Self Interests May Result In A Bad Outcome.

Self Interests May Result In A Bad Outcome.

I find it interesting how many people appear to put their own self interests way ahead of what may be best for the United States of America during the 2016 presidential election.  Here are some examples:

If Donald Trump is actually unfit to be the president of the United States, and a lot of intelligent people think this is the case, then should it not follow that every effort is made to support the next best candidate to stop Trump?  It appears the self centered interests of other candidates and some government employees and politicians comes way before what is best for the United States of America

Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, Jill Stein of the Green Party and Evan McMullin refuses to bow out and support Hillary Clinton.  FBI Director, James Comey, made matters way worse.  All these people’s actions may have diminished Hillary Clinton from achieving a resounding win which may also have dire results if she does win.  All these individuals may have, in varying degrees,  made Hillary Clinton’s presidency a hobbled mess by giving the Republican Party way too much power to obstruct her.

It is ironic that a large population of United States of America voters are unhappy with Washington politics and want a change.  The Washington political obstruction in recent years has been fostered by the Republican Tea Party, a party with basic republican values but also including varied special interests groups that work against what is best for most citizens.

Apple Farm, San Luis Obispo, California, Room 100 Allegedly Flawed (Update August 2016)

Apple Farm, San Luis Obispo, California, Room 100 Allegedly Flawed (Update August 2016)

In our prior review of this hotel and restaurant we gave this place a pretty good review.  I wish to amend that prior review to warn anyone that room 100 on the ground floor is allegedly flawed and here are some of the reasons:

  • The room is next to the elevator.  This is not a big problem because the engineering and construction seems to have contained the noise level pretty low.  I mention it because it adds to the overall sound deficiencies.  People getting on and off the elevator rise the noise level at times.
  • This room is directly under the main entrance and where you go to register at the main desk. The floors are not carpeted and people make a lot of noise with rolling luggage across the floor, elephant walkers and children jumping around.  You would think the traffic in and out of the main entrance to this hotel would subside later in the night but this is impossible to predict.  Noise is the main complaint.  This room is unacceptably noisy due to this principal factor!
  • This room is next to the pool.  About five steps from the doors to this room leading to the pool and you are in it.  The room has a cute little alcove with two chairs and a small table which is perfect for reading.  The noise from the pool does enter this room.  The pool is posted to be closed at 9 pm but people still will stay in the pool area after that time.
  • A back entrance to this partial basement floor is a long passageway that shares the wall with this room so you have people walking along a shared wall from time to time going too and from the pool area.  This passageway sometimes adds to the room noise.
  • A light switch next to the inside front door turn nothing on or off.  Ideally it should turn on some lamp to help you enter the room.
  • The main light switch for the bathroom is on the far wall from the door.  One must enter the dark room, find the switch which is some times blocked by a hanging towel.  That is another mistake, putting a towel holder just above the light switch.
  • The coffee maker is above the refrigerator by the distance of two drawers.  It rests upon a shelf with no power.  The solution for us was to drag the refrigerator out of the closet a few feet to gain access to the power behind it and rest the coffee maker upon the refrigerator.
  • The bathroom sink has one of those high arching inverted “U” shaped water faucet.  I had to swing this faucet to either side of the wash basin to wash my face.  If I did not do this, I was forced to put my face to one side of the sink getting the top of the sink table wet.  It is typically not a good idea to move water faucets like I did.

Summary:  This room is unacceptable due to the noise.  I do not recommend occupying this room.  This rooms is attractive but the company fails to take note of details.

Do Not Donate To Democratic Candidates Or Party If You Do Not Want Spam

Do Not Donate To Democratic Candidates Or Party If You Do Not Want Spam

I made the mistake of donating to the Democratic Party a few years ago and have ever since received a huge amount of spam e-mail from candidates and party shill operations.  It appears to me that they share e-mail lists.  I have repeatedly tried to unsubscribe from their e-mail lists but nothing works.  It appears to me that this is a despicable operation allegedly run by incompetent idiots that seem to lack ethical and moral standards.  I recommend that you do NOT donate any money to any Democratic candidate and/or Democratic Party if giving them your e-mail is part of that process.

A second reason not to give to any political party is your donations are NOT tax deductible.

