But how to decide what to get? There are so many cameras, each with strengths and weaknesses. My criterion for a digital camera is that it must be simple and easy to use. Within that, I want a optical viewfinder, optical image stabilization, and AA batteries.

The optical viewfinder is critical because, here in Hawaii where the sun shines so brightly, all LCD's become washed out and therefore useless. Yes, this adds weight/bulk/space to a camera but a camera is useless if you can't frame what you wish to take a picture of.

The image stabilization seems to be one of the few new features for digital cameras that is not a gimmick. Although it can't do everything, having this capability extends the range of situations where the photographer can obtain a usable image.

The AA batteries are equal parts convenience (you can buy one in almost every country on this planet) and cost (since it's ubiquitous, the cost is very low). Hence, when you want to take a picture, but find the batteries dead, you can easily and quickly find a fresh set. Try that next time with your silo hoarding proprietary ultra-slim and sexy battery that is available only from one source (or horrors, built-in and not replaceable by the user).

Surprisingly, it is getting harder and harder to find digital cameras that have these features. It seems companies are in a race to build the thinest camera possible (as well as increasing its bottom line by locking customers in to their brand). So the first thing to go are the AA batteries. Then the optical viewfinder because who needs one when you have the whizzbang three-inch (measured diagonally) LCD?

Although Kodak still makes a few cameras that have optical vewifinders and AA batteries (although not so much with the optical image stabilization), I understand it may be soon phasing out the lower cost models. Hence, I've decided to buy a Canon PowerShot A570 IS.

The A570 is costs less than $250 USD, has an optical viewfinder and uses AA batteries. Better yet, this is Canon's lowest cost camera to have optical image stabilization.

Add to this face recognition focusing, a 7-megapixel charge coupled device, 4X optical zoom, manual and automatic exposure control, and weighs only 6.2 ounces/175 grams. Oh, and it works great with our Canon inkjet printer.

Aloha!

7.1 Communications Concerning a Lawyer's Services
7.2 Advertising
7.3 Direct Contact with Prospective Clients

Aloha!

The article indicates that the blogger fought the subpoena requiring her to be deposed on the basis on reporter's privilege, but was unsuccessful in her effort. How much she must reveal during deposition and whether she might have to testify is not known.

Although I do not generally read the site mentioned, the question is an important one. I think many will be following this one to see what are the rules of the web, as it were.

Aloha!

Perhaps doubly wrong because the last US boat got eliminated earlier this week when the BMW/Oracle team lost to the Italian Luna Rossa.

Oh well, New Zealand is on the verge of beating Spain (if it hasn't done so by the time you read this). If so, it will be the Kiwis against the Italians to see who earns the right to challenge the current cup holders - the Swiss Alinghi team.

I'm not sure if any of the races will be televised here in Hawaiʻi, but if so, I will try to watch, whenever I can.

Aloha!

The good news is that drivers for my printer (HP 2600N) and PCMCIA Cingular/AT&T Sierra Wireless 875 modem card are now available.

The downside is the Samsung CD-ROM/DVD slim cobo drive is still not working. I've tried searching for whatever I could on this problem but I all that I've found are firmware updates. Unfortunately, none of the updates work in Vista (the installer fails). Although I could replace the drive, or use an external one, I don't want to spend any more money on what is an already aging laptop.

In addition, no driver for the built-in analog modem (Broadcom) is available. Not that I use dial up anyway, but in an emergency, it would be nice if I could.

What's more, the copies of the CD burning software and DVD movie applications that came with the Dell do not install under Vista. Conversely, Adobe seems to have fixed its Acrobat Reader version 8 install problem so that now works.

The updated bottom line is that drivers are becoming available but that Vista is still clouded with compatibility issues. Based on this, I cannot recommend switching to it unless you are sure that everything you need to run works. At the present rate, it may be another six months to a year before things settle down (although some hardware may never be supported). So, if you can wait, that would seem to be the wisest choice. YMMV. Insert Disclaimer here.

