The View From the Outback© 2000 Richard C. Rhodes
A great deal of what we read in newspapers, magazines, and books, and what we see in the movies and on TV is written and produced in New York City or Los Angeles. Much of the "political wisdom" comes from the PR machines of the White House, the Congress, and from the Washington media corps. In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood. I am now a senior citizen, in my 7th decade. My experience was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries. That experience has included the U.S. Marines, law school, the ATF, the CIA, Fortune 500 executive, writer, public speaker, educator, editor, and publisher - for openers. Some insights come from talking with ham-radio operators in every major country and such idyllic places as the Cook Islands. For over 20 years, I have written articles off and on for various magazines and newspapers. I've had an enormous number of letters published in major national publications. The Outback is the rural area in Northeast Texas where I have lived for the past 15 years. Since most visits to my pages come from searches, I am no longer trying to keep on a regular schedule for updating the Outback. Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic. We have become used to the Supreme Court deciding cases 5 to 4, not exactly inspiring faith in the collective judicial wisdom of the nine justices. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was often referred to as a "swing vote." I guess what that means to the layman is that the supreme law of the land was often decided on the personal and judicial opinion of one justice. Again, not a confidence builder in the collective wisdom of the court. Nearly 2/3 of the 30 rulings since Chief Justice Roberts took over have been unanimous. Maybe the Republicans should run Justice Roberts for President, touting him as a "uniter not a divider." Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents in Texas arrested about 30 people for public intoxication in bars. They claimed it was a proactive step to prevent drunk driving. Apparently, the agents arrested some hotel guests at the hotel's bar. Some of the guests said they had no intention of leaving the hotel to drive anywhere. This will become a case-study in every law school in the country as the dumbest and most unconstitutional use of police powers one might imagine. What's next? Monitoring your Google searches to see if you are visiting porn sites? Oooops. The Feds are already doing that. Then how about checking on your credit card bills to see how much you spend on wine, beer, and liquor? After all, you might get soused in your home and fall in the bathtub - or start whacking your spouse around. I hate the use of "slippery slope" when it comes to civil rights. But these clowns in Texas (where I live) who arrested people in bars are greasing the slide of the slippery slope. I know something about all of this. In my misspent youth, I was a criminal investigator in Philadelphia with the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax Division of the U.S. Treasury (now ATF). I'm wearing a disguise when I visit the wine store, just in case the Texas ABC agents are examining the surveillance videotape in the store. Katherine Harris, (R) Congresswoman from Florida, has pledged to put $10 million of her own money into her Senate race. Additionally, she has vowed to sell all her assets to help fund her campaign. As I noted in an earlier Outback, there is sentiment in Congress to revise campaign finance laws to prevent wealthy people from using unlimited amounts of their own money in a campaign ("buy a seat"). Katherine Harris can now be the poster girl for this law. Not only will it level the playing field for the less affluent candidates, but it will protect the stupid candidates like Ms. Harris from themselves. March 21, 2006: A poll shown on FoxNews about potential Republican candidates for President in 2008 showed Sen. John McCain with 22 percent, Rudy Giuliani with 29 percent, and Mitt Romney, Governor of Massachusetts, with only 4 percent in the poll. Listen up, boys and girls. I predict that Romney will be right up there with the leaders as we go down to the wire to pick a candidate. Romney was interviewed at length on C-SPAN recently, and he is awesome. Smart, with a broad-based background in both business and politics (his dad was former Michigan Governor who ran for president). He has both a law degree and MBA from Harvard. Some suggest that being a Mormon will adversely affect his chances, but I think it will not be a serious factor. Finally, he is a youthful and energetic 58-year-old who looks like a 40-year-old model for Calvin Cline. Romney's wife has some health problems which ultimately may cause him to decline to finish the campaign for the nomination. If you are keeping score, I remind you that in Jan. 12, 2002, when pundits were floundering or picking Dick Gephardt for the Democratic nomination, I