu; back; the pause button will act like select.  The Brookstone Remote doesn’t access the program guide (EPG),  or the signal strength.  Input and OK buttons don’t send anything.  As for Mom, she isn’t concerned about the transition yet.

Election Displays at Libraries

 

Some libraries now have displays up about elections.  Here are a few items to consider: 

Books:
A badly flawed election : debating Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court, and American democracy / edited by Ronald Dworkin.  Publication Info. New York : New Press : Distributed by Norton, 2002.

Winning elections : political campaign management, strategy & tactics / edited by Ronald A. Faucheux; New York : M. Evans and Co., 2003.

Gaming the vote : why elections aren’t fair (and what we can do about it) / William Poundstone.  Publication Info. New York : Hill and Wang, 2008.

Documentaries on DVD:

Invisible ballots [DVD] : a temptation for electronic vote fraud / executive producer G. Edward Griffin ; produced & directed by William Gazecki.  Publication Info. [Westlake Village, Calif.?] : American Media ; [United States] : Reality Zone, 2004.

Hacking democracy [DVD] / Public Interest Pictures presents ; in association with Teale-Edwards Productions LLC ; written by Simon Ardizzone ; produced by Teale-Edwards Productions LLC for Home Box Office.  Publication Info. [New York, N.Y.] : Docurama : Distributed by New Video Group, c2007.

 Unprecedented [DVD] : the 2000 presidential election / Robert Greenwald Productions presents a Los Angeles Independent Media Center film; written by William Haugse, Richard Ray Pérez, Joan Sekler.  Publication Info. Los Angeles, Calif. : Distributed by Sony Music Entertainment, c2004.

My favorite of the bunch, since I work at putting on elections:

By the people [DVD] : democracy in the wild /  [Arlington, VA] : PBS Home Video, c2006.

Also consider making a poster asking people to work at putting on the election.  Your County can provide details.  To those people who point out how badly elections are run, I say 2 things:

You don’t get what you don’t pay for, as most Registrar of Voters are underfunded.

If you want to do something to improve elections, work on this side of the table at the polls.

“DTV Coupon Misinformation from ME!!”

Another error source. ME!! Coupons are actually still available to everyone, probably until next year.  My goof was based on this under FAQs; Coupon Program; Getting a Coupon; at the DTV2009.gov site:

“7.  Are all consumers eligible for the coupon program?   Yes, but supplies are limited. There are 22.25 million coupons available to all U.S. households. Once those coupons have been used, there are an additional 11.25 million coupons available only to households that solely receive their TV broadcasts over-the-air using an antenna.  Households with TVs connected to cable, satellite or other pay TV service are not eligible for this second batch of coupons.  Consumers can apply for coupons until March 31, 2009, or until the funds are exhausted.”
     That statement still hasn’t been updated.  The definitive test is for a non-OTA someone to request a coupon.  Unfortunately, everyone I knew took my advice and requested their coupons before the end of July when coupon requests exceeded 22 million.  The Emails I sent to PBS gave me the answer.  WGBH replied, and said that according to NTIA testimony at a Congressional hearing held on September 16, the funding from expired coupons is being “recycled” to issue new coupons for non-OTA households.  To PBS Station WGBH Member Development and Services, a big thank you for researching this, and setting me straight.  This crushes my prayer of a resurrection for my expired coupon, as it will instead get reincarnated to some non-OTA household.
     Wilmington seemed below the radar of most of the press, but I wasn’t digging deep for the story.  Spots on TV there about the early transition so thick they were nauseating, still didn’t cause everyone to be ready for the early DTV switch.  Some were surprised to discover that antenna upgrades were needed, and lots of crunch questions at the switch.  Not a surprise to me, of course.

