Normally I wouldn't bother adding anything to my blog on a national holiday but last night I finished playing a very fitting title given that today is Independence Day in the United States. Last month one of the free games on PlayStation Plus happened to be Call of Duty: WWII and I thought I would give it a go. The campaign is not very long and I finished it over the course of the month. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Call of Duty is one of those franchise games from Activision that is one of the most played video games in the world. I have only dabbled in the games playing the beginning of one or two titles but always having something else on my list of games to play. Lately I have been studying a lot of history and am fascinated by World War II. For some reason my history teachers always spent so much time on discovering America that I never got to study anything past the American Civil War. I don't have a lot of knowledge about what happened in the second great war other than what I see in movies. I figured I might learn something from the game and was not disappointed.
The game begins with the D-Day invasion. One thing I didn't realize is how late D-Day actually was. I know the United States entered the war on December 7, 1941 but D-Day didn't happen until June 6, 1944. What did we do up until that point? Was our only focus the war in the Pacific with Japan? Now I am going to have to do a bit of reading to figure that out.
The game then has 11 missions all based on actual events in the war. Each mission took me about an hour to complete. Your mileage may vary as some will be a lot faster than me and those new to video games may be slower. The story is pretty linear and there are very few side missions, if any. You do have the option of finding collectables and performing heroic actions but I didn't worry about that through most of the game. I did enjoy the story and that kept me playing.
Before COVID-19 I spent a good part of my week in California where I had a lot more time alone and I could spend it playing video games. Now that I have been at home in Utah since March 7th, I have not really played any video games. I'd rather spend that time with my wife and other family members. Call of Duty: WWII is something I started playing because it interested me and I'm glad I took the time to go all the way through the game. In other words, I highly recommend the game.
Call of Duty: WWII has an ESRB rating of M for mature because of violence and strong language. I wouldn't recommend the game for young children or teenagers for that matter.
I got my copy for free on PlayStation Plus and so the only thing I paid to play the game is my time. If I missed adding the game to my digital game library this month and saw it in the $15 bin at a local retailer, I would probably buy the game.
Saturday, July 4, 2020
Thursday, June 25, 2020
So Happy to Hear an Ad on Pandora
I had a really tough time waking up this morning. Normally I get up at 7, eat some breakfast, and then spend some time on a bicycle. This morning I ate breakfast and then fell asleep on the couch before getting out on my bike. I still have to exercise every day and so I had to find time later in the day. I finished a meeting and then jumped on my indoor bike for 30 minutes.
Riding a bike outdoors and listening to music are two activities that should never be mixed. I see a lot of people on the bike trail listening to headphones and it is dangerous. On a bike, you need all of your senses to keep from having an accident. However I enjoy listening to music while riding a stationary bike. Sometimes it is the only way to get through a 30-minute bike ride. In the United States, my streaming service of choice is Pandora. As Pandora is not available in Japan, I use Spotify there.
Lately I have grown rather disenfranchised with Pandora. I am one of those people that really likes to curate my music. If I like a song, I will give it a thumbs-up. If not, it gets a thumbs-down. There is no middle ground. The problem with Pandora is that it is always showing annoying ads. I will go into my phone to give a song a thumbs-up or down and have an ad appear right above both of the thumb icons. I try to click the appropriate thumb and get taken to an ad instead of rating my song. Most of the time it is fairly harmless. Today I went to rate a song and didn't see what ad I clicked. Nothing happened on the screen and I feared I just agreed to sign up for a free 30-day trial of premium Pandora. Then I would have to figure out how to cancel the premium service.
I worried about figuring out how to remove Pandora premium from my account for 3 songs. Then I heard an ad and was happy. I still don't know what ad I clicked on, but at least I am not signed up for something I will end up having to pay for later.
Those ads really annoy me but paying for streaming music annoys me even more. I don't mind listening to an add every once and a while during my music. After all, that is what happens on a normal radio station. However those visual ads are bothering me enough that I may give up on Pandora and start using Spotify instead.