said: "Sen. Kerry may be the pick of the litter at this time." For the Democrats, that is. He was not given much of a chance at the time. (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac51.html) I will tell New York Republican Gov. George Pataki the same thing I told Dick Gephardt, Lloyd Bentsen, and Sen. Phil Gramm. "You are wasting your time running for President. You have no charisma. You are basically dull." Well, how did those negative picks turn out? Gov. Pataki seems like a nice man of considerable accomplishment, but he has Zero chance of becoming the Republican Presidential candidate. Consider opening a string of cheese-steak-sandwich outlets. It will be a better career choice. Verizon raised the salary of its CEO to $2.1 million. That sounds like an enormous amount of money, especially to those who earn about 35K a year making that CEO look good. Katy Couric is paid (I refuse to use the word "earns") about $14 million a year. That is ridiculous and highlights how supposed "journalists" have become cult figures, who are paid for their celebrity more than for their worth as news people. Katy Couric would fit right in at CBS, bringing her liberal slant on events with her. And it would add to the continuing trend of news becoming entertainment. Just what we have always wished for: a "perky" rendition of the news of the world. CBS CEO Les Moonves must be loosing it if he is seriously considering Ms. Couric for the "CBS Evening News" anchor. Has anybody asked Walter Cronkite's opinion? If Katy Couric leaves the "Today" show on NBC, Campbell Brown has been touted as one potential replacement. I think Campbell Brown is a fine reporter, and a lovely lady. But, after listening to her for prolonged periods while substituting for Brian Williams on "NBC Nightly News," my judgement is that her voice is too nasal and harsh. One test for female reporters and anchors is usually that they have mellifluous voices, that is, smooth and not high-pitched or nasal. Pick any dozen female news readers on TV and listen to their voices. Smooth, dulcet, lower register than perhaps the average female voice. As much as I admire her, I don't think Campbell Brown passes the "smooth and dulcet" test. Sorry if I offended Campbell fans. While living in Europe and hearing the most beautiful female voices on TV that one could imagine, my standard for what sounds good went way up. (For those educated recently in our public schools "Mellifluous" is defined as: melodious, mellow, rich, soothing, dulcet, etc. "Dulcet" is defined as: melodious, soothing, pleasant, soft.) To be fair, there are plenty of men in television and on the radio who have strident or monotonous voices that would never have allowed them to graduate from "announcer's school" in the old days. And some goofy-looking guys that probably should move from TV to radio. Chris Matthew's voice is not "broadcast quality," in my opinion. Colmes of Hannity & Colmes grosses me out so much visually that I cannot watch the program. Larry King looks like your favorite uncle who lives in a nursing home. Give it up Larry. You have had a great run. Tony Snow's voice is so foggy that I cannot listen to him for more than a minute or two. Some of the radio talk-show hosts sound like shrieking teenagers. There is just too much air and TV time to fill to be real picky about the on-air talent. Make your own list. Who am I to critique radio and TV personalities? In Philly, when I went on TV with a Federal law-enforcement show, I got a feeler from the local station to audition as a staff announcer. In Dallas, I auditioned for a job with the ABC-TV outlet as an investigative reporter. They said that I would also have to do weekend anchor work. Since I had no experience in reading news copy, I decided I better pass on the whole thing. Another dumb decision? One of a hundred. When I wrote my first novel and started doing radio and TV shows, nearly every host said that I should get "in the business." I got carried away and auditioned for a 50,000 watt AM talk-show-host job. The previous host was a legend who had interviewed me before he retired. The audition went well and I did a guest shot as a co-host. When it looked like I might actually get the show, I could not see sitting around three hours a day talking to people about mostly inane subjects. And keeping my temper when the barrage of idiots who seem to call into talk shows would light up my panel. I took myself out of the game. Many folks on the ham-radio bands say that I sound like I may have had commercial broadcast experience. So, I think I know what attributes a good on-air talent should possess. I am not just being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. In an earlier paragraph, I used the word "mellifluous," which is not an everyday word. It was, however, the perfect choice to express my thought. While I was in the Marines, I studied "Thirty Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary," and other