    The FCC is mandating that the broadcasters increase the number of spots on the DTV Transition for the rest of the country.  The FCC is also touring the country to encourage people to buy quickly, as if the people who bought early didn’t regret the mistake.  The 8 million expired coupons represent unhappy people who like me requested coupons too early, before good product was on store shelves.  Slowly, manufacturers are getting the bugs out.  The RCA DTA800 was replaced by the RCA DTA800A, which was replaced by the RCA DTA800B, which was replaced by the RCA DTA800B1, which makes me want to wait for further details on the RCA DTA809.  The Zenith DTT900 evolved by build dates, but LG never admitted the problems.  DTVPAL finally got to market, but with timer bugs.  If they don’t get fixed in time, maybe try a Zinwell.  As for the brands of Granny Boxes that overheat, they are probably headed for an early demise. 
   I suggested to the Library months ago that a Zenith DTT900 be checked out for a few days by patrons, like a library book but also with a simple antenna.  After all, the only sure way to tell what DTV reception is like at a location and the best place for the antenna is to test it.  The library said no.  After that, I did loan out the DTT900 to a few non-technical people to get a different viewpoint.  See:
http://angelolopez.wordpress.com/?s=DTV

   I still need to get the tax refund on a converter coupon my Mom used at Circuit City.  We went there with the receipt, but because the transaction was over a month ago, they couldn’t refund with cash or check.  They offered to apply the coupon refund against a purchase, but we didn’t need anything.  Presumably, the next City of Palo Alto Community Media Center class on CECB’s for beginners will be October 8, call them at 650-494-8686 ext. 10 for details if interested.   The Santa Clara City Library on October 29 at 7PM will have Roy Avila from KICU-TV Channel 36 talk about the DTV Transition.   The FCC visited Oakland to do a demo, and got pixel pus.  See:
http://montclairoak.com/2008/09/10/the-fcc-digital-demo-fizzled-in-oakland/

The election is less than a month and a half away.  I’ve already had several political ads land in my answering machine.  Time for me to forget about Granny boxes, and start thinking about the election.  Will you be helping out?

DTV Misinformation Continues

In June 2005, with good weather, I decided to build an antenna for a digital television receiver.  I had heard that DTV offered crystal clear, ghost-free reception.  The TV transmitters here were in different directions, so I built a wide angle antenna (stacked cardioid) since I couldn’t buy one.  The “art object” without planned camoflage looked like this:

 

 To check the reception with the antenna, I used a splitter to feed both the digital receiver and an old TV that I used to measure the signal strength (AGC).  I found the antenna was haunted (multipath).  The picture on the old TV was good, but had a noticeable ghost.  The digital receiver indicated receiving a strong signal, but the picture was the pit of blackness.  The haunting had produced a different symptom on the DTV than the old TV.  Ghost free reception for digital wasn’t really true.  After I gained some experience with the quirks of DTV, I began collecting for a bibliography on DTV.  If the Library did a program on DTV, the bibliography could help people (and librarians) find accurate information.  As the years went by with no chance of a program, I finally gave up on the bibliography.  Sadly, accurate information is still unavailable to the average viewer.  KQED, the San Francisco PBS Station has on their web site the following:
Are You Ready for More Channels?
Clearer Picture?
Better Sound Quality?
No More Ghosting?
Here comes the Digital TV Transition.
On February 17, 2009, Television will be Changed Forever.
Are you Ready?

In spite of what they say about “no more ghosting?”, nowadays, there is some awareness of the DTV haunting problem.  The 6th generation chip in the Zenith DTT901 resists haunting with a much better demodulator.  With most granny boxes, haunting results in the usual black screen instead of pixel pus.
  I winced when I read in the San Francisco Chronicle August 17, 2008 Page D6, the following: “Some history: Congress allocated more spectrum to broadcasters in 1996 so they could create digital broadcast channels.”  Actually, TV viewers are losing over 200 Megahertz of prime radio spectrum.  Before the big spectrum grab, there were TV channels 2 through 83.  What now?  Channels 2,3,4,5, and 6 are “unsuitable”.  Channels 37, and 70 through 83 are gone.  AT&T gets channels 54 and 59.  Qual Comm gets channels 55 and 56.  Verizon gets channels 60, 61, 65, and 66.  Public Safety gets channels 63, 64, 68, and 69.  Various Cell phone companies get channels 52, 53, 57, and 58.  For Sale are channels 62 and 67.  Regional Emergency Services share channels 14 through 20 with DTV stations.   People must realize the $40 for each coupon came from somewhere.
  A post script to the Library turning down my request to put a message about the $40 coupons on the Widescreen: they are now requesting Staff ideas for messages.  For background, see:

 http://thedonofpages.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/why-libraries-failed-with-granny-box-coupons/

