Importance of Blocking Time in Schedule

This morning I had a number of work-related meetings and then had to take my wife to the doctor's. She had one of those screenings where they knocked her out and she needed a driver to take her there and bring her home. Furthermore I was not allowed to leave the campus until the procedure completed and my wife awake enough to go home. Being required to stay at the doctor's office for 2 hours, I asked the admitting attendant if they had a soft-serve ice cream machine since I couldn't go anywhere. They did not but she said she would mention it to the doctors. I doubt anything will change but if US prisoners are required to be able to watch television, doctor's offices should provide soft-served ice cream when you have to wait more than an hour.

Fortunately the office did have WiFi to use for those of us waiting. I made sure to log onto the system and get some work done. Should anyone need to reach me, I made an entry in my public-work calendar that I could be reached for anything except meetings. That worked well as I had one fellow colleague reach out for clarification on some of the data I am very familiar with. I provided an answer and continued to work on other things.

Whenever I go to schedule a meeting with fellow work associates, I always check everyone's calendar to make sure I am not scheduling over their activities. My hope is that others do the same with me and they almost always do. There are some occasions when a meeting will have quite a few participants and the scheduler must pick a time that will work for the majority of the attendees. If possible, those that can move things to attend will.

After getting home from the doctor's office today, I looked at the next several weeks and scheduled my morning exercise. I am fairly flexible right now and don't need to exercise at specific times. However when I see my schedule filling up, I block time in my schedule to keep people from taking the only time slots in my day where I can exercise. While some treat daily workouts as optional, I don't; probably because of my love of soft-serve ice cream. My health is important enough to me that I do all I can to stay as healthy as possible. I also blocked off time tomorrow evening to spend time with my wife. That is the description I used: "Time with Wife." Most people wouldn't dare try to schedule anything over it and if they do, it must be really important but there is no guarantee I'll be there. My son is good about scheduling his personal time on his work calendar as well. He is a bit more cryptic in his description as he uses: "Personal time, do not schedule."

A lot of people complain about their work/life balance and with some companies there is a huge problem. For me, I try to let people know when I am tied up with personal things. Being forthright and honest provides a level of comfort and trust to management. That goes a long way towards evening out the work/life balance and helps make my employment at Sony that much more enjoyable. 

Time For Annual Security Training

As a Sony employee I am required to run through an annual 30-minute training course on computer security. In the past the training has seemed to be the same as previous years. Today I ran through the training again discovering it has been updated and it seemed like a whole new course, which I appreciated.

The course had the usual warnings against clicking on links in e-mails and verifying URL's before going to the sites. This year, they provided some more details that helped understand how different character sets can be different than the regular Latin letters we are used to in English. The example they provided is that a Cyrillic V looks like the letter B. Someone could then create a mischievous website using the Cyrillic V for something like the Better Business Bureau and you wouldn't know you are going to the wrong site. Having a concrete example like that really helped underscore how subtle character substitutions can cause havoc.

A new entry in this year's training highlighted mobile device security. I prefer a full-sized keyboard and so if I can keep my phone in my pocket and use a computer instead, I do. I am not normal though as the average person uses their smartphone 6 hours a day. My usage is down around an hour per day. The training pointed out a number of helpful tips to keep from clicking on malicious links that could open your device to malware and other bad actors. I decided that by doing as much as I can on my computer, I reduce my risk for security issues. Should I get a nefarious text, I now know what to look for.

Finally the training had a section on how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to create more realistic e-mails. Bad spelling and grammar used to be dead-giveaways of scam e-mails. Now those e-mails can be created to sound exactly like your supervisor or manager. They also warned against voicemails that can sound like the people you work with. That is a sobering thought.

The point of this post is that there are some persistent thieves and crooks trying to get access to your computer, online accounts, and smartphone. It is a good practice to review security best practices to remind you to remain vigilant against those bad actors. If you are not required to run through a 30-minute training session, you might want to find a trusted resource on the Web and do your own training.

Making Soap and Processing Data

My youngest son works at a liquid soap manufacturing facility in Cambridge, Ohio. Sunday evening I talked with him for our regular weekly call and asked about a project for which he is spending a lot of time. He mentioned that most soap factories mix all of the ingredients in large vats and then fill individual containers. He went on to say that his facility is more advanced in that it mixes the ingredients in the piping, does the appropriate cooking, mixes more ingredients, and eventually fills the individual containers. This is a much more streamlined approach where the only bottleneck is at the end.

