The Common Sense Approach

I like John Stossel. I like his common sense approach. Just do what is right and forget about all the stinking politics. Last night I saw the second half of a 2 hour special he did on 20/20. Fear Junkies - Why Some of Us Play It Safe While Others Are Driven by Fear was thought it was an interesting piece.

One segment was about bicycle helmets. One guy did a study and it showed that if you wear a helmet that cars will drive closer to you when they pass by than they would if you weren't wearing the helmet. They also believe that you take more risks when you wear a helmet because you feel safer and more confident. In one area, the number of deaths went down when they enacted a helmet law. But the number of riders went down the same amount, so that doesn't mean much.

We live in the safest time in history, for the most part. Food and transportation are all much safer than they have ever been. Yet we're constantly scared of something. Scared of getting sick from under cooked food. Scared of a terrorist attack. Scared that our kids will get abducted.

The main reason we feel so scared is because the news pushes so much bad news out to us. Some people call it "info-tainment." Bad news sells much better than good news. The economy in the US is good and there are many other great things happening, but do you hear much about that? A summer or two ago there was a big shark scare on the beaches in the US. Some called it the "Summer of the Shark." The fact is that we had other summers with just as many shark attacks. What was different this last summer? There was no other big news. During those previous summers there was a hurricane or a presidential race or something juicy for the news people to report about.

However, with a despicable organization like North American Man/Boy Love Association on the prowl you have to be scared for your kids. So what do you do? You have to take precautions. Maybe you shouldn't go overboard and not let your kids play outside, but use your common sense. Do you get out of the rain when a thunder storm is coming? Of course you do. There is a chance, as slight as it may be, that you'll get hit by lightning. So you take precautions like getting out of the rain. Do the same with your kids. Watch them when they're outside. Make sure they know what they aren't allowed to do - stay close to home, etc. Search for predators in your area. Family Watchdog is a good place to start that search. Let others in your neighborhood know if one of these evil people lives close by.

On the other hand I can see some people's point of view that you can't be too safe when it comes to your kids. If you feel you have to restrict them severely to protect them then do so. You're the parent and its your job to protect them so do whatever you feel is necessary. But use common sense.

Its sad that kids can't be kids these days. But this is the reality and we need to deal with it the best we can.

Inventor of the TV Remote Control Dies at 93

News sites everywhere, including Information Week, are reporting that the guy who invented the remote control has died. Dr. Robert Alder died this week at the age of 93. He had a 60 year history of inventing all sorts of stuff, holding 180 patents.

I'm old enough to remember the Zenith "Space Command" remote controls on TV's back in the 60's. More recently he developed touch screen monitor technology in the 90s at Elo TouchSystems.

Brinks Home Security

The service and the equipment from Brinks Home Security sucks. In March 2005 I had an alarm system installed in my home. Most of the system is wireless, but a few components are wired. I've had several problems with hardware, but my biggest problem is poor service.

The Install: Most of the installation process was done very well, but two windows in the basement were a complete mess. The rest of the install was done so well and these two windows were done so bad that it didn't seem make sense. The only thing I can figure is that it was getting late in the day and the guy just wanted to get out of here. The windows flap down inwards when opened. The sensors were stuck on the window and the frame in such a way that when you open the window the two pieces would hit. If you forced it enough you would either break the glass or the sensor would fall off the glass. In fact, one of the sensors kept falling off the glass so I was unable to use my new $2,500 alarm system for the first few days.

The first attempt to fix the basement windows, two days after the initial install, didn't result in anything getting fixed. The guy really didn't do anything other than use better tape to stick the sensor to the window in the same location. It still hit the other sensor when you opened the window. I could not believe that a second guy would actually walk away with a setup like this in place. Its simply amazing how incompetent and/or uncaring these guys were.

After complaining loud enough they sent someone else out to look at it. I suggested how he might fix these windows by using a short piece of wire to mount the wireless sensor on the wood a few inches away from the window and its magnetic sensors. He used this technique and it worked well. He also walked around the house and used glue to attach all the other sensors since their double-sided sticky tape method wasn't secure enough.

