This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on November 23, 2000.

There is no doubt in my mind that of all American holidays, Thanksgiving is the greatest. I often wonder how a holiday like this has survived through the constant change that is our nation's history. Yet all Americans, regardless of our beliefs, take the time to be with friends and family and to thank God for the blessings that He has bestowed on us.

Each year, The Wall Street Journal publishes two articles on its Editorial page on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I want to thank them for making these articles available on their free Web Site, OpinionJournal.com. Reading them is one of my favorite moments of the season.

The Desolate Wilderness, taken from Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial:

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits....

And the Fair Land written by Vermont Royster, 1949:

.... We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth....

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from everyone at CTDATA.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on November 23, 2000.

There is no doubt in my mind that of all American holidays, Thanksgiving is the greatest. I often wonder how a holiday like this has survived through the constant change that is our nation's history. Yet all Americans, regardless of our beliefs, take the time to be with friends and family and to thank God for the blessings that He has bestowed on us.

Each year, The Wall Street Journal publishes two articles on its Editorial page on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I want to thank them for making these articles available on their free Web Site, OpinionJournal.com. Reading them is one of my favorite moments of the season.

The Desolate Wilderness, taken from Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial:

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits....

And the Fair Land written by Vermont Royster, 1949:

.... We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth....

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from everyone at CTDATA.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on November 23, 2000.

There is no doubt in my mind that of all American holidays, Thanksgiving is the greatest. I often wonder how a holiday like this has survived through the constant change that is our nation's history. Yet all Americans, regardless of our beliefs, take the time to be with friends and family and to thank God for the blessings that He has bestowed on us.

Each year, The Wall Street Journal publishes two articles on its Editorial page on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I want to thank them for making these articles available on their free Web Site, OpinionJournal.com. Reading them is one of my favorite moments of the season.

The Desolate Wilderness, taken from Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial:

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits....

And the Fair Land written by Vermont Royster, 1949:

.... We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth....

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from everyone at CTDATA.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on November 23, 2000.

Dave Aiello wrote, "There is no doubt in my mind that of all American holidays, Thanksgiving is the greatest. I often wonder how a holiday like this has survived through the constant change that is our nation's history. Yet, all Americans, regardless of our beliefs, take the time to be with friends and family, and to thank God for the blessings that He has bestowed upon us."

"Each year, The Wall Street Journal publishes two articles on its Editorial page on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I want to thank them for making these articles available on their free Web Site, OpinionJournal.com. Reading them is one of my favorite moments of the season."

The Desolate Wilderness, taken from Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial:

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they
knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to
Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits....

And the Fair Land written by Vermont Royster, 1949:

.... We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth....

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from everyone at CTDATA.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on November 23, 2000.

Dave Aiello wrote, "There is no doubt in my mind that of all American holidays, Thanksgiving is the greatest. I often wonder how a holiday like this has survived through the constant change that is our nation's history. Yet, all Americans, regardless of our beliefs, take the time to be with friends and family, and to thank God for the blessings that He has bestowed upon us."

"Each year, The Wall Street Journal publishes two articles on its Editorial page on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I want to thank them for making these articles available on their free Web Site, OpinionJournal.com. Reading them is one of my favorite moments of the season."

The Desolate Wilderness, taken from Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial:

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they
knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to
Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits....

And the Fair Land written by Vermont Royster, 1949:

.... We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth....

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from everyone at CTDATA.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "The continued expansion of Amazon.com has made it even more enticing to establish a Wish List for yourself this holiday season. In order to help readers of CTDATA.com identify some best practices in setting up a Wish List, I added some new items to mine over the past few days:"

(Note: Please consult Dave Aiello's Wish List while reading this article. If you find this article helpful, you now know how to show your appreciation.)

1. Include items other than books, music, and recorded video.

   Amazon.com achieved early fame through its book, music, and DVD/VHS stores. But, did you know that Amazon has now established a Sporting Goods store with products from partners like Road Runner Sports? This is one of my favorite mail order retailers, where I buy most of my running shoes and exercise clothing.

