Hostess

Hostess continues in limbo. They said they were shutting down last Friday, but a venture capital group over the weekend has apparently made a bid to buy the company, Today we learn the shutdown has also been delayed as the union and Hostess are still taking. Personally the only things I would notice gone is the Wonder bread and powdered dough-nuts. I seldom use their bread but have good memories from a field trip when I was in about 2nd or 3rd grade to the Wonder bread plant in Washington DC and watching bread made. However with both these products I use other companies products often. I never have been a person to eat the Twinkies or Ding Dongs, etc. When I was in Walmart last night I looked on the bread aisle to see what products if any from Hostess remained. I only found one which is ironic. They still have loaves of Hostess fruit cakes. I did not look to see if they say what year they were made.

What to expect today in election

This election seems to have many parallels to twp previous elections, 1980 and 2000. Up until the debates it appeared ti be Obama's to lose, since then it has changed. An incumbent who is either just leading in the margin of error in the polls or not leading is a good indication that the incumbent will lose. The polls fro several weeks now have shown neck and neck. In 1980 Carter was leading up until the debates and was still \very close in polls to the election. Yet Reagan came in at last minute and trounced Carter in electoral college. I think this election has headed the same and is very likely to be the same by time we go to bed tonight. In another close election in 2000 Gore won the popular vote and Bush won the electoral college. It is possible with the closeness that tonight could turn out the same \way but with the parties reversed. I am quite confident that if that happens we will not hear fro next four years from the democrats that Obama is not a legitimate president as they claimed (and some still claim) on Bush. However I think is is unlikely. I do not expect electoral college to change as it was put there for small states and they would block a constitutional amendment. However we may see more states move like Nebraska and Main and distribute electoral college votes by popular vote. It is the individual states who decide how the members of electoral college are chosen. Until now it is winner take all in most states. Th third possibility as we have seen the states that were toss-ups increase and some move from Obama to undecided we could end up in a tie and this would lead to probably the most awkward outcome since we switched from electing a president and #2 in balloting was vice president (which did not work well). Then the House will elect the president (since Republican controlled and 1 vote per state Romney would win) an the Senate will elect the vice president and since Democratic controlled Biden would win. That would be interesting watching them work together. I expect the House to stay Republican controlled and the Senate will be narrowly controlled by Republicans. In local races here in NW Georgia it has been interesting with a strong write-in campaign for the commissioner of Walker County (even covered by Wall Street Journal, the night I helped run political forum they had a reporter at it) and write-in for sheriff in Catoosa County. The sheriffs races I expect to won in both counties by the Republicans. In Walker I think Campbell will come close on write-in but will fall short as many will not do a write-in. If you have not voted I encourage you to go vote. I early voted a few weeks ago. If you do not vote you don't have much right to complain about what the politicians do as you had opportunity to help decide. If you vote and decide person you voted for is doing lousy you participated and you can tell people what they do wrong (and right) complain about them, just as if person who won was not who you voted for you can say they are doing wrong and right. As Americans we get to decide who our government is as opposed to many parts of the world.

Voter photo-id Chicago

Did you watch the video of President Obama early voting this week in Chicago? He had to produce a photo-id to be able to vote (he joked about not looking same as it due to gray hair). Illinois requires photo-id to early vote. Why is it that other states trying to require photo-id from people voting are being told it is wrong and being opposed by the Obama administration but yet that is the law in Illinois for early voting. Why they only require photo-id for early voting but not for voting on election day I am not sure. I have heard of no one convicted for fraud in early voting by mis-representing themselves but there have been a few cases on regular election and with absentees. The Chicago election web site (http://www.chicagoelections.com/page.php?id=68) says: "Usually, ID is required to prove the voter's identity and residency at the address of the registration. Here are the most common situations: 1 Any time a voter uses Early Voting, the voter must present a government-issued photo ID such as a current Illinois driver's license, a current state identification card issued by the Illinois Secretary of State or a current passport. This is a requirement under Illinois law. " Why is it ok for Chicago to require photo-id when people early vote to prove the voter's identity but people (including the Obama administration) say it is wrong for Georgia to require photo-id from me when I early voted today. Another observation from the two voting experiences (Obama and me) is he was filmed going in and voting and the signs when I voted said cameras and cell phones were not permitted. Last someone might tell Obama it is permissible for him to tell how he voted, it is not allowed to demand a person tell how they voted.