Glass breakage detector problems: Things went pretty well for a little over a year until fall of 2006. We had some kids in the house during the holidays, running around and screaming while they played. This set off the glass breakage detector in the living room. It didn't sound the alarm because the alarm was not activated - it sounded the door chime which I noticed. We figured the detector was defective since we had kids in the house yelling like that in the past year and the alarm never went off. We were also worried that this faulty detector would set off the alarm when we were home (perhaps sleeping) with the alarm turned on. So we called to get someone out here to fix it. We got nothing but resistance from the service people on our request for service. They didn't want to come out. After several calls and insisting they come look at this detector they finally sent someone out. This gut didn't do anything other than say thats the way it works. I remembered back to the original installation the way the installer tested this detector: he hit it with his screw driver (which I thought was kind of strange at the time). I wondered if he had damaged the integrity of the device when he hit it with the screw driver. We called again and they sent someone out to replace the detector. The "new" detector they installed had screw driver marks on it, making me believe it wasn't new at all. But I wasn't going to complain anymore because it is so difficult to get them to come out and fix anything.

Door #2 problems: This is the door to the carport and the door we use most of the time to enter and exit the house. Around Christmas 2006 I set the alarm and went down the street to a local market. The alarm went off and the Cops were dispatched. I got a call on my cell phone and headed right home. The house was secure. Door #2 was still shut and locked. I let the Cops in and we checked everything out. Other than the hardware being faulty, their system also said that Door #2 was the "garage." It should have said carport or something a little more accurate. This is significant because we do have a detached garage without any alarm support. The Cop was looking around the detached garage insisting that is where the alarm came from. We confirmed that Door #2 caused the alarm and I asked the folks at Brinks to correct the name of that door to something like carport instead of garage.

But the poor service continued when we called to get someone to come out and look at Door #2. They said (and this is a true quote), "don't you want to wait for it to happen again?" We called several times and tried to get someone to come out but we finally gave up trying.

You should know that Brinks touts themselves as an IQ Certified installer. This is an organization committed to providing consumers a way to identify alarm companies that are proactively addressing quality and false alarm issues. Waiting until the second false alarm before they come out to fix their hardware is not what I would consider "proactively addressing quality and false alarm issues."

Door #2 problems continue: One day in Feb 2007 the entire family set the alarm, walked out of the house and got in the car. One of us forgot our glasses, got out of the car and went back into the house. The alarm was sounding. We were able to stop the Cops from coming this time but I'm sure if we had not decided to go back in the house that the same thing would have happened that happened back in December. We call Brinks for service and surprisingly this time they don't argue about coming out to fix their hardware. They told us they would be there between 1pm and 5pm (this is several days later). We asked if they could hold off until 1:30 and they said yes. We get to the house at 1:30 and they had already been there and gone, leaving a note on the door. So we had to call again and get them out the next week. They come out and check the programming, check the sensors and replace the battery on Door #2. I don't know why they don't replace the sensor on Door #2 instead of messing around. They wanted to just change the battery and see if it happens again. "If it happens again" they will replace the detector on Door #2. Does that sound like they're committed to the IQ certification?

Also, the alarm showed that Door #2 was the garage. These clowns can't even get the name of the door correct in their system.

You have to be able to trust your alarm system and right now we never know when we're going to be called back to another false alarm 15 minutes after we leave the house. In my previous house I had another alarm company and never had a single false alarm in the 10 years I was there. I should have gone with that same company this time, but I figured I'd try something different. Lesson learned!

I suspect that in March 2008 when my 3 year contract is up with Brinks that I'll be replacing this system with one from the company I was with before. An expensive lesson indeed, but hopefully anyone reading this review will hear my warning... stay away from Brinks and save yourself from learning the expensive lesson that I have learned.

More on Hand Sanitizers

To follow up on my previous post about hand sanitizers, it looks like The New England Journal of Medicine is reporting that two Maryland prison inmates got drunk one evening by drinking their hand sanitizer. Maybe the label should also say "keep out of reach of inmates." Don't the prison folks know that they should not be giving products containing alcohol to the inmates (don't forget that it's highly flammable too!). Do they give them large quantities of alcohol based mouth wash too?

I guess the parents that don't have enough sense to keep these products out of reach of their youngsters aren't the only ones with this problem.

Ban Conventional Lightbulbs?

According to this Reuters report, California is considering passing a law that will ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs. This is actually kind of exciting because it will really have a huge impact on energy usage and the environment and everything else that benefits from energy conversation.

The idea is to replace all incandescent lightbulbs with Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). A CFL uses about 25% (one fourth) the amount of energy that an old time incandescent bulb uses.

Some people are concerned because CFLs contain Mercury and when thrown in the trash they think it will cause a polution problem in the environment. But, companies are making progress in this area by reducing the amount of Mercury in CFLs (see Philips press release). And besides, apparently the amount of Mercury in a CFL is very tiny and doesn't cause a threat, according to the State of Michigan.

About 18 months ago I replaced nearly all the bulbs in my house with CFLs.