2. Include items at a number of price points.

   When building a Wish List, it's a really good idea to include items that are inexpensive in addition to things that would be considered more significant gifts. After all, you want to encourage people to visit your Wish List for any number of gift giving opportunities.

   I added things like a pound of my favorite candy and
   a moderately priced digital camera to a list that had previously been dominated by books and videos priced between $10 and $50.
   

   
   
3. Add things you need to replace because you've overused them.
   

   
   Have you ever used a product until it broke? I've been doing that more and more recently. Over the summer, I broke the lens on my 35mm SLR film camera. I have had my Nikon N50 single lens reflex camera for many years. It's perfect for my film photography needs. But, until I get a new lens, the zoom feature of my original lens is stuck at around 40mm. This is clearly an opportunity for one of the members of my family to get me a gift that they know I'll use regularly.
   

   
   
4. Link your Wish List to your web site.
   

   
   Once you're done adding things to your Wish List, you can publicize it in a number of ways. One of the more effective ways to publicize it is to add a link to it from your web site.

   The book Amazon Hacks from O'Reilly mentions a really simple URL shortcut to any Wish List:
   

   
   http://www.amazon.com/o/wishlist/email address of Wish List owner
   

   
   This is an example of the kind of time and effort saving hints that are found in the Amazon Hacks book. I recommend it highly.
   

   
   

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Earlier this week RPM Corporation issued its 2003 annual report entitled The Value of 168. According to their report:

The Value of 168 is a statement of the corporate philosophy of RPM. This figure, often cited by our founder, Frank C. Sullivan, literally represents the number of hours in a week. On a deeper level, it serves to remind us of his belief that we are born with two great gifts: life and the time to do something with it.

This concept is interesting in at least two ways:

1. With all the emphasis that people have placed on 24 x 7 in recent years, it's surprising that no one else has "done the math", realized that the product of the equation is 168, and used it in a marketing campaign.
2. It's an interesting coincidence that this annual report comes out only a few days before the publication of Lance Armstrong's book "Every Second Counts". The founder of RPM was talking about the same thing that the great cycling champion is talking about today.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Some of you may have noticed that my wife and I were on vacation from August 30 to September 6. We stayed in beautiful Stone Harbor, NJ, aptly described as The Seashore at its Best."

"This is the first time that I have stayed in a rented house in Stone Harbor since the mid 1980s, and I forgot how much I enjoy it. The town has changed remarkably little since I was a kid. The weather was good for most of the trip, and we were there for enough time to really relax."

"In case you were wondering, I got 5,898 email messages during the week. I'm sure many of them are spam. It's taking quite a while to download them, and it will probably take longer to read through the ones that pass through Mozilla's filtering system."

"If you've been trying to get in touch with me, I'll probably contact you in the next day or two. I hope that you had as much fun as Kathleen and I did this week. But, I doubt it...."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "A few of my friends and most of my relatives already know that I competed yesterday in the 2003 Lighter Than Air Duathlon at Lakehurst Naval Air Station along the Jersey Shore. This was a multi-sport race ('multi' in this case means two): a 3 mile run, followed by a 20 mile bike ride, followed by a 2 mile run."

"I finished in 1:55:20, good for 216th place out of 262 finishers. I think this is a good result. This was my first duathlon in 3 years, and I was riding a mountain bike against competitors who were riding 'road' or 'triathlon' bikes. (Those bikes can be ridden much faster than a mountain bike.)"

"The race was conducted under nearly ideal conditions. The weather was 10 to 15 degrees F cooler than normal with clear skies. The course was mostly flat. The worst parts of the whole event were the vehicle inspections (required by the Navy because this is war time) and the wind during the bike portion of the race."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We note the massive failure of the electric power grids that serve much of the Northeastern United States. It began yesterday at 4:11pm EDT. At that time, there was a brown out at our office in East Windsor, NJ, that lasted about 30 seconds. After that, the power came back to normal and stayed there.

People in places like New York City were not so fortunate. Those of us who were lucky enough to have access to a TV watched people walk across the New York City bridges for hours after the lights went out. You could understand why people who were in Manhattan momentarily feared another terror attack.

