Prospect TN Walk

Yesterday was a very good day for a hike, so we decided that we would go to the land in Prospect, TN has been in my family (James) for several generations. This land borders on the Elk River (huge bluff from our land to the river though) and is a great place for deer and turkey hunting. Just ask my family of hunters, they will tell you so. The boundaries are marked really well, except for one portion that is particularly hilly, rocky, etc., so we decided to look for the old fence and mark as much as we could of that border, so we took off on our quest.
We did pretty well, we naturally had to move a bit slow; but the terrain is such, that poor health or not, you would have to move slow. Tracing the old barb wire fence through the brown leaves, etc., was not the easiest job in the world - it was fun. A few of the trees had grown around the wire and it was sort of strange to see a tree a foot or more in diameter with barbed wire coming out of the middle of it. The power company, many years ago, cut through a swath for their power lines and cut through the fence for a good chunk. We'll have to go another day and try to mark from the power lines down to the river and that's good. An excuse for another outing!
I took a few pictures of our walk and they are posted here if you care to see them. My favorite is the one posted above - serenity!

EVDO Setup Test in Near Future

Doctors' have said it is OK for Allen to go on his yearly camping/fishing trip and I'll go this year for part of it anyway. This will be a good test for my internet setup - if it will work down there, it will be declared a success for mobile use also.

This park is located on the AL/MS border on the river. To get cell service, you need to stand on tip toes, facing East, chanting mystical rhymes, and holding your breath. Link to map of area.

The external magnetic field antenna made it possible to get a cell signal if connected to it, so I have high hopes for the antenna/repeater setup. We'll see. Wish me luck.

EVDO Network Speedtest.net results

I've been asked for this and guess I just forgot to add it to the original post on this subject.
The speed varies, but this is what I posted out on the EVDO maps site:

Old Railroad Bed Road Madison, AL 35757
Carrier: Verizon
Create Date: 1/23/2008
Computer: HP Pavilion
Update Date: 1/23/2008
Network: RevA
Location: indoors
Download: 1285
Upload: 316
dBm: -73
Bars: 4
EVDO device: USB720
Antennas or Amps Used: zBOOST
Notes: Only have the zBoost because of metal roof on house. Outside was same numbers.

Mallards Nesting this year

We have had Canada geese nesting on our island for years, and while I'm always glad for them to return, this year a pair of Mallards have also stayed. Over the years we have had ducks visit for a day or so, but this is the first time they've nested here. I think it's great and wanted to share.

Insurance Woes

Lots of random thoughts this morning, might be the rain. Anyway, CBS News has an article, Canceled Cancer Patient Awarded $9 Million
California, Insurer Will Begin Using A Review Panel Before Dropping Policies, that just appears to prove what I've been saying all along - that insurance companies follow the deny all, permit by exception method of taking care of their customers. As I have stated many a time, this is great computer network policy, however not a good policy for healthcare. You will note that this case has taken 5 years to reach this point.

Our family has been lucky in that I was able to retire to fight the insurance issues that have arisen over the last 7 months. My husband's job has been to recuperate, mine has been to deal with insurance. The hell of this is, we supposedly have some of the best insurance around. Scary isn't it?

My husband worked for his company for 34 years before retiring. During that time, he, personally, used the insurance probably 4-5 times. The kids and me used it considerably more. Since the plan is administered in AL, but is actually out of MI, this has been a minor headache over the years, but not a major one.

When he was admitted to the hospital for emergency care, the last thing on our mind was insurance troubles. What greeted us when we arrived home after 11 days in hospital was a letter from the insurance company saying his hospital claim was denied. Thankfully, we have good doctors also, who helped take care of this issue as this was just the beginning.

Everyone doesn't have the luxury of doctors' that take the time to help with such issues, spouses that can retire or quit to handle these issues as well as try to help the patient during recovery, a friend that's a lawyer that the spouse can bounce questions off of, etc. A great amount of our transplant coordinator's time is spent on insurance matters, and most of the things she's dealing with shouldn't keep coming up again and again. I am pretty sure she cringes when she sees yet another message from me that I need her to call this person or that pharmacy yet again, because the insurance says they're not going to cover what the doctor prescribed yet again.

I do not know the answer to all of this, but I do know that insurance companies should not be allowed to just willy nilly decide who they are going to cancel or deny coverage to without some accounting for those decisions. The $9 million awarded in the CA case really wouldn't have made the family feel a whole lot better if their loved one had passed away.