Riding a bike outdoors and listening to music are two activities that should never be mixed. I see a lot of people on the bike trail listening to headphones and it is dangerous. On a bike, you need all of your senses to keep from having an accident. However I enjoy listening to music while riding a stationary bike. Sometimes it is the only way to get through a 30-minute bike ride. In the United States, my streaming service of choice is Pandora. As Pandora is not available in Japan, I use Spotify there.
Lately I have grown rather disenfranchised with Pandora. I am one of those people that really likes to curate my music. If I like a song, I will give it a thumbs-up. If not, it gets a thumbs-down. There is no middle ground. The problem with Pandora is that it is always showing annoying ads. I will go into my phone to give a song a thumbs-up or down and have an ad appear right above both of the thumb icons. I try to click the appropriate thumb and get taken to an ad instead of rating my song. Most of the time it is fairly harmless. Today I went to rate a song and didn't see what ad I clicked. Nothing happened on the screen and I feared I just agreed to sign up for a free 30-day trial of premium Pandora. Then I would have to figure out how to cancel the premium service.
I worried about figuring out how to remove Pandora premium from my account for 3 songs. Then I heard an ad and was happy. I still don't know what ad I clicked on, but at least I am not signed up for something I will end up having to pay for later.
Those ads really annoy me but paying for streaming music annoys me even more. I don't mind listening to an add every once and a while during my music. After all, that is what happens on a normal radio station. However those visual ads are bothering me enough that I may give up on Pandora and start using Spotify instead.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
My Favorite Video Conference Application
I have not been to my office since March 7 of this year. Fortunately I still have a job but not going to the office because of COVID-19 means that I have to do all of my meetings using video conferencing applications. While it would be nice to take my meetings outside using my smartphone, I do 100% of my meetings using my laptop computer. For this reason, my favorite app is based on features available for the computer and not the smartphone. Furthermore it is important to know that I use my MacBook Pro and not a Windows laptop.
There are 3 major video conferencing applications: Zoom, WebEx, and Microsoft Teams. If Microsoft Teams sounds like a new product, it is based on their acquisition of Skype and leverages many years of experience doing video calls.
Unfortunately Zoom got a black-eye with a security breech early in the COVID-19 days. Because of that, my company does not allow anyone to use it for meetings. My understanding is that Zoom did a great job getting a fix in place and has gotten a lot of users with their free product which limits meeting times to only 40 minutes and have less than 100 people. My wife holds a weekly Zoom meeting on Emergency Preparedness for people in our community. She likes the 40-minute time limit as it keeps her meetings short and they can't run long.
WebEx has been around for a long time and is the video conference application I have used the longest. Recently I had a company-wide conference hosted on WebEx with around 200 participants. I recorded the conference and then sent people in my company links to the videos. That allowed people to view the conference even though they couldn't attend in person. Some of the presentations contained videos and WebEx has the ability to optimize for presentation text or multimedia (video and audio). That came in very handy. I also recently attended a company-wide WebEx meeting with 1000 people, which is the upper limit for the tool.
Finally there is Microsoft Teams and it seems to be the application of choice that my company is gravitating towards. One reason is that we use Office 365 applications and that means Outlook is our e-mail and scheduling program. When you want to schedule a video conference, you just click a button in the calendar program and a Teams meeting is automatically created. With WebEx, you have an extra step of logging into WebEx and setting up the meeting. My personal observation is that the quality of Teams is better than the other two video conferencing applications. The audio seems to be more clear and the video is equally impressive. Finally my favorite feature of Teams is the ability to use a virtual background. I took a picture of Snowbird and use it as my background, hiding the ugly gray walls and whiteboard in my home office. It does have the added conversation starter as people continually ask me if there is snow still in Utah.
So what is my favorite video conferencing application? It depends. If you are looking for a free solution, I think Zoom is probably your best bet. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with it. I also like WebEx for large meetings as they seem to have the better solution. Ultimately my workhorse for small group meetings is Microsoft Teams and I probably use it the most. All 3 solutions are full featured and differ only slightly in capabilities.
One final note is that I never see the bill for any of the video conferencing applications I use and so I have no idea on how much any of them cost. If cost is an issue for you, then you may rank the solutions differently.
There are 3 major video conferencing applications: Zoom, WebEx, and Microsoft Teams. If Microsoft Teams sounds like a new product, it is based on their acquisition of Skype and leverages many years of experience doing video calls.
