We have gotten more snow in the mountains and two of my kids were out of school today. So my oldest and I headed up to Alta for another day of hiking to make some turns.
Hiking up the ski hill is a lot of work. I would prefer to ride the lift but that's the price you pay to be able to ski before the resorts open. It also is a great form of exercise.
Unfortunately my son is in much better shape than I am and so he took the lead. Every once and a while he would stop and wait for his old man to catch up. As for me, I just looked down in the snow and followed his tracks. On occasion I would look up the hill to see how much farther to go but mostly I looked down and kept putting one foot in front of the other.
In the past I have been the one at the front of the line and responsible for creating the trail. Today it was nice to follow in the footsteps of someone else. Computers are similar. It is always easier to follow the path created by someone else. My hope is that this BLOG serves as a path for others. So if there is computer problem you are trying to solve, drop me an e-mail at mbennett@privateersoftware.com and I will see if I can't help.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
HAM Radio
I recently mentioned that I am studying to get my HAM license. Today I spent a couple of minutes on the Internet trying to look at how much a HAM radio will cost. Like any piece of electronics, the range varies greatly. You can pick up a small hand-held unit for around $100 or shell out over $10,000 for a top-of-the-line unit. And I thought computers were expensive.
My only experience with HAM radios before this past summer was when I was sailing from Hawaii to Los Angeles. We used a marine single-side-band (SSB) radio to send and receive daily e-mails as well as check in with other boats sailing roughly our same course. It was great to be so far from land yet still be in communication with family and friends.
After looking at the $10,000 HAM radio, I had to ask myself why anyone would pay that kind of money for something that can be done on the Internet for a fraction of the price. I can understand having a radio on a sailboat because it is tough to get an Internet connection in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. However the SSB we used to exchange e-mails was significantly less than the $10,000 radio.
On Sunday evening I was involved in a radio drill that simulated a major earthquake. While most phones continue to work even during a power outage, the Internet is questionable. Throw in a major disaster and it could take a while to get through to loved ones with conventional communication methods. Just ask anyone trying to get in touch with family or friends in any of the recent natural disasters.
Sunday night's drill was very interesting to watch. We had five or six different radios all listening to the various traffic going on. One radio was listening to neighborhoods communicate with eachother while another was tuned to local emergency services. The idea is that if help is needed in the neighborhood, a HAM radio operator can take down the important information and relay it to emergency services. There were other relays we listened to as well. This helps keep people from talking all over eachother on the same frequency.
That is what brings us back to that $10,000 radio. The $100 HAM unit is limited in the number of frequencies available. It can also only listen to one channel at a time. The more expensive radio has a much larger number of frequencies it can use. It also can listen to multiple channels at the same time. That would have been very helpful for our drill.
It was fun to look at the various types of radios and compare the differences. When the time comes to get my own HAM radio I still am not sure which one I want to get. However it probably won't be the $10,000.
My only experience with HAM radios before this past summer was when I was sailing from Hawaii to Los Angeles. We used a marine single-side-band (SSB) radio to send and receive daily e-mails as well as check in with other boats sailing roughly our same course. It was great to be so far from land yet still be in communication with family and friends.
After looking at the $10,000 HAM radio, I had to ask myself why anyone would pay that kind of money for something that can be done on the Internet for a fraction of the price. I can understand having a radio on a sailboat because it is tough to get an Internet connection in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. However the SSB we used to exchange e-mails was significantly less than the $10,000 radio.
On Sunday evening I was involved in a radio drill that simulated a major earthquake. While most phones continue to work even during a power outage, the Internet is questionable. Throw in a major disaster and it could take a while to get through to loved ones with conventional communication methods. Just ask anyone trying to get in touch with family or friends in any of the recent natural disasters.
Sunday night's drill was very interesting to watch. We had five or six different radios all listening to the various traffic going on. One radio was listening to neighborhoods communicate with eachother while another was tuned to local emergency services. The idea is that if help is needed in the neighborhood, a HAM radio operator can take down the important information and relay it to emergency services. There were other relays we listened to as well. This helps keep people from talking all over eachother on the same frequency.
That is what brings us back to that $10,000 radio. The $100 HAM unit is limited in the number of frequencies available. It can also only listen to one channel at a time. The more expensive radio has a much larger number of frequencies it can use. It also can listen to multiple channels at the same time. That would have been very helpful for our drill.
It was fun to look at the various types of radios and compare the differences. When the time comes to get my own HAM radio I still am not sure which one I want to get. However it probably won't be the $10,000.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Remote Desktop Connection
On Monday I installed a really neat piece of software on my Mac laptop. It is called "Remote Desktop Connection" and allows me to use my Mac to log into a Windows Server machine. The latest software project I am working on is with Microsoft SQL Server and that means I need to have access to a Windows machine.
The latest version of the Mac operating system has a feature called "Open Spaces." This basically allows me to have four virtual displays on one screen. It is very useful to keep from having a lot of programs cluttering up your screen at the same time. You can start your e-mail in one display and then go to another virtual display to run your web browser. Once you have all your programs running, you can easily switch between them using the "command" and the "tab" keys. Linux has had this feature for a while and I am glad to see it moving into other operating systems.
So I started my browser in screen one and Remote Desktop Connection in screen two. Then my younger son came down to my office to visit. I showed him that I was running Windows in one screen and Mac OS X in another. He thought that was pretty cool.
My older son came down later and saw me working in Windows and thought I had erased my Mac OS and replaced it with Windows (something I wouldn't recommend). When I showed him I was actually running both at the same time, he was relieved. He will probably be taking my Mac laptop to college and favors the Max OS over Windows.
Remote Desktop Connection really is an elegant little program. Without it I would have been forced to load a bunch of software on one of my Windows computers and that would have taken a lot of time. Instead I was able to take a few minutes and instantly become productive with the help of an already configured server. Now I need to get back to work.
