As an undergraduate college student I can only recall one conversation with a professor that discussed the duality of computer science as art and science. The dialogue during college is so skewed toward the science that the design and art of it aren’t adequately conveyed to students.  No one during my entire college experience asked the question: What is beautiful software?  Surely, the goal is to achieve balance with art and science. However, doing this is not an easy task.  Gardening takes a green thumb.  People have an eye for fashion.  Does anyone in software have an equivalent sense of what works?

The September Issue does an admirable job showing the army of creative and talented professionals that make Vogue possible.  It’s mostly their doing but Vogue’s editor, Anna Wintour, who projects an aristocratic aura of superiority, has directed this effort to Vogue’s advantage.  Her image as fashion soothsayer has crystallized in America and Europe.  Is the fashion she promotes the best or ultimate aspiration of all clothing consumers?  No.  She has an eye for fashion and, like it or not, indirectly controls the clothing that will appear in department store clothing racks.  Vogue sells an image and if enough people integrate that image into their lifestyle, fashion designers adapt. This brings me to Steve Jobs and Apple.

Vogue’s main product is an image.  It holds a lens to fashion, focuses it, and projects it onto the pages of a magazine.  Steve Jobs’s team at Apple has managed to do the same for smart phones and MP3 players. My pre-September Issue idea of fashion was that designers and magazine editors would manipulate hapless followers to buy the newest, or coolest, or most cutting edge in order to look good.  That’s until I realized almost every software company has relied upon the same strategy.

When technology becomes an accessory, it becomes less a tool of productivity, and more an expression of vanity.  Fashion knows this.  Look no further than blue jeans: what was practical clothing for a yeoman is now more about style and less about how well the rivets hold together.  When Vogue presents body covering on sexy models in an exotic location, clothing becomes fashion and life becomes art.  A good designer keeps this transition in mind.

I’ve discussed software and technology in very broad terms but the object which makes these concepts real is the Apple iPhone.  No other recent innovation in consumer technology has influenced so many people to drop $70+ per month to maintain an image of newness.  Phones are now an expression of vanity.  Yes, they offer many practical uses but there’s a broad array of phones.  Feature-wise they are converging.  However, the image is what persists. Apple, as a company, projects an image like Vogue.  They are purveyors of product as art. It’s a phone, yet people feel empowered.  It’s clothing, yet people feel trendy.

When I started to write about this comparison of industry figureheads I was reminded of the book by Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t.  The refined points of the book drill down to what makes a company go from mediocre to outstanding.  A common attribute of these outstanding companies is their ability to lead with steady management – no rock stars or egocentrics.  The egocentric leader who builds an empire will not see in others what he sees in himself, therefore, success of the company is usually limited to his tenure.  Although Wintour and Jobs each have an eye for what works, has either searched for this ability among colleagues?  Who’s the next generation leader that will drive consumption?  From the shareholder’s point of view, loyalty is about profit.

Consumption externally and efficiency internally is what makes a company profitable.  The more stuff sold, the better for revenue, and hopefully profit. This seems to fly in the face of my own motivation, which is to make something that lasts.  I want my software to hold value, not diminish quickly into obsolescence.  I’m frequently reminded of my dad’s 40 year old Rockwell jigsaw. It’s a metallic beast that still works as good or better than new saws. The electrical cord hasn’t disintegrated and it shows no signs of slowing down.  Durability is always in style as it concerns tools vis-à-vis the entire flimflam industry of scratch guards, do-dad protectors, and other junk accessories that aim to protect your haute couture phone.

The fashion and modern PC/tech industries have not survived on notions of adequacy and complacence. They thrive on obsolescence. Advertising is supposed to make you feel inadequate. The competition will leave you behind if you don’t upgrade from software revision 2.0 to 3.0.  That scarf you’re wearing? That’s last year’s trend and no one’s going to wear it.  If you don’t upgrade, or dump the scarf, you’ll be isolated and left behind.  These industries prey on our innate desire to achieve a higher status in society.

Accordingly to Wintour, “Fashion isn’t about looking back. It’s always about looking forward.” That’s probably how most software firms operate.  There’s an eye to the past, but the movement is most assuredly forward.  That’s the direction we’re taught is best.  Improve, innovate, advance the state of the art.  I couldn’t agree more.  Then the little voice inside my head that tells me that making a durable, robust product can bring the owner years of satisfaction.  Perhaps that’s the balance.  Clothing designer Yves Saint Laurent may have said the notion best: “Fashions fade, style is eternal.”  I’ll keep that in mind when I get ready in the morning.

The second iteration would have commenting, promotion coupons, and cleaner integration with the Zazzle store.  It would also run on its own domain, rockyrocksdesigns.com. Kristien provided me with the graphics but I had to integrate them with CSS and HTML. The Wordpress template was designed and customized so that Rocky’s dialogue bubble would always have something context-sensitive to say.

At every step of the way the customer and co-worker, my wife, was sitting next to me and providing feedback.  If an image wasn’t right, she fixed it. If the CSS/formatting wasn’t right, I fixed it. The result is something that’s altogether mine, hers, and ours.  The site went live on March 18, 2010.

The Notice

When a rezoning is proposed, only homes within a few hundred feet are informed.  My community, Wildewood, was very fortunate that one of those homes was occupied by the homeowner association’s Secretary/Treasurer.  This notice was delivered during the busiest time of year: December.  People are on vacation, on holiday, etc., yet the County’s land use committee was scheduled to meet the first half of January.  Admittedly, I didn’t make it to that meeting and I was a bit distant from the whole debate.  Wildewood was again very fortunate because the meeting was rescheduled to the middle of February.  Great, I thought, that’s extra time to organize and inform residents about the issue.

Background

It’s always nice to know what you don’t know: known unknowns, if you will.  It’s the unknown unknowns that get you.  What I didn’t realize (and didn’t know) about this issue is the scope of its reach.  Digging on the web brought me to a few interesting articles.  The bottom line is that a company called Collier Enterprises II entered an agreement with Hillsborough County to build towers on school properties.  In exchange, Hillsborough County receives rent generated by the towers.  How much they receive isn’t clear.  This is similar to Coca-Cola sharing revenue with schools, provided the company gets exclusive rights to sell drinks to students.

The Collier Enterprises II website was taken down, which is suspicious, but Google still has the pages cached.  The Daily Loaf did a fine job of documenting this ongoing battle.  What wasn’t immediately clear to me is why the opposition to technology gained so much traction.  Property values?  Ugly towers?  I would find out more very shortly.

The Interloper

Persistent opposition to the tower seemed coordinated.  On one Saturday afternoon a flyer was circulated to the neighborhood.  It wasn’t the official newsletter of the community; I know because I write it.  I read the headline and felt compelled to act – not over tower concerns but because this flyer, which flaunted the words cancer and leukemia, was blatant scaremongering.  You can view the flyer for yourself.  It’s the text equivalent of screaming “fire” in a crowded room just to get attention.  I was not amused.

Facts, Not Fear

You can’t expect every Joe Sixpack to stay up with the local news, work one or more full time jobs, and be informed enough to do a cost-benefit analysis of a cell tower.  It was my hope that a well written, balanced newsletter would ease the tension a bit.  You can read the official Wildewood newsletter but I’ve highlighted the main points below:

Arguments with no contradictory evidence

• Cellular coverage is already adequate. Building yet another tower can only mean the cellular companies want more capacity.  More cellular users mean each tower must carry a greater load.  Thus, more towers can ease the strain of growth. This would seem to support the rezoning, but it’s just a setup for the next argument.
  • Can the argument be contradicted?  No.  This is a fact made clear by visiting the website of any major wireless provider.  Coverage maps show our area is blanketed with wireless signals from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
• School coverage is adequate but it has unique issues with capacity. As Tampa becomes more populous the need for school capacity will increase.  This argument places the needs of children over that of wireless usage.  Cannella recently underwent an expansion.  Why?  Additional capacity was needed so kids can learn in a bricks-and-mortar classroom.  I never liked to learn in portable double-wide trailers.  Future school children won’t either.  Let’s give the kids room to expand first.
  • Can the argument be contradicted?  No.  All indications show that Tampa will continue to grow, which means more children, more teachers, more parking, and the need for more classrooms.

