Security situations, Media and You!!

There was a big hullabaloo yesterday at CCSU.  A student came to campus still dressed in his Halloween costume (snakes eyes from GI Joe) and it caused a big security scare and the campus was on lock down for 4 hours or so.  Read the article here:

http://www.wfsb.com/story/23878315/ccsu-senior-arrested-following-campus-lockdown

So what?  So, I think everyone way overreacted and I’ve been trying to figure out why.  I think I’ve boiled it down to a couple of points.

Since security became a top level priority (pick a historic event to attribute this to), we have been told to call the authorities at the first sign of anything.  Don’t interact with the suspicious person or thing, just call security.  See something, say something.  That is what happened yesterday.  Someone saw someone else walking through campus dressed all in black and with weapons and said something.  I’m going to argue that ‘see something, say something’ is the wrong way to go.

I think that the suspicious person should be confronted.  In this particular I see that going two ways.  Let’s say the black-clad armed suspect is confronted by a passer-by with a “Hey dude, what’s the deal?”, or something similar.  If the suspect had no bad intentions they would explain that they have a costume on, they don’t have other clothes, and are headed to their dorm to change.  This could happen a few times as the suspect walk to his dorm, but more importantly the lockdown-search-danger scenario is avoided and people go about their merry business.

If the suspect has nefarious intentions he can do two things, attack the person confronting him or ignore him and go act out his evil plot.  If he attacks the person confronting him, now everyone in sight or earshot is notified and the attackers plan is more or less ruined.  There’s a good chance someone gets killed, possibly multiple.  If he ignores the confront-er and carries out his plan, there is still a good chance that someone gets killed, but no one is aware until it’s right on top of them.  

In either case, if the suspect has bad intentions, something bad is going to happen.  If the suspect doesn’t have bad intentions a big scene is avoided.  The biggest factor seems to be the security of the questioning passer-by.  In the bad situation, their life is unnecessarily put in danger.

I want to step back to the suspicious person being confronted.  I believe, this makes it harder for a person with bad intentions to carry them out.  A percentage of people are going to do bad things regardless of outside factors.  But a larger percentage of people with bad intentions aren’t convinced that they’re going to complete what they think they’ve set out to do.  If they are stopped by a stranger, I think they will be scared out of completing their plan.

I’m not saying that we should always stop and interrogate each other, rather that we should be encouraged to talk to every/anyone instead of calling authorities and following them. A general attitude of ‘be nicer and talk to one another’ is a better deterrent against extreme behavior than a show of force.

 

On a different and less debated point, the media blew this way out of proportion. They are trying to be the first to report news so they report any trash that’s thrown at them.  I happened to watch a live stream of a local news channel and it was disgraceful.  They literally kept repeating information that they got from a student who was in Dunkin Donuts near by who overheard someone else in said D&D.  How does a reporter feel good about themselves reporting like that?

They also asked anyone who would stand in front of a camera about their feelings on the CCSU situation and Sandy Hook almost a year ago.  Seriously.  The news had zero proof that anything had happened and they were asking someone who “woke up at noon” how this compared to the tragedy last December.  Utterly disgusting.

I’m back

Recently, I’ve wanted to get some more information out there to people. Plus, I have the hopes of others out there finding this and contributing ideas or offering help. So I’m going to start writing in here more. Starting with…

My Cancer Scare

Now that I have real answers for everyone, I’ll give you an update on the bummer messages I posted a few weeks ago.  Here’s the not-too-much-detail full story.

Around the end of the school year, I had some pain and found a lump on my body where there should be no lump.  That lead to a series of doctors appointments, tests, and all that jazz.  The final diagnosis was 95% chance of cancer.  The only definite way to know was to operate, remove it and do the tests.  In the meantime I hadn’t felt sick at all and the bloodwork results came back normal, which was a good sign.

That procedure happened last Friday and I’ve been recovering since.  The pathology results are in: I fall in to the 5%.  NOT cancer.  Overall, good news.  I’ll be fully recovered by the time school starts again.  Phew.

Another spam?

Here’s an older one, but is kind of weird.

rom	blockbusteronline@blockbuster.com
to		JEFF.RODRIGUEZ@gmail.com
date		Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 3:17 PM
subject		Direct Access order confirmation
mailed-by		blockbuster.com

Hello MARY K, Account Number: 19441752 Your Direct Access order for COCOON-RETURN, THE has been received. We’ll notify you via email when your rental ships. Now you can have all the rental information from your BLOCKBUSTER store account at the tip of your fingers. We’ve created a free online account for you to link to your store account. Then you’ll be able to go towww.blockbuster.com and: Check due dates for store rentals Verify that store rentals have been returned See your store rental history Linking accounts is fast and free! Just follow the link and log in with the temporary password below to get started. Please note that it may take up to 24 hours after your receipt of this email before you will be able to link your accounts. If you are unable to link your accounts using the link below, please try again on another day. Link Your Accounts Temporary Password: 639676787 Order Details Title: COCOON-RETURN, THE Total Paid: $5.43 Shipping Address MARY K HYSLOP 4401 W JACKSON ST BROKEN ARROW, OK 74012-8830 Thanks, Your Friends at BLOCKBUSTER Have a question? Click here. blockbuster.com |  Sign In |  My Account |  My Queue |  My Downloads About Us  | Customer Service  | Privacy Policy and Business Content  | Terms and Conditions

Spam Emails?

