IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

A Fraud - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

We attended a meeting of a Long Island society this past weekend and learned of a deception that was committed against the group. Money was stolen. The financial loss was $3859. It is a cautionary tale.

All of the details about the group are available on line regarding membership, group officers, home addresses, phone numbers and more. Someone having accessed that information posed by e-mail as one of the group's officers and deceived the group's treasurer into writing a check to cover particular expenses. That check was made out to "Jerry Stapleton" and was then cashed by somebody in Indiana, several states away from here.

The group's bank has stated that if the loss had been sustained via a credit card transaction or via a debit card transaction, insurance would have applied. However, because the loss was sustained by the writing of a check, the loss is NOT covered by insurance and the odds of retrieval of that loss are virtually zero.

The key error of the group member who wrote the check was to assume that the person at the other end of the e-mail was really who he/she purported to be. A telephone call to that person would have revealed the fakery, but that was not done.

Eternal vigilance: A necessity.

Blue Is Bad - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I was in my eye doctor's waiting room where an overhead television screen was displaying one ophthalmology advice video clip after another. Suddenly, this one video came on to warn the viewer of the hazards of blue light, especially when coming from the video screens of computers and smart phones.

According to that video, blue light kills retinal cells and can accelerate macular degeneration. You the viewer are stridently cautioned to avoid exposure to blue light whenever you can. I'm not sure how to interpret that versus taking a walk on a cloudless, sunny day in the spring.

Anyway, all of the dominant colors in this cautionary video clip were blue.

The background tint was blue, rectangles that highlighted informative text were a slightly darker blue and the lettering of the text within those rectangles was in a still darker shade of blue.

I once saw a poster which said "DO NOT READ THIS SIGN". Am I missing some kind of subtlety here? 

Very, Very, S - L - O - W E-mail - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Please look at these screen shots of a very badly performed e-mail download.

It took way too long for this download process to complete itself and this happens quite often. Not always, but often. If one of the incoming e-mails includes an attached picture file, downloads can take even longer.

I'm ready to take my ISP seriously to task over this but before I do that, does anybody recognize this phenomenon?

Does anybody know why it happens? Is this some kind of latency issue?

Does anybody have a suggestion for a remedy?

The Flood - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Years ago, I knew this fellow who ran two businesses at the same time. One was an electrical shop in Queens and the other was a gourmet restaurant several hundred miles away in another state. One day when he was at the restaurant, he telephoned me to ask that I take a look at the electrical shop. He had gotten a phone call to the effect that there had been a flood in the cellar with the water coming down from his shop. I had the key so I went to go see what was what.

When I arrived, everything seemed to be quite normal and that was puzzling. I went down to the cellar where I saw remnants of water on the cellar floor so I knew something had happened. Going back upstairs again, my best guess was that there had been a sewer backup and water must have come up and out from the sink and/or the toilet.

Just as I was coming to that thought, the landlord arrived and trouble started.

I'll refer to this man as "Mr. L" since that's the first letter of the word. Mr. L started ranting about what had occurred. Fortunately there hadn't been any severe property damage but Mr. L wanted me to give him a key to the shop so he could come in at any time and do whatever he chose. There was a lot of valuable equipment in that shop which included a Tektronix 541 scope. (It was that long ago.) Since I had no authority to offer or provide that key to anyone, I refused.

The two of us were then there in the office area of that shop for the next several hours during which time all kinds of yelling and shouting was directed my way plus threats of physical violence. I wanted him to leave but I certainly wasn't going to throw him out of there. Finally, Mrs. L came along and interrupted the tirade by asking "Are you mad?"

I wasn't sure if that question was meant for Mr. L or for me but it didn't matter. She took her husband out of there to go have supper and I was once again alone. I shut off the lights, locked up and left.

Around a week or so later the shop owner returned and then telephoned me to say that Mr. L had declared that if I were to ever come to that shop again, he was going to shoot me and that I needed to immediately file a report with the police.

For a variety of reasons, I didn't. Then after another month, I was told that Mr. L had succumbed to a heart attack. He had died.

I have on occasion heard or read stories about possible mental instability manifesting itself in men who had shortly afterward died of heart failure. One author whose work I cannot now locate suggested something of this nature regarding comedian Lou Costello who had come to rancorous dispute with his partner Bud Abbott over what I do not recall and who then died of heart failure not too long after.

The Mr. L story is ancient history at this point, but it's still quite a vivid memory and it remains an issue about which I still wonder from time to time.

The Log Book - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Back around 1976, the story was told to me of a hapless radio station attendant who received a visit from an FCC inspector. Yes, I do remember exactly when I was told this story and by whom I was told. I won't go into the whom.

The attendant was asked to present the station log book for examination. "Were you the person who made these entries?" the inspector inquired to which the attendant's reply was "Yes."

The inspector examined one page, then another page, then another and stopped at one line on that last page turning to the attendant to ask "Is this your writing here?" and again the reply was "Yes."

"This letter. Is this an 'e'?"  The attendant looked closely and then said "Yes, it is."

The inspector said "That looks rather hard to read. Can you please get a pen and make that letter a little clearer." in response to which the attendant did just that.

"FALSIFICATION!!" the inspector shouted. "That entry was made three days ago and you just changed it!" following which the station owner received a citation and a fine.

The entrapment committed by that inspector was described to me, a mere youngster at the time, as a caveat from an experienced old hand. I never forgot that lesson.

