George Mindling Column 5-17-2002 - Stopping Unwanted Faxes

Stopping Unwanted Faxes

Tired of having unwanted faxes littering the floor .when you open your business in the morning? Out of fax paper due to the unwanted and unsolicited faxes using up your paper? Anyone who receives junk faxes can complain, not just businesses. The fix is easy, and you don't have to worry about calling different 800 numbers to remove your number from every one of those unwanted faxes.

Unsolicited faxes are not only against Florida law. but are also in violation of the 1991 Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Federal Communications Commission regulations also prohibit sending unsolicited advertisements, also known as "junk faxes," to fax machines. This prohibition applies to both businesses and residences. Stopping the unwanted faxes is a fairly straightforward procedure, but it is a responsibility of the state Attorney General's office.

A fax machine is able to send and receive data, either text or images over a telephone line. According to the FCC. an "unsolicited advertisement" is defined as “any material advertising the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods, or services which is transmitted to any person without that person's prior express invitation or permission," Just because your fax number is published or distributed does not mean anyone has permission to send you unsolicited advertisements.

This approach has proven to be quite effective in stopping unwanted faxes. The state Attorney General's office first contacts the offender with copies of the illegal faxes, attached to copies of the Florida Statutes, and sends you a courtesy copy of the complaint to show who the offender really is.

That is usually enough to stop the fax "spam," but if the offender persists, it is a $500 penalty per offense, and the state will take action. The Economic Crimes Division of the Attorney General's Office investigates more than 100 cases a year.

Mail the offending faxes, along with a cover letter explaining who you are and that the faxes are unsolicited. Include your fax num­ber in the letter. If the sender puts your fax number on top of each page twice to blank theirs out, point out in your cover letter that the sender's number is unknown.

Mail the complaint and the faxes to: Economic Crimes Division, Office of the Attorney General, 110 S.E. Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale. FL 33301-5000.

Now, if we could find a way to stop unwanted e-mails.

George Mindling © 2002

George Mindling Column 4-19-2002 - Beautification Plan

Beautification Plan under Discussion

The beautification of Tamiami Trail has been an issue in Port Charlotte for years. Several projects have had partial success, but most of the road and almost all of the other thoroughfares remain sodded.

The areas that have been successfully planted stand apart from the barren stretches of median and roadway to show what can be accomplished if the community at large wants it to happen. The reasons for not beautifying the right-of-way range from financial shortcomings to incredible shortsightedness.

Several merchants complained during one campaign to beautify the median that growth in the center of the median would block the view of their establishments from the traffic on the other side of the roadway. The argument that it is considered safe to drive 45 mph, the legal speed limit, while rubbernecking across three lanes of oncoming traffic, and a two-lane access road to boot, to look at businesses on the driver's left side, is seriously flawed.

There is another way. Let businesses announce they support the median beautification fronting their areas of roadway with signs announcing their participation in the program.

John Milone of the Committee of 100, is spearheading the group's proposal to adapt the successful program used by the city of Gainesville. The Landscape Island Sponsor Program used by Gainesville is a joint venture between the city and the business community.

Charlotte County would be the official sponsor responsible for the engineering and landscape plans. while the business participants remove weeds, litter, debris and dead foliage on an agreed upon schedule.

The county and the business community need to find the balance that encourages not only business participation, but support from the community as a whole. The plan is currently under discussion with Charlotte County officials. John met recently with Commissioner Sara Devos to discuss the beautification proposal. and found Devos enthusiastic about the project. The Landscape Island Plan is very important to the success of Gainesville's traffic calming, street scape and pedestrian safety goals.

Port Charlotte can expect similar results from a successful beautification program. The county is currently reviewing the plan and recommendation is expected shortly. To minimize costs, the plants and trees used should be xeriscape-type plants. especially those indigenous to our area. They won't require watering or irrigation and they don't need to form a barrier wall down the middle of U.S. 41.

Beautification is the goal. The sponsorship signs will not be a distraction if done properly and with a general concept of uniformity. If you arc new to the area and need to look at each building as you drive. for safety's sake, simply make a trip down the other side to take it all in! Traffic will flow better and safer. and we'll have a better looking community for all of us to enjoy.