***Edit September 14, 2008:  The San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, Page C1, ”FCC steps up … digital TV” repeats the error of “Congress allocated more spectrum”.  I had sent an Email to them nearly 2 weeks ago telling them of their mistake.  Even if they didn’t believe me, there are several TV Broadcast stations in San Francisco with studios and Chief Engineers.  Then again, the PBS Broadcast station here is still running the announcement with the “This Old House” stars saying every household is entitled to a pair of $40 coupons.  The FCC is mandating the Broadcasters air an increasing number of spots about the DTV Transition, but apparently there is no requirement that the spots be factually correct.    Well no, I haven’t sent PBS an Email, and I suppose I should.  Maybe they can get David Brancaccio to do the spot correctly instead of Norm Abram.***

***September 18, 2008 
Another error source. ME!! Coupons are still available to everyone.  See my next post titled:  “DTV Coupon Misinformation from ME!!”  ***

Why Libraries failed with Granny Box Coupons

Since most households can no longer get the $40 coupons, time to assess what happened.  Manufacturers were slow to make the DTV granny boxes, and most were flawed.  Overheating shortens their lifetime, chirps were in the audio, lipsync sometimes failed, buggy timers miss timepoints, multipath haunts some boxes, the EPG fails to deliver the promise of PSIP, buttons are too small for Granny, APT finally arrived, smart antennas didn’t arrive, some Grannys will need antenna upgrades,  menus were strange, and box crashes happened.  Magazine reviews of granny boxes were shallow at best.  Consumer Advocates said little on Granny Boxes.  On the web, avsforum had lots of noisy chatter, but contained some fabulous pearls of wisdom well worth the digging.  The Feds with beancounting mentality made the coupons die quickly, a mere 90 days.  Households that got coupons when first available found nothing worth purchasing, and 5 million coupons expired as waste.  The Feds flip flop on APT hurt manufacturers as well as the LP stations.  The States of confusion have cash refunds for taxes on the coupons.  See:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14072944#post14072944
When retailers were originally shipped product, they seemed caught unawares.  Of course they didn’t know of flaws in their product, but they still don’t know about the flaws in the products sold by their competitors, either.  Newspapers did barely more on granny boxes than quote press releases, and showed listings for cable TV, but not DTV.  Nobody mentions that viewers are losing over 35 TV channels of prime radio spectrum.  See:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0157/t.12136.html

Just a week ago, I told someone who didn’t know it that DTV has been transmitted for years now.  Viewers have lots to learn, and with no one to help, they will learn the hard way.  Broadcasters successfully informed the public that the transition was coming, but their sound bytes didn’t include the phrase “while supplies last”.  One crawl ended with “… for more information, contact your electronic retailer.” 

     Well, at least retailers are not as clueless as most libraries.  Here in Silicon Valley, programs on DTV were presented by the Alameda County Library, a shining light in the darkness.  At a December library staff meeting, I said that the coupons would be available in January, and we should have a program about the DTV converters.  Hopefully, this wasn’t confused with my previous requests for a program on DTV.  Those had been rejected year after year after year because it wouldn’t fit in the budget.  This year, well, it didn’t fit in the budget, and a program on converters didn’t either, so I suggested cheaper approaches.  How about a display in the small display case?  Maybe later, it’s booked up for months.  Well, then I suggested the following message on the widescreen for our passerbys:
The Digital TV transition happens February 17, 2009.
Old TV’s may need a TV Converter Box.  Every
household is entitled for up to 2 coupons for a Box
while supplies last, probably through July 2008.
From your household, call 1-888-DTV-2009
to request your $40 coupons, good at local stores.