Matters of opinion

• Property values will decrease. Residents on the adjacent property to Cannella on Cedar Dune have a valid concern.  People might find the tower to be an eyesore and some might not. This is a matter of opinion because not all buyers make decisions based on the same reasoning.  The same concern could be voiced about the planes flying overhead to and from Tampa International Airport, or road noise from Linebaugh Avenue.
• Cell phone towers are ugly. While this can be true in general, newer towers can be disguised.  Some towers use a flagpole design; the tower on Gunn Highway between Nixon and Anderson is one example.  The only imposing factor is its height and possibly the ground structures. One’s opinion is also influenced by the tower’s location. Maybe the same tower design in one location is appealing but simply placing it closer to your home is enough to consider it unattractive.

Arguments with contradictory evidence

• Radio frequency (RF) creates health risks. This argument is simply thrown out by the committee because the studies are contradictory.  One study will say limited exposure is fine, one will say there have been no conclusive long term effects, and another will say…whatever the funding for that research wanted to indicate.  Flyers distributed in Wildewood played on emotions of this argument and even called out the ominous threat of cancer.
• People who use cell phones. This may seem obvious but many of the same people who would protest the tower are cell phone users themselves.  If you own and use a cell phone, and object to the rezoning for a cell tower then the “not in my backyard” argument becomes clear.  Cell phone towers, electricity plants, and prisons all provide a necessary service to the community.  However, when faced with the prospect of becoming a neighbor to these facilities, people behave in contradictory ways.

Organizing

An informal meeting was held to better gauge resident concerns.  Only 12 people attended but it showed that people throughout the community, not just those living adjacent to the proposed tower, had concerns.  Money was a frequent point of debate, i.e., why are the schools in such dire need of money?  After a few more side discussions it was decided five volunteers would canvas the neighborhood and solicit opinions.  A petition would be available if anyone felt opposed to the rezoning.  After a few days of intermittent door knocking the result was 51 signatures in opposition.

The Hearing

Finally, all of the thought, debate, and petitioning would be put to use.  I left work early, ate dinner, and headed to the main Hillsborough County government building.  The meeting was scheduled to start at 6PM.  When I arrived at 5:40PM, there were already protesters outside waving signs.  I was introduced to The Interloper and, though very amicable, I knew we wouldn’t agree on the greater issues at hand.  I’m not making my community part of any questionable agendas.  It was time to head indoors.

Two issues preceded the debate on rezoning.  A local squabble over easements, outdoor stoves, and trailers provided a bit of amusement.  Following that was a VFW station that wanted a liquor license.  Go to your local government building – see a slice of life.

The applicant for the cell tower rezoning then addressed the zoning master.  It was a well-researched, nicely organized presentation.  Apparently, the redesigned plan for the area calls for a cell tower that’s a flagpole design.  This wasn’t clear to me a month earlier but it seems the voices of dissent provoked this change.  And, yes, it will fly the American flag.  File this under “Why didn’t you say so earlier?” because I believe the majority of the population, myself included, think of the legacy towers.  I imagine flagpole designs are more costly to build, but without dissenting opinions what motivation does a wireless provider have to spend more money?  None.

A very clear point of the applicant was that wireless coverage in my neighborhood is inadequate.  Really?  I’ve got full signal strength with T-Mobile.  Neighbors on different providers have no complaints.  The point was without merit.  I can understand the need for competition if the area was monopolized, but several major wireless providers already have this area covered.

Finally, after several long-winded talks by experts and lawyers who only embarrassed themselves and their clients, there was time left over for me to speak.  I only had three minutes so I presented an ad hoc version of my speech with just the bullet points.  Here’s my speech in its entirety:

Introduction

Good evening, my name is Matthew Crumley.  I’m here to present the position of the Wildewood Homeowners Association, which has 144 homes just south of the proposed rezoning area.  I’m also a resident of Wildewood and its Board President.  I’m going to outline why this rezoning is unnecessary.  There are three main points and then I’ll briefly conclude.

Coverage Is Great.

Imagine any Florida intersection with all four corners occupied by a gas station.  Would rezoning for a fifth, within a few hundred feet, be necessary?  I believe this committee faces a similar dilemma.  I use the gas station comparison because we’re really talking about capacity and coverage.  With four stations, few people would argue the area isn’t adequately serviced. However, advocates for the station would say capacity is critical.  More cars! More gas!

But it’s a similar argument for cell towers.

I invite this committee to go to any major wireless provider’s web site (AT&T, Verizon, etc) and select the coverage map for the 33624 ZIP code.  The results indicate no poorly covered areas.

So, why the new tower?  Capacity to route more calls would be one reason.  But satisfying this demand does so at the expense of another: increasing demand for school classrooms.  That brings me to my next point.

We can build better towers, but we can’t build more land.

Hillsborough County’s population has increased from 816,000 in July 1988 to over 1.1 million in July 2008. This is according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. That’s over a quarter-million people in twenty years time.

In the past five years I’ve lived in Hillsborough County, Cannella has gone through one major expansion.  The proposed area would not likely be used for classrooms, but committees must plan long term.  More classrooms mean more parking, more cafeteria space, and those all require more support and maintenance facilities.

The cell phones you and I use every day to make calls are smaller because of better software and hardware compression. To date there is no way to squeeze more kids together and maintain a high quality learning environment.  Wireless providers can upgrade existing hardware or software.  Schools don’t have that luxury.  As a student, I had class in portable buildings all the way through to college:  from Naples Park Elementary up to undergraduate classes at UCF.

At issue here is capacity, so let’s give it to kids today and tomorrow, and not our wireless providers.  We need to fix the long term problems, which brings me to my final point.

Fix the problem and not the symptom.

While collecting signatures for a petition against the rezoning, I spoke to a number of people who had a broad range of concerns from property values to child safety, but a recurring concern was that of money.

People for the towers say, “Great, the kids and teachers need support!” Indeed.  No one disagrees.  But that begs the question: why are the schools so strained for cash?

Somehow I doubt the reason is poor land usage.

A flashy presentation by Coca-Cola has won over many schools but has a single private entity helped to keep our schools solvent?  No.  It’s the responsibility, not the burden, of taxpayers to do this.  Again, think long term.

I have in my hand the signatures of 51 people who feel it’s not right to rezone.  The reasons varied as did the location of residents, but clearly they felt the benefit of additional income to the County did not outweigh the costs.

When budgets are written, these public-private deals tend to be a Band-Aid for larger problems.

Conclusion

I urge this committee to consider these three points: coverage, growth of our schools, and fixing problems, not symptoms.  Finally, I’d like to remind this committee of a business principle called going concern.  The concept is that a business will operate and not otherwise shut down for the foreseeable future.  Schools and places like Wildewood will be here long after businesses have come and gone.  Decisions like the one you face affect not only land usage but also budgets.  But be careful when applying too many Band-Aids to the budget; they tend to stick…and really hurt when they’re removed.

Thank you for your time.

Postscript

During the past two months I persistently thought of reasons and arguments to proceed with building the tower.  I’m a cell phone user and it’s not hard to imagine a wireless-only internet in 20 years time.  Society will need the capacity to move its data.  People will buy homes and base their decisions, in part, on the quality of that wireless connection. And really, who objects to flying the Stars and Stripes?

I also thought of the numerous classes I attended in temporary public school buildings.  I was in the “portable” at all levels of my Florida education except graduate school.  Schools are perpetually searching for funds, yet no source of income seems to be enough.  The larger issue here is school budgets; vending machines and cellular towers are just the footnotes.

I’ll update this space when the zoning master gives his decision.

Update 3/11/2010:  The cell tower received approved from the county.

History is repeating itself and history, in this case, is less than ten years ago. There seemed no apparent battle between MP3 formats and CDs. The mind share of CDs was so high that few people considered MP3 a valid competitor. There were few legal sites that provided high quality recordings and most people didn’t feel compelled (or understood how) to convert their CD collection into this new format. Several factors speeded the shift (past tense).

