Other Stuff Articles
Beam Me Up Scotty
January 18, 2006
CUE THE MUSIC. Enter Rod Serling stage left.
Imagine if you will, a land of both shadow and substance; of things and ideas, beyond which is another dimension; a dimension of shady government operatives exercising mind control. Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction…or so a few crackpots would have us believe.
If you have spent any time at all surfing the World Wide Web you already know that the Internet is rife with conspiracy, urban legends and half-based theories so crazy they make your head spin. This one, however, takes the cake.
In a few dark, secluded corners of the Information Superhighway there are some who believe (are you sitting down?) cell phone towers are being used by the United States government to perform something called electromagnetic psychotronic mind control on its citizens. According to the sources of these accusations, electromagnetic psychotronic mind control is a form of Orwellian mental enslavement. That said, those of us who are responsible for developing cell sites are soldiers in the army of the New World Order.
The author of many of these outlandish claims, Ken Adachi, says “every single day, equipment is being erected and installed in this country with the hidden purpose of exerting mind control over (an) entire population.” His web site, called Educate-Yourself, reveals how these electromagnetic, psychotronic mind control devices really work.
It should be pointed out that Adachi has also written numerous articles about UFOs, the U.S. military invasion of Mars, and other odd topics, all of which are equally (if not more) delusional and never before covered on 60 Minutes.
Sadly though, Adachi’s views are not alone. Yet another web site claims towers were rapidly installed across the United States in the months leading up to the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election in an effort to influence the “thoughts and decisions of American voters” and ultimately the outcome of the election. Some were even disguised as flag poles! Yet another kook claims cellular telephone technology is the mechanism behind a mind control weapon first developed by the Nazis in World War II (and perfected by the CIA in the 1960s.
Surprisingly, the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) has yet to comment on these issues. ■
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Separated By Language
January 16, 2006IN AMERICA WE CALL them "cellular towers." In England they call them "phone masts." No matter what the language, someone is always going to hate them and fail to remember exactly how beneficial they may be. ■
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Value Engineering
January 15, 2006VALUE ENGINEERING USES experience and common sense to find and eliminate unnecessary costs and wasted time.
SkyLink Networks doesn't just engineer antenna sites the old fashioned way. We use creative thinking to achieve the best overall project value for our clients. That's what value engineering (VE) is all about.
VE is the philosophy of using common sense and technical knowledge to find ways to reduce or eliminate unnecessary costs and/or time on a project. SkyLink Networks embraces this systematic approach, which identifies each function, establishes a value for those functions, and generates alternatives using innovative thinking.
VE reduces cost and time by eliminating wasteful practices. SkyLink Networks uses VE, along with competent analysis and superior management to maximize results and increase value for our clients. ■
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Management by Objectives
January 15, 2006A MANAGER'S FAILURE TO CLEARLY communicate values, objectives, and principles will see their project end in defeat.
Micromanagement is often considered a curse word in the wireless industry. And while micromanagement does have its pitfalls, we know the devil is in the details.
SkyLink Networks uses a practice known as management by objectives (MBO) to help successfully navigate through every site development project. MBO achieves the same results as pure micromanagement, but without de-motivating personnel and creating resentment.
MBO is a process where everyone consents to the aims and purposes before a project ever begins. Client, management and staff will develop and embrace all of the objectives before setting out on their new mission. All too often managers will fail to outline the processes and goals for its team. This does not happen at SkyLink Networks. We produce a written description of each objective to help minimize miscommunication. It is also a way to precisely measure a project from start to finish.
SkyLink Networks works closely with you to identify the critical paths to success, establish priorities, and use parallel processing to achieve results as quickly as possible. Because we know you are motivated by your concern for the details, we make managing those details our primary concern. ■
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Grass Roots Zoning
January 13, 2006A SUCCESSFUL ZONING EFFORT requires a vast knowledge of the industry, an effective presentation, and the skill to deliver it.
