KZIONradio

Is your boss an idiot? – Aug. 27, 2003



Fortunately I’m self employed so I don’t have to worry much about having an idiot for a boss. But I once had a boss that held a conference call with all the managers he was responsible for, myself included. Near the end of the conference call he asked me and some others to drop off because our sales were meeting expectations. I decided to stay on the call and listen to see what the other side was like. He immediately went into the most abusive, threatening, tirade I had ever heard. I could not believe what I was hearing. It went something like this.



You @#$%$ people, if you don’t get your $#@$ together I’m gonna @#$#@ and @#$%$. I could hire my two-year old to do a better @#$%# job then you @#$#% people.



It was at that time I decided to start looking for other opportunities.



My favorite example of idiot bosses from this CNNMoney article is, “So, why are you the boss?” That was surely on the minds of staffers at one Web start-up when they attended a meeting held to introduce the new chief technology officer. According to one former staffer, the CTO had zero Internet experience, a fact made all too apparent when he walked into the meeting carrying the book,”Building a Web Site for Dummies.”

The Salt Lake Tribune—Mormon Cinema:Stick to niche,or cross over?



An informative article about three upcoming movies in the Mormon Cinema genre. The Legend of Johnny Lingo, The Work and the Story, and The Book of Mormon Movie, Vol. 1.



I’m really looking forward to the BoM movie. I hope they represent the story well.

Amishrobot: Angst In My Pants



Oh my gosh…this is one of the funniest blog entries I’ve ever read. I’m now a regular reader of Amishrobot.

According to CBS news the recording industry is being sued by a webcaster alliance of online music broadcasters, aka online radio stations. The suit alleges that the recording industry has inflated the rates they charge broadcasters to broadcast music over the Internet. Currently, the rate is 7 cents per performance per song.



“We have watched the RIAA’s actions… [which] have the effect of wiping out an entire industry of independent Webcasters who represent freedom of choice and diversity for Internet radio listeners,” Ann Gabriel, president of the Webcaster Alliance, said in a statement. “It is time for the RIAA to be held accountable for years of manipulating an entire industry in order to stifle the growth of independent music and control Internet content and distribution channels.”



For KZION, we play approximately 360 songs per 24 hour period. With an average listener count of 70 listeners, my daily royalty costs would be $1,764 per day! How in the world could any small broadcaster afford that! Most broadcasters on the Internet are not businesses, they collect a few dollars from listeners who are kind enough to donate a buck or two to help pay for hosting fees and bandwidth charges. Most small broadcasters pay from their own pocket more than they bring in. Why? Because they love the music and want to share their tastes in music with others.



Luckily, the artists I play on KZION are mostly independent and do not require a royalty to play their music. If they did, obviously I would have to shut down.



If you’d like to get involved with helping small webcasters fight for the right to remain online visit the Webcasters Alliance website listed below.



The Webcaster Alliance

There is just an amazing amount of press about the LDS member who was fired over not wining and dining as expected by his supervisor. See my blog entry U.S. Sues Bombardier After Mormon Fired below. I have been watching the news concerning LDS for a few years now and this story is all over the place.



US Sues Bombardier After Mormon Fired

Government says Dallas jet company discriminated against Mormon …

Texas Jet Firm Sued for Discrimination

Firm sued for firing salesman who doesn’t drink, smoke

Firing of Mormon draws lawsuit

Dallas Man Fired; Says It’s Because He’s Mormon

Aerospace firm sued for alleged bias

No smoking, drinking gets salesman fired

Fired salesman sues Bombardier

Fired for not drinking, suit alleges

Bombardier Accused Of Firing Man Based On Religion



And my favorite, Firm sued for firing ‘outrage’. Is this really a story that deserves this much attention? Heck, my son was fired for wearing a CTR ring…anybody got a number to a good attorney?

I just looked at my spam filter and here are my updated stats:



Since 4/20/2003 12:00:00 AM (128 days)



Total number of emails processed – 22,813

Number of Good emails processed – 9,280

Number of Spam emails processed – 13,533



You can see that the Sobig.f virus has been showing my inbox lots of love lately. Over 59% of all e-mail I’ve received is spam or a virus infected e-mail.



Overall accuracy 97.8%



My overall accuracy has gotten better. As I mentioned in my recent article on how to stop spam my accuracy was 96.9%.



I was browsing the spam folder looking to make sure a legit e-mail didn’t get caught up in my spam filter and I ran across this e-mail.



Hello,



I’m a time traveler stuck here in 2003.



Upon arriving here my dimensional warp generator stopped working. I trusted a company here by the name of LLC Lasers to repair my Generation 3 52 4350A watch unit, and they fled on me.