 

How To Transfer Music (and other files) From A Mac Computer To A Samsung Galaxy S5

How To Transfer Music (and other files) From A Mac Computer To A Samsung Galaxy S5

I hated my Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone because the battery life was awful.  It was slow and unreliable.  It was a pain to use.  It began to get worse and then it bricked up the end of May 2016.   I had to un-brick my Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone by pressing 3 keys at the same time (power, volume up and home keys).  I then chose factory reset from a menu of options.  I then had to wait for a very long time for the new system updates to take place and reboot.  I then had to install all the applications that I had  lost and customize the phone to my liking.  The Play Store showed the applications I had paid for so reinstalling those was easy.

What I found out was my battery life was spectacular after this new installation.  The battery would last longer than one day.  I also found that my internal 16 GB was only half full.  The look of the desktop was different.  I now had rounded icon buttons.

The next problem was to get my iTunes music into the phone, which is the reason for this post.  I tried a long list of methods but nothing would work.  I then asked our computer guru and he recommended WiFi.   It worked.  Here are the steps:

  • Watch this video:  https://youtu.be/2Czaw0IPHKo
  • Using your cell phone, go to the Play Store and search for “Portal”.  you are looking for “Portal – WiFi File Transfers” by Pushbullet.
  • Install the Portal application on your cell phone.
  • Once the Portal application has finished installation on your phone and has loaded, it will show you to go to this web site on your Macintosh computer:  http://portal.pushbullet.com/  (Watch out as there is another web site with a similar name that will charge you money).
  • You will be prompted to then use your cell phone camera to take a picture of the code on the open web page showing on your computer screen.
  • Hold the cell phone up to the computer screen and press “Scan” button showing on your cell phone screen.
  • Immediately, a new web page should open up on your computer screen allowing you to drag music files into the web page.  A new screen also shows up on your cell phone hopefully showing “Connected” and “Waiting for files”.
  • Drag your music files on your Macintosh computer into the web site screen and you will then see them, rather rapidly, go over to your cell phone.  The process is impressively fast.

That is it.  I now can play my music stored on my Samsung Galaxy S5.  I just might keep this cell phone for a while longer.

By the way, not only can music files be transferred but other files also.  I have only tested music files so far.  Good luck.

Emergency Power In Ammo Case.

Emergency Power In Ammo Case.

It all started when I noticed on the shelf of Home Depot a plastic ammo can.  Immediately I thought it would work to hold my 12 volt gel cells that I use for emergency communications.  I am a ham radio operator who volunteers for the local city RACES group.  The very next day I went to Ham Radio Outlet to buy RT Software.  In the store, on the counter were two battery cases with no battery but on the outside of these cases was the interface for Anderson power poles.  I asked the store clerk about mounting Anderson Power Poles into my ammo case.  I was shown a product that made my socks roll up and down.  A company called Powerwerx had some pretty cute devices for mounting into cases.  I purchased three of these, all different, and they are:

  • Anderson Powerpole connectors (2 included in the module).  The module comes with its own mounting plate.  I will not use this single mounting plate but instead put all 3 devices into a single large plate.  The Anderson Powerpoles will provide power for my ham radios.
  • USB connectors  (2 included in the module) to offer emergency power for cell phones.  This module comes with its own mounting plate which I will not use.
  • A volt meter showing the battery voltage and it includes its own mounting plate.
  • I also purchased a three hole plate that makes all 3 of these modules look really nice.

 

The next day I drove over to Batteries Plus, Brea, California,  to see what battery they had that might fit into the ammo case.  The store clerk immediately picked up a Duracel 12 volt, 14 amp hour battery that slid into the case perfectly on 3 sides.  I had some extra room at the end of the ammo case for other items.

List of Parts:

Plano Field Box, Water Resistant, Model 1312-00 (Made in the USA)
4QT Sports Utility Box
Home Depot   $9.97.

Battery, Duracel 12-14F2, 12 Volt, 14 AH. with F2 0.250 terminals.  This battery is quite heavy.
Batteries Plus  $59.99
Item Number: WKDC12-14F2
Brand: Duracell Ultra
Voltage: 12
Lead Acid Type: Deep Cycle
Capacity: 14AH
Chemistry: Lead Acid
Lead Acid Design: AGM
Product Category: Sealed Lead Acid
Terminal Type: F2, T2, Faston .250
Weight: 9.2 lbs
Length: 5.96 in  (The ammo can is about 9 1/4 to 9 1/2 due to slight taper)
Width: 3.93 in  (The ammo can is about 4 in wide)
Height: 3.82 in  (The ammo can has 6 in height for contents)

Powerwerx 3 Hole Panel Plate.
PanelPlate3
Ham Radio Outlet   $5.95.  This is simply a very nice plate to hold the three devices.