sources. When I got to college, tests showed that I had the vocabulary of a college senior. In law school, the big words began to pile up. When I started writing and doing public speaking, I discovered that the word-comprehension level of most audiences was about that of a high-school freshman. I noticed that Ph.D.s and other well-educated people often had trouble communicating to the masses. They were talking or writing over the heads of their audiences. So, I began an attempt to scale back my writing and speaking vocabulary. This may be one reason that when I spoke at a meeting of the Young Republicans in Dallas, they said that I got a bigger ovation than William F. Buckley, Jr., who had spoken at an earlier meeting. They actually understood me. When Mr. Buckley and I were exchanging notes years ago, I used to chide him that I was forced to read his columns with a dictionary in my lap. The moral. If you are tempted to use big words to show off your education, you may be communicating with a very narrow audience.
Most would agree that there are not enough blacks in prominent roles on TV primetime dramas. Sometimes, casting can create characters that simply do not have credibility. On CBS's "Without A Trace," a black woman, Marianne Jean-Baptiste is cast as FBI agent Vivian Johnson. As a former Federal agent, I have known and seen a lot of FBI agents. Never have I seen one that looks remotely like the character Vivian Johnson. If FBI agent Vivian Johnson knocked on my door and I took a peek, I would run for my gun! She would never get inside. The FBI director would have to call me and say that it was okay to let her in and talk with her. Just a bad bit of casting. She is a fine actress. I also wonder what the real FBI director thinks of the FBI agents on CBS's "Criminal Minds" and CBS's "Numb3rs" who show up to investigate cases in slacks and polo shirts. I'm old school, where Federal agents did not go around dressed like people on vacation - unless working undercover. J. Edgar Hoover would be threatening the network execs with exposing their personal indiscretions if they did not get the TV agents attired more properly. In his day, agents were required to wear white shirts, suits, and hats. Well, that was a little anal. When I spoke above about not letting TV's FBI agent Vivian Johnson into my house - out of fear, I am reminded of a counterfeit case I worked on with the Secret Service in Philly. I had bugged the hotel room next to our "command post" room, the room where the counterfeiter was to meet with the Secret Service undercover agent. I was with the ATF, but loaned to other agencies because of my skills and formal training with surveillance electronics. There was a knock at our door. Joe Jordan, the Secret Service agent in charge in Philly, nodded for me to check out the knock. I opened the door a crack and there stood a guy who looked like a hit man for the Mob. I quickly shut the door and turned to Joe, the SIC. "You're going to have to go to the door and check this guy out." It turned out to be the undercover man, his name was Carmine as I recall. He came in and went over the plan. You know, just like on TV. "When I say - 'well, pal, it looks like we've got a deal,' you guys bust in." Years later I saw that he had written a book about his days as a Secret Service undercover agent. Oh, yeah. They got the counterfeiter. Bank of America seems to be trying to do its part in locking down its website and help customers from being the victims of fraud or identity theft. They use a graphic site-key which is known only to you to authenticate their login page, before you even enter your password. The e-mail alerts offered are wide ranging. You can get an e-mail every time my ATM card or Debit card is used, an account balance every day or week, and several other alerts that might tip you that something fishy is going on within your account(s). Credit-card alerts are "coming soon." A check of another major bank's Web site shows some e-mail alerts available, but not nearly as comprehensive as those at Bank of America. In light of the recent compromises of PIN numbers on Debit Cards, I changed mine to a much longer string, even though I have used my Debit card only once in several years. You should change your PIN number, too. Today, not next month. The 2006 Consumer Action Handbook is a free download (.PDF) at: http://www.consumeraction.gov/pdfs/2006revisedCAH.pdf - and is chock full of useful information about banking, credit, insurance, car buying, and a lot more. I added the Firefox extension (there is also one for IE6) called SiteAdvisor which flags sites that distribute spyware, adware, have copious popups, or send you a bunch of e-mail if you enter your e-mail address at the site. It is pretty neat. The "Outback," of course, gets a clean bill of health. SiteAdvior says that some of the sites that are notorious for slipping in spyware and adware are; screensavers, smileys (emoticons), games, musical lyrics, and