MacBook Air, Time Capule and iTune Movie Rentals

Will the MacBook Air meet the pundits’ expectations? I heard two things that the pundits were predicting – an ultra small device that was half way between a Newton and a laptop. As Andy Inatko predicted, imagine a MacBook and cut the screen in half. And, of course there was the idea of a tablet Mac.

Me? I predicted to the BMAC User Group a small laptop that would allow the same touch screen technology as you see on the iPhone. Imagine flipping open the screen 180 degrees and using a MacBook size touch screen. How small a laptop? I always felt you needed to be able to touch type and read the screen with ease. And any decrease is weight is welcomed.

So what happened? The MacBook Air, an ultra thin laptop without sacrificing display or keyboard. I applaud the design and like to addition of gestures to the trackpad. I like everything but the price. So, will I get one? Not now. But I can hardly wait for a $1,000 version with 300GB flash drive.

Why not a tablet version? I suggest the tablet market is too small and too specialized. Tablet PCs have been out for years but they obviously don’t sell well or everyone would be hawking a tablet PC. However, I still believe that a multi-touch display Mac will be a reality. Imagine one set of gestures working on two difference platforms. And that’s exactly what Apple did with the touchpad. Now all they need to do is go one more step and have a multi-touch display display.

Why not a smaller footprint? Easy – two factors – screen size and full size keyboard. Who wants a tiny screen and hard to use keyboard? If I need a smaller form factor then I’ll simply use my iPhone. Does that mean I’ll be typing extensively on my iPhone? No, that’s what the laptop is for. The iPhone is for phone calls, email, contact info and browsing. OK, I don’t have an iPhone yet but I will. I just keep waiting for flash memory to drop in price so I can get a 30 or 60GB iPhone. I really don’t want to carry around an iPod and iPhone when one product should meet both needs.

What else did Apple announce? Time Capsule. Blend together an Airport Extreme, a hard drive and Time Machine and you get Time Capsule. Smart idea. I should have seen it coming. Instead, I purchased a 500GB hard drive a few weeks ago from Micro Center. Oh well.

iTune movie rentals! I have been waiting for this forever. Let’s face it. There really wasn’t a strong reason to buy an Apple TV without the rental capability. Think about it. Compare the number of movies that you own versus the number of movies that you rent. I will definitely be getting an Apple TV within the next 12 months. Now, if it could only record from my cable box. Another thing I find interesting is that video rental stores seem to do great even though you can access movies via On Demand from your cable service? I see it a perception issue. Ever hear of anyone who loves their cable company? Lousy service and high pricing means opportunity. Now add to that the reputation of Apple. That equals Apple TV and iTunes movie rentals and a huge opportunity for success

The joys of upgrading, aka, sometimes thing go bad

Today I posted this on BMAC's Q&A listserv regarding my experience upgrading to Leopard, 10.5.

This saga needs a title like, "The trials and tribulations of your everyday user..."

The first thing I did was brilliant - I did not upgrade until I finished my tax course at Bentley College. I kept all my notes and wrote my paper using Word 2007 (Bentley standard) running in VMWare Fusion. I finished the course on Tuesday and on Thursday started upgrading.

The upgrade worked great and I immediately ran the software update and got the system to 10.5.1. I then tried to install bootcamp. Bootcamp could not make a partition. The error message said to backup the hard drive, reformat it and restore.

OK, except I don't have a spare hard drive for the backup. I had been using a 120GB drive for backups and it has my only pre-Leopard backup. I currently have a 160 GB drive in my MacBook and I've used almost 120GB. I've been planning to use Time machine so off I go to Micro Center and buy a new 500GB external drive for approximately $180.

I go home and start to work. First I take an old firewire 20GB drive and reformat and install Leopard so it will be a bootable OS in case of emergency. Second, I partition the 500GB drive so I have one 20GB partition and the rest as a second partition. I take the 20GB partition and also make is a bootable OS - you know, in case of emergency. I test each drive to make sure I can boot from each drive, i.e., change the startup disk and restart. Everything is working great. Then I use one of my favorite apps - Super Duper. I copied my internal Leopard drive to the external 500GB drive, reformat the internal drive and restore.

