Homemade masks may help curb spread; not protect against infection

I asked a fellow ToastMaster if making masks at home and donating them would be of value since they are not N95. More on that later.

We all see the medical personnel wear simple masks and people around the world wearing bandanas, handkerchiefs, etc. I assumed that they would help even if by reducing risk by 10 percent.

While fabric masks are not to be used in the care of COVID-19 patients, according to the CDC, fabric masks are a crisis response option when other supplies have been exhausted

While waiting for the reply, I realized something far more important given that few of us are tested - assume that you are infected. The Asians show us how to thwart the spread as a civic duty!

Time Magazine

I am not refuting Dr Fauci (thank goodness for his leadership)

While masks may block some droplets, Fauci said, they do not provide the level of protection people think they do. 

But, I am checking locally with feet on the street! Or, with our war fighters on the front lines. So, back to Chandler, AZ and my fellow ToastMaster. Here is what she said:

Covid has completely turned my world (out patient medical imaging) upside down...

I’ve had to make tough decisions that a few short months ago I never thought we’d have to make.

This past week, we set up a sewing shop in our business office conference room and produced 400 hand made masks for our employees. 

In addition, we’ve received donations from our patients etc.

...My sister also works for a behavioral health hospital that would graciously accept hand made mask donations.

No doubt, most of you are doing your part in this war against COVID-19 (restaurant gift certs, food bank donations, etc.) but if you thought of homemade masks, well, the above is a data point that could spur you to ask your local health facilities and know for sure.

Social distancing is the most violent action we can take against this and here is something else you could do to help in your spare time :-)

UBER for Vets And Others

What's this?

Imagine the following

1. Single parent needs one of the friends to give a ride to their kid(s) to/from school.
2. Vet needs a ride to VA Hospital or the nearest mall.

Their choices are

1. Call UBER/taxi
2. Call Friends and ask
3. Go on WhatsApp to their network for friends?  Or, their group of car poolers/drivers that have offered to help?

Can we make it better?

1. What if taxi was cost prohibitive like it is for most on a fixed income?
2. What of calling friends and playing tag takes too long?
3. Would WhatsApp work? What if you are new to the area or would like to reach out to trusted parties for help?

Imagine now that there is an organization that serves the person since they belong to a group.  Here is what I think it could look like but I need help to see if it makes sense and is viable.

Single parent is part of a group of school parents that they trust. 

• They can the rideShare App and ask those parents via the App for a ride.  
• And, they can add  their trusted circle of neighbours, friends, family but this set of folks are not part of the "trusted parents from school" group.  
• But, both get the request. 
•  First person to respond with a confirmation wins and others get to know that the request was fulfilled.

Imagine that the VA verifies (background check) a set of volunteers in the Valley. 

• They are part of the RideShare Program.  
• Any other VA could come to this group and ask for a ride.  
• Any volunteer that can meet the need can respond and everyone else would know that the need was met.

Would people use this?  Would it be of value?  Let me know.

Helping hands for Vets

There are several different ways that people go out and help their local community, people in their state/country/world.  I am saddened by -  http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-investigations/2016/10/04/inspector-general-rips-phoenix-va-hospital-again/91554300/.

And, then I saw - http://www.operationwelcomehomeaz.com.  This organization wants to build a memorial wall and then an area for families to meet.  But, is there something else that can be done? 

Imagine if you will...

A Vet wants a ride to go to somewhere.  How do they reach out to someone for help?  An 'UBER for Vets' concept. 

So, can we build an UBER for vets where the Vet has a trusted network and the drivers are trusted by this vet or by the Operation Welcome Home folks?  Wouldn't it be great to have an app that facilitates

 the above?

Want to help build that?  I am starting slowly but looking for help.

Digital Everywhere

The mobile apps got here 3-4 years ago when I benefited from a better app from the airlines and hotels.  But, what about becoming digital?

We see it now with mobile checkin, mobile wallets and MFS (http://www.millicom.com/what-we-do/mobile-financial-services/).  And, of course, the Apple and AT&T experience where the clunky POS is long gone.  Yes, Apple Pay has now made payments digital.

The next frontier is the Connected Car, Digital Home and IoT (though aren't the first two examples of IoT?). These are cool technologies (Zetta from Apigee is unique amongst many but I may be biased):


But, they are building blocks!!!

Digital starts showing up when external 'apps' start working  with my ecosystem to help me


Now, we can see how the world will change and it won't be because of the 'app' in your pocket!!

IPtables on Centos 6.3

Tomcat 6 on CentOS 6.3 installation is a breeze...lots of how-tos out there:

• http://zscribble.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/install-tomcat-6-on-centos-6/
• http://newpush.com/2011/10/how-to-install-tomcat-6-on-rhel-6-or-centos-6/

But, why not mention IP Tables.

1. vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
2. #enter this line after the SSH line and NOT at the bottom of the file
3. -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 8080  -j ACCEPT
4. /etc/init.d/iptables restart

Now, you are set.

Coolest KnowNow Apps - Whiteboard

A long time ago (crica 2003/4) there was an app created to allow an energy broker to trade futures. This app presented on single page with the various futures that were traded in a grid format. The brokers could place bid/asks on behalf of their clients and close deals.

I actually saw this same page on a huge whiteboard at the energy brokers company.

What was awesome about this? That we have an AJAX application at that time and it was a business application used every day!

GoDaddy Windows + Wordpress won't work

This was a painful lesson.

1. Talked to GoDaddy and they say you can use WordPress w/ Windows account
2. Download was easy, setup was easy, and I could write new posts to the blog and create new pages.
3. Tried to change the configuration and that's where it fell apart.

I used K2, Tarski and the default Kubrick themes to test out if I could change options and none of them seemed to work. A few days of debugging showed that some of the options were not created in MySQL! Some more research showed just a slew of weird behavior :-(

Called GoDaddy again and they said "we don't support WordPress on Windows accounts!" Well, I sure wish they had told me that before I debugged PHP and the various themes!

So, DotNetNuke that will support the non-profit organization's web site. It actually downloaded easily and I was able to quickly create a site leveraging several different modules!

Yeah, I know - most of you are saying GoDaddy? Windows? Why didn't you use the LAMP stack that you know so well. I said non-profit organization, right? And, we have a custom ASP app that locked us into Windows.