file sharing. Since I don't normally visit any of those type sites, maybe I don't need to worry anyway. While I was writing this, SpySweeper downloaded updates and ZoneAlarm Pro did a spyware sweep, and my antivirus automatically updated its definitions. It is sad that we spend so much time and money trying to secure our computers from idiots and crooks. There has been a lot of press lately about Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), basically a blood clot that forms if you sit too long, such as on a cramped airliner. Like many, I sit way too long at my computer - hours on end. I downloaded a freeware program that allows me to pop up a message and play a chime every hour. The message I put in says "Take a Break! Walk around." You get some automatic help if you take a diuretic or drink a lot of coffee. You will be getting up periodically to go down the hall. This is serious business. You may remember that DVT was the probable cause of the death of NBC reporter David Bloom, who sat in a cramped military vehicle in Iraq for very long periods of time. If you pay around $1,000 for a Sony Blu-ray or about $500 for a Toshiba HD-DVD player, you are not making a wise decision. In the beginning, you will be able to buy a drive that works either with Blu-ray or HD-DVD, but not both. If the public would wait and insist that the industry reach a compromise on one standard derived from the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, we could avoid the two-track approach. If no compromise is reached, and it seems unlikely, DVD players will come to market that will play and record both Blu-ray and HD-DVD (and record and play DVD-R/RW). You will be sitting there with your expensive one-format boat anchor. Sony is introducing a desktop PC that will contain a recordable Blu-ray disk drive and add-on Blu-ray internal drives for PCs. Again, if you buy one of these, it will be outdated, probably within months, by the introduction of drives that record and play both Blu-ray and HD-DVDs. Even then, you should resist the urge to buy an expensive combo player. Wait at least until they are in the $300 range. All you have to do is recall the DVD-R/RW battles and the cost of those drives. Now, you can buy a name-brand drive that plays and records multiple DVD formats, and records CD-R/RW disks, for $40. Aside from the high costs of new technology, there is the "bug" factor in all new high-tech gear. Let someone else spend their time with tech support and standing in line to return "buggy" drives. Wait for the combo drives, at a good price, and with the kinks worked out. It is hard to have any sympathy for people who lost money or portfolio value due to the recent sharp dip in Google's stock price. There is no reason for the stock to have ever reached the peak it did. It is, as Alan Greenspan coined the phrase, the result of "irrational exuberance." Think about it. Google is basically a concept, or a few related concepts. It is an ethereal investment at best. In lay terms, folks are buying the hype, the sizzle not the steak, or "pie in the sky." I am just happy that my favorite mutual fund has returned 16% since I bought it a couple of years ago. Today, everybody wants to get rich quickly. How soon they forgot the "dot-com bubble bursting." I love Google. But, it would make me very nervous if I owned a lot of their stock, or if one of my mutual funds was real heavy in Google shares. Billionare Mark Cuban said in an interview on C-SPAN that when he sold Broadcast.com to YAHOO that he sought to cash in his stock "as fast as I could." He knew the dot-com bubble had been blown way out of proportion. At the time he sold Broadcast.com, YAHOO was around $300 a share. Today it is around $32. Good call, Mark. Normally, I don't agree with much of anything written by the ultra-liberal Molly Ivins (who was writing for The Dallas Times Herald at the time I wrote a few editorials for that paper). Molly recently wrote the most insightful sentence I have ever seen her pen: "I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton." For what it is worth, many years ago I ran into Molly at a public affair in Central Texas. She said she really liked my novel and gave me her business card upon which she scribbled her home phone number. One day I called her. When she answered and I identified myself, she said, "Now is not a good time," and abruptly hung up the phone. I will never know what that was all about, since I never tried to contact her again. Men have feelings, too. John Kerry is a glib speaker and looks presidential. Sometimes he is given to hyperbole and strained analogies that reduce his credibility. Speaking before the Nashua New Hampshire Country Club (no, not in a factory), Mr. Kerry seemed out to prove that he was a "bigger Christian" than the born-again fellow in the White House. Mr. Kerry said: "I went back to the five books that tell you the most about Jesus Christ, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. And