After the restore nothing works. I get a gray Apple startup screen with a gray spinner...and that's it. It doesn't see the external drives. It's as blind as a bat.

Why? Because I didn't follow the damn directions like I should have. Earlier in the week I knew that Super Duper was not yet Leopard compatible and when it came time to do a copy and restore I forgot and used Super Duper. Now let's be clear - I love Super Duper and this was my fault, Super Duper was innocent.

Hmmm, what to do? Off I go and call Jon Duke...again. We had already chatted about the 500GB drive purchase. We chat and come up with one or two strategies. I didn't tell Jon about using an incompatible version of Super Duper because I hadn't yet realized my boo-boo. I attempt to use Diskwarrior to save the day. Oh wait, I have version 3.0 and you need 4.0 for Intel based Macs. Ok, I'll go online and upgrade. Oops, you can't upgrade online. You can only receive an upgrade via US mail. Fine. I go online and purchase a new full version. I didn't want to go borrow a copy because it’s Sunday and it's snowing and I remember what Thursday's commute from hell was like.

So now I have Diskwarrior almost installed on my G3. First I make a backup of Diskwarrior 3.0 to CD and delete it from the G3. Now I unzip Diskwarrior 4.0. Oh wait. Per the instructions you need to be logged in as an administrator to run it. OK. I go into administrator mode and of course I don't see Diskwarrior any more because it's on another user's desktop. OK, breathe Gary. I struggle and resolve that. Then I startup the Macbook in target disk mode and at least that works. I run Diskwarrior and it almost works. Asking Diskwarrior to attack a 160GB drive from a G3 with a max'd out ram of approximately 640MB is just too much. It tries but comes to a screaming halt. OK, it didn't scream but that's because all the resources were max'd out and the G3 was busy spinning a beachball.

What? I know the Pats game is on. I'll be there in a minute or two. Just as soon as I....Hmmm, what should I do next? OK, let's go with Archive and Install. I visited the Apple store on Saturday and that's what they suggested. It was also strategy number 2 that Jon and I worked out. I run Archive and Install and the Mac likes me again. But I'm not so sure about the archive. As a matter of fact it seems to want to hurt me. I look around and try to compare the new system and what's in the previous system folder. It’s not making sense. Of course I forgot that I was logged in as administrator versus my normal login and so things are going to look different. But I didn't realize that. Instead I attempt to move things around. Another bad idea. Luckily I soon realize that I'm merely going to shoot myself in the foot a few more times if I continue moving stuff around. OK, Gary, try to relax. Have a beer. You better make that at least two.

I decide to fail back to my old pre-Leopard backup. I reformat the internal hard drive...again. I open the sparseimage (Thank you Super Duper) and drag it to the newly reformatted drive. I run Diskwarrior to check things out and clean up any problems. I then upgrade to Leopard for the nth time (I've lost count). Leopard seems happy.

Apparently all my user accounts didn't come over. I set up each user account. Now here's a question - do you remember the short name you gave to each account? You're gonna need it. Luckily I remember and each account is matched up with its home folder. Oh wait. I did this under my normal login name. My normal login name should be a standard account but it's now an administrator account. So now I need to log in and change account settings. OK, that's done.

However, my data is now a few weeks old. I go to the 500GB external drive that has a copy of the original (first) Leopard upgrade that also has my current data. I search through my home folder and take a stab at what's missing and drag in from the external hard drive. What do you mean invalid privileges? Don't you know who I am?! I own you! Breathe Gary. Maybe another beer is in order. Let's see, do a “get info” on each folder and add the appropriate user to the Permissions. Damn, forgot to apply to enclosed items.

OK, let's take a look and if we got everything. Looks alright, but since I'm not sure where everything is stored I really don't know what I've got. Time to jump into the deep end of the pool. I'm going to activate Time Machine and save what I have. The cost? The data on the 500GB drive is the only current backup I have of my data and I'm going to blow it away. I still have the old backup on another drive but it is a few weeks old. Here we go, bye-bye data. I work through the complicated Time Machine settings (read humor) - that's one button to assign the drive and another to turn on Time Machine.