Unfortunately Zoom got a black-eye with a security breech early in the COVID-19 days. Because of that, my company does not allow anyone to use it for meetings. My understanding is that Zoom did a great job getting a fix in place and has gotten a lot of users with their free product which limits meeting times to only 40 minutes and have less than 100 people. My wife holds a weekly Zoom meeting on Emergency Preparedness for people in our community. She likes the 40-minute time limit as it keeps her meetings short and they can't run long.
WebEx has been around for a long time and is the video conference application I have used the longest. Recently I had a company-wide conference hosted on WebEx with around 200 participants. I recorded the conference and then sent people in my company links to the videos. That allowed people to view the conference even though they couldn't attend in person. Some of the presentations contained videos and WebEx has the ability to optimize for presentation text or multimedia (video and audio). That came in very handy. I also recently attended a company-wide WebEx meeting with 1000 people, which is the upper limit for the tool.
Finally there is Microsoft Teams and it seems to be the application of choice that my company is gravitating towards. One reason is that we use Office 365 applications and that means Outlook is our e-mail and scheduling program. When you want to schedule a video conference, you just click a button in the calendar program and a Teams meeting is automatically created. With WebEx, you have an extra step of logging into WebEx and setting up the meeting. My personal observation is that the quality of Teams is better than the other two video conferencing applications. The audio seems to be more clear and the video is equally impressive. Finally my favorite feature of Teams is the ability to use a virtual background. I took a picture of Snowbird and use it as my background, hiding the ugly gray walls and whiteboard in my home office. It does have the added conversation starter as people continually ask me if there is snow still in Utah.
So what is my favorite video conferencing application? It depends. If you are looking for a free solution, I think Zoom is probably your best bet. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with it. I also like WebEx for large meetings as they seem to have the better solution. Ultimately my workhorse for small group meetings is Microsoft Teams and I probably use it the most. All 3 solutions are full featured and differ only slightly in capabilities.
One final note is that I never see the bill for any of the video conferencing applications I use and so I have no idea on how much any of them cost. If cost is an issue for you, then you may rank the solutions differently.
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Time for Another New Laptop
My youngest daughter and I got to spend the day together. My wife is accompanying my youngest son on a road trip as he moves to Ohio. That allowed my daughter and I to spend the day together rock climbing, buying wood to replace our backyard fence, and watching a movie together. During the course of the day, my daughter told me it is about time to replace her aging MacBook. I asked her why and she reminded me that her current computer is 8 years old. I think she may be right about replacing it.
I recently went through the exercise of replacing a computer and know that you pay a premium when you buy a Mac. However it is hard to argue with the fact that her current Mac is 8 years old and lasted her well. When I bought her that computer, I told her to take care of it as her next one would be her responsibility. She has treated it well and only now does she need to replace it.
Having spent 8 years with a Mac makes it difficult for her to want a Windows computer. She knows all of the ins and outs of the Mac operating system. I think a shift to Windows would confuse her. I asked her what she wants, thinking that she might go for the less expensive MacBook Air. Nope, she wants another MacBook Pro. Given the difference in prices, she will end up spending about $400 to $500 more than for the MacBook Air. I thought about it for a bit and realized that the Pro will probably last another 8 years while the Air would only last 4. That justifies the cost of the more expensive laptop as it will ultimately be cheaper in the long run.
It is important to note that not all Mac laptops are supposed to last that long. My oldest daughter gets only a couple of years before things start breaking as she is a little harsher on her computers than my youngest daughter. My youngest daughter also really only uses her computer to do things like visit social media sites and browse the Internet. She is not a software developer nor does she require a lot of horsepower.
My daughter didn't order the computer today as she is waiting to make sure she doesn't have any expensive bills coming up any time soon. She doesn't want to deplete her savings until she does a little financial forecasting first. This is good as it will give her some time to evaluate which options she wants and is willing to pay for. I'm sure she will be excited when the new computer comes.
I recently went through the exercise of replacing a computer and know that you pay a premium when you buy a Mac. However it is hard to argue with the fact that her current Mac is 8 years old and lasted her well. When I bought her that computer, I told her to take care of it as her next one would be her responsibility. She has treated it well and only now does she need to replace it.
