I had the pleasure of spending last week in Fiji with my wife on a nice vacation. While some people don't care about mobile phone charges when traveling internationally, it is something that concerns me. For this trip I tried something new and it worked very well.
When I boarded my flight in Los Angeles, I made sure to put my phone into airplane mode. Then I turned back on the WiFi. When I arrived at my hotel in Fiji, I just connected to the hotel's WiFi internet and could easily make calls home without worrying about any extra charges being added to my monthly bill.
Those that do a lot of international travel probably have a mobile plan that provides for inexpensive usage outside the United States. That is what I have with the phone provided by my company. As I rarely travel internationally for pleasure I don't have anything like that for my personal phone. That being said, I still probably only saved myself about $10 in extra charges using WiFi calling instead of just turning off airplane mode and using my phone normally. If you are like me and appreciate saving $10 then this is a good trick to know.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Friday, October 5, 2018
Lightning
Last night I flew into Salt Lake and when we landed we couldn't pull up to the gate because of a lightning storm. In my 20+ years of air travel, I have never been delayed because of active lightning and so this is not a common occurrence. When the pilot made the announcement that the ground crew could not come outside to direct the plane to the gate, I understood. Unfortunately not everyone on the plane did.
My wife grew up the the Seattle area and spent a good part of her childhood playing outside in the rain. Up there they have cloud-to-cloud lightning and so nobody came inside during a thunderstorm. Here in Utah, as well as other parts of the country, we have ground lightning and that will kill you.
Lightning is one of the more unpredictable forces of nature. We try to control its path through the use of lightning rods but the reality is that lightning will go wherever it wants and there is not much we can do about it. Should you be caught outside and can see lightning go from the sky to the ground, your best bet is to go inside a building or car (as long as it is not a soft-top convertible). Buildings are safe because they will generally keep the lightning away from the middle, which is where you want to be. Cars are safe, not because of the rubber tires but because the electrical charge will stay on the outside of the car body. Planes are equally safe and so sitting outside did not pose any danger to us passengers.
So why are people told to turn off and unplug computers during lightning storms? The best explanation is that your house electrical system is not compatible with the high voltages produced by lightning. If your house gets hit by lightning, the electricity will try to find a way to ground. All of the copper plumbing pipes and electrical wiring make a great path to ground and so lightning will seek it out. If your computer equipment is plugged in and/or has a wired network connection, part of the lightning strike will get into your computer and fry everything. More than likely you will have to replace everything that is electrical in your house should it be struck by lightning.
Going back to the poor ground crew that met our plane last night. I had one vocal passenger behind me ignorant of lightning danger. With all the water on the tarmac, a strike could happen a fair distance from one of the workers yet the person could still receive a lethal shock. While I would have liked to disembark the plane sooner, I would not wanted to have risked the life of ground crew.
My wife grew up the the Seattle area and spent a good part of her childhood playing outside in the rain. Up there they have cloud-to-cloud lightning and so nobody came inside during a thunderstorm. Here in Utah, as well as other parts of the country, we have ground lightning and that will kill you.
Lightning is one of the more unpredictable forces of nature. We try to control its path through the use of lightning rods but the reality is that lightning will go wherever it wants and there is not much we can do about it. Should you be caught outside and can see lightning go from the sky to the ground, your best bet is to go inside a building or car (as long as it is not a soft-top convertible). Buildings are safe because they will generally keep the lightning away from the middle, which is where you want to be. Cars are safe, not because of the rubber tires but because the electrical charge will stay on the outside of the car body. Planes are equally safe and so sitting outside did not pose any danger to us passengers.
So why are people told to turn off and unplug computers during lightning storms? The best explanation is that your house electrical system is not compatible with the high voltages produced by lightning. If your house gets hit by lightning, the electricity will try to find a way to ground. All of the copper plumbing pipes and electrical wiring make a great path to ground and so lightning will seek it out. If your computer equipment is plugged in and/or has a wired network connection, part of the lightning strike will get into your computer and fry everything. More than likely you will have to replace everything that is electrical in your house should it be struck by lightning.
