Thursday night my youngest daughter came to pick me up at the airport in Salt Lake but couldn't bring my car because of a small problem. Instead she drove her car.
Sunday evening my oldest son celebrated his birthday and spent part of his dinner feast extolling the virtues of the new car he purchased recently for him and his wife. He pointed out that if he locked his keys in the car, he could use an app on his smartphone and unlock the car. I asked him what would happen if he left the lights on. His wife jumped in and pointed out that the app also allows you to turn the lights off. I then asked what would happen if you left the lights on and forgot about it, as would usually be the case. She had to agree that the app would not work with a dead battery.
When my daughter tried to pick me up on Thursday evening, my car's battery did not have a charge. A small light in the interior got left on during a trip on Saturday and nobody turned it off. When I got home from the airport I couldn't even open the trunk where the car battery is stored because my trunk latch requires electricity. Fortunately I could use the key to unlock my door and open the hood where there is a second set of electrical terminals for charging the battery.
Technology is advancing and there are a number of great features that now come standard with a number of cars. My son has a new car that he and his wife appreciate. It is just important to remember that electricity is an important part of this new technology and we shouldn't take it for granted. After all, if the car next to us at the ski resort on Saturday had some of this new technology, the owner wouldn't have had to call a locksmith to get into his car. He could have just pulled up an app on his smartphone and unlocked the doors without much fuss.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017
The Best Home Alarm System
For the past 13 years I have had the best home alarm system ever made. While I live in a fairly safe neighborhood we have had a few teenagers create mischief with my neighbors over the past few years. I have never worried about my own home because of my alarm system: a large German Shepherd dog named Aspen.
She felt that it was her job to bark menacingly any time someone came to the door. On more than one occasion it has scared door-to-door salespeople away. When she didn't scare them away, comments got made about how ferocious she sounded. I loved my dog.
The only downside to having such a reliable alarm system is that eventually they die. Last night my protective dog passed away. Yes we are all sad about the loss of our family pet but we knew her time was coming to an end. She had lost most of her hearing and we don't know how she could see through her cloudy eyes. Walking had become difficult and she could barely get around the block. So we hope she is now in a better place and able to frolic as much as she used to as a puppy.
She felt that it was her job to bark menacingly any time someone came to the door. On more than one occasion it has scared door-to-door salespeople away. When she didn't scare them away, comments got made about how ferocious she sounded. I loved my dog.
The only downside to having such a reliable alarm system is that eventually they die. Last night my protective dog passed away. Yes we are all sad about the loss of our family pet but we knew her time was coming to an end. She had lost most of her hearing and we don't know how she could see through her cloudy eyes. Walking had become difficult and she could barely get around the block. So we hope she is now in a better place and able to frolic as much as she used to as a puppy.
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Obsolete Technical Information
One of my employees resigned last week and as his manager it is up to me to go through his office. My primary job is to make sure all of the important information from his projects gets saved while my secondary job is to throw stuff away. This employee has been at the company for 15 years and so he accumulated a lot of technical information.
As I go through the office material, I can't help but think about someone else having to do the same thing for me eventually. I have decided that it is impossible for one to clean his or her own office. I attach to much importance on the most minute detail as I am sure others do as well. I think I would keep stuff that can be thrown out. When it comes to me going through my former employee's stuff, I have no problem tossing most everything.
I am also fortunate in that we have a shredding service to help me with this task. I have a large garbage can with a tiny slit on the top. The lid of the can is secured with a sizeable padlock so once I toss something in, I better not need it back. The only downside to the tiny opening is that I have had to rip several technical manuals for old projects as they were too large to fit in the slot. If I had had to stand in front a paper shredder destroying documents, I would still be there.
One question you may be asking is why am I shredding everything. Simple: it is better to be safe than have to worry about scavengers going through our office garbage cans looking for sensitive information. While most of what I am throwing away is worthless and illegible (I have gone through notebooks filled with chicken scratch and drawings but not a single legible word), I would hate to have missed something that really is sensitive and secret information.
