George Mindling Column 6-15-2001 - Internet Web Page Design Class

Internet Web Page Design Class

Karen Smith's Web page design class at Charlotte High School is unique in Florida. It is one of only two such classes in the entire state.

I had the privilege of addressing one of her classes while participating in the Charlotte County Chamber of Commerce school program not long before the end of the school year. It was a learning experience for me. After the initial ice breaking first few minutes, I realized not much has changed since I went to school in Miami many years ago. With the exception of the PCs in the room the room could have been Southwest High in 1959. The students were the same, just dressed differently. They still have the same looks and attitudes as we had. Some were attentive, some dozed off. Some asked questions, some couldn't be bothered with looking up.  The interest picked up when discussing the future of the Internet and making money in Web design or related fields. Everyone listened when we talked about money. There are many resources available, both online or through traditional print media, to look at today's salaries.

Still, $10 an hour sounds like a fortune to a 17-year-old who can't see the $14,000 to $20,000 annual salary that may turn out to be. When talking about corporate IT (Information Technologies) staff salaries available in Atlanta, Tampa or Miami, even in Charlotte County, the eyes seemed to glaze ever so slightly.

Yet most of the students seemed to accept the current technologies as a basis for planning their futures. Those technologies will evolve drastically in the four or five years it now takes to get a bachelor's degree. Dial-up access to the Internet through Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will decrease as access through live “constantly on” broadband or Digital Link Subscriber (DSL) will become the defacto method of connecting to the Internet. Perhaps even wireless methods will dominate. Whatever it is, it won't he what we use today.

The current dip in Palm and other Personal Digital Assistants has the wireless people scurrying to recapture market momentum from last year. The one thing that is certain is change. Planning for the future must be based on goals, not today's hardware or programming.

If attaining those goals requires learning today's hardware and programming languages, those languages must be considered a building block to future skill sets, not the end of the educational stream. Future programming in the consumer, perhaps even the corporate arena, will be probably done "robot" software that simply writes the code you specify. Who writes the "robot" software? Somewhere there will be well-trained people who will make it all happen. They will make more than $10 an hour. Some of them just may come from Karen Smith's Web design class.

Those students bound for college already know their education is the key to their future earning power.  A few of the students seemed to expect money to fall out of the trees.

Maybe they don't teach keypunches anymore, but some things just don't change.

George Mindling © 2001

George Mindling Column 5-18-2001 - The True Price of Mulch

The True Price of Mulch

As Charlotte County's economy slowly but steadily grows to match. its surrounding neighbors, the old shops and stores slowly fall by the wayside. The new large superstores, from grocery markets to electronics and television retailers to drugstores and pharmacies, offer prices and savings most consumers cannot afford to ignore.

The exchange, unfortunately, is in service. Practically every business is affected by the large superstores, even our old favorites. Two of the landmark nurseries have closed in Charlotte County in .the last month or so. They aren't alone in the business community, but how the existing nurseries will survive will be an example of small business ingenuity.

Service is the key, of course. If you can't get what you need at a superstore, then it's back to the neighborhood store for the personal attention and knowledge you won't find at a store that pays its under-trained, and often rotated, employees only $6 an hour.

A recent trip to one of the local superstore garden centers in Venice found most of the plants wilted from lack of water. Not just a few, but all the plants in the entire center, There was one young man, working alone, obviously without enthusiasm or concern for any of the customers.

When asked about the poor conditions of the plants, he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't normally work in this department. The regular person hadn't come in that day. Usually, the plants are in better condition, but it was obvious that one person hadn't done that much damage to the inventory in only one day of neglect. The price of mulch at this center, however, was almost $1 a bag cheaper than at my local I nursery.

This is a consumer's quandary: It doesn't take someone who loves plants to sell mulch, but personal service and knowledge about plants is often only available at the local nurseries. The retail portion of most local nurseries is running absolutely lean, or even at a loss. By offering planning and landscape services, in-depth knowledge of the plants and trees, and bulk materials, several of the nurseries arc skirting the impact of the superstores.