SkyLink Networks believes education and honesty are the best tools in the fight against the not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) mentality. We have spent many years improving our grass roots approach to zoning; a process that has consistently produced results and won praise from clients and zoning officials alike.
We know the zoning timeline can have a huge impact on your build plan and greatly affect your project's cost. That's why we give special attention to the zoning process and the way we manage it.
It is our belief that any successful zoning effort requires anticipation and preemptive diligence. We anticipate any potential opposition when selecting proposed antenna sites. We also prepare for any objection so we are better prepared to neutralize and defuse those objections when they occur.
When necessary, we enlist the support of people who live near existing antenna facilities. Once they may have had objections, too. Often, however, they are willing to tell their neighbors and friends about their positive experience. We also use expert testimony, neighborhood meetings, and petition drives to achieve our desired results. In other words, when we step into a meeting room we make sure the deck is stacked in our favor.
Our zoning presentation are unrivaled in the industry. Modular in design, they are easily tailored to suit any situation, in any community, at any time. They provide planning officials with the information they need, but they also anticipate objections before they arise. And when those objections do occur, our agents can immediately provide talking points, reports, newspaper articles, and statistics to blunt any reasonable concern.
Simply put, our grass roots zoning approach is well equipped to overcome the most difficult concerns that face our industry today. ■
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Making Friends by Telephone
January 11, 2006I FOUND THIS INTERESTING (and historical) publication online. Some of you may enjoy reading it. Published by Ma Bell in what must have been the 1930s, the document gives instruction how to use a telephone and proper etiquette when doing so.
I wonder if an updated version would prove helpful these days. ■
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Calling All Phonies
December 28, 2005
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT cell phone users couldn't annoy technophobes any more than they have already; along comes a study by Rutgers University and the Washington D.C. based Ethics and Public Policy Center, which claims many cell phone users aren't actually having a conversation with a real person on the other end at all.
According to the study a significant number of cell phone users fake calls just for the benefit of those of us within earshot. That's right; people are using the cell phones to impress or deceive others. For example, a man might fake a conversation on a cell phone when approaching a single woman in the bar. The woman, on the other hand, might be having an impromptu conversation with her faux boyfriend just to be rid of the man. It seems cell phones have become a prop for social deception.
I have witnessed this phenomenon once or twice, most recently at a poker tournament. I was sitting at a poker table waiting for the tournament to begin and some 40ish, nondescript businessman pulled out his cell phone, dialed a few numbers, and put the headset to his ear. Sitting right next to him, it was difficult not to notice what he was doing. And in poker, observation is everything.
Bill Lumbergh, as I'll call him, began chatting about an "important client" and another "six-figure deal" he was closing, making it seem like it was oh so common. But Lumbergh wasn't speaking to anyone at all. How do I know? Other than his hokey story, he didn't press the 'send' button after dialing the telephone number. No, he didn’t just press one digit and hold it for a few seconds. He actually took the time to dial several numbers in a row. I am sure it was a ploy to impress (even scare) the other players at the table. I hoped he held his cards like he held his cell phone.
I don't find it surprising that some people use a cell phone as a prop to impress or deceive others. Before cell phones became a ubiquitous fashion accessory and status symbol, people used other inanimate objects to accomplish the same goal. The automobile and television are some of the other tools that have been used by imposters to dupe the unsuspecting. Cell phones, because they can be found in every purse and pocket, are just more convenient.
By the way, I beat Lumbergh's pair of queens with my ten-high straight and knocked him out of the tournament. For his sake, I hope he doesn't try that feeble stunt again any time soon…unless it’s against me. ■
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You Are What You Eat
December 28, 2005
A WOMAN IN Blue Springs, KS nearly swallowed a cell phone this week. How, you ask? Originally the local police seemed to think the action was voluntary. But after further investigation they have come to the conclusion that the woman was a victim of assault and not just a hungry cell phone customer.
“It appears she didn’t voluntarily swallow this phone," said Blue Springs Police Sgt. Allen Kintz.