Going back to the poor ground crew that met our plane last night. I had one vocal passenger behind me ignorant of lightning danger. With all the water on the tarmac, a strike could happen a fair distance from one of the workers yet the person could still receive a lethal shock. While I would have liked to disembark the plane sooner, I would not wanted to have risked the life of ground crew.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Entertaining an Infant
Yesterday I had the chance to bring my grandson from Utah to California on my weekly commute. He spent the week splitting time between both his maternal and paternal grandparents while his mom and dad vacationed in Europe. As my grandson is only 15-months old, I didn't need to pay any extra airfare to bring him with me.
As a frequent flyer, I know it can be a huge annoyance when someone brings an unruly child on the flight. I always pack earplugs just in case there is a noisy kid sitting close by. I didn't want to subject my fellow travelers to a screaming toddler, especially since we were sitting in First Class. Unfortunately the flight didn't start out too well. I had to wake my grandson up early so we could catch our flight. That made him a little grumpy. We got on the plane and he kept making a lot of noise. Not nice noises but screaming noises. The kind that annoy everyone. I started to worry that my fellow passengers would throw us off if I didn't come up with a way to quiet him down.
My son and his wife had sent us a number of videos throughout their trip and we tried to reciprocate by sending videos of their son. To quiet the upset toddler, I pulled out my phone and started showing him videos of his dad. That helped a bit and then I started a 20-second video where my grandson wanders around the living room and then falls on his bum. For some strange reason, the little boy loved watching the video of himself falling down. He would laugh every time. We watched the video 30 to 40 times before the flight even left the ground. Each time, my grandson would laugh hysterically watching himself stumble. We watched it so many times I grew afraid that we would chew through my phone's battery before we landed in San Francisco.
After about the 40th time of watching the video, the plane started rolling down the runway and we climbed into the air. We had a bit of turbulence all the way to 39,000 feet and that gently rocked my grandson to sleep. He then slept the entire flight.
If you find yourself preparing for a long flight with a toddler, you might want to take a few videos of the child before heading to the airport. Hopefully you find one that makes the kid laugh. It may help keep your fellow passengers from asking you to ride on the wing.
As a frequent flyer, I know it can be a huge annoyance when someone brings an unruly child on the flight. I always pack earplugs just in case there is a noisy kid sitting close by. I didn't want to subject my fellow travelers to a screaming toddler, especially since we were sitting in First Class. Unfortunately the flight didn't start out too well. I had to wake my grandson up early so we could catch our flight. That made him a little grumpy. We got on the plane and he kept making a lot of noise. Not nice noises but screaming noises. The kind that annoy everyone. I started to worry that my fellow passengers would throw us off if I didn't come up with a way to quiet him down.
My son and his wife had sent us a number of videos throughout their trip and we tried to reciprocate by sending videos of their son. To quiet the upset toddler, I pulled out my phone and started showing him videos of his dad. That helped a bit and then I started a 20-second video where my grandson wanders around the living room and then falls on his bum. For some strange reason, the little boy loved watching the video of himself falling down. He would laugh every time. We watched the video 30 to 40 times before the flight even left the ground. Each time, my grandson would laugh hysterically watching himself stumble. We watched it so many times I grew afraid that we would chew through my phone's battery before we landed in San Francisco.
After about the 40th time of watching the video, the plane started rolling down the runway and we climbed into the air. We had a bit of turbulence all the way to 39,000 feet and that gently rocked my grandson to sleep. He then slept the entire flight.
If you find yourself preparing for a long flight with a toddler, you might want to take a few videos of the child before heading to the airport. Hopefully you find one that makes the kid laugh. It may help keep your fellow passengers from asking you to ride on the wing.
Friday, September 28, 2018
Inspiration From a Hobby
On Monday I met with our company lawyers to start the application process for another patent. This will be my second with my current company. I can't really go into the idea as it will take some time to get the application completed and it is best not to say anything about it until that point.