I listened intently as I had no idea that making soap mirrored some of the data processes I work on at Sony. We have some data pipelines where all of the data is stored together and then cleaned in batches. Other pipelines clean the data as it comes into the system and quickly stores it in the tables that get used for analytics. The advantage of the second method is the data is always up-to-date. With batch processing you have to wait until the batch is processed before you can analyze the data. That may occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly frequency.

I explained the similarities to my son and he further elaborated that in the factory they have real-time monitoring of the systems. This includes flow rates and temperature values for different parts of the process. He asked if we have the same types of monitoring for the data and I responded that we do.

While my son is a Mechanical Engineer and I am an Electrical Engineer, the same ideas can be used in both disciplines with correspondingly similar pros and cons. This reminded me of a class I once took on "Thinking Outside the Box." The course mentioned that you may get ideas for solutions to problems you are working on by simply looking at other seemingly unrelated fields. I can't agree more.

A Little Guidance Saves Time

On Monday I had to submit a purchase order request for some data quality assessment software. I have been at Sony for quite a few years but have never submitted a purchase order. This should have not been a time-sensitive matter but it took 2 weeks to get access to the system that allows me to submit purchase orders and the vendor started getting a little restless. Monday morning I received word that I had been granted access to our internal accounting system and felt excited to get this taken care of.

Having worked in software for decades, I didn't feel like I needed any extra training to use the accounting software. Then I logged into the system and discovered it to be a bit more complex than anticipated. I reached out to my contact in accounting who directed me to someone that could help me get the request completed. He couldn't meet immediately but I only needed to wait 30 minutes. When he became available, we jumped on a quick video call and I shared my screen with him. He then talked me through the process. We took about 10 minutes and everything got submitted correctly. The next day, the vendor successfully submitted the invoice.

As we walked through the steps necessary to submit the purchase order request, I realized I successfully filled in the correct information for 95% of what it needed. Having someone walk me through the process really streamlined things and helped me do it right the first time. You may be very skilled with technology but don't hesitate to ask for a little guidance for something you are doing for the first time. It may save you having to redo something because of a minor mistake. 

A Camera For the Blind

One of the advantages about working for Sony is that we can attend product presentations about some of our very unique product offerings. Yesterday I spent about 30 minutes learning about a camera we are making for blind photographers. That sounds a bit strange and so I made sure to listen intently.

The person giving the presentation is a Sony employee working on the product who is also legally blind. He has macular degeneration that has slowly progressed to where he is now. Fortunately he has been able to work on this product that uses a retina projection system allowing him to effectively see as it bypasses the parts of his eye that are no longer working. Instead an eye-safe laser projects the image seen through the viewfinder directly onto his retina. I found the technology and product utterly amazing.

One of the first questions a colleague asked is if we can use the technology to make glasses, effectively giving blind people the ability to see. Someone else provided a link to an existing product and so the short answer is, yes. I'm sure that a number of those with similar macular degeneration would appreciate knowing there is hope to see again. I know I value my eyesight tremendously and would love to know this technology exists should I need it in the future.

One of the first things pointed out about the Sony DSC-HX99 RNV product is that it will not work for everyone. That is why there is a try-before-you-buy program with 2 options before making the purchase. The first is to ask for a demo unit that Sony will ship to you for a 2-week trial. The second is to visit a handful of retail outlets where you can try the device. I imagine everyone will have different results based on individual levels of sight. After all, it would be a very poor product experience to make the purchase only to discover it doesn't work. I like that Sony is providing a 2-week trial for those not located near one of the retail stores as there isn't one near me, should I be interested.

There are a lot of amazing technologies that are improving life for those with special needs, such as blindness. If someone told me that Sony is making a camera for this demographic, I would probably have laughed not thinking it was serious. Fortunately they are and providing hope to others. This is one of those products that make me glad to work for Sony.

Working From Home

My LinkedIn feeds seem to be dominated by news from Amazon that they are making their employees return to work. Needless to say, the employees are not too happy about it. There are theories about how Amazon is going to use the new policy to get rid of surplus employees. Normally a company would layoff those that are not needed. With this new policy they will be able to fire them without severance benefits, saving themselves significant money.