The latest version of the Mac operating system has a feature called "Open Spaces." This basically allows me to have four virtual displays on one screen. It is very useful to keep from having a lot of programs cluttering up your screen at the same time. You can start your e-mail in one display and then go to another virtual display to run your web browser. Once you have all your programs running, you can easily switch between them using the "command" and the "tab" keys. Linux has had this feature for a while and I am glad to see it moving into other operating systems.
So I started my browser in screen one and Remote Desktop Connection in screen two. Then my younger son came down to my office to visit. I showed him that I was running Windows in one screen and Mac OS X in another. He thought that was pretty cool.
My older son came down later and saw me working in Windows and thought I had erased my Mac OS and replaced it with Windows (something I wouldn't recommend). When I showed him I was actually running both at the same time, he was relieved. He will probably be taking my Mac laptop to college and favors the Max OS over Windows.
Remote Desktop Connection really is an elegant little program. Without it I would have been forced to load a bunch of software on one of my Windows computers and that would have taken a lot of time. Instead I was able to take a few minutes and instantly become productive with the help of an already configured server. Now I need to get back to work.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Paper or Electronic Journals
Yesterday was a long day. I got to the airport last night to catch my flight home only to discover it was delayed a half hour. The pilot did a good job making up some lost time but we still got in late. Then I had to take the shuttle bus to long-term parking so I could find my car. I think we circled the airport two or three times before we started dropping people off. I had been up since 5am and it was close to midnight before I got home.
I tried to be quiet as I came in the house so as not to wake anyone. The dog was kind enough to greet me with her silent tail in motion rather than her usual noisy bark. I quickly dropped off my laptop in my office and then headed off to bed.
Ever since December 16, 1987 I have kept a daily journal without missing a single day. I think I have written somewhere between eight and nine thousand pages. I don't have just one journal, I have a bookshelf full of them. So before going to bed, I sat down to write in my journal.
My wife was surprised I didn't write on the plane. Sometimes I will bring my journal with me on a day trip to San Francisco and write in it on the way home. I thought about doing that on this trip but I only have seven more pages to go before I start another volume and didn't want to run the risk of loosing six exciting months of my life.
So why don't I keep my journal on my computer? After all, I generally have my laptop with me on most trips. Wouldn't it be easier to type out a page every day instead of writing it by hand? Probably. However my experience with computers leads me not to trust them. I have lost too many things on the computer and so I use the method that has stood the test of time: writing in a book. I used to keep important papers on floppy disks. Now I don't have a single computer with a floppy drive. I have put important software code on CDROMs only to have them be unreadable now. I have stored priceless photographs on hard drives only to have the disk crash and the photographs lost forever.
If you look in my bookshelf, I have a first edition original copy of Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" pulished in 1984. I also have a journal compiled my one of my ancestors from the American Civil War. If I want to read them, I just have to open the book. I don't need to try to find a civil-war era device nor do I need to pull it of an old 8-inch floppy disk.
So if you want something you have written to last forever, make sure it is printed on paper and put someplace safe where it won't get lost. Otherwise it will get lost.
I tried to be quiet as I came in the house so as not to wake anyone. The dog was kind enough to greet me with her silent tail in motion rather than her usual noisy bark. I quickly dropped off my laptop in my office and then headed off to bed.
Ever since December 16, 1987 I have kept a daily journal without missing a single day. I think I have written somewhere between eight and nine thousand pages. I don't have just one journal, I have a bookshelf full of them. So before going to bed, I sat down to write in my journal.
My wife was surprised I didn't write on the plane. Sometimes I will bring my journal with me on a day trip to San Francisco and write in it on the way home. I thought about doing that on this trip but I only have seven more pages to go before I start another volume and didn't want to run the risk of loosing six exciting months of my life.
So why don't I keep my journal on my computer? After all, I generally have my laptop with me on most trips. Wouldn't it be easier to type out a page every day instead of writing it by hand? Probably. However my experience with computers leads me not to trust them. I have lost too many things on the computer and so I use the method that has stood the test of time: writing in a book. I used to keep important papers on floppy disks. Now I don't have a single computer with a floppy drive. I have put important software code on CDROMs only to have them be unreadable now. I have stored priceless photographs on hard drives only to have the disk crash and the photographs lost forever.
If you look in my bookshelf, I have a first edition original copy of Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" pulished in 1984. I also have a journal compiled my one of my ancestors from the American Civil War. If I want to read them, I just have to open the book. I don't need to try to find a civil-war era device nor do I need to pull it of an old 8-inch floppy disk.
So if you want something you have written to last forever, make sure it is printed on paper and put someplace safe where it won't get lost. Otherwise it will get lost.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Importance of Checking E-mail
Yesterday I woke up thinking I had a relaxing beginning of the week. Foolish me. Right now I am in San Francisco working on a new project. I am glad to be here and this is going to be a great assignment. However I think it is funny how I got here.
The day started out pretty normal for a Sunday. Then it got exciting. At noon I was asked to help out with a local HAM Radio emergency response system. The idea is that if there is a monumental disaster and usual forms of communication (like phones) don't work, there is a HAM radio operator in the neighborhood that people can leverage to get help. Of course this will require me to get my HAM license, but my background in Electrical Engineering helps make that a fairly trivial task.
I didn't think much of the invitation and decided to catch up on some sleep with a bit of a nap. That didn't last long as I was given a call and told about a HAM emergency drill that would be taking place at 9pm last night. I didn't really have a pen to write information down and so I told the caller to send me the details in e-mail and I would attend. Then I went back to my nap.
At about 5:30, I wandered down to my office and checked e-mail. In addition to the HAM meeting, I also had a request from my old friend Wister to come to San Francisco. He wants to start this project immediately and wondered if I could be there in less than 24 hours. He would even pick up my airfare. I let my wife know about the meeting and she told me to go. I booked my last-minute flight arrangements on Southwest who had the lowest-cost flight.
