August 2003 Archives

By Vincent Safuto staff writer

August 30, 2003

A recent story from the Associated Press wire in the Press Journal told of the staggering financial toll investment fraud exacts from its victims.

In the Southeast, people have lost almost $1 billion in the past few years to the crooks and con men who inhabit the seamy underbelly of Wall Street.

Government agencies try to stem the tide of fraud in the capital markets and do a fair job of bringing some wrongdoers to justice, but that's cold comfort if the nest egg you've worked and sweated for in a lifetime of work is reduced to pennies, and you're forced to re-enter the rat race at significantly lower wages and without health benefits.

The cost of investment fraud is not just dollars and cents. It's the ruined lives of the people whose only mistake was thinking that their lack of knowledge would protect them from the sharks that swim in the shoals of our stock markets.

I clench my fists in rage when I read about some person who's labored for decades and finally has a chance to do all the things he or she wanted to do — buy a nice car, travel, live a comfortable life, etc. — and then trusted his or her nest egg to the wrong person.

The money may have traveled to a Swiss bank account, or may be in the form of an expensive car or mansion for the sleazy broker or corrupt executive, but the poor investor is left with nothing.

Government enforcers say that, oftentimes, it's only after many people have lost their money do they find out about the fraud, and then getting everyone's money back is almost impossible. The high caseloads mean that deals must be struck that not only return mere pennies on the dollar to victims, if anything at all, but often the scammers get away without admitting wrongdoing so they can pull the same stunt again on others.

The best defense against getting "taken" resides not in government agencies, but between the ears of every investor and potential investor. It's using one's brain to analyze and evaluate the claims being made for a company and its prospects, and ignoring the emotional imagery so common in financial advertising today to come to an informed decision about whether to invest your money through a particular broker and in a particular company.

This may mean saying "no" to that nice person at church who's been talking up a "can't miss" opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the next big craze, or to the rest of the gang at your favorite hangout or watering hole.

Maybe they'll call you names and ridicule you for blowing a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity for financial security. But many people have learned an expensive lesson about the power of group dynamics in the realm of investment, and paid with everything they have.

Nowadays, when it comes to investing, better safe than sorry — and possibly broke.

Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at (Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com).


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By Vincent Safuto staff writer

August 23, 2003

If there are two jobs in the military that anyone remembers as being the main source of comfort and security, they're supply and mess.

Few war movies are complete without the ink-stained sergeant who filled out the forms to provide the "beans and bullets" to the troops, and the usually gruff, but always dedicated, mess sergeant who made sure his boys had the food to sustain them through the tough job of defending the nation.

No matter where I was in the Marines, getting supplied and fed was the main order of business after getting the planes ready to fly, and good sergeants in those positions meant the difference between a pleasant time and a mindless grind.

In my service days, the chow hall was not a function of the squadron but the whole base, though supply was squadron-based. I worked sometimes with the cynical sergeant who ran VMA-513's supply section out of a warehouse at a corner of the base.

His comical and often obscene names for his bosses were a great source of amusement. Even though the warehouse was hot and sometimes smelly, it was more fun working for him than scraping pots in the chow hall.

The civilians who run the military have decided, though, that mess and supply are two military functions that can be outsourced to civilian contractors. This I can't understand, since the traditional accusation is that when Democrats are in power, they try to destroy the military and when Republicans are in power, they want to build it up.

The effort to hand over military functions to civilian contractors, especially in a combat zone like Iraq, shows that no political party has a monopoly on ignorance of the way the military works.

Stories have surfaced of contractors that have gone AWOL and failed to deliver promised goods and services to our troops. A supply sergeant who refused to enter a combat zone to provide needed materials to the troops would get court-martialed and relieved of his stripes so fast he wouldn't know what hit him.

Turning tail and running in the face of the enemy is a grave offense in the military, punishable by loss of freedom and rank. All they can do to a civilian is fire him.

I don't see much good coming from handing over mess services to contractors, either.

When the folks preparing and serving the food are in the same service as you are, there's a bond, plus the knowledge that one day you might be behind that counter plopping mashed potatoes on someone's plate. You might be working alongside that messman you tongue-lashed for slopping gravy on the french fries, so it encourages civility in the chow hall.

Our troops, wherever they are and whatever their job, are worthy of our support, both material and otherwise.

Handing over such vitally important jobs, though, to politically connected civilian companies is the worst way to support them, and our elected officials need to be aware that continuing in that direction is the worst mistake they can make, and it should be reversed ASAP.

Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at ( Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com).


