POLLSTERS, SHAPEUP!

Almost all pollsters, from the left or right, are mistaken in their sampling of the population. Hey guys, we are in America and we do not base the election on popular votes.

Why not poll on a State by State basis?

DO WE NEED RULES IN A BIBLE STUDY GROUP?

Well,  I think so. When I was a director of research at a certain chemical company we made sure that our meetings are productive and straightforward. No digressing beyond the subject at hand. Those who wanted to be heard are given the time, without interruption, to express his or her opinion. The Bible group I belong to can at times get out of hand and can sometimes become offensive, not respecting others that need to be heard also. So here is a proposal on the  rule that the group must adhere to at all times:

The Eleven Commandments of “ Bible Study”

1). Remember, this is a time of prayer!
2). Be Respectful!
3). Limit your speaking time!
4). Stay focused on the Scriptures!
5). Avoid social applications and unrelated stories!
6). What are the Traditions of the Church and how do they apply!
7). Avoid going “ off subject”!
8). Remember we are asking, “ what is the Lord telling us”!
9). Remember, Scripture is one of the Oral Traditions of the Church!
10). If you are not sure, Ask. The Church is the keeper of the Keys! 
11). Remember, this is a time of prayer!

So there enjoy your Bible Study!

GUANGMING SOFTWARE (GUANGMINGSOFT.NET) A SCAM?

I am a software developer, rather than reinventing the wheel, invest on components developed by other developers.
On September 10, 2017 I ordered a component from Guangmingsoft.net. They claim to have an excellent support but that did not fan out to be true. All I needed was a registration code to prevent the component from popping up the registration requirement. After over a week of waiting, I did not receive any kind of response. I made repeated requests but did not get any response.at all. I am hoping to hear from this outfit but until then I would advise all prospective buyers to be beware of this outfit. BUYER BEWARE!!

UPDATE: The owner finally responded. His agent does have a problem communicating with him. Anyway, I got the code and everything is fine now.

AT&T CALL AND WEB SUPPORT SUCKS!

There are times when we fail to call forward the office number to our home phone number. As our home is far from the office I always attempt to call forward by way of managing the call forwarding through AT&T's web site. However, the feature always return an error! I attempted numerous times but unsuccessful. I tried calling tech support but the other end of the line is an automated voice recognition. I requested for a live person but to no avail. The automated responder always hang-up on me.
This kind of service by AT&T really is a turn off. I do not see any advantage using their services. I have 5 wireless phones, 3 landlines on my business. I am seriously considering canceling their services.

Installing a device in Windows 8.1

Recently I had to transition from an old Windows XP work station to the latest Windows 8.1 system. The problem is one of the printers does not have any driver available on the manufacturers web site. The printer is an Epson LQ 590. This impact printer is not cheap and still in very good condition. I scoured the internet for a driver but it is nowhere to be found. I went ahead made the move to Win8.1, changed the parallel cable of the LQ590 to a USB and to my surprise Win8.1 supplied the driver! I tested the printer and everything worked perfectly. The next printer that needed installed is the Laserjet P2015d. I installed the win8.1 driver (supplied by HP), the printer printed but there was a problem. I get the message "Unable to communicate with the printer", and the printer is not rendering the designed forms properly. Again I scoured the internet for a solution and found none except an unanswered advise from a forum user which is to remove the printer and the installed driver, restart the system then plug in the printer.  This did not work either. I guess I have to live with the message every time I print. My next project is to disable that message.

DJI Phantom Quadcopter Review

I finally got the DJI Phantom for my grandson's birthday. I also bought 2 extra batteries for an added flying time. With anything rotating at high speed I decided to buy him a pair of safety glasses. Before I gift-wrapped the box, I read the charging instruction and followed it to the letter. However, I did not get the correct LED indications that was supposed to be. I continued the charging for 2 hours each battery.
My grandson arrived and was very happy to open his gift. Despite the cold weather he wanted to play with the Phantom. So we did what the instructions said. The set up was easy. GPS setup was uneventful. No fussing. Of course, grandpa had to do the maiden flight. The copter was easy to control and seems to be stable in the air. After five minutes the battery was beginning to wane and not enough power to make the copter fly. Having the extra battery, we replaced the spent battery. The replacement took only 5 minutes. Same thing happened to the 3rd battery. So we went back into the house and attempted to charge the batteries. The indicators led me to conclude that it is defective. This is one of the frustrations that I get when you receive a defective item. Particularly it is worse when you ordered the items from the internet. I wrote the manufacturer regarding the item (charger) and all they did was emailed me the charge instructions. I already told them that I followed the instructions to the letter. In my disappointment, I went to my local hobby store and got an ASCEND balance charger. All I did was swapped the connectors, configured it and charged the batteries. No problem! OK, this is a message to DJI - Before shipping any item you must be sure that it passes quality control testing.

To be fair to DJI, I can say that the Phantom is well made and easy to fly. The charger is a junk!

See the the project here: "Arrowhead Court"

Evaluating Mini-SBC (Single Board Computers)

There are times when I run into an idea that requires use of inexpensive computer system. I used to go with Viatech nanosystems but they are expensive, i.e. in relation to the project budget. After some time I came across various systems like the parallax basic stamp, arduino, Raspberry Pi and Waspmote. I am currently using Arduino on a project (I will divulge this when it is done). My project with Raspberry Pi is in the back burner after I brick the unit (ouch!) when I used it to control an optorelay matrix system. The Waspmote project was a more serious project which will be pursued sometime next month. My current preference for small project is the Arduino due to the vast references available in the web. The language used is C++ which is my second programming language. Using the Raspberry Pi is for the more high-end project. Thanks for Raspbian(linux variant), I am able to utilize my expertise in Pascal, my choice for application programming. The Waspmote is similar to Arduino but a little more sophisticated in terms of wireless and sensor control. It uses C++ as development language.
Overall, my SBC preference is interchangeable and project dependent.