The Latest News Updates

Every once and awhile a news story captures your attention yet it doesn't seem that important to others. Fortunately we have the Internet that allows us to stay on top of the latest developments. That happened for me this week.

Two days ago, I received an e-mail from one of the sailing magazines I read regularly. They shared a story about a fellow sailor having problems off the coast of Mexico. He is in the process of bringing a record-breaking sailboat to Baltimore where he will begin to make some records of his own. Unfortunately he had some problems with his boat and is now considered lost at sea.

This is a story close to my heart as once I embarked on a trip from Honolulu to Los Angeles in a 37-foot sailboat. I left Hawaii a day or two after a hurricane came close to the Big Island. Once outside the reach of mobile phone service the only communication I had with my wife was via expensive satellite phone or e-mail using ham radio. One night early in the trip, she awoke panicked that my boat might be in danger and she waited anxiously for my daily e-mail. I'd spent 3 days sleeping off sea sickness and really didn't do much other than my 2-hour watches every 6 hours. Otherwise I was fine. 21 days after leaving Hawaii, I landed in Los Angeles and quickly caught a flight back home to Salt Lake. My whole family was very glad to see me.

Having crossed an ocean in a small boat, I know what Donald Lawson is going through as he tries to sail his boat on a vast body of water. Fortunately for me, I had 3 other guys on the boat with me and we all worked together well. Donald is alone and we don't know his fate yet. I keep an Internet search page open with several key words and update the search every hour to see if there is any news. I'm hoping he is still alive, as I'm sure his wife and family do too.

So far we know that the Mexican Coast Guard has found his overturned boat, which is a good starting point. The US Coast Guard has joined the search and as of several hours ago has confirmed they are also near Captain Lawson's boat. Unfortunately we don't know any more than that. I keep hoping there will be good news.

Normally I would go to major news networks like CNN to catch updates on the story. Unfortunately this is such a niche story, they are not even covering it. The Baltimore Banner has regular updates but they seem to keep repeating the same information over and over. They also have a cap on the number of free stories you can read from their site without subscribing. As this is the only time they will have a story I am interested in following, I don't feel the need to pay money.

I looked at the US Coast Guard's official site. They have a number of daily press releases but nothing yet on this story. I have also scoured Twitter without any luck. Usually they are a great resource for the latest updates and I use Twitter during ski season to find the latest updates on snow-induced road closures.

I sincerely hope there is a happy ending to this story. Unfortunately as each day passes, those chances diminish. I hope that when we do find the outcome, whether good or bad, it is not something that appears as a footnote instead of a headline, which it deserves. Until then, I'll be looking for updates.

I Hate my Ring Doorbell

I've had a Ring doorbell for a couple of years now and I have decided that I don't like it. I hate it so much that I don't have it connected to my home network any more and don't feel the need to fix it. Perhaps you feel different about your Ring doorbell.

Part of the problem is that the device just can't seem to stay connected to my home WiFi, hence why it is not connected now. If it was as simple as pushing a button, that would make it easy to fix. Unfortunately it would also make it easy for bad actors to disconnect it from your home network. When it falls off the network, I have to physically remove the device from the front of my house using a special wrench to get to the reset button. Then there are a number of steps to get it reconnected. If it was a bit more reliable, I wouldn't have to reconnect it all the time.

Another contributor to why I hate my Ring doorbell is that people refuse to use it. The thing is large enough you can't not see it yet strangers prefer to knock on my front door. Perhaps they don't want to leave a record of their visit, which happens when the doorbell is used. I don't know people's logic but I got a lot more doorbell rings before I replaced my old button with the Ring device.

Finally I hate all of the notifications that Ring sends me. We are expecting really hot weather Sunday and Monday this week, Ring seems to send me a notice about it every couple of hours. Today is Friday but this has been going on for the past 3 days. It is like the boy who cried wolf. My phone sends me a notification that sounds like a text message so I pull my phone out only to discover the same message sent two hours earlier. I've tried to go into settings and turn things down so I only get important messages like someone being at my front door. Unfortunately no matter what settings I use, it seems to be an all-or-nothing proposition.

I think the original concept behind the Ring doorbell is brilliant. Who wouldn't want to have a camera to see who is at the front door before you open it? The problem is that the service has been overloaded with features to the point nobody rings the doorbell any more and the add-on notifications are overly abundant. Perhaps it is time to hack the device so it does exactly what I want it to and doesn't link into Ring's stupid notifications.

The Future of Trade Shows

I think the first trade show I attended was COMDEX and I enjoyed it. I loved being able to go to different booths and see exciting new technology. I also liked all of the giveaways and free swag. I went again the next year and refined my technique somewhat. Eventually I decided I didn't need a lot of free garbage and only paid attention to the technologies I really felt merited my attention. If they didn't have a giveaway, it didn't effect my opinion one way or another.

Fast forward a few decades and I rarely attend trade shows. Yes, there are a few I would like to attend but I have to be careful with my time. I also work for a large global company that every technology vendor would love to sell into. That means I refrain from providing my Sony credentials unless it is worth receiving hundreds of e-mails and phone calls.

Fortunately Sony is a large enough company that I have noticed a new trend in trade shows, thanks to the rapid advancement of virtual meeting technology. A few weeks ago, Microsoft put together a 90-minute meeting with just Sony employees in the United States where they showcased some of their newest products. We got to see demos tailored specifically to Sony's needs. Furthermore, I didn't have to get on a plane and waste countless hours traveling to an event. It opened my eyes to the next evolution in trade shows.

Not every company is large enough to warrant their own personalized meeting but it got me thinking about how to do a similar event for a number of smaller companies. A large vendor like Microsoft could put together several niche meetings and invite a number of customers from small to mid-sized companies tailored to their needs. With the skyrocketing costs of travel I am seeing, this would be one way to stretch people's time and budgets.

Yes I do miss the days of running around and competing with colleagues to find the best giveaways, but not enough to convince my boss to let me travel unnecessarily. Perhaps you feel the same way too.