Already there is a rush to find the entity that is ultimately responsible for this event. News reports have suggested that this event is a virtual repeat of the power failure that occurred in the autumn of 1965. We suggest waiting until the lights come back on for everyone before beginning the investigations.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Last Thursday, Peter Andreas Frank died as a result of a brain tumor. I have known Peter for 15 years, and he is one of my best friends. We went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute together."

"Peter was in the Krankenhaus Nordwest in Frankfurt, Germany for the last two and one-half months of his life. He was often visited there by his family and friends that live in the Frankfurt region."

"Peter's original brain tumor was discovered back in 1993. He outlived everyone's expectations, including the expectations of all of the doctors that consulted on his case. I went to visit him for the last time in May when he was still living in Zurich, Switzerland with his wife, Ramona Morel. At that time, most people familiar with his case thought he would die in late May or early June."

"The way Peter and his family dealt with the last stages of his illness was courageous and amazing. Over the past few weeks, it was clear to me that Peter's wife and his father were reaching a point of emotional exhaustion. Yet, they bravely hung on to the end."

"For the past month or so, it has been been painful for me to think about Peter's quality of life. I found myself torn between hoping for his quick and merciful death, and hoping for some sort of miraculous recovery that would allow him to be himself again."

"When Ramona called me to say that he had died, I was more than a little surprised. None of the difficulties that had happened to him had managed to kill him before. After 10 years of struggle, it seemed like he could live on through almost anything."

"Each summer for the last three years, I have read (or listened to) Lance Armstong's book,
It's Not About the Bike. The first time I did this, I was primarily interested in Armstrong's book in connection with cycling. But recently, I have read the book with more interest in what it says about fighting cancer. When I read this passage, I thought of Peter:"

Good, strong people get cancer, and they do all the right things to beat it, and they still die. That is the essential truth you learn. People die. And after you learn it, all other matters seem irrelevant. They just seem small.

"Peter's death has definitely made my daily work seem insignificant. But, he would be the first person to tell me to pull myself together and do something constructive. So, I'll do my best."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "On RCNJ.org, I've been writing about the Stanley Cup Finals. Last night, the New Jersey Devils beat Anaheim 3-0 to win the Cup. I was really disappointed for Adam Oates, a Rensselaer alumnus nearing the end of a great hockey career, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the goaltender who came out of nowhere to have a brilliant playoff. I won't forget the pictures of Giguere crying moments before receiving The Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs for a while."

"The Devils are a great team and worthy champions. I know a lot of people who work for the Devils through hockey officiating, and I'm sure they are happy this morning."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "In one of the more momentus events in establishment jounalism, the executive editor and managing editor of the New York Times have resigned. Apparently, this was in response to continued internal division over the Jayson Blair case. This scandal and related events have sent shockwaves through the mainstream media in America."

"We can only hope that the editorial biases that reached absurd levels during Raines' tenure are reduced in the course of this leadership change. Many conservatives have commented on the obvious liberal bias that seeped from the Times' editorial page into feature stories. But, similar biases have crept into many aspects of Times reporting, including technology stories."

"CTDATA was chided by some webloggers for suggesting that an article that appeared in the New York Times in February about the acquisition of Pyra Labs by Google was subtly biased. It was said that David Gallagher, the author of the piece, was a card-carrying member of the weblog community-- therefore his article could not be as biased as we suggested."

"But, we were right about the Times' deep-rooted need to push its agendas. It should not be considered The Paper of Record, as it has been in the past, until it cleans up its act. The Times must demonstrate over a period of time that it can be trusted to give us the story straight, without spin, and without selective exclusion of issues that don't fit its world view."

"Until it does, we will do our best to find other news sources to reference in our articles."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "I'd feel guilty if I didn't post an article on CTDATA.com recognizing the 100th birthday of Bob Hope. When I think of the number of people who have been entertained by Bob Hope over the years, it makes the impact of the Internet seem small to me. This may be an apples to oranges comparison, but that's up to you to decide."

"Dave Winer of Scripting News pointed out this excellent online exhibit of Bob Hope's life and work, developed by The Library of Congress. I'd like to drive a little more traffic to it if I can."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "I've been in a funk this week for a number of reasons. The public ones are that the weather has been bad for a few days here in Central NJ, I had jury duty this week for the first time in my life, I'm waiting to hear the result of a presentation for new business I made several weeks ago, and I'm repricing the part of our experimental used book inventory that remains unsold. This is a deadly combination of boringness."

