Paper vs. Electronic Books

Last weekend I flew to Ohio with my wife to visit our son and his family. Before leaving on the trip I started reading a paper copy of a large book. I didn't want to carry the book on the flight as I packed in a small backpack. I had access to an electronic copy and so I put it on my phone. Then my wife and I headed off to the airport.

Waiting in airports and spending time on planes provides one with a lot of time to read. I probably spent 2 to 3 hours reading just on the way out. My screen was plenty large to read and I just had to scroll constantly. Interestingly, the chapters felt shorter on my electronic device. I also had no warning as I got close to the end of the chapter, which I didn't like. I did like that I could turn off my screen, put my phone in my pocket, and change seats or walk on the plane. With a physical book I would have had to put in a bookmark and try to remember which paragraph I stopped at when I started reading again.

I didn't get the chance to read while in Ohio, which didn't bother me as that meant I spent all of my time playing and doing more important things. Then it came time to fly home Sunday evening. I just opened my reader on the phone and picked up on the next chapter from where I left off. I had lots of time to read as the first flight was delayed an hour. I had a 3-hour layover and so it didn't stress me out. I read some more when I got to the intermediate airport and then watched a movie the rest of the way home after boarding my next flight.

Once home, it came time to go back to my paper book and update the bookmark in my physical copy. Doing so allowed me to visually see how much I had read on my trip. I instantly thought of how much better a physical book is than an electronic one. Then I realized if they are really better then why didn't I bring mine on the trip?

Ultimately I prefer physical books if I have the luxury of being at home and don't have to worry about lugging around anything. When I am traveling, I prefer electronic ones. You can carry many of them and you won't throw your back out because of them.

New Laptop Battery

A week or so ago, my wife seemed rather distraught. We have a number of projects going on in the house and I worried that maybe we had a plumbing leak. For some reason, plumbing problems appear most in my adult nightmares. She said that wasn't the issue but that her laptop computer wasn't holding a charge. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. She changed out chargers as we have a number of different chargers for various Mac computers and that fixed the problem temporarily. Once she pulled her laptop off the charger, she only had about an hour before the battery drained completely. I immediately knew the problem: she needed a new laptop battery.

My wife has a MacBook Air that I picked up about 7 years ago. Knowing that she is reaching the end of life for her computer, I asked if she wants a new one but she doesn't see the point. Her current computer is working flawlessly for her and so I went to the website IFixIt and did a search for "MacBook Air Battery." I found the information for an Early 2015 with a 13-inch monitor and looked at ordering a new battery. I also reviewed the instructional video to see what tools I would need.

Replacing a MacBook Air battery is a simple task that anyone who has ever used a screwdriver can accomplish. You just have to have the right screwdrivers. My wife's required a Pentalobe 5, which looks like a 5-pointed star to remove the case and a Torx 5, which looks like a 6-pointed star to remove the battery. I made sure to order the screwdrivers from IFixIt as they were only $6 each. Interestingly I did not need to order the high-quality ones as I was sent the screwdriver bits with a universal handle because of my battery order. Now I have 2 of each.

I placed my order and it arrived the next day. I had a break in my work schedule and asked my wife to bring me her laptop. I grabbed some reading glasses and went to work. The first thing I noticed is how tiny those laptop screws really are. I carefully placed them nearby for when it came time to reassemble everything. The old battery came out quickly and the new one went in just as fast.

Any time you replace a laptop battery, you also want to calibrate the battery. Instructions came in the package and so we charged the battery to full and then kept it on the charger for a few hours. Then my wife started using the laptop running only on battery power until the computer turned itself off. After using it for about a week, today the MacBook Air finally shut down. I asked my wife how much time she actually got out of the battery and she estimates about 7 hours of real use. She is happy with that.

Apple makes a great computer that lasts for many years. My wife is gentle with her laptop and so I expect it to continue working for several more years before needing to be replaced. That makes replacing a battery much more cost effective than getting a new machine. It wouldn't surprise me if we get a total of 10 years out of it now.

