Category: Uncategorized

An interesting little article to read…

I just can’t believe the USAF recommendation of blocking unknown email addresses to make sure it doesn’t happen again…

That’s this week’s question over at WCYN’s site. As of around 8:00am this morning, the polls showed that the majority of listeners responding wish to keep the system, despite it’s financial hardship.

Since the establishment of the E-911 system, the budget has had difficulties each year.

One should note that the question asked is concerning E-911, and whether it should be discontinued–not whether 911 service should be discontinued. An interesting point that the guys over there haven’t clarified, and should to keep an angry lynch-mob at bay.

It had been discussed before, within the local government, whether a decision should be made to downgrade the system, and discontinue some of the enhanced features, in order to save operating costs. Each time this topic was mentioned, the leaders of our government have chosen to keep the system as it sits. I applaud them.

While it is possible for the dispatch center to downgrade in order to cut costs, I do not see where the savings would be beneficial. If we were to roll the system back, we might as well just give up on the complete concept of a centralized dispatch, and revert back to each agency having it’s own emergency number; for without the enhanced features we’re left with someone talking on the radio, giving direction to emergency personnel, without the aid of maps, database entries, and so forth. If we move back to this level, we could simply have each separate agency perform this on their own.

Beneficial? I think not.

I remember being a child in school, and being instructed by teachers which numbers to call for what emergency. The police had one number, fire another, and still another for an ambulance. This confusion increased for anyone who lived in one area of the county and moved to another–with respect to fire coverage. The city of Cynthiana had one number, Harrison County a different one–and lets not forget the residents of Berry, and northern Harrison County.

And while I must say, listening to the police dispatchers in the past was entertaining–hearing Glenn Whitaker give directions by landmarks such as a certain group of trees or a painted barn (all of which came from memory, mind you), and hearing the same sort of discussion being given to firemen by Charlie or Peggy on the county’s fire frequency–I remember plenty of times where there was confusion. Without the E911 system, there were no maps, and no call traceability. If someone were in danger and need of assistance in any form, they had better hope that they could stay on the line, stay conscious, and be able to give the emergency personnel directions to their location.

I remember the story of a family who had moved to Harrison County from a community that was relatively the same size, if not smaller. I believe that the emergency might have been a child’s near drowning in a pool, but am unsure, since the incident was approximately ten years ago. At any rate, a mother rushed to the phone, to dial 911, and only then discovered that Harrison County didn’t have a 911 system. Frantically, she searched for a phone book to find the number for an agency, any agency which could help–I believe she called the police department. When she discovered how complicated the process of getting help was, she was enraged–and became angrier when she realized that there was no way for the emergency personnel to know where she was, without her giving explicit directions. I believe the story made front page news in the Cynthiana Democrat.

Now, lets progress in time, and go to a more recent incident, where a child used 911 to call for help.

On November 16, 2007, at 3:30 in the morning, Skylar Hughes, a five year old girl, found her mother laying in the floor, having a seizure. Skylar phoned 911, and reached dispatchers Irene Irvin and Cricket Woods. Within minutes an ambulance arrived.

Without the E911 services, would Shana, Skylar’s mother, still be alive and well? Possibly. Skylar was able to assess the situation, and give her exact address to the dispatchers–but what if the circumstances were different? What if the Hughes’ lived outside of Cynthiana? Would Skylar have been able to give the proper address, then–something as difficult as 930 US Highway 27 South? Possibly. Or, what if Skylar wasn’t so calm and collected? What if she panicked, and hung up the phone before giving an address? The E911 system would’ve helped in giving the address–but without that system? And what if Skylar were younger–say three years old–would she then have known her full address?

I have a four year old son, and a two year old daughter. My wife is epileptic. I have a heart condition. If either one of us were to collapse at home, and the other wasn’t present, then what? Could my four year-old give our address? I don’t think so. But, I do know that he can simply pick up a phone and dial those three little numbers.

So, in response to WCYN’s ridiculous question of whether Cynthiana and Harrison County should keep the Enhanced-911 system, I reply with a resounding yes, and do so with an unbelievable amount of anger–anger directed at the very thought that anyone would want to risk my life, my family’s life, and the lives of anyone else, in order to save money, balance a budget, and pay-off a debt.

So, in my own Olbermann-esque fashion, I do hereby declare WCYN-AM, and anyone else entertaining the idea of downgrading or disbanding Cynthiana and Harrison County’s E-911 system today’s WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!

been a bit since i posted anything, and thought i should pop in an explain…
my computer died. *sniffle, sniffle, sob* i dunno what happened. i went to make supper, came back and the thing was sitting frozen–completely locked up. i restarted it, and got a memory error. then i played with the memory (swapped it, etc.) i discovered that the second slot somehow fried out. anyway, after that, the hdd started failing.
so, i’m computer-less… and trying to redo every piece of homework i had due that weekend (cause i couldn’t recover it–i was able to grab my money files, and email archives though!)… i haven’t been a happy camper. i’m re-writing two papers, both required a decent amount of work–one is an argumentative/persuasive piece which required at least ten sources (and i lost everything!)…
oh well…
i sent it off to hp, and hopefully i’ll get some good news…
in a related matter, i had searched for parts to see about fixing the other one that died on me, and found that it might be a manufacturer issue, which the company likely knew about. a guy is attempting to file suit against the company for a recall… i’d link to the info, if i could, but i can’t remember where it was, ’cause my history and gds archive was on the hp…
oh, well…
i’ll try to get back into regular blogging, but it might be a while, considering the mess i got going right now…

During the last 47 seconds of the UK v. Arkansas game, CBS switched momentarily to another game, leaving Cat fans highly upset. WKYT, local CBS affiliate, and UK’s regular TV sports broadcaster, has been flooded with email and calls from irate fans. WKYT has posted CBS New York’s phone numbers on the website.

Taron and Nivea’s birthday party was today. Here’s a slideshow of the pictures taken on Taron’s camera:

I hope to have more photos available soon…

It would just figure that my notebook would decide to die. On Thursday afternoon, I left to go pick the kids up from school, and when I returned I found the thing displaying a nice little arrangement of blue and white vertical stripes on the screen. I powered it off, and let it set for 15 seconds, then switched it back on. No display this time. I turned it back off, with the hopes that a few more minutes of rest might be what it needed. Then, while looking down at the casing, just below the keyboard, I noticed a sunken spot. Something had overheated, and melted the case.
I took the thing apart to investigate. No big chore–I had to take it apart a month or so ago to repair the power supply’s jack. Once I disassembled the computer, I found that the graphics processor had overheated. 
I pieced it all back together, and turned it back on, in hopes that the time taken to tear it apart had given everything time to cool down. I switched it on, and it was working fine–or so I thought. When I attempted to log into Windows, I found that the keyboard wasn’t responding, nor was the touchpad. With a little bit of frustration, I took the keyboard off, and reseated the ribbon for the touchpad and the keyboard, and tried it again. No luck. I plugged in an mouse and a keyboard, and still no luck.
So, it would seem that when I left, something happened to fry out the keyboard & mouse controllers, and caused the graphics processor to overheat (or vice-versa).
Now I am, once again, without a computer. 🙁
I went to CompUSA and bought an enclosure for my harddirve, and am accessing all of my information on Diana’s notebook. I also found a nice little notebook bundle at a nearby Wal-Mart that I plan to buy in a few days. The bundle is a leftover from this past Thanksgiving’s sales. So, I’ll end up getting a new notebook, and Diana will get a digital camera and photo-printer out of the deal. Not how I wanted to spend our extra tax-money, but, it works.