The answer was no, the widescreen is mostly for library events.  I wonder if the librarians could have answered in a timely manner the series of questions that my suggested message would have generated anyway.  Librarians are great at patting themselves on the back with talk of nobly educating the public and being 2.0 aware.  But I guess “reaching across the digital divide” means turning kids into gamers, as it didn’t include helping Granny get her box, make it work, or learn how to use it, much less explain UHF reception problems.  Firedog at Circuit City will do that for over $79 after coupon.  So, why did most libraries here fail Granny so badly?  Programs here are divided into 3 types: Adult, Children, and Teens.  Bulletin Boards show the plethora of upcoming programs for each.  If Granny sat in the chair in the Large Print Room, then on the other side of the Large Print Stack in front of Granny (not “a” Large Print Stack), the wall is empty.  No bulletin board,  no posting of events for Granny put on by the Geriatric Librarian.  The kids check out piles of books, and we ask for library funding based on the high circulation figures.  Maybe Granny just doesn’t check out enough library books to be worth noticing.  Besides, programs for kids are an investment in the library’s future.  Granny will just be dead soon.    My post on purchasing is here:

http://thedonofpages.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/digital-tv-granny-box-purchasing/

I’ll work on the November Election with some of the many Grannies that will work a 15 hour day at the Polls to make it possible for the community to vote.  After that, I’ll evaluate the Granny boxes yet again, so I can make another purchase then.  I’ll try to ignore the DTV test coming up in Wilmington.  See:

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/07/17/daily.5/

Zenith DTT900 vs. Zenith DTT901

The Zenith DTT901 has the added feature of analog passthru, so naturally it should be a little less sensitive than a Zenith DTT900 because an electronic switch will introduce maybe a dB of loss.  I traded my hostage for a May build Zenith DTT901.  I decided to test it against my March build LG tuner Zenith DTT900.  The Rabbit Ears feed a balun, and coax connects it to a two way splitter. One output of the splitter goes to the 900, the other output to the 901.  Each Zenith fed its TV through coax.  I powered up, selected a weak channel, and compared the two horizontal signal bars.  I was amazed at how they seemed syncronized, as if both TV’s were being fed the same source.  The Signal Strength beep rate for the 901 is slower than the 900.  What counted is which produced pixel pus first as the signal got weaker.  The difference was slight, but definitely the 901 was better. 

 This caused me to realize that there are two problems to consider:  The ability to pick up a weak signal, and the ability to exorcise multipath hauntings.  The 901’s could have a better tuner, or it could be a better demodulator.  I tried a more directional antenna in hopes of eliminating the chance of haunting, but that antenna didn’t have a sharp enough pattern to draw a valid conclusion.  It could also be just the individual variation and luck that in the particular units used, the 901 was better.  Different channels produced the same result. 

 Experiments not only lampoon theory with facts, they reveal the unexpected.  In this case, it was the sound.  I would adjust the Rabbitt Ears for a weaker signal, and then readjust for best signal.  Both Zeniths would lose lock or picture when the signal went weak.  When the signal returned, the picture returned and everything was normal, almost.  Sometimes, the sound changed.  A definite delay was introduced in the sound from the 901 compared to the 900.  It was longer than reverb, and sounded like the 901 was echoing the 900.  If I changed channels and then changed back, the sounds from the TV’s were once again synchronized.  I tried this on different channels, and got the same result.  The delay is way too small to lipsync the picture with the original sound or the echo as correct, so I don’t know which Zenith was doing the timeshift. 

Operationally, this quirk is meaningless, and without this test, there’s no way to know the timeshift happened.  My conclusion is that if better reception is needed, I should upgrade from the Rabbitt Ears.  The difference in sensitivity between the Zeniths is too small to worry about.