"The other way you can tell I'm not engaged is that I've posted almost nothing on CTDATA. In most cases, slow periods in the business are when I do my most prolific article posting. Not so this week anyway."

"Today I got tired of waiting for the skies to clear and decided to invent my own Spring Classic: A 27.3 mile (44 km) ride from the World Headquarters in East Windsor, NJ to Rocky Hill, NJ, via The Delaware and Raritan Canal Towpath. I rode the towpath from Washington Road in Princeton to Route 518 and back (see the map). Lots of standing water after a day and a night of intermittent rain."

"This was the kind of ride a recreational cyclist needs to do once in a while, if only to demonstrate that you don't need perfect conditions. It was the kind of ride where you find gritty mud on the inside of your clothes when you get home. Too bad I didn't take a picture of myself."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "The Newark Star-Ledger reports that New Jersey will finally upgrade its motor vehicle licensing system in order to reduce the incidence of identity theft and fraud. The new issuance procedure will begin in July and initially target 'people whose documents raised suspicions', including absent or incomplete Social Security Numbers, duplicate licenses that have been issued, and undeliverable home addresses."

"This process cannot begin soon enough. Many people in New Jersey know that the Department of Motor Vehicles is a national security risk. Today's procedures have numerous loop holes that have been abused for years. People who have entered the country illegally have used the DMV to legitimize themselves, and most law-abiding citizens have no idea that this takes place."

"Although delays at DMV offices may be lengthy, New Jerseyans should realize that an overall increase in the validity of drivers licenses is in everyone's interest."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "CTDATA notes the untimely death of David Bloom of NBC News from a pulmonary embolism. At the time of his death, Bloom was an embedded correspondent with the Third Infantry Division, en route to Baghdad."

"In the week before he died, David Bloom caught my imagination with the innovative broadcast techniques he was using to create visually clear and distinctive reports from the battlefield in Iraq. Apparently, I am not the only technology fan who noticed."

"The Bloommobile, a modified M-88 Tank Recovery vehicle, was the only mobile broadcast facility that seemed able to keep up with the army's rapid advance across the Iraqi desert. According to the tribute article on MSNBC.com:"

Bloom and his cameraman mounted a gyrostabilized camera — the kind that’s mounted on helicopters — to produce jiggle-free video even when the M-88 was bumping along at 50 mph or more. Then the sharper-than-videophone signal was sent via microwave to a converted Ford F-450 crew-cab truck, two to 10 miles farther back in the column. An antenna on the truck transmitted the signal in real time from its own gyrostabilized platform to an overhead satellite, which relayed it to NBC.

"This could never have been done before because the concept of embedded correspondents itself is novel in this war. I expect that this type of broadcast will become a staple of coverage of future military actions."

"I was so taken by the reports that David Bloom was making last week that I brought it up to friends of mine at an ice hockey tournament at which I was officiating. Normally, hockey offcials would not discuss new technologies employed by television news correspondents at a national championship tournament."

"It's a tragedy that Bloom died from an embolism. According to an account in BusinessWeek by Frederik Balfour, Bloom sought medical advice and was told that he might have deep vein thrombosis which should be treated. He probably interpreted this the way most young men would-- he was told there was a small risk of something very bad happening and he decided that it probably wouldn't happen to him. I'm not sure what anyone who was in the midst of one of the hottest news story of the decade-- who already had a large slice of America's attention-- would have done differently."

"The heartbreaking part of this story is that his family has lost a husband and a father. Bloom died doing something he obviously loved, but, I'm sure we all wish that he hadn't been so caught up in the intensity of the march to Baghdad."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Aiello is looking for a low cost ink jet printer for his personal computer and asked for some ideas on how to choose a good one. The most advertised brands in the market are Hewlett-Packard and Epson, although there are a number of other brands that offer good products.