Since nobody in this timeline seems to be able to deliver what I need (safely here to me), I will have to build a simple time travel circuit to get where I need myself. While it might be hard to find parts in this time to build anything decent,



I need easy to follow schematics from the future to build one which is safe and accurate that will not disrupt the timespace continuum with both forward and backward capability accounting for temporal location settings (X, Y, Z, n), which can be built out of (readily available) parts here in 2003. Please email me any plans you have. I will pay good money for anything you send me I can use. Or if you have a dimensional warp generator available, and are 100% certain you have a (safe secure) means of delivering it to me please also reply with a secure way to contact you. Send a separate email to me at:



webmaster@custompaintshop.net



What in the heck is this? Is this guy serious or is this some kind of scam or elaborate marketing scheme for custompaintshop.net? I have no idea but I got a laugh out of the e-mail.

ABCNEWS.com : U.S. Sues Bombardier After Mormon Fired



Bombardier Aerospace Corp is being sued by the U.S. Government because they apparently fired a salesman who told his boss that he was a member of the church. The salesman said that his boss then told him that part of a salesmans job is “wining and dining customers,” and since the salesman doesn’t drink the boss didn’t think he could perform his duties. The employee then complained to his HR department and was terminated two days later.



“From Bombardier’s point of view, we don’t discriminate against employees, and any behavior like that is absolutely not tolerated,” said the spokesman, Steve Phillips.



“The company told the EEOC it fired Kolman for poor performance after selling three jets in 2001, he only assisted on sales of two used jets in 2002. Kolman said officials had assured him he would have three years to prove his worth. Nine of Bombardier’s 17 regional sales directors had no sales by then, Backhaus said.”



The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency who filed the suit. This piece of news is in almost every newspaper in the US and Canada. If this guy wins he probably won’t ever have to work again.

The Salt Lake Tribune—Coming Up: Music



If you’re in the Salt Lake Valley area and are looking for some great LDS music be sure to attend the fourth annual LDS Musicians Festival. This is an all day event beginning at 1 pm and running well into the evening.



“The free event begins at 1 p.m. with a songwriters circle on the lawn, followed by an afternoon showcase at 3:30 p.m., an evening showcase at 6 and headliner Maren Ord at 7. Also performing are Rich Bishoff, Steve Brown, Wayne Burton, David Edwards, Sam Payne, Rick Reeve and Stephanie Smith.”

The Sobig.F Worm is spreading fast. It has been declared the fastest e-mail outbreak ever. Sobig began appearing on Tuesday, just a week after a separate virus, ‘Blaster,’ wreaked havoc on computer systems across the world. In the past week I have received hundreds of e-mails infected with the virus. As always, never open an e-mail attachment you have received unless you know what it is and who it came from.



If you’re interested in viruses and how they spread there is an interesting article on F-Secure’s website about how the FBI shut down a new variant of the Sobig.F worm.



Some characteristics of the Sobig worm.



The “From:” and “To:” field of the email virus is filled with addresses found from the infected system.



According to F-Secure, the Subject field can contain: Re: Thank you!; Thank you!; Your details; Re: Details; Re: Re: My details; Re: Approved; Re: Your application; Re: Wicked screensaver; Re: That movie.



Attachment names can vary from: your_document.pif; document_all.pif; thank_you.pif; your_details.pif; details.pif; document_9446.pif; application.pif; wicked_scr.scr and movie0045.pif.

Found this in the members area of the Trillian website. See the MSN Messenger upgrade blocks Trillian blog entry below.



“As many you have read recently, MSN has decided to no longer support older versions of their clients. Within their announcement, they mention that some third party applications may be affected. Trillian Pro 2.0, which is currently in beta, supports the latest and greatest MSN protocols. The free version of Trillian will be updated in time to reflect the new protocol as well. If we hear anything from Microsoft directly, or find out any more information, we will be sure to let you know first.”



I’m a little skeptical but we’ll see…

Today the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English was released included were about 3,000 new words. Some of the new words added were Bada bing (an exclamation to emphasise that something will happen effortlessly and predictably), Reality TV, SARS, egosurfing (searching the Internet for references to oneself), Prairie-dogging (workers in cubicles who raise their heads above the partitions surrounding their desks to see what is going on), and my favorite new word, blog.

MSN Messenger upgrade blocks Trillian | CNET News.com



I have been using Trillian for a few years now and can’t see myself living without it



Trillian is an instant messenger program that allows me to connect to AOL, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and IRC all at the same time using one client. So handy, and uses less resources than if I had to run all of those programs separately.