Anderson Power Poles.
Red Black Anderson 15 Amp
Ham Radio Outlet, $18.95.  This is necessary power for RACES radios and the main reason for building the box, to get power to my HT radios.  I counted 5 pair (10 total) of red and black connectors.  I prefer to solder and not crimp these connectors.  From time to time I get a bit messy and some solder is added to the outside of one of these connectors.  I use a fine jeweler’s file to remove this solder otherwise I can not slide the metal connector into the plastic outside insulator.

Dual USB connectors rated at 4.2 amps.
PanelUSB-Plus
Ham Radio Outlet $23.95.  This will be perfect for charging cell phones.  I even have a USB LED on a stick that I could use to illuminate my work area.

Panel Mounting Digital Meter for 12/24 volt systems
PanelDVM-Blue
Ham Radio Outlet   $19.95

Powerwerx PD-8 an 8 position Anderson Power Pole distribution block
Powerwerx PD-8
Ham Radio Outlet  $34.95
I only needed to use 5 of the 8 pairs.

Misc Items: 

  • Red and black heat shrink tubing. The red obviously slips over the positive female disconnects and the black over the negative.  TRICK:  I borrow my daughter’s or my wife’s hair dryer and set it on hot and high. I then put part of my hand on the air intake to limit the air coming into the the hair dryer to raise the temperature.  In this way, the heat shrink rapidly shrinks around the female disconnects.
  • .250″ female disconnects.  The devices come with female disconnects but I am using larger diameter wire and do not use them but buy larger wire size connectors.  I like to use bare metal connectors, solder the wire to them and then heat shrink the ends.

Rough Cost:  I had the wire, connectors, heat shrink, and hardware so these items are not added.  My rough total for items I had to buy was about $180.  I would have to guess that if you do not have the items I already had on hand, your cost will certainly go beyond my cost.

 

Steps To Build:

Place 3 hole panel plate on top of ammo case on the side next to the handle but away from where the handle will fold into the case.  Center this plate.  Take a look at the under side of the top lid and get an idea of the plastic braces that will need to be cut away later.  I found it best to really get away from the handle as much as possible to avoid the internal plastic walls.

panel-marking

Mark the 3 large holes and 4 small plate mounting drill holes.  I made a mistake of drilling the 4 small holes first.  When I drilled the large 3 holes I found that my prior 4 holes did not line up exactly and I had to drill them out again.  I really recommend that you drill the large holes first.  Put two units into the large holes and then drill the 4 small mounting plate holes last.

Open the top lid and look inside and judge where the 3 large holes and 4 small holes will come through.  You will find that you are going to collide with small internal vertical walls.  Think this through to make sure you do not have to cut them out too much.

Drill the 3 large holes for the devices.  I use a Kline Tools #59009 Step Drill bit (made in the U.S.A.) that is wonderful and fast for thin wall drilling.

Drill-bit-for-holes

Trick:  With this type drill I do not come down to finish the exact hole size but stop short.  I pull the drill out and see if my cut is exact or not.  I will see my circle mark I had made with a marking pen and the cut.  As you can see in the image below the drill does not line up.  I then can adjust the drill by pressing in the direction to fine tune my cut to be more exact, as you can see in the right hole seen below.

drill-holes-do-not-line-up

Powerwerx.com who sells these devices sells the exact hole drill, 1 3/16 inch, for $17.99.  https://powerwerx.com/panel-mounts  With this type hole drill, you can more easily center the hole cut.

I then used a round file to do some simple trimming of each hole and tested to see if each module would slide in and out of the hole.  Just remember that the cover plate will make it look quite good.

Drill the 4 corner holes for mounting the plate.  I measured the 4 plate mounting holes 5/32 drill bit fit tight as I tested the plate holes.  I am not that precise in centering my drill holes so I often times go a bit larger in drill bit size if the plate fails to line up properly.

Open the top lid and look at the under side of that lid.  You should see some plastic wall braces.  You need to mark them for how much to cut.  (See Image).  This is where you really need to be careful.  I came too close to the walls in places and used a Dremel rotary tool to make finishing touches.