This morning I was up at 5am so I could get ready for my 7:30am flight. I picked up another hour of sleep on the flight and was in downtown San Francisco by 9:30am.
I'm glad I checked my e-mail on Sunday. Otherwise I would have gone into my office this morning and it would have been too late to make my meeting.
The day started out pretty normal for a Sunday. Then it got exciting. At noon I was asked to help out with a local HAM Radio emergency response system. The idea is that if there is a monumental disaster and usual forms of communication (like phones) don't work, there is a HAM radio operator in the neighborhood that people can leverage to get help. Of course this will require me to get my HAM license, but my background in Electrical Engineering helps make that a fairly trivial task.
I didn't think much of the invitation and decided to catch up on some sleep with a bit of a nap. That didn't last long as I was given a call and told about a HAM emergency drill that would be taking place at 9pm last night. I didn't really have a pen to write information down and so I told the caller to send me the details in e-mail and I would attend. Then I went back to my nap.
At about 5:30, I wandered down to my office and checked e-mail. In addition to the HAM meeting, I also had a request from my old friend Wister to come to San Francisco. He wants to start this project immediately and wondered if I could be there in less than 24 hours. He would even pick up my airfare. I let my wife know about the meeting and she told me to go. I booked my last-minute flight arrangements on Southwest who had the lowest-cost flight.
This morning I was up at 5am so I could get ready for my 7:30am flight. I picked up another hour of sleep on the flight and was in downtown San Francisco by 9:30am.
I'm glad I checked my e-mail on Sunday. Otherwise I would have gone into my office this morning and it would have been too late to make my meeting.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Time to Clean the Office
Monday I will be starting a new project and so I get to spend today cleaning my office in preparation. The problem is that I am not really sure what to do with some hardware I received from an old project. I need to find space for it so I am not constantly working around it.
Last year I developed some kiosk software for the home improvement industry. I now have a kiosk at my house. The thing is huge! There are sample pieces of cabinetry in my garage with the computer part sitting in my office. The computer has two screens. One is a touch-screen that the customer uses to provide input while the other screen shows video of the manufacturing process for the products being sold.
The problem is that my office is already filled with computer equipment and I don't have room for two screens. Do I build a shelf above the laser printer and stack the color ink-jet on top of it? Nope that won't work because the color printer is also my scanner and that makes the scanner too difficult to use. Maybe I should move one of the two Playstation2's? Nope that won't work because there still won't be enough room. Besides, how will my sons be able to play video games against eachother if one of the Playstations is taken down.
I could try and find a storage place for the kiosk computer but I am still doing active development with it. Part of the purpose of actually having a kiosk is so I can see how the software runs on it. I guess I will just have to make room for it somewhere. I think if I swap locations with the touch screen and the paper cutter, everything fits. Yep that just might work. I guess I can't put this off any longer.
Last year I developed some kiosk software for the home improvement industry. I now have a kiosk at my house. The thing is huge! There are sample pieces of cabinetry in my garage with the computer part sitting in my office. The computer has two screens. One is a touch-screen that the customer uses to provide input while the other screen shows video of the manufacturing process for the products being sold.
The problem is that my office is already filled with computer equipment and I don't have room for two screens. Do I build a shelf above the laser printer and stack the color ink-jet on top of it? Nope that won't work because the color printer is also my scanner and that makes the scanner too difficult to use. Maybe I should move one of the two Playstation2's? Nope that won't work because there still won't be enough room. Besides, how will my sons be able to play video games against eachother if one of the Playstations is taken down.
I could try and find a storage place for the kiosk computer but I am still doing active development with it. Part of the purpose of actually having a kiosk is so I can see how the software runs on it. I guess I will just have to make room for it somewhere. I think if I swap locations with the touch screen and the paper cutter, everything fits. Yep that just might work. I guess I can't put this off any longer.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Green Office
I just got back from making a deposit in the bank. This gave me the opportunity to look at the mileage on my car. My car turns 9 in a couple of days but only has 39,000 miles on it. That is still a relatively brand-new car. At the time I opted for something practical that could comfortably seat 5. Now I wish I had gotten the Ferrari. With a Ferrari I could probably sell it for about the same price I paid for it.
The reason my car has so few miles is because I don't go anywhere. Most people drive to and from work every day and that has a tendency to rack up the miles. Instead I work from home. I am a third-generation telecommuter. My Grandfather who still practices law works from home. My Dad who runs and advertising agency also works from home. This has me wondering why more people don't work from home.
Right now it is stylish to be "green." What is more green: a guy who owns a Toyota Prius but drives to work 20 miles round trip every day, or a guy who works out of his basement? Even a 5th grader would answer that someone working from home is "greener."
I don't believe offices will ever disappear completely but I do think they need to be updated. When I used to work at Oracle, they would send out surveys to their employees asking how they were being "green." This was an attempt to get people to carpool or utilize mass transit. It also had the effect of getting managers to allow employees to work from home several days a week. If you are not in the office every day, then you don't need a permanent office or a cubicle. Fewer offices save the company a huge amount of money.
With the Internet it is easy to have all your calls forwarded to your home office. With services like Skype, you can even do inexpensive home video conferencing. Technology really has the potential to help makes our lives easier.
One valid criticism of working from home is that there are the potential for more distractions while working from home. This is especially true if you have a family with small children. I used to work in an office and so when I started working at home, I discovered the importance of a door. You know that big flat thing found near the entrance to your study or office. When the door is closed, Daddy is at work. When it is open, Daddy is at home. It takes about 5 minutes to train even the most stubborn child. Amazingly I found that I get more work done at home than I ever did in the office thanks to the use of a door.
Every year I wonder when corporations will figure out that they can save huge amounts of money by not having large offices. Unfortunately I keep waiting.
