What a great day for the Chelmsford Toastmasters club!

Our club had two members recognized at the conference. Dan Barrett, former Club President, competed in the Humorous Speech Contest with his speech Mathematical Train Wreck. Dan came in 3rd place overall competing against 6 other divisional speech winners. I had seen Dan give his speech several times as he progressed through the various contests on his way to the district contest. I thought his speech was great the first time he gave it but at the district contest he really took it to the next level. It does not give it justice to call it a speech - it was a performance!!! I was truly inspired by how well he did and the courage it took to get out there and give it everything he had.

If that was not enough our club had the honor to have our very own Ray Gatti receive the Distinguished Toastmaster Award. This is the "Eagle Scout" Toastmasters. Ray is also a former Club President. He gave a wonderful acceptance speech from the heart. He spoke about how his service to Toastmasters has come back to him and impacted his life. His message was warm and sincere and delivered in the gentle style that is unique to Ray.

During the keynote speech, Gary Schmidt, VP of Toastmasters International, spoke about the “courage to conquer”. Yesterday Dan and Ray exemplified the “courage to conquer”. I am terrified at the thought of entering a speech contest but watching Dan and Ray yesterday I am committed to competing in our contest next spring.

I saw the headline: “Buffett Could Reshape Nuclear Power Industry” in the Wall Street Journal on Friday and I immediately thought of the strategy discussions we had at Boston University in the Executive MBA program on how industries evolve.  We never really listed that one way could be when someone buys the whole industry.   I have difficulty comprehending his wealth and the magnitude of what he can do with it.  It is as if he playing the game of Monopoly. 

Warren Buffett has the kind of wealth were he could probably buy up enough dairy farms in the US to change the way Americans buy milk by switching from 1 quart, 1/2 gallon and 1 gallon containers to 1 liter, 2 liter and 4 liter containers. 

This is my first GPS unit and overall I am pleased with the product.  It is interesting to use it locally to observe the routes the GPS unit suggests vs. the way I think is best.  If I have the unit default to maximize use of highways then it will send me to the closer freeway entrance even though it adds several extra miles of driving time. 

It has had trouble in downtown Boston keeping its position.  I am assuming this is due to interference/reflections from the tall buildings.

Now that I have used it several times I realize that it is not a total replacement to having a good set of written directions and maps.  If you really need to be somewhere it is good to have a backup.

A few other notes:

On a several hundred mile trip during the warm weather the unit overheated and would lock up.  Turning the power off and placing it out of the sunlight during the long highway stretches resolved the problem.
There is a coax connector on the base of the unit that connects to the mounting bracket.  In most instances when I remove the GPS the outer sheath of the connector remains in the GPS exposing the delicate center pin.  I can move the sheath and place it back by hand but it seems like it is only a matter of time before the pin will be damaged.  The connector is for an external antenna which I am not using so this does not really impact me but it is a poor design.

While on the subject of design I would really like to have a few minutes with the Human Interface designers.  To turn the unit on you have to press the on button for 10 seconds.  Waiting 10 seconds though is a LONG time when you are in a hurry to get going and you know you are going to have to wait even longer for the GPS to sync up with the satellites.  The 10 seconds most likely stems from the fact that the button is not recessed in any way and if you put it in a backpack or bag it would likely turn on by accident.  This is just another example of the software guys bailing out the hardware guys for a bad design.  Instead of the 10 second option I would have had the user hold down 2 buttons simultaneously to turn the unit on.

Turning the unit off is similar. To fully shut it off you have to press the on/off button for 10 seconds.  If you press the button for 3 seconds you put the unit into low power sleep mode.  Note that once the unit figures out that you want it to power down it gives you a 5 second countdown to change your mind where if you press any button including the touch screen it will cancel the shutdown.  This is particularly frustrating as the unit has buttons on the top, front and sides making the unit difficult to hold without accidentally pushing a button.  It’s like getting the “Are you sure?” dialog box.