Free online classes

Yes, there are a number of colleges now offering classes online for free. In most cases these classes do not count toward degrees, but there is talk of trying to start doing that. In many cases they will give you a certificate for completing the course and in some cases you can apply for continuing education credit. This gives more people an opportunity to update themselves in areas that interest them. Political science and computers have always been a large interest for me (my undergraduate degree was political science). Classes cover all kinds of subjects. All types of colleges are offering these including Hillsdale in Michigan, Harvard and MIT among others. These classes are often the same as the credit classes taught at the college or at least by the same instructors. www.coursera.com is the clearing house for many of these colleges. You can normally do the work at any time during the week or often they are archived and you can do at a slower pace. I learned about Hillsdale College’s (www.hillsdale.edu) course on the Constitution (101) thru an email from them and I took a course in the spring and got a nice certificate. I am now taking Constitution 201 from them and starting next week a history class on early western civilization history. These are very professionally done. The James Madison’s Montpelier Center for the Constitution offers free classes on the Constitution also at http://learn.montpelier.org In addition Microsoft has started the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) which has a large number of Microsoft classes available for free. They are available about a number of different types of Microsoft software. I have enrolled there and am talking a class on IT Connectivity and will do an introduction to Server 2012 next. Currently Microsoft keeps a record of you completing the classes but plans to start issuing certificates soon. You will also see these classes referred to as Massive Open Online Courses or MOOC. The possibilities of what you can take and where is growing daily.

A 1 hour hike adventure

Saturday afternoon having stayed in NW Georgia I decided at 4:30 to go to Villanow and go hike back in Johns Mountain Forest and find Keown Fall. This was to be a 2-3 mile hike. I drove my pickup there and did the hike but the falls was never on the trail, although one hollowed out area I suspect is where the falls should be. Having a lot of rain earlier in week I assumed it would be running. It was to be a 1 hour 2-3 mile hike. I got back to the truck and the truck would not start and I was only one left in the parking lot. There is no cell tower close so my cell phone did not work. A one hour hike now begins looking like Gilligan may have been along (the professor was there, me) and I am stranded. I put on my jacket and started walking to Villanow probably 8-10 miles away where there is a convenience store. Checking my phone constantly I discovered I had cell coverage leaving the National Forest. I called AAA and about one and half hours later they appeared. In the meantime a former student who lives near there, who I had texted, showed right behind tow truck. By that time it was dark. I heard a flock of turkeys go by but only 2 pickups in all that time. AAA took me to truck and he got in and it cranked. My former student followed me back to Lafayette. a one hour hike of 2-3 miles had turned into 5 hour adventure with the 2-3 mile hike and then 4 miles walking on the road. Pictures of the hike are at http://dwightwatt.shutterfly.com/23570

What to expect today in election

This election seems to have many parallels to twp previous elections, 1980 and 2000. Up until the debates it appeared ti be Obama's to lose, since then it has changed. An incumbent who is either just leading in the margin of error in the polls or not leading is a good indication that the incumbent will lose. The polls fro several weeks now have shown neck and neck. In 1980 Carter was leading up until the debates and was still \very close in polls to the election. Yet Reagan came in at last minute and trounced Carter in electoral college. I think this election has headed the same and is very likely to be the same by time we go to bed tonight. In another close election in 2000 Gore won the popular vote and Bush won the electoral college. It is possible with the closeness that tonight could turn out the same \way but with the parties reversed. I am quite confident that if that happens we will not hear fro next four years from the democrats that Obama is not a legitimate president as they claimed (and some still claim) on Bush. However I think is is unlikely. I do not expect electoral college to change as it was put there for small states and they would block a constitutional amendment. However we may see more states move like Nebraska and Main and distribute electoral college votes by popular vote. It is the individual states who decide how the members of electoral college are chosen. Until now it is winner take all in most states. Th third possibility as we have seen the states that were toss-ups increase and some move from Obama to undecided we could end up in a tie and this would lead to probably the most awkward outcome since we switched from electing a president and #2 in balloting was vice president (which did not work well). Then the House will elect the president (since Republican controlled and 1 vote per state Romney would win) an the Senate will elect the vice president and since Democratic controlled Biden would win. That would be interesting watching them work together. I expect the House to stay Republican controlled and the Senate will be narrowly controlled by Republicans. In local races here in NW Georgia it has been interesting with a strong write-in campaign for the commissioner of Walker County (even covered by Wall Street Journal, the night I helped run political forum they had a reporter at it) and write-in for sheriff in Catoosa County. The sheriffs races I expect to won in both counties by the Republicans. In Walker I think Campbell will come close on write-in but will fall short as many will not do a write-in. If you have not voted I encourage you to go vote. I early voted a few weeks ago. If you do not vote you don't have much right to complain about what the politicians do as you had opportunity to help decide. If you vote and decide person you voted for is doing lousy you participated and you can tell people what they do wrong (and right) complain about them, just as if person who won was not who you voted for you can say they are doing wrong and right. As Americans we get to decide who our government is as opposed to many parts of the world.