The reason my car has so few miles is because I don't go anywhere. Most people drive to and from work every day and that has a tendency to rack up the miles. Instead I work from home. I am a third-generation telecommuter. My Grandfather who still practices law works from home. My Dad who runs and advertising agency also works from home. This has me wondering why more people don't work from home.
Right now it is stylish to be "green." What is more green: a guy who owns a Toyota Prius but drives to work 20 miles round trip every day, or a guy who works out of his basement? Even a 5th grader would answer that someone working from home is "greener."
I don't believe offices will ever disappear completely but I do think they need to be updated. When I used to work at Oracle, they would send out surveys to their employees asking how they were being "green." This was an attempt to get people to carpool or utilize mass transit. It also had the effect of getting managers to allow employees to work from home several days a week. If you are not in the office every day, then you don't need a permanent office or a cubicle. Fewer offices save the company a huge amount of money.
With the Internet it is easy to have all your calls forwarded to your home office. With services like Skype, you can even do inexpensive home video conferencing. Technology really has the potential to help makes our lives easier.
One valid criticism of working from home is that there are the potential for more distractions while working from home. This is especially true if you have a family with small children. I used to work in an office and so when I started working at home, I discovered the importance of a door. You know that big flat thing found near the entrance to your study or office. When the door is closed, Daddy is at work. When it is open, Daddy is at home. It takes about 5 minutes to train even the most stubborn child. Amazingly I found that I get more work done at home than I ever did in the office thanks to the use of a door.
Every year I wonder when corporations will figure out that they can save huge amounts of money by not having large offices. Unfortunately I keep waiting.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Linux Flavors
Yesterday my oldest son came into my office and started telling me how his day was. The topic of Red Hat Linux came up and he expressed a desire to have a copy. This started a whole discussion on the different flavors of Linux.
When I first installed Linux on one of my office machines over ten years ago, I went down to a local book store and bought a book about Linux. In the back of the book was a CD that came with a copy of the operating system. It was Slackware Linux and seemed to work just fine. I played around a bit but couldn't get the graphical user interface (GUI) working with my hardware. So I went to a computer store and bought a copy of Red Hat Linux. I think it was version 2. I was able to get the X windowing environment (Linux's GUI) running. Since then I have always been a fan of Red Hat Linux.
I purchased several more copies of Red Hat Linux before they decided to concentrate on becoming a server-centric operating system provider. Most of the work I do is for other people and they have their own servers. That means I don't really need a server-specific version of Linux. Not to worry, Red Hat created Fedora Core for people like me. It is freely downloadable from the Internet and so I don't have to get in my car and drive to the local computer store to get it.
About a year ago, one of my clients asked me to put together a staging server at my office. A staging server is used to test changes in software before they are moved into the production environment. This is very helpful if you want to upgrade your database software but need to ensure it will work before you make the change. Simply upgrade the staging server and run through a bunch of tests. Once you are satisfied the upgrade won't break anything, you can roll out the new database software to the production system.
My client is barely above water financially and so I wanted to save them a bit of money. The production servers run Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server but that costs about $2,500 per server (if I remember correctly . . . I just tried to look it up but you now have to purchase it from a reseller . . . what a pain). Since I really don't care about technical support for the staging server, I decided to load it with CentOS. CentOS basically looks like Red Hat Enterprise Linux but is free. That means if there are any problems you have to figure them out yourself. I wouldn't recommend it for a production environment unless you have one or two Linux experts on staff who are used to figuring things out for themselves. So far it has worked perfectly for my client's staging server. I told my son that if he really wants to give Red Hat Enterprise Linux a try, he should just use CentOS.
There are many different flavors of Linux and these only represent a handful of distributions available. I have a good friend who works for Cannonical who are the guys behind Ubuntu Linux. He keeps trying to get me to switch to his distribution. I am reluctant to do so because I am so familiar with what I am already using. Oh well, I would probably make a bad customer anyways because I try to avoid paying for anything.
When I first installed Linux on one of my office machines over ten years ago, I went down to a local book store and bought a book about Linux. In the back of the book was a CD that came with a copy of the operating system. It was Slackware Linux and seemed to work just fine. I played around a bit but couldn't get the graphical user interface (GUI) working with my hardware. So I went to a computer store and bought a copy of Red Hat Linux. I think it was version 2. I was able to get the X windowing environment (Linux's GUI) running. Since then I have always been a fan of Red Hat Linux.
I purchased several more copies of Red Hat Linux before they decided to concentrate on becoming a server-centric operating system provider. Most of the work I do is for other people and they have their own servers. That means I don't really need a server-specific version of Linux. Not to worry, Red Hat created Fedora Core for people like me. It is freely downloadable from the Internet and so I don't have to get in my car and drive to the local computer store to get it.
About a year ago, one of my clients asked me to put together a staging server at my office. A staging server is used to test changes in software before they are moved into the production environment. This is very helpful if you want to upgrade your database software but need to ensure it will work before you make the change. Simply upgrade the staging server and run through a bunch of tests. Once you are satisfied the upgrade won't break anything, you can roll out the new database software to the production system.
My client is barely above water financially and so I wanted to save them a bit of money. The production servers run Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server but that costs about $2,500 per server (if I remember correctly . . . I just tried to look it up but you now have to purchase it from a reseller . . . what a pain). Since I really don't care about technical support for the staging server, I decided to load it with CentOS. CentOS basically looks like Red Hat Enterprise Linux but is free. That means if there are any problems you have to figure them out yourself. I wouldn't recommend it for a production environment unless you have one or two Linux experts on staff who are used to figuring things out for themselves. So far it has worked perfectly for my client's staging server. I told my son that if he really wants to give Red Hat Enterprise Linux a try, he should just use CentOS.