As you can imagine, I think this policy is disappointing. I think that one thing we all learned from COVID-19 is that not everyone is required to be in the office to get work done. It is proven that some people are even more productive working from home as there are not as many distractions at home as there are in the office. I recognize this is not true for everyone.

Fortunately the company I work for is embracing the work-from-home concept. Sony recently sent out an e-mail to a large group of employees talking about how only spending 2 or 3 days in the office has become the new way of working. The e-mail then goes on discussing changes the company is making to reflect this new normal. It is encouraging to me to know that my company is keeping up with new work trends and not trying to enforce policies that make things miserable for everyone.

While there are a lot of employees that thrive working from home, there are also those employees that become less productive. My wife worked with someone that only got about 80% of her work done because of not being in the office. Unfortunately she insisted on traveling around the United States in a recreational vehicle (RV) and so having her come into the office could not be an option. The business owner opted to replace her with someone that now completes 100% of the work assigned. Doing it in the office is not a requirement.

Amazon may lose a lot of quality employees with their new policy. It would be better for them to take a more personalized approach and only require those that need to be in the office to return. Unfortunately that is much more difficult to implement than the blanket policy they have unveiled. I'm glad I didn't take that job at Amazon now.

Amateur Scientists and Explorers

It is no secret that I enjoy my job at Sony. I love what I do and my work conditions could not be any better. However that doesn't keep me from thinking about changing careers every now and then. I've thought about being a high-school teacher and even spent a week as a substitute one. Unfortunately kids treat substitutes with an insane amount of disrespect. The morning of the first day of class a kid walked in and said, "You must be a total looser if this is the only job you could get." Little did he know that I could afford to be a substitute teacher because of my successful career in the tech industry.

I've also thought about making my passion my career. I could follow my youngest daughter's career path and be a ski instructor or work at a ski resort. My fear is that skiing would then become like work. Right now when I head up to the ski resort before work, it doesn't matter what the weather is like, I will only be there for an hour and don't mind skiing in storms. If skiing became my job, I might learn to detest snowy days instead of embracing them like I do now.

I've also thought about doing something relating to sailing. I currently have a sailboat that I keep in the Great Salt Lake and love to take it out as my schedule permits. The only problem with a sailboat is that it is a hole in the water you pour money into and there are not a lot of ways to make money with them. Sure I could try to offer tours but that requires getting a captain's license and that takes a lot of work.

I was thinking along the lines of how to make money with a sailboat and came up with a new idea related to our planet's oceans. It doesn't require a sailboat but tiny submarines instead. Imagine a spherical submarine the size of a softball or large grapefruit with 3 or 4 fins and a propeller. When it sits in the water, it barely floats so that if it loses power, the submarine would automatically rise to the surface. Now put a solar panel on the top of it to charge the device's battery. You could include a number of sensors such as GPS, pressure, and temperature. You may even put a 4K camera on the front of it with some sort of low-power LED illumination. If you do it right and control costs, my guess is you could keep the price under $100. That would allow all sorts of amateur scientists and explorers to use them for any number of purposes.

I think the idea has merit and am looking for feedback. No I don't plan to leave Sony to create such a device nor do I think they have any plans to create one, though I could always ask. Instead I would like to open source the idea and get feedback on what sensors should be included and how it would be used. Some simple ideas might be tracking the changes in ocean currents or using AI and the camera to have the device follow specific marine life without attaching a tag. Who knows, it might best provide a platform to improve current marine research technology.

Let me know what you think and if there is use for such an inexpensive robot submarine. How do you think it would best serve the marine research community? With an idea like this, feedback is always appreciated.

Time for a New Battery Again

I spent this last week on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, California attending meetings. Naturally all sorts of problems arose at home in my absence. My wife and I care for our neighbor's house across the street and we had a few sprinkler problems. Fortunately I could talk my wife through them and we resolved them all without having to dig up any pipes or sprinkler heads. The only problem that had to wait for my return is that of my wife's laptop battery needing to be replaced.

My wife loves to use her laptop around the house unplugged from any power source. Then at the end of the day, she'll plug it in so it is ready to use for the next day. I generally keep mine plugged in at my desk and work there unless I am traveling. A little over 2 years ago I had to replace my wife's laptop battery. Thanks to iFixit.com it is easy to order a new one and have instant access to instructions on how to replace it.

