joeklein

One of the big problems at Milwaukee County is the lack of creativity by both Scott Walker appointees and the existing bureaucracy. They tend to look for commercial solutions from a semi-closed circle of vendors and consultants. They don't want to take a risk on some of the technologies like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that can save Milwaukee County money and thus allow for the preservation of services. Many VoIP carriers provide flat rate lines with unlimited calling in the US and Canada. Significant savings can be incurred using VoIP based PBXs especially if implemented using Open Source based systems such as Asterix. If Federal, State, County, Cites and Villages interconnect over their own fiber networks, the cost of inter agency calling can be reduced to nearly zero. We need to get our heads out of the sand and stop government reliance on on gold plated IT solutions. A mentality that worships big consultants and big business solutions seems to reign supreme in Wisconsin...

One of the revolutionary elements of the Internet is the ability of different network operators to interconnect and exchange data seamlessly. This was made possible by building a systems based on layers of open standards. Much of the information exchanged between different Internet providers flows across exchange points . Typically, exchange points are operated by neutral third parties. Many exchange points are private entities, some are cooperatives. The exchange point operator is responsible for maintenance of the physical infrastructure. A typical exchange point is a large building filled with switches, routers, servers, wire, fiber, power systems and environmental systems. TCP/IP based (the protocol suite behind the Internet) networks have a unique technological twist in that there exists a standardized protocol for defining the policy for exchange of data between different networks. This protocol is called Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP for short. In effect, the exchange point is...

The local right wing blogger often refer to rail mass transit as "choo-choos." Being one who is a terrible speller (hence a frequenter of dictionaries) I note this definition of choo-choo from my on-line dictionary: Choo-choo (noun) : a child's word for a railroad train or locomotive, esp. a steam engine. So are the anti-rail bloggers children, or are they calling pro-rail advocates children? I do not advocate using steam engines for mass transit. Let me state, for the record, that am for electric powered, rail based, mass transit. Below is my reasoning. BTW - Lettered assumptions are listed at the end. Electric powered, rail based transportation costs less to you, me, and society than cars and highways because: Rail uses less land and less energy to transport more people. Less land is removed from the tax base by rail than highways. A double tracked right of way can move more commuters between two points than a four lane highway. The people who use mass transit have more...

Do the following search: "cato institute wtmj" hmmm .... Then read some of the links here: Criticisms of the Cato Institute.

Two years ago after Katrina I decided to rejoin the Wisconsin National Guard and get past my last two years of service to make 20 years. I will be 50 this year, and it seemed to me a now or never proposal at the time. I went down to the recruiter requesting to help out on Katrina. As it turned out, by the time the paperwork was completed, Governor Doyle had withdrawn Wisconsin National Guard members from participation in the cleanup. In '06 I was attached to the 1-121 FA out of the Richard Street Armory for activation in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. So I spent time in Camp Shelby, then Kuwait and Iraq. In all I spent about 35 days in Iraq and about a year overseas. I was never was exposed to direct hostilities. I am just another guy who did his time over there. Hence the silent blog. Now I am back.