There are many different flavors of Linux and these only represent a handful of distributions available. I have a good friend who works for Cannonical who are the guys behind Ubuntu Linux. He keeps trying to get me to switch to his distribution. I am reluctant to do so because I am so familiar with what I am already using. Oh well, I would probably make a bad customer anyways because I try to avoid paying for anything.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Saving Money
If someone came to me today and said they were looking for a way to save their company money, my response would be to ditch Microsoft Office and move to OpenOffice.org. Unfortunately there would be no immediate savings because most companies have already made that purchase. However if someone was starting a company or new group, they could save a lot of start-up costs by going with OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office.
A good question to ask is: "How much money will it save my company?" That is an excellent question that needs a bit of a background.
OpenOffice.org is free. Microsoft Office comes in four different flavors, each with a different price. Unfortunately a commercial company cannot use the "Home and Student" edition which only costs $149.99. The next lowest cost version comes in at $399.95 and is the "Standard" edition. This version also comes with Outlook which is Microsoft's e-mail client. If your company has standardized on Outlook for your e-mail, then there is a whole other area where you can save money but outside the scope of this discussion. The "Small Office" and "Professional" versions are $50 and $100 more, respectively. They both include Publisher and the Professional version includes the Access database.
The latest version of OpenOffice.org actually compares to the Microsoft Office Professional version in that it contains most of the features included in Publisher and Access. The only missing piece is Outlook, but that functionality can be replaced with Thunderbird which is a free e-mail client from the people that brought you the Firefox web browser. However my experience is that most employees really only use the features found in the Standard edition of office and so we will use $399.95 as the standard cost savings.
Once you have purchased Microsoft Office, you can use it forever. However, some people feel it necessary to upgrade to the latest version. When Microsoft switched from the ubiquitous .DOC file format to the .DOCX, they provided a conversion utility so you didn't have to upgrade. A lot of people still did and that cost them $239.95. That still seems like a lot of money especially during these trying economic times.
One feature I use extensively in OpenOffice.org is the ability to create PDF files. This is not something that comes with the Standard version of Office but is part of Publisher. The nice thing about PDF documents is that nobody can modify them once you send them out. Also since the Acrobat reader from Adobe is free on all platforms, almost all computers can read PDF files. There is no need to worry about recipients having the "correct" version of software to read your document.
So let's assume you work for a company with 100 employees and almost everyone already has a purchased copy of Microsoft Office. The next time a new version of Office is released by Microsoft, you will save your company roughly $24,000 by switching to OpenOffice.org.
Let's assume you have decided to branch out on your own and start a company. You may only have 5 employees but will save yourself $2,000 in start-up costs. That is a significant amount of money if you are bootstrapping the company yourself.
Now let's assume that you work for a company that has 100 employees but only have purchased a single copy of Microsoft Office. All it takes is one honest employee to find out that you are stealing software. You will then be forced to buy $40,000 worth of licenses plus another $60,000 in punitive damages. OpenOffice.org should look pretty cheap for anyone in this scenario.
A good question to ask is: "How much money will it save my company?" That is an excellent question that needs a bit of a background.
OpenOffice.org is free. Microsoft Office comes in four different flavors, each with a different price. Unfortunately a commercial company cannot use the "Home and Student" edition which only costs $149.99. The next lowest cost version comes in at $399.95 and is the "Standard" edition. This version also comes with Outlook which is Microsoft's e-mail client. If your company has standardized on Outlook for your e-mail, then there is a whole other area where you can save money but outside the scope of this discussion. The "Small Office" and "Professional" versions are $50 and $100 more, respectively. They both include Publisher and the Professional version includes the Access database.
The latest version of OpenOffice.org actually compares to the Microsoft Office Professional version in that it contains most of the features included in Publisher and Access. The only missing piece is Outlook, but that functionality can be replaced with Thunderbird which is a free e-mail client from the people that brought you the Firefox web browser. However my experience is that most employees really only use the features found in the Standard edition of office and so we will use $399.95 as the standard cost savings.
Once you have purchased Microsoft Office, you can use it forever. However, some people feel it necessary to upgrade to the latest version. When Microsoft switched from the ubiquitous .DOC file format to the .DOCX, they provided a conversion utility so you didn't have to upgrade. A lot of people still did and that cost them $239.95. That still seems like a lot of money especially during these trying economic times.
One feature I use extensively in OpenOffice.org is the ability to create PDF files. This is not something that comes with the Standard version of Office but is part of Publisher. The nice thing about PDF documents is that nobody can modify them once you send them out. Also since the Acrobat reader from Adobe is free on all platforms, almost all computers can read PDF files. There is no need to worry about recipients having the "correct" version of software to read your document.
So let's assume you work for a company with 100 employees and almost everyone already has a purchased copy of Microsoft Office. The next time a new version of Office is released by Microsoft, you will save your company roughly $24,000 by switching to OpenOffice.org.
Let's assume you have decided to branch out on your own and start a company. You may only have 5 employees but will save yourself $2,000 in start-up costs. That is a significant amount of money if you are bootstrapping the company yourself.
Now let's assume that you work for a company that has 100 employees but only have purchased a single copy of Microsoft Office. All it takes is one honest employee to find out that you are stealing software. You will then be forced to buy $40,000 worth of licenses plus another $60,000 in punitive damages. OpenOffice.org should look pretty cheap for anyone in this scenario.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Good to be Home
Last night I got back home after a busy week of travel. I visited ten states over a five-day period. Now I am ready for a relaxing week at home. However I may be heading to the San Francisco area shortly. I just hope I have time to rest up a bit before getting back on an airplane.
Last week was incredibly busy. I did half of my travel on airplanes and the other half in a car. It was a great chance to give my mobile office a really thorough workout. I brought my MacBook computer and iPhone. In all honesty I probably could have left my laptop at home as I used my iPhone 95% of the time. In the end, the only real need for the laptop was for its USB port so I could charge my iPhone. Still it was nice to have the laptop just in case I needed the real keyboard. As I said in a previous post, the iPhone keyboard is not nearly as easy to use as a full-sized one.