Knowing exactly which insecticide can or cannot be used on which plant, how much water and what kind of fertilizer is required for a plant keeps customers coming back. Contracting out as landscapers, or as suppliers to commercial landscapers, has also softened the impact of a market that is changing as new superstores open to pull away the shopper looking for $10 worth of plants.

By doing everything from ponds and waterfalls. to planting large trees, the nurseries fight the battle that every mom-and-pop shop fights when faced by the competition of unmatchable pricing. The small shops simply can't buy their inventories in the volumes to compete with the big stores, so they must compete on quality instead. The consumer must know the value of the local shops for them to succeed. It has to be worth more than a-dollar-a-bag savings for mulch .

George Mindling © 2001

George Mindling Column 4-20-2001 - Caveat Emptor

Caveat Emptor

While waiting for my car to be brought around to the customer pick-up area not too long ago, I couldn't help hut hear an angry young customer venting her rage on the auto dealer service manager.

"You told me yesterday that my car would be ready!" she screamed. “There it sits, and I can't have it? I wish you would tell why! I'm late for work," she wailed.

The service manager tried to explain to her that for some reason, the company she had purchased her extended warranty from had not sent the payment, even though the previous evening they had approved the work by fax. The dealers hands were tied. They could not release the car without the promised payment.

Apparently, this particular extended warranty company was notorious for not paying the dealer for work accomplished. regardless of what the policy owner thought. The young woman was livid, and soon her mother arrived to pay the bill with her charge card. The mother was not happy either, and did her best to make life miserable for the people at the dealership. The manager told her she would be reimbursed as soon as the warranty company paid for the extended warranty work.

The young woman picked up her car and left in a huff. I went over to the service manager to find out what happened, as customer service is always a sore point with me.

"We offered her a car to use while we waited on the warranty company to pay, but that wasn't what she wanted," explained the manager. I asked why the insurance company hadn't paid.

“Don't use the word 'insurance' company," said the manager. The companies that sell after market extended warranties most certainly want to avoid being called insurance companies! If they were insurance companies, they would have to operate under the state laws governing insurance."

That in itself was an eye opener. I asked, "Why doesn't the company pay for the work? Wasn't it covered by the extended warranty?"

"Oh, yes! The extended warranty supposedly covered the work, they just don't like to pay!" was the answer. Apparently, there are several extended auto warranty firms with bad names and reputations as far as responsive payment for repairing or replacing parts that fail while under the extended warranty.

The consumer pays extra for these extended warranties, and only a few are offered by the automobile manufacturers themselves. If the warranty company doesn't pay the bill. the car owner is stuck paying out of his or her own pocket. I asked the service manager if the extended warranty that refused to pay was offered by that dealership.

"No, we offer a program, but it is a company extended warranty. The one the young lady had is one she bought after she bought the car," answered the manager. "We get these all the time and we explain to the customer about how the payment for service works."

Check with you dealership before buying an extended warranty that isn't from the dealer. You may be saving yourself grief later. Like when you're late for work.

George Mindling © 2001

George Mindling Column 3-16-2001 - the Scary Part

Now the Scary Part

Perhaps the most famous legend in IBM was about a programmer at the White Plains headquarters who supposedly included a subroutine in the master payroll program that searched for his employee number.  If the subroutine found his ID number active, everything proceeded normally. If, because of termination or layoff, his employee number failed to appear, the main program was then instructed to erase all payroll files, including all back-ups!

While that may have been one of the great corporate legends, we are now at that level with your PC! Welcome to the world of spyware!

No, a spyware program isn't going to erase your paycheck, but it will check to see if you try to remove the spyware program from your computer. If you remove the spy ware, It may shut down the real program it came with. Even worse, it may shut down your Windows operating system altogether.

Steve Gibson, of Gibson Research, first defined the term "spyware" last year in an article that declared war on the unwanted programs. According to Gibson, "Spy ware is any software which employs a user's Internet connection in the background (the so-called 'back channel') without their knowledge or explicit permission,"

Some of the spyware programs are based on advertising systems, such as GoZilla, which will not run without the advertising system installed. According to Lavasoft, specialists at removing spyware (http://www.lavasoft.de), some Web3000 installations actually replace the Wsock32.dll without the user's permission. If you “kill” the spyware, your system will not function properly because the corrupted dll (dynamic link library) file is also removed. Most of these programs can be removed safely, but not all.

