The Importance of Training

It is amazing at how many people think they are an expert in something only to find out that they are really more of a novice. This weekend I got to participate as an official in a ski race. Normally I get assigned as the start referee, which is a lot of work. Saturday I was a simple gate judge with a twist. The twist was that I was on a headset with the start and finish. I have done that before, but only once. It was my job to communicate any crashes on the middle of the hill outside the view of the start or finish officials. Sounds like a piece of cake, right? Wrong.

The first race of the season generally has a lot of racers and so it was an all-day affair. I would watch skiers come down the mountain and as they passed, I was to give the racer's number and that they "cleared" the drift road, which was where I was standing. A typical conversation would sound like this:

Starter: Racer 1 on course, 2 holding in the gate.
Me,once racer 1 got to my spot on the hill: 1 clear of drift.
Next checkpoint, once racer 1 got to his spot on the hill: 1 clear of slalom start.
Finish, when the racer passed through the finish line: 1 through the finish.

Again, this sounds rather simple. However we could have up to 4 racers on a hill at the same time, staggered at 30-second intervals. That meant that racer 50 was crossing the finish line at the same time 51 was going past the slalom start, 52 was going past me, and racer 53 was leaving the start gate. Therefore it was important to use as few words as possible so you weren't talking over someone else. Furthermore it was important to use the right vocabulary.

During the course of the day, a skier missed a gate and started hiking so he wouldn't be disqualified. The racer behind him quickly approached and passed him. That means that racer 52 was in front of 51 and I used the word "passed" to indicate what had happened. Timing was able to make the necessary change in the computer so that racer 52 was given the correct time as was 51. Without this communication, both racers would have the wrong time. After the passing, I used the word "passed" with the next racer instead of "cleared." After all, the racer did pass my spot and I had the word "pass" on my mind. This confused timing because they thought two more racers had passed each other, which wasn't the case. Using the wrong vocabulary created confusion and I had to correct the error.

In my defense, it was the only mistake of the day but highlighted the importance of proper training. How many of us are eager to tackle a new project or try something innovative on our computer. Sometimes we have the proper knowledge or training and can do okay. Other times we know just enough to be dangerous and really screw things up. I hate it when I do that.

Don't Shoot the Messenger

When I first started flying between Utah and California earlier this year, Southwest had a flight that left Oakland at 6pm and got into Salt Lake at 9pm. It required me to leave my office at 4 and I sort of had an evening at home. Then Southwest moved the flight to 7pm, which put me in at 10pm. I got to stay at the office until 5pm but sort of ruined my Friday nights. Now Southwest has pushed the flight back to 8:15, which puts me in after 11pm. That totally ruins my Friday evening.

Today is the first time that the flight goes home at 8:15 and I wasn't too happy about it when I made the reservation. I thought about going on the Delta flight, which leaves at 6:15, but wanted to remain loyal to Southwest.

I just logged onto Southwest's website to see if my flight is going to be on time this evening. Right now it is 2 hours late. I won't be home until well after midnight. I checked the FAA's website to see what airports are experiencing weather delays and San Fransisco (SFO) is the only one. That means that Southwest is having problems or at one time during the day, this plane made a stop at SFO and it screwed up the rest of the day's schedule. The net effect is I am not a happy. Sometimes the Internet brings bad news and it is important to remember not to shoot the messenger.

Benchmarks

Today is the first ski race of the season for my youngest son. I wish I could be there at Park City watching. Instead I am stuck here in California working. The most important goal in this first race is to finish. Doing so helps with races later in the season.

My job today is running benchmarks. We will be rolling out a new product in the next couple of months and I need to make sure our infrastructure will support it. I am starting the day running speed tests. Later I will work on some reliability tests to make sure we can weather hardware and software failures. These benchmarks are sort of like the ski race my kids are participating in at Park City. The race doesn't really count for much other than to make sure they are in racing form and ready for more important races later in the season.

My daughter was also supposed to be at the race but got in trouble. She hit her brother after being warned repeatedly that it would keep her from this first race. She got home from school a few minutes ago and asked if she could go skiing at the resort near our house. My wife informed her that she was being punished and should work on homework. She knew she wasn't going to be allowed to race, but not being allowed to even ski today is really too much. If she had known that, she would have hit her brother harder. When I heard that, I just had to laugh.