The iPhone was great for travel in the car. I brought my wife's Subaru Outback Sport as it gets the best gas mileage of the three cars I own (averaging about 30 mpg). It is less than two years old and has an iPod adapter in the center console arm rest. The iPod adapter works with the iPhone with some minor deficiencies. You only have access to the MP3-player features and so if the phone rings, you have to disconnect it from the car and answer it by hand. It would be great if I could hit a button on the steering wheel like many blue tooth equiped vehicles. The only other deficiency is that the adapter will charge an iPod but not an iPhone. That really wasn't an issue because I spent a whole day in the car listening to music and still had plenty of battery power when I pulled into my driveway.
I think the biggest success of the trip was that I spent over 20 hours in the car and never listened to the same song twice. The music capacity of most MP3 players is amazing. When I was a teenager doing road trips, I used to have to carry a box full of cassette tapes. Most tapes were good for between an hour to an hour and a half. Furthermore you often got stuck listening to songs that were just "OK" instead of favorites. Over the past couple of days I was able to listen to all of my favorites and that made the ride go that much quicker.
The second biggest success of the trip was that fact that I drove close to two thousand miles and didn't get a single speeding ticket. Yea, it was a good trip.
Last week was incredibly busy. I did half of my travel on airplanes and the other half in a car. It was a great chance to give my mobile office a really thorough workout. I brought my MacBook computer and iPhone. In all honesty I probably could have left my laptop at home as I used my iPhone 95% of the time. In the end, the only real need for the laptop was for its USB port so I could charge my iPhone. Still it was nice to have the laptop just in case I needed the real keyboard. As I said in a previous post, the iPhone keyboard is not nearly as easy to use as a full-sized one.
The iPhone was great for travel in the car. I brought my wife's Subaru Outback Sport as it gets the best gas mileage of the three cars I own (averaging about 30 mpg). It is less than two years old and has an iPod adapter in the center console arm rest. The iPod adapter works with the iPhone with some minor deficiencies. You only have access to the MP3-player features and so if the phone rings, you have to disconnect it from the car and answer it by hand. It would be great if I could hit a button on the steering wheel like many blue tooth equiped vehicles. The only other deficiency is that the adapter will charge an iPod but not an iPhone. That really wasn't an issue because I spent a whole day in the car listening to music and still had plenty of battery power when I pulled into my driveway.
I think the biggest success of the trip was that I spent over 20 hours in the car and never listened to the same song twice. The music capacity of most MP3 players is amazing. When I was a teenager doing road trips, I used to have to carry a box full of cassette tapes. Most tapes were good for between an hour to an hour and a half. Furthermore you often got stuck listening to songs that were just "OK" instead of favorites. Over the past couple of days I was able to listen to all of my favorites and that made the ride go that much quicker.
The second biggest success of the trip was that fact that I drove close to two thousand miles and didn't get a single speeding ticket. Yea, it was a good trip.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Keep Your Batteries Charged
Yesterday was a very long day of travel. I didn't get home until after 1am last night due to a number of circumstances beyond my control. Now I am headed to Seattle for a Postgres Conference. I'm just glad I didn't have to spend the night at some airport.
I was happy to get on the earlier flight home but it turned out to be a false hope. I finished writing my BLOG entry and boarded the plane. They were just getting ready to close the door when the pilot came on and informed everyone that we had a flat tire. We all had to get off the plane so they could fix it. I thought that was weird because I have been on a plane while they fixed a flat in the past. As we started to go, we were told to bring all our personal belongings. That was my plan anyways but I was disheartened when they brought me my gate-checked bag and told me the plane wasn't going anywhere.
We got off the aircraft and were directed to one of two lines to rebook our travel plans. Naturally I was at the end of the line. They then opened a third line and I jumped at the chance to move up. I went from the very back to fourth. The only problem was that the first person in my line took a complete hour to rebook his flight. In the mean time the rest of us were wondering what we could do to help things move along. I decided to give the airline a call on my mobile phone.
When I completed my BLOG yesterday I had about half my battery left on my iPhone. While I plugged my phone in to charge it the previous night, I also turned off the lights in my hotel room. The wall socket I used was connected to the light switch for the hotel and so by turning off the lights, I turned off the charge to my phone. "No Problem," I thought in the morning, "my iPhone can last several days without needing to be recharged." That was before a busy day on the road.
I used the phone to find directions to our meeting (people are amazed to find out that the GPS and map feature with directions on the iPhone is free . . . I wonder if it costs on other phones). I then used the map feature to find a place to find a specific store in Louisville. I then used the map to help us get back to the airport as I was the navigator for the driver. Now I was using it for its primary purpose: to call people. The airline wasn't able to help me on the phone but I was taken care of anyways. The moment my existing flight was cancelled, the computer immediately rebooked me on my original itinerary. Then I had to make arrangements to get a ride home from the airport. When I finally got home last night after 1am, I had a small sliver of battery life. So I guess an iPhone's battery is good for about one day of constant use. That is good to know and a better reason to keep the thing charged.
I was happy to get on the earlier flight home but it turned out to be a false hope. I finished writing my BLOG entry and boarded the plane. They were just getting ready to close the door when the pilot came on and informed everyone that we had a flat tire. We all had to get off the plane so they could fix it. I thought that was weird because I have been on a plane while they fixed a flat in the past. As we started to go, we were told to bring all our personal belongings. That was my plan anyways but I was disheartened when they brought me my gate-checked bag and told me the plane wasn't going anywhere.
We got off the aircraft and were directed to one of two lines to rebook our travel plans. Naturally I was at the end of the line. They then opened a third line and I jumped at the chance to move up. I went from the very back to fourth. The only problem was that the first person in my line took a complete hour to rebook his flight. In the mean time the rest of us were wondering what we could do to help things move along. I decided to give the airline a call on my mobile phone.