While the on/off issue is relatively minor overall it is certainly something that I will consider in my next GPS purchase.  I would also look for a unit that offers companion mapping software for my PC that would allow me to set up routes on my desktop and then transfer them to my GPS.  It is far easier to customize a route on the desktop than on the GPS.  Note that on the Magellen if you choose to eliminate a road from a route and then you change the optimization from something like “Max use of freeways” to “Least use of freeways” the GPS may put that road back into the route.  There is no way to permanently eliminate sections of a route for a given destination.   

One of my running heroes is Juma Ikangaa.  He came in second 3 years in a row at Boston in 1988, 1989 and 1990.  In 1988 he lost by 1 second in a final sprint at the finish against Ibrahim Hussein.  Also in 1988 he came in second in two other marathons for a total of three 2nd place finishes in one year.  His finish times were all in the 2:08 range.  I continue to admire that he did not get discouraged and kept pushing himself.  He went on to win New York in 1989 in 2:08:01 setting a record that lasted 12 years. 

How tough do you have to be to run three sub 2:09s in one year?  A 2:08 to 2:09 marathon translates to 4:53 to 4:55 pace which is about 73 to 74 seconds per quarter.  Since a marathon is ~105 quarters you can say he did three workouts of 105 quarters at 73 with no rest.  That would be 315 quarters in one year at 73.  When I ran at my best 12 years ago I could do 12 quarters at 73 with 200 meter rest and that workout would kill me.  It would take me 26 weeks of those workouts to equal what Ikangaa did in 3 workouts.  He did all that and still only got second place!

The take away from all this is that there will always be someone faster than you and there will always be someone slower.

There should be a law that advertisers on the radio cannot use automobile horn sounds or screeching tire sounds in their ads.

How do the post offices of different countries work together to send and receive letters?  When I put stamp on an envelope to go to another country does that country’s post office get some payment from the US post office?

Just what is Light Sweet Crude?  Is there heavy sweet crude?  How about sour crude?  If I mix sweet crude and sour crude do I get sweet n sour?  Is there dark crude like there is with chocolate?  When the price of light sweet crude are reported daily in the news what am I supposed to do with that info?  How should I modify my behavior if the price goes up or down?  When the weatherman calls for rain I modify my behavior by brining an umbrella.  I just don’t know what I am supposed to do with some of the info that is reported in the news.

Now that I am taking about the news why do they send reporters to some sites to report a story when being there adds no value to the story.  I can see going when they are reporting on a fire because they can show you live shots of the fire which provides additional details about the fire.  Yet I don’t see the value in putting a reporter in front of a courthouse at 5 AM while it is still dark out just so he/she can say:  “reporting live where later today the trial of blah, blah, blah will start” 

I read a speech today by Rudy Provoost the CEO for the Consumer Electronics division of Philips.  It is titled “The Consumer Electronics Industry has to prepare itself for a fundamental change”  

How is it that we always feel like we are facing a major change?  Next we’ll be at the crossroads.  Then we’ll by on the dawn of a new era.  Heading into uncharted territory…..   You get the picture.

I posted a review of my new Petzel headlamp on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/rss/people/AHUAPWY1423PF/reviews/ref=cm_pdp_rev_rss

 

I always enjoy the digital vs. acoustic piano debate and can argue either side.  I only started playing 2 years ago at age 40 and it will be a long time before the poor quality sounds coming from my piano are only because it is digital and not acoustic.  It’s the same reason Tiger Woods golf clubs wouldn’t improve my golf game or Lance Armstrong’s carbon fiber bike wouldn’t improve my riding ability.  (maybe we should debate if great pianists are born or made)

If the only criteria were sound quality I would have gone for the acoustic.  I opted for the digital because I can use headphones after the kids go to bed and I can record my songs in MIDI format and transfer them to my PC.  I bought a high end digital piano and I believe the mechanical action of the keys and pedals is similar to a conventional piano while the acoustic quality is not as good.  If I compare my digital piano to all the pianos that are not in tune and need some amount of service then the difference is even less obvious.