Memory dropped in price. Almost all portable music players are now exclusively based upon solid state, non-volatile memory chips. Ten years ago the best players could only hold two or three CDs worth of music. MP3 players also offered models that utilized laptop hard drives. This boosted capacity and, very quickly, people realized partial (or entire) collections of CDs could be stored at a reasonable quality.

Availability became widespread. The iPod cannot go without mention but the crucial component of the iPod became the iTunes Store. It opened up a market of digital music. By including plenty of locks against piracy, called digital restriction/rights management (DRM), record labels felt safer when distributing new and existing music titles. The masses arrived with cash in hand, ready to download.

Listeners accepted lower quality audio. The convenience of obtaining digital music and not carrying a stack of CDs seemed to outweigh any marginal benefit of sound quality. A generation raised on FM radio realized that having the music on hand was most important. Another benefit offered by MP3 players was displaying tagged information on artist, album, and song. Consumers liked knowing the information available on the CD covers they could no longer hold.

The previous three factors are not the exclusive reason for the downfall of CDs but certainly hastened it. Cost, which is always influential in decision making, was omitted. Why buy a CD full of music you might like when you can spend $1 and get a single track you know you’ll enjoy? There are analogous situations that will undermine the development and spread of Bluray. Indeed, the mere distribution of more Bluray players could be speeding its demise. More will be discussed on that later. Now, the previous three issues need substantiation in terms of Bluray (future tense).

Viewers will accept lower quality video. If Neflix’s quality is any indication, then streaming video is off to a great start. Compression algorithms, which squeeze bits into an internet-friendly size, are getting better. HD-like video is now possible. It doesn’t match Bluray but it comes close. Separate information for subtitles and alternate audio tracks are still a problem for streaming sources. The benefit, clearly, is getting the movie you want, when you want it. There’s no waiting except an initial period of buffering so the video doesn’t stutter when played. My prediction is that streaming services will offer tiered pricing for the quality level you prefer.

Availability will become widespread. The limitation now is the pipe for streaming video. Not everyone will have a fast enough web connection (initially), thus, the tiered pricing. The hardware for playing these videos is also a limitation but, as mentioned earlier, Bluray may be killing itself. Each Bluray player runs a very small computer, which decodes the various features of the format. Also critical is the network port built-in to support the BD 2.0 or BD Live features. Currently, BD Live is not used for streaming, just retrieving movie extras from the web. Finally, most Bluray players have the ability to update their internal software via the network port. Essentially, this means is that each Bluray player has everything necessary to make streaming movies its primary feature: software, the ability to update that software, and networking. Video streaming features are being added to the Playstation 3, Wii, and the X-Box 360, well after they were manufactured and delivered.

Memory will drop in price. Because Bluray players have very little need for internal memory (data is stored on a disc or streamed on-demand), the primary consumer of memory will be the distributors of the streaming video. To offer tiered video quality, it will mean multiple copies of the same movie are stored on a server somewhere. That data quickly adds up when you consider storing thousands of feature films. When a cost analysis says that storing that video and delivering over the web is more effective than disc delivery, Bluray’s end will approach even faster.

The latter part of this essay is, of course, speculation. When momentum keeps an industry moving in the same direction (think CD to DVD to Bluray) such a change is not like flipping a switch. Yet we’ve seen this very switch happen with CDs and MP3s in less than a decade. When choosing between buying a Bluray and renting a streamed movie, consumers will weigh the benefits, evaluate which one is cheaper and easier, and go with it. Technology be damned.

I decided to go with a retro 80s theme. The subject fell into place when I was browsing for kitsch: the Rubik’s Cube. Even better was the fact that nine squares (3×3) exactly fits the spelling of DRE-AMH-OST. To finish the design I needed something to indicate, beyond any question of doubt, that this shirt was sent back to the future from the 1980s. A word often used to describe a nerd was “dweeb” which seems to have lost its vogue. All the elements of a radical t-shirt came into place.

What Works?

If the company was named “Dreamshost” I would either wrap the text to another side or move on. The nine-letter coincidence worked in my favor. There’s very little that can’t be identified with the 80s here. The light gray boundary around the design allows for black or white t-shirts to be used without diminishing the impact of the design.

What Failed?

It’s not immediately clear this is a retro design. The individual elements are there but there’s nothing in your face to remind you it’s a retro t-shirt. It also doesn’t tie-in the 62nd birthday or anniversary or whatever Dreamhost is celebrating. But being ironic isn’t representative of the 1980s – that’s something the 00s can claim.

Convenience is knowing that your credit card will be accepted in most locations you buy products or services. The entire marketing campaign of Visa is “It’s everywhere you want to be.” They say nothing about interest rates, late fees, or any of the factors which drive their revenue. As discussed in this NY Times article, the fees associated with swiping your card can add up very quickly for businesses that offer the convenience. From both a consumer and business perspective it’s very alluring but cracks are beginning to widen. Is cash really that inconvenient? Cash is everywhere, too, but with no fees attached or interest to consumers.

Credit card companies have had an interesting year due to U.S. government regulations and more changes are coming in 2010. In general, these changes have been pro-consumer but will likely cause the credit companies to shift sources of revenue. A business established to make a profit finds the path of least resistance. The passing of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 brought the most sweeping changes to the industry. The majority of the CARD Act dictates how fees can be changed, collected, and disclosed. The question is whether the credit companies will reduce consumer rewards or increase vendor fees. Either situation looks bad for credit usage but consumers have had a superior alternative to credit for a few years now: paying for gas with cash instead of credit.

Many gas stations are offering different credit and cash pricing. Accepting credit seems like a given assumption but while vacationing in North Carolina, I found many mom-and-pop gas stations didn’t accept credit. The bigger franchise stations are catching on and now offer implicit rewards for using cash. The price for paying with cash is often 4-5 cents cheaper than paying with credit. Here’s an example that assumes I use my Bank of America rewards card to pay for gas or, alternatively, I use cash. It’s clear that each credit card reward “point” is almost worthless – it’s less than one cent. The economic benefits of using cash in this instance are double that of using credit. That’s a market-changing influence.

These implicit rewards are an interesting phenomenon. Cash is now holding the position that credit cards held about 15 years ago. I don’t believe this advantage will last long. Transferring money on the internet requires a flexible and fast payment system, which cash is not. Technology in smart phones will be used for more transactions in the coming decade. Factors we can’t even predict will be game changers.

We’re witnessing an overt protest to the high credit transaction fees placed on vendors. So, until the market corrects itself, we should enjoy the benefits of cash. It’s possible the next system to replace credit cards will be even more convenient and less costly – just remember to keep a little cash on hand.

Around the time I was ready to buy an HDTV is when I also chose to buy an HD-DVD. The price, about $230, was reasonable and it came with five free movies worth about $100. The player could up-convert my existing DVDs in addition to playing the newer format. It was enough to convince me that the benefits exceeded the risks. I fell into two traps: Toshiba promoted a killer deal and promised a safety net: “Hey, we’re backwards compatible!” For Sony’s Bluray the promotion was the PlayStation 3, an overpriced game console that also happened to be a Bluray player.

Inherent with any new technology is a period of unknown reliability. I believe this single attribute, even more than cost, will drive down early adoption if not addressed. As electronic devices become increasingly dependent upon the software that runs them, manufacturers have pushed products out the door even when that software is incomplete. As the ability to distribute software has improved, product managers have rationalized that early shipment is preferable to a more complete product. Scenarios like the following are becoming too common:

Manager: We’re getting close to our ship date. What’s the status?
Engineer: There are over 60 issues still open. Plus, we just found a few new ones.
Manager: Any hardware issues?
Engineer: We’ve noticed occasional reboots; it’s probably firmware.
Manager: Great. We’ll update over-the-wire. Mmmkay, thanks.