Having spent 8 years with a Mac makes it difficult for her to want a Windows computer. She knows all of the ins and outs of the Mac operating system. I think a shift to Windows would confuse her. I asked her what she wants, thinking that she might go for the less expensive MacBook Air. Nope, she wants another MacBook Pro. Given the difference in prices, she will end up spending about $400 to $500 more than for the MacBook Air. I thought about it for a bit and realized that the Pro will probably last another 8 years while the Air would only last 4. That justifies the cost of the more expensive laptop as it will ultimately be cheaper in the long run.
It is important to note that not all Mac laptops are supposed to last that long. My oldest daughter gets only a couple of years before things start breaking as she is a little harsher on her computers than my youngest daughter. My youngest daughter also really only uses her computer to do things like visit social media sites and browse the Internet. She is not a software developer nor does she require a lot of horsepower.
My daughter didn't order the computer today as she is waiting to make sure she doesn't have any expensive bills coming up any time soon. She doesn't want to deplete her savings until she does a little financial forecasting first. This is good as it will give her some time to evaluate which options she wants and is willing to pay for. I'm sure she will be excited when the new computer comes.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
My Latest YouTube Video
Last night I finally put the finishing touches on my latest YouTube adventure video. I actually had it done a week or so ago but didn't like some of the audio narration tracks. I got some time last night and rerecorded several sections. I have embedded the video below for your enjoyment.
Should you wish to share the video, you can do so with the following URL:
Hopefully you find it enjoyable.
Should you wish to share the video, you can do so with the following URL:
Hopefully you find it enjoyable.
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Photo Editing with GIMP
Yesterday my youngest son and daughter-in-law dropped my granddaughter off so they could drive to Ohio in preparation for a move. I have always told my kids that they are welcome to leave their kids with us but to not be surprised if we take the kids to Disneyland. With COVID-19 that is impossible right now as the park is closed. I still wanted to send them a picture of us in Disneyland.
I searched through my phone and found a picture of the Millennium Falcon in Galaxy's Edge from our most recent trip back in September. Then I had my wife take a picture of me and my granddaughter at my work desk. The rest should be easy. Everyone always talks about Photoshop'ing people into pictures, so how hard can it be.
My first idea was to use Microsoft Teams. I have been using it for a lot of my conference calls and rather than use my own office background, I have added a picture of the Snowbird tram to my Teams picture library. I figure I could add one of Disneyland, start up MS Teams, and take a screenshot. After playing for a bit, I decided that I didn't like my picture with my hands out reaching for the keyboard. Interestingly enough, my oldest daughter thought that I had used a Zoom background for the finished picture.
Instead I decided to try GIMP. I actually use GIMP quite frequently as it is a great little tool for editing photos and other computer graphics. Lately I have created a bunch of icons for a project at work with it. Unfortunately I have never used it to take a person (or two in this case) from one photo and add them to another. My first stop was YouTube. I watched the process where you add an alpha-channel to the photo with your people and then use the free-hand tool to trace them. Once you have them traced, you cut out the background. That looked really tough and so I searched for another video in case there is a trick to use. The second video showed multiple tricks. First, make the picture really large so you can see the fine edges. You can then drag the free-hand lines to fit the outline of the people better. The second video also suggested going in sections so you are pulling off a bit at a time.
I didn't really care that I did a great job creating the fake photo. In fact I wanted it to be fairly obvious that I had created the picture. Then I stumbled upon some more tricks that make my fake actually look pretty good. One is that I cut out my granddaughter and myself from a fairly large picture. Then I shrunk us down before pasting us into the Disneyland background. Shrinking the photo removed a lot of the imperfections from my cutting out the background. Then I only used a section of the picture above my waist so you couldn't tell I was sitting in my office chair. The finished photo actually turned out pretty good even though I didn't mean it to.
Once I finished the picture, I Air Dropped it to my phone and then texted it out to the family. My oldest daughter replied almost instantly with her suggestion on how I pulled off the faked picture. I got a few laughs from everyone.