Now, Microsoft has decided that they’re going to close out Trillian and not allow it to connect to the MSN messenger service.



“As of Oct. 15, users of Microsoft’s free Web-based MSN Messenger and its Windows XP-based Windows Messenger will need to upgrade their software to a newer version or be shut out of the service, the software giant said Wednesday. MSN Messenger users will need to upgrade to version 5.0 of higher; Windows Messengers customers will need to upgrade to version 4.7.2009 or higher; and consumers with MSN Messenger for Mac OS X will have to use version 3.5 or higher. The last MSN Messenger to be released was version 6. “



This effectively shuts down all third party apps including Trillian. “Microsoft is opening doors to discuss contractual agreements with third-party integrators, but would not give definitive assurances that Trillian users will be able to access their MSN contacts after the deadline.”



I guess there’s still hope…

KSL News: LDS Church Leader Blasts Same-Sex Marriage



At a recent devotional, Elder Ballard said that the church will stand firm on the topic of same-sex marriage. Not a surprise for members of the church.



He said the church and its leaders “must stand firm at this time when the adversary is using differing lifestyles in an attempt to replace the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.”



“Same-sex marriage threatens God’s plan of happiness for his children here and in eternity…”



Recently the Episcopal church allowed an openly gay reverend to become a bishop. The Evangelical Lutheran Church was in full agreement with the decision.



It appears that the Catholic church is remaining firm, “A top Roman Catholic official said last week’s approval of the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church poses ‘serious implications’ for relations between the two churches.”



Apparently the Episcopals have decided to overlook biblical teachings on marriage and homosexuality, “these decisions reflect a departure from the common understanding of the meaning and purpose of human sexuality, and the morality of homosexual activity as found in sacred Scripture and the Christian tradition.” Roman Catholic Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif.



Perhaps they should prayerfully read the Proclamation on the Family, “...marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of his children.”



What really scares me is if same-sex marriage is eventually accepted by society and we continue to see the disintegration of the family that this prophecy will be fulfilled.



“Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”



The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Locally produced Film headed to 6 festivals.



A new film has entered the LDS cinema movement. This one is called Saints and Soldiers and will first premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.



“The story is of a group of American soldiers in Germany in World War II, one of whom served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany just before the war.



“Karl Kozak, director of programming for the San Diego Film Festival, had high praise for the film.



“’I thought they did a great job recreating World War II, which is always a feat within itself for an indie film,” he said. “It’s a touching story, with a lot of camaraderie. It’s one of those stories that you kind of get lost in, it sucks you in.’



“If festival exposure doesn’t get the film bought by a major distributor, Little said they may go the route most other LDS-themed films have gone so far: opening in a handful of theaters in Utah, then spreading through Idaho, Arizona, and other places where there is a high concentration of Latter-day Saints.”

I used to give firesides on the topic of Creating a Celestial Plan. The fireside is inspired by a talk by Marvin J. Ashton called A Yearning for Home, a talk titled A Celestial Connection To Your Teenage Years by Richard J Maynes, and D&C 117:8. For years now I have wanted to develop the fireside even further into perhaps a book or website. I’m definitely not a writer as you can tell from my blog entries but I still want to develop this idea of couples and families creating a celestial plan for their lives.



So today I began outlining this subject and developing the topics further. I thought I might blog my notes as I develop the subject and explore it in depth. A lot of it may not make sense to you but there might be a take home message for some people in all of this.



I’ll blog my notes as they develop and feel free to contribute as I go along with this subject. The scripture references will always be first and then my notes.



Read the rest of this entry »

Lifestyle—His interwoven worlds



“How does a CEO for a major organization balance what he hears at church on Sunday with the realities of work on Monday? ‘Basically, I pray a lot,’ Van Johnson says.”



This is a really warm and delightful article about Van Johnson, CEO of Sutter Health, the largest employer in the Sacramento, Ca Valley.



“In this one, he is a high priest in the Mormon church, a leader in the local Mormon community who spends at least three hours worshipping every Sunday. For six years, he served as bishop of his ward. He gives at least 10 percent of his sizable income—$800,000-plus—to the church and donates many hours of his time to charities. He is known for his devotion.”



“For Johnson, reconciling his religious beliefs with his corporate responsibilities is second nature. On a recent day in his Natomas office, Johnson explained: ‘I follow the same core values. My religion is not something that comes up every day at work, and I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve. But my faith is fundamental to who I am.’



Brother Johnson’s youngest daughter choked to death when she was 3 1/2 years old. Then 6 months later their home burned down after a babysitter put smoldering ashes into a trash can.



“If there was ever a time in his life when his faith has been tested, it was during those awful months 18 years ago.