While in California my wife informed me that she can only get about 30-minutes of use from her laptop before the battery is dead. She tried the usual remedies that include charging it overnight and then using the computer until the battery dies completely. Unfortunately nothing worked and so I ordered one last night. Fortunately I have an account with iFixit and they had a record of what I ordered the last time. I didn't have to try and figure out what battery she needed. Three clicks after I visited their site, I had the new one ordered.

Usually I prefer to visit online shopping sites as a guest and try not to create accounts unless I know I will be back. I have an Amazon account as I find myself needing something there on a monthly basis. With iFixit, I'm only there every couple of years or so. This time I am glad I have an account as it kept me from doing time-consuming research. If you have at least 3 electronic devices, such as a smartphone, laptop, or other battery-powered device, I highly recommend getting an account and ordering from them. It will save you a bit of a hassle in the future.

The new laptop battery will be here in a couple of days. My hope is that it lasts a few years. When it comes time to replace it, I think my wife will want a new computer. Right now, $50 is a much better price to pay than $1000. Besides, who wants to transfer all the data and files from one computer to another?

Setting Up Magicband+ For Disney World

Two years ago my wife and I started a tradition with our oldest grandson by taking just him to Disneyland after he turned 5. We found a great deal on the Grand Californian hotel and booked the trip. We had a wonderful time and decided we would continue with the rest of our grand kids. This year we have two of our granddaughters turning 5 and so instead of a trip for each of them, we are bringing the both of them to Disney World. Why Disney World? One lives in Ohio and it is easier to pick her up on the way with the second granddaughter in tow.

Wanting to make sure we maximize our experience in the parks, my wife and I went online and purchased Magicband+ bracelets for ourselves and our granddaughters. Today I went about connecting them to my iPhone where I have the Disney World app installed. For some reason I could not get them to connect. Then I watched a video and saw my mistake.

My Sony smartphones have had Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities for a decade. I didn't think it caught on for other brands but today I discovered it is available in my iPhone. The important thing is to know where the touch point is on the device. For my iPhone it is on the upper-back-right corner. Once I turned the Magicband+ on, all I needed to do was touch it to the right place on my phone. Then I just followed the prompts to connect everything. Before the enlightening video I tried touching every part of my phone with the bracelet except the upper-right corner.

Unfortunately the software engineers that create Disney's theme park apps do an insanely poor job on their user interface. Even though I selected the correct person in the app before linking the Magicband+, the app linked all of them to me. There is no way you can unlink them. I had to call Disney technical support at (407) 939-4357.

Disney is known for having the best customer service and their technical support lives up to that standard. I have to say it is second to none. I quickly navigated the menu to get to the right department and a real human answered the call. Furthermore she spoke English like an American. I don't care if she is in Mexico or India, I just care that I can easily communicate. I explained my problem and she solved it immediately. Furthermore she linked my wife's park ticket with her account. Her help definitely made up for a poor application.

Now we are set and ready to go. The only problem is that the trip is not for a long time. I can hardly wait.

Translating Japanese to English

I currently work for Sony and that means I interact with a lot of Japanese people as well as documents written in Japanese. One of my coworkers moved from Tokyo to Los Angeles to help with her English skills. Unfortunately she still lacks a bit of confidence. Sometimes she will start with a document in Japanese and then use a translation program like Google Translate to convert it to English. Today I found myself needing to review several of her documents even though they had not been translated.

At Sony we need to be careful as to what translation services we use. While it is probably not a problem to use Google Translate, some of our documents contain company secrets and so we have set up our own large language model (LLM) artificial intelligence (AI) service to help with translation. This keeps outside services from being able to review our documents and being able to deduce some of the projects we are undertaking.

Our private LLM is based off similar technology to ChatGPT and so some of the things I have tried will work on that publicly available service.

I logged into our LLM and selected what type of help I wanted. Some of my choices included General, Image, and Document as well as Translator. Naturally I selected the last one and it presented a dialog area where I could ask questions and it would provide a response. I started with, "Translate the following from Japanese to English:," and then copied and pasted a Japanese phrase from the document I needed to review. Before spitting out an answer, the LLM asked me to provide some context such as the intended audience. I mentioned it will be used for internal documentation and then it provided a translation. The English matched my expectation of what should be in the document and so I copied the text into the original document under the Japanese text.