I used a Dremel Tool to cut away the plastic braces under the top lid.  I used grinding stone 8193 at high speed to melt away the plastic that was in the way for screwing in the large mounting nuts.  I really recommend that you have terrific light shining upon your work as you “cut” through the plastic.  The melted plastic was a pain to clean out.  I put my Dremel tool on slow speed to help remove the pieces that glued themselves back upon the lid and also to polish edges and surfaces.  As you can see in the image below, the inside looks quite a mess.  The outside should look quite good when you are finished.

chassis-connector-rear
Notice that the nut holding this device is under the plastic internal wall. I took care to cut the wall close to the lid only. I slid the nut under this wall and then rotated the nut as the device was in place.

Trick:  The internal inside lid walls are quite deep.  The grinding stone wheel #8193 is much shorter.  I decided to slide the wheel into each wall close to the lid, thus making a short open doorway, thus leaving much of the wall untouched.  When I mounted the devices into the 3 holes, I only needed to slide the mounting nut into place and as the device was pushed into the box lid, I would tighten the nut.  (see image).

The inside of the lid looks way less pristine after I melted the plastic in places but the outside looks very good

Battery in Ammo Case:

battery

There is 2 1/4 inches from the top of the battery to underside of the case lid which is air space.  But, the devices mounted on the lid come down just over 1 inch if you use straight connectors.  Thus, the total top air space between the top lid devices and battery is close to 1 and 1/4 inches.

Finished ammo case showing three modules, 12 volt power, volt meter and then USB power.
Left side module offers 2 Anderson Power Pole connectors, 12 volt. The middle module is a volt meter. The right module offers 5 volt USB power for cell phones or other devices.

The battery does not occupy the full length of the ammo case.  There is a 3” length x 4” wide x 5 “ deep cavity at one side of the ammo case next to the battery.  I am currently looking for a plastic box to insert in this space so the battery will not slide.  I could put fuses, fuse puller, small meter, etc. into such a box.

The finished ammo battrey case revealing the wiring.
Inside of the ammo case showing the wiring.

I am now researching attaching an optional solar panel to this battery.

What is going on in Brazil?

What is going on in Brazil?

What is going on in Brazil?  I get conflicting reports from all sorts of packaged “news” organizations (CNN, BBC, CNBC, etc).  In situations like this it pays to core down and view specifics.  Here is what I think most people will agree upon.  I will put this into bullet point form for more easy reading:

Economic

  • Brazil is a managed economy and this type typically does not do well.  The country is currently in a recession:
  • Current inflation rate is 9.28%.
  • Unemployment is close to 10.9%
  • Economy is expected to contract 2% next year.  This is partly due to China’s economic slowdown.

If you go to this web site http://www.focus-economics.com/countries/brazil
and look at the years of data you should see that in 2015 the country turned downward from prior years.

Political

  • Brazil has a very high corruption index (76/168).  Keep this in mind because most of what you read about Brazil affirms this.
  • Petrobras, the state controlled oil company, has links to prominent business and political figures involved in a huge corruption scandal.
  • The Brazilian lower house voted to impeach the President Rousseff without stating the reasons.  Quite a few members of the lower house are under investigation for being a part of the “Operation Car Wash scandal.  It is now up to the upper house to take a vote.
  • The president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, has not been accused of any legitimate crime.  Allegedly, the oligarch segment of Brazil has used her missteps and the countries recession to remove her and install “their” man.
    • Rousseff, may have attempted to influence the Operation Car Wash investigation.
    • She approved the purchase of a U.S. oil refinery for almost 30 times its value as part of a kickback scheme.
    • Rousseff, has been forced to step down for six months while an impeachment trail takes place.  The vice president, Temer, takes over power during this period, which appears to be the plan for deposing her.   But, the new vice president certainly adds to Brazil’s problems by swinging the county to the far oligarch loving right.
    • The one stellar decision she has not backed down from is to support the corruption investigations.  These investigation might now be compromised with Temer in power.
  • Brazil’s Planning Minister Romero Juca, who is Temer’s right-hand man, had to resign his minister position and go back to his senate seat because he appears to have discussed using Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment to derail a corruption investigation.

