My Favorite Short Cut: ALT-TAB

You can tell how long someone has been using computers by paying attention to the short cuts he/she uses to navigate on the computer. I usually have quite a few application running on my computer and I need to be able to quickly switch between them. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and Windows 3.0 first came on the market, I used to only have one or two apps running and could easily just click between them. It didn't take long to quickly exhaust that functionality, especially with the small screens on laptops we had back then.

I remember leading a training session on a new database tool and I kept having to switch between a PowerPoint presentation and the tool. I would escape out of presentation mode, minimize PowerPoint, and show my demo. Once I completed the demo, I would expand PowerPoint and go back into presentation mode. Then someone showed me the power of ALT-TAB that allowed me to instantly switch between all running applications. I thought it was great and still use that key combination today even though there are more advanced ways of switching between running applications. For instance, you can see the running applications in Windows by just looking at the toolbar on the bottom of your screen. I still prefer ALT-TAB.

There are a number of other computer short cuts that will give away the length of time someone has been using computers. My work laptop run Microsoft Windows but I am an old Unix guy. When I open the Windows Power Shell it is a hard to remember not to use the "ls" command to get a directory listing of files instead of the preferred "dir" command familiar to those who learned "DOS." Fortunately Power Shell understands both commands and so I don't get the old "Syntax Error" I used to.

Another trick that really shows how old I am is from when I started using Oracle version 4. When you wanted to get a list of all the tables in the database, you would run the following command:

SELECT * FROM tab;

The result was a very simple listing of tables and some other basic information. Oracle later added more complete table definitions but I still use this simple command. Why? Because it is so simple and easy to remember. Are there better ways to find out what tables are in your database or schema? That depends upon how you define better. If you have to go to a manual and look it up, nope.

I used to work for a company that took PostgreSQL and made it look like Oracle for a lot less money. The first thing I tried when I sat down to play with the product was the command listed above. When it worked, I knew there were others at the company that appreciated quick and simple. I also knew they had people on the development staff that had used Oracle for a very long time, an important fact to me at the time.

Another Use for Twitter

I originally gave my opinion on Twitter back in 2010. Recently I started using Twitter in earnest. While I do not see value in following narcissistic celebrities, it is incredibly helpful for local governments. California is getting hit with a large number of storms this winter and most of those storms have found their way to Utah. Fortunately we have the infrastructure to handle all of the snow but that means doing a lot of avalanche mitigation.

To keep avalanches from blocking roads, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) follows similar protocols to ski areas. They leverage explosive concussions to trigger small slides so they never get large. When the snow sits above a road, they close it, set off explosions, and then clean up before allowing cars back on the road. Fortunately we have weather forecasting and UDOT will send out a Tweet the night before they close the road. Then us skiers watch Twitter for updates as to when the road will open so we can get up to the ski areas.

Most of the time UDOT opens roads around the time they predicted the night before. Sometimes they have to push the estimated opening because an avalanche crossed the road and requires more cleanup than originally anticipated. We have had a few days this year where the road didn't open until after noon.

One would think that staying up at the ski areas would allow for spectacular skiing without crowds because of closed roads. Unfortunately that isn't always the case. If it is too dangerous to be on the road, it is often too dangerous to be outside and so people will be interlodged, or stuck inside, until it is safe to open the roads again. How do you find out when the interlodge is lifted? You guessed it: Twitter.

A New Mobile Phone

 A few weeks ago I wrote about trying to decide if I should get a new mobile phone and use it as a dedicated work phone. As luck would have it, the mobile phone I use as our house phone stopped holding a charge. While it used to go a week or so between charges, it could only go 24 hours. It was time to replace the device. Fortunately I had already done a lot of research and had some good ideas on what to replace it with.

The phone that stopped holding a charge was a very robust demo unit given to me by Sony. I loved that phone as it had one of the best cameras at the time. I took it with me to Fiji and captured some amazing photos that no other phone at the time could match. As that trip took place a year before COVID, phones have improved a lot since then. I also have not taken many photos with that phone since I relegated it to home-phone duty. In fact, I hardly ever answer that phone as the only people that call it are scam artists or telemarketers. It is nice to keep the phone number though as it is the one tied to countless accounts and we do receive important calls on it about twice a year.

I decided to list out all of the features I need in a phone and it wasn't that long. I need the phone to be able make calls, text, work with 5G, and be as cheap as possible. While my carrier offers free phones, that comes with the catch of a service contract for several years. While I doubt I will change wireless companies, I do want to keep that option open. Besides I knew I could find a pretty cheap phone based on previous research.

Next I did an Internet search on cheap Android phones. There is only one option if I needed an iPhone and that is the SE which costs more than I wanted to spend. The search string I used was, "Cheapest smartphones for 2023." I got a nice list and looked a bit more into each of them. Ultimately I decided on the Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G 256GB (Unlocked). Best Buy had them on sale for $200 and that is an amazing deal for what you get. It has a very fast processor, 256GB of storage, and a stylus for those times when your finger is just too fat.

So what are the downsides? The phone is massive. It is not quite large enough to be a tablet but it sure isn't small enough to fit in my pants pocket without being uncomfortable when I go to sit down. That is fine though as it technically is our home phone and will stay at the house.

I have had the phone for a couple of weeks now and it is working as expected. There are a number of software updates and they installed flawlessly. I've experimented with the phone to see if I should install my work e-mail and it would work perfectly for that. Now all I need to do is see about loading it with movies and bringing it on a plane so I don't have to rely on the seat-back screen in front of me.