George Mindling Column 4-18-2003 - Stuck in the Middle

Stuck in the Middle

In a recent meeting with Bob Tunis, North Port's Director of Economic Development, a distinct difference of attitude became apparent between our neighbors to our immediate north and our Charlotte County community. While many factors must be considered. from impact fees and permitting, and even access to Interstate 75, one attitude is immediately and obviously different: North Port considers growth a good thing.

It's not that certain segments of Charlotte County don't want growth. We, unfortunately, have an excess of CAVE people who rail against any form of progress. In case you're new to our area, CAVE people are Citizens Against Virtually Everything! And there are still enough around to cause Charlotte County to lag behind the rest of the state in average salary and median income!

Perhaps North Port's lowering of the average age of its residents from the mid-60s only five short years ago, quite like Charlotte County, to an average age of mid-40s has something to do with the effort and attitudes in working to bring in clean, high-tech industries.  Charlotte County's median age, however, has increased slightly in those five years. It is still the oldest "average age" county in Florida.

To complicate matters, our economic development focus tends to emphasize an alignment with our neighbors some 30 miles to the south instead of the community a few miles to our north.

Charlotte County has elected to align with the Lee County Economic Development Council and not interact with North Port or Sarasota economic development groups.  Janet Watermeier, Lee County's outgoing economic development director, is well known and highly respected for the outstanding work she has done for Lee County and the Fort Myers area, and indeed the benefit of that alliance cannot be disputed. Why, however, must that alignment be mutually exclusive?

North Port is closer to the shopping and restaurants in Port Charlotte than to Venice. That is changing. As planning for hotels, civic centers, restaurants and shopping areas becomes actual construction, Port Charlotte will feel the drain of cash flow as traffic remains or even migrates to North Port. Major name retailers will soon find North Port. Only a 10 percent growth from its current traffic and residential numbers will validate a new expansion model that may well trigger another round of interest and development.

North Port will also benefit from the planned Murdock town center, which will be only several miles from there, It would be to Charlotte County's benefit to communicate and cooperate with not only the city of North Port, but Sarasota County as well.

North Port's overall demeanor. not just the economic development office. has a reputation for bending over backward s to welcome new businesses and residents to the city. We should look at North Port as an expansion partner, not as a competitor.

Even if we did get the new Bob Evans and Carrabas.

George Mindling © 2003

George Mindling Column 3-21-2003 - Hard to Focus

Hard to Focus Locally When the Action is Global

I have thrown away several attempts at today's column, being distracted by the ominous 8 pm passing of the Bush deadline for Saddam to get out of town. It is difficult to focus on our local economy when the events that will shape our destiny are unfolding on television right in front of us.

Our developing visions of a global economy may be about to come crashing down. The return of isolationism appears to be inevitable, with the ignorance and prejudice shown by vocal and often vicious attacks on foreign citizens and businesses.

I can't help but think back to when I saw my first "Ami go Home!" slogan painted on a bridge near Trier, Germany. We were the rich GIs then, when my $155 a month was significantly more than the average German wage earner brought home. We took it as jealousy, a typical attitude of the "ugly Americans." The Europeans, in general, did not support that feeling, however. I should know, I married a German girl and I lived there for more than five years. The few that wrote the slogans, however, got all the press.

That was the height of the DeGaulle power years, when the French were instructed to not speak English. Our honeymoon in France lasted only a day, as we abruptly changed plans and headed for Switzerland. A German and an American in France, the worst possible combination. Did that stop us from buying Michelin radial tires? No, they were the best tires available. American-made bias-ply tires were abominable, and today they are only found on museum pieces for authenticity.

I brought a VW 1500S notch-back sedan from Germany when I returned, shipping it myself from Antwerp. and picking it up at the old P&O docks in Miami. It had a set of the brand-new Dunlop CB57 "dog biscuit" radials that attracted attention until they finally wore out. I drove it off the dock with only a minimum of paperwork from the lone customs officer on duty.

Times change so drastically that America has just spent $50 million in the time it has taken me to write these few paragraphs. The first air strike against Iraq has taken place while I typed. We watch television and listen as networks and reporters beg for our attention. As unlikely as it seems, we watch live television broadcasts from the target city of our enemy!

