Most people are unfamiliar with Electrograph Systems.  They were one of the largest distributors of flat panel products in the United States, if not the largest.  Today, they are liquidating all of their assests.  They are another victim of the global recession that we are currently experiencing.

Electrograph was founded in 1982 and they were a national distributor of technology solutions, including plasma displays, LCD displays, LCD and DLP projectors and other specialty displays. The company specialized in display, audio, connectivity and other complementary technologies for both the consumer and commercial markets.

I used to work in this industry and had extensive dealings with the people there for many years, all of whom were top notch.  I feel sorry for them because they are now looking for work in a contracted economy.

I can see the parallels between the technology/consumer electronics industry and the auto industry.  While the auto industry is getting all the headlines, the consumer electronics industry is suffering just as much.  In a recession, as I have mentioned in previous articles, people tighten their purse strings and only buy essentials.  Businesses work much the same way.  Flat panel televisions are considered luxuries, and as such they will not be purchased during tough economic times.

Normally, I would have posted my thoughts immediately following UFC 98, however I was dealt a severe bout of food poisoning that put me on the shelf yesterday.

UFC 98 was not too bad.  The main event was spectacular, which generally makes up for any fights on the undercard that do not live up to par.  Evans vs. Machida was a great main event, and superceeded expectations due to the fact that both fighters are counter punchers.  Neither fighter’s style is geared to pushing the action, yet Machida took the fight right to Evans and ended up the victor.

Machida was a bad matchup for Evans due to his style.  Machida is a karate fighter, who is very difficult to hit.  He takes approximately one punch every 2.5 rounds, which is unheard of in MMA.  His striking is very precise as well.  Combine these skills with a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and you have the making of a very dangerous, elusive fighter.

Machida’s next opponent in the octagon will be Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.  After being dethroned in a controversial decision by Forrest Griffin, Rampage has two solid victories and deserves a shot at the title many believe he shouldn’t have lost.  In so saying that, Machida is a very bad matchup for Jackson due to his elusiveness.  Jackson will be Machida’s toughest test to date.  Jackson has very good wrestling and is extremely strong, however none of that will do him any good if he can’t hit the champion.

Machida’s style revolves around creating space between his opponent and counter punching.  It is pure art, watching him work his magic.  In my opinion, the only styles that would give him problems are those that want to close with him fast and put him on the ground.  A judo fighter or greco-roman wrestler would be an ideal foil for Machida’s style.  Randy Couture, Dan Henderson (as long as he could give up his tendency to want to strike) or maybe Hidehiko Yoshida would be interesting matchups for Machida down the road.

In other bouts, I do not understand what Sean Sherk was thinking when he decided to strike for three rounds with Frankie Edgar.  Sherk has world class wrestling skills and they should have been on display for this match.  Not using them cost him the match.  Edgar has no ability to defend the takedown (see his match against Gray Maynard) and Sherk could have ground and pounded out a win in this match.  As he is one of my favorite fighters, I hope that he reviews the tape of this match and comes back strong, mixing his rapidly improving boxing skills and wrestling ability.

In the co-main event, Matt won.  Matt Hughes, that is.  After two long years, Matt Serra and Matt Hughes finally threw down in a very competitive bout.  Hughes won a unanimous decision, but this fight could have gone either way.  It was very close.  Serra had trouble dealing with Hughes size, and didn’t have the length or the time to attempt any submissions.  Hughes is smothering on the ground, yet could not do any meaningful damage to Serra.  After the fight, Hughes and Serra buried the bad blood between them.

In other fights, Tim Hague subbed Pat Barry with a sick guillotine, after taking a beating in the opening minute.  Good for him (have to cheer for the Canadian boy).  Brock Larson executed a sick arm-triangle choke against Mike Pyle.  Drew McFedries blasted Xavier Foupa-Pokam in the opening minute to claim a knockout victory.  Krzysztof “The Polish Experiment” Soszynski (another Canadian kid) knocked out Andre Gusmao in the first round.