Time to stop. It's now 11:30 PM Sunday. The journey began Thursday night.

The outcome so far:

1. The Mac is basically happy again.

2. Time Machine is working.

3. Email works but I can't delete things. Some kind of IMAP voodoo.

4. iWeb - most of it came back except of the last page that I posted. The page exists on the web but it isn't in iWeb. I'll figure it out.

5. Parallels and VMware Fusion are toast. I'll attempt to uninstall Parallels and re-install Fusion.

6. I now get a bunch of dialog boxes when I restart saying I have a bunch of system extensions improperly installed. Apparently I'm suppose to upgrade the offending product or reinstall it. Unfortunately it doesn't tell me the name of the offfending app. I'll figure it out...somehow.

And by the way, I haven't yet tried to implement bootcamp for the second time. Hostages sound like a good idea.

But before I do that, where's Jon Duke's number....

I hope you enjoyed the saga.

Gary Harding

How can you be wrong if you do everything right?

You do the right thing and what happens? Well, if you're running for president you're still found to be wrong.

Last year the Boston Globe reported that illegal immigrants were working at Mitt Romney's house in Belmont, MA. The company Romney hired to provide landscaping services had hired illegal immigrants. As reported in today's Boston Globe, Romney discussed the situation with the owner of the landscaping company, "After this same issue arose last year, I gave the company a second chance with very specific conditions," Romney said in the statement. "They were instructed to make sure people working for the company were of legal status. We personally met with the company in order to inform them about the importance of this matter. The owner of the company guaranteed us, in very certain terms, that the company would be in total compliance with the law going forward.

"The company's failure to comply with the law is disappointing and inexcusable, and I believe it is important I take this action," Romney said.

Romney's account differs from that of landscape company owner Ricardo Saenz, who said that Romney didn't press the issue of whether his workers were in the country illegally".

I must admit I find Ricardo Saenz's statement hard to believe.

Were Romney's actions wrong? For example, should he or a member of his campaign staff asked for and examined the documents of the workers? NO! Imagine the headlines, "As in the days of Nazi Germany, Romney asks workers for papers". It is the responsibility of the employer to execute the I-9 form and examine the documents. Should Romney have asked to see the I-9 forms? NO! The I-9 contains personal information, namely, a social security number and that is confidential information belonging to the employer.

Got to www.uscis.gov for the rules regarding the I-9.

Should Romney have terminated the landscaping service immediately back in December 2006? NO! Again, imagine the uproar about how he should have given the firm a second chance to take the appropriate corrective action.

The Globe article states that one of the illegal immigrants told the employer that he was illegal. The worker then later provided the employer with forged documents. As per the I-9 rules, it is not the responsibility of the employer to verify the authenticity of the documents.

So what should have been done?

First, everything was done correctly, unless the employees provided documents that obviously appeared to be fakes. At that point the employees must be suspended until proper documentation can be provided. The employer is at fault if the employer knew that the documents were fake and continued to employ the illegal immigrants.

Second, nothing else should have been done in the past and terminating the landscaper today is the proper action.

The political pundits may have a field day with this. And Romney will suffer for doing everything right.

Is Steve Jobs Finally Targeting Businesses?

Today, the above question appeared in the Business Technology blog of the Wall Street Journal. I posted the following response:

Is Apple ready for the corporate market? Large corporations want immediate service and flexibility. The more seamless the solution, the better. Apple Stores are fun and successful but they don’t reflect the needs of big business. Instead, they address the needs of the individual consumer.

I worked in Technical Operations for a billion dollar corporation and I would say that Apple would require an internal mind shift to service the Fortune 1000 world. The idea of a separate division or group would be a requirement.

How will Apple enter the corporate market? Through the back door. Simply put, more and more users are switching to Apple devices and it’s only a matter of time before they enter the corporate mainstream.