Paper Shear Blade - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

The following are several advertising images of paper shears. Each device is attractively presented with its blade arm lifted up from its resting position. However, leaving the blade arm of an idled shear up in that position is VERY dangerous. The blades of these things are sharp.

Figure 1            Paper Shears

One day, I saw someone get hurt. The person's right hand happened to brush against a shear's blade which was raised as seen in these images. The result was a nasty cut with quite a lot of bleeding. The cut didn't require stitches, but a sizeable bandage was needed.

The point is that these things deserve better respect. If you use one, when you finish, be sure to lower that blade arm back DOWN to its resting position with the blade thereby shielded from inadvertent contact.

Absolutely never leave the blade arm of a paper shear in a raised position.

Compelling Bait - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

In the last few weeks, I have noticed an upsurge in the daily number of e-mails coming my way with Subject lines that are designed to urgently compel me to open the messages. Maybe one or two might be legit but I do not believe so. Rather, I see them as malicious, malware bearing and not having originated from their ostensible sources, some of which I have cited below.

Please look these over:

These messages sometimes come in with red exclamation points to indicate how important they are. If you see such stuff in your in-box, my sincere advice is to delete those messages. You can always check up with UPS or FedEx or a department store or a utility company or .... via legitimate channels if maybe you were actually expecting a delivery of something.

Don't fall prey to something like this.

 

The Bean Counters - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I came across an item on Microsoft News of  "The auto world's greatest missed opportunities" by Richard Dredge and found at this URL:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/the-auto-worlds-greatest-missed-opportunities/ss-AAHczgV?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=oie9fvrt

The article was a summary of automobiles that had failed to live up to their potentials for a variety of reasons. I was quite struck by some of the comments I came across. A few examples:

As sarcastic as it may sound, I blame mismanagement by "The Bean Counters". In the mind set of making everything cheap-cheap-cheap, product sabotage is too often the end result.

Reading In The Waiting Room - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I found myself in my oncologist's waiting room this morning sitting near a magazine rack from which I sought to find something to read. What I found were many copies each of WebMD, WebMD Living Better, Cure, Advanced Lung Cancer, Living With Cancer, Cancer Today, Coping With Cancer, Oncology, Time Health and there among all those advisory publications, there was one single copy of Woman's Day Fall Food.

I didn't read any of them.

I have been told that all of those cancer magazines are good to have there because there is so much to be learned from them and I don't quarrel with that perspective. However, I would also like to find a copy of The New Yorker or New York or Popular Mechanics or Smithsonian or Scientific American or Time or something other than a medical journal in order to be able to find some respite and diversion, to digress, from the intense focus on C-A-N-C-E-R!!!

I am very fortunate that my particular blood cancer hasn't yet presented me with overt symptoms and that it may never do so. I have been very carefully instructed as to what regimen I must follow to cope with it and I follow that regimen quite precisely.

Quite frankly though, monomania does not appeal to me.

Brain Food - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I passed by a shelf of food supplement products the other day and I noticed that some of them purported to improve mental functions. There were claims of improving memory, of clarifying thinking and so on. I got curious about what their ingredients might be and found that no two of those products contained the same things. I took snap shots of their labels and later put their various key ingredient names into Google.

A few snippets of the results that came up were as follows:

Apoaequorin

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1486/apoaequorin

Problems with calcium regulation in the human brain are thought to play a role in age-related mental decline. Because apoaequorin has a similar structure to human calcium-binding proteins, some researchers believe it might help regulate calcium in the brain and reduce memory loss and mental decline.

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Ginkgo Flavone Glycosides

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/supplement-guide-ginkgo-biloba#1

Ginkgo improves blood flow to the brain and acts as an anmtioxidant. These effects may translate into some benefits for certain medical problems, but the results have been mixed. Some studies have found that in healthy people, ginkgo might modestly boost memory and cognitive speed. Other studies have not found a benefit.

Terpene Lactones

https://www.agilent.com/cs/library/applications/5991-3856EN.pdf

Ginkgo biloba extract is derived from the leaves and seeds of the ginkgo tree, one of the oldest living tree species in the world. The herb is used to improve memory, treat depression, and maintain healthy blood circulation. Terpene lactones in the extract inhibit platelet activating factors to improve blood circulation. The extracts are standardized to contain approximately 6% terpene lactones. Ginkgo biloba is regulated as a dietary supplement, not a drug.

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L-Theanine

https://www.healthline.com/health/l-theanine

Research indicates that L-theanine promotes relaxation without drowsiness. Many people take L-theanine to help ease stress and unwind.

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1053/theanine

Some people take theanine by mouth for anxiety and stress, depression, schizophrenia, for preventing Alzheimer's disease, for treating attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and improving mental performance and attention.

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Phosphatidylserine

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/phosphatidylserine-uses-and-risks#1

Several studies suggest that it may boost your brain power. People who took the supplement scored higher on short-term memory, mood, and concentration tests. For example, they could better recall names and objects. Much more research is needed to confirm these results.

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Silk Protein Hydrolysate

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5852809/

The consumption of a specifically prepared silk fibroin protein enzymatic hydrolysate (FPEH) has been reported to improve cognitive function in healthy humans.

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My personal sense is to avoid all of these things because phrases like "... some researchers believe ...", "... these effects may translate into some benefits ...", "... might modestly boost ...", "Some people take ...", "Several studies suggest ..." and "... has been reported to improve ..." strike me as lukewarm praise of anecdotal reports.

I need firmer science than that.