Late Night YouTube

Last night I got interested in watching some YouTube videos and wound up staying up past midnight. Normally I am not a fan of YouTube, but found some rather interesting submissions and couldn't help but watch. My search started with "Emergency Communications Trailers." After following several links I found a 35-minute video that I just had to watch (divided into two parts).

The video wasn't really a video. It was just audio of radio communication between air traffic control and an airplane. The pilot had passed away, leaving the sole passenger to fly the plane. This is a scenario you see in a lot of movies about commercial flying. The YouTube video is nothing like the movies, which isn't really that surprising.

The first thing I noticed was how calm the passenger was. You don't really notice he has a dead guy sitting next to him until he makes a comment about it right before landing. That would probably freak out a lot of people.

The other thing I noticed was how much radio traffic was taking place. Air traffic control would talk with the passenger and then have to redirect 4 or 5 other pilots to another channel. Then he would talk to the passenger again. That is something that never happens in the movies.

Eventually the plane gets directed to an airport with a really long runway and the passenger is able to safely land. However you can hear his voice climb in pitch the closer he gets to the ground. This is one situation where everything works out well considering the circumstances and it was riveting. Considering how much garbage is on YouTube, it was nice to find something so worthwhile.

Teamwork

This morning I began documenting a project I just started. I am using a new product called Eucalyptus and want to write down the steps I went through to get everything running. Then if I have to go through the same steps in the future, I won't have to figure it out again.

As I was adding comments to my notebook, I turned past a number of entries for new products I have learned this year. While there are the usual notes about PostgreSQL, MySQL, and other databases, there are also notes for MongoDB, BIRT, Fabric, and other software. I wish I could say that I discovered all these products myself, but that would be a lie. The reason I am using them is because of various people I work with and their recommendation to help make my job easier.

I used to do consulting and had my own bag of tools. While I would work with others, rarely would they make recommendations of other products that might help me out. Now that I am in more of a team environment, there is an open atmosphere of sharing. I find this to be a refreshing change and am enjoying the chance to add to my toolbox. So if you find yourself struggling with a particularly nasty problem, seek out a trusted resource and see if there isn't another tool out there to make the problem go away.

Global Warming

Those who believe in global warming will point to the weather here in the western half of the country as proof. Those who don't will point to the weather in the East. Since I am in the West, all I can say is that it isn't fun to watch all this early snow melt. It is tough to ski when there isn't any snow.

Saturday I had a great day of skiing at Snowbird. My wife and I were first into a large bowl and had a nice run of untouched powder. By the time we hit the bottom, there were others following our tracks and so it was impossible to circle around and have the same experience. That didn't keep us from finding little stashes of powder throughout the rest of the mountain. Yes, it was a great day and I hope to have more like it throughout the year. Snowbird is fortunate in that they have elevation to help combat the warm temperatures. While they had fresh snow, places like Park City had to deal with rain.

I got back to the office today and asked if anyone else had gone up skiing. A coworker had thought about it, but Tahoe was just too warm. A look at the Squaw Valley website which showed that it was in the 40's and snow was melting fast. In fact, Squaw only has an 18-inch base. In Utah, that would mean a lot of exposed rocks. It has been so long since I have skied any of the Lake Tahoe resorts that I am not sure how bare it is, but I don't plan to go there any time soon. That is too bad because Squaw Valley is one of my favorite places to ski.

Ski resorts used to have a phone number that you could call to get weather conditions and I'm sure they still do. However now it is so much easier to go to the resort's website and get the same information. Often times there is even a live picture or two so you can see for yourself if the report measures up to your expectations. Unfortunately 18-inches of snow just makes me depressed. Hopefully the weather predictions for a cool down are true and we will have snow later this week. Otherwise there are several websites I won't be visiting only because it is too sad.

Time to Clean my Desk

You can tell when I have been incredibly busy as my desk doesn't get cleaned. I was looking at my desk in the office this morning and thinking that I really need to clean it up. I have mentioned before how a good work environment is critical to helping focus on a project. This morning I have some extra time and so I will clean up my desk.

I am trying to figure out why my desk gets so messy. Part of the problem is that I think I am afraid to throw anything away. The moment my trash has been emptied is exactly when I realize that I shouldn't have thrown something away. The sad thing is that what I really need is a note scribbled in the margin of an unimportant and unrelated paper.