The fun part of my job is that my former employee left a ton of old video games. Games for old consoles that almost nobody plays any more. I sent out an e-mail to the department advertising the free games for anyone interested and soon the collectors arrived. While some games are worthless, there are a few actually worth real money. And here I thought they were obsolete.
As I go through the office material, I can't help but think about someone else having to do the same thing for me eventually. I have decided that it is impossible for one to clean his or her own office. I attach to much importance on the most minute detail as I am sure others do as well. I think I would keep stuff that can be thrown out. When it comes to me going through my former employee's stuff, I have no problem tossing most everything.
I am also fortunate in that we have a shredding service to help me with this task. I have a large garbage can with a tiny slit on the top. The lid of the can is secured with a sizeable padlock so once I toss something in, I better not need it back. The only downside to the tiny opening is that I have had to rip several technical manuals for old projects as they were too large to fit in the slot. If I had had to stand in front a paper shredder destroying documents, I would still be there.
One question you may be asking is why am I shredding everything. Simple: it is better to be safe than have to worry about scavengers going through our office garbage cans looking for sensitive information. While most of what I am throwing away is worthless and illegible (I have gone through notebooks filled with chicken scratch and drawings but not a single legible word), I would hate to have missed something that really is sensitive and secret information.
The fun part of my job is that my former employee left a ton of old video games. Games for old consoles that almost nobody plays any more. I sent out an e-mail to the department advertising the free games for anyone interested and soon the collectors arrived. While some games are worthless, there are a few actually worth real money. And here I thought they were obsolete.
Monday, April 3, 2017
Old and New Music Players
I spent a good part of my Saturday working on my wife's Jeep. It is a fairly new vehicle and so it didn't need any repairs. Instead I installed an amateur radio transceiver and antenna. We will be helping with the Salt Flats 100 ultra marathon at the end of the month and the radio will help us communicate with race officials as we drive to the furthest reaches of the race course.
I rarely have a lot of time on Saturdays and this past weekend was no exception. Fortunately I had the ability to multi-task while working on the car. A local radio station had a 2-hour audio program I wanted to listen to and so I did while installing the transceiver. At first I listened to the the Jeep's radio. That went well until all of the neighbor kids started making a lot of noise on the street right in front of my house. They got so loud I couldn't hear my program. It's not like I could tell the kids to go somewhere else or make less noise. After all, they were using their outside voices outside.
I thought about my predicament and realized I had an old portable music player. Not an old MP3 player, but an old tape player complete with AM/FM radio. We used to call them Walkmans even though they might be from someone other than Sony. I lost the foam-padded earphones along time ago and so I rummaged through a junk drawer for a pair of ear-buds and headed back out to complete my work.
This got me thinking about the evolution of personal music players and how far we have come since the revolutionary transistor radios that now seem so archaic. Interestingly enough, my Android phone actually has an FM radio app that would have also worked. I just didn't think of it first.
I rarely have a lot of time on Saturdays and this past weekend was no exception. Fortunately I had the ability to multi-task while working on the car. A local radio station had a 2-hour audio program I wanted to listen to and so I did while installing the transceiver. At first I listened to the the Jeep's radio. That went well until all of the neighbor kids started making a lot of noise on the street right in front of my house. They got so loud I couldn't hear my program. It's not like I could tell the kids to go somewhere else or make less noise. After all, they were using their outside voices outside.
I thought about my predicament and realized I had an old portable music player. Not an old MP3 player, but an old tape player complete with AM/FM radio. We used to call them Walkmans even though they might be from someone other than Sony. I lost the foam-padded earphones along time ago and so I rummaged through a junk drawer for a pair of ear-buds and headed back out to complete my work.
This got me thinking about the evolution of personal music players and how far we have come since the revolutionary transistor radios that now seem so archaic. Interestingly enough, my Android phone actually has an FM radio app that would have also worked. I just didn't think of it first.
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