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At the weekly staff meetings, Zane would ask for our input. I would occasionally propose changes that I thought would benefit the Access SF producers. Just prior to Christmas in 2004 (December 19, 2004), I sent this jovial letter to the Access SF Santa (To: Zane, CC: Access SF Staff):
Dear Access SF Santa:
Please get us two pressure zone microphones (PZM). These boundary microphones are a perfect solution for mic'ing the studio for shows where the talent just won't stay put, like exercise or dance shows. The mics are welded to a metal plate, which is taped to a flat surface (floor, piano soundboard, etc.) and can pick up audio over a wide area.
Please get us a teleprompter mount that can be attached to a studio camera tripod. It's risky to keep the teleprompter on a separate (stationary) tripods, since it wouldn't take much camera panning or trucking to topple the teleprompter, or put unnecessary stress on the camera lens by the teleprompter shroud.
Please upgrade all of our computers to Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000. We have a few Windows 98 computers, some of which are used for mission critical tasks (Facil, shared drives, etc.). These machines are all capable of running a professional operating system, so it's just a matter of reimaging the disks. I know that Santa knows that these MS-DOS based version of Windows cannot be secured against cyber attacks, unauthorized access, and resource depletion, so if you compound that with the fact that they are sitting on an always-on Internet connection without a firewall, you can imagine the risks to our ability to do business.
After upgrading all computers to Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000, please construct a useable, reliable, and secured LAN that connects all computers. Santa's elves know how easy (with know how) it is to setup a secured domain-based LAN, where role-based security gives each user access to only those resources they are authorized to access, and how this same model protects the network, machine, and other users from any user errors (inadvertent or intentional).
Santa, please release needed production tools, from unnecessary lockouts, and make them available to any and all staff and producers that have requested to use those resources. Those resources would include items like the AVID workstation and the Studio-in-a-Box components. These resources are either under-utilized or not-utilized, even though there is a clear and present demand. Shouldn't we be getting some hands-on experience on new PD-170 cameras while they are still under warrantee? Santa's elves are quite capable of establishing a check-out policy that would allow us all to gain experience on this new boxed-up equipment while preserving the priority to schedule that equipment for Studio-in-a-Box events. Santa, remember that Tickle-Me-Elmo that Sally's parents bought before she was born? Her parents put the box in the attic, and before they remembered to give it to Sally, she outgrew it and the batteries leaked all over the place.
Yours very truly, Mikey.
p.s., Oh yea, we'd also like peace on earth.
I meant this email to be a jovial way of expressing issues that I felt were important, that I had already discussed openly in staff meetings. Zane had asked us (staff) to submit a wish list of equipment we wanted to purchase over the next year. Months latter, Zane Blaney told me that this email is what set Sade Huron on her ongoing rampage against me. I will detail Sade's behavior as another topic.
Please get us two pressure zone microphones (PZM). These boundary microphones are a perfect solution for mic'ing the studio for shows where the talent just won't stay put, like exercise or dance shows. The mics are welded to a metal plate, which is taped to a flat surface (floor, piano soundboard, etc.) and can pick up audio over a wide area.
All of the microphones at Access SF were wired handheld or lavaliere. Some shows had talent that danced about, or did sweaty exercise. A wired microphone isn't suitable with that type of action. The talent can get caught up in the wiring, trip, and hurt themselves. A PZM microphone gaffed to the floor, would pick up the talent whereever they were. I was hoping for a couple directional PZM mics.
I later found that Access SF had already purchased two omnidirectional PZM mics as part of the Studio-in-a-Box (later renamed Mobile Access Studio) kit. I also found that we also had two wireless lavaliere mics in that kit. Although we had all of these microphones, Zane refused to allow us to make anything in that kit available to producer productions.
Please get us a teleprompter mount that can be attached to a studio camera tripod. It's risky to keep the teleprompter on a separate (stationary) tripods, since it wouldn't take much camera panning or trucking to topple the teleprompter, or put unnecessary stress on the camera lens by the teleprompter shroud.