Thanks for clearing that up, Sergeant.
I wonder what kind of a cell phone it was. Can you imagine trying to consume an old Motorola DynaTAC? Then again it might have been a Motorola Razr. Doing so, however, may have proven fatal. ■
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Fast Facts
December 16, 2005
JUST A FEW FUN FACTS I thought I would pass along to you. Please forgive me if I do this from time to time:
• Jimmy Carter was the first president born in a hospital.
• The U.S. military's specifications for making chocolate covered brownies and oatmeal cookies is 26 pages long.
• Antarctica doubles in size every winter.
• The significance of the number 21 in a 21-gun salute comes from adding the digits in 1776.
• The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table of Elements is the letter 'J'.
• The microwave oven was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. ■
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What Are Feeds?
December 10, 2005ACCORDING TO CNN a single issue of The New York Times contains more information than what a person living in the 17th century would digest in a life time. Getting through one's E-mail is daunting enough, let alone surfing through all of those Web sites. News feeds aggregate news and information and delivers it to you. You may subscribe only to the sources you want, and then filter those results using keywords.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS), as it is called, is free and very simple (hence the word ‘simple’ in its name). If you don't already use news feeds to get your information on the Internet, you should consider it.
Once you know what type of newsreader you want to use, return to this page and use these links to subscribe to the feed. Some of the most popular news readers are: Awasu, FeedDemon, NewsGator, Pluck and RSSReader.
Personally I prefer using Bloglines.com. It is a web-based aggregator that doesn’t require downloading any software. If you are new to this and want a very simple explanation of how to get started using Bloglines.com, I encourage you to visit this site. It gives a very simple explanation on how to get the most out of Bloglines.com.
Another popular online tracking tool is PubSub. Yet another option is a blog search engine such as Technorati or BlogPulse, both of which will allow you to keep and maintain watchlists on a variety of different blogs.
If you want to read more about blogs and news aggregators, you may be interested in any (or all) of the following web sites:
• Bloglines
• Betterdays
• Contentious
• Six Apart
• Wall Street Journal
• Weblogs, Inc.
Happy blogging! ■
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Just-In-Time Resourcing
December 03, 2005EVEN THE BEST LAID PLAN CAN FAIL if a company doesn't have a large cadre of qualified personnel working in the right level of their organization. To overcome this obstacle SkyLink Networks uses just-in-time resourcing to staff large projects.
Our just-in-time strategy makes resources and personnel available just as they are needed in the site development process; not a moment too soon or a moment too late. This proven method has resulted in increased efficiency and decreased costs. SkyLink Networks is quicker and more agile than its competitors because it uses this technique.
SkyLink Networks can quickly notify its agents, determine their availability, and immediately deliver them to you with a minimum amount of effort and paperwork. This dynamic approach to resource management assures that a constant supply of key personnel is always available when you need it.
Perhaps best of all, just-in-time resourcing ensures that you pay only for the personnel your project needs--not for excess overhead and those staff used by other clients. ■
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Welcome To Our Blog
December 01, 2005
We take this plunge into the so-called blogosphere seriously. Our blog will reflect the personality of SkyLink Networks and it will hopefully inform as much as it entertains. It's no secret that most web sites in our industry can tend to be a tad staid and unadventurous. We have chosen to take a different approach. We feel this blog will be a wonderful tool to edify, humor and inform our clients, co-workers and friends.
We plan to offer some insight into our company and the people behind the scenes. We hope our blog will be a tool that breaks down some of the barriers that naturally exist between a company and its customers. We hope you find the pages of our blog as entertaining as they are useful.
I will be the primary contributor to our blog. As President and founder of SkyLink Networks , I am excited about this project. I have worked in the wireless industry for over 15 years and now I'm in charge of one of the area's fastest growing site development firms. This blog will be an excellent way to shed some light on our fine firm.
While we will not have the ability to publish on a daily basis, we will post something at least two or three times a week. Check back often; you may be surprised to see what you read! ■
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