[BC] The October note

[Barry Mishkind]

Thanks to all of you who read BROADCAST, and especially those of you 
who participate to make this a positive force in the industry.

Yes, we have a lot of lurkers and a few who have only gripes to share.

Lurkers: please feel free to join the discussion, and share your 
thoughts. We will not have a flamefest. This is a gathering of professionals.

Gripers: Howdy ... we know there are problems in the industry ... but 
we are going to have to be realistic.  When we point out problems, 
there needs to be a plan/mechanism to change things. Merely bashing 
one company or another will do no good. The multimillionaires are so 
above us that they don't even notice the ants on the ground. They are 
more interested by far in "shareholder value" that it is true, many 
do not deserve the title of "broadcaster."  In fact, many are not 
broadcasters. The eschew the label.

How to foster change?  I've made some suggestions over the years, and 
I hope most have seen them as positive ones.   On the other hand, the 
engineering community as a whole is hardly a cohesive group.  Finding 
a solution and implementing it has even eluded the SBE.

Two quick notes about the list itself.

1. Some posts have been delayed recently. I am, if you didn't know, 
in England, and do not have internet access every day.  In fact, I am 
again sitting in the street, grabbing some WiFi (they call it wiffy 
here) from my friends neighbor.  Why I couldn't get this in the house 
is another question, and one reason I won't recommend this 
directional WiFi card I am using.  (The other is a crummy attitude 
from their marketing people, and poor service.)

2. Why are posts delayed?  Two main reasons. Those of you who post 
after reading the archives, are not subscribers.  The mail server 
sees that and thinks it might be spam and holds it until I can log in 
and verify the posts.

The second reason has to do with subject lines. Sometimes the topic 
moves quite far from the original theme, and the best way to "Fix" 
that is to temporarily stop that thread and change the subject line. 
Sometimes I forget and the subject is still being "caught" a while 
down the road. (and there are some subject titles that the mail 
server blocks and I have not yet found out why!)

There is also one more reason, when affects a small number folks whom 
I"ve written privately. This is usually due to either excessive 
commercialism, nasty posts, or another issue that seems to me 
important to discuss. Those who feel they can post anything they 
want, anytime, just because they can need to go elsewhere.  You will 
do it once, and then we will have a "dance."

This list is intended to be a pleasant conversation among friends in 
my "living room" ... if you share that objective, we welcome you with 
open arms (You CAN disagree without being unpleasant) ... if not, 
thanks for reading!

My best to all from the UK, home of some great beers!

barry





_______________________________________________________________________
Barry Mishkind     -       Tucson, AZ    -   520-296-3797