We can only pray that sometime in the future, Iraqis and Americans will share the ideals and beliefs that the once deadly opponents of only a generation ago have realized bonds them more than separates them.  My daughter has photos of both her grandfathers in uniform, fighting in the same war.  One, in the U.S. 5th Army. 178th Field Artillery Battalion while in Sicily, the other sitting at his typewriter in his Wehrmacht uniform in Kiev, Russia.

Anyone who thinks peace and prosperity between former enemies is beyond the realm of possibility has not bothered to learn from history.  Hopefully, as Americans. we will again learn to trust and understand our neighbors. We cannot live here alone. The planet is just too small.

George Mindling © 2003

George Mindling Column 2-21-2003 - New Twist on an Old Scam

A Brand New Twist on an Old Scam

To direct dial an international telephone call to friends and family outside the United States. you usually dial 011 first to let the telephone system know you arc dialing an international call.

However, there are many area codes in foreign counties that can be called with just an area code, without first dialing 011. The AT&T telephone card response line even has an instruction. "to call within Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean, please dial a 1."

One area code in particular, 809, has caused grief to some unsuspecting callers - which some people assume is a toll-free line much like the 800 and 888 area codes. It is an international call and it isn't toll-free. There is an Internet scam update currently going around the Web warning of incredibly high telephone bills if they call the 809 area code. There is a real scam, but a little truth may help telephone users understand what to avoid and what is really going on.

The 809 area code is in the Dominican Republic. Obviously, if you need to call someone in the Dominican Republic, you must dial the 809 area code. Just dialing the area code does not generate the staggering telephone bill!

There are firms that use this area code to charge in-bound tolls, just like the notorious 900-numbers here in the states. However, it appears that in the Dominican Republic those numbers reside alongside the many legitimate telephone numbers in the 809 area code. The trick is to get you, the telephone customer, to call one of these toll numbers without your suspecting the call is more than just a long distance call .

Once you make that call, you are legitimately required to pay the bill. Remember, the bill is not from your long distance provider, but from the number you called. Your long distance provider submits the bill from the foreign number on your monthly bill. They are obligated to collect it by International telephone and commerce agreements. Disputing the bill can be a challenge, as the disagreement will be with a foreign telephone company, not a U.S. long-distance provider. The long-distance carrier may help, but don't bank on it.

The 809 area code was splintered in 1997 into several different codes, with the Dominican Republic maintaining the original 809 area code. The 473 area code is now Grenada, while 284 is the British Virgin Islands, and 868 is Trinidad and Tobago. All can be dialed without the international "011" code.

Go to http://thedirectory.org/pref/ for a complete list care area codes. There are other sites to check for help, including the AT&: T fraud site at http://www.att.com.fraud/home.html.

An "urgent message" on your answering machine is but one of the myriad variations to get you to call for more information. If the number is one of the toll numbers, you are not the one who is going to get rich.

George Mindling © 2003

George Mindling Column 1-17-2003 - Back It Up

Remember, It's Important to Back It Up

Nothing is more devastating at tax time than to lose your records. Losing all of your business or personal data is one the worst things that can happen when you need the information for tax reporting.  It happens daily and not just to the other guy. Personal computer hard drives fail. It is not a matter of "if," it is a matter of "when." Component manufacturers use a term called "MTBF," Mean Time Between Failures, as a yardstick of reliability, usually measured in hours of usage. Those numbers have climbed in recent years to the multi-thousands as the overall maturity of products has led to higher reliability. Just don't tell that to two recent victims of hard drive failure in my neighborhood.

Hardest hit was a laptop user who works from home. The data lost was not replaceable; it had to be recovered. The hard drive suffered a catastrophic failure and could no longer be found by the laptop PC. The only recourse was to send the hard drive out to an Orlando company that specializes in hard drive recovery. Depending on the damage to the drive, it may not be able to do the work there. The company's "clean room" laboratory in Nevada is used when the platter must be pulled from the unit.

