Author: Steve OHearn

John Batchelor’s “good evening”.

I love how John Batchelor will introduce a guest and end with “Good Evening”, like this – and I’m going to paraphrase – but he’ll say something like “Tonight there is mischief afoot, intrigue from Washington to Cairo, with tension in the balance and yadda yadda yadda … so tonight we are joined by Joe Smith who has been intimately involved and understands the nuances of the situation. Joe, do you think this and that and what about the other, and with the world hanging in the balance and the history of humanity at risk do you think there’s a chance for human survival, good evening Joe.”

GOOD EVENING – after all that, he’ll always end with “Good evening”.

He’s so civilized.  And insightful.  He covers a wide array of intelligent topics – from astronomy to current events, to international economics and politics, but not the kind you typically hear in American media.  Perhaps the sort you might find in The Economist .  If you’re a news junkie, John Bachelor is a breath of fresh air.  If you like being informed in an intelligent way, tune in, you’ll love the show.  And his bumper music is the best.

Here’s a video of a song John always plays around midnight during his late night radio show, a song called “Midnight, the Stars, and You”, in a beautiful old recording of Al Bowly, that always makes me think of Doc Scantlin … click below to hear it.

 

New Government Scanners Know Everything – From a Distance

The most excellent tech blog Gizmodo published an article about three weeks ago titled Hidden Government Scanners Will Instantly Know Everything About You From 164 Feet Away.  In it, Gizmodo states that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working on equipment that will be ready in two years, and will be “capable of detecting every tiny trace of any substance on your body, from specks of gunpowder to your adrenaline levels to a sugar-sized grain of cannabis to what you had for breakfast.”

This isn’t new technology, but it’s faster – “ten million times faster” than existing technology.  It’s also mobile and rack-mountable.

In other words, they’ll be able to scan everyone who walks through airports, shopping malls, office buildings, subway stations, and really – just any random place – without the individual being subject to lines, or even giving their approval necessarily.

For those of s who are tired of long lines in airport security, this is a great thing.

And for those of us who are law abiding, and who live under a government that responds to the will of the people and is not tyrannical, this is also a good thing.

For others … not so much.

And for those of us who are obsessed with technology, the potential for something like this, and available to existing automated systems, is … very very interesting.

 

 

Todd Bauchspies, PRS Guitars, and “Cecil, Pronto, and the Monkey Man”

Todd Bauchspies is, quite simply, the most gifted guitarist in the music industry today.  A number of us in the Washington, DC / Baltimore / Annapolis area have known this for years, and the rest of the world is finally starting to figure it out.

Case in point:  the world famous Paul Reed Smith, maker of some of the best (and some of the most expensive) guitars in the business – selected Todd to help promote some of the new line of acoustic guitars.

For those who aren’t “in the know” on high-end performance electric guitars, PRS guitars are among the preferred musical instruments of such musical artists as Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, Alex Lifeson (Rush), Ted Nugent, Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction), Nick Catanese (the 2001 movie Rock Star, among other things), and also – the amazing Todd Bauchspies.

Todd’s a virtuoso with a stunning range of capabilities.  He used to perform a great deal with the late great Eva Cassidy, famous for her covers of classics such as Over the Rainbow and Sting’s Fields of Gold.  And Todd’s fully capable of burning up the fretboard of any screaming electric (often a PRS) out there.  My favorite searing electric leads of all time are Todd’s originals that he performed with the fusion group Permanent Vacation.

Recently PRS selected Todd to help promote their acoustic guitars.  Here’s one of the videos that PRS created and uploaded to their own PRS channel, featuring Todd’s original composition, “Cecil, Pronto, and the Monkey Man”.

He’s the best – click the video above and enjoy!