I will tell you nowhere in there - nowhere - not on one page, not in one phrase uttered and recorded by the Lord, Jesus Christ, can you find anything to suggest that there is a virtue in cutting children from Medicaid and taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich." And, by God, he was right. As hard as I looked, I could not find a single mention of Medicaid in the Bible. Mr. Kerry might want to rethink his comment about those Bible chapters being "uttered and recorded by the Lord, Jesus Christ." Matthew, Mark, Luke, et al., might quibble about who recorded the words. Also, Sen. Kerry might soft pedal talking about giving money to the rich, considering his wife's wealth - and when he is giving a talk at a country club. Mr. Kerry, and others who are fond of quoting the Bible during speeches, might read "Misquoting Jesus," by Bart Ehrman. One tiny nugget: There are some 5,700 ancient Greek manuscripts that are the basis of the modern versions of the New Testament, and scholars have uncovered more than 200,000 differences in those texts. Mr. Ehrman makes a compelling case for his book in his televised appearances. Believers and non-believers should all find this book provocative and a source of conversation, neigh, a source of arguing, shouting, rancor, and strained friendships for months on end. My copy has arrived from Amazon. For a long time, I have been able to walk up to a beautiful woman, who is a stranger, and ask her if her husband or boyfriend told her that day how beautiful she is. It always draws a smile and sometimes a bit of conversation. Recently, I topped myself. Although I knew the lady in question in a business setting, I had run out of superlatives to tell her how beautiful, intelligent, and articulate she is. I asked her if she believed in reincarnation. She said that she did not. I said, "Well, if there is anything to it, and I come back in another life, I want to spend it with you." Just silence. The only two things keeping us from spending this life together are a husband and about 40 years difference in our ages. There's always a catch. On TV the other night, Fred Barnes said that Barbra Streisand was a high-school dropout. Damn. All this time I thought she had a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard and had been at Oxford studying international relations. The list gets longer and longer of Hollywood Loony-Tune characters who claim they could run the government better. That is the legacy we have for letting one president of the Screen Actors Guild parlay that job into President of the United States. And Sonny, of "Sonny & Cher" becoming a congressman. My list of "unwatchables" is now nearly a page long. That is, I will not watch a movie, a TV show, a talk show, or news show on which any of the Hollywood Loony Tune "political experts" appear. I know I am not alone. They pay those people too much money. If they had to depend on working to pay the rent, they might shut their mouths and stick to the script. As a preface, here is a short excerpt from the Outback for Sunday, Oct. 12, 2002 (outbac68.html): In recent days, there has been a lot of saber rattling about what "we" (the U.S. or Israel) might do to disrupt the progress of the Iranian nuclear-bomb program. First, one has to wonder how good our intelligence is, given our track record on Iraq. Retired generals and other "military experts" are flooding the TV talk shows with grandiose and precise suggestions about how to "attack" Iran's nuclear facilities. The Iranians are said to be putting some of their nuclear capability underground, and building an underground government control center, to protect from air strikes. One retired general was huffing and puffing on TV about how we had improved our "bunker buster" bombs - giving the Iranians no place to hide. This "attack now before it is too late" mentality reminds me of the impatience the Bush Administration had with letting the U.N. weapon's inspectors try to get another chance to finish their inspections in Iraq (and not find any WMD). All of this talk of attacking is taking place as Iran has been referred to the U.N. Security council for failure to live up to its obligations about IAEA (International Atomic Agency - IAEA.org) inspections, and so on. IAEA Director General ElBaradei said in part: ElBaradei may be wrong. But, it does not help that so many in the U.S., in the Administration, and in the media, are talking about "attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities." Apparently, it is an orchestrated attempt to frighten the Iranians into negotiating a totally open inspection regime. I doubt that the Iranians frighten easily. They know how world opinion was against the American invasion of Iraq - and how those opinions have only strengthened as the Iraq conflict has dragged on with no real light at the end of the tunnel. The Iranians are aware of how thinly stretched our military is. They can almost count out a ground