One of the most useful sites for narrowing down the field is CNET. Their database of ink jet printers contains 425 different models. It allows you to search by release date, name, editors' ratings, value ratings, and price. CNET also has a fairly comprehensive price comparison service, although it primarily covers on-line merchants.

Another useful article related to the subject was written by Walt Mossberg and published in today's Wall Street Journal. Mossberg talks about one of Dell's new printers and compares it to a previously released printer from H-P. The article says that the Dell printer is essentially the same as another printer in the Lexmark product line. Both models, in fact, are made by Lexmark.

The new Dell model discussed is a multi-function device that is more of a printer-scanner-fax than a simple printer. Our point in mentioning this article was to illustrate the existance of yet another competitor in this market. We are sure that printers from Dell will be competitive in terms of price and features with most devices on the market.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CBS News is reporting that the U.S. Air Force dropped a so-called E-bomb on the transmitter for Iraqi TV in Baghdad. This is a microwave pulse bomb designed to disable electronic devices.

The existence of this type of weapon in the U.S. arsenal is not acknowledged by the Department of Defense. If it has been used in this case, it is the first time a weapon of this nature has been seen in combat. Such weapons have been talked about theoretically for years.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reports in its Arts Online section that Quake III Arena players led by Joseph DeLappe will reenact a "Friends" episode in an on-line game:

On Saturday Mr. DeLappe and five fellow players will convene in cyberspace to perform "Quake/Friends." The actors will appear on the computer screen as typical "Quake" gladiators, but each will have assumed the role and identity of a "Friends" character. Then, using the game's instant-message system, they will re-enact the real show's 1994 pilot episode in the "Quake" space by typing and transmitting dialogue to other players' screens.

So far, so dull. But online performance is, in a way, a form of street theater, and audience participation is expected to enliven the action. While the "Quake/Friends" actors won't fire their weapons, unsuspecting "Quake" players will notice that a game is under way and will be able to enter the show with their own guns blazing. In a game whose sole goal is to kill as many as possible, Monica will be mowed down and Chandler chopped in half.

Hopefully, statistics will be published on the total number of times each Friends character is killed during the game.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "By now, everyone has heard that Fred Rogers died today of cancer at age 74. He was the host of the longest show on public television, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

"Fred Rogers had stomach cancer, a disease that tends to kill people quickly. His death makes a difficult period in our nation's history more difficult for many people. He might have been the most reassuring public figure in America during the last half of his life."

"The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a great article about Mister Rogers today. He was originally from Latrobe and produced the show from Pittsburgh for 33 years. The article says, 'The list of awards presented to Mr. Rogers runs more than 25 single-spaced, typed pages and includes lifetime achievement awards from the Daytime Emmys and the Television Critics Association.' He's one of the few people associated with television that I think most Americans would agree deserved every award and accolade he got."

"I can't remember why, but, the other day I started singing the song It's Such a Good Feeling (to know you're alive...). That song comes to my mind from time to time, often in times of stress. I think it helps me put my troubles into better perspective."

"I hope that one day my children will watch Mister Rogers Neighborhood and think of Fred Rogers as their neighbor. May his soul rest in peace."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "The New Jersey Turnpike has been closed for its entire length, since 10:45am EST, reportedly due to severe lack of visibility as a result of fog. This is the first time I can ever remember the entire road being closed for this reason."

"This highway has speed control signs that allow the speed limit to be reduced when conditions warrant. So, if fog is a problem, I'd think that they would just keep reducing the speed limit until the danger was of travelling was not great. I understand that the posted speed on the Turnpike for vehicles already on the road is now 30 miles per hour."

"What triggered the closing? Was there some sort of huge chain reaction accident or something?"

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Aiello reports that he was driving a large truck across the Goethals Bridge at the time when an explosion rocked an oil transfer station in Staten Island, a mile or two south of the bridge. He said that most of the traffic stopped on the bridge to look at the plume of smoke. This was on the left side of the bridge, from the perspective of New Jersey-bound traffic.

Scott reports that he subsequently drove his truck the rest of the way across the bridge, and kept driving back to work. Now, the smoke extends across the sky for miles and is visible from The Garden State Parkway in Roselle Park, NJ.

The explosion is reported to have taken place at about 10:10am, Eastern Time.