Kathie Lee Gifford at the National Press Club

Gifford, Reid: National Registry Act Not Funded

“If we had a 747 airliner that went down every month and killed 150 people – we wouldn’t stand for that,” said playwright and former TV talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford at a Club Newsmaker April 13. Yet too many children, four a day, are dying from child abuse and neglect, often in their own homes,” she said. Gifford, in town with her new musical “Saving Aimee,” was invited to the Club along with John Reid, executive director of ChildHelp, a child-abuse victim advocacy and support group. Reid said that The National Registry Act passed Congress in 2006 requires state-level data on the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders to be shared across state lines with child-abuse victims; but he added that funding required to implement has not been appropriated. He announced a new service called ChildHelp Alert, which provides phone calls to subscribers, informing them when registered sex offenders move into their neighborhood.

From The National Press Club Record, April 23, 2007

Predictive Analytics at the Batman Theater Shooting

In the aftermath of the horrible crime that was committed in Aurora, Colorado, some have questioned whether the crime could have been prevented or otherwise averted.

Incidentally, I prefer the word “crime”, because that’s what happened in the theater that night – a crime.  While the results of it are certainly tragic, I find it difficult to use the word “tragedy” when referring to the shooting itself.  To me, the word “tragedy” implies a certain element of inevitability, or unavoidability.  Hurricanes and tsunamis are tragic.  Earthquakes in major cities are tragic.  The shooting, allegedly committed by James Eagan Holmes, was a crime.  And I think it’s safe to omit the word “allegedly” here, but let’s let the investigation play through.  The point is that Holmes could’ve taken a different course of action that night.  Presumably he chose to do what he did.  If all of this is true, and it’s hard to imagine otherwise, then Holmes is a thug and his actions were criminal.  No sense in diluting his responsibility by implying that it was somehow unavoidable.  But I digress.

Piyanka Jain is the president of a company called Aryng, a company known for its work with data analytics and forecasting models.  Jain wrote an article about the shooting and the potential for predictive analytics, and his company sent it out on the wires.  Yahoo News picked it up and posted it under the headline Could Analytics Have Preempted Colorado Theatre Shootout?.  It’s very interesting.  In the article, Jain points out several things.

But first, another aside – do you ever watch that CBS TV show The Mentalist, with Simon Baker and Robin Tunney?  I love that show.  Baker plays the main character who’s name is “Patrick Jane”.  This reference to the Aryng CEO reminds me of something you’d hear on that show.  But I digress once again, where were we?

Oh yes – Jain – not Simon Baker’s “Jane”, but the Aryng CEO – points out several things.

First, predictive analytics are already being used with success in Santa Clara, California.  Jain gives an interesting example of how police were present in larger numbers than usual at the scene of a  crime, because of the information presented by an application called Predictive Policing, which in this instance, issued a forecast to law enforcement that the probability of a crime taking place at that time at that location was elevated, based on its analysis of previous trends and statistics.  The software was correct, the crime began, and police on the spot arrested the suspects.

Jain second point: he’s of the opinion that it’s theoretically possible that the Aurora, Colorado shooting could’ve been forecast as well.

I don’t think Jain is saying that someone fell down on the job, that’s not the message here.  The point is that the technology is “here”, and can enable these sorts of possibilities.  It’s still relatively new but predictive analytics are probably a lot more mature than most people realize.

Stay tuned.

The Passing of Glenn Harwood

I recently learned of the passing of someone I consider to be an Internet personality, named Glenn Harwood.  There’s an online obituary for Glenn here.  If you read it, you might observe that it says nothing about him being an Internet personality.  But please let me explain.

A number of years ago, I attended a special event commemorating a major milestone for some dear close friends, when I met a special person named Glenn Harwood.  Glenn was probably in his late 60’s when I first met him, and he’d been battling Lou Gehrig’s disease, and with the most amazing optimism – from my vantage point, that’s how I saw it.  He told me he’d been involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and the Jerry Lewis telethon.  He’d been to Hollywood, California and had been on the famous annual broadcast several times.

During the party, Glenn told me of his newsletter that he called “MY! Sunday Bulletin” (complete with the red letters), and it ran with the slogan “Can’t Walk or Talk, but Can Always Laugh”.

