GPS Tracking ROI

The newly constituted board of directors of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corporation (PSST) has voted unanimously to select Cyren Call Communications Corporation as its advisor, subject to completion of a professional services agreement between Cyren Call and the PSST.

On July 9, 2007, recognizing a short time frame before the commencement of the 700 MHz auction, the PSST made public a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the position of advisor to the PSST. Letters of intent were due to the PSST on July 20, 2007 and by the time of the RFP submission deadline of July 30, 2007, the PSST received ten responses for the role of advisor. A PSST review committee then narrowed their focus to three responses and conducted oral interviews with the candidates on August 13, 2007…  full article on how to solve the nation’s ineffective use of spectrum by carving up yet More spectrum here.

“Spectrum” is, among other things a $1.49 word for radio frequencies used in the public service … police, fire, ambulance and more mundane, but often essential services like school busses, water, sewer, electric, snow plows and other essential public services.

Because the US has always been a well-off country and because we have a penchant for political subdivisions and public services chopped up into the smallest possible fragments many times, we have been bumping up against a distinct shortage of frequencies for these essential service to use for years now.

So now, instead of solving the problem we are engaged in an effort to carve up yet another band of frequencies between the users clamoring for “more”.  How sad that the problem is not being attacked ‘at the source”.  The current approach is known in some circles as the “hoop ear rings on a hog’ approach.  No matter how much you dress up glutton, it still distinctly resembles a pig.

What’s my GPS Tracking point?  My connection to solving the communications shortage using what’s basically a non-communications technology?  Easy.  The frequency shortage/band width congestion is caused, in large part, by the way we use the existing frequencies.  In numerous surveys it’s been shown that more than 80% of the voice traffic on these frequencies is positional information and status checks … where are you and are you ok.  Also, in a survey I did for one metro police department, another huge bandwidth consumer was the constant flow of ‘time hacks” between the police in the field and the dispatcher.  This was felt necessary to make sure that a patrol officer didn’t log an event at a different time than the dispatcher’s voice recording indicated it when it happened.  100% of this communications “clutter” could be eliminated by a properly designed GPS tracking system.

So?  What’s our choice?  manage our electronic spectrum like the fools who buy Hummers and then bitch at the scarcity of gas?  or use what we have wisely and economically while getting an excellent ROI?  Seems to ignoramuses like me that the solution is clear, but sometimes I think actual logic just doesn’t apply here.

It would be nice if I could spend the time and research money I devote to this blog for free … but I can’t.  I am just an individual person who does this out of a love for the industry and the technology.  So, I accept advertising to pay the inevitable server hosting, Internet service provider fees and so on.  These fine folks advertise here to pay the freight and I appreciate it.  Pay them a visit if you have need of their services.

Also, this Internet thing is all about advertising.  If you have a blog or website and wish someone was paying something to defray your costs, you can Sign up for AdSense.    It’s free, painless, can bring real income and even more important, at least to me, is that it will provide links of interest to your readers.  Some people believe one should limit reader’s choices to “click away”  from your website, and I suppose there are business models that this makes sense for.  But I exists to provide information and help to people interested in GPS tracking, so if they get that help by clicking on another site, my goal has been met … it’s a big Internet out there and I believe there’s enough to go around.

If you want to get traffic to your site you can do the opposite and Target a specific audience. In a specialized field like GPS Tracking it’s very hard to find places to advertise that are going to attract just the specific folks you want to promote your product to.  With AdWords you can advertise only on specific sites you feel will be of value … it works, I assure you.

If you want a product reviewed you can also Get Reviewed by this blog for $60 at ReviewMe! It seems to pay off for a lot of people … why not you?  

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Interesting bit of GPS Tracking technology news I came across on the 28th of September here:

WASHINGTON – U.S. and Mexican transportation officials are planning to use a satellite-based vehicle tracking system from Qualcomm to keep an eye on commercial carriers from both countries participating in a cross-border trucking experiment….

I really have mixed emotions on this effort.  In one respect I applaud it heartily.  The FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration), charged with regulating and promoting safety of interstate trucking, whom I have critiqued before as a do-nothing lackey of “big trucking” has actually taken a step toward being an action agency instead of an ‘after the fact” paperwork mill.  I heartily applaud the safety and regulatory actions behind this initiative.

On the other hand, I smell, very strongly, the detestable stink of government-sponsored racial/ethnic discrimination behind this move.  The idea of making sure that foreign trucks comply with US safety rules is, of course, on the face of the issue laudable.  yet thousands and thousands of Canadian r=trucks cross the border daily … shifting from significantly different Canadian safety regulations to US rules at the border, competing head to head with US trucking companies, and ‘taking jobs from US truckers”, if the bleating of the Teamster’s Union are to be believed.

Yet the US government doesn’t track a single Canadian truck for compliance with US safety and commerce laws.  But we need to track each and every Mexican driver/truck?  What if the Canadian driver happens to be named Sanchez?

