What would you do to live in California? by Tony Green

Bridge over Donner Pass

Recently I went on a business trip to Reno, Nevada. I live in the San Francisco Bay area so my driving route would require the use of Interstate 80 East over the Sierra Mountains.

I had never made the drive but knew during winter chains were required on any automobile making the trip which is part of the reason why I postponed my overdue face-to-face reconnection with my client base.

 I started my drive on a sunny 75 degree day in Pleasanton and passed through Sacramento rather unceremoniously. The temperature began drop as the sun dropped below that horizon and the elevation rose to over 7,000 feet at the summit of Donner Pass.  I glanced as the snow covered peaks and the rugged terrain of densely packed forests with nothing around. This would be not a good place not to break down.

Sure enough as I drove further towards the Nevada border I noticed a Greyhound bus which had broken down off to the side of the road.   The vehicle seemed to be DOA as the passengers stood in the parking area watching the process of offloading its contents take place. 

I thought to myself, "There isn’t a damn thing out here, and with the mountains my chances might be even odds your mobile phone would work. What a lousy place to get stuck.....

This made me remember when my daughter mentioned the Donner party in 1848 that became stranded in these very mountains without food and shelter trying to immigrate to California and happened to be unlucky to get caught in unprecedented snowfalls.

As history recalled the parties decided to make the trip by wagon and at many places had to cut their way through trees to make way for their wagons.

As I looked I thought how could this occur? I am not sure it would be possible make the crossing with a proper gear and training on my own, nonetheless with wagon and children and in many ways not knowing where you are. 

Many of the people happened to be wealthy and had productive lives on the East Coast where they began their journey. At initial glance the arduous journey seemed like a lot to go thorough just to get to California.

The premise was to settle to California which its mild climate and abundant resources. Wait a minute, where had I heard that before?

In recent times the weather, culture, and high standard of living make California an ideal place to live and raise a family. Why should this not have been the case 150 years ago?

About bidding by Tony Green

The bid process in the utility industry

Every new position and industry supports new processes which differ from those used in the past. My entry into the utility industry would be no different.   The type of selling I have experienced involved an item or service being quoted and the prospect had the option to accept the proposal after negotiating the terms.

The bid process, in contrast to what I had grown accustomed to, where the interested parties submit bids for an item and the utility chooses which party is awarded the work based on their bid. The winner is usually the party with the lowest price for the service. American utilities use this process, as it was described to me, reasoning the public must get service at the cheapest possible price. This is well and good but why there must be multiple bidders, when just one will win? In many situations, where a lot of bids are submitted for a certain items which the bid process is very involved; a large waste of time and effort is expended for the losing parties.

So I could not help but to be surprised on one bid once I reviewed the paper work and read a clause stating the winner was not mandated to be the bidder with the most expensive price. This implied the practice of not awarding to the lowest bidder was the exception and not the norm.

Typically, a utility sends specifications to producers of the equipment, who design their product to meet the specifications, estimate the cost, and submit a bid. Bids, by and large, cover not only the equipment, but also services such as transportation and installation, as well as warranties.

Although price is a significant factor, utilities’ purchasing decisions may also be affected by a number of other considerations, such as efficiency rating, the manufacturer’s failure rate, its on-time delivery rate, other aspects of its past performance, lead time, freight costs, and warranty.

Purchasers usually conduct one round of bidding. In general, utilities evaluate competing bids on the basis of their “total ownership cost” or “evaluation cost.” In most cases, buyers do not discuss the bids of opposing firms with the manufacturers. 

Bearing in mind the goal of getting the best price, a few months ago a Korean manufacturer of power transformers were cited by the Fair Trade Commission for “price dumping” power transformers in the American market. This occurred after many of the large American based transformer manufacturers submitted an official compliant. Ultimately, a tax will be implemented on their products for the amount that they were judged to be deliberately under pricing their product lower than fair market value. 

Why should this be a surprise to anyone in the American utility industry? Did the Koreans play their own game better than they did?

One year since Japan’s tsunami and we still don’t get by Tony Green

Image of large waves coming ashore

One year has elapsed since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off of the coast of Japan which resulted in the unprecedented tsunami which struck the Sendai region causing over 20,000 lives to be lost. Seven years ago an earthquake and resulting tsunami in Indonesia killed over 230,000 people. After these two mega disasters it would seem logical that any viable knowledge which would save lives when these disasters occurred would be supported in earnest.