I’m going to post these emails that I get that aren’t quite spam.  You can make up your mind what they are.  Here’s the first one:

from donotreply@blackberry.com to jeff.rodriguez@gmail.com date Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 5:19 PM subject BlackBerry® ID Successfully Created

hide details 5:19 PM (1 hour ago)

Congratulations dcsd204,

A BlackBerry® ID with this email address has been successfully created.

BlackBerry® ID makes managing your BlackBerry® services easier. Learn more about your BlackBerry® ID by visiting: www.blackberry.com/blackberryid.

If you did not create or do not recognize this account, please click here to delete this BlackBerry ID. ———————————————————————
This transmission (including any attachments) may contain confidential information, privileged material (including material protected by the solicitor-client or other applicable privileges), or constitute non-public information. Any use of this information by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please immediately reply to the sender and delete this information from your system. Use, dissemination, distribution, or reproduction of this transmission by unintended recipients is not authorized and may be unlawful.

Yes, I clicked and deleted the account.

FIRST frustrations

This is going to be a gripe session.

I’ve been thinking a whole lot about RAGE since kickoff (January 5th). There have been a number of aspects of the team that I don’t like and really want to change. I also realize that the changes I want to make will not happen overnight. That is one of my biggest frustrations. Before I really get into the details, keep in mind how I see my role on the team in the future.

This is my last semester of classes at CCSU. In the fall I will be student teaching and after that I will get a job. That job will most likely not be in East Hartford. Even if it is, I need to take time to improve my teaching and don’t plan on doing anything with a FIRST team. In short, I don’t see myself on the team next year.

Now, let’s look at the technical mentors that are on the team. I’m talking about the mentors that have been there for years and are truly dedicated to the team. They have done great things to keep the team running and I truly appreciate everything they’ve done. First, there is myself, 24 years old. The other main mentors on the team are Chuck, Bruce, Connie, Sal, and Tom. The youngest of them is in their 50s. I can see four of the five retiring in five years or less. That leaves the team in a very tough spot.

When, not if, Bruce retires, he will be the biggest loss to the team. He is the only design engineer we have and does just about all our design work. He is also the only person who submits parts to be made. When he retires we will not only lose our engineering support, but also almost all our machining capabilities. This is a huge problem.

The team gets almost all our parts made for us by either Bruce, Trumpf, or Jim Palmer. We do have a few machines (lathe, bridgeport, CNC mill, press break, grinder, drill press) at RHS, but none of the students know how to use them. The students also don’t have access to them during the school day, nor are there classes in place to teach them about the machines. The machines are in the ‘robot room’, as its been dubbed, but it basically a storage room that we only have access to during the build season. The rest of the year its used as storage for the janitors.

When Bruce leaves, he’s taking his design process. While it might not be all bad, it leaves the team with virtually no design process of their own. Let me give you a rundown of how our season usually runs. The first week, a few people come up with ideas and try to prototype them. The prototyping and refining continues into the second week. These first two weeks, Bruce tends to be there two or three times a week. Once week three comes, design ideas are settled on. Now whether these ideas are ones that team members have come up with or not is something I’ll get to later. Once a design is settled on, Bruce starts designing. This really means that he draws everything in Solidworks over the next two weeks.

During these two weeks, Bruce is almost held up at his computer drawing, sending the occasional e-mail when he has questions. He shows up at meetings maybe once a week. In the meantime, the team continues to meet, throw ideas around and generally not do anything productive. While Bruce is designing, he’s also submitting parts to be made by our suppliers. This is usually done without anyone else knowing. This is the point in time the team is at right now.

In the last two weeks, parts show up and they are assembled into a robot as best we can. It’s hard, mainly because we don’t know how things are drawn and therefore don’t know how they go together. There is usually a few CAD models printed out to work from and a lot of calling Bruce, since he’s still on his computer CAD-ing it up. He’ll show up more frequently to make sure things are going together right, but usually leaves early to go back to CADing.

I think I’m gonna stop here, since I already wrote a book. That at least gives you an idea of how our team runs through a build season. Pick it apart and ask questions as you want. That’s basically what I’ll be doing in the next entry. Expect it to be a little longer than this one.