I can write about the inspiration for my idea though and where it came from. At the start of my career I took a class titled, "Thinking Outside the Box." There were a lot of people with many different careers and so it was kind of fun to find out what other people did and why they were there. During the course of the class we all talked about our hobbies. Our instructor mentioned that we might find solutions to our work problems from other sources, including our hobbies. For some reason, that idea stuck with me. I still can't figure out how to get good ideas from skiing, but the idea for my patent came from another hobby: ham radio.
I have been given a new project at work and started thinking about how to break up a really large task into smaller ones. In working with machine learning (ML), one needs a large training data set. So before you can really do anything with ML, you need to gather data. While thinking about how to get this information for my project I started thinking about the data gathering process and realized that something I do with ham radio could be used to help with my project. I immediately sat down with one of our patent agents who agreed my solution could be used to solve a number of problems and so he set up an appointment with our lawyers.
I used to think that the best way to get ahead with my career was to focus on computers and even make it my hobby. After 30 years in the computer industry, I can say that is a recipe for career burnout. Instead take the time to pick up a hobby or two. You never know when it will be the source for a brilliant idea.
I can write about the inspiration for my idea though and where it came from. At the start of my career I took a class titled, "Thinking Outside the Box." There were a lot of people with many different careers and so it was kind of fun to find out what other people did and why they were there. During the course of the class we all talked about our hobbies. Our instructor mentioned that we might find solutions to our work problems from other sources, including our hobbies. For some reason, that idea stuck with me. I still can't figure out how to get good ideas from skiing, but the idea for my patent came from another hobby: ham radio.
I have been given a new project at work and started thinking about how to break up a really large task into smaller ones. In working with machine learning (ML), one needs a large training data set. So before you can really do anything with ML, you need to gather data. While thinking about how to get this information for my project I started thinking about the data gathering process and realized that something I do with ham radio could be used to help with my project. I immediately sat down with one of our patent agents who agreed my solution could be used to solve a number of problems and so he set up an appointment with our lawyers.
I used to think that the best way to get ahead with my career was to focus on computers and even make it my hobby. After 30 years in the computer industry, I can say that is a recipe for career burnout. Instead take the time to pick up a hobby or two. You never know when it will be the source for a brilliant idea.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Robots
Every year our department does a team-building activity where we take the entire workday and do something fun. My first year, we did a scavenger hunt in downtown San Francisco and I had a great time. This year we got together in a hotel near our office, divided into 10 teams, and built robots. Once completed, we had a competition between the build teams.
I had a few people on my team that I know very well and several others that I got to know better. We had a great time building the robot even though we had to substitute parts as our kit had a missing piece or two. The hours we had to build our robot passed quickly. We all felt like kids playing with a complex Lego set.
Once we completed our robot, we had fun with the competition. Interestingly we had much more fun building the robot than we did playing with it. I think if I wanted to get into robotics with one of my kids, I would want a kit that you could reconfigure for various purposes. Remember that as we approach the Holiday Season.
I had a few people on my team that I know very well and several others that I got to know better. We had a great time building the robot even though we had to substitute parts as our kit had a missing piece or two. The hours we had to build our robot passed quickly. We all felt like kids playing with a complex Lego set.
Once we completed our robot, we had fun with the competition. Interestingly we had much more fun building the robot than we did playing with it. I think if I wanted to get into robotics with one of my kids, I would want a kit that you could reconfigure for various purposes. Remember that as we approach the Holiday Season.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Future Technology
One of my work colleagues and I shared a ride from downtown San Francisco back to our office and we had a nice discussion about the future of technology. We started with the discussion about how certain high-tech celebrities happened to be in the right place at the right time. That coupled with a bit of luck propelled them into technological lore. My colleague is trying to help his sons figure out how they can be in the right place at the right time when it comes to future technology and how to increase their chances of becoming technological leaders.