Changing to EVDO Internet Access

Thinking of retiring in a couple of years, at the first of 2007, I started looking into getting a new computer and internet service. I wanted both the computer and interenet service portable as travelling in our motorhome was one of the main things we planned to do. In order to manage our mundane household business that doesn't go away, portable internet service seemed like the way to go.
Satellite internet was considered; however, start up costs are prohibitive to say the least. Contrary to how it sounds, satellite service is not necessarily portable without a lot more outlay of cash. That was scratched right out of the chute.
DSL service I have not been that impressed with and it is not portable.
Cable service I had for years - liked it, but again, not portable.
Most of these services were available as dial-up, but that is slow, you might not be able to find a landline, etc., etc.
Now, what I have done is not going to give me service anywhere in the world I might be; however, it has been a good setup for me and I have service anywhere I can pick up a cellular tower signal.
I wound up retiring a couple of years early due to health problems in the family. I had already switched to EVDO broadband and purchased a fairly high end laptop; so when the exodus to hospitals began, I happened to have portable access ready to go. Took about a minute to shove everything into a backpack and was out the door. This enabled me to handle the necessary business of the household and maintain contact with friends and family; while not having to hang on the phone all of the time repeating the same information over and over to each individual. PLUS, I was able to research what the doctors were telling us.
Anyway, I have had several people asking me about my setup and have decided to post it here. It might not work for everyone, but it has been great for me so far. I need to point out that I have Verizon Wireless EVDO access and I have no clue what works or don't with any other provider.
What follows is what I have written for a couple of folks that asked. I am not endorsing any company, service, etc., this is simply what I have done:

"Verizon Wireless is what I have, so I know how it works and approximate costs to get going with it. If you changed your house internet over to it like I did, I don't think you'd even need to get a repeater, you have good reception. We have a metal roof on the house, so we have poor cell service inside the house. My friend lives out in the country and gets no cell service, but put in the same system I did and he now has cell/cellular broadband.
This same setup should work with other providers, but you'll have to check the frequencies, etc., with them. The providers won't tell you how to do this, you've got to research yourself, but thank goodness for the internet.
What I have is:
Verizon Wireless Broadband - plan is $59.95 a month for unlimited internet. Modem you should be able to get free from Verizon. (I have the USB720, but there are newer ones now.) You want a USB modem though, because as long as you have the modem in your pocket and the VZAccess software, you have internet from any computer with a USB port. Link to modem information.
I also bought the zBOOST Cell Phone Signal Extender, model YX510-PCS-CEL. With Verizon you need the dual band 800/1900MHz because Verizon sends voice over the 800, but data over the 1900. It comes with external antenna, coax, and base unit. This is the most expensive part - cost me around $300. One link to this signal extender is here.
A friend and I hooked this up (not too hard, antenna on roof, cable through attic, base unit on wall in foyer) and I had one computer on-line and all of the cell phones my friends have except Nextel work in my house just fine now. (Need to mention here that my friend did all of the hardest part, mounting antenna on roof and crawling in attic.) I would have kept the repeater even if I sent everything else back as it enabled me to cut Ma Bell down to minimal service and when I figure out how to do Direct TV without an analog phone connection, Ma Bell is history.
Now, I wasn't satisfied with just one computer online, so I also bought a Cradlepoint CTR350 router, which gave me one Ethernet connection for one of our old computers and converted the cellular broadband to wireless.
I set up a secured wireless network in the house so folks with a laptop can connect to it as long as I give them the password. I can also take the router with me in the motor home. (With the router, you also don't HAVE to use the VZAccess software.)
For traveling I already had a magnetic mount antenna, which will connect to the USB card, phones, or the router (router's best cause it takes care of everything).
Anyway, the basic setup for me was about $370 and it goes with me where ever I go. Even worked from within the bowels of UAB hospital. So far, so good for me."

Single Points of Failure

The Associated Press has an article today entitled Blackberry Outage Caused by Upgrade written by Peter Svensson [link]. This article says pretty much what many of us IT geeks have been trying to tell the DoD leadership for several years now, mainly that you shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket. My Granny taught me that and it holds as true now as it did 50 years ago. Now if we can just get the powers that be to realize that.
A single point of failure is not an accident waiting for a place to happen, it is a catastrophe.

Tenants, Landlords, and Rights

One of the things that my father used to tell me was that investing in land was never a bad thing. I think he was probably correct; however, I don't believe he had rental property in mind when he made this statement.