Is IT an issue? Absolutely. Why should the department learn to support two platforms when one is already the standard? It ts the grassroots movement of the Mac users that will gradually require the IT departments and data centers to to add the platform to their repertoire.

I’ve been a PC user and a Mac user for decades. The introduction of the iPod and iPhone has exposed literally millions to the quality and innovation of Apple. Add to that the ability to run Windows on a Mac and it’s simply a matter of time before the Mac will finally gain a permanent and growing foothold in the corporate marketplace.

Portland ME school board goes too far

This week the Portland, ME school board approved the distribution of birth control pills in it's middle school where the student ages range from 11 to 13.

This was a hot topic on the Boston airwaves and I sent the following email to Michael Graham at WTKK-FM, 96.9.

I found the decision by the Portland school board very disappointing. According to reports, 5 out of 134 students told the nurse they were sexually active - that's 3.7%.

Yourself and a significant number of callers stated that birth control should NOT be given out without parental consent. I can't agree more. Unfortunately, in the case of Portland, ME, the parents already gave their consent. Children cannot go the school clinic without first obtaining parental consent. I would be very interested in knowing the rules regarding parental access to their child's school medical records.

The real issue is does the school health official have the right to step in and act as the parent when either the parent failed to manage their child's behavior or the child, regardless of the parents efforts, decides to be defiant and proceed to have under age sex. The school nurse is NOT a substitute parent. And even though general parental consent was given to use the clinic, birth control pills should NOT be provided to students in middle school.

I'm not even sure if I would agree with giving birth control pills to students under the age of 15. A quick internet search (http://www.cga.ct.gov/2003/olrdata/jud/rpt/2003-R-0149.htm) indicated that in Maine statutory rape occurs with someone under the age of 14. If you provide 11 to 13 year olds birth control, aren't you enabling and or encouraging them to have sex and break the law? Of course the rebuttal is that the school is merely trying to avoid unwanted pregnancies and not trying to encourage this behavior.

I do not believe that the action of 5 or 10 students justifies this change in policy. It merely indicates the continuing need to have both parents and educators teach children about adult sexual behavior and the ramifications of that behavior. Will this stop every child from having underage sex? Of course not. But isn't it better than opening the flood gates to enabling underage sexual behavior to all who have obtained permission to use the clinic?

The Last Lecture

Yesterday I read an article in the Wall Street Journal (A Beloved Professor Delivers The Lecture of a Lifetime, September 20, 2007; Page D1) about a trend on college campuses - "Last Lecture Series". Top professors are given an opportunity to present what truly matters to them and give a hypothetical final talk.

The article is from Moving On, a column by Jeff Zaslow. A copy of the article appears below. Please take a moment and read it.

Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor, was about to give a lecture Tuesday afternoon, but before he said a word, he received a standing ovation from 400 students and colleagues.

He motioned to them to sit down. "Make me earn it," he said.

They had come to see him give what was billed as his "last lecture." This is a common title for talks on college campuses today. Schools such as Stanford and the University of Alabama have mounted "Last Lecture Series," in which top professors are asked to think deeply about what matters to them and to give hypothetical final talks. For the audience, the question to be mulled is this: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?
It can be an intriguing hour, watching healthy professors consider their demise and ruminate over subjects dear to them. At the University of Northern Iowa, instructor Penny O'Connor recently titled her lecture "Get Over Yourself." At Cornell, Ellis Hanson, who teaches a course titled "Desire," spoke about sex and technology.

At Carnegie Mellon, however, Dr. Pausch's speech was more than just an academic exercise. The 46-year-old father of three has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months. His lecture, using images on a giant screen, turned out to be a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life.

He began by showing his CT scans, revealing 10 tumors on his liver. But after that, he talked about living. If anyone expected him to be morose, he said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you." He then dropped to the floor and did one-handed pushups.

Clicking through photos of himself as a boy, he talked about his childhood dreams: to win giant stuffed animals at carnivals, to walk in zero gravity, to design Disney rides, to write a World Book entry. By adulthood, he had achieved each goal. As proof, he had students carry out all the huge stuffed animals he'd won in his life, which he gave to audience members. After all, he doesn't need them anymore.

