It's Just a Number

This morning I couldn't go on my usual 9am bicycle ride because of a meeting with some people in London. I had to wait until the end of the meeting and then quickly changed before heading out. We are having a heatwave here in the Western United States and I felt it today. Normally it is about 75 degrees Fahrenheit but today was closer to 85 on my morning ride.

I thought about the temperature as I rode delirious from the heat. It really is just a number and means different things depending upon circumstances. Think about being outside in 68 degrees Fahrenheit which is the same as 20 degrees Celsius. In the middle of a winter month like February, someone from Boston might think it warm enough to wear shorts. In the middle of a summer month like July, someone from Phoenix might put on a sweater. It validates that if you really want to know what the temperature is, go outside and see for yourself.

Now think about the different scales we use to determine temperature. Daniel Fahrenheit decided to base his numbers with 100 being the temperature of the human body. Yes, he was off by a degree or so, but back then accuracy left something to be desired. He set 0 at the lowest temperature he could get a salt-water mixture. I always thought it was the extremes for human comfort. Knowing the real origin now makes more sense as modern humans are only comfortable between 68 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. That is why we invented air conditioning and central heat.

Contrast the Fahrenheit scale with the rest of the world that uses Celsius. Celsius is very scientific in that 0 defines the temperature that fresh water freezes at sea level and 100 is the temperature it boils. Notice all of the qualifications. That is because water boils at a lower temperature at higher elevation and freezes at a lower temperature if there is salt in it.

So what does this have to do with anything relating to computers? That is a great question. Computers are really good with numbers. They can add and subtract with amazing speed. In order for those numbers to make any sense, they have to be assigned units of measure. Before Italy replaced their currency at the beginning of 2002 with the Euro, there used to be a game with a local radio station called, "Who Wants to be an Italian Millionaire?" At the time 1 million lira used to be worth something like $20 and if you answered a few questions correctly, you received enough winnings to buy lunch. In other words, units of measure really matter. While my computer may tell me the value of a recent calculation, it only makes sense in the context of what was asked. If the result doesn't make sense, then look at the units of measure. Remember that when you look at the temperature outside if it ever says 293 degrees. The unit of measure just might be in Kelvin, yet another way to describe if it is hot or cold outside.

Nostalgia with Funimation

One of my new projects at Sony is working with the Funimation team, which is part of Sony Pictures. I've known about Funimation but never played with the anime site until now. In an effort to understand the business, I've been doing some research. I have to say that I love my new job.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in middle school, I watched about 6 episodes of the Japanese anime Star Blazers. I never really got into anime except for Speed Racer and Star Blazers. At the time, I didn't know anime was anything other than cartoons. Anyways, I really liked Star Blazers and was sad I never could find any more episodes . . . until now.

In the United States, cartoons are generally for kids with a few exceptions. Anime can be found for all ages and so you have to choose your shows carefully. Some shows contain rather adult content. Rather than watch just any anime, I went back to my childhood and started watching Star Blazers. I wish Funimation had existed back when I was a kid as I am sure I would have enjoyed the content a lot more. It is still fun to catch up on the story as well as earlier episodes I never got to see.

Sony recently purchased Crunchyroll and has similar content. The two services are in the process of being combined and you will be able to get all of the anime content you want from a single place. I doubt it will change my entertainment habits much as I prefer live-action movies. If you are already into anime then you already know about Crunchyroll. If you are looking for another choice in streaming entertainment, then feel free to check either service out.

Please remember that I work for Sony and so this isn't an unbiased opinion about anime content providers. It is not meant to be. I just discovered both services and wanted to share.

Book Review: Clean Code

At KLAS Research I had one of my employees recommend that we get a bunch of copies of the book Clean Code by Robert C. Martin and give them out to all of the software developers on the team. Having never read the book, I picked up a copy from Amazon and it arrived at my house that very evening. I didn't even have to go to the local bookstore, which actually is one of my favorite activities. I wanted to read it before I recommended that the company purchase the $50 book.

I immediately started reading it and felt it had some great ideas that every software developer should learn. I recommended it to one of my engineers and she checked it out from the library before I even made the decision if it is worth getting for everyone. She found value and wisdom within its pages.