It isn't a cheap service. The company charges $695 for the first gigabyte of data, and $145 a gigabyte thereafter, if it can be recovered at all. The company also charges a nonrefundable $150 assessment fee, even if the data can't be saved. These fees are on the low side, compared to some of the services available. The fees for recovery of a PC hard drive can go as high as many thousands of dollars.

The other drive failure, while just as complete, had been backed up on CDs using a software back-up program that allows using the CD-RW, or CD burner, instead of the slow, time consuming tapes. The restoration process is not as quick or painless as it should be, but the data has been restored and, with only a few glitches, is again in use.

Most operating systems have backup programs, but typically, they are slow and limited as to what you can use as a medium. There are many ways to back up your data and programs. One of the most popular is the Zip drive. and recently, the rewritable CD has gained a strong following. The old 3.5-inch floppy disks and tapes have all but fallen by the wayside as too small or too slow.

Future programs will allow use of DVD writers as a backup medium. There are several versions of the DVD format and they may not be compatible, so DVDs should only be used to back up the unit they were created on. The advantage is the huge amounts of data that can be stored on a DVD. There are optical drives that can also be used.

Having your data backed up is a smart move.

George Mindling © 2003

George Mindling Column 11-15-2002 - Computer Potato

I'm Rapidly Turning into a Computer Potato

Yes, I'm addicted to the PC! So are a lot of other people who have found a way to express themselves or indulge themselves as never before.

I amaze myself with astonishing graphics that were impossible to predict back when I was in the U.S. Air Force and-could only afford black-and-white film for my first 35mm camera. I now write and submit articles and photographs without talking to or seeing anyone. I sit, and with a few strokes of my keyboard, upload photos and new pages to my Web site where anyone in the world can stop and take a look.

I send files to my relatives by uploading graphics files that now take the place of paper photos. I haven't had a roll of film developed for more than a year. That reminds me, I have to finish off that last roll of film before Christmas.

I do marvelous things with the PC that perhaps pleases only me; but that's OK, I didn't know I enjoyed my own talents. If I want to share my electronic compositions, it only takes a few keystrokes or a mouse click or two. I can chat with people in Germany, England, as well as a few GIs who used to be stationed there all at the same time. Do I watch television? Only a few sporting and news events, and once in a while a Star Trek rerun.

Listening to the arguing, screaming and gunshots of today's programming is hazardous to my health. TV doesn't pay me to be stressed like a piano wire, so I'll just tootle over to the PC and see what's going on. Maybe I can download the biking video my daughter put together up in Athens, Ga. The quality of the video and audio is just astounding. That is the best sounding bad music I have ever heard.

It doesn't take my daughter long to adapt to the new technology. She has already seriously begun looking at converting her old VHS tapes to DVD. Sounds, just like me about 15 years ago when I was trying to save all the family Super 8mm films by transferring them to VHS tape! I saw so many shots of birds and flowers while doing the transfer that I wondered if I had any relatives at all.

Even without any sound, except the clackety whirr of the old Bell & Howell, the old films did manage to preserve several fond family moments. Many of them took place off-camera, however. When the camera batteries died, for example. We had used up the batteries and the film shooting the birds and flowers we were so thrilled to capture on film.

I watch my daughter shoot digital photographs and videos with ease. I know that she will watch the DVDs get transferred to something else. some other new technology that saves time, weight and space, in not-too- many years. .

Only then will she know if she took too many photos of flowers.

George Mindling © 2002

George Mindling Column 10-18-2002 - Too Young to Live in Port Charlotte

Too Young to Live in Port Charlotte

One of our new neighbors has been melancholy, almost morose, ever since moving to Port Charlotte from up north. Recently retired, she and her husband eagerly moved to the land of fun and sun, hoping to lead a new, energetic life. However, she has the blues.

"We're too young to live here," she confided in us. "We had no idea everything here was so old-fashioned and so backwards. Local politics is a typical small town farce, a lot of the local population lives just above the poverty level... and everyone wants to live here for free!"

We tried to console her, telling her getting through the first year is the hard part. Then it becomes hard to leave our odd little version of paradise.