BTW Scott, Happy Birthday.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Reuters reported Tuesday that consumer rights groups are criticizing a new study of consolidation in the radio industry, produced by Arbitron, a media and market research firm with radio expertise. According to Reuters, the study reported that 79 percent of the listeners surveyed 'said they get more or the same amount of programming choices from local radio than they did five years ago'".

"The article contains quotes from the spokesman for a consumer rights group, the Future of Music Coalition, an organization critical of consolidation that has already taken place in the industry":

It's clearly in their best interest to say that radio is great.

The federal government is in the process of evaluating changes and potentially allowing further consolidation, while the broadcast industry has an obvious agenda to defend these changes and push for more.

Dave Aiello continued, "You would have to be incredibly naive to think that a study that says that relies on current listeners to subjectively judge the diversity of radio programming was indicative of successful evolution of the radio industry. What about people like me, who gave up on listening to music radio several years ago? The only sector of radio that seems to be growing from my perspective is talk radio, and that growth is primarily limited to politically conservative shows."

"Music radio appears to be controlled by large corporations that dominate station ownership and either outdoor advertising or concert promotion in each local media market. There is a steady stream of media reports that indicate that radio airplay is determined by promotional payments, the equivalent of supermarket slotting fees. This was once referred to as payola and was the subject of a number of federal investigations, dating back to the 1960s."

Read on for more....

Continue reading "Critics Charge that Arbitron Study Is Biased in Favor of Radio Consolidation" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times is reporting that Jamie Kellner is stepping down as Chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, a unit of AOL Time Warner. Although Kellner is credited with a leading role in the founding of the Fox and WB television networks, he has been under increasing pressure in his current role, due to the continued underperformance of Turner properties like CNN.

Kellner had been mentioned on CTDATA back in May, when we reported that he told Cableworld Magazine that typical uses of a device like TiVo amount to theft of service because viewers use them to skip advertisements.

Anyone who feels that they have the right to dictate how people watch television programs delivered to their homes in such a comprehensive manner is ill-suited to a career as a broadcast executive in the United States. Perhaps he would do better in a country that does not have the traditions of individual liberty and intellectual property rights that exist here.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Aiello pointed out that the new Dale Earnhardt, Inc. web site, www.daleearnhardtinc.com, launched a few days before last week's Daytona 500. The site includes insider news about DEI, drivers, and other racing team information.

This site will be the primary distributor for tickets to a Dale Earnhardt tribute concert scheduled for June 28 at Daytona International Speedway. The concert will include performances from Sheryl Crow, Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, and Kenny Chesney.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello said, "I opened our garage, and saw that my entire driveway was covered with snow to the depth of 2 to 3 feet (91 cm). The apron of our driveway (where it meets the street) has snow that is probably 4 feet deep."

"I decided that I would alternate one hour of shoveling with one hour of rest for at least today's remaining daylight hours. I hope the conditions at your house are better than they are here."

Update 10:15pm EST: "After 4 1/2 hours of shoveling, I cleared 500-600 cubic feet of snow from the driveway at my home. That gives me the ability to back my SUV out into the street. I'll have to shovel some more tomorrow in order to be able to free my wife's car from the snow bank that is our driveway."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Kuykendall points out that Delaware DOT also has highway traffic cameras. He says that he finds these cameras more useful than radio traffic reports.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "For an idea of how much snow Central New Jersey has received in the last 24 hours, take a look at the NJDOT's traffic cameras on U.S. 1. Obviously, this will only look like a snow emergency for a few more hours."

"I didn't realize that these cameras were on-line until I saw Edward Felten of Princeton University mention them on his weblog, freedom-to-tinker.com. So I Googled Route 1 Traffic camera NJ, and found them."

"It looks like we've got fewer traffic cameras than the State of Washington does. But, it's a start for our area."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you live between Washington, DC, and Boston, you already know that the Northeast is experiencing the biggest snow storm since 1996 today. Here in East Windsor, we are expecting 18 inches to two feet by tomorrow night.

For those of you outside the United States, two feet is about 60 cm. That's more snow than we got in the entire 2001-2002 winter season, AFAIK.