DNSChanger

Last weekend there were scary stories in the press where the FBI was saying DNSChanger is gonna kill the Internet on July 9, 2012. It is not infected everyone and the good antivirus and antispyware programs that people have kept updated have detected and cleaned it. Here is a story that I think presents a decent approach and explains why it was overblown. I have read these people articles for many years and gotten many tips from them on Windows and Office. http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/dnschanger-is-not-the-end-of-the-world/ Dwight

Microsoft Skydrive

Microsoft's Skydrive is their program that gives you storage on the cloud. With it you can store up to 7gb (gigabytes) of information free that can be visible to just you or select others or the public. You can put all types of files there. If you have large files to share this is one way to do it. Also with Skydrive are versions of Microsoft applications called Office Web Applications or OWA. If you signed up with Skydrive in the past, you need to go back in your account and take advantage of a free offer. You use Windows Live ID to log in so you probably are still using the login elsewhere, but it does have a password reminder. It uses your email address as username. When you go in Skydrive you will see on the bottom left where it tells you that you have 7gb of storage. If you click on that, you will go to page with upgrade options. You can buy additional space here. Now for the nice freebie. For a limited time (they do not say how long) there is a free upgrade for existing Skydrive users to upgrade to 25gb free. Google has also introduce their cloud storage which only gives 5gb of storage and works with Google Docs. it is called Google Drive. If you store items in their format they do not count in the 5gb. Skydrive and Google Drive are two additional options to backup some of your stuff and also to be able to access anywhere. Dwight

The impossible dream

I have accomplished the impossible dream or climbed the tall mountain or accomplished the labor of love. Tonight I scanned the last of my uncle Sam's 23240 approximately slides. I have scanned all that are developed although he has a roll to be developed and a roll in the camera. I still have to edit most of them to then put on DVDs for his family and get prints for him. I have done the editing on about 3000. I started doing this project in September 2006 and finished on April 4, 2012. My cousins have called a labor of love for several years. There were times I wondered if I would finish in my lifetime, but I have reached the first goal. Now to do the editing and make the DVDs. His collection of 23000+ slides covers 60 years an dare in amazing good shape and the slides look like new after I scan and quick edit. Most I scanned as TIF (uncompressed) format and then edit to JPG with a auto color on most. A few needed a red or blue tint removed. Dwight

