Samsung Galaxy Note II

It came time to replace my Motorola Droid X with another Android smart phone.  After some research, I picked the Samsung Galaxy Note II.  I liked the Palm like feature which was a stylus with note taking software.

The Droid X was a hot running machine with a black case that was always warm to touch.  It was a nice hand heater in cold weather.  The Note II runs cool to touch. 

Mostly I have been using the Note II as a movie player while commuting back and forth from downtown Los Angeles and Claremont on Metrolink.  This task it does extremely well.  Most Google Play movies run about 0.6 Gig and take approximately an hour to download at a WiFi hotspot. 

Magazines on Google Play take a long time to download at WiFi hotspots and must be at least half downloaded before being ready to read.  The Note II have a large enough display to read magazines but the download time is a negative.

The camera on the Note II is very nice. 

An adapter allows the micro USB port to be used to plug in a USB flash drive into the unit for direct backups without a computer.  This is a very useful feature for backing up photos and data while traveling.

KingSoft office was very useful for editing a Microsoft Word document sent to me by email and returning the edited copy to the sender.  This is free software and a Windows PC version of this software exists as wall as an Apple iPad / iPhone version.  The Note II has a large display which makes word process tolerable. 

Other useful software available includes: ArcGIS, QuickOffice, Photoshop Express, Outlook.com, Adobe Viewer, Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive, Documents to Go, EverNote, LinkedIn, DropBox, AutoCAD viewer,

ECDA finds TBD (Third Party Damage)?

ECDA (external corrosion direct assessment) can find coating damage from third party damage, but dents with no significant coating damage it will not find.  I was glad to read some historical email from corrosion experts that agreed with me that the best way to find TPD is a ILI (inline inspection tool- smart pig).

Amtrak California for Business Travel

OK, not a giant fan of Southwest Airlines and I love trains.  Fly most of the time on Southwest Airlines but every once in a while; I just want to Silver Streak.  However, when I traveled from Los Angeles CA to Chicago IL; I didn't have the adventure that Gene Wilder had in the movie "Silver Streak.  It was a fun ride but no adventure and not as scenic as the California Zephyr.  You just gotta ride the Amtrak California Zephyr as it the most scenic Amtrak train.

I live in Claremont, CA which has a Amtrak bus stop at the Metrolink Train Station for the Amtrak San Joaquin train that goes from Bakersfield CA to Oakland CA.  I  rode on a unmarked bus but typically the bus is Amtrak bus marked.  There was about five stops between Claremont CA and Bakersfield CA.

I could have switched to BART (San Francisco heavy rail train) at Richmond BART station; but I decided to get off at Martinez CA and take a County Connection Bus ride to the Pleasant Hill BART station.  I cannot say this method was any faster in getting me to Walnut Creek BART station; but I desired a bus ride.   You meet the most colorful persons on County Connection Buses on a Saturday Night and I know this from experience.  This bus ride was no exception meaning things have
not changed much.

Enjoyed the long journey even if the BART train between Pleasant Hill to Walnut Creek must have been one of the original 40 year old BART trains and belonged in a repair shop due to electrical issues with the car doors.

The San Joaquin is not the Surfliner; but you do get a view of agriculture and oil wells which is a change from views of the Pacific Ocean.

A refreshing change from crowded Southwest Airlines Boeing 737s if one has the time for a long train ride.

Mega Bus for Business Travel in California

Being tired of flying on a crowded Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 and it is the cold and flu season when being crowded in a small jetliner may be risky.  I decided to try out a new method of getting from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Los Angeles Metro Area called Mega Bus. 

OK, it is new to the West Coast of the USA.  Europe and the East Coast of the USA can hardly consider this method of travel all that new.  USA West Coast Service is a currently limited to San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Las Vegas, Reno, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. 

I took Amtrak up to the San Francisco Bay Area from Claremont CA (Los Angeles County) which I will write about in a latter blog posting. 

My Mega Bus ticket was a bit less than $4 USA and I got to put it on my expensive report since it was business travel.  No, the bus ticket is not normally that cheap; but I got a really especial discount.

Not an option if you  have a lot of luggage as one is limited to one small checked bag and one small carry on bag.  I left from the San Francisco Caltrain Station and arrived in Los Angeles Union Station with only one stop in San Jose for passenger pickup and one stop at ButtonWillow CA near Baskersfield CA for a bus driver switch. 

The bus was very empty with about 21 passengers.  I left San Francisco at about 7:10 PM and arrived Los Angeles around 2:30 AM.

The free WiFi on the bus is good for email but not much else.  It appears to work best with my Apple iPod Touch and not well at all for my laptop computer.

Seating is comfortable and it is possible to sleep on the bus even in a very windy situation.  There is a restroom on the bus.  It is a double deck bus as the photo shows.

I highly recommend Mega Bus for cheap business or vacation travel. 

This Blogs Readers

This blog is doing amazingly well considering the fact that I really don't have the time that I wish I had to write blog postings.  It is interesting to note that this blog has significant readers only in the USA and Germany.   No Middle East or Canadian readers to date worth mentioning.  

The amount of readers gives me encouragement to continue posting blog articles as I have the time to do so.

A Flash From the Past - A. O. Smith Flash Welded Pipe

This pipe's flash welded long seam has a tendency to have corrosion pitting in the pipe seam and heat affected zone of the pipe seam if exposed to electrolyte. 

Devonian Black Shale as a Possible Pipeline Corrosion Issue

Warren Anderson gave me permission to post this email on this blog.  I have no comment on this and you can contact Mr. Anderson as this name below has a hyperlink to his email address.   If any desire to comment on this issue to me; I am interested in hearing what you have to say about this.

Mr. Hodgman,

I saw your corrosion control engineer blog and wanted to make contact concerning some pipeline corrosion issues we have in Kentucky.  I am a research scientist and geochemist at the University of Kentucky and saw that you had an interest in this area of pipeline corrosion that I have done some research in. 

I have done some preliminary work in the Devonian Black Shales in Kentucky where about 30-40 % of pipeline failures in our state have occurred when the pipeline is sited in the Black Shale.  There are geochemical reasons for this, the shale contains pyrite, an iron sulfide which oxides and forms a mild sulfuric acid, lowering the pH of groundwater and accelerating the corrosion of any steel pipelines.  The Beaumont, Ky pipeline disaster noted this in the NTSB reports.   Building anything in organic black shales is troubling, but pipelines have the potential for catastrophic events, so I have been trying to get some  research funding to study this problem..

If you know anyone in the eastern US who has pipelines in black shales please pass this message on to them.  I have a report out on some severe foundation problems (heaving) in the black shales, http://kgs.uky.edu/kgsweb/olops/pub/kgs/ri18_12.pdf,  which would also extend to pipelines.

Good blog, Keep up the good work.

Warren Anderson