From the next several years, like clockwork, I received an issue of his Sunday Bulletin every Sunday.  I had to chuckle at first, because it reminded me of my own newsletter I sent out years ago.  Mine was a part of a web presence I’d created called the FIDO – the Family Internet Directory Online.  FIDO was a labor of love of mine that I ran from 1995 to 1997, and my newsletter had built a subscriber base in excess of 8,000 readers at the peak, but in July 1997 I had to abruptly stop when my mother became very ill.  Eventually she made a full recovery – and is still with us, thankfully.  But it was a long road, and I never returned to the old FIDO newsletter.

So Glenn’s Sunday Bulletin brought back a lot of fond memories for me.  And it was hysterical!  Now folks – those of us who have been using email for more than twenty minutes all have friends who send us emails with jokes or something, and it’s always fun – at first – and can sometimes overload your inbox.  But Glenn’s email newsletter was nothing like that.  It was, well – a publication, with a body of funny stories, one-liners as “footnotes”, and cartoons in the margins.  It arrived on schedule, every Sunday.  He featured seasonal editions and special greetings.  Glenn’s newsletter was an event, it was a part of the culture among those who knew him.  I grew to love it, and quoted from it to friends, and periodically wrote Glenn to tell him so.

A few Sundays ago, the newsletters stopped.  Shortly after, Glenn’s family distributed a note announcing what had happened.

And my Sundays are more somber now, as I look in my inbox for something that isn’t there, and reflect on the life of a many with Lou Gehrig’s disease who managed to overcome his physical disabilities through the power of the Internet, and reach out via email to make the lives of others happy and pleasant.

Glenn Harwood was a class act.  I miss him.

 

Acknowledgements – SQL Expert

Below is the full text of the acknowledgements from my book OCA Oracle Database SQL Expert Exam Guide (Exam 1Z0-047).  It mentions a great many people to whom I am very grateful, but alas leaves a few out.  I’ll mention them in later posts.

Book cover - OCA Oracle Database SQL Certified Expert Exam Guide (Exam 1Z0-047)

As with most large endeavors, this book was the product of many people!

Tim Green, the acquisitions editor, is a man of vision, patience, persistence, and insight. McGraw-Hill is lucky to have him, and I was lucky to get to work with him and his excellent team on this project. Meghan Riley is the perfect combination of professionalism, grace, and delightfulness, and is a joy to work with. Molly Sharp of ContentWorks is focused, thorough, and pleasantly fun to work with as well – the whole team has just been fantastic. Also thanks to fellow Oracle Press author Kevin Loney for a key nugget or two of information along the way.

A huge and very special thank you to my technical editor, Alistair Grieve, who was meticulous, quick, creative, and extremely knowledgeable – I can’t think of enough superlatives to use for him here. Let me give you an idea of how detailed oriented Alistair is: he caught a typo in chapter 6 in the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. More than that, he was technically brilliant and contributed a great deal to making this book better. Kudos to Tim Green and the other good folks at McGraw-Hill for bringing Alistair on the team.

Other great members of the McGraw-Hill team who have supported this effort in one way or another: Wendy Rinaldi, Lisa McClain, Jody McKenzie, Melinda Lytle, Robert Campbell, Athena Honore, Ross Doll, Lydia Griffey.