The State of Alabama enacted the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 2006 to ensure that tenants rights are protected and that there is a uniform process for evicting tenants. From what I can tell, this new law has made it easier than ever to "live free" in the United States, at least in our fair state. From what I hear from circuit court clerks, other landlords, and at least one judge, is that we have made owning a home almost unreasonable. As long as you don't mind moving every few months, and especially if you don't mind writing bad checks, you can live for free in rental property in this state.

Prepare for entertaining reading, following are the rules from one Alabama county clerks office (scanned from actual handout):

"Filling Out Eviction
First: Give the tenant a written eviction notice. You can serve this
personally, tape it to the door or by mail. After 7 business days of serving this eviction, you can now file an eviction through the clerk's office. This is called an Unlawful Detainer.
If you want to get tenant out ancl claiming NO MONEY.
Fill out the Unlawful Detainer form. This will cost you $237.00 if single person, $247.00 if husband & wife. We will send it to sheriff's office, and this will be served or taped to the door. The tenant will have 7
business days to file an answer or get out from the day it is served or taped to the door. If the tenant does not file on answer, you can come in and file a Default Judgment and this will cost you $50.00. Then the tenant will have 14 additional business days to appeal. If the tenant still does not get out, then you can call us and Judge at his discretion may do a Writ of Possession to get them out (you may want to call the sheriffs office to see if they require you to actually get the tenant out).
If you want to get the tenant out and CLAIMING MONEY.
Fill out the Unlawful Detainer form. This will cost you $237.00 if single
person, husband and wife it is $247.00. We will send it to sheriff's office,
and this will be served ( it must be personally served on the defendant
in order to claim money-NOT taped to door) on defendant.
Defendant will have 14 days to file on answer. If defendant does not
file on answer within the 14 days, you can come in and file a Default
Judgment ($50.00). Then you will have to wait 14 additional days
for the defendants right to appeal-If defendant does not appeal you
can call us on the 15th day and Judge at his discretion may do Writ of
Possession. Then (on the money) you can file to garnish their wages
($30.00)-if they make enough money to garnish or file on execution
to pick up personal property (you will have to have the proper
information for the sheriffs office to execute).
** In both cases if defendant answers the complaint Judge will set case
for trial and both parties will be notified. Both parties will come before
a hearing and tell your side-Judge will make a decision and you will
be notified.
Filing Fee's

Unlawful Detainer $237.00
Husband & Wife $247.00
Default Judgment $50.00
Garnishment $30.00
* Forms are available at clerk's office."

Notice, that nowhere in here, does it cost the tenant a thing. If you decide to try and recover your money, that gives the tenant extra time. So, if you are a tenant, and can count; you just need to be ready to move every few months and you're not out a single thing.

If, after inspecting the premises, you decide that between any damages and money owed, you want to try for your money, then you try for Small Claims Court. This also requires that you keep up with where the teant goes - almost impossible to do. Small Claims Court is also probably throwing good money after bad - if the tenant intended to pay the rent to begin with, then the landlord wouldn't be in this situation.

Bet that my father would rethink his position about investing in real estate - unless it is acres of open or wooded land, with no restrictions, and definitely no tenants.

More about the Lifehacker Question and Attitudes

In my previous blog, I sounded off a bit. Not having been out of the employment of the Army for very long and being in the information technology security field while there, I still tend to be a bit sensitive about these matters.

I always felt like there was a tug of war going on between the leadership and the users, and I was the rope. The question on Lifehacker, just set those feelings in motion again.

Upon thinking about this, and discussion with my friend and collegue, Simple Country Physicist, I believe I overreacted a bit.

Attitudes Among the Military Today

In this day and age, when you have to be concerned about your personal information, I have a lot of trouble understanding why anyone is not concerned with all types of security.
This security mindset should be even more strongly felt by members of our armed forces and the civilian workforce that supports these forces. It boggles the mind that security of this country's vital information wouldn't be foremost in these people's minds; however, according to a post on Lifehacker today, it is evident that this is not the case. While a good number of the comments addressed the reasons why official email (or any other information) should not be stored on public servers, even more attempt to help this person find a way around this "inconvenience".
I just cannot understand the mindset that folks seem to have these days which says "it is ok to circumvent anything that is inconvenient for me".
One of my co-workers made the innocent observation that we worked in a secure facility (everyone has security clearances, guard personnel on the doors, etc.) we shouldn't have to worry about theft, treason, any type of corruption, etc. To my co-worker's chagrin, he learned that this was a mistaken assumption.
Everyone is always surprised and outraged at espionage cases when they come to light, but a good number of these outraged citizens are guilty of making these traitors jobs much easier.
What Mr. Walk Kelly, said on his Earthday poster in 1970, is just as true in this situation: "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us"