Another reason my desk gets so messy is that I take a lot of notes. Generally I try to use an engineering notebook for all of the important stuff. If I know I won't need the information in the future, I will write on a yellow tablet and then throw it away when I am done. Unfortunately I will write one of those super-important and unrelated notes in the margin and end up keeping the paper and cluttering my desk.

Finally I like to create piles. If I don't know what to do with something, I will put it in a pile of other stuff I don't know what to do with. It is a practice that drives my wife crazy. She will walk around the house questioning me about piles of junk in various corners. Eventually the piles get moved to my office which is where they needed to go anyways. I guess that means I am good at getting my wife to clean up after me. Now I just wish she would come hang out in my office at work.

Company Benefits

Today was a good day to be at the office. The company I work for was giving away all sorts of free swag. OK, technically it wasn't free. I had to make a $5 donation to a charity and then they gave me a grab bag full of cool stuff. I got some sweet T-shirts as well as a bunch of video games. If I had bought the games in a store, I would have spent around $250. Of course I didn't get to pick the games and neither did any of the other employees around me. That led to a lot of trades taking place as we all got different titles.

This is one of the benefits that is often overlooked when deciding where you want to work. Back at Oracle, we might have gotten T-shirts, but nobody really had a consumer use for their product. It would be like bringing home a drive-shaft to a 1987 Ford F-150. While someone definitely has a use for such a gift, it isn't going to get the kiddies excited to see under the tree on Christmas morning. Yep, I definitely work for a company with lots of cool products.

This got me thinking about other cool companies. I wonder if Apple has such a practice and they give out iPads to all of their employees for a nominal donation to a local charity. Ok, maybe not an iPad, but how about an iPod? REI would be another great place to work if they gave out free stuff. With all the camping I do, I would definitely be happy with most anything they carry.

You don't suppose GM gives away cars at Christmas do you? They did have to get bailed out by the government recently. . .

World Clocks

Several people from my office have been traveling all over the place because of conferences. It is always difficult to remember what time it is in the various timezones throughout the world. My watch can tell me the time for all timezones, which is helpful when I am doing a lot of traveling. However it is a little cumbersome because it uses 3-letter airport codes to indicate the timezone. For instance, LAX represents the pacific time zone. Most Americans know that SFO (San Francisco International Airport) and LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) are in the same timezone. But what about ANC (Anchorage International Airport) and HNL (Honolulu International Airport)? And what about daylight savings time?

In reality, it doesn't matter what the exact time is when you are trying to call one of your coworkers in Japan. What really matters is if the sun is up or if it is the middle of the night. The best tool for that is a world clock which shows a map of the world with night areas colored darker than day areas (as shown in the image above).

There are a number of free world clocks that work on Windows, but I wanted one on Linux because that is my primary system at work. Doing a quick search on one of the Ham radio sites (because Ham radio guys use world clocks to determine the best frequencies to use) led me to Sunclock. It is a free program that can be found at ftp://ftp.ac-grenoble.fr/ge/geosciences/sunclock.

The program comes as source code and so you have to compile it. There are some simple instructions that come with the download and most Linux users should be able to get it working with a minimum fuss. If you run Linux and do business all over the world, this application is indispensable.

2010 Christmas List

I love this time of the year. The news always talks about how some adults get depressed at Christmas time and I can see how that can happen. However I love exchanging gifts. I also use this time of year as an excuse to get new toys for myself by justifying that it is for the family. In thinking about what I would like this year, I decided to make my list public in case there are others that can benefit from my Christmas list.

Less than $20
My kids often ask me what I want for Christmas and I know they don't have much money to spend. In reality I would rather have them save for college than buy me expensive toys. So this is probably the most important price range on my Christmas list. Some ideas are:

1. Memory cards, you can never have too many of these
2. USB thumb drives, great for backing up important pictures and documents
3. 12 Volt car adapter to USB charger, great for keeping your iPhone fully charged
   
4. Noise canceling headphones, what a steal at $19.99
5. Mouse pad with a really cool graphic, mine are always getting worn out
6. LED Flashlight, great for looking behind the computer
7. A 50-pack of blank DVD's, make sure to get the kind that match the DVD writer (+ or -)
   

Less than $100
This price range opens up a few more gifts but starts getting out of the range most kids can afford. Perhaps two kids can go together to get Dad a gift.