Here are possible options:

  • It appears that the Brazilian lower and upper house have impeached the president in an effort to stop their own prosecution and install their right wing party which has a low national approval rating.  During that time, Dilma Rousseff, has 180 days to present her defense while the vice president takes power.
  • The Brazilian Electoral Court could disqualify the whole prior election based on election corruption; not likely.  If this actually takes place then new elections would be called in 90 days.
  • New elections could be called but there seems to be a political leadership vacuum.
  • Still one more possibility is for Brazil to switch from a presidential system to a parliamentary one which would gain the country an easier method of switching leaders.  I
  • Another, rather remote possibility is the military will step in?  Will they take any action?  Ideally not.  It is best that this problem be resolved by political means.  Most national arm forces tend to support right wing politics.  But, Brazil’s constitution states “the military are forbidden to belong to political parties”.  Explicit in the constitution is the military duty as expressed in article 142 the military is “…intended for the defense of the country, for the guarantee of the constitutional powers, and, on the initiative of any of these, of law and order.”  Will they step in and reinstate Rousseff on the grounds that she ousted illegally, a violation of the constitution?  That move would strengthen the bond between the armed forces enforcing the Brazilian Constitution.

Leadership

  • Former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
    • He has a very high approval rating.
    • Implicated in the Operation Car Wash scandal.
    • Wants to be reelected as president in the future.
  • Current president, Dilma Rousseff, has been impeached (Possible coups).
    In some peoples minds, she must go.  She borrowed money form private banks to help the Brazilian economy.  This method has been used by prior administrations and thought to be legal.  But, the lower house has used this as an “excuse” to bring charges, allegedly, as a ploy to conduct a coups and install “their” guy, the vice president.
  • Current vice president, Michel Temer.
    He has an extremely low approval rating, below 10%.  No one wants him to gain power.
    He will possibly install oligarch loving restrictions upon the citizens:

    • Lower taxes.
    • Lower social spending.
    • Appoint alleged incompetent ministers.
    • Very conservative government.
    • Evangelical.
    • Social inequality.

Social

  • For the average person in Brazil, commodities have doubled while the ability to pay has decreased as jobs have diminished.  The citizens feel squeezed and are really not happy with the way the country has been run.
  • If the current vice president takes over power, there should follow decrease in social programs.  The economy is expected to get worse.
  • The Zika virus has moved into Brazil causing underdeveloped brains in new born babies.

Main Stream Media in Brazil

The Brazil main stream media, allegedly controlled by the oligarchy, support a coups of Dilma Rousseff.  They state that her popularity is low but fail to report that large segments of the country support her.
There are some reports that intellectuals may support her, possibly because they see more of the landscape and everywhere else is less appealing.

Brazil Legal System

Not too many years ago all of these corruption cases, court trials and putting powerful politicians and leaders in jail would be unheard of.  Today, the Brazilian legal system seems to be functioning quite well if you do not look too closely.
The University of Berkley published a document in 2010.   Its final conclusion (page 18)  reads “…-crime pays in Brazil”.

Olympics
It seems, that for most Brazilians, the Olympics is of little concern because their nation has the car wash scandal, economic problems, and an alleged political coups taking place.  When you have three fires raging, your last thought is to play in the pool.

Summary:

Brazil seems to be a story of an ongoing conflict between corruption and those who are fighting against it.  Just look at the vast number of other countries that are weighted down by powerful individuals who mainly look out for themselves and will rob their nations wealth when given the chance.  What is surprising about Brazil is this country seems to be trying to fight against corruption.  Sadly, I do not see a winner yet.   The bad guys won the last move.  I do hope the people of Brazil can eradicate this cancer.

Another lesson for me is how many news organizations seem to cherry pick this news story and allegedly snow the reader into believing they are getting a good picture in their minds of what is taking place in Brazil.  This news story is rather difficult to cover because it has a lot of separate parts.  The parts all do come together as a large puzzle. But that is no excuse to cut short the effort.  Too bad most news organizations don’t take the time to more fully notify the reader but leave the Brazil puzzle unfinished.

Further Reading:

(Update, December 7, 2017:  Below I found that the links below do NOT work.  I have contacted the source and asked for the new location or should I take the following down)

For a rather more complete explanation of the current Brazil problems, go to May 11, 2016 Background Briefing  with Ian Masters, 3rd audio segment, Brazil Poised For More Political Turmoil.  The audio can be found here: http://ianmasters.com/sites/default/files/mp3/bbriefing_2016_05_11c_maria%20luisa%20mendonca.mp3

Another Internet article which seems to see most of the puzzle pieces is Foreign Affairs.

(Facts and opinions were effective at this Date: May 24, 2016)