Next I typed, "Translate:," followed by another Japanese phrase and the LLM replied with, "Certainly, here is the translation." It was so polite I wanted to start all of my requests with, "Please." I stopped myself from using such pleasantries knowing that the machine doing the work would ignore them. I also tried just copying and pasting the Japanese text without indicating I wanted it translated. Most of the time, the LLM would translate for me. Several times it responded with something along the lines of, "I'm sorry I don't know what to do." Simply prepending the phrase with, "Translate," would be all the instructions it needed.

I translated three or four documents rather quickly and could review them. The translations seemed clear and concise. I shared what I had done with my colleague and she is happy I took the initiative to get something done instead of waiting for her. She can now review the work done by the LLM and make sure it matches her initial intent.

My experience with Large Language Model AI impressed me today. I prefer to write my own documentation and so there are not a lot of other uses for the technology. It did do an amazing job translating a very difficult language like Japanese to English and is now my favorite technology for such jobs in the future. Should you need translation services, I highly recommend giving it a try.

The Importance of Play

I spent 11 years working in Research and Development for Sony PlayStation, a video game company. While there I looked at a number of studies trying to prove that video games are bad for children. Ultimately the outcome proved that allowing kids to play for an hour a day is actually good for them. Those that played in moderation proved to be better at problem solving and social interactions than those that did not play at all. I always found that interesting and shared it with parents when they questioned me on the subject.

Last night I read an article in the January 2024 issue of National Geographic about how play is also important for adults. The article didn't single out video games but included all sorts of games, whether it be sports, cards, or just horsing around. It went on to look at behavior in animals and how those that play are better able to handle new and unfamiliar situations.

One example of animals playing that stood out to me is young dogs learning to play together. There is an important social interaction when stronger dogs learn to be somewhat submissive so the play fights are not always one sided. They have to learn to balance wins and losses. Having witnessed plenty of dogs having fun, I realized the truth of the article.

As we enter the season of New Year's resolutions and trying to better one's self. I think increasing the amount of play in our lives is something we can all get behind. I don't think you necessarily need to go out and buy a video-game console but it might not be a terrible idea. Some other things you might want to try are regular game nights with friends or family. You could also look at trying a new sport. I understand Pickle Ball is a lot of fun and easy to play.

One of the reasons I ended up working at PlayStation is because my older brother gave me a refurbished PlayStation 2 for my birthday one year. Every Thursday evening we would get together and play SOCOM II online together with my other brother and my dad. We had a lot of fun and I miss those nights of taking down bad guys. Perhaps I will restart that tradition with my own sons and my grandson who loves to play games. I think that will be one of my goals for next year. Feel free to share some of your ideas on how to increase your own play.

Explaining Christmas to Non-Christians

I work for Sony and my boss is from Japan. As today is Christmas, I thought about trying to explain the holiday to him and what it really means. On the surface this must be a strange event for those that don't have a Christian foundation. The reality is that we have a lot of pagan traditions combined with Christian ones and it can be hard to figure out the source of this celebration.

Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Who is he and why is he so important? There is a lot that can be said to answer that question and it can be difficult to provide a quick summary but I'll give it a shot. Christ taught that no matter what we have done in the past, we can improve and become better people. Yes, there is a lot more that can be said, but that one sentence is something that non-Christians can understand. It is especially true for those in Japan as they have a culture of constant improvement.

As we close out this Christmas season, I hope we can all see past the commercialism that seems to overshadow this time of year and take a moment to think about why we celebrate this holiday. Your answer may be different than mine, but merely taking the time to think about why it is important is a good thought exercise. Your comments are welcome.

Moving Off Daylight Savings, Again?

Early Sunday morning, those of us that live in states that play the Daylight Savings game got to adjust our clocks and gain an extra hour of sleep. That assumes that you didn't game the system and stay up an extra hour, which I did not. I went to sleep at my normal time. I had hoped I would wake up 8 hours later, which would mean my wake-up time would be an hour earlier. Nope, I slept for 9 hours and got an extra hour of sleep. It felt good.

Most of the clocks in my house adjust automatically but there are a few like the microwave or oven that need to be fixed manually. I also have to adjust the clock in my truck and my wife needs to adjust the clock in her car. It is not a big chore but it does take a few minutes.

The larger problem for me is that I work for Sony, which is a massive international company. Japan does not follow Daylight Savings and so all of my meetings with headquarters get screwed up. Some meetings that used to start at 6pm now start at 5pm. Meetings that are set up by colleagues in the United States adjust with the semi-annual time change and stay at the same time. For those with tightly-packed meeting schedules, it means double bookings and the need to revisit the calendar.