invasion by the United States. About all we can do is threaten an embargo. I guess that means cutting off their supply of Twinkies and designer jeans. Our 40-plus-year embargo of Castro's Cuba sure brought old Fidel to his senses in a hurry. The best guess as to when the Iranians might have a nuke range from 5-10 years in U.S. intelligence estimates, to the Israeli estimate of the Spring of 2006. It's nice that we all agree on a time frame. In any case, cool it! No need to fire up the U.S. bombers on Monday. Our intelligence on the Iran nuke program is probably so bad that we don't even know which of the several hundred sites we would need to bomb. And there are no doubt some sites we don't even know about. But, if the Israelis feel so certain that an Iranian Nuke is imminent, and that it might be used against Israel, let them run the air strikes. Some members of the Iranian government have boasted that they would use nukes to "destroy Israel." We have given Israel billions in miliary aid and equipment. If they don't have the latest bunker-buster bombs, get some on the way ASAP. We have our hands full, not to mention another nail in our global political coffin if we attack Iran. And a further heightening of the tensions between the U.S. and Muslims worldwide. You don't have to be Condi Rice to understand that this whole thing is a sticky wicket. (Google "sticky wicket." There really can be a sticky wicket in Cricket. You may be on JEOPARDY! some day and that information could earn you big money). United States intelligence believes that if Iranian nuclear facilities were attacked by the U.S. or Israel, Iran would respond by trying to close the Strait of Hormuz with naval forces, mines and anti-ship cruise missiles. Oil prices could rise dramatically. Iran also has the choice of using its long-range Shahab-3 missiles to attack American or Israeli bases in the region (with a nuke on top?). And the usual threat of sending suicide bombers into Western cities. To repeat my earlier post, with a different name inserted. "The U.S. Bomb Iran's Nuclear Facilities? What a Dreadful Thought." WiFi For Non-GeeksFor a long time, I dreaded the day I would install WiFi in my house. It was moot for a long time, because all three of my computers were limited to a dialup connection, and it was not worth the effort just to share a printer - or whatever. Recently, I had WildBlue satellite Internet installed here in the Outback. Downloads are as fast as 1.5Mips and I am having a ball. My WiFi-enabled laptop is at the far end of the house, sitting with the ham-radio station. My backup desktop computer sits about 10 feet from my main desktop. After much research and reading user opinions, I settled on the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router (F5D8230-4). Many reviewers said that it was great for a non-techie in that the CD-ROM had a Wizard that would set up your WiFi network. And that it was fast and had a range of up to 1000 feet. I found a lot of negative comment about the very popular model from Linksys, which I had intended to buy. My backup desktop already had a WiFi card in it and an antenna. But I ordered a D-Link PCI Ethernet card, so I could hardwire the two desktops together. My ASUS motherboard has a built-in Gigabit LAN, which I knew worked on my cable modem during my short stay in a duplex in a nearby town. Still, I dreaded the installation. I had read of people paying $180 to Best Buy's Geek Squad to come to their home to get the WiFi net working. And that as many as a fourth of WiFi router buyers bring them back - unable to fathom the complex installation routines. I downloaded the Belkin .PDF manual and studied it before the UPS shipment arrived. I popped in the Belkin CD-ROM and the Wizard configured the router to talk to my motherboard and satellite modem. It walked me through the correct sequence of when to connect my satellite modem, when to connect the WiFi router to the computer Ethernet port, and so on. After less than five minutes, a message popped up that said I was now ready to surf the Internet. And sure enough, I could surf with IE6, Firefox, and Opera browsers. A miracle had taken place. All that anxiety for nothing. The Wizard does not configure the router's firewall or security/encryption settings. The very complete manual makes those steps fairly painless. You open IE6, type in an address they give you, and up pops your router settings menu. You can set an Admin Password, to keep someone who intercepts your WiFi net from going into your Admin setup screen and making changes. You also set a passphrase for encryption of your net. The Firewall is enabled here, also. And there are several other parameters you can set, most of which are clearly explained in the Belkin manual. You get a paper manual, but the print is so small, that I used the .PDF version - plus you can search in the .PDF. With the router firewall and ZoneAlarm Pro, EZ Antivirus, Webroot's Spy Sweeper, I feel pretty