The technology designed to American safeguard lives consists on a network of buoys which would relay information about any waves as they raced across the ocean. The first six were installed by National Oceanic and Aeronautical Association (NOAA) in 1996 and was later expanded to 39 after the 2004 tsunami. These high tech devices, tethered to the bottom of the sea, line the Pacific and Atlantic oceans measuring water pressure changes and the movement of the sea floor. Any abnormalities will be transmitted to satellites which are then used to create tsunami alerts. These buoys proved very successful in predicting the time and height of the waves which arrived in Santa Cruz California after last year’s tsunami.

Thus I was alarmed to hear the Tsunami buoy warning system whose purpose is to protect the West Coast against tsunami would be getting decreased funding in Obama administration’s 2013 budget. I guess our lawmakers were not satisfied that the investment made, amounting to $400,000 for each buoy, worked exactly as designed.

The scenario makes me think if the government had known what would transpire in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina whether Congress could have found the funds to sure up the levees against the inevitable direct strike of a major hurricane.

When will the government act on the painful lessons learned after these calamities from not being prepared? Will they ever get it?

What no virus protection for my Smart Phone by Tony Green

Image of Smart Phone

I received an email from Comcast Xfinity, my high speed internet provider, the other day informing me their software had detected a “bot” on one of the computers which access my high speed connection. I checked my laptop for viruses using Microsoft Essentials {which I would recommend using for free before paying either Norton or McAfee} which came out free on any malware.

At this point I realized since the last year my wife was using her IPhone and our children were using their IPod Touch’s to surf the Internet.

Surely, I could find some free or cheap software designed for smart phones to protect against Internet intrusions. Interestingly enough, solutions existed for the Android operating system but not Windows or Safari browsers. Does this sound crazy at the rate people are buying these devices? More ever folks are using these mobile devices for more often for important functions such as banking and on line purchases.

If I were a hacker I would design a virus design for the IPhone and try to infect peoples home networks created with wireless routers with inadequate firewall protection.

Enough of my rambling, back to the problem, how can I ensure my families smart phones stay virus free? From the times I picked up viruses on my laptop and my desktop computers I did not have desire to address lost data and applications with my smart phones.

All this is another confirmation of the fact if you own any smart device with Internet capability then every bot, virus, or Adware created has possible access to all of your Internet ready devices. How you address this fact is up to you.

Slam dunk for the NBA and all people with a dream by Tony Green

Jeremy Lin on the cover of Time Magazine

I was viewing the NBA game of the week while I having some maintenance completed on my Minivan. The Knicks were playing the Mavericks on the national televised game. Once I took a quick glance around the waiting room it amazed me how all of the Asians showed a vested curiosity in the game. I later realized this was not because they happened to be fans of the NBA but to see Jeremy Lin in action.

The interest of Asians in the NBA is not a new thing in my view. I remember during my time in the Semiconductor industry I went to Taiwan on business trip and I took note of the popularity the NBA enjoyed in Taiwan and China from the life size posters of several NBA stars and their uniforms many teenagers wore with pride.  In fact, the only sports you will find on their equivalent of ESPN are football (not NFL but English Premier League) and basketball.

However, this was in Taiwan, a half of a world away and not in the United States.   The interest level in the game is testimonial to the marketing ability of the NBA which has done a fantastic job of exposing its sport to audiences outside of its normal viewership. The end result will create a global following on the league and its players. How can that be bad for business?

I cannot give the NBA credit for creating this Jeremy Lin story as a marketing ploy to expand interest in basketball, particularly to Asians. Jeremy Lin has, in part, done this to himself through his hard work and perseverance. Undoubtedly with a Harvard degree the NBA, in all probability, is not his solitary opportunity to make a good living. Clearly becoming a professional basketball player is something he wanted to do and went for it by putting the effort and believing in his abilities. I feel this is a take-away we could all take note of while watching a basketball telecast on a Sunday afternoon.

Image courtesy of

http://network.yardbarker.com/nba/article_external/jeremy_lin_nabs_time_magazine_cover/9974944