I saw an article in National Geographic about the history of Daylight Savings and why we continue to practice it. While it is merely a hassle for most of us in the United States, the article pointed out that it does cause conflict with other parts of the world. I can attest to that point. 

We were not supposed to go back to standard time this past Sunday as a bill made it through one half of Congress that would have kept the country on Daylight Savings permanently. Unfortunately the bill stalled in the other half of Congress and so we moved our clocks back an hour. We'll have to see if the two halves of Congress ever get on the same page and decide to agree on something. For now, I am not holding my breath.

Not all Televisions are Created Equal

Before starting this posting, I want to reiterate that I work for Sony and we make televisions, very good ones. Unfortunately that means they are expensive compared to other brands. So I will refrain from comparing brands and use general information that applies to all manufacturers.

Before the advent of flat television displays, the Sony Trinitron televisions set the standard for picture quality thanks to patented technology. Then people ditch relatively small and cumbersome tube TVs for flat LCD, LED, and Plasma televisions. Sony lost a significant portion of their industry dominance. With most televisions being made in the same factories it has gotten hard to tell the difference between the many different brands. Furthermore, brands that didn't exist back in the Trinitron days, such as Vizio, now seem ubiquitous. How do you know which TV to buy?

It is important to remember that not all televisions are created equal. As you research which one to buy, pay attention to features and specifications to ensure you get what you want. I'll illustrate with my last television purchase. Sony has several levels of models irrespective of size. It doesn't matter if it is a 55-inch or 85-inch, there are differences between the different models. There is also different technology such as LED vs. OLED with the later producing a higher-quality picture. Unfortunately OLED also comes with some downsides and so it is important find out what they are and make sure you can live with them.

To simplify things, let's focus on LED technology with a resolution of 4K. Sony has models in their value line (because nobody likes to use the word "cheap"), mid-level line, and high-end. Given just that information, everyone wants the high-end. That is until you look at the price tag. Then that value line starts looking pretty good. That is what I decided when I bought my last television. I have a home theater and have the space for an 85-inch television. I bought the cheapest one from Sony made even cheaper because I got a huge employee discount. I didn't do any more research than that: price.

When I went back to Sony, I started working with the consumer electronics arm of the company and discovered why the mid-level and high-end lines cost more. Furthermore I discovered I really didn't want the value-line, I wanted the mid-level or high-end. The picture quality is significantly better and I will leave it up to you to research the differences between the specs. My oldest son profited from my research and recently picked up an 85-inch mid-level model. His picture quality is significantly better than mine.

This is where it is great to go into a Costco or other electronics store to compare the picture quality of the various models. When you read about specs, you don't think you will notice a difference. If you order online, your new TV arrives and you think all is well. Then you get the chance to see the difference and it has you questioning your purchase choice.

I'm not going to throw away a perfectly working 85-inch 4K television and so I will live with my purchase. Should someone offer to buy it or should it break in any way, then I will be sure to look at specifications much more closely and not base my decision solely on price. Anyone want to buy an 85-inch TV?

A New Phone, a New Chrombook, or a New Laptop

I have been working back at Sony for 6 months now and I need to make a change to my electronic tools. A few weeks ago I got stuck because an avalanche came across the road during my morning workout and I couldn't get home until 5:45pm that evening. I had some deliverables that I couldn't complete because of it. If I had my work e-mail on my phone, I could have gotten some of those deliverables done. Instead I had to work late into the evening and the entire next day, which was a Saturday.

I am reluctant to load my work e-mail on my personal phone because of all the notifications I get. Working for a Japanese company means I get a lot of alerts at weird hours of the day and I find myself not listening to any noise my smartphone makes. When I have a work phone that is different from my personal phone, I find it easier to catch important work events as well as personal ones. I have found an inexpensive smartphone that does everything I need it to for around $325. Should I get it?

I also find that my Chromebook has slowed to a crawl. It is almost getting to the point where it is becoming unusable. I have had it for quite a few years and so I recently looked at getting a new one. I found 2 or 3 that would be significant improvements for only $225. Don't ask me why a phone is smaller than a Chromebook but costs more. That's just the way things work. So should I get one of those?

As I think about the Chromebook and if I should replace my existing one, I am wondering if I would be better suited by a new personal laptop. I would say that I can do about 85% of what I need with the less expensive device and I always have my desktop computer when I need it. However the laptop would be more usable and last significantly longer than a Chromebook. Should I get a new laptop?