Five years at GNTC

Last week marked my fifth year as an instructor at Georgia Northwestern Technical College in Rock Spring Georgia. The time has been marked by a lot of good things and also by a couple not so good events. Overall it has really been a good five years. In 2007 I was hired as a database specialist instructor at Northwestern Technical College. Since that time a number of changes occurred in my job title and the name of the college. The first fall I was teaching 2 hours a day at Chattooga County High School in Summerville. I taught A+ preparation to a group of high school students that year. During that year my job on campus evolved from database instructor to networking instructor when the adjunct Cisco instructor ceased teaching. Since I was already an approved/certified Cisco instructor I could teach the classes with no additional training needed. I also picked up the Windows networking classes partly as part of database and then as the networking program. I initially taught traditional in-person classes and now have evolved to where most of my classes are on-line and rest are hybrid. In 2009 the college merged with Coosa Valley Technical College and became Georgia Northwestern Technical College. After being hired as database instructor I was chosen at the state level to head the database curriculum committee in the state teachers organization which maintains the curriculum standards. When I moved to networking the instructors from the state chose me to head the networking curriculum and I still hold that chairman ship (the joke at the state meeting in February was the only way I can quit as chair is to either retire or die). Since I have been at GNTC I have made a number of friends on the faculty and with students and former students. I have participated in several activities at the college including being on the faculty volleyball team my first year (we will not discuss our success, but lets leave at we finally won a game in our last match and had a perfect record in matches). I also took a blacksmithing class at GNTC which was real interesting learning. When i started at NTC we were using Blackboard as our on-line CMS. Then abruptly one July we switched to Angel where we are now, but expecting change in the future. I served as a trainer for Blackboard and Angel for a while as I had administered Blackboard at HGTC. I still get faculty questions on how to do stuff in Angel. I have added lots of videos and audio lectures to my on-line/hybrid classes as I have learned a pocket recorder really works well for doing audio recordings of my lectures and since it is digital it is simple to transfer to the PC, edit and upload the lectures so on-line students benefit and hybrid can listen again if they want. I have received additional certifications since being at GNTC including MCT, MTA, Adobe Photoshop, Critical Thinking and just a few weeks ago five certifications from BrainBench. We had a good snow winter 2011 that closed the college a week but the other years not much snow and this year never saw any. I lived thru the tornadoes a year ago that devastated much of the area, but stayed in air when went over my apartment. Two years ago I saw the major flooding we had as I had to drive thru water about a foot deep top get back that Sunday night. This year and next year I am serving as chair of the library advisory board, and had not served on a library advisory board before. I enjoy the scenery and the weather and the people in the area and have become involved in First Baptist of LaFayette last year and enjoy the Wednesday night programs including Bible study and dinner. I was in their Run for God program last year. I am active in the Fort Oglethorpe Kiwanis serving on the board of Directors and as webmaster. Although the club meets in Georgia it is in the Kentucky-Tennessee District and for the past two years i have served as editor of the district newsletter, K-T Notes, after serving about five years as technology chair/webmaster for the Georgia Kiwanis district. My first teaching job in Georgia was in Brunswick (southeast) and it looks like i will finish my career at the opposite corner of Georgia in the northwest Dwight

pictures out west

The pictures from my trip out west last July are now posted at http://tripwestjuly2011.shutterfly.com There are also some videos there which are not edited. I also have the pictures with me in them (leaving out pictures I am not in) in a separate folder if you don't want to look at all 2000+ pictures. There is also a folder with just pictures that Carl is in (Carl Bramell went with me). Dwight

volunteer of month

Last Sunday it was announced at Swainsboro First United Methodist Church (membership about 600) that I was volunteer of the month for October for my work on the web page, running video presentation system, sound technician, lay speaker, emailing bulletins weekly and Sunday school teacher. For those of you not sure what a lay speaker is, that is a person who is not a minister who speaks at church.

single logon

An article at CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/15/tech/web/government-online-id/index.html?hpt=hp_t3) today reported that the USA federal government is trying to develop a single logon for the Internet. The idea is that individuals will no longer have to remember lots of logons and passwords. The thinking is also that this will make the Internet more secure. This proposal by the Obama administration that is being developed has a number of problems. This is not the first time that a proposal has been proposed like this. Private industry has tried it before. There are concerns on our security information kept in one place and by the USA government. Does any body remember this was already tried by Microsoft and it flopped. Windows Live is the remnants of that. The program was called Microsoft Passport. You were going to be able to set up an account at Microsoft and log in anywhere. The approach remains with Windows Live for Microsoft websites, but most other companies and individuals did not want Microsoft having this information. Few companies trusted Microsoft and the people did not trust Microsoft. Yes the government has my address, name Social Security number, and drivers license but drivers license is at the state and Social Security number is at the federal government. Why would I trust my security to the USA government? I could just let the police have keys to my house and I will call them when I want in. Would I feel secure? No. Interesting enough the federal government passed a law several years ago that no longer allows agencies, state governments, etc to use a single identifying number everywhere, your Social Security number. How likely is it that the rest of the world is going to agree with doing a centralized logon that is developed and maintained by the US government? Can you see the Chinese lining up to join in, or how likely would the US join in a Chinese developed single logon? For it to be single logon the Internet it would have to have all countries participating. The Internet is not just in the USA contrary to what politicians think and it is used by all the world and the USA citizens access sites outside the USA all the time. What happens when someone hacks the federal database (and it will happen) and everything you have done that is on the Internet becomes available to the hackers. Not just accounts at one bank but all banks, all credit cards, payroll records, etc. This is truly big government that will then ruin everyone. The economy will tank and make the Depression look like nothing . This is not something the government should be doing and it is a waste of our tax dollars. This should be dropped by the government. Dwight