“Competing with retirees who work for free is out of the question, I'm and not driving 75 miles round trip to Fort Myers to work 35 hours a week at $9 an hour!" she continued. “They keep it under 40 hours so they don't have to pay benefits!"  When I asked why she wanted to go back to work, she simply stared and said, "Obviously, your, 401 (k) is not funded by the stock market!"

The economic development of Charlotte County is the key to our future. We need to plan now for the water and sewer, roads and traffic control to support urban growth. We already know that newcomers want to build away from the old, established areas that reflect the older-style homes and retirement area atmosphere, regardless of financial consequences dictated by the county.

It appears fewer of the homes are being built by retirees and more by younger child raising families. The retirees coming into our area now are as different from the retirees who first moved here as they are from their parents.

Some of the revenue for seeding the economic development is in jeopardy. Ten percent of the state sales tax surcharge, locally called the "extension," is devoted to economic development. It is a ballot item for Nov. 5. Charlotte County has a new look this election. Economic growth is no longer the taboo subject it was only four years ago. The 1-percent sales tax extension is up for renewal.

Some opponents want to scare every voter into thinking this is a new tax. It isn't. We already pay it. So do 51 of the other 67 counties in Florida. There are several large counties that don't collect the surcharge, such as Brevard, Broward and Orange counties. They use the huge amounts collected by their respective bed taxes to collect non-advalorem revenues.

There are those who want to forgo all responsibilities of citizenship once they move to our area. No more taxes, no more new streets or schools, no more police or firefighters or stations. No more anything.

My neighbor is right, these people want to live here for free. If the opponents kill the sales tax extension, then my neighbor is right again: We are too young to live here.

George Mindling © 2002

George Mindling Column 9-20-2002 - Pop-Up Ads

Pop-Up Ads on the Net are Moving Targets

Many of today's Internet users are distressed over a new form of Internet advertising that is becoming increasingly thrown at them. The newest type of Internet advertising is called "Interactive advertising." You certainly don't request it, and it is sometimes hard to remove or close when you try to move to another page. The most prominent of the current pop-up ads, although recently toned down, is the overpowering ad for the wireless X-10 video camera. At least now you can shut down the Window it opens in. Prior versions simply popped up on your screen and you had to close the window or the URL you were working in.

Now, the next generation Internet ad is popping up. the animated ad. This was really unique in the film "Moulin Rouge." A worker appeared on your screen, and posted a flyer for the movie. No matter where you scrolled, the ad stayed on your screen. It dissolved after several aggravating minutes, but no action prior to that would remove the ad. You could not see what was on your screen behind the ad unless you scrolled to a screen position the ad didn't cover!

Where is the Internet going in its increasingly difficult advertising market? The banner ads that adorn most sites simply are not pulling the "click-throughs" to increase Web traffic the way Web advertisers claimed, so the forced ads seem to be the answer. Their usefulness has yet to he determined, yet just about everyone on the Internet knows what the X-10 is.

The problem is most Web users see the Internet as a free resource. They paid for their PCs, telephone or cable lines and modems, the software, and learned how to negotiate the Web without your help, thank you! Putting up advertising to view during the trip along the Internet was at first actually enjoyable, but now it looks like Interstate 75 in Georgia. Nobody pays any attention. The banner ads and splash boxes visually overpower many sites. Some sites have become so cluttered with visual garbage that it is difficult to tell the function or even the purpose of the page!

Some of the new Web pages assume that all users have 19-inch monitors with a minimum screen size set at 1280 x 1024 pixels, Unfortunately. those very large monitors are most often found in corporate America, where someone else foots the bill. Most home users arc still set at 640 x 480. or 800 x 600 screen size to fit their 15· or 17 -inch monitors. The result is many of the new pages look terrible to the average surfer, The overcrowding becomes overpowering. and the site is ultimately removed from users "bookmarks" or "favorites" files.

Perhaps the advertisers think if you can't read the Web page, you would like to watch an animation video of a car manufacturer's latest SUV roll across your computer monitor, At least you can see it without a magnifying glass.

George Mindling © 2002