George Mindling © 2002

George Mindling Column 2-15-2002 - Annual Northern Migration

Annual Northern Migration

The recent warm weather has been a blessing to businesses that benefit from our visitors enjoying the beaches and the water, but a caution signal to others. While everyone enjoys the outdoors and the activities associated with a nice winter vacation, the unseasonable national temperatures have many of our winter residents planning on returning to their summer homes up north sooner than usual.

The annual northern migration is usually in full swing by Easter, which falls on March 31 this year. We would normally expect to have about six more weeks of "season," but this year may be "shorter" and result in lower sales volumes for the stores and restaurants that depend on the winter season to carry them through the lean summer months. As our community moves toward a more balanced economy, the effects of the summer hiatus will be lessened. It will never be the same as elsewhere in the country simply because of where we are, but it will change.

The season in the '50s in Miami began with the opening of Tropical Park race track in November, reached it's peak with Hialeah six weeks later, then ended with the annual closing of Gulfstream Park in April. Horse racing, dog racing and Jai Alai were the big draws to South Florida then, along with the marvelous weather, before Mickey put up the vacation sidetrack in Orlando and the cruise ships at Dodge Island began carrying the winter visitors to the Caribbean. Florida's Gold Coast has found the winter season has changed drastically in the last 30 or 40 years. Southwest Florida's Sun Coast's winter season will change too, but for different reasons.

Southwest Florida's big draw has been value. The cost of maintaining a vacation home here was considerably lower than most other places in the country. The beaches were clean and the groceries were cheap. Florida still doesn't tax groceries or medicine. Those who move here as residents find there is no state income tax. If you live here, you get a $25,000 property tax break called "homestead exemption." There is no need for heating oil and rarely do you have to replace a winter coat or jacket. 

Electricity was cheap by national standards, and back then. so was water.  However, the price of single family homes is now skyrocketing. helped along with quick and painless low interest financing. The homes that were on the market five years ago in the low $110,000 to $115,000 range are now in the $165,000 to $170,000 range. Land on usable waterfront property is going up even faster. One home on Cabaret had it's property appraisal shoot from $138,000 last year to $182,000 this year based on sales in the area!

The worldwide marketing campaign once waged by General Development Corp. for Florida property has now been replaced. Instead, local Realtors have accepted the marketing of Southwest Florida as a great place to live. As more people call the Sun Coast home year round, the effects of our seasonal residents will be less and less.

George Mindling © 2002

George Mindling Column 1-18-2002 - Community Future

The Future of the Community

“Aren't you a cracker?" I was asked at a Christmas party in Cape Coral last month. I was raised in Miami and the only crackers I ever met were at Monroe Station out on Loop Road. I was being asked this by a fellow who had moved here from Pennsylvania who raised cows on a farm. I hated to tell him what I thought a cracker was.

I'm not sure if the majority of northerners share this same misplaced definition of Cracker, but I assume it is fairly prevalent. No, we grew up in neighborhoods that look exactly like Port Charlotte. I went to elementary school in Westwood Lake in Miami, one of many Deltona or Mackle Brothers developments that populate the state. Most of those communities, however. have changed and moved forward. Port Charlotte has not. We have an opportunity now to help change that image. and the business community should take the initiative.

The economic development process is taking a new, definitive shape. Charlotte County has expanded its economic development with a department of four full-time employees. These people arc actively meeting with business groups to ask for planning input.

With the involvement of local organizations such as the Committee of 100, business input is finally being fed into the economic development process. The economic alignment with Lee and Collier counties is misplaced. especially Collier County, and the vacuum of not associating with Sarasota County will hopefully he corrected.

Business organizations that are basically social or quasi-independent from government may have good intentions when it comes to networking their products locally, but they don't have the foresight to drive the economic foundation that is required for 10, or 20, or even 50 years from now. One of the most naive approaches suggested is to ask a small business to assist its future competitors. How about a reality check here?