Some managers have a low standard for the shipment readiness of a product; others demand the best. I’ve drafted a sort of “early adopter’s manifesto” to address this reality:

• Spend no more than you’re willing to lose while gambling in Vegas for one night. If you’re willing to throw the dice on new technology then also be ready to lose.
• Keep nothing past the warranty if you suspect reliability issues. Disregard what the manufacturer claims about updates or incremental improvements via firmware. This only empowers the next generation of product managers to pull the same shenanigans.
• Do not invest heavily in media. Consider if your purchases would further lock you into one format, whether it’s DRM-laden music, a new optical disc format, or an electronic book. I’m looking at you, Kindle.
• Consider a six-month cooling off period. You don’t want to discover the battery explodes after charging for six hours. Major hardware issues are going to surface within a few months. Let someone else find them first.

Post-shipment product completion is common. We update Microsoft Windows with security patches but what’s a reasonable expectation for new products? What some people consider the risks of early adoption—reliability, obsolescence, incompatibilities—now seem common to most products that lean heavily on software. Just about any cell phone, MP3 player, HDTV, or gaming console requires firmware updates. Shifting expectations also have an impact on warranties. My Samsung Bluray (BD-P2550), which I purchased in January, 2009 is a case study in expectations.

I was a voluntary beta tester for HD-DVD so why risk the same on Bluray? My experience with the Toshiba HD-A2 player was a good one. It only had occasional video playback issues and was reliable. It was excellent in all areas, including technology; the format lost because movie studios failed to support it. Once again, the allure of newness and features was too great. Samsung included built-in support for Netflix. It was enough to convince me to buy. Unfortunately, Samsung’s managers felt compelled to ship too early.

The problem with warranties is they expire. It’s the same with Samsung. The Netflix streaming was smooth, Bluray movies looked crisp, but some movies had issues. “No matter”, I thought. I expected some initial problems but nothing a firmware update wouldn’t address. However, the rate of testing different Bluray titles from Netflix averaged to less than one movie per week. The anomalies, after two firmware updates, and four months of renting Bluray movies did not go away. The disc-read failures were above 50%, movies with HD audio had issues, and after hours of experimentation with cabling and settings I discovered the video output was even less reliable in 1080p mode. “Enough”, I thought. It was time to get it serviced. One call to support and I was told the labor was out of warranty coverage. I was burned by a losing format and now, as an early adopter, I was burned by a warranty.

I’m still waiting for my Bluray player to be returned. When it’s returned I’ll update this entry. In the meantime I’m going to enjoy some HD-DVD movies.

Update 1: I received my Bluray player back from Samsung on August 18 and because I don’t own any titles I had to wait until Netflix delivered one.

I first received Sharkwater and was pleased to see it worked. However, on closer inspection the time elapsed wasn’t incrementing. Another Bluray title later and I confirmed movies seemed to play but special features, from disc to disc, seem to bring out bugs in the format itself. When I received Watchmen I was unable to watch the director’s special commentary feature. This all begs the question: Why would I ever buy a movie if certain features of the disc are inaccessible?

What was broken with my player? The packing slip indicated the optical drive was replaced and the firmware was updated. Indeed, the player isn’t fixed, there are just fewer bugs.

Update 2:  Skipping and freezing continue.  However, one tweet to @samsungservice resulted in a UPS shipping label.  That was totally unexpected and I was pleasantly surprised.  It’s October 26 and the tedium is quickly approaching the one-year mark.

Update 3:  I received the same player back from Samsung in early November.  I thought it would work this time but I was proved wrong.  I think my letter to Consumerist says it all best. I opened another service request with Samsung around early December.  When I returned from vacation, I sent the player back.  The good news:  Samsung finally sent me a new Bluray player in early January. The even better news: it’s an upgraded player, the BDP-3600.  In addition to having more features and faster start-up time, this one actually works.

Congratulations! Your request for the removal of the conditional basis of your permanent resident status has been approved. You are deemed to be a Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States as of the date of your original admission or adjustment of status.

The paper goes on to say a new Permanent Resident Card, Form I-551 (green card) will be issued within 60 days. In fact, Kristien has already received it. The process has moved forward and concluded faster than we expected – less than one month after mailing our additional evidence. If you haven’t read the previous post enumerating the pile of evidence we sent, then I suggest you scan the list. I’ve encouraged preparedness as a means to completing those demanding government forms, but the payoff in this instance is huge; I get to keep my wife.

In previous posts I’ve mentioned the number of days since starting this process. Just to recap, the petition for Kristien’s immigration visa (I-129F) was sent to the government on February 7, 2005. It has been 1562 days or 4 years, 3 months, and 12 days, from that day to Monday, 5/18/2009, when she received the Permanent Resident Card. We asked each other if it actually felt that long and we both agreed it hasn’t. We’ve continued on with our lives, working, maintaining our home, going on vacations, and generally forgetting the process. Sure, we both thought about the outcome but we didn’t let it control our lives.

Whether Kristien becomes a citizen is her choice to make. It’s the next logical step but it’s not a forgone conclusion. Right now we’re ready to slow down and enjoy life without the paperwork.

Included in three blue pages was an extensive list of what could qualify as evidence. The letter asked us to provide new information not previously submitted. However, the letter gave no indication why or if the evidence we previously sent was invalid. We were given until the end of May to submit further paperwork.

We reviewed the original I-751 packet and decided we could provide much more evidence of our ongoing (and valid) marriage. Here’s what’s included in the new packet:

• 2008 tax return, jointly filed, married
• Updated bank statement showing the account is held in both of our names, itemized deposits which include our 2008 tax refund from the Treasury, and direct deposits from both of our employers
• Updated verification of car insurance; 1 car, 1 policy, two drivers
• A printout of my employer benefits which indicate Kristien is the 100% beneficiary of my life insurance policy, and the dependent on my health plans
• Several medical invoices showing the joint health benefits are active
• Printouts of both of our pay stubs, which indicate direct deposit to the above mentioned bank account, and deductions for health benefits
• Furniture invoice showing both our names and our address together
• Veterinary invoice showing both our names and our address together
• Signed wills for both of us, with two confirming witnesses, and a notarized affidavit, both which indicate we are the primary inheritors of the other’s possessions
• Sworn affidavits from two of our neighbors which state that our marriage is, in fact, a real relationship.

I hope this is sufficient proof. Either way, the government will provide a response within 60 days of receiving the evidence. We sent the notice on April 25, 2009, just a week after receiving the request. The wills were something we had already planned but just needed to have witnessed and notarized. It seemed like a good step towards proving our commitment to each other.

After one year of silence it’s good to know the wheels are still turning. Let’s hope they’re moving in our favor.

When I moved into my first home in 2005 I only judged it by a few things:  its price, its location, and its community.  America is somewhat unique with its concept of homeowner associations, commonly called HOAs.  When I explained the concept to my wife, who is from Belgium, she didn’t understand why it was necessary.  It seemed to her like an unnecessary cost.   HOAs can charge dues which can range from affordable to appalling.  My neighborhood dues for 2009 are currently $207 paid annually, which is exceptionally low for anywhere in the state of Florida.  While living here and working with the community as a HOA board member, I could see things from a new perspective.  Just knowing the number of homes in my community formed the first point.

Let’s briefly explore what defines a community.  What are the boundaries?  Boundaries can be economic, geographic, political, or a number of other possibilities.  Associations are usually formed by home builders who purchased land in large plots and then divided it into smaller plots for homes.  These homes are usually surrounded by  individual fences and/or a wall is built at the perimeter of the community, thus forming the geographic bounds.  The legal bounds are unclear to the passerby so visual cues provide the first impression.  My community has 144 single-family homes.  That by itself is no revelation but it has a new context when considering Dunbar’s number. Research by the anthropologist Robin Dunbar has suggested that people form social circles which typically reach a maximum, stable limit of 148 people.  That’s the cognitive limit whereby a person can recall all the interpersonal politics.  That was the second point and I made the connection.

Perhaps my community was built with this in mind or perhaps it was constrained by geographic limits.  There’s a body of water to the east, a school to the north, and two roads bounding the other directions.  Maybe taxation or zoning restrictions dictated the limits.  The reasons are moot.  The number of homes is conveniently close to the Dunbar number.  However, the developers did not plan for 144 islands within the community.