He paid tribute to his techie background. "I've experienced a deathbed conversion," he said, smiling. "I just bought a Macintosh." Flashing his rejection letters on the screen, he talked about setbacks in his career, repeating: "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things." He encouraged us to be patient with others. "Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you." After showing photos of his childhood bedroom, decorated with mathematical notations he'd drawn on the walls, he said: "If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it."

While displaying photos of his bosses and students over the years, he said that helping others fulfill their dreams is even more fun than achieving your own. He talked of requiring his students to create videogames without sex and violence. "You'd be surprised how many 19-year-old boys run out of ideas when you take those possibilities away," he said, but they all rose to the challenge.

He also saluted his parents, who let him make his childhood bedroom his domain, even if his wall etchings hurt the home's resale value. He knew his mom was proud of him when he got his Ph.D, he said, despite how she'd introduce him: "This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind who helps people."

He then spoke about his legacy. Considered one of the nation's foremost teachers of videogame and virtual-reality technology, he helped develop "Alice," a Carnegie Mellon software project that allows people to easily create 3-D animations. It had one million downloads in the past year, and usage is expected to soar.

"Like Moses, I get to see the Promised Land, but I don't get to step foot in it," Dr. Pausch said. "That's OK. I will live on in Alice."

Many people have given last speeches without realizing it. The day before he was killed, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke prophetically: "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place." He talked of how he had seen the Promised Land, even though "I may not get there with you."

Dr. Pausch's lecture, in the same way, became a call to his colleagues and students to go on without him and do great things. But he was also addressing those closer to his heart.
Near the end of his talk, he had a cake brought out for his wife, whose birthday was the day before. As she cried and they embraced on stage, the audience sang "Happy Birthday," many wiping away their own tears.

Dr. Pausch's speech was taped so his children, ages 5, 2 and 1, can watch it when they're older. His last words in his last lecture were simple: "This was for my kids." Then those of us in the audience rose for one last standing ovation.

Nothing is cooler than the iPhone!

The date of this post is 7/2/07 which means that the iPhone was released last Friday. On Sunday I visited the Apple Store at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, MA and got to play with one. The first thing to hit me was the size. I have a 15GB iPod. the iPhone appears a little longer, not as wide and about 1/3 thinner! And it's light. The screen is amazing - vivid color. The interface is very intuitive, however, I kept looking for a close or back button. It appears that you simply hit the home button to leave an application. I was able to send an email and make a telephone call. The keyboard is a little awkward at first. I assume my fingers would easily get used to it. The pop-up nature of the keyboard letters does help with typing. Surfing on the web is incredible. It's amazing to see full web pages and then just tap and zoom. Surfing is a bit slow but very usable. I would expect this to improve as data services improve. As I said before, I'm waiting for the second generation of this device. In the meantime, I strongly urge you to go to an Apple Store and take the iPhone for a test drive. You won't be disappointed.

I'm Back!

Greetings! Well the last post was at the start of tax season and it's now July 2nd. Needless to say, I was too busy during tax season to post anything. I have many things to report. Patti and I have scheduled a number of concerts. We already attended the Martina McBride concert and the Brad Paisley concert. I'll comment on those in a later post. We'll vacation in Newport, RI for a week and then we will be attending the following summer concerts: Kenny G, Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett. In the fall we be attending Phil Vassar and Lonestar.

In other news, I'll be returning the Bentley College in the fall to attend the Graduate Certificate in Taxation program. It's a four course program with the option of continuing on for 6 courses and obtaining a Masters in Taxation.

In May I purchased a Nikon S50 Coolpix digital camera. I have been spending a great deal of time testing it out and preparing a section in my web site demonstrating the functionality. I hope to have the website section up soon and I'll be posting a review on this blog.

In the interim, I got a look at the iPhone. My comments about it are the next post...

iPhone - Cooler than the Newton

I predict another winner. What makes this product so cool? Why is it better than a Blackberry or a Treo? The interface. It's designed to do many things elegantly but not do all things.