secure. Although I still run Ad-Aware and SpyBot Search&Destroy periodically. It helps to go to outside sources to understand more about router firewalls and encryption/passwords to keep out unwanted users. Microsoft has some good information on their Web site. One of the best sources I found was at www.jiwire.com. These folks let you search for WiFi enabled spots around the country. Not a priority here in the Outback. But, for me, more important is their series of white papers on WiFi. A great primer. By searching Google on WPA-PSK, I found more detailed information about one of the encryption schemes available in my Belkin WiFi router. One posting on ZDNet by George Ou, called "How long does a WPA key need to be?" (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=127) was very interesting. The smart money is on using a key (passphrase) of at least 20 characters in length. George disputes this with some very geeky info on the length of time in years it takes to crack passwords of varying lengths. Also, look at: http://spotlight.getnetwise.org/wireless/ for WiFi security tips. By the end of the day, I was actually beginning to understand much of this arcane stuff. I installed the PCI Ethernet card in the backup computer and installed the drivers. There are a lot of Ethernet cards for $4.95. But, I chose to spend $15 on a D-link DFE-530TX+, which buyers on NewEgg.com had praised. Both the WiFi card and the Ethernet card logged onto the net with no problem. I disabled the WiFi card and am using an Ethernet cable from the Belkin router to the backup computer. I turn it on only to update virus definitions and install Windows XP updates. What a difference from the dialup days! I had ordered some cables from www.cablesforless.com for my HDTV and also a couple of Cat5 Ethernet cables. I think the 10 foot Cat5 cable cost about 3 bucks. Man, do they screw you on Cat5 cables in retail stores. The final step was testing the ACER Travelmate, WiFi enabled Centrino chip, laptop - at the other end of the house. The WiFi network came up with a full-scale (Excellent) signal. I typed in the passphrase, and I was on the WiFi net. I also bought a Palm T/X PDA, which is WiFi enabled. I now am able to sit in my recliner and surf the Web on the Palm or check my e-mail - or anywhere that I can log on to a WiFi hotspot. The Palm T/X will even synchronize with your computer Palm files over the WiFi connection. Such a deal. In anticipation of the day I would install a 2.5GHz WiFi network, I long ago upgraded my portable phones to 5.8GHz. There are several channels in the WiFi 2.4GHz band and in many 2.4GHz phones. It is possible that they can be configured so as not to interfere with each other. I was looking for an excuse to buy a 5.8GHz phone. As for interference from another local WiFi net? I doubt that there is another WiFi router within a mile of me. One day, I need to drive the highway with my WiFi laptop and see what I find. As to possible piggybacking on my WiFi net, I know of only one neighbor with a WiFi capable laptop, and he is no doubt on the fringe of the Belkin's range - even though it claims 1000 feet. Plus, I have encryption and passwords. So far, no cursing at the Belkin router and no calls to tech support. I downloaded the manual in advance and read most of it. You would be shocked at what information you can find in a manual. A good one, as I used to tell clients, can cut down on calls to tech support by as much as 75% or more. Although I consider myself to be a power user, and build my own computers, networking and WiFi were completely foreign to me. One day, I will read some more and figure out how to print to my laserjet from the remote laptop at the other end of the house. Turning on "file sharing," even with all my security, is not an idea I am keen on. One baby step at a time. For now, I am in Hog Heaven with my new Satellite Internet and Belkin WiFi net. "Let's Beat Up On The Atkins Diet" WeekMany times I have lamented the pervasiveness of the AP news service. An article on AP gets repeated verbatim in thousands of media outlets, as if it were the gospel according to Saint whomever. Often, AP has a bias. Often, they are wrong on their facts. Often, their headlines are misleading. Case in point. "Study Links Atkins, Possible Health Risk" (Mar 17, 2006). There was no study. Doctors reported on a single patient who was on the Atkins diet and developed a dangerous buildup of ketones in the blood which can at the extreme lead to a coma. Several doctors noted that this was an isolated case - a rare case. Certainly not the result of a "study." This headline and story were not worth reporting - unless your organization has a bias against the Atkins diet. This is another case of the AP being journalistic whores. So, sue me. Contact my lawyers at Crane, Poole & Schmidt in Boston. Ask for Denny Crane or Alan Shore. (See Media List for contact info for AP if you have a complaint about any of their releases.) Reuters news