While serving as a board member for my HOA I observed a striking lack of community solidarity.  The HOA collects dues to maintain one community but residents mostly act as islands unto themselves.  One criminal incident raised concern for the community’s safety.  Calls were made to form a community watch, whereby residents would patrol and report crime to “block captains” and so on.  It would all be coordinated with the local sheriff’s office.  The board raised funding to begin the watch, while a call was made to gather volunteers.  No one showed.

Another theory was cited in The Economist’s article which referred to a social “core”.  This group of individuals socializes the most among each other.  If the homeowner’s association (a not-for-profit business entity) can be considered a person, then its core group consists of the board of directors, and everyone else could fall within the Dunbar number.  Not a single person interacts with all others in my community; the one exception is the HOA.  Some board members who served for the HOA still live here and I asked them how community interaction has changed.  Surprisingly little has changed.  Board members from five and even 10 years ago reported problems with community cohesion.  They also observed that the core of support for the HOA usually revolves around three to five motivated people.  These anthropological theories hold up surprisingly well even when the organism is not a single person but a homeowner association created to manage 144 homes.

Let me briefly go back to the island metaphor.  The long term lack of cohesion seems to imply that a homeowner’s organization creates only an ad-hoc community whereby individual homes are grouped and assessed dues, but which lacks the bonds that might be stronger in self-forming communities.  Indeed, the only way to transcend such a heterogeneous group is to create an artificial construct: the HOA.

The HOA concept seems dated and its slow death inevitable.  Society is not organized around the community as it was in the previous millennium, when nomadic tribes wandered together.  People are much more independent, mobile, and free to settle into a home of their choice.  Like a collection of Facebook friends, my HOA keeps 144 in its circle, and those 144 people are not obliged to know or even care about each other.  They might even be neighbors.

My salad days of graphical dabbling focused on raster graphics.  I didn’t know anything else because that’s what PaintShop Pro emphasized.  Transparent GIF images were in vogue, mainly to show off gaudy background images.  I didn’t know any better when I designed the first website for the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.  You can see how enthusiastically I used background images.  Every human factors engineer should look back at his earlier work and learn from that experience.  Smack your forehead, shake your head, but always learn. 

The web evolved very quickly and with it graphics, how they’re created, and how they’re stored.  SVG is one of those formats, along with the open source tools used to create them.  For my update, I used Inkscape.  In total, the process is very similar to creating the raster version but with SVG it’s easier to dissect the process into a series of unions, intersections, or difference procedures.

I started with the basic ellipse shape and then added objects which would be used to parse the globe into its constituent pieces.

Object intersections and differences yield the final four parts of the globe.  These steps were very easy and took only a few minutes.  I spent a few minutes on alignment since the process of adding, removing, copying/pasting is rather disruptive.

The green hemisphere of the globe took a bit more work.  I’m still learning various techniques to ensure nodes intersect properly.  Nodes are the points that define a shape.  Paths, which are defined with a sequence of nodes, are harder to manipulate.  Like so many problems there are often multiple ways to get the same result.  Finally, adding a dash of color finishes the job.

What Works?

Like a movie critic watching a remake, I’m going to focus not on the content, but the presentation and delivery.  Essentially, it’s the same graphic.  Nothing new was added, nothing taken away.  The difference is in the detail.  I focused on precision.  Whereas the first iteration of the earth allowed the offset hemisphere to touch the globe, in this version I kept them separate.  The white space deserved equal clarity and now it’s got it.  The intention was never to make a true, three-dimensional logo.  It was to represent, in my original words “a clue that what’s outside the globe doesn’t represent everything that’s inside the globe.”

What Failed?

When faced with the chance to update a system or revamp an old design, software developers frequently encounter the second-system effect. In short, it’s the tendency to bloat a system with all the goodies and features that didn’t make it into the first deliverable.  My goal in doing this was to avoid such a failure.  I believe I succeeded.  So, what exactly failed?  Aren’t there always deficiencies in a design?  Perhaps I’ve reached a stage where this logo is precisely what I want and nothing more.  Adding ornate features are unnecessary but taking away anything fundamentally changes it and, in my opinion, would not succeed. 

Newspapers are dying for many reasons but to name only a few:

• Advertising is intrusive and irrelevant
• It’s yesterday’s news
• Photos are faded or smudged
• Black residue gets on my fingers
• It wastes paper and fills up recycling bins

Ah, but to make a virtual newspaper of my own design that’s timely, ad-free, and includes the news I care about.  Sharing anything is simple and unobtrusive.  Most of the data is based upon RSS feeds but their widgets have expanded to include other sources of data.  Keep an eye on your e-mail, tasks, and stock portfolio.  Create as many tabs as you want; categorize, sort, stack, and create a flow of information that has meaning to you.

I kept my mail on Dreamhost for several reasons, the most paramount being security, privacy, and access. I truly felt it was my mail. I can do with it whatever I please. I’m sure my thinking is not unique in this regard. Not to offend anyone at Dreamhost or to question their integrity, but their administrators are no more trustworthy than those at Google. Like any data not residing on your own PC, it’s subject to inspection by absolutely anyone with sufficient privileges. I overcame that hesitation or fear, if you will.

I next asked myself what value I could derive from using SquirrelMail. Besides reading an e-mail and responding in plain text, there was nothing more. It was fine software but its development stalled in the 20th century. Using my custom SpamAssassin installation I was pushed into using an SSH client whenever I needed to tweak my approved sender list. That’s three applications (SA, SquirrelMail, and PuTTY) just to keep my inbox clean. Then the straw dropped.

The camel’s back was broken when Dreamhost upgraded their servers and split e-mail and hosting. Granted, my hosted apps are performing much better but I had to revamp my SpamAssassin installation. This is when I reached the inflection point of managing my own spam software: value began to trend downwards.

During a short weekend project, I updated the Dreamhost MX records, moved my e-mail, and updated my existing forwarding addresses. Google’s “Report spam” button has made life easier for now but I also wonder when in the future I’ll use SpamAssassin and where will that be?

On a side note, there’s a single blog entry on my site that’s gathered more comments and questions than any other since the inception of this journal: the I-797C. Most of the questions or concerns are written in broken English and usually pertain to the status of an application.  Let me be clear:  I’m not the government.  I can’t possibly know these things.  If it’s economically viable I recommend you get an immigration attorney or specialist to help.  Sometimes the language barrier is too great to overcome when dealing with government paperwork.  Focus your questions and refine them into clear English.  I love the effort but direct your energy where it can help you the most.

One solution for this problem is to use Dreamhost’s installation of SA. However, there’s no support for Bayesian rules. Those rules require a per-user database. Save whitelists, blacklists, and rule sensitivity, there’s no customization allowed. Another annoyance is logging into webmail to do anything meaningful with false positives; it’s explained further on the DH wiki.

Another option, and the best in my opinion, is using an IMAP client of my choice. This requires some modifications to my previous tutorial which takes you through the entire process of installing SA. Assuming that first tutorial is complete, you can now begin this tutorial. Yes, you will undo some of the work in the original tutorial. That’s the way it goes.

Because mail is being forwarded, moved, and synchronized all over the place, I thought a basic flowchart could simplify the end objective of this tutorial. As you can see, everything is setup to move e-mail to and from the mail server and hosting server.

A few assumptions before we get started…

• You have a basic understanding of Linux.
• You have an active DH account.
• You have access to the DH Panel.
• The %> notation indicates what you should type at the command prompt.
• The <Valid URL for: FileXYZ> notation indicates you need to insert a URL that points to the file in question.

1. Create a new fully hosted e-mail account. All of your e-mail aliases should be re-routed to this account’s address; this is now the gateway account through which everything must pass. You’ll have to create a similar account for each user with a SpamAssassin installation. The address doesn’t have to be user friendly, but choose something you can remember. In this example, I’ve created a new fully hosted address called spam_checker@unsaturated.com.
   