Boy It Is Hot Outside

We are having very warm temperatures in Utah right now. When I go to the national weather service it has a message saying, "Excessive Heat Warning." Basically if you go outside, you run the risk of spontaneously bursting into flames. I don't mind too badly as my air conditioner is fairly new and does a great job of keeping the inside of my house comfortable.

One problem with air conditioning is that it can be expensive during really warm weather. I have done what I can to limit how much it runs including painting my house white and using white tiles on my roof. When I had to have my roof replaced, the salesperson said the color of the tiles shouldn't make much of a difference. Interestingly I chose the tiles with the Energy Star rating and my electrical bill is consistently 50% less than it was with my previous tiles. In other words, the salesperson was ignorant and white roof tiles make a huge difference.

To help keep my air conditioning costs down I also set my thermostat to 76 degrees Fahrenheit. That is a great daytime temperature as I can hang out in shorts and a t-shirt inside. My office likes to keep the temperature much colder and people run around in jackets and blankets. It is a good thing I don't have to go in every day.

One more thing you can do to keep electrical costs down in the summer is to leverage free air conditioning with the cool night air. The only downside is you can't rely on an outside source to know when it is okay to open your windows. I have an Amazon Show in my family room that always displays the outside temperature as reported by the national weather service. Unfortunately it is never the same as my actual outside temperature. How do I know? I have an electronic thermometer that displays its reading on my weather station inside. I keep the sensor in the shade on the north side of my house. I don't even think about opening a window until my weather station tells me the outside is at least a half degree cooler than the inside.

There are about 20 days in the summer where the outside temperature never gets low enough for me to open my windows. When I fell asleep last night, my bedroom was about 3 degrees cooler than the outside. It was still 2 degrees cooler this morning when I woke up. I expect a few more days of this but will still watch nightly as I enjoy seeing how cool I can get my house with free air conditioning.

That outdoor thermometer has more than paid for itself. Sometimes I will go outside and think the house is warmer inside. Often that just means there is a slight breeze which makes it feel cooler even though it isn't. Having a trusted temperature source helps me convince others that live with me to keep the windows closed for just a bit longer.

Finally it is important to know that unless you have many zones for your air conditioner, not all rooms in your house are at the same temperature. My house has 3 levels and the basement is always cooler than the other 2. The master bedroom is in the top level and always the warmest being about 3 degrees warmer than the level below it. When it is time to open windows, I start upstairs. I have thermometers on each level of the house and only when the outside temperature drops below the inside temperature for that level do I open those windows.

The system is not foolproof but it works fairly well for dry western states like Utah. I was talking with someone recently that said the difference between high and low humidity is that with low humidity, it does get cool in the shade. For me, that means when the sun goes down, it gets cool. Sometimes very quickly and I appreciate that.

No Internet for an Evening

I got home from work yesterday and while eating dinner with my wife I received a text message from my Internet provider. They apologized that my service was down but were doing everything they could to restore it. They had an estimated time of the problem being resolved in an hour. I finished eating, did the dishes, and then wondered how best to use my time.

Lately I have been playing Horizon: Forbidden West on my PlayStation 5. I have the game downloaded to my console and so I thought I would try to see if I could play it. Nope because before the game will start, the PS5 checks the entitlement database to make sure I have permission. Without the Internet connection, that information couldn't be verified. If I had a physical disk for the game, I could have played it but I was given the electronic version for free. I will be sure to purchase physical copies of games in the future for this reason.

I thought about watching a movie as I have a huge DVD and Blu-ray library and it is impossible to stream a movie without an Internet connection. Ultimately that would have just been filling time and so I looked at other activities. I thought about practicing guitar, which is something I do every evening. Sometimes I use Rocksmith on my PS4 and I have a physical disk for that game. Instead I decided to go for a walk with my wife. That is something else I do every evening and last night I did it a bit earlier than usual. The only downside being the warmer temperature as I like to wait for the sun to go down a bit more during the summer months.

My wife and I returned from our walk and our Internet was working again. By then, I had no interest in the activities that required me being online. I practiced guitar and then watched broadcast news before turning in for the night.

This morning I woke up and didn't really think much of the lack of Internet last night. At the time though I felt myself scrambling for worthwhile activities. Truth be told, the walk I took was probably more worthwhile than anything else I could have done online.