When I completed my BLOG yesterday I had about half my battery left on my iPhone. While I plugged my phone in to charge it the previous night, I also turned off the lights in my hotel room. The wall socket I used was connected to the light switch for the hotel and so by turning off the lights, I turned off the charge to my phone. "No Problem," I thought in the morning, "my iPhone can last several days without needing to be recharged." That was before a busy day on the road.
I used the phone to find directions to our meeting (people are amazed to find out that the GPS and map feature with directions on the iPhone is free . . . I wonder if it costs on other phones). I then used the map feature to find a place to find a specific store in Louisville. I then used the map to help us get back to the airport as I was the navigator for the driver. Now I was using it for its primary purpose: to call people. The airline wasn't able to help me on the phone but I was taken care of anyways. The moment my existing flight was cancelled, the computer immediately rebooked me on my original itinerary. Then I had to make arrangements to get a ride home from the airport. When I finally got home last night after 1am, I had a small sliver of battery life. So I guess an iPhone's battery is good for about one day of constant use. That is good to know and a better reason to keep the thing charged.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Travel Today
I am at the airport in Louisville, Kentucky. I thought I would see how tough it is to make today's entry on my iPhone. It is about what I expected. That means it is going to be a very short message. I could probably pull out my laptop, pay $10, and have a much easier time. However what would I learn? I just hope my battery lasts.
Today was a great day and I was able to see a demo of my software with real customers. The only problem is all the time it took to get here. It is nice that I get to travel home on an earlier flight though. My associates are stuck on the original flight. Being a frequent traveler has its advantages.
Man this small keyboard is tough to type with.
Today was a great day and I was able to see a demo of my software with real customers. The only problem is all the time it took to get here. It is nice that I get to travel home on an earlier flight though. My associates are stuck on the original flight. Being a frequent traveler has its advantages.
Man this small keyboard is tough to type with.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
iPhone Not Perfect
Yesterday I had my first real glitch with my iPhone. The phone is over a year old and I had heard about others having problems with it but thought I had a perfect phone. As it turns out, I was wrong.
I had to give somebody a call and reached for my phone. Normally the screen is blank when I pull it out of its holster but this time it wasn't. When I tried to slide my finger across the bottom to unlock it, the screen remained frozen with the usual background being displayed.
Luckily I was at home and so I could log onto the Internet and do a quick search. Had I been on the road, there would have been no way to figure out how to reset the phone. It turns out you just have to hold the only two buttons on the iPhone to cause it to reboot. You have to hold them both down together for four seconds when the screen will blank out. You continue holding the buttons until the Apple logo appears. That was it. The phone works again.
I wish I knew what caused the problem so I could tell Apple. I really hate it when my phone doesn't work and I'm sure it is going to cause someone else a problem in the future.
I had to give somebody a call and reached for my phone. Normally the screen is blank when I pull it out of its holster but this time it wasn't. When I tried to slide my finger across the bottom to unlock it, the screen remained frozen with the usual background being displayed.
Luckily I was at home and so I could log onto the Internet and do a quick search. Had I been on the road, there would have been no way to figure out how to reset the phone. It turns out you just have to hold the only two buttons on the iPhone to cause it to reboot. You have to hold them both down together for four seconds when the screen will blank out. You continue holding the buttons until the Apple logo appears. That was it. The phone works again.
I wish I knew what caused the problem so I could tell Apple. I really hate it when my phone doesn't work and I'm sure it is going to cause someone else a problem in the future.
Monday, October 12, 2009
DOC vs DOCX
There should be a special place in Hell reserved for Microsoft developers. Anybody who has received a DOCX file from someone using a newer version of Mirosoft Word will probably agree with me.
My daughter just came home from school with an electronic version of a document she needs to edit. She tried to edit it using the family computer and was surprised when she got an error relating to not being able to read the file. She erroneously thought that because the file was created on an old computer at school, she needed to find an older version of Microsoft Word to read it. So I emerged from my office listening to my daughter yell about how her teacher is an idiot for giving her an old file that none of our newer computers could read.
I asked my daughter to explain the problem because I knew I could help her. I have every copy of Word since it was originally called "Word For Windows 1.1." She handed over her thumb drive and started talking crazy. I couldn't really understand what she was saying other than she hates her teacher and thinks that anyone who would assign such homework should die spitting blood. I made sure to keep my distance as I tried to help.
I plugged the drive into my trusty MacBook and immediately saw the problem. The Mac Mini that my kids use at home has an old version of Microsoft Office that doesn't read DOCX files. Instead it only understands DOC files. I have a newer version of Office on my computer and could easily read the file. I then saved it to her thumb drive in the DOC format.
My daughter thought she needed an older version of software when she really needed the newer version. This leads one to ask, "Why would Microsoft take one of the most ubiquitous file formats in the world and change it?" The answer is actually quite simple. The DOC file format has been around since the late 80's and has had so many things added to it that nobody really understands how to decode it anymore. In fact, Microsoft embeds an older version of Word in their new version simply to read old DOC formats. Once old documents are read into memory, they are internally converted to the new format. If you try to save the edits in the old DOC format, it tries to save it using the old version of Word. If you just happen to use a new feature not available in the older version, it throws away part of your document.
How do I know that? I actually prefer to use OpenOffice.org which looks an aweful lot like Microsoft Office. When someone from Microsoft was asked to comment on a new version of OpenOffice.org and how it can read DOC files, the Microsoft employee explained how they couldn't reliably read old DOC files so how could anybody else. He then went on to explain what I just explained above.
Doesn't that instill a sense of confidence in Microsoft products? Maybe that is why I prefer Linux. Now I just need to secretly install the newer version of Microsoft Office on the kids' computer to avoid any future outbursts.
My daughter just came home from school with an electronic version of a document she needs to edit. She tried to edit it using the family computer and was surprised when she got an error relating to not being able to read the file. She erroneously thought that because the file was created on an old computer at school, she needed to find an older version of Microsoft Word to read it. So I emerged from my office listening to my daughter yell about how her teacher is an idiot for giving her an old file that none of our newer computers could read.