   If you have an alias called my.cool.address@unsaturated.com which forwards to your main user account, it will have to forward to spam_checker@unsaturated.com. Do not update all your aliases now because we want the transition to be seamless. Let’s keep e-mail flowing until all steps are complete.
   
2. Create a new forward-only e-mail address. After your mail is checked by SpamAssassin it will be forwarded to this new address, which then passes the e-mail along to your main user account, usually your_user_name@yourdomain.com. This step allows your e-mail to find its way back to the mail servers from the hosting servers. In this example, I’ve created a new forward-only address called spam_checker_passed@unsaturated.com.
   
3. Move the spam.rc file to your home folder. The spam.rc file was originally in a folder called procmail but it was the only file in there. This is a matter of preference but it’s important to keep this in mind for the rest of the tutorial. If nothing else is stored in your procmail folder, then delete it. Type the following at the command prompt:

   %> cd ~
   %> mv ~/procmail/spam.rc ~
   %> rm -Rf procmail/
   

4. Update the .procmailrc file in your home directory. You’ll notice several changes to this file, most notably all e-mail is forwarded to the address made in step 2 or then deleted. Remember, the spam has already been filtered to the .Spam folder according to the spam.rc file. Don’t forget to update the forwarding address! Type the following at the command prompt and insert the text shown:

   %> pico .procmailrc
   
   #=======================================
   # ~/.procmailrc
   #
   # Uses Maildir format mail directory.
   
   # Uncomment the following three lines to debug
   #LOGFILE=$HOME/procmail.log
   #VERBOSE=yes
   #LOGABSTRACT=all
   
   ## Directory for storing procmail-related files 
   PMDIR=$HOME 
   
   # Message directory (Courier IMAP and mutt)
   MAILDIR=$HOME/MaildirSync 
   
   # Spam filtering rules should run last
   INCLUDERC=$HOME/spam.rc 
   
   # Forward non-spam mail to validated address
   # REMEMBER TO UPDATE THIS ADDRESS!!!
   :0c
   ! spam_checker_passed@unsaturated.com
   
   # Everything should be filtered to the local .Spam folder 
   # or forwarded to the new mail server, so go ahead and 
   # delete whatever remains 
   :0
   /dev/null
   #=======================================
   

5. Rename the Maildir directory. Again, you might be wondering why this is necessary. In my opinion, the typical name for Maildir is okay if you’re actually using it for reading mail. However, this directory is now used exclusively for synchronizing mail accounts. Type the following at the command prompt:

   %> mv Maildir MaildirSync
   %> chmod -R 700 MaildirSync
   

6. Download and extract offlineimap. The features and speed of offlineimap looked compelling, so I tried it and decided to keep it. You can configure the script for many different scenarios but we’re keeping the steps basic. This step deletes the default configuration files but don’t worry because I’ll provided one later. Type the following at the command prompt:

   %> cd ~
   %> wget <Valid URL for: offlineimap_6.0.3.tar.gz>
   %> tar xvfz offlineimap_6.0.3.tar.gz
   %> cd offlineimap
   %> rm offlineimap.conf
   %> rm offlineimap.conf.minimal
   

7. Create an .offlineimaprc configuration file. Offlineimap needs to know some basic information like where to find your remote and local mail, folders to ignore, and more. To complete this you’ll need to know your mail server’s name, which can be accessed in the panel. You might wonder why this program is necessary. Consider a false positive e-mail, which is incorrectly marked spam. You could move that message to the correct folder but that change needs to be reflected on the hosting server where SpamAssassin can learn from the change. Remember to update all the values marked YOUR_. Type the following at the command prompt and insert the text shown:

   %> cd ~
   %> pico .offlineimaprc
   
   #=======================================
   # ~/.offlineimaprc
   
   [general]
   accounts = MainAccount
   metadata = ~/.offlineimap
   ignore-readonly = no
   ui = Noninteractive.Quiet
   
   [Account MainAccount]
   localrepository = Local
   remoterepository = Remote
   
   [Repository Local]
   type = Maildir
   localfolders = ~/MaildirSync
   
   [Repository Remote]
   type = IMAP
   remotehost = YOUR_MAIL_SERVER_NAME.mail.dreamhost.com
   ssl = true
   remoteuser = main_account@YOUR_DOMAIN.com
   remotepass = YOUR_PASSWORD
   nametrans = lambda foldername: re.sub('^INBOX.*', '.', foldername)
   folderfilter = lambda foldername: foldername in ['INBOX.Spam']
   maxconnections = 1
   holdconnectionopen = no
   #=======================================
   

8. Update the salearn.bat script. The old Bayes update script is obsolete because we have to ensure spam is synchronized between your hosting account and your mail account. This script synchronizes your .Spam folders, copies all messages (read and unread) to a single directory, tells SpamAssassin to update the Bayesian database, purges all the spam, then does a final synchronization. Type the following at the command prompt and insert the text shown:

   echo '========================================================'
   TESTED=false
   if [ "$1" ]
   then
     if [ $1 = "spam" ]
     then
       TESTED=true
       echo '--------------------------------------------------------'
       echo Synchronizing Spam folder...
   
       ~/offlineimap/offlineimap.py
       mv ~/MaildirSync/.Spam/new/* ~/MaildirSync/.Spam/cur/
   
       echo Messages synchronized and ready for processing.
       ~/sausr/bin/sa-learn -V
       echo Learning what is spam...
       ~/sausr/bin/sa-learn --spam ~/MaildirSync/.Spam/cur
       rm -f ~/MaildirSync/.Spam/cur/*
       echo Learning complete.  All spam messages were deleted.
       echo '--------------------------------------------------------'
       echo Resynchronizing your spam folder...
       ~/offlineimap/offlineimap.py
       echo All folders are synchronized. 
     elif [ $1 = "ham" ]
     then
       TESTED=true
       ~/sausr/bin/sa-learn -V
       echo '--------------------------------------------------------'
       echo Learning what is ham...
       ~/sausr/bin/sa-learn --ham ~/MaildirSync/cur  
     fi
     
     if [ $TESTED = true ]
     then
       echo '--------------------------------------------------------'
       echo Summary statistics of Bayes database...
       ~/sausr/bin/sa-learn --dump magic
       echo '--------------------------------------------------------'
     fi
   else
     echo Enter one argument:  [ham | spam]
   fi
   echo '========================================================'
   

9. Update your cron jobs. Because some e-mail are marked as spam incorrectly (false positives), we need to ensure all mail is synchronized. This gives you a chance to correct those false positives and move valid e-mail back into your inbox. The first cron task runs frequently to ensure your folders are up-to-date. Some spam systems would do this once daily but I prefer to know sooner if an important e-mail got trashed. The second task runs the Bayes update script. Type the following at the command prompt, acknowledge prompts for e-mail according to your preferences, and enter the text shown:

   %> crontab -e
   
   30 * * * * ~/offlineimap/offlineimap.py
   10 0 * * 7 ~/salearn.bat spam
   

10. Create an e-mail filter through the panel. Remember that e-mail account you created back in step 1 (spam_checker@unsaturated.com)? It’s time to give it a trivial filter using the panel.
    
    This will create a .procmailrc on the mail server, which you can’t see or edit via the shell. By trivial, I mean an obvious pass. Your rule would go something like this.
    

    Now once the trivial filter is establish you want to select the “Forward to shell account” option. Be sure to select the matching user account from the drop-down menu.
    

11. Update all e-mail aliases. Remember that e-mail account you created back in step 1 (spam_checker@unsaturated.com)? It’s time to update all your other aliases to point to that address. With each updated alias, the system goes “live” so you might try it on an infrequently used address, then send a test message.
    
12. Send a test message. If everything is working properly, you can run the salearn.bat script and you should be error-free. Send a test message and look for SA headers (X-Spam-Level, etc). Lastly, if you find an error in my tutorial please post a comment.

His observations define the disadvantages but none offer a higher understanding of elitism. We’re told the faux diversity of elite schools, the pursuit of grades over wisdom, the exclusivity, the labored meritocracy, inexorably leads to one outcome: more alumni. It’s not clear how a Romantic intellectual would be employed in the 21st century and that’s also precisely the point. Were Romantics not elitist as we define the word today? If an elite education makes William Deresiewicz who he is, then why do others excel while he has fallen to the “Ivy retardation”? Can this “retardation” spread or is it inherited?