I’m a true-blue American.  I’m a former long-term government employer and a decorated military combat vet.  But just because I love my country and am proud of it in most cases, doesn’t mean I will overlook issues which truly stink of racial inequality.  Most Americans today who rail against “Immigrants” are really railing against Hispanics .. in particularly Mexicans … but they don’t have the courage to let their true feelings show.  In this case we even cement this disgusting trend under the funding and auspices of the Federal Government.  Sad indeed.

New Web Site Maps Nationwide High School Graduation Data

Redlands, California—A new online mapping engine puts graduation data in front of educators, administrators, policy makers, and parents across the country. Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center has issued a groundbreaking report called Diplomas Count and worked with ESRI, the world’s largest geographic information system (GIS) software company, to produce the EdWeek Maps Web site. The site allows users to see graduation data at the district level and compare school districts and states across the nation at no cost.

“This is a nationwide analysis of high school graduation, an ‘apples-to-apples’ comparison,” says Christopher B. Swanson, director of the EPE Research Center. “Education has a strong relationship to future earnings. Graduating from high school is the first step to jobs with a future.” The full Diplomas Count report, issued in June, emphasizes the relationship between education and jobs…. read more about Diplomas Count here.

Most of my readers are from the US, as am I.  A majority of them have college degrees, often advanced degrees .. as I do not.  I started high school in the year 1959 … yes, I am that old … and I left high school in 1961, sans degree … yep, I’m a high school dropout.

A shocking statistic at that time was that in my state, New Jersey … rich, urbanized, high tax rates and a lot of spending on education, more than 50%! of my fellow students didn’t finish, either.  Ok Dave, that’s ancient history, we’re in 2007 now it’s a lot better now, right?

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If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.” — James Madison

Dang, it’s September already?  Time surely does go fast when you are having fun!  I like to take a minute every month or so to give some credit where credit is due … even though this blog is strictly a one man show (any potential guest writes feel free to drop me a line)  it takes a lot of people behind the scene to keep the place running.

First and foremost there wouldn’t be any website to view if it were not for my good friends at www.qualityhostonline.com .  I’ve used these folks as my server provider for more than two years now.  Their plans are excellent and well priced and their support service is second to none.  As some of you know, although I am from the US and write mainly about US subjects I currently live in the Philippines (which I also blog about here: www.philfaqs.com).

Running servers from overseas presents some special challenges … not always server-related.  But an email about any issue, 24×7 to Quality Host always gets me an answer, right away quick.  Highly recommended.

The reason I know Quality Host is doing a good job for me are the folks at: http://www.hyperspin.com/index.php . They give me comprehensive 24×7 uptime service and thus I always know how the site is working.  They have many plans, some as low as f*r*e*e .. hard to beat that.  here’s a sample report: 

From: Aug 27 2007 12:00 AM (GMT +8:00)
To: Sep 03 2007 12:00 AM (GMT +8:00)

1. SatViz
- uptime: 100.000%
- downtime: 00min
- outage: 0

As my old friend Peter Drucker used to say, you can’t manage what you can’t measure … and that’s what Hyperspin does.  You can’t blog blind.  recommended.

If you have a blog or any other kind of web site there are two things you really would like to do … and that is get people to come and read what you produce and also to make a little money if you can.

That’s what TextLink Ads is all about.  They find advertisers who want to be listed on your site and pay you for the privilege.  They find sites who want advertisers and match them up.  And they also pay anyone for referring customers to TextLink Ads.  hard to beat if you ask me … I make money from them, you can too.

And I guess this post is already over-long and over commercial so I better close it up with a recommendation for the best in the business, Google AdSense.  Google introduced me to actually making money on line back in 2004 and they have been faithful payers ever since.  It’s not just the money from the ads that I like, either.  Unlike almost any other on-line advertiser, Google has a huge inventory of technical and scientific advertisers.  So when you come here to the GPS Tracking ROI blog and you want to learn about GPS tracking, you don’t (often) see ads for “how to tune a piano” or some other off-the-wall subject.  It’s called “contextual advertising” and there is no doubt in my mind that Google AdSense is tops.  Highly recommended.

OK, there’s more people to thank but no more time or space.  Thanks for reading and do make sure that you subscribe to my RSS feed also … just click the bog orange button up in the top right and never miss an issue.

Here we go again. gosh it pains me to have to write about this yet another time. But I can’t let the issue just drop … for two reasons.

I’m a GPS professional. I believe in commercial use of the GPS and am fully in favor of using GPS to bring profit to a business’ bottom line. Even when the business is a one man or one woman business as so many taxicab operations turn out to be in this day and age. There is no excuse except greed or stupidity for the situation in Philadelphia and in many other cities to have reached the boiling point.

Secondly I can’t ignore this situation because I am an American citizen and a former businessman. If you think the plight of taxi drivers being run down in the streets by their own government is not worth reading about, I suggest you humor me and follow along, just for a few minutes. Because the next time an apparently illegal agency decides to decimate a business it might not be taxis … it might be your business.

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