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By Vincent Safuto staff writer

August 16, 2003

I recently purchased a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, the latest iteration of the classic program that has existed in one form or another almost since the dawn of the personal- computer age.

There wasn't much thought about ways of using computer flight simulators (Microsoft isn't the only game in town, incidentally) until — cue "important news story music" — the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Unconfirmed rumors flew that in addition to learning the Quran and taking flying lessons, the hijackers had practiced on Microsoft Flight Simulator.

There was talk of delaying the "2002" version of the program amid worries that someone tired of "flying" a simulated aircraft might try to emulate the hijackers and take unwilling and innocent passengers on a similar ride.

A recent Salon article on (www.salon.com) titled "Air Osama" plays on such fears with all the skill and disinformation of a TV newsmagazine segment. You've seen them, the breathless exposes about "teen hackers" who are "out of control." Now meet the newest threat to American life: the Muslim in a Pakistan madrasa with a flight-simulation program on a laptop.

The article notes that flight simulators have gotten very realistic, something I can vouch for.

One add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator, "747-200 Ready for Pushback," not only includes highly detailed aircraft displays, but a "working" panel. Want to bring the big jet to life? Better print out the manual that comes on the CD and follow the start-up checklist.

Those who wrote letters to Salon in response to the "Air Osama" article rightfully took the author to task for using a rumor to spread fear. Yes, for sure, a deranged person did once try to hijack a 747, declaring he wanted to fly the real thing, but if we begin to see flight-simulation aficionados as threats, where does it all end?

As a teenager, I was an airplane nut. My parents' house was well positioned for watching jets heading into LaGuardia before they made their turn onto final approach. When the wind was right, I could see them fly low over the house and used to follow them with my telescope, even keeping logs of airlines and aircraft types.

Then, I was just a weird kid into airplanes. Today, I'd be a security threat, with the FBI asking: "Why is your son watching every plane go by through a telescope and keeping records? He could be planning something."

The heightened level of security around air travel is an unfortunate necessity, in my view, and flight-simulation software provides a way to recall a time when such measures were not needed.

Those charged with our protection need to concentrate on protecting us from real threats, not those percolating in the overheated imagination of someone who sees peril in every activity, no matter how innocent.

CORRECTION: Last Saturday's column stated that sharks are air-breathing. An astute reader pointed out that sharks are, in fact, fish, and extract oxygen from the water through their gill system. I apologize for the inaccuracy.

Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at (Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com).


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By Vincent Safuto staff writer

August 9, 2003

The pool in the development I live in opened recently, much to the joy of residents, and just in time for summer.

As should be the case with all pools, it has a range of depths from three feet to seven feet, and as with most pools in our "safety-at-all-costs" society, there is no diving board. Indeed, diving and jumping are not permitted.

Even pool deep ends are becoming rare, at least in public pools. According to recent trend stories on this subject, public pools lost their diving boards in the 1980s and are losing their deep ends now.

The public pool of the future will be, at most, five feet deep, and since even that depth causes safety-nannies to get heart palpitations, Chicago plans pools that are ankle-deep.

Some cities are responding to demand by building diving pools, though, since not everyone wants to stand around in ankle-deep water, even if it's being sprayed on them. But "aquatics" expert Tom Griffiths told the Web site, (SFGate.com), that "the old-style 'drowning pools' won't be missed."

Except, of course, by those who insist on having "fun" in the water.

I guess next on the "nanny-state" list is the bathtub.

It means, for most people, the end of the thrill of diving, and diving from a good height, and that's sad.

I was stationed for a brief time at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in California, and can remember going in the base pool and having a grand time in the part set aside for diving. I think that part was 12 feet deep. There were two levels of diving boards, and I enjoyed the low-diving board but finally worked up the nerve to climb the ladder to the high dive.

I was ready to back down, but managed to work up the courage to dive into the water. From then on, I was entranced. I would never be confused with an Olympic diver, but it was fun making those high dives and then surfacing for another go.

I guess the next step in the evolution of pools is to build them, fill them, filter them and fence them in so no one can use them, but only look at them.

Next is to get the ocean under control. After filling it all in ankle-deep, I suppose a call to King Neptune will be needed to get the waves to stop.

Next, let's get all those air-breathing water creatures — whales, dolphins, porpoises, sharks, etc. — out of the ocean, in case they drown.

Of course, they'll still need water to live in, and Sea World probably can't accommodate them all.

Wait a second, I have an idea. Let's let them use the pools we build but won't let humans use. At least then no one will try to use the prohibited pools without authorization if they know it's now the home of some sharks.



Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com.