His essay isn’t specifically about elitism. Instead he discusses the downfall of identity, both personal and social, in an institution designed to foster ideas and, ironically, an enlightened sense of identity. If elitism is bad then you can’t remove it until it’s understood. Let’s try to understand.

Elitism, as I define the word, is an amalgamation of glamour, wealth, exclusivity, power, and pedigree. These concepts form a wireframe but it’s neither education nor an epistemic desire to learn. Therefore, without the core of higher education, elitism is simply an empty wrapper—branding, marketing, or a way to sell an object—but not the object itself. Elitism and education are conflated but the so-called disadvantages are attributed unfairly to the combination. If worldly and informed students graduate without elitist qualities or the “retardation”, then they have extracted something of great value without being burdened by the disadvantages which I believe do not exist.

Students know that by admission, graduation, and association, the benefits of an elite education usually result in lucrative jobs. I attended public grade schools, high school, and then graduated from a public university. The concept of elite and public coinciding is a contradiction. Some political offices hold an elite status but generally the commons is not a site of glamour, exclusivity, wealth, power, or pedigree.

Calling an institution or person elitist is to suggest some form of entitlement. Entitlement is commonly associated with birthright, inheritance, or social status. Perhaps society is reluctant to admit it or accept it, but I believe the underlying cause of elitism is genetic. Mr. Deresiewicz makes conclusions based upon environmental factors but completely overlooks heritability. Genetics cannot explain all the variables in my theory on elitism (exclusivity, for example) but DNA can influence many of the personality traits which develop those variables. Help us identify these elitist characteristics, Mr. Deresiewicz, instead of slogging forward with one lamentation after another.

I attended graduate school with a small group of 30 students. This was the first fulltime MBA program for my university. Students were selected based upon their performance in undergraduate school and their academic diversity. You can already see how the admitted students think they’re “special” and, perhaps, entitled to more. I was the only engineer while most others had business degrees. It also turns out 30 was sufficient for something else: a microcosm of elite education.

During the last semester our appointed finance professor was a studying PhD student. Grading was easy but his title and qualifications angered the class. A mini-protest began which led to a petition to replace him. Everyone thought the MBA class deserved better. Maybe so, but I disagreed with the means to accomplish this and refused to sign (I was the only one). The drama was compounded by our legal professor, a woman well versed in tort law and who was eager to remind everyone that she has a carry permit. The idea of a petition seemed juvenile and few civil debates were held over the issue. This drama played out until his replacement arrived. The following events, unlike any other in my college experience, exposed elitist tendencies in quick order.

When the new finance professor was revealed the former business undergrads let out a collective groan. He fought grade inflation, was tough, thorough, and fair. Elitist kryptonite apparently comes from India. Each pop quiz was met with bitching; test results, if not an A, were met with protests. Such behavior is the mark of elitists and individuals who feel above the need to learn. Soon their discontent was directed to the MBA program itself. Certainly it wasn’t the students who were mistaken, it was the system. I can therefore conclude that elitism is not unique to haughty institutions with rich alumni. So it was in your school, Mr. Deresiewicz, and so it was in mine.

Elitism is not monopolized by upper crust society. I’ve seen elitist attitudes in public universities and their aftereffects in the private sector. The most intolerable belief is that the system is flawed, not the individual. Indeed, systems can and do fail. No system is perfect. Yet, when faced with an obstacle or failure an elitist will not look in the mirror. The reason or excuse is most assuredly external. Some institutions focus these behaviors and amplify their effects. In elite colleges the potential for groupthink seems likely, therefore, blame is not sought among peers. When forces outside the walled garden are such easy targets, why bother? Indeed, just sign a petition.

Maybe the larger question is: Should elitism be stopped? Is there any proof its existence is harming society? Perhaps elitism is a Western phenomenon that’s become more apparent as our overall wealth has increased. Capitalism is still a relatively new concept and our perception of elitism is evolving with it. There’s been a dot-com bubble and a housing bubble. An elitism bubble wouldn’t surprise me. It’s also possible we’re debating a non-issue. I’ve observed elitist traits within academia and without, from rich people and poor people, and fail to see the end of it. Unfortunately, people are notoriously bad at predicting bubbles.

I developed this plug-in out of necessity while managing my neighborhood homeowner association (HOA). In past meetings of our HOA, achieving quorums were a wait-and-see ordeal.  Will enough people show to the meeting?  Will they bother to mail us their proxy vote?  I had enough so I started to code a solution.

The result is a system that provides immediate feedback, a decent measure of security, and simple integration with Wordpress blogs.  The first version I fielded worked great with our HOA website.  Everyone in the community was given a customized paper explaining the process.  That paper also provided a customized key, much like a business provides to its shareholders.  The process is very simple: the voter goes to the website, enters his key, his name, the proxy’s name, then submits the information.  That’s all there is to it!

The first version I tried had limited capabilities.  I think the concept was solid but the feature list needed improving.  After a few months of development I made the feature list grow, worked out the bugs, and polished the user interface.  The result is a compelling product worthy of commercial distribution.

Features and Anti-Features

You usually buy a product based upon its feature list. Naturally, I’ve listed those but I’ve also listed anti-features. An anti-feature is a capability a product should probably have but doesn’t. You might think that works against the “sell more” ethos of business but I disagree. When I buy something I want to know what I’m getting but also what I’m not getting. An anti-feature might deter some potential buyers but I feel it removes ambiguity and instills confidence in the committed buyers.

Features

• Proxy Vote can manage multiple, simultaneous events.
• Proxy Vote 1.1 is verified to work with Wordpress versions 2.5/2.6. Version 1.0 is verified to work with Wordpress version 2.3. The administrative interface is unique to each version but features and capabilities are the same.
• Each proxy event description can contain HTML, images, URL links, and more.
• Event descriptions are formatted to print on individual pages.
• Results of the event are optimized for printing.
• Cleanly remove the plug-in once you’re done. You have the option to completely remove all traces of Proxy Vote, including its tables.
• Customize the form text then insert it with an entry like [proxy123].
• It works on posts and pages.
• Information and error messages can be localized to another language very easily.
• All submitted proxies record the IP address of the sender.
• Events can be exported to an XML file. Use Microsoft Excel or any XML-friendly application for viewing the raw data. Format it however you please. It’s your data.

Anti-Features

• Events cannot be re-imported to the database from the XML file. Arguably, what’s the point when the event has expired?
• The number of voters cannot be changed once an event is created. However, expiration, title, and description can be changed at any time.
• There is no event start time, only an expiration time. In other words, do not post your event until you are ready to use it. If this anti-feature is added, it would make the second anti-feature much easier to implement.
• Formatting and compatibility is unknown on earlier 6.x versions of Internet Explorer. If this applies to you, I highly recommend you upgrade IE.

Adding an Event

Adding an event is very easy. Provide the title, description, expiration time, and the number of voters. Proxy Vote manages multiple, simultaneous events.

Managing Your Event

Once you’ve created your event, you can monitor its progress, print data, modify its properties, or export the data to XML. Submitted proxies are displayed as they are received. Back on the main management page, you’ll have a real-time look at how many proxies are submitted for each event.

Spreading the Word

Your proxy is only useful if people are given a brief, informative paper with instructions to submit the proxy. In my opinion, keeping the message brief and informative is the best means to getting proxies and achieving a quorum. In this example, I included multiple HTML elements to illustrate the flexibility of the proxy messages. This event had 250 voters, therefore, 250 unique keys and pages were generated – just print and distribute!

Go ‘Live’ with Your Event

Ready to post your proxy event form? It’s easy. You can add any text before or after the form itself. Give your voters a simple reminder of what’s required. Publish your post or page and you’re one step closer to a quorum.