Notice the one thing they left out - handwriting recognition. It's not a note taking device. Instead, they make it highly efficient in the areas where it was intended - phone, web, and mail.

What about music? It does have iPod functionality however, it's not big enough. I use a old 15 GB iPod and I have filled it. I want most of my music collection with me, not just the top x%. I plan on replacing my iPod with a 60 or 80 GB version. I would love the iPhone if it didn't have music, however, when they come out with a 60 or 80 GB version I'll be in heaven.

Will I get one? Absolutely. The question is will I be patient enough to wait for version 2 . I hate being a pioneer.

One more thing, 1 billion downloads on iTunes? Am I the only person left who still buys CDs?

95% of Americans Have Premarital Sex

A poll released December 20th stated that 75% of Americans have had premarital sex by the age of 20 and 95% by the age of 44.

Hmmm, that must mean the other 5% are really ugly. :-)

Wall Street Journal Informal Poll - Who would be the Strongest Republican Candidate in 2008?

Today the Wall Street Journal had as its question of the day, "Who would be the strongest candidate for Republicans in the 2008 presidential election?

Here are the choices and the results when I voted this afternoon:

Sam Brownback - 2%

Newt Gingrich - 10%

Rudy Giuliani - 31%

John McCain - 34%

Mitt Romney - 12%

Someone Else - 11%

I posted the following in the WSJ Forum:

I must admit I was surprised to see Giuliani score so high.

Sam Brownback - An unknown to me and I consider myself a bit of a political wonk. Doesn't have the name recognition.

Newt Gingrich - I was a big Newt fan when he was the speaker of the house. He's intelligent and very well spoken. However, I don't believe he has done enough during the last 18 months to rebuild his name recognition and reputation.

Rudy Giuliani - Loved by all. However, I don't see Giuliani possessing the "X" factor - that unexplanable factor that causes people to say " He's Presidential". He also hasn't been very visible on the political landscape. I believe Barack Obama possesses the "X" factor and that makes him a strong democratic candidate even though he hugely lacks legislative, executive and foreign affairs experience.

John McCain - He's ruffled some feathers in Congress and with the political pundits but he comes accross loud and clear to voting public. The question is whether he can get past South Carolina during the primaries. The difference this time is McCain has the experience of having run for president and has had several years to gain recognition and build allies. I believe all the work he has done since running against Bush will payoff big time. He is the strongest candidate, but watch out for #2 - see below.

Mitt Romney - Watch out! I'm from Massachusetts and I can tell you Mitt has the intelligence (MBA and JD from Harvard) and the "X" factor. He now has executive experience (Governor of Mass) and is a proven problem solver, e.g., fixing the Winter Olympics in Utah. The question is whether he has enough national exposure to win over the voters. He's doing his homework and is building a very strong foundation, e.g., meeting the right people and putting together a team. I expect Mitt Romney will win the presidential election in either 2008 or during the next Republican opportunity. In worse case, the 2008 election will simply build his character and provide him with the necessary experience to win a national election.

The Cost of Loyalty

Today it was announced that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is resigning after the Republican party lost the House and is likely to lose the Senate.

Bush '41 was a man who believed in loyalty and passed that trait onto his son, Bush '43. Bush '41 demonstrated it when there was pressure to get rid of the Vice President Dan Quayle. Unfortunately, this lesson doesn't carry over well into the Bush '41 administration when applied to the current situation. Loyalty is always respected but corrective action, even when it negatively affects those closest to you, is respected even more when it's done for the good of the country.

Would things be different now if Rumsfeld had been removed from office 12 months ago? It would be hard to imagine them worse. The cost of delaying this decision? The control of Congress, the greater risk of terrorism and a more challenging task to achieve democracy in Iraq.

What about the lives of our military? Unfortunately, I don't believe there would be a reduction in loss. What corrective action should be taken in Iraq and when would we feel the positive effects of that change? No one knows. However, I anticipate change would be slow and the benefits will not be seen for months.