“Instead, Johnson’s faith grew. He was struck by the outpouring of support from families from church—“good people who didn’t even know us that well.” As he immersed himself in prayer, he realized that his faith was stronger than ever. He also came to see that Alisha is in a better place, and one day they will once again be a family.”



“At times, he’s had to make decisions that seemingly conflict with what he studies in the Scriptures, such as the decision to lay off employees. “It’s never easy,” says Johnson.



“But what a lot of people don’t know is that Johnson will always try to get good employees other positions, say both business and church associates.



‘”He’ll call whoever he knows,’ says Steve Alston, bishop of the Loomis, 3rd Ward.”

Las Vegas Mercury: Knappster: It’s official: We live in a desert



Pretty funny article about Las Vegas and the current drought situation we are having in the western United States. We are in year five of a drought here in St. George. We just saw the opening of a new reservoir about 20 minutes outside of St. George that’s supposed to help with water supply.



The city has implemented watering restrictions in St. George but I see lots of residents ignoring these restrictions. We aren’t suppose to be hosing down sidewalks or driveways or washing cars on the cement.



It seems to me that the state of Utah needs to be more aggressive in conserving water in case this drought decides to hang around for another year or two or three or…



In another year or two I may need to come to your house for a shower.

I have been working on creating a new page to display current song information that combined the splash and playlist pages. There is so much information available that it was hard to fit everything on one page. I released a beta version today and so far the feedback has been positive. You can check it out here.



I learned a lot of new techniques while creating this page. The entire page is created using CSS styles sheets. This is a very cool feature that allows all formatting of text to be held in one centralized file so that any changes to the website can be accomplished by changing just one file. I have used CSS stylesheets before but not to this extent.



I also learned how to use PHP functions to help me organize my PHP code and centralize it. Everything seems to be working fine. Check it out and let me know.

As I mentioned earlier, Cary Judd began his US tour in St. George last night and I became a core fan instantly. I have always been a big fan of Cary’s music but seeing him perform live and seeing what a nice guy he is just confirmed my enthusiasm for his music.



If you are anywhere near any of his tour stops I encourage you to get to his concert. If you’re a fan of good LDS music with an edge to it then you will enjoy Cary Judd. Here are his tour stops. Be sure to check his website for any updates or changes to the schedule.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shelly and I went to the Sam Payne and Cary Judd concert last night at the Grace Episcopal Church.



I’ve been a big fan of Sam’s for two or three years now as I have seen him perform at different events here in St. George. My first experience hearing Sam was when he was performing with his band, The Utah Jazz during First Night a few years ago. We were on our way home because it was freezing cold outside, but when we walked by the stage The Utah Jazz was performing on I was mesmerized. The music was great but the sound coming from Sam’s mouth was unbelievable! He sang jazz and the blues like I have never heard a white guy sing them before. I was hooked. We stayed and watched the entire performance and I didn’t even notice it was cold outside anymore. I came home at 12:30 am and got on the Internet and tried to find the website for The Utah Jazz and all I found was Karl Malone and John Stockton.



I asked some of my music contacts in Salt Lake City about this jazz quintet but no one had heard of them. Then another St. George event came around and The Utah Jazz were playing again and I came to find out that they were a local band. I sat there watching Sam perform trying to figure out if he was LDS. I came up with a 75-25 chance that he was. After his performance I introduced myself and gave him my KZION business card and asked him to submit some music to KZION. He said he would.



Sam has since released a solo CD of original music with a power-folk sound called Railroad Blessing. There’s a good review of the CD at CD Baby but if you like great songwriting mixed with strong vocals, then you’ll love this CD.



Back to the concert. I was excited to see Sam perform again but this was going to be my first opportunity to see Cary perform live. I am a huge fan of Cary’s style of rock. He can really let loose and rock the house but he has this way of bringing you back down slowly and gently. I was so amazed at Cary’s performance because he had all of these foot pedals that gave the audience the impression that he was performing with a band. He would record a short guitar or drum solo at the beginning of the song and then integrate the clips into his performance. You’d swear there were other band members accompanying him. (Sorry Cary, I know I didn’t explain it in musicians lingo… )



It’s rare that I’ve gone to a concert where the performance sounds as good as the CD but both Sam and Cary sounded perfect. The church had a beautiful acoustic sound and was the perfect venue for these two. Although it was a little weird attending a rock concert inside a chapel. In fact one guy came up to Sam and asked if it was Ok to clap.



I’m going to blog another entry to tell you more about Cary and his US tour.



Thanks Sam and Cary for a great night of music. Shelly and I are definitely core fans.