I'm not sure what the best choice is right now. Should I get a new phone or just load my work e-mail on my personal phone? Should I get a new Chromebook or a new laptop? Finally, should I not do a single thing and just working along without spending any money? Let me think about it and I'll let you know what I decide.

In Person vs. Joining From Home

Today begins the annual Sony Technology Expo Fair or STEF. It is a chance for different research and development groups to showcase the work being done. In the past, I have been able to attend in person but this year I am attending from the comfort of my own home. Unfortunately I am not able to share any upcoming technology due to my confidentiality agreement. Let me just say that there are some very interesting things on the horizon.

This morning I woke up early and had to give up my usual morning exercise to attend the first group of meetings. I didn't mind though because should I have wished to attend in Japan, I would have had to catch a flight Saturday morning and missed a lot more than just an hour or two of my daily workout. Furthermore I was not feeling 100% this morning. I would have had to excuse myself from an in-person meeting for about an hour. Instead, I could bring my laptop to the couch and lie down while I recovered.

Today I hosted a series of meetings on AI and Data. Those meetings are now done and I can relax for the rest of the week. Had I made the trek to Tokyo, I would still have 4 more days of meetings and events to attend. Instead I can return to my normal schedule and get real work done.

All of the convenience of not having to get on a plane does come at a cost though. There is something to be said for meeting people face-to-face and shaking hands. It is also easier to have a lot more energy leading a discussion. By the end of today, I felt like everyone was so worn out, they couldn't wait for the last presentation to end even though it was very interesting and effects 125 million PlayStation consoles.

Fortunately the restrictions from COVID are loosening and next year I will be able to attend STEF in person. It is a great event and I love seeing all the cool stuff coming out from other parts of Sony. While I get the idea from online presentations, there is nothing like seeing the new lineup of televisions and other consumer electronics.

Keep It Simple

I am working on a project at Sony related to customer data consent that I made way too complicated. As a customer, you control what vendors can do with the information you provide them. In most of the United States, purchasing a product or service requires you to opt-in to a data agreement for the company using your data before you can make the purchase. California and Europe have laws that require vendors to allow you to opt-out of letting them use it. While nobody wants their personal information sold so another company can send you unwanted advertisements, vendors often use your information to customize your experience with their product. For instance a video streaming service can use your previous viewing history to recommend new movies or shows that you may be interested in watching.

The conversations I participated in a few weeks ago led me to believe that my team would want to keep track of various levels of data tracking for our customers. I felt we should have a number of different flags for how much data we can share. For instance, we should keep track of if people will let us sell their personal data to receive advertising e-mails. Ultimately we don't need to keep track of that because: 

1. Nobody in their right mind would want to receive more junk e-mail
2. Sony doesn't sell our customer data to other companies

I created a number of other consent flags I thought people wanted to keep track of only to discovered they similarly are not needed. Ultimately all my team needs to do is keep track of being able to customize our users' experiences or not. People that opt out of letting us use their data get the most popular recommendations while everyone else will have more a more personalized experience.

California has the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Europe has the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that impose very strict requirements on what companies can do with your data. They came about because certain companies decided they could make more money by selling customers' data than actually selling products. These laws are there to protect you from such bad actors. Unfortunately that means companies that sincerely have your best interest in mind have to do a lot of explaining so that you will allow them to use your data for your benefit.

Laws meant to protect ultimately complicate things. I am discovering that I need to then unravel the complexities and try to keep things simple. Simple systems work, complex ones tend to be much more fragile.

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.

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.

A New Job at KLAS Research

At the end of April I started a new job as the Director of Software Engineering at KLAS Research. It is a far cry from Sony PlayStation but a nice change. My new company researches medical software used by hospitals and health networks. It then makes it's findings available to medical providers to help them decide which to buy. My job is to manage the software engineering for all of the company's internal tools that help them gather and publish this research.

Working at KLAS is very different than working at PlayStation. I miss working in the video game industry and I also miss the excitement my job used to generate. One nice thing about the new job is that my work is much more serious. I also am at the director level again. I also work with some amazing people that are incredibly smart.

The best thing about my new job is that I am working with a bunch of new technologies. I always enjoy learning new things and we'll see how my existing knowledge translates. So far it has been pretty smooth but I am just getting started.