I can only see two possibilities at this moment. Pull out or step up. I absolutely believe that we should not pull out. I believe in the Powell doctrine which was fully demonstrated during the first Gulf War - fight with overwhelming force. Unfortunately, during the second Gulf War we fought with overwhelming technology and did not have enough boots of the ground to provide proper policing action after the Iraq government was toppled.

We also failed in another way. In past victories we destroyed the armed forces of our enemy and took total control. We even demonstrated this in the first Gulf War when we destroyed the Iraqi military on route from Kuwait back to Iraq.

In the second Gulf War we minimized our interaction with the Iraqi forces and allowed them to return to the general population without proper screening and transition. This allowed new forces to organize. Add to this the lack of boots on the ground to secure the borders and police the country and you create an environment ripe for insurgency.

The cost to fix this error will be great. I believe that we must dramatically increase the number of military in Iraq and take complete control of the country until it has time to heal. Do you have enough personnel in the military to achieve this? I honestly don't know. If we don't, then the concept of a draft must be considered for the good of the country. Take control and destroy the insurgency with the aid of the Iraqi people in order to avoid a significant terrorist attack from those trained, funded and supported by insurgency and its mutual associates.

Thank You U.K. Authorities

As you have heard, U.K. authorities discovered and interrupted a terrorist plot to smuggle, assemble and explode a bomb simultaneously on several international flights from London to the U.S. This investigation has resulted in the arrest of 21 people in the U.K.

It has not yet been definitively determined that this is the work of al Qaeda. However, in 1995 al Qaeda plotted to explode 11 U.S. flights over the Pacific. The similarities clearly point in the direction of al Qaeda.

Suppose this story broke a week or two ago. Would it have affected Senator LiebermanÂ’s primacy loss? I believe so. It would have sent a loud reminder to all that the war of terrorism is not over and is an on-going battle that we must win.

Collin Raye at Indian Ranch

Yup - Another concert. This time Patti and I saw Collin Raye at Indian Ranch in Webster, MA. Indian Ranch is a great intimate outdoor venue for a concert. We sat in the third row for $40 a ticket. Parking was free and it took us literally 5 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

As always, the show was great. Collin Raye is one of my favorite singers. I suggest you check out his greatest hits CD if you have never heard of him. He is the master of strong emotional ballads. This time he brought out his daughter Brittany who accompanied him for one or two songs. Additonal photos (limited quality - cell phone photos) are at www.garrettharding.com.

So what's next? Jimmy Buffett at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, MA. Unfortunately no third row seats for Buffett. I bought the tickets the moment they went on sale and I'm in section 11 - the boonies.

3rd Annual New England Country Music Festival

Yesterday Patti and I attended the Country Music Festival at Gillette Stadium. The line up consisted of Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson and Kenny Chesney. Tickets were $85.50 each plus $9.80 convenience charge.

The show started at 3:30 and we attempted to arrive at 2:30. At 2:30 we hit a heavy backup at the exit ramp off of 495. We arrived outside the stadium after a long walk from lot 9 (parking - $35) and Carrie Underwood was performing. We then had to locate the floor seating entrance which was mobbed because everyone had to obtain a wristband.

Our seats were on the floor, section B1, row 27. It was very hot in the sun. The sun went behind the stadium from our perspective at about 5:30. Thank god.

The show was excellent. We went to the same festival two years. At that time we also saw Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson. Both acts had more elaborate shows this year.

Kenny Chesney’s show was excellent. The surprise was the opening. He rose from a small platform in the center of the floor seats just behind the sound booth. We were 50 feet to the right at that point.

At the end it took 1 hour and 50 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

Was it worth it? Yes, because of the number and quality of the acts.

Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett Interview

I'm watching an incredible interview - Charlie Rose is interviewing Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. This show is the third of a three part series on Warren Buffett. The series will be available on Google Video.

Apple #4 on BusinessWeek Top 100 Info Tech Companies

Not only is Apple #4, it is the highest ranking US corporation on the list. Click here to see the list. Take careful note of how BusinessWeek determined the ranking.