PS One wonders when, if ever, Vista 64 will take off. Even if the hardware is there, it is useless if the software does not support it.

Aloha!

So, here goes. Our grandson may be sick. Perhaps, very sick. Tests are ongoing, including more this morning.

Although he will see his second birthday next month, it's possible he may not see very many more.

If so, I won't have a lot of time or energy to update this site. Hence, posting may be affected.

Any prayers or good thoughts you would like to send his way would be appreciated. Mahalo.

Aloha!

However, I don't know of too many gas stations selling hydrogen, at least not around here. So, that 270 miles better include a place to fill up. And if you thought it was dangerous to rear end a Chevy Corvair, think about what will happen to compressed hydrogen when it is violently released in a collision.

Oh, and the price? Well the article says it costs Honda $1.5 million USD per car. However, it is leasing the current model at the low, low fire sale price of $500 per month (It is expected that the 2008 will be priced higher. In comparison, you could lease a BMW Z4 for less.).

That said, we do need to transition to something else. Whether that something else is hydrogen, at least in the near term, is not clear.

Aloha!

Aloha!

As time goes by, I will explain what I'm talking about. But, for now, I need to take a break.

Aloha!

All meetings were open to the public and where announced by submitting timely notice with the appropriate governmental office (the Lt. Governor) who in turn posted the schedule on the Internet.

In addition, once the Commission completed its work (link to 29MB, 500-page PDF report), it met with the House and Senate members (in the Majority and Minority Caucus) to brief them on the recommendations. If a legislator is not aware of the recommendations, it is because he or she failed to attend one of these four legislative meetings or did not speak to any colleague who did.

As expected, there have been concerns expressed about the level of the recommendations. But I will note several critical and revealing factors that you may not be aware of:

Since 1990, all of the positions have had long periods of time where no salary increases were made (between nine and thirteen years). At the same time, those covered under collective bargaining contracts, Unit 13 for example, have received raises averaging about 3.5% per year. If you take that average and total it over that period it would be about 66% in collective bargaining increases. In addition, during that time, inflation has decreased the dollar's buying power by about 54%. So, these position have seen no or few increases while, at the same time, what they had was seriously eroded by inflation.

In fact, whether you take the Unit 13 collective bargaining increases and adjust the 1990 salaries for these positions forward, or take the inflation rate and adjust likewise, the Commission's recommendations would still be lower than either of those metrics. In other words, these positions are still trying to "catch-up" to what other state employees have gotten or just trying to stay even with inflation, but are failing to do either even with these increases.

Further, there are over 100 state employees who are paid more than the heads of certain departments. It is my understanding that 43% of the Department of Transportation's excluded managerial employees are paid more than the directors of the "Tier 4" departments (presently, the Executive branch salaries are separated into tiers). This makes for low morale among directors and makes it difficult to fill such positions (especially from within a department since the employee may have to take a pay cut to become director or deputy director).

The number of positions affected and the total cost of the increase for these positions is small (about $2.3 million for Fiscal Year 2007-2008, including the increases already approved in 2004, $1.7 million if the 2004 increases are not included), relative to the $9.8 billion state budget. To put this in perspective, this is about 23 hundredths of one percent of the state budget or about what the Department of Education spends in less than two days.

That said, the individuals in these positions and the Commission are sensitive to the perceptions of our hard working, tax paying citizens and, I believe, the Commission was respectful of that. Hence, even though these people would be justified in receiving more, to at least reach parity with other Hawaii state employees or to keep up with inflation,they have refrained from doing so.

Does this mean no one will feel these positions are still receiving too much? No. I fully expect some will continue to have concerns regarding the recommendations regardless of the facts. But, I believe the majority who take the time to read the report will come to the conclusion that the recommendations are reasonable and long over due if we are to attract and retain the best individuals to public service. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Definition of Sustainability

Sustainability in Hawai'i means achieving a quality of life that:

• strikes a balance between economic prosperity, social and community well-being, and environmental stewardship.

• meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

• respects the culture, character, beauty and history of our states' island communities.

Guiding Principles of Sustainability

Our sustainability goals, actions and measurements are guided by balancing economic prosperity, community and social well-being and environmental stewardship.

Sustainability cannot occur without a strong, diversified and dynamic economy.

We respect and live within the natural resources and limits of our islands.

Our cultural traditions, history and sense of place are honored.

We make decisions based on meeting the present needs without compromising the needs of future generations.

The traditional Native Hawaiian practices of the Ahupua'a system guides how we manage our resources and behaviors.

Everyone  -- individuals, families, communities, businesses and government -- has a responsibility for achieving a sustainable Hawai'i.

Vision of Sustainability

In 2050, Hawai'i is a sustainable community. Living responsibly and within our own means is top-of-mind for all individuals and organizations. We learn about the virtues and values of a sustainable Hawai'i. As a result, our goals of economic prosperity, social and community well-being, and environmental stewardship are met.

Our Native Hawaiian and island values and culture are perpetuated. We have a vibrant, clean, locally-based and diversified economy that supports a living wage for island residents, and affords economic and career opportunities for our children. Our land, water and natural resources are used responsibility, and are replenished and preserved for future generations.

In 2050, we have also embraced and achieved island self-sufficiency. The energy we use is clean, renewable and produced in Hawaii. Most of the food we consume is grown locally. We minimize waste by recycling and waste-to-energy processes. We are a strong and healthy community with access to affordable housing, transportation and healthcare. Our public education system prepares our people for productive, meaningful and fulfilled lives.

Hawai'i is where our hopes and aspirations as individuals, families and as a community are realized now and in the future.

Aloha!

Speaking of Windows, DW recently updated its operating system (OS) tracking page to include more granularity. But what interested me the most is that Windows is by the far the most used OS. The numbers indicate its Windows almost two to one over the next OS (i.e., Linux) with a 59 percent share versus 34.5 for Linux.

You would think that a site focused on systems other than Windows would attract more non-Windows users but, if the numbers are accurate, that ain't so.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

That said, I have to ask why support for CSS2 font embedding has not yet been implemented. I mean, the bug was opened in 2001! For those without a handy calculator, that's six years ago. In Internet years, that's decades. Yet, font embedding is still not implemented and still being debated. Sigh.

It is far past time that Firefox supported CSS2 font embedding. The alternative is to drive people to Internet Explorer as the more standards compliant browser, at least in this instance. Big Sigh.

Aloha!

First it was the botched implementation of outsourcing customer support. Customers had problems understanding the English as a second language that the foreign representatives used. Even when you could understand what was being said, the representative appeared to merely be reading from a prepared script that was designed not to provide any support. This led to the phrase "Dell Hell."

Then it was reliability problems with laptop batteries. Although Dell was by no means the only ones hit by this, it was probably the one most impacted by it.

But then Dell came back with blogs centered on listening to its customers by creating an opportunity to enter into conversations. Customers responded and let it know what was wrong.

Last month Dell reverted to pre-loading Windows XP, in place of the device driver starved Vista, in response to its customers demanding that their PCs actually be able to do useful work. What a concept (both the listening and that PCs should be able to help customers do work).

Another of these conversations led to the recent announcement that Dell is to install Ubuntu 7.04 on some of its consumer laptops. This is great news for customers because Dell will need to provide the drivers for things such as wireless access, modems, and other peripherals that heretofore have not been officially supported. This support will allow customers to, now wait for it, get work done using an operating system more to their liking.

Although it may be too soon to say that Dell has turned the corner, especially with competition coming on strong from, (hawk, spit) HP. But it appears that Dell is at least at the end of the beginning, if not the beginning of the end of its problems.

Aloha!