UFC 99 is being held in Germany, with the main event pitting Wanderlei Silva against Rich Franklin.  In addition, Mirko “Cro-cop” Filipovic returns to the octagon after a year in Japan.

I just finished reading the book A Writer At War, by Vasily Grossman.  Mr. Grossman was a front line correspondent during World War II for the Soviet Union, and this book is based upon the notebooks he used while interviewing and observing.  The book was compiled and translated by Antony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova.

Grossman was a Soviet Jew who was able to create vivid images with words.  His ability get even the most hardened Soviet Officers to speak was remarkable.  His articles were candid and vivid and did not cater to Soviet censorship or politics (Though when printed, some of his articles were altered by his editor).

He covered firsthand the battle for Stalingrad, and the Soviet pushback through the Ukraine, Poland, Kursk, Berdichev, Treblinka, and finally Berlin.  The chapter on Treblinka was the highlight of the book for me.  It is absolutely sickening to know what kind of animals the Nazis were.  While Grossman’s death toll estimates are not accurate, the bottom line is if you kill 6,000,000 or 4,000,000 or 2,000,000 people, you’re still a monster.  This article, known as “The Hell of Treblinka,” was presented as evidence during the Nuremburg trial.

Grossman is more famous for is other novel, Life and Fate.  Life and Fate describes the siege of Stalingrad.  The novel was finished in 1960, but it was declared subversive by the then Soviet government and banned.  Twenty years later, it was smuggled out of the Soviet Union and published with critical acclaim.  I have yet to read this book, but it is now on my list.

Thirty four games into the season and the Toronto Blue Jays sit atop baseball with the second best record.  Only the Dodgers are better.  Who would have guessed?   Toronto leads the league in hits, runs, and batting average, and their pitching is up near the top as well.

While the hitting has been surprising, it’s the pitching that has me wondering.  Besides Roy Halladay, the starting pitching has been a patchwork of veterans and rookies throwing great ball.  Nobody, be it the fans or the experts, expected this.  Cito Gaston himself said that this would be a tough year and that it would be 2010 that the Jays would be better.  Maybe its the return of Paul Beeston…hrmmm…

The Jays play in the American League East, which is home to both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.  Both of these teams draw upon tremendous drafting and a no-ceiling budget to create contenders year after year.  Furthermore, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are exceeding all expectations as well.  On a shoestring budget they managed to make it all the way to the World Series last year.

The Blue Jays do not have a shoestring budget.  They are in the middle of the pack with respect to finances, but play in the same division as baseballs two largest fat cats.  Such is the way things are, however.  I remember way back when the American League East was known as the American League Least.  Not anymore!

Go Jays Go!

Fox News is at it again.

President Obama like Dijon mustard on his burgers and they have a problem with this.  What a complete waste of time.  Who give a flying fuck if the mustard is not made in the United States?  It’s mustard!

Already I have wasted far too much precious time and space on this nonsense.

Grow up Fox News.  Constructive criticism please.  Stop wasting valuable newspace on shit like this.

Insurance companies are in business to make money.  Insurance is a commodity that people buy.  In Ontario and many other places, it is the law that you have to have insurance if you wish to drive.  As a consumer, it is your job to shop for insurance to get the very best price that you can.  In this industry, shopping around can save you hundreds of dollars a year.

Insurance companies have it good because they do not have to provide a product.  In essence, they are selling a commodity based on something that may happen.  The odds of you getting into an auto accident are very slim, and the chances of you being injured are even slimmer.  In so saying that, if in the event that you are injured, the insurance companies are supposed to provide coverage for these costs.

