Off-Hook

According to the Writely blog, Google has just bought Upstartle’s “Writely,” a powerful online word processor.

I think it’s interesting enough that Google is continuing in this direction of powerful (yet free) alternative software solutions, but it’s even more exciting that Google continues to challenge perceptions of how things are done. With this announcement, Google supports the idea that powerful software doesn’t HAVE to be purchased, installed, and periodically upgraded on your harddrive. They also challenge the idea that announcements such as this have to be made through traditional channels (the announcement has, so far, been restricted to blogs).

I heard a story this morning based on an urban legend about Butch O’Hare, bonafide war hero, and his father Edward J. O’Hare, Al Capone’s lawyer that eventually flipped on his employer and helped put Capone away for life, only to die later in a hail of gunfire, mafia-style.

The story sounds really great and is true, but what’s the rest of the story?

Butch O’Hare, for whom Chicago’s O’Hare Airport (formerly “Orchard Field”) was named, was indeed a WWII Flying Ace and national hero, having served as a pilot on the USS Lexington and taking on a squadron of bombers (not fighters) in an extrememly remarkable way. O’Hare managed to single-handedly shoot down five enemy bombers, and damage a sixth. The three survivors managed to drop their ordnance, but all three bombs missed. Lieutenant Commander Thach, one of the six pilots originally sent up with O’Hare but sent away on a tertiary mission, arrived at the scene with other pilots of the flight, later reporting that at one point he saw three of the enemy bombers falling in flames at the same time. Butch returned home to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was later killed participating in the first successful night-fighter operation. It is unclear whether it was from friendly fire or enemy. (this taken from wikipedia.org).

This story typically segues into the story of Butch’s father…

Many stories I’ve read and heard try to paint this portrait of a “reformed sinner” who gave up his wealth and, in the end, his life, in order to give his son “a good name” and a role model. I don’t know, however, that Edward J. O’Hare’s amazing life can be attributed to so simple a goal. I don’t think he actually ever had a “bad” name, either, except in amazing urban legends that I regret to admit I, too, once believed.

Edward J. O’Hare first started making money through a partnership with Oliver P. Smith, the inventor of the mechanical rabbit used in dog racing. O’Hare represented Smith and his patented rabbit.

After Smith died, O’Hare, being an accomplished lawyer, worked out a very profitable venture with the widow Smith and the mechanical rabbit patent. O’Hare left his wife and 3 kids in St. Louis to explore opportunities in Chicago, where he was forced to establish a business relationship with Al Capone at his dog track (apparently, at that time, no one did big business in Chicago without working in some way with Capone).

O’Hare was working with Capone at this time, but he was also working with the government against Capone from the inside for a number of reasons. By the time O’Hare converted his track from a dog track to a horse track due to state law (further evidence of his desire to conduct a legal business), he had also provided the government with enough evidence to successfully convict Capone. O’Hare was indeed on the right side of the law in such a way that he is almost entirely above reproach. Not an easy task for a successful businessman in Chicago at that time. Even I have earned a new, more powerful respect for him and his will and ability to stay clean when it would have been so much easier not to.

The story goes (and this is pure speculation) that one of the prosecutors who found out about O’Hare’s desire to send Butch to Annapolis offered him the recommendation in exchange for his testimony, so Capone went to prison, Edward J. got paid, and Butch got into the Naval Academy. However, Edward J. O’Hare already had strong connections to influential politicians who would have given such a recommendation upon request, and probably did. The fact that O’Hare collected so much information over so long a period of time does not give much credibility to the speculation mentioned. We must consider, also, that O’Hare was a successful track owner and earned regular royalties from other tracks using the mechanical rabbit, in addition to being a skilled lawyer. I somehow doubt that money could be any kind of incentive for helping to put away such a dangerous man as Capone. Stronger reports support a desire upon the part of Edward J. O’Hare to simply “do the right thing” and distance himself from the activities of the Chicago mafia. This is also a much more realistic motivation.

O’Hare died soon after in a hail of gunfire as he was driving home from his track. It may be assumed that this is attributable in some way to Capone. Coincidentally, Capone’s “second,” Frank Nitti, ended up married to O’Hare’s fiance.

These are 2 men, father and son, who each made history in his own way. I think it unfair, in retelling this edited story, to contribute one man’s heroic endeavors to another, even if they be so closely related.

Amusingly, their journey to immortality began with a little mechanical rabbit. Rather coincidental for someone named O’Hare, wouldn’t you say?

Several discrepencies have been identified in this post as I originally wrote it (many from the fantastically erroneous American Mafia article) and I have tried to edit it accordingly, even withdrawing my totally unfounded condemnation of Edward J. O’Hare.

It has also been inferred that Edward J. O’Hare was not typically referred to by anyone as “Eddie,” however, this is refuted in print: Frank J. Wilson, government investigator of the IRS revealed in the 26 April 1947 issue of Collier’s magazine how Capone was convicted: “On the inside of the gang I had one of the best undercover men I have ever known: Eddie O’Hare.” I’m assuming Mr. Wilson did, in fact, actually know O’Hare.

PLEASE note the comments associated with this post. There is some enlightenment that may clarify and debunk some of the more ambiguous details about the O’Hares, both Butch and his father. Thankfully, there are still those who can recant some of the assumptions widely circulated on the web. My sincere apologies to those who know the truth about Edward J. O’Hare for my original false impression. I am now convinced that he was, indeed, one of the best of men in a time when it was so much easier not to be.