I think if it was easy to predict where technology will be in five to ten years then everyone would be doing it. That didn't stop us from trying to figure it out for ourselves though. During my somewhat lengthy career in computers and high-tech, I have learned that people don't by technology, they buy solutions to problems. One of those problems is figuring out a way to streamline daily tasks. If you look at something as simple as cooking, think how the microwave has reduced the preparation effort of food. While not all food can be microwaved, a lot can and that has dramatically reduced the time it takes to cook a snack or meal.
As my friend and I drove, we applied the streamlining principle to our drive. We kept having to slow down for certain areas of traffic congestion. If all of the cars on the road could talk to each other and had the smarts to coordinate lane changes, we would have made it back to the office in half the time it took us. Based on that part of our discussion, my friend's boys should focus on self-driving cars. Then I threw out the idea of creating a virtual work environment that could eliminate the need to travel from your home to an office. It would immediately wipe out a significant portion of the traffic on the road. Following that logic, my friend's boys should look at virtual technologies and how to improve them.
As I mentioned, predicting the future of technology is incredibly difficult. This is because there are so many variables and unknowns. You could start moving towards one technology only to have it become irrelevant because of a significant shift caused by another. That is why it is important to always look at trends and constantly be updating your technical skills. Unfortunately that takes a lot of effort.
I think if it was easy to predict where technology will be in five to ten years then everyone would be doing it. That didn't stop us from trying to figure it out for ourselves though. During my somewhat lengthy career in computers and high-tech, I have learned that people don't by technology, they buy solutions to problems. One of those problems is figuring out a way to streamline daily tasks. If you look at something as simple as cooking, think how the microwave has reduced the preparation effort of food. While not all food can be microwaved, a lot can and that has dramatically reduced the time it takes to cook a snack or meal.
As my friend and I drove, we applied the streamlining principle to our drive. We kept having to slow down for certain areas of traffic congestion. If all of the cars on the road could talk to each other and had the smarts to coordinate lane changes, we would have made it back to the office in half the time it took us. Based on that part of our discussion, my friend's boys should focus on self-driving cars. Then I threw out the idea of creating a virtual work environment that could eliminate the need to travel from your home to an office. It would immediately wipe out a significant portion of the traffic on the road. Following that logic, my friend's boys should look at virtual technologies and how to improve them.
As I mentioned, predicting the future of technology is incredibly difficult. This is because there are so many variables and unknowns. You could start moving towards one technology only to have it become irrelevant because of a significant shift caused by another. That is why it is important to always look at trends and constantly be updating your technical skills. Unfortunately that takes a lot of effort.
Thursday, September 13, 2018
The Latest Games
We are entering the 2018 Holiday Season and that means there will be a ton of game releases over the next few months. I know it is only September and talking about the Holidays is a bit early. Those of us in the video game industry have an earlier time frame than the consumers. I'm sure those in retail feel the same way.
Last week Sony released the new Spiderman game for the PS4 and everyone at work has been playing it during breaks. I just got my copy of the game and have yet to play it. The games I am playing have been out on the market for a few months and so I am a bit behind the times. That being said, I am interested in a few of the upcoming games and will probably slot one or two of them in front of Spiderman, even though everyone seems to be enjoying it.
There is one game I played that convinced me to stop watching TV and play video games instead. The sequel will be released towards the end of next month. My hope is that I will finish my current game by them and I will be able to start the new one. Unfortunately I will probably not be done and Red Dead Redemption 2 will have to wait a few weeks before I can play it. Having so many games to play with more coming in the next few months is not really a bad problem.
Last week Sony released the new Spiderman game for the PS4 and everyone at work has been playing it during breaks. I just got my copy of the game and have yet to play it. The games I am playing have been out on the market for a few months and so I am a bit behind the times. That being said, I am interested in a few of the upcoming games and will probably slot one or two of them in front of Spiderman, even though everyone seems to be enjoying it.
There is one game I played that convinced me to stop watching TV and play video games instead. The sequel will be released towards the end of next month. My hope is that I will finish my current game by them and I will be able to start the new one. Unfortunately I will probably not be done and Red Dead Redemption 2 will have to wait a few weeks before I can play it. Having so many games to play with more coming in the next few months is not really a bad problem.
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