The forthcoming changes that have been proposed Financial Services Commission of Ontario Report on the Five Year Review of Automobile Insurance (March 31st, 2009) aim to change the legislation as it currently stands.  Some of the highlights are as follows:

•  If you are unfortunate enough to be in a car accident, your cost coverage for medical rehab treatments will drop from $100,000 down to $25,000.  These treatments include but are not limited to psychology, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and drug treatments.  None of these are covered by OHIP.  Once you go past the $25,000 allocated, you will have to burden the cost of these treatments yourself.  Needless to say, your premiums will not be reduced any.
• As it currently stands, should you be involved in an accident and require home maintenance support, housekeeping, or caretaking, these costs are covered.  The insurance industry wants to make these services optional.  Needless to say, your premiums will not be reduced any.
• One of the proposals in the report is to have your family doctor manage all of your assessments and treatments.  While I personally do not have a problem with this, I am not in the medical field.  However, those who are in the medical field would understand better the amount of red tape that this creates.  Citing an example from the e-mail that I received, if you need a new pillow based upon a recommendation from your occupational therapist, your family doctor will now have to fill out a mountain of paperwork to get it processed.
• With the new legislation, the insurance providers independent examiner (ie, their doctor) will have the final say on any treatment that you need.  It will not be a doctor of your choice.  You have the right to chose whatever doctor you wish, but should the insurance company disagree with the treatment they will be able to send you to a doctor of their choosing who will have the final say.

I would like to think that I am an informed person, but I knew nothing of this until my cousin sent me an e-mail yesterday.  The FSCO will decide which recommendations to pass into law on May 15th, therefore that is the cutoff date to make your voice heard.  To that end, here is a link to a letter that you can send to Premier Dalton McGuinty.

In a future article, I will post some strategies that you can use to save money on automobile insurance.  Never assume that the insurance salespeople are acting in your best interest.  Their motivation is not altruistic, it is profit.  The more you pay, the more commission they make.  It is really that simple.

Recently, I was afforded the opportunity to pilot a new piece of software called NetSupport.  NetSupport is a remote management and monitoring software that can be installed transparently on any number of PC’s.  It offers up a number of different features from firewalling to remote monitoring (also known as “shadowing”) as well as the opportunity to broadcast messages, lessons, or videos to multiple PC’s from a single station.

The software was very easy to install, and network deployment was seamless.  I had the software installed and configured on both the host and remote pc’s within an hour.  It is a small program, approximately ten megabytes.  Once installed, I explored the program and read through the documentation.  The documentation available is excellent.  Weighing in a 280+ pages, it is easy to follow and thorough.  There are multiple screen shots throughout the manual.

The software also gathers real time hardware and system data.  We can pull the information out into a table as necessary, which is great for inventory purposes.  The training module is something that I still have to explore in depth, despite it not having any applicable value from an Information Technology perspective.  From a teaching standpoint it is the crown jewel of this program.  Not only can you lock the client computers down so that they can only browse the websites that you want them to see (or alternatively, you can block any website), but it does full screen capturing and monitoring.  You can see what every PC is doing at any given time.  You can also lock the computer, shut it down, or reboot it as you see fit.  For paranoid micro-managers who feel the constant need to monitor their staff, they will love this software because it can be easily configured in such a fashion that the end user will never know that it is running on their PC.

The training module also allows the person in charge to develop and remotely deploy lesson plans on the client PC’s.  The end users can follow along as the instructor uses NetSupport to enhance his (or her) lessons.  This is the one piece of the software that I need to work with more to get a better grasp on how to use it.  Some of the features include streaming out audio and video to the PC’s, documents or photos.  Additionally you can instruct on one PC if someone needs assistance, or engage in two way chat (or more, depending).

The remote administration module is where I spent the majority of my time.  Once installed and configured, the I.T. manager can view or assume control of any PC on the LAN or WAN.  We can acquire system and software specs remotely, take full control of the client PC, deploy software, and of course monitor everything going on.

The company is based in England, and their website is http://www.netsupportmanager.com/.  As for cost, I could not tell you but I am sure it ranges depending on the number of PC’s that would have the client installed.  I have been working with a volume license for the entire company, as we have 81 separate locations to manage.