service took a different approach to the low-carb, high protein, diets, such as Atkins (Mar. 16, 2006). Headline: "Low-carb diets can be unhealthy, doctors warn." Reuters notes that: "The diets can cause constipation, diarrhea, headache, bad breath and ketosis, which causes raised levels of ketones, or acids, in the body." They mention the lady reported by AP as being from a "study," as a "case-report" in a medical journal - which is correct. They note a lack of trials to test the long-term effects of low-carbohydrate diets. Are you kidding? Atkins tested it for 40 years, and there have been real studies of the diet. One report of a study I recall was shocked to report that people on the Atkins diet actually lowered their cholesterol. In the Outback for Nov. 9, 2003 (outbac84.html), I noted in part: "For many years the Atkins diet was attacked as leading to high-cholesterol and heart disease - with all the intake of saturated fats. Now, research on the diet has shown that the Atkins diet reduces LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) by 8.6 percent and increases HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) by about 15 percent (source: American Heart Association meeting). Is anybody paying attention? The mainstream medical community continues to insist that high cholesterol and ingestion of saturated fats causes heart disease." When my cardiologist and I talked about me losing weight, he suggested that I go on the Atkins diet - and I have had bypass surgery! He is a well-respected cardiologist and researcher with an international reputation. HealthDay News also ran a story about the one lady who had ketone problems from pursuing the Atkins diet. Their headline: "Atkins Diet Not Safe for Everyone." They correctly note that it was a "case report," not a study, that related the case of the lady with the dangerously high levels of ketones. HealthDay News then goes on to quote a variety of sources about how the Atkins diet is not safe. AFP, the French news service, chimes in with the headline (Mar. 16, 2006): "Doctors in case study raise safety questions over Atkins diet." They managed to get the word "study" in there by calling it a "case study." Bravo. They cite negative comments about the Atkins diet from the Minnesota School of Public Health. This same source showed up in nearly all of the reporting on this "landmark case?" of one person who had a problem with the Atkins diet. Do these news services simply copy from each other? Or did they all actually call or e-mail the ladies at the Univ. of Minn. School of Public Health? Very interesting. What I found missing in all of the reporting on ketone levels with the Atkins diet is that you can buy Ketone testing strips at the pharmacy or online (no prescription needed). Ketones are indicators that your body is in ketosis/lipolysis. Ketosis means that you are using your fat stores as your primary fuel source instead of carbohydrates. Ketones are also monitored in people with Type 1 diabetes. In diabetics, high ketone levels indicate ketoacidosis, a complication of inadequate insulin levels that can lead to diabetic coma. Testing your urine with the Ketone Strips can alert you to a possibly dangerous level of ketones in your system. WebMd.com notes that: "Ketones can be tested at home using urine ketone test strips. A more accurate reading can be obtained by some home glucose meters that test for blood ketones." Of course, if the wire services noted that you can easily monitor your ketone levels, the whole purpose of the "Beat Up On The Atkins Diet" would be defeated. Update March 24, 2006: On the March 24 Yahoo page for Health News, the oldest article is one from AP for March 17: "Study Links Atkins, Possible Health Risk." Is this story of ONE WOMAN who got high ketone levels from the Atkins diet so important that it persists as the oldest story on Yahoo news? I don't think so. Something is wrong, and I wish I could get to the bottom of the apparent conspiracy to discredit the Atkins Diet. Could it have something to do with the fact that the Atkins Diet is high in saturated fats, that saturated fats are claimed to increase Cholesterol, that Cholesterol is alleged to increases chances for heart disease - and that Statins lower Cholesterol? Don't underestimate the reach of the monstrous PR campaign to tout the benefits of Statins. Return to the List of TopicsCOPYRIGHT 2000 Richard C. Rhodes You are welcome to quote sections from this page - or the whole page, as long as the source URL is included. Of course, I would be flattered if anyone linked to this page. It is very hard to be the writer, editor, fact checker, copy editor, and publisher of anything. So, I beg your forgiveness for the many mistakes that creep in. Suggested Reading From Past Columns Click Here for Suggested Reading List Archive of Back Issues Media List of Addresses and e-mails Postal Service State Abbreviations, etc. Postal Service Abbreviations - Richard C. Rhodes End |