Garrett R. Harding, CPA

Yesterday I received a letter from the Division of Professional Licensure of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On June 15th the State Board of Public Accountancy granted me my Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license.

This little journey began in 1980 - 26 years ago. In the fall of 1980 I was a senior at Bentley College. While I had no strong intention of going into public accounting, I decided to take advantage of the newly acquired knowledge and sit for the uniform CPA exam in May 1981. Therefore in the fall of 1980 I started attending a CPA review course with several fellow Bentley students. I passed two parts of the CPA exam in May 1980 and passed the remaining two parts in November 1980. The rules at the time required that I obtain 2 or 3 years of public accounting experience. During college I worked part-time for Jim Mills, CPA. Unfortunately the part-time experience did not meet the experience requirement and I never entered public accounting on a full-time basis.

Earlier this year someone mentioned that they could obtain a CPA license with simply a master's degree. This provoked my curiosity and I investigated the current rules. I discovered that on October 13, 2000 the rules were changed. It was now possible to obtain a CPA license if you pass the CPA exam, have a bachelor's of science degree in accountancy and a master's degree, such as a MBA (the exact requirements are available from your state board of public accountancy). I met the revised qualifications. The license does come with a "non-reporting" restriction. This means that I cannot issue reports on financial statements in my practice of public accounting. I am authorized to use the CPA designation and practice all other aspects of public accounting, namely management advisory services and taxation. This meets my particular needs. The restriction can be removed by obtaining the necessary experience or CPE hours.

I must admit that at times I felt like a second class accountant even though I was a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and had the privilege of being a full-time faculty member of the Accountancy department at Bentley College. Now, after 26 years, I can now proudly say that I'm a CPA.

No deadline for Iraq

Congress is debating two democratic proposals to establish a pull out date for Iraq. In my opinion there are two basic views. First, a pull out date pressures the Iraqi military to step up recruiting and training so that the Iraqi military and government will be ready to assume control. The second, opposite viewpoint is to get the job done without a pull out date.

In the world of project management, deadlines are crucial and provide motivation to get the job done. I recognize and support that methodology in a business environment. However, in the world of warfare, you never give your enemy an advantage and a pull out date would do exactly that. A pull out date would encourage the enemy to sit back and give the appearance that the insurgency had been defeated. Then, once the superior training, technology and firepower of the U.S. military had left the area, the insurgency would reappear and provide a challenge that may be too great for the newly formed Iraqi military and government.

Ending the Iraqi war has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in the decision to go to war. (I will state for the record that I supported going to war.) As stated by former secretary of state Colin Powell, gift store rules apply - we broke it, we own it. What does this mean? A necessary result of the Iraqi war was the removal of Saddam Hussein and the dismantling of the previous Iraqi government. We now must support the creation of a new government and associated infrastructure. Afghanistan provides us with a model of what can happen when a governmental void exists. In Afghanistan, the U.S. did not support the redevelopment of a government structure after the Soviet Union's military left the area. That void was filled with the Taliban. We cannot allow the formation of a Iraqi government to fail. Such a void would allow a terrorist environment to thrive. Are terrorists already in Iraqi? Of course they are and that provides the fundamental reason why we must prevail. How long will it take to destroy the terrorists in Iraq, put down the insurgency, stabilize the political environment to remove the threat of civil war and establish a fully functional Iraqi military and government? Simply put - a very long time and pull out date cannot be arbitrarily assigned. Our goal should be get the job done right, not get the job done by a particular date. We take on this task because it is the right thing to do, regardless of difficulty of the challenge or the amount of time and resources required. There is nothing more expensive or worthwhile than freedom.

Welcome FeedBlitz

Today I registered with a new blog email subcription service called FeedBlitz. My prior service was Bloglet. Bloglet's developer started the service as a hobby and never had any intention to take it beyond the hobby stage. Bloglet was the true pioneer in this particular service and the success of the concept demanded support beyond the original intention of its developer. Unfortunately this may have translated into email notifications not going out. In spite of that, I would like to thank Bloglet for being the pioneer and welcome aboard FeedBlitz.