To my very many friends and colleagues who I’ve had the pleasure of working and/or serving with over the years at various locations and in various capacities, at such enterprises as Sysorex, ISC, MAOP, EOUG, Boeing, ORI, ARC, the NPC, and elsewhere, including some who are still at those places, and some who have gone on to other adventures, there is no way I could name everyone here who has been instrumental or contributed something important to my life and work. A partial list includes: Jeremy Judson, Salam Qureishi, Nadir Ali, Wendy Loundermon, Athar Javaid, Dan Doherty, Ed Wolfe, Ashley Rubeck, Cindy Shiflett, Phil Hasse, Dave Gagner, Jon Feld, Jay Nielsen, Steve Smith, Edgar Kline, Kathy Gardos, James Perry, Terri Buckler, Mark Tash, Adhil Shaikh, Monique Tribolet, Ed Spinella, Dino Merkezas, Bert Spencer, Steve Vandivier, Karen Owens, Mike Ault, Graham Seibert, Vince Adams, Bob Schnetter, Dave Salmen, Oscar Wood, Josh Parreco, Craig Kasold, Jennifer Blair, Dave Cooper, Ted Cohen, Steve Cummings, Jimmy Smith, Peter Dube, Ruthie Washburn, Kim Curl, Robin Ruth, Renee Battle, Danny Duong, Hung Nguyen, Drew Daffron, Ken O’Neal, Kim Miller, John Lauder, Mark O’Donnell, Bob Smout, Todd Stottlemeyer, Paul Leslie, David Wise, Dan Rutherford, Laura Taylor, Laura Setliff, Trin Tranh, Wilson Dizard, Lyle Beall, Paul Elliott, John Metelsky, Don Knight, Art Garrison, Marshall Cohen, Mark Wojno, Bill McCarren, Jonathan Salant, Tammy Lytle, Rick Dunham, John Cosgrove, Doug Harbrecht, Audrey Ford, Tim Aquilino, Debbie Beebe, Bill Simpson, Annette Taylor, Fred Wills, Carlesza Harris, Gardner McBride, Cindy McBride, Jim Flyzik, Bob Guerra, John Coffey, Lyle Beall, Bobbie Beall, and to three who are no longer with us: Aaron “Eppie” Epstein, Martin Kuhn, and Gordon Gustin.

To Dan Hinkle, my business associate of many years, who opened up many doors and many opportunities – a special thank you to him, and of course to Brenda.

Thank you to Bianca Canales for being a great friend, and for providing some key insight at important points in my career; and to Marlene Theriault for special encouragement and very helpful suggestions years ago, which I still benefit from today.

To my very many fantastic Oracle students over the years, too numerous to mention here – each of my classes has had a distinctly wonderful and rewarding personality, and each individual student brings a unique set of experiences and observations to the task of learning, all of which have been fun for me and rewarding to work with, and I’ve benefited from having met you all – as iron sharpens iron.

A special thank you to my very dear friends Todd and Cindy Bauchspies, and also Mike and Kate Waters, and their gifted and talented sons James and Gavin, and to Phil and Charlotte Jones and Chester and Stephanie and Kenny and Karen, and Harriet Marin and Joe Motz, and of course to Bill Bryant – a huge thanks to all of you for being so patient with my occasional long periods of self-imposed exile while I work on projects such as this book – and still being my friends afterward!

A special thank you to Jim Bauchspies, who is like a second father to me in many ways, both personally and professionally, and to Georgine, who gave me many a home-cooked meal and a warm welcome at just the right time. And to Roy Patterson for making my very first Oracle project a reality back in 1986.

A very special thank you to Lisa, my sweetheart, for being wonderful and especially encouraging!

To my mother Joan, the best mother anyone could possibly have, and to whom I dedicated my first book. She’s always been there for me, through thick and thin, with a song in her voice and a smile in her heart – Mom, you’re the best!

Thanks to my father Don, an accomplished engineer, and a practitioner of project management, who taught me the value of hard work and dedication, both in word and in deed. A published author in his own right, a consummate professional with a great sense of humor, and the person to whom I’ve dedicated this book.

Kamajian Live Percussion and Opera Ultra Lounge

Al Kamajian’s Kamajian Live Percussion has been performing at the Opera Ultra Lounge in DC from time to time.  For those who aren’t familiar with the new Opera Ultra Lounge, here’s an interesting video interview with the owner.

 

It’s a good insight into the place.

Al performed there last Saturday, and will surely be there again in the not too distant future. The best way to track him is probably by way of his Facebook page. If I get advance notice of his performances, I’ll try to keep the Skere9 Calendar here updated, but be sure to “like” him on Facebook if you really want the latest, greatest information.