The fact we need business input now is evident in the new proposal for commercial building design standardization. The new Charlotte County proposal doesn't appear to be well thought out. It is simply a cookie-cutter approach used somewhere else. and it doesn't necessarily solve the problem of aesthetics, nor does it offer inducement to new firms to relocate here.

Literally, under the new guidelines. there will be no more supermarkets such as Publix or Winn-Dixie. simply because of the parking requirement in which no more than 40 percent of parking can be in front of the building. The County Administration Building at 18500 Murdock Circle doesn't even comply with the new facade and roof guidelines!

The business community knows we will suffer from terminal stagnation if the current approach dominates our future political and economic thinking. The segment of retirees who vocalize their opposition to any kind of growth won't be around to suffer the inadequate infrastructure they will leave as a legacy. Neither will their children. They take one look at the houses they inherit and turn them into rentals. Then they move to Cape Coral.

George Mindling © 2002

George Mindling Column 12-21-2001 - Active Hurricane Season

Expect an Active Hurricane Season Next Year

The holiday season is upon us. In fact, in two weeks the only things left will be taking down the decorations and, for many shoppers, piles of unpaid bills.

It will take until April just to take down all the lights from my neighbor's wonderful 22,000-light display. Florida Power & Light should send him a thank-you note. There will be joy of course, about the gifts and presents that outlast their batteries. and the wonderful memories of families reunited for the holidays. Flying will be cheaper, albeit more time consuming than last year, and driving will cost considerably less than our last Christmas visit to Atlanta to spend the holidays with our daughter and her husband.

The snowbirds are already showing up, most of them are unaffected by the airfares as the majority of them drive. I will be able to attest to the snowbird phenomenon shorty as I annually share the road with the southbound convoys of campers and trailers on Interstate 75 during the week between Christmas and New Year's.

It is one reason I like to travel at night during this time of year. Snowbirds are not by nature nocturnal creatures. Another reason for the annual winter resident migration is the end of the hurricane season on Nov. 30. We have been given a rhetorical "all clear" to coincide with our wonderful winter weather. Incidentally, we also have our first reality check. Just one week after the close of the 2001 season we already have the forecast for the 2002 hurricane season.

The annual tropical storm forecast has been released by Dr. William Gray and his staff at Colorado State University (http://typhoon.atrnos.colostate.edu/forecasts/2002/fcst2002/). The 2002 season is predicted to be busier than the previous six years, with the Southeast, including the Florida peninsula, rated at a 58% chance of being struck by a Category 3,4, or 5 storm. The average for the last century is 31 percent.

The forecast for 2002 includes 13 named storms, eight of which will be hurricanes. Four of those storms are predicted to be intense. Thomas Milligan and Jennifer Dimas, Colorado State University media representatives, (970) 491-6432, are available to answer various questions about the forecast.

I only report the numbers, I don't create them.

A recent forum on on disaster preparedness held in Port Charlotte failed to attract more than a few attendees. Of course, listening to officials preach doom and gloom immediately before a season of cheer and goodwill was not an example of astute marketing, especially when charging a $2 donation

for the New York relief fund when everyone has read about the new York Red Cross Relief fund no longer accepting donations.

It probably didn't help by holding the forum three days after the close of the hurricane season, either. The perpetually worried residents who believe they are now safe for six more months would much rather go shopping.

Speaking of shopping, no reason to rush, I still have four more days.

George Mindling © 2001

George Mindling Column 2-16-2001 - Read Any Good EULAs?

Read Any Good EULAs?

Imagine my surprise when I found out I had given an Internet, dot-com company the right to read and transmit data from my hard drive to their database every time I logged on to the Internet!

I was really upset my "firewall" program had failed to protect my PC when I first discovered data from my PC being transmitted to an unknown collector of my personal data. I thought I was safe from this invasion of privacy. After all, I had installed not only the latest anti-virus program, but the latest Internet Firewall Program as well.

In addition, I subscribe to an update service which regularly installs the latest changes to both programs. How then. did this company gain access to read and collect data from my hard drive? Simple! I gave it to them.