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By Vincent Safuto staff writer

July 26, 2003

The New York Times reported recently that IBM, the quintessential American company, has caught "India-fever."

Symptoms include an intense desire to book passage to India, at least for the jobs the company once provided. In India, well-educated labor is cheaper and American executives don't have to leave their gated communities to run things.

Other "American" computer and technology companies have been infected, as noted in my previous columns, though they're trying mightily to keep most people from discovering what's really going on. Suffice it to say that your tax return someday may be filled out in Bangalore.

The issue of L-1 visas has gotten more media attention, with columnists of disparate political views weighing in on the subject. The nation's economic future is of concern to everyone, regardless of race, creed, color or political affiliation. In a nutshell, I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with Phyllis Schlafly.

The Cato Institute may marvel at the wonder of jobs moving to India, but remember that conservative think tanks may soon move their jobs overseas, too, to take advantage of lower wage rates and prognosticators willing to ponder the wonders of free markets for longer hours and less pay.

Another recent article, in Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine, points out that Microsoft, which is trying to persuade its tech-support contractors to shut down their U.S. operations and go to India or the Philippines, is going to help 500,000 people in mainland China gain its certifications.

The article describes a five-year plan to work with the Chinese ministry of education to, according to one Lutz Ziob of Microsoft, "bring up our (meaning the Chinese) workforce to where it can compete with the world."

"He emphasized that the program's primary purpose isn't to develop a new, cheap pool of labor in order to move more jobs offshore," the magazine assures readers, though it notes that Ziob "does believe that more offshore outsourcing is inevitable."

Of course, Ziob's job probably is safe, and Bill Gates', too, but for the rest of us, it's bye-bye tech career. Once 500,000 Chinese folks become Microsoft-certified, corporate America will no doubt race to send more tech jobs overseas. Then, instead of calling Bangalore when Windows blue-screens, you'll be calling Shanghai.

There are those who say Americans shouldn't worry, that the loss of jobs and benefits will ultimately benefit us all. I especially like the people who talk about capitalism as "creative destruction."

Just tell me, and the rest of my generation of workers who are seeing their economic futures vanish: When does the destruction part end and the creative part begin?

Or maybe that wasn't taught at Harvard Business School.



Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at (Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com).


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By Vincent Safuto staff writer

August 2, 2003

I plan on living for many more years, and there's a lot I hope to see happen before I'm gone. One of those is an electronic message system on Interstate 95 that not only works, but also provides useful information to drivers.

It's a lot to ask, I realize, but our highway taxes are at work installing systems that provide such "useful" information as the speed limit and advisories to keep an eye out for missing children, but can't seem to tell us where an accident has happened.

It's a staple of TV news to mount a camera on an overpass and, as cars race by below, show an "Amber Alert" if a child is feared abducted. I understand why such alerts are being put out on the road, but how about detailed information on traffic tie-ups, road construction, accidents and lane closures?

If there's one sign that's desperately needed, it's one on I-95 to let drivers know to set their car's vents to "recirculate" just before the landfill.

I grew up watching my parents battle the Long Island Expressway on trips to "the Island," and there was great joy and anticipation when it was announced that message boards would be erected and a system devised to warn drivers of road problems ahead.

But the only messages I ever saw were "Speed limit 50" and the occasional "construction ahead" — but no specifics about exactly where the construction was taking place or what lanes were blocked.

When people complained that the boards were useless, they were told the system had a few bugs that needed to be squashed. That was many years ago.

Driving down through Palm Beach County recently, I noticed message boards going up. I hold out little hope for any useful information ever being on them.

I would think that a system would be fairly simple to devise. Just use lots of cameras and have people trained to type out messages that would appear on the boards, like "Accident just north of exit such-and-such; 2-mile backup."

But there's a problem. People cost money, and they're the one component left out of the budget after cameras, wiring and the like are dealt with. So the signs flash useless information easily obtainable from old-fashioned road signs, and the long-suffering driver is told that software bugs are delaying the introduction of the fully functional system.

There is a solution, though. Ship all the data and images to India, where tech workers schooled in the wonders of American roads can watch the cameras' images and type out the messages that inform us what's wrong on our highways that day.

The same schools in India that train customer service people to speak in American accents (so we think we're taking to a fellow American when our computer is on the fritz) could be used to teach useful phrases like "trunk," "hood," "highway," "three-mile rubbernecking delay" and "road-striping operation."

Of course, after all our jobs go to India, the roads will be a lot less crowded, but at least the system will work and we will have gotten what we paid for.

Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at (- Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com).


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