If you have nothing to do tomorrow, bring your shovel.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NASA has released an email thread about the possibility of landing gear failures during the attempt to land the shuttle Columbia on February 1. At this point in the investigation, it is not clear whether landing gear failure contributed to the disintegration of the shuttle.

This information has been reported in articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Associated Press. All of these articles analyze the same emails and point out nearly the same features of them, namely that:

1. Robert Daugherty said he was "erring way on the side of absolute worst case scenarios", and
2. James Heflin said that in his email, Mr. Daugherty was "what-iffing, which is something we do a whole lot of".

The New York Times also published excerpts of the emails that NASA released. This is useful because hardcopy readers deserve the opportunity to read the main points of the emails in context, not just summaries of what the emails said.

The fact that NASA released these emails yesterday is interesting. One conclusion that can be drawn from it is that a major difference between this disaster and The Challenger is the volume of email communication that could be made public through official or unofficial releases. This both maintains pressure on NASA administrators and provides them with a way to reassure the public.

Of course, there will probably be hell to pay if any emails materialize that attempt to raise red flags without the kind of preambles that Daugherty put in his email.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Many of you know that CTDATA sells used books as part of our experiments in e-commerce. Yesterday, we sold a copy of a book called
Lift Off!: An Astronaut's Dream, a 96 page book for school children, and the customer asked us to ship it out in an expedited manner."

"As I was packing the book, I glanced through it, and realized that it discusses a situation where the shuttle Atlantis was damaged by debris that fell off the right-side rocket booster at launch. This occurred on flight STS-27, December 2-6, 1988."

"Chapter 8 of the book, written by retired astronaut R. Mike Mullane, discusses his effort to check the shuttle for tile damage. Mullane writes:"

"Atlantis? Houston. We were wondering if you saw anything break off the top of the right booster during ascent.... In a review of the ground films of your launch, engineers thought they saw something come off the tip of the booster."

"Atlantis, we want Mike to use the robot arm to look at the belly...."

I shiver with fear as I imagine what would happen to Atlantis if there is major damage. On reentry, fire would melt a hole in the belly and then start buringing through wires and equipment....

Meanwhile, the commander and the pilot would be doing everything possible to keep the shuttle flying straight. But, in the end, atmospheric friction would win the battle. The shuttle would start groaning and vibrating as pieces of the wings burned off... and the shuttle would slowly spin out of control. From the ground it would look like a giant shooting star, scattering flaming pieces of aluminum across the sky. I would be dead.... That's what I'm thinking as I carefully twist the robot arm underneath the fusilage.

Finally, the belly heat tiles come into view on the television screen. We gasp. Hundreds of tiles are scraped and gouged! At least one tile is completely missing. What's going to happen to us on reentry?

Dave Aiello continued, "Of course, Atlantis and its crew survived and successfully landed at Andrews Air Force Base. But, more than 700 tiles on the bottom of the shuttle had been damaged beyond repair."

"The breakup scenario that Mullane describes may be very close to what actually happened to shuttle Columbia. The biggest difference between Mullane's story and the Columbia disaster may be that Columbia did not carry a robot arm on its last mission."

"This is a wonderful book that tells a lot of shuttle flight details that I did not know. I'll have to get another copy and read it cover-to-cover."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Monday, The New York Times published an article that listed the alternatives that NASA engineers had discussed to allowing Columbia to proceed with a landing attempt and why none of these scenarios was feasilble. One of the most oft-cited alternatives was accelerating the launch of Atlantis, the Shuttle closest to readiness. However, the article says:

...Atlantis is still in its hangar, and to rush it to launching would have required NASA to circumvent most of its safety measures. "It takes about three weeks, at our best effort, to prepare the shuttle for launch once we're at the pad," Bruce Buckingham {a Kennedy Space Center spokesman} said, "and we're not even at the pad." Further, Columbia had enough oxygen, supplies and fuel (for its thrusters only) to remain in orbit for only five more days, said Patrick Ryan, a spokesman at the Johnson Space Center....