Now that I know how to Photoshop someone into a picture, it is not that difficult. I'm sure there are a ton of tricks to make the photo turn out even much better than I did and I encourage you to do some Internet searching. I don't know how to make hair look more natural but figure it is just a matter of patience and choosing a picture with a well-combed head. Today my wife and I will be taking my granddaughter to Paris. Wanna come?
I searched through my phone and found a picture of the Millennium Falcon in Galaxy's Edge from our most recent trip back in September. Then I had my wife take a picture of me and my granddaughter at my work desk. The rest should be easy. Everyone always talks about Photoshop'ing people into pictures, so how hard can it be.
My first idea was to use Microsoft Teams. I have been using it for a lot of my conference calls and rather than use my own office background, I have added a picture of the Snowbird tram to my Teams picture library. I figure I could add one of Disneyland, start up MS Teams, and take a screenshot. After playing for a bit, I decided that I didn't like my picture with my hands out reaching for the keyboard. Interestingly enough, my oldest daughter thought that I had used a Zoom background for the finished picture.
Instead I decided to try GIMP. I actually use GIMP quite frequently as it is a great little tool for editing photos and other computer graphics. Lately I have created a bunch of icons for a project at work with it. Unfortunately I have never used it to take a person (or two in this case) from one photo and add them to another. My first stop was YouTube. I watched the process where you add an alpha-channel to the photo with your people and then use the free-hand tool to trace them. Once you have them traced, you cut out the background. That looked really tough and so I searched for another video in case there is a trick to use. The second video showed multiple tricks. First, make the picture really large so you can see the fine edges. You can then drag the free-hand lines to fit the outline of the people better. The second video also suggested going in sections so you are pulling off a bit at a time.
I didn't really care that I did a great job creating the fake photo. In fact I wanted it to be fairly obvious that I had created the picture. Then I stumbled upon some more tricks that make my fake actually look pretty good. One is that I cut out my granddaughter and myself from a fairly large picture. Then I shrunk us down before pasting us into the Disneyland background. Shrinking the photo removed a lot of the imperfections from my cutting out the background. Then I only used a section of the picture above my waist so you couldn't tell I was sitting in my office chair. The finished photo actually turned out pretty good even though I didn't mean it to.
Once I finished the picture, I Air Dropped it to my phone and then texted it out to the family. My oldest daughter replied almost instantly with her suggestion on how I pulled off the faked picture. I got a few laughs from everyone.
Now that I know how to Photoshop someone into a picture, it is not that difficult. I'm sure there are a ton of tricks to make the photo turn out even much better than I did and I encourage you to do some Internet searching. I don't know how to make hair look more natural but figure it is just a matter of patience and choosing a picture with a well-combed head. Today my wife and I will be taking my granddaughter to Paris. Wanna come?
Monday, May 18, 2020
Finding a Job Amid COVID-19
It seems that you can't watch the evening news, visit an online news site, or read a newspaper without seeing headlines about record unemployment. My youngest daughter, son-in-law, and youngest son are all effected by the horrible job hunting conditions due to the current global pandemic. I'm sure you all have people close to you in similar situations. Hopefully I can share some strategies to help.
Let's start with my youngest son. He just graduated from the University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. It seems that no matter what he does, he can't get anyone to even look at his resume or return his inquiries. This is an incredibly tough job market for people with experience; It is even tougher for those just coming out of college looking to land a first full-time job. Fortunately my son is married and his wife is a nurse. Her skills are in high-demand and so my son will be heading to graduate school while she pays the bills. As nobody is sure if classes will be held in the fall, he is focusing on online programs as that will be the best option for the foreseeable future. My son also has another internship lined up with a highly respected organization. The requirement for the internship is that he is enrolled in a graduate program.
My son-in-law is also a fairly recent college graduate. His job was eliminated because of COVID-19 and he won't be returning until social distancing rules are relaxed. His wife, my daughter, is also in a unique situation where she will be going to graduate school. That makes finding a job for my son-in-law rather difficult. While my son is looking at online programs, my daughter's program requires her to be on campus and she will be moving from Utah to Alabama. If she can't be in class, they may defer her start until meeting restrictions are lifted. Not knowing when they will move makes finding a short-term job almost impossible. At some point it is easier to just collect unemployment and my son-in-law falls into that category for now.