Ultimately I decided not the purchase copies for everyone on the team because it had a number of ideas that I disagree with. The book uses Java for almost all of the coding examples. It then goes on to say that there are very few differences between computer programming language choices and the principles in the book can be applied to the vast majority of them. I completely disagree. I am not a fan of Java because I think it requires too many lines of code to do anything useful. You can do so much more with Python in significantly fewer lines. Furthermore, while some of the suggestions in the book will help with Java, they are not needed for Python.

Computer programming languages all have their pros and cons, which is why there are so many of them. When it comes to data science, which is what I am doing now at Sony, most people choose between Python or R. Even then R is better for statistical computations while Python is better for machine learning and general-purpose programs. Java has its place too, but I wouldn't use it for data science as it is too cumbersome.

Going back to the book, Clean Code. I found it to be very helpful and it outlined a lot of concepts that will help you become a better coder. It talks about tried-and-true things like self-documenting variables and that if you have to use extensive comments to describe what your code is doing, you may want to rethink what you wrote. I also like the concept of when you fix bugs, to take that time to make the code simpler and easier to read. If you are looking to improve your own coding skills or are just getting into coding, the book will help you a lot. I'm not sure I can justify the high price for the book though and recommend finding it at the library or looking for a great deal on a used copy.

Back at Sony

After leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) back in November last year, I am back at Sony. I am working for a different part of Sony but will be working with a lot of my former coworkers back at PlayStation. It feels good to be returning.

Back in April I started working at KLAS Research and I didn't think I would be returning to my old employer. The people at KLAS are great and I have enjoyed working with them. While working at Sony I started a project that I felt very passionate about and when the opportunity to continue it appeared, I had to seriously consider returning to the consumer electronics giant. Hopefully it works out well.

Many will think that leaving a small research company that produces important data about healthcare software to go to one of the most recognized brands in the world would be an easy decision. Unfortunately it was not. In fact, I originally told Sony I wasn't interested. I enjoyed not having to travel every week to go to the office and being able to sleep in my own bed every night. After the honeymoon phase of the new job wore off, I realized that my quality of life was taking a huge hit at KLAS. I also didn't agree with how the research data was being collected and would never be given the chance to fix it. Fortunately Sony is not making me come to the office except when I agree that it is necessary, so I will spend most of my time working at home.

It is important that I let everyone know I am back at Sony so if you see me promoting their products, you know it is not an unbiased opinion. I will have to make sure I mention this every time I talk about something they make. Most of the time I will just refrain from writing about their stuff. Sometimes though that will be tough as they do make some really fun toys.

Windows vs. Mac for Reliability

Today I headed to work in my home office and tried to bring my Windows laptop out of sleep. I got a pretty little screen with a frozen cursor. I only had a few minutes until my next meeting and so I joined the meeting from my phone while I tried to figure out how to wake the laptop up. Ultimately I had to hold the power button for 10 seconds. The machine seemed to power cycle and then asked me if I wanted to troubleshoot the issue or just turn the laptop off. I chose the latter and then turned it back on. This is a weekly process and it has me somewhat frustrated.

I have 2 computers on my desk at home. The first is my personal Mac that I use to read personal e-mail, create YouTube videos, and manage my personal calendar. The second is my work laptop running Microsoft Windows 10. I use it for a lot of browser-based applications like Jira and Confluence. I also have Outlook installed for my work e-mail.

I have to reboot my Windows laptop about once a week, as I stated above. I checked how long my Mac has been running without being shut down and it has only been up for 4 days. That is because I had an operating system update over the weekend and that required a system reboot. The previous reboot for my Mac was the last software update about a month before.

When my laptop wouldn't wake up this morning and I had to join my meeting from my smartphone, I got really frustrated. My Mac never seems to need rebooting compared to my Windows laptop. Now I will admit that I am a bigger fan of the MacOS but I had hoped that Windows had become more reliable in the past half-decade. I would say that it has but is still nowhere near the MacOS is for reliability.

If you are someone that turns off your machine nightly, then Windows may work fine for you. If you are like me and just put your machine to sleep and keep it running non-stop, I would suggest running either Linux or MacOS.