1. Good computer toolkit, I am always looking for a screwdriver
2. Spare charger for my laptop, so one can stay at home and the other at the office
3. DVD or Blu-Ray movie, fun for the whole family
4. A 1 TB hard drive, to add to any computer system
5. External hard drive, great for making backups
6. Battery backup system or UPS, for when the power flickers

More than $100
This opens up a lot of possibilities. However it is Christmas and not "Winner of the Lottery Day," so you shouldn't really spend more than $1000. Furthermore these gifts should really be for the whole family and not just one individual.

1. 3D Television, you can get some bundles for less than $1000
2. Playstation 3, it is also a Blu-Ray player
   
3. Color Laser printer, great quality and the toner doesn't dry up like with ink-jet printers
4. Gas-powered generator, for when the power is out for a long time
5. 1080p Video projector, when a 50-inch screen isn't large enough

There are some great buys on all of these ideas and so don't be afraid to scour the Internet for the best prices. And remember, don't spend too much. It isn't much of a Christmas if you are still paying for it in July.

The Fear of Impending Doom

I would have to say that I am generally a very optimistic person. I am always hoping that the best will happen and try to shrug off all of those preaching impending doom. When all of the talk of global warming became popular, I read Michael Crichton's State of Fear and appreciated his scientific approach to analyzing what is really going on in the world around us. Let's be honest, the scientific community is often wrong, but never in doubt.

Last night I had the chance to attend a Roundtable for Boy Scout leaders. The topic of conversation was winter camping. It was refreshing to listen to the wisdom of others and not be the one teaching the class. Of course I did put in my two cents about the importance of eating a Snicker's bar before going to bed (your body needs fuel to keep warm while you sleep). The primary message in last night's meeting was the Scout motto: Be Prepared.

It is essential to be prepared for realistic disasters. I do a lot of reading on Ham radio forums and there are some preparing for the end of the world while others are worried about a simple 3-day power outage. While I applaud those preparing for the apocalypse, I think it is much more realistic to prepare for the power outage. So what does that mean for the regular computer user? Take a look at some realistic scenarios and plan accordingly.

If you keep important records on your computer that might be useful in the event of an emergency (i.e. medical information, phone contacts, etc.), make sure that you have a way to power your computer in case of an outage. Laptops have the advantage of having a battery without requiring an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Being able to keep this information on your iPhone (or similar device) is even better.

Lightning strikes have a tendency to destroy computer equipment and so it is a good idea to turn off and unplug your computer during an electrical storm. Unfortunately those inexpensive surge protectors will do little regardless of what their warranty says.

Most importantly you should back up the data on your computer. Katrina-type storms happen once every hundred years. You are much more likely to suffer a hard-disk crash or a dropped computer. If you have your data backed up, then you are that much quicker to being productive in the event your computer breaks. This means doing regular backups as data has a tendency to change. I am missing three years of photos because of a crashed hard drive. I hope that doesn't happen to you.

A New Home for Old Gadgets

If you are like me, you probably have a bunch of old cell phones and used computer equipment lying around the house. I was one of the first people to start carrying a cell phone and when it came time to upgrade, I got a credit for returning my old one. For some reason, the carriers stopped their upgrade programs and so I have a box with all of my old phones. Every once and a while, a Scout troop or school fundraising group will drop by asking for old phones to recycle. While I don't mind helping them out, it would be nice to get some real cash for my old gadgets.

Last night I was getting ready to head off to bed when the news mentioned a story about a company paying for old computers, monitors, cell phones, and other electronic gadgets. I decided it was worth staying up a bit to see if it was something I could use. It was and now I can pass that information on to you.

If you go to www.gazelle.com, you can find out how much your old junk is worth. My son's phone died and is using an old Treo 650 that we had lying around. I did a query to find the value of the phone and discovered it is worthless. I thought back to my last phone that I was using before I got my iPhone 3G and that was a Motorola Razor. I did a search to discover that it is also worthless. Each time I searched for a worthless item, Gazelle offered to recycle the device responsibly. That is nice, but I want cash.

I looked at my iPhone 3G and wondered how much it is worth. I am interested in upgrading to the iPhone 4 and want to know how much I can get for my current phone. I plugged in the numbers and discovered it is worth $104. Now we're talking. At that price, it could be worth it to get rid of my old phone and pick up a new one. This gives me an idea for Christmas . . .