Not Sure Which is Scarier

asymco From comments: "consumerization" is actually going to reveal itself as "commoditization" of IT as an industryWed, Jan 11 05:42:28 from Twitter for Mac

Of course, my background is on the infrastructure side, which I've felt like has been a commodity for a long time. In the past you outsourced infrastructure to a different company, but kept the techs (maybe the same set of techs!) on-site. Then you outsourced some of your infrastructure support to India. Now you put applications in the cloud. I guess it really doesn't scare me - everything changes and IT faster than others.

I'd still love to get our e-mail in the cloud. I've got plenty to do and off loading e-mail would be a good one.

Arrington on Politics

Not 100% right, but not too far off either..

arrington If republicans could just lose the fascination with our sex lives and the need to push Jesus down our throats, they'd be perfect.Thu, Jan 05 17:51:22 from web

arrington if democrats could take an econ 101 class, they'd be perfect.Thu, Jan 05 17:51:44 from web

arrington I think many, many americans are fundamentally fiscally conservative and socially liberal, but we have no party.Thu, Jan 05 17:52:15 from web

Coal Creek Armory

I think the many posts in this thread sum up the variety of experiences at Coal Creek Armory. I am sure that some of us customers aren't very educated or experienced. I am also sure that some of the staff could be a little more patient, too. Glad I identified the problems, so we can move on.

GLOCK

I wrote earlier about (and poked a little fun at) an Uncrate post that was a little over the top in describing Glock: The Rise of America's Gun.

The author, Paul Barrett, was kind enough to come by and leave a comment about some better sources for information about the book:

"Brick: The Amazon.com page has a good summary, as well as early reviews from real live people who've read the book via Amazon's Vine early-review program:

http://www.amazon.com/Glock-Americas-Paul-M-Barrett/dp/0307719936

Another option is my website: www.glockthebook.com"

I'm happy to report that there is a Kindle version that is cheaper than the hardcopy. The book will be available on January 10.

BONUS: ENDO is giving away multiple copies of the book.

Refresh and Reset

The two new big features of Windows 8:

• Refresh gives users an easy way to reinstall the operating system if they encounter a problem. Data and some settings are kept, while potential trouble spots are wiped clean. Users will also have to reinstall most desktop apps, although apps that use the Metro interface (the bright colored UI that was designed mainly for touchscreens) will stay around.

• Reset is a little more dramatic: it restores the PC to a clean state, like when you bought it, which will be useful when you want to sell or give away an old PC.

Via Business Insider

Baofeng UV-3R: Radio Czech

Yes, I think I am funny with my little play on words.

Andy, OK1CDJ, has some good information about the UV-3R on his site. (If you cannot read Czech, Google Chrome will offer to translate or he has a Google Translate Widget on the sidebar.) He analyzes some antennas  - including a disappointing result from a telescoping NA-773.

Improve Your Android GPS Performance

I've not had any real problems with using RunKeeper on my Android phone, but it usually exaggerates the distance somewhat as it depends on the phone's GPS. For people that are having a lot of problems, Lifehacker has some suggestions to improve the GPS performance.

You know it is cold...

You know it is cold when you walk into the data center and it seems warmer than the offices.

Learn to Code 2

In addition to the Code Year project, Lifehacker has their Learn to Code: The Full Beginner's Guide available in 5 parts. I always learn better when I have multiple sources. Different books/courses/instructors complement each other and help me fill in the weak spots.

Repeater Primer

From Stu (G3OCR) on the Wouxun KG-UVD1 Yahoo Group gives a repeater primer on the various burps/chirps/tones/beeps/dits/dahs/buzzes you might hear:

"The tone is commonly referred to as a "K" tone, because all repeaters used to be programmed to send a Morse __ _ __ (letter K, the Morse code abbreviation for "over to you") to let you know that the other station had finished transmission and the time-out timer had been reset. A lot of repeaters these days use a letter T (one dash) instead, but there are other variants too.

Other tones used sometimes are an "access tone", which is a bit of history as a 1750 tone-burst used to be (and sometimes still is) required by the repeater at the start of a transmission to stop unmodulated carriers opening the repeater and possibly keeping it open.

The 118Hz tone you refer to is called a CTCSS (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System), sometimes called a PL-Tone in other countries like USA. This can be one of a number of low-audio tones (sub-audible) and these are usually chosen to avoid a station inadvertently opening up a repeater half a state away as well as your local one, if there's a "lift".

 So there you have (wanted or not!) a quick rundown on the terms for the different tones relating to repeaters."