Noelle Hanrahan, the anchor host of Newsroom on Access SF, had graciously lent a teleprompter to Access SF, primarily for Newsroom on Access SF, but also available to other studio productions. It's used often on various producer and staff productions in the main studio. Unlike full-blown professional teleprompters that are mounted on the camera tripod, Noelle's teleprompter was mounted on it's own stationary tripod. This means that the camera behind the tripod must be locked down and can not pan or truck.
Please upgrade all of our computers to Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000. We have a few Windows 98 computers, some of which are used for mission critical tasks (Facil, shared drives, etc.). These machines are all capable of running a professional operating system, so it's just a matter of reimaging the disks. I know that Santa knows that these MS-DOS based version of Windows cannot be secured against cyber attacks, unauthorized access, and resource depletion, so if you compound that with the fact that they are sitting on an always-on Internet connection without a firewall, you can imagine the risks to our ability to do business.
After upgrading all computers to Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000, please construct a useable, reliable, and secured LAN that connects all computers. Santa's elves know how easy (with know how) it is to setup a secured domain-based LAN, where role-based security gives each user access to only those resources they are authorized to access, and how this same model protects the network, machine, and other users from any user errors (inadvertent or intentional).
Access SF's computer infrastructure is wholly inadequate for its mission. It's downright unreliable and not secured. Producers may recall repeated crashes of the Facil reservation system that resulted in losses of reservations.
In real life, I'm a computer scientist, and I've designed and implemented secured computer systems for over 30 years. I proposed to upgrade the Access SF computer infrastructure, and offered to use my professional contacts to get machines and software donated. Zane wouldn't allocate any time for this effort. What does he care? His workstation is a state of the art Windows XP Professional system, which is secured from unauthorized access, and is backed up. Why should he worry if mission critical operations are affected, and we lose reservations, disclose privileged producer and volunteer information, or lose programming?
The Facil database was finally moved to a Windows XP machine and there has been no crashes since that time, but other mission critical systems are still on unsecured obsolete operating systems.
Santa, please release needed production tools, from unnecessary lockouts, and make them available to any and all staff and producers that have requested to use those resources. Those resources would include items like the AVID workstation and the Studio-in-a-Box components. These resources are either under-utilized or not-utilized, even though there is a clear and present demand. Shouldn't we be getting some hands-on experience on new PD-170 cameras while they are still under warrantee? Santa's elves are quite capable of establishing a check-out policy that would allow us all to gain experience on this new boxed-up equipment while preserving the priority to schedule that equipment for Studio-in-a-Box events. Santa, remember that Tickle-Me-Elmo that Sally's parents bought before she was born? Her parents put the box in the attic, and before they remembered to give it to Sally, she outgrew it and the batteries leaked all over the place.
Please read:
These resources were not being made available to producers. The AVID workstation was available only to Sade Huron, and she refused to allow anyone else to use it. The Mobile Access Studio was sitting on the shelf in checkout and wasn't being used by anyone. Those components (cameras, tripods, microphones, decks, mixers, etc.) were going out of warrantee and nobody was being allowed to use them.
Months latter, after ongoing discrimination, rudeness, and retaliatory actions against me by Sade Huron, Zane Blaney told me that this email to Santa is what set her off. He never explained why he, as the Executive Director, let her get away with that behavior.
I didn't send a letter to Santa for Christmas in 2005. I was more concerned with Zane setting me up as the fall guy for the December 2005 cancellations, for his allowing Tina Gordon get away with her abusive and retaliatory actions against me for my dubbing producer tapes for playback, and for allowing Sade Huron continue to get away with her ongoing bad behavior against me over the year. Zane would not even respond to my requests to deal with these issues, and after I approached the SFCTC Board of Directors for help, he terminated my employment, breached our contract for me maintaining the Access SF web site, falsely accused me of theft, suspended my access rights as a producer and volunteer, and banned me from the facility. Please read:
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