In my case, I had to do a full re-install of Windows 98. The software company that included the data collection program on my PC has declared it IS not "spyware,” as I agreed to its conditions in the End User License Agreement I accepted when I installed the base program. I can not use its name in connection with the term "spyware" as it claims I had full knowledge of the data collection program.

Just read your EULAs carefully! Check the Web site at Lavasoft for spyware removal details, and the free program, Ad-Aware, to detect the spyware in the first place. Also check out TechSanity at www.techsanityiz.com for an in-depth look at spyware detection and elimination programs.

Gibson also has a "leak test" at his site at: http://www.grc.com. According to Richard Schneider, a reader who was familiar with Gibson's work, Gibson is in the process of rewriting his "opt-out" spyware detection program, and currently recommends using Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. Several peripheral suppliers have been caught adding spyware to their support programs. Check carefully when installing that new CD burner or that new hard drive. The information they send to the Internet when you log on may be more than you care to share. What information is collected and sent depends on the program, but you can be sure if they wanted you to know, they'd tell you .

George Mindling © 2001

George Mindling Column 1-19-2001 - Bullet Proof

Bullet Proof

The beginning of the Christmas season used to mark the end of the hurricane season, but no more! This past Christmas season actually started in late August when some stores started taking out their garden departments to put in the seasonal stands and displays. Christmas decorations were being put up in some stores while everyone still had the Weather Channel number memorized.

No matter though, the hurricane season is finally over to the relief of a few, but probably unnoticed by most. Again, we sidestepped any hurricanes or major tropical storms. That could be a problem in itself. No one cares much about the next hurricane season. After all, nothing happened this year! We must be bulletproof. The county and state disaster and emergency agencies will again restock their supplies and train new people before the beginning of next year's hurricane season. Practice sessions will again sharpen the skills of the veterans to prepare for the worst. Getting the word out to the public becomes another matter,

Next year they will have a harder time preparing the community for the arrival of a major storm, just because we again didn't live up to the worst case scenario this year. The television stations and the newspapers will again do their best to present the available hurricane preparations and planning seminars everyone should attend.

It will be difficult to convince those who have never have never been hit by a devastating storm, especially those who have lived here long enough to be considered "Floridians," that this is serious business. The newcomers to Florida will attend the preparation seminars, but if we again are blessed with another peaceful season, they probably won't prepare as completely the next year after as they will the first year. They too, will then be considered "veterans," and will be able to proudly proclaim "the bark is worse than the bite."

The biggest disbelievers are the ones who have been here a long time without suffering a serious storm. That just makes it harder to I suffer when it does strike. The residents of Dade County thought, "No big deal," when Andrew barreled in.

I grew up in Miami; we had a scuffle with Donna in 1960 and Beth in 1965, and if those were hurricanes. then most everyone thought Andrew would be a piece of cake. Of course, the west coast of Florida saw a different storm in Donna than we did. but even here, those memories have long since faded away. Even now, Andrew is fast becoming a memory that doesn't seem real to those who lost everything. Now is the time to have hurricane shutters and hurricane bracing done to your home and business.

Many area companies are discounting prices in the off season. Check with the Chamber of Commerce at 639-2222 for reputable companies and organizations. The pricing is great and the availability of products is there. Don't wait until the next hurricane season. Dade County went 27 years without a major storm of any kind, from 1965 to 1992. We too, were bulletproof.

George Mindling © 2001

George Mindling Column 12-15-2000 - They always stand in the shade.

A Different Area

They always stand in the shade. I met my first one by almost riding my bicycle over him. He stood and walked slowly across the freshly mowed swale as if he were agitated that I had made him move! It didn't take me long to realize that the bobcats here aren't the only thing different about Port Charlotte. There are several families of bobcats that live within several miles of Ranger Stadium.

Most of our local residents not only accept them, they have come to protect them as part of our neighborhood. People take photos of the offspring cubs from their cars the way they take photos of their own pets. Well. maybe not that close, but the thought of trapping or shooting the bobcats is out of the question. Will they be here in the next several years?