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A lot of Slashdot readers are big fans of space exploration. So, it should not be a surprise that a great deal of interesting feedback was posted to the article called Where Should Space Exploration Go From Here?. The original questions were:

I have done extensive reading since the Columbia tragedy about what's next for human space exploration. Most of the punditry agrees that extending the shuttle program for many more years is a bad idea. So what are the practical alternatives? I've seen ideas for new spacecraft, a carbon nanotube space elevator, among other things. What are the best ideas you've seen? Will the best idea win, or the one with the most pork barrel contracts? Does space travel/exploration have to be THIS expensive? What are the best short term/long term solutions?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Roger Hedgecock filled in for Rush Limbaugh yesterday on The Rush Limbaugh radio program. At the beginning of the show, Hedgecock reported that a NASA Engineer named Greg Katnik had reported that foam from the external tank had struck the Columbia orbiter on the STS-87 mission in 1997. According to an article found on a NASA educational web site:

...the extent of damage at the conclusion of this mission was not "normal."

The pattern of hits did not follow aerodynamic expectations, and the number, size and severity of hits were abnormal. Three hundred and eight hits were counted during the inspection, one-hundred and thirty two (132) were greater than one inch. Some of the hits measured fifteen (15) inches long with depths measuring up to one and one-half (1 1/2) inches. Considering that the depth of the tile is two (2) inches, a 75% penetration depth had been reached. Over one hundred (100) tiles have been removed from the Columbia because they were irreparable. The inspection revealed the damage, now the "detective process" began.

During the STS-87 mission, there was a change made on the external tank. Because of NASA's goal to use environmentally friendly products, a new method of "foaming" the external tank had been used for this mission and the STS-86 mission. It is suspected that large amounts of foam separated from the external tank and impacted the orbiter. This caused significant damage to the protective tiles of the orbiter. Foam cause damage to a ceramic tile?! That seems unlikely, however when that foam is combined with a flight velocity between speeds of MACH two to MACH four, it becomes a projectile with incredible damage potential. The big question? At what phase of the flight did it happen and what changes need to be made to correct this for future missions?

The Chronicle article referred to a 1994 study by Paul Fischbeck and M. Elisabeth Pate-Cornell of problems with the management of thermal protection systems at NASA. It also points out the existance of a new thermal protection system, developed for the now cancelled X-33 space plane that is "billed as cheaper and more durable than fragile ceramic tiles."

Much of this information is picked up by The New York Times and The Washington Post in articles published today.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reports in its Tuesday edition that many doctors in New Jersey followed through on the threat to stop seeing patients for non-emergency care in protest of the state's unwillingness to address runaway malpractice insurance costs. One doctor is reported to have carried a sign saying "When Your Water Breaks, Call Your Lawyer" at a protest that took place at Christ Hospital in Jersey City.

In spite of the connotation the aforementioned placard, Dr. Robert Rigolosi, president of the Medical Society of New Jersey said, "We will continue to see emergency cases, we will continue to do deliveries of pregnant women...."

Another article in The New York Times talks about the increased patient load seen by Emergency Departments throughout the state: "A spokesman for {The New Jersey Hospital Association}, Ron Czajkowski, said that some hospitals reported seeing double or triple the usual number of patients, most of them children or the elderly."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In an email exchange between Peter A. Frank and Dave Aiello, Peter Frank wrote:

I was wondering when you {Dave Aiello} might be posting something about Columbia? Just a few hours after the break-up during re-entry, the Austrian television network ORF was airing an amazing documentary that seemed so well prepared that one might have thought them to know that something was going to happen.

They mainly focused on the privatization of NASA's space program and its subsequent outsourcing to Boeing and Lockheed. I guess that many people must have noticed problems with the huge administrative effort that eventually killed the 7 crew members of Columbia.

I remember strongly arguing for a continuation of manned space flight after the Challenger disaster. I knew that riding an explosive bullet into space was risky, but I never thought about the ride home....

The ORF web site, mainly written in German, contains a lot of information about the Columbia disaster. If you can't read German, Google Language Tools do an excellent job of translating the articles.

Peter and his wife, Ramona Morel, live in the suburbs of Zurich, Switzerland. Peter graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was a student in the United States at around the time of the Challenger disaster.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)