Finally there is my youngest daughter. She has lost her job twice and a 2-month period. She started the year as a ski instructor at Alta ski resort. March 14th she went to work thinking she would make it through the season before they closed because of COVID-19. The next day, she didn't have a job. Her employer did the best they could with providing a little extra pay to bridge the gap between her next job. Rather than sit around waiting for her summer job to start, she immediately applied to Amazon and 2 weeks after her last day at Alta, she started fulfilling orders at an Amazon warehouse in Salt Lake City. She knew it was only a short-term gig and was glad. Working in a warehouse is not the right job for someone used to being outdoors every day of the week. After a month, she quit so she could start preparing for her summer job. She had been accepted to teach at a ski resort in New Zealand but that country is locked down and a week before her flight was scheduled to depart she was told not to come. So how would you like to lose your primary job twice in the same 2-month period? Fortunately for my daughter has found another job at an outdoor summer camp that is scrambling to open in the next couple of weeks. Let's hope they can pull it off.
So what are the takeaways from my 3 anecdotal experiences? First, this is a tough job market for new college graduates and you might want to think about getting an online graduate degree. Second, it is a tough job market for professionals with only a few years experience. Don't be afraid to file for unemployment as it may provide some badly needed income until you can find a job. Finally, there are jobs out there if you look hard enough and are willing to do almost anything. Sure you may be stuck in a warehouse shipping unmentionables to really bored people for $17/hour, but there are jobs. I hope this helps.
Let's start with my youngest son. He just graduated from the University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. It seems that no matter what he does, he can't get anyone to even look at his resume or return his inquiries. This is an incredibly tough job market for people with experience; It is even tougher for those just coming out of college looking to land a first full-time job. Fortunately my son is married and his wife is a nurse. Her skills are in high-demand and so my son will be heading to graduate school while she pays the bills. As nobody is sure if classes will be held in the fall, he is focusing on online programs as that will be the best option for the foreseeable future. My son also has another internship lined up with a highly respected organization. The requirement for the internship is that he is enrolled in a graduate program.
My son-in-law is also a fairly recent college graduate. His job was eliminated because of COVID-19 and he won't be returning until social distancing rules are relaxed. His wife, my daughter, is also in a unique situation where she will be going to graduate school. That makes finding a job for my son-in-law rather difficult. While my son is looking at online programs, my daughter's program requires her to be on campus and she will be moving from Utah to Alabama. If she can't be in class, they may defer her start until meeting restrictions are lifted. Not knowing when they will move makes finding a short-term job almost impossible. At some point it is easier to just collect unemployment and my son-in-law falls into that category for now.
Finally there is my youngest daughter. She has lost her job twice and a 2-month period. She started the year as a ski instructor at Alta ski resort. March 14th she went to work thinking she would make it through the season before they closed because of COVID-19. The next day, she didn't have a job. Her employer did the best they could with providing a little extra pay to bridge the gap between her next job. Rather than sit around waiting for her summer job to start, she immediately applied to Amazon and 2 weeks after her last day at Alta, she started fulfilling orders at an Amazon warehouse in Salt Lake City. She knew it was only a short-term gig and was glad. Working in a warehouse is not the right job for someone used to being outdoors every day of the week. After a month, she quit so she could start preparing for her summer job. She had been accepted to teach at a ski resort in New Zealand but that country is locked down and a week before her flight was scheduled to depart she was told not to come. So how would you like to lose your primary job twice in the same 2-month period? Fortunately for my daughter has found another job at an outdoor summer camp that is scrambling to open in the next couple of weeks. Let's hope they can pull it off.
So what are the takeaways from my 3 anecdotal experiences? First, this is a tough job market for new college graduates and you might want to think about getting an online graduate degree. Second, it is a tough job market for professionals with only a few years experience. Don't be afraid to file for unemployment as it may provide some badly needed income until you can find a job. Finally, there are jobs out there if you look hard enough and are willing to do almost anything. Sure you may be stuck in a warehouse shipping unmentionables to really bored people for $17/hour, but there are jobs. I hope this helps.
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