Port Charlotte is in transition. More so than the areas north of us in Sarasota and Venice, or to our south, in Cape Coral and Fort Myers. Bobcats have already lost their battle to save their environmental identity. giving way to uncontrolled commercial buildings and unparalleled residential growth.

As Port Charlotte changes from an unincorporated retirement community to a desirable location for prime earning years breadwinners. as a bedroom community for both Sarasota and Fort Myers, local service and retail support base will transform from Mom-and-Pop shops and locally owned service companies along U.S. 41. to the malls and mega-centers that dominate every high-growth residential area in the country.

Even the hospitals will eventually see a change in the more common illnesses and accidents as the population of our community gradually becomes younger.

The growth pattern would suggest a single community, stretching from Marco Island to Bradenton. It will he just like the Florida City-to-Jupiter stretch on the east coast that has no woodlands except what little was saved for parks.

Just like St. Petersburg to Spring Hill north of Tampa. You can't tell U.S. I in Homestead from U.S. 19 in New Port Richie! No doubt we will also spread west, as Englewood expands easterly toward U.S. 41. Space along State Road 776 will become as desirable as U.S. 41 as the widening is finished along with the new Myakka River Bridge.

Port Charlotte is extremely unique. We have our natural beauty, coupled with people who care about the environment and the atmosphere they live in. Our area has changed subtly in the last several years, and will continue to do so. The architecture and concern for the blending of environment with what we build is evident in the majority of building that has transpired in the last 10 years or so. But that can slip away quickly, just look at the intersection of U.S. 41 and S.R. 776.

The new complex in the north east corner of the intersection borders on barren, if not just downright ugly. Once the beautiful old oaks and wax myrtles have been bulldozed away, they will never come back. And neither will the bobcats .

George Mindling © 2000

George Mindling Column 11-17-2000 - The Internet and Con Artist

The Internet and Con Artist

Any technology that serves the "public good" can be perverted to serve an unscrupulous few. The new cyber-crooks aren't dumb. They see the uses of new technology in a different light than honest people. Apparently, some people feel if there isn't a specific law against what is being done, no matter how vile, it isn't illegal!

Laws against fraud and extortion are on the hooks, regardless of the means to perpetrate them. But what about the crimes that haven't been categorized? In Tom Standage's book, The Victorian Internet." Standage parallels some of the problems faced by today's Internet use with early problems introduced by the invention of the telegraph!

According to Standage, one woman went into a telegraph office in 1878 to wire someone $11.76. She changed the amount to $12 because she said she was afraid that the loose change might get lost traveling over the wire. The misunderstanding of technology continues today.

One of the earliest documented demonstrations of the law not covering the technology happened in 1886. It seems an Englishman named Myers attempted to bribe an operator at the Exchange Telegraph Company to delay the transmission of racing results so he could place bets on the winners. He was arrested. but it was found he could not be charged with damage, nor with delaying the mail, as telegraph was not considered mail. Myers died before it was decided what crime he had committed.  There was no law against his attempted misuse of technology. The other side of the coin is the question "Are all laws the same to all people?”

One on-line auction site is in a French court because someone offered Nazi memorabilia for sale on their Web page in the United States. It is illegal to sell that junk in France. The company must now find a way to prevent breaking French law if it wants to continue doing business on an international scale.

The same question arises about pornography. What is and what isn't legal? Can we stop any other countries for making what we consider obscene available to the rest of the world? How about your E-mail? Is anyone, other than the intended recipient, allowed to read, resend, or print it without your permission? What about confidential information you unknowingly "share" because you "comply' with an Internet link? Pharmatrak, Inc. was recently sued for violating the newly enacted Electronic Communications Privacy Act. They were compiling data on a California man, via the innocuous "cookies" placed on his personal computer hard drive, to develop a profile for their pharmaceutical clients.

For a quick look at' the Federal Trade Commission's list of the lop 10 "Dot Cons," go to: http://www.ftc.govlbcp/conline/edca ms/dotcon/lndcx.html

The scams are out there, so be careful. We may end up with CyberPolice after all.

George Mindling © 2000