I did it when I failed to read the EULA, or End Users License Agreement, that is included in practically every software program you'll ever install on a personal computer. Oh, you don't read the fine print on the software "I agree" page during software installation? Neither did I. After giving the usually standard EULA page a cursory glance, I usually click on the agree button to get the installation process rolling. The EULA usually states the same basic rights of ownership and non-copying provisions that arc similar to all programs.

Surprise! Surprise! Read all of them from now on, things are changing in the software world. As most people know, you don't buy software, you lease it. You do not own the programs you buy, you simply have the right to use them. If you did own the software. you could alter a program or rename it and sell it as a product of your own. You specifically agree not to do that when you click on the "agree button," or in some cases, when you open the container the software was shipped in. You don't own the right to a song on an audio tape or a CD; likewise, you don't own the programs on the diskettes or CD, either.

The problem is hidden deep in the many pages of fine print most people skip when installing software. My agreement to allow the authors of the software program 1 bought to have access to my data was in a paragraph buried deep in the EULA that I assumed was harmless. I tried to print it out, but only small pieces of text can he printed at any given time. making it difficult to print out for a legal review.

Basically, the paragraph I agreed to said they could compile information they wanted and forward it at their discretion. This had nothing to do with the now famous cookies that practically every Web site posts on everyone's hard drives. The software routines that collected my data had nothing to do with the program I had installed, even though the program was related to Internet and Web page usage. I immediately uninstalled the program, but they had left a hook requiring me to reload my browser. and eventually reload Windows 98 before I was clear of the unwanted program.

I'm not sure how they avoided my firewall program, but I'm sure from now on I'll read the fine print!

George Mindling © 2001

George Mindling Column 11-16-2001 - The Best and the Worst

The Best and the Worst

When World War III started on Sept. 11, communications technology was put to the supreme test in New York City. While we struggle to understand the barbaric attack on innocent civilians by a primitive, medieval tribal society, we have found again that ingenuity and resolve rises against incredible obstacles.

The loss of the World Trade towers was a devastating blow in ways not always visible to the television cameras. The loss of Con Ed's power grid and the loss of most of the areas telephone exchanges brought communications in the area to an absolute standstill. One of the technologies ironically being tested in the area at the time of the sneak attack, was FSO, or Free-Space Optics. a trade marl of Lightpointe Inc. (http://www.lightpointe.com).

Fiber optics have been used for many years to replace traditional copper transmission media. By inputting controlled, disciplined light, usually by laser, into a fiberglass "pipe," fiber optics has elevated communications to new levels of speed and efficiency.

Ironically, the technology being tested in New York was a laser transmission and reception system without the fiber-optic cable. The system uses "line of sight," which means the transmitting and receiving stations must physically be able to see each other. Lightpointe was being tested by a BLEC (Building Local Exchange Carrier), Rockefeller Group Telecom Services. The FSO system replaced two high speed T-l trunks Without the need to run cables or access any part of a physical network.

The equipment was installed using switches and PBXs available from unaffected customers outside the

boundaries of the affected area. Lightpointe claims the equipment can normally be set-up in a few hours as there is no spectrum licensing required. FSO is considered an optical medium. not a wireless one.

There are several planning issues about environmentally protecting the "light beam." Physical obstructions, such as a bird flying between the two transceivers, would cause a momentary but not unrecoverable loss of carrier and data. Rain or snow, however. have little or no effect on the system . According to Lightpointe, the only natural impediment to the flow of data is fog. as it disperses the light through the suspended water droplets.

Whether or not FSO is adapted by industry for standard use remains to be seen. The fact that it was adapted to solve a crises in communication proves that ingenuity and quick thinking is alive and well in this country. The FSO story is but one of many about replacing damaged telephone or data systems in the area around the World Trade center. While many systems are back in business in the surrounding area with backup or temporary facilities, repairing all of the power grids and networks is a monumental task that cannot be completed until the final bit of debris is removed.

When history looks back at us in a thousand years, will they see another Rome, defeated by the Barbarians, or will they see that the United States and the rest of the unified Free World triumphed over evil? It will take far more than technology to win; but it certainly showcases the ability to rise above adversity and terror, and the ability to think on our feet.

George Mindling © 2001