I’m a little amused by an announcement yesterday of AT&T’s intention to purchase BellSouth. I can almost smell the old monopoly brewing. I’ll be a bit surprised, actually, if the FCC allows it. Seems like a step backward since disbanding AT&T, but I don’t think the potential for the old monopoly exists anymore…

Thanks to fairly recent legislation (Telecom Act of 1996), new competition in telecom services, whether cable, small startup, or new LLCs branched from large wireless providers, etc. have helped increase quality of services, as well as variety of services, practically everywhere in the US, urban and rural. The same legislation was the catalyst for the FCC’s “1st Report and Order,” which made it possible for customers to take their number with them if they wanted to switch local service providers (the single largest obstacle for business customers to take advantage of service provider competition). This took a remarkable bite out of the RBOCs’ (baby bells) market share and ushered in a new wave of technology and innovation in order to provide new competitive services (or at least dramatically improve the existing ones).

Many folks don’t remember the pre-1980′s “Ma Bell” monopoly of AT&T (I remember, but I didn’t care much as I was younger than 10 years old). There were independents back then, but AT&T’s only “competition” was GTE. So much has happened since then, not the least of which is a little Supreme Court Ruling known throughout telecommunications as the “MFJ” (modified final judgement) of 1982. That judgement led to the breakup of AT&T into the “RBOCs” (Regional Bell Operating Companies) in 1984. There were originally 22 BOCs categorized under 7 RBOCs. They were Ameritech in the Midwest, Bell Atlantic in lower New England, Bell South in the Southeast, Nynex in New York and upper New England, Pacific Telesys (often referred to by it’s bigger BOC, Pac Bell) on the West coast, Southwestern Bell Comm (SBC) in the Southwest, and US West in the Northwest and Rockies. Just a funny sidenote– Many telecoms referred to these RBOCs by their bell “nicknames” which included names like “Taco Bell,” “Southern Bell,” and “Liberty Bell.”

The history, combined with the mergers and takeovers from the last 15 years or so, is what makes this kind of amusing. From then until now, Bell Atlantic and Nynex became Verizon, which ate GTE and became HUGE, not to mention the second-largest wireless provider in the US (they were the largest until Cingular bought AT&T Wireless). SBC, having purchased Pacific Telesys a while back, answered Verizon’s wireline market share by taking in AT&T only a couple years after usurping Ameritech. Now if “the new AT&T” succeeds in buying Bell South, AT&T will surge even further ahead of Verizon as the largest wireline and wireless provider in the US, a distinction that Verizon enjoyed in recent years. What’s odd about this is that, with other mergers, buyouts, takeovers, etc., This should leave only Qwest (the merged entity of US West and Qwest Comm Int’l) to compete on the same RBOC level with AT&T and Verizon, and Qwest is nowhere near that well-positioned, so it’s probably just a matter of time or future legislation.

What’s really gonna burn Verizon’s bacon is that the acquisition will allow the new AT&T to completely control it’s wireless business, Cingular (the is the primary driver for this acquisition). Verizon would have to be in a position to buy out its partner, Vodafone (the world’s largest wireless provider) to be able to accomplish that. It’s simply not realistic.

What’s not mentioned here includes other large LECs like rural LECs, secondary service providers (wireless and cable giants), and CLECs. These include Alltel, Sprint, Time Warner, Charter, Cox, Comcast, etc. (not to mention innovative newcomers like Vonage). Providers like these, and the legislation that empowers them, keep the playing field open, so I don’t really fear the “ghost of Ma Bell,” but it’s amusing to see the RBOCs come so close to “full-circle.”

Anyways– If you were unaware of this history and curious why this acquisition is such a big deal, well this is it in a nutshell.

BellSouth, by the way, is the last “original” RBOC, still managing the property it has had since the mfj.

Here’s a follow-up story.

Read about this yesterday in Telephony Online and thought it very interesting…

NaturalNano is ready to provide a paint that has been blended with copper particles through the use of nanotechnology, and consequently is capable of blocking radio signals from exiting/entering rooms, arenas and theaters that have deemed it necessary to coat their walls with it.

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE this idea! Just recently, while watching The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (which, by the way, I highly recommend as incredibly true to the book), not only did a cell phone ring behind me (about 6 rings, as I recall, before she answered), but the woman carried on a short conversation with the caller. Time and again, we are reminded that people are, in general, either too careless to remember to turn off their ringers (or set to “vibe”), or too callous to care. I paid to see the movie, too, and if the paint on the walls keeps me from being able to get a text message or notification of a missed call, that’s fine with me, as long as the lady behind me is rendered technologically helpless, too.

I can see this in churches, classrooms, boardrooms…

/rant

So here’s the new name. I chose it because after googling, it appears to be fairly unique. I’ll have some other little minor updates to make for consistency, but otherwise this is a non-issue (since I’m not actually changing my address).

As it turns out, “Quasi Geek” has been used for some time now by a writer in New York. She appears online to be very talented and since she not only had first crack at the title, but also has it associated with both a well-crafted personal web page AND a blog (which she posts in much more often than I do, and going back a bit further, too), I felt she deserves at least my courtesy in not duplicating the name.

Here’s a link:

Her blogs can be found here and here.

At any rate, I got some excellent suggestions on alternative blog titles, including “open mike,” which turned out to be very popular already, and “this room is miked,” which is very unique and extremely witty (I may yet go with it a little later).

For now, however, this blog will be known as “off-hook.” This is a telecommunications term I see pretty often that means activation of a telephone. The term was originally coined to indicate literally taking the handset off of the metal hook on which it rested on antique phones to get dialtone and make a call, answer a call, or connect to a pre-designated destination at the end of a “tie-line” (also known as a ring-down circuit) kinda like in an elevator, or to a pre-programmed number or message. Now it just means a telephone circuit has been closed. Off-Hook indicates the willful participation of the human element. It simply means “I want to communicate.”

Being a telecommunications engineer, this appeared to me to be an excellent title for my blog.

I’ll come up with a new favicon soon.