I asked my daughter to explain the problem because I knew I could help her. I have every copy of Word since it was originally called "Word For Windows 1.1." She handed over her thumb drive and started talking crazy. I couldn't really understand what she was saying other than she hates her teacher and thinks that anyone who would assign such homework should die spitting blood. I made sure to keep my distance as I tried to help.
I plugged the drive into my trusty MacBook and immediately saw the problem. The Mac Mini that my kids use at home has an old version of Microsoft Office that doesn't read DOCX files. Instead it only understands DOC files. I have a newer version of Office on my computer and could easily read the file. I then saved it to her thumb drive in the DOC format.
My daughter thought she needed an older version of software when she really needed the newer version. This leads one to ask, "Why would Microsoft take one of the most ubiquitous file formats in the world and change it?" The answer is actually quite simple. The DOC file format has been around since the late 80's and has had so many things added to it that nobody really understands how to decode it anymore. In fact, Microsoft embeds an older version of Word in their new version simply to read old DOC formats. Once old documents are read into memory, they are internally converted to the new format. If you try to save the edits in the old DOC format, it tries to save it using the old version of Word. If you just happen to use a new feature not available in the older version, it throws away part of your document.
How do I know that? I actually prefer to use OpenOffice.org which looks an aweful lot like Microsoft Office. When someone from Microsoft was asked to comment on a new version of OpenOffice.org and how it can read DOC files, the Microsoft employee explained how they couldn't reliably read old DOC files so how could anybody else. He then went on to explain what I just explained above.
Doesn't that instill a sense of confidence in Microsoft products? Maybe that is why I prefer Linux. Now I just need to secretly install the newer version of Microsoft Office on the kids' computer to avoid any future outbursts.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Geocaching
Tonight I am headed on a Scout camping trip without my boys. This evening is a District camp out that my troop elected to miss. Next week we will be doing our annual trip to Southern Utah and visiting Goblin Valley State Park instead. Since I am part of the District leadership, I will be going tonight to help make sure everything runs smoothly.
The theme of this year's district camp out is Geocaching. We will be setting up something similar to a map and compass course. The difference is that the Scouts will be using global positioning service (GPS) devices to locate hidden prizes. The idea is to provide a list of coordinates and then let the Scouts go wild. It should be a lot of fun.
If you think this sounds like a great activity, there are close to a million different geocaches all over the world. The best place to start is at Geocaching.com. You can sign up for a free account and then get a listing of geocaches in your area. When you find one, the idea is to sign the log, take one of the souvenir's, and then add a souvenir of your own to the cache.
When we were putting together this activity there was the question about enough people owning GPS devices. Fortunately most mobile phones are now made with the GPS chip built into the device. My iPhone uses the GPS to help provide directions. You can also download several application from the AppStore that turn it into a fully featured GPS. Similar programs exist for many of the other all-in-one phones.
Knowing how to use a GPS is an important skill to have. Once I tried to find a safe harbor for my sailboat during a massive snowstorm using my GPS. Unfortunately I didn't have much experience with the device. The snow was coming down so hard, it was impossible to see the bow of the sailboat. It was pure luck that I found the entrance and didn't run aground. Since then I have made it a point to learn how to use my GPS and games like Geocaching are one way to do that. Now if I can just remember where I put my winter sleeping bag, I'll be ready for tonight.
The theme of this year's district camp out is Geocaching. We will be setting up something similar to a map and compass course. The difference is that the Scouts will be using global positioning service (GPS) devices to locate hidden prizes. The idea is to provide a list of coordinates and then let the Scouts go wild. It should be a lot of fun.
If you think this sounds like a great activity, there are close to a million different geocaches all over the world. The best place to start is at Geocaching.com. You can sign up for a free account and then get a listing of geocaches in your area. When you find one, the idea is to sign the log, take one of the souvenir's, and then add a souvenir of your own to the cache.
When we were putting together this activity there was the question about enough people owning GPS devices. Fortunately most mobile phones are now made with the GPS chip built into the device. My iPhone uses the GPS to help provide directions. You can also download several application from the AppStore that turn it into a fully featured GPS. Similar programs exist for many of the other all-in-one phones.
Knowing how to use a GPS is an important skill to have. Once I tried to find a safe harbor for my sailboat during a massive snowstorm using my GPS. Unfortunately I didn't have much experience with the device. The snow was coming down so hard, it was impossible to see the bow of the sailboat. It was pure luck that I found the entrance and didn't run aground. Since then I have made it a point to learn how to use my GPS and games like Geocaching are one way to do that. Now if I can just remember where I put my winter sleeping bag, I'll be ready for tonight.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Friendly Recommendations
Last night was my monthly Board of Directors meeting for the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation. During the meeting we talked about attracting more members and the topic of online media came up. One of the board members had just attended a seminar on viral marketing and using sites like Facebook and MySpace to increase memebership.
I sat there quietly listening. I actually am in the process of getting a patent for some software I wrote that is used for viral marketing. I understand the lure of low-cost marketing methods and can see why organizations would want to embrace them. However I also understand the difference between theory and reality. It is one thing to talk about success cases but quite another to actually implement one.
The idea behind viral marketing is that people are more likely to purchase something based on a friend's recommendation than an ad seen on TV (unless it is after 9pm and you see a fast-food commercial . . . they make me hungry). For example, if a friend goes to see the latest action movie and comes back with a glowing recommendation about how exciting it was, I am more likely to go see the movie than if I read a review.
The problem is how to get people talking about the movie and recommending it to their friends. Unless someone asks me what I did over the weekend or if I have seen a specific movie, I am reluctant to share my thoughts about it. I am also careful about what movies I recommend to whom. I was once on a business trip with one of our salesmen. We arrived at our hotel and saw that there was a movie theater across the parking lot. We quickly checked in and ran to see if we could catch a late showing of a newly released movie. We made it and