It looks like our Indian Summer is ready to visit the mid-Atlantic area this week.  For the next six days or so, it will be in the 70′s every day and will probably be our final round of short-sleeve weather.  Down in South Carolina it’s like that almost all the way until the first of the year, but I can only envy those people who have never kept a box of tire chains in the trunk of their cars.

I recently learned of a new project that’s about to hit the internet.  Some of you have already gotten wind of it most likely because the publicity has been sent out since the end of August.  It’s called Fire Rescue TV and is the project of  Martin Grube, a man whose name is familiar to many.  The retired Virginia Beach, Virginia, firefighter has been published and has presented training lectures.  Now he is launching an ambitious project that he describes as “a web-based news and video training site for first responders, broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Apparently the group’s plans are to rely on news and other events to be fed to them from first responders in the areas where the stories are generated.  Then the online “tv” site will present it in a newsroom format.  Take a look at this promotional video that they posted:

They have their website up and running now, so CLICK HERE and check out the features.  It is obviously a well-thought out project and is impressive in its presentation so far.

We have talked before about how the internet is gradually replacing the traditional television broadcasting mode of over-the-air transmissions.  This project of Martin Grube’s is a good example of what the future of tv-type broadcasting will be.  You think 200+ tv channels on your local cable system is something?  Just wait until the cellphone carriers complete their upgrading to 4G.  That advanced wireless network will be able to allow live downstreaming directly to cellphones.  Before you know it, you will have access to literally thousands of “tv” networks like the Fire Rescue TV channel and the onlycost to the viewer is your monthly cellphone bill.  And what will help this new medium grow as much as anything is the fact that the producer doesn’t have to rent time on those outlandishly expensive communications satellites to get his programming out there.  You just send it to your cloud server and away it goes.

We’d better get out of the clouds now get this equipment checked out.  I need to get more coffee started.  See you back in the day room.

If you have ever driven your car in Canada, then you’ve experienced the novelty of  seeing all the highway signs written in two languages.  About 20-some years ago the Parliament passed a law requiring all public signs, notices, containers, etc. to have both English and French versions of the message being provided. 

I think the law was passed to mollify the people in Quebec who were getting itchy for a separatist movement.  This was mandated nationwide, even though all the populace west of Ontario don’t have any more than two French words in their vocabulary.

In the UK country of Wales a similar situation exists.  The ancient Welsh language was almost extinct when in the middle of the 20th-century an nationalistic movement began and they took active measures to bring the language back into a more public use.  And, like Canada, there are still areas where the old language is unknown and thus all the road signs are now bi-lingual.

When any of the local governmental agencies want to erect a road sign or an informational sign, they usually have to go to a translator because so very few people are capable of speaking the language well enough to provide the correct copy for the proposed sign.  The problems that can arise from this are best illustrated by this road sign put up by the street department in Swansea.  They wanted to let the drivers know that no trucks are allowed on the designated street.

But before they could make the sign, they had to contact their official translator to get the Welsh message spelled out for them.  So the sign man did what the rest of us would do,  he sent an email to the bilingual official to get the proper wording that matches the message.  A short time later the email reply was received and they transferred the Welsh version to their new sign.

Not long after it was up, however, several people started giggling when they saw it and some of them ran back home to get their cameras and photograph the new sign.  After a couple of days of mirth, somebody called the sign shop and told them what was written on the lower half of the sign:

“I am not in the office at the moment.
Please send any work to be translated.”

I think most of you, like me, have received similar email messages in the past.  We just don’t put them on big signs.

We’d better put our own interpretation of the equipment status on the checksheets now, though.  While you get going with that, I’ll get the coffee started.  We’ll meet back in the day room in a little while.