It’s Your Data

Once your proxy event is complete, you might want to organize the data differently. Proxy Vote wasn’t designed to analyze, process, or format data in fancy ways. Export your event to an XML file and open the results in Microsoft Excel or some other program. You can format, sort, and arrange the data however you prefer.

Activate

1. Open the downloaded zip file
2. If you’re using Wordpress 2.3, extract the contents of the Version1.0 folder to your Wordpress plugins folder; if you’re using Wordpress 2.5 or 2.6, extract the contents of the Version1.1 folder
3. Activate the Proxy Vote plugin
4. Go to the Settings page (Options in WP 2.3); select the Create Tables button.
5. Activation is complete, so create a proxy event.

The Events Management View

The Events Management View shows a list of all proxy events and the form for creating a new event. Events with the nearest expiration time are shown on the top. The number of proxies generated and submitted are displayed.

Each event has two selections: Edit and Delete. Selecting Delete will open a dialog box which allows you to proceed or cancel the action. Selecting Edit brings you to the next screen which displays proxy details.

The Proxy Details View

This view shows actions relevant to the current event. All actions are display in the top section called “Activities”. Let’s briefly review each one.

• The first bullet shows the activation string necessary to insert the proxy form into a post or page. You can type or copy the text displayed. It will always follow the pattern [proxyID] where ID is the id number of the proxy event. If you insert this text with an invalid id number, the plugin will ignore the text.
• The second bullet provides a link to the Proxy Message View.
• The third bullet links to the Proxy Results View.
• The fourth bullet links to the bottom of the page where you can update properties of the event, such as title, description, and expiration time.
• Finally, the last bullet links to the Proxy XML View.

The Proxy Message View

The proxy message is the keystone of the Proxy Vote plugin. You can use the proxy message for a variety of purposes, but its main intent is to provide a custom message to each voter with a unique proxy key. In the Proxy Message View, you can preview what these messages will look like. At the top of the screen you will see a message box which provides some tips on printing the proxy message. If you have 300 voters, you should have 300 proxy messages. For almost all web browsers, you will proceed to File -> Print Preview menu item. Verify your description has been formatted the way you intended.

The Proxy Results View

Proxy results include all the submitted proxies for the event. Much like the Proxy Message, the print preview feature of your web browser will format the page. In most circumstances, the landscape page format is superior for tabular data. This view is display only.

In the table you will find these columns:

• Key is the 10-character random code distributed to this voter.
• Voter is the person submitting the proxy.
• Proxy is the person who will vote on behalf of the voter.
• IP is the internet protocol address of the computer which submitted the proxy.
• Submit Time is when the proxy information was submitted to your site.

The Proxy XML View

This view displays all event data in XML format. The proxy event can be exported to a file using the Export to XML File button. The auto-generated name will be exportID.xml where ID is the id number of the proxy event. Although the data is displayed in a text editable field, you cannot change the data here.

Create an Event

1. Go to the Manage tab, then select Proxy Votes.
2. Enter your event information under the section “Add Proxy Event”
• Title can be anything meaningful to identify this event. You can update the Title at any time.
• Description can contain actual HTML code; line breaks, headings, images, tables, or anything you need to summarize the event. However, it should always contain the [key] and [expires] tag. The Description section forms the text of your proxy message, which is a custom set of instructions to your voter. It should also provide the URL of the proxy form. It’s a good idea to create a draft of the post so you can finalize your proxy message. You can update the Description at any time.
• Expiration is the local end time for the proxy event. The plugin will not accept proxies submitted after the expiration. The expiration time uses the properties setup in your blog, such as the UTC offset. You can update the Expiration at any time.
• Number of Voters is the maximum number of people who can submit a voter proxy. This value cannot be changed once the event is created.
3. Select Add Event and you will see a message which confirms the event was created and the random keys generated.

Sample Proxy Message

The following snippet of HTML code is a good starting point for your proxy message. It doesn’t contain any image links. However, it makes use of embedded styles, unordered lists, and those two important tags: [key] and [expires].

<h1>The Proxy Event</h1> <p>This is the proxy event you've waited for all year. To achieve a quorum at our annual meeting, we only ask for a few moments of your time. This year we've made the process of submitting a proxy easier than ever. Please follow these directions carefully.</p> <ol> <li>Go to our website: www.unsaturated.com/proxyvote</li> <li>Look for entry titled "Proxy Event of the Year"</li> <li>In the first space you will notice the expiration date, which is currently [expires]. You must submit your proxy before that time.</li> <li>In the next space enter your unique code: <b>[key]</b></li> <li>Enter your name (last name, first name)</li> <li>Enter your proxy's name (last name, first name)</li> </ol> <p>Again, we thank you for your support. This will help our meeting proceed smoothly and ensure business continues without any further delays.</p> <p>Sincerely,<br/> Matthew Crumley<br/> Board President</p>

Purchasing

Proxy Vote version 1.1 is the newest version and is compatible with Wordpress version 2.6 and 2.5. Styles are updated for consistency with the new administrative interface introduced with Wordpress 2.5. The plugin features are exactly the same as Proxy Vote version 1.0.
Click here to buy version 1.1 for $1 USD.

The Proxy Vote Bundle includes version 1.1 and 1.0. This provides compatibility with Wordpress 2.3. If you’re updating your Wordpress in the near future, this is the best option.
Click here to buy the 1.1/1.0 bundle for $2 USD.

Thank you for writing to voice your concerns. That you replied to the “New Board” posting makes it evident that we, the five volunteer Board members and property manager are failing in some ways. I would estimate the five volunteers, Bill, Andrea, Roger, Gerald, and me, have given in excess of 120 hours of their time back to the community at no charge and the year is not over. The majority of us also work in excess of 40 hours per week at our normal, full-time jobs. We try to lead by example and save the community money, which brings me to your first point.

“Don’t even think about raising the dues this year”
Wildewood just received notice that our landscape maintenance costs would be increasing by 2.5% effective immediately. I expect many of our costs to increase as a result of the economy. Our Covenants stipulate that we can raise dues by no more than 5% per annum over the previous year. We’ll have to raise dues without question, if simply to maintain our level of maintenance and keep pace with monetary inflation. If you find a similar HOA in the Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area, with the same number of homes, for such a low price (currently less than $200 a year), please let us know. I’m told our community is an exceptional case.

“It seems the board now is in the mood to be NICE…POLITICALLY CORRECT”
I agree that we are in the mood to be nice. Is the only alternative being cruel and politically incorrect, ruling this small community like a fiefdom? Wildewood isn’t a homeowner association you hear about on the news – fining for small brown patches on lawns, an extra satellite dish, or other petty reasons. It’s my belief (to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson) that the HOA that governs least, governs best. The lawyers who drafted our original documents seemed to agree. The documents do not stipulate how we can enforce covenant issues. This issue can be lumped into one about “pigpen” homes you mentioned. Members of the Board do not enjoy this sight any more than you. Other, more ruthless, legally-entitled HOAs are setup to explicitly empower their association to levy fees, or take other action against these issues. Ours was established without such empowerments. You suggest “[the Association] lawyer sends them a letter with the intent to foreclose” yet you do not want our dues raised. These are simply incompatible actions. It also exposes our Association to costly legal retaliation.

“…now we have homes that are again having unregistered vehicles…”
Please report these to Hillsborough County Code Enforcement. It’s free, anonymous, online, and it works. We even provide a link on our website (right side, towards the bottom). Help us be the eyes and ears of the community. Members of the Board do this independently and encourage residents to do the same.

“I will start a petition drive to kill this association…”
Why? Your frustration is apparent but this is counter productive. Without an Association, who would pay for the repair of vandalized walls? Who would maintain a lighted entrance or promote a website to enable a better connected neighborhood?

Mr. X, I spent almost one hour of my time considering this letter and what it means for Wildewood. In short, it means someone cares. And yet, seven months into a new Board of Directors, what has been accomplished? I consider the gains amazing (lots of paint, sod, new plants) and a sign of future improvements to come. I’ll be staying an hour late at work today or tomorrow to compensate. Change takes time and free labor is hard to find.

Sincerely,

Matthew Crumley
Wildewood President, 2008