Bucket Lists (Watt Thoughts)

Bucket Lists (Watt Thoughts)
It has gotten popular to talk about bucket lists or what things people intend to do before they die. Life dos not tell us how long we have so we may have short or long lives and we really can’t plan for which as accidents occur and cause unplanned untimely deaths.

After having taken a major trip last summer out west I have had lots of people say that must have been on my bucket list and what else is on it. Given that and seeing untimely deaths close to me recently I have reflected back on what goals earlier in life were and how well have I done.

Thinking back to high school and college and as I was looking at what I hoped to accomplish in life these are items I remember. A few will be noted as high school or college as they changed then.

1. To see all 50 of the states in the USA
2. To get bachelor’s degree and probably master’s degree
3. To teach biology (high school)
4. To teach about computers (college)
5. Be a successful computer person (college)
6. To write a book
7. To write a newspaper column
8. To travel internationally
9. To do some type Christian ministry including preaching
10. To make enough money to do things want to do and to help others
11. To have wonderful close friends
12. To succeed in politics in some way
13. To do lots of photography
14. To do some type of art

So how have I done?

1. I have been to 49 states and flown over and taken pictures of the one I have not touched which is Alaska. I am pleased with that it is accomplished. I may set foot in Alaska still, but the mission I accomplished.

2. I got a BA in Political Science in 1977 from Winthrop University and then got a MBA in 1979 from Winthrop. In 1983 I got the opportunity to enroll in a doctorate program at University of Georgia and Georgia Southern. In 1989 I earned my EdD thereby going well beyond my education goal. In 2007-2009 I took 3 online graduate courses in computers at Georgia Southwestern toward a graduate certificate in computers but did not complete other the classes. I was busy with consulting work and teaching fulltime.

3. I gave up on the biology teaching idea in college when got into computers. However when I moved in current office at GNTC I sort of completed this one as I am sharing the office with the biology instructors and am across the hall from the biology lab.

4. I have been teaching about computers on the college level since 1979. I have taught programming to microcomputers to networking to database to Internet. I have served on the Georgia statewide committee of CIS technical college instructors as an officer for most of the past 20 years that develops and maintains the state curriculum. I am currently chair of networking and was just re-elected for 2 more years last week. I have served several times as overall chair and also as chair of the programming, microcomputer specialist and database areas.

5. I have done computer consulting on a part time basis since 1979 and di that successfully on a full time basis from 2005 to 2007. I worked as computer operator/assistant programmer back in 1981 at Sea Island and was a Senior Programmer Analyst for PMSC in 1996-97. From 1981 to 1996 in addition to teaching at Swainsboro Tech I developed and maintained their IT structure including writing a multi 100,000 line COBOL program for student records and also did programs for payroll, accounting, etc. I networked the college. I have developed and maintain web pages for a number of organizations starting in 1995 and continuing to now.

6. I have authored one book Structured COBOL for Technical Students which was published by Prentice Hall in 1996. I also have co-authored a book on reviewing for the A+ exam which was published in 1997. I also wrote my dissertation which was printed in hard back form in 1989. In addition I have gotten to serve as a reviewer for a number of technical books and some fiction books also.

7. My watt thoughts article that I started on the Internet back in 1997 has been published at different times in a number of newspapers. I started a question answer article a couple of years ago that is published in the Swainsboro Forest Blade, Walker County Messenger and Catoosa County News each week. I also did a column for about 5 years on technology about once a month for the Georgia Kiwanian. For the last 2 year I have been the editor of the K-T Notes (newsletter for the Kentucky-Tennessee Kiwanis) and do a short article in it.

8. I traveled in Mexico and Canada and the Bahamas in high school and college. In 1999 I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Brazil. In 2005 I got the opportunity to go to China with a group of presidents of Georgia technical colleges which was a really neat but busy trip. So I have been half way around the world.

9. In high school I had the opportunity to preach several times on youth Sunday. For the past 20 years I have run the sound system at my church which included recording on cassette tape for many years although now on the computer. I put many of those sermons on the church web site. For the past 6 years or so I have also run the video system at church which puts words and notes on screens in the sanctuary which helps many people to follow the sermon or read words to scripture and songs. I have taught Sunday school for about 20 years and for many years was every Sunday but now about once a month. I have been a conference Certified Lay Speaker for the United Methodist church for a number of years and fill in for ministers at several different churches. In addition I speak at the Sunday night service at my church about once a month. I have gotten lots of opportunities to speak in SE Georgia. I also do the web site for two Methodist churches and send out their bulletins each week by email to members.

10. Although I have never made huge amounts of money I have always made enough to do the things I want to do and to be able to help others. I support several ministries and charities and help individuals. I have been able to travel and live a comfortable life. I have also had a couple times where money was tight (fall 1980 when I was unemployed it got down to pennies literally to pay rent and I was doing any type job including cleaning after banquets, cleaning houses, cleaning racquet ball courts including the locker rooms so I have literally cleaned toilets.

11. I have had a number of wonderful friends over the years that I have done lots with and have learned to love and have gotten loved. My friends have been there for me in the good and bad times and meant a lot and I hope I have been the same for them. Who knows how many people I have helped move and how many times people have helped move me. They have listened to me at times and me to them and we have also shared the high moments of life.

12. I majored in Political Science in college. I ran for a number of offices in high school and college serving as student government treasurer in high school and college. Although I won a number of races I also lost my share, but getting my message out was fun. In Jaycees I served on the local level in a number of positions including as president of my club that had about 75 members. I went on to the state level and served as district director, region director and as a state VP. I also served in a few appointed positions. On the national level I served as national representative for the Shooting Education (gun safety for kids) program for three years and traveled to a number of states. In Kiwanis I have served as an officer in 2 different clubs and served as technology chair for the Georgia Kiwanis for about 5 years and am serving for the past 2 years as editor of the K-T Notes for the Kentucky-Tennessee Kiwanis. I am pleased how I have done politically on the local to national level being able to serve people. I have also held positions on local and state levels in several other groups.

13. I sot tons of pictures using film for many years. I shot about 1000 slides and lots of prints. In 1999 I started shooting digital and have shot 10s of thousands of pictures. Last summer while assisting with the DNBBGCM (Daisy National BB Gun Championship Match) I shot about 100 pictures which you can see on their web site and I have done that several years. I also shot about 2000 pictures during July on my trip west. (I am still working on them as I shoot in raw format and then do basic editing to them to get exposure correct). They are at http://tripwestjuly2011.shutterfly.com You can also look at many of the pictures I have shot digitally over the years (and a few show on film) at dwightwatt.shutterfly.com You can see the 1000 or so pictures I shot in China there

14. Although I have never seen myself as an artist I have done a number of different artworks. In college I did some paintings. Since then I learned to do stained glass and did a number of pieces an have several pieces in different stages of development. I learned to blacksmith a few years ago and have done a few items by blacksmithing. I also learned to do molten glass and did some neat things but never have done any more. I have also done lots of photos that I have put in art shows and am proud of the art touch.

I have accomplished the many things I set out to do and if you notice I am still doing a number of them like being elected last week to networking chair again. I am constantly learning new stuff in computers and technology and lots of people showing me things. Working on my trip pictures last night reminded me of several things Michelle had taught me to do when working with my pictures. I continue to shoot pictures and am doing some videos now. I shot a number of one minute or so videos last summer on the trip and at match but have not looked at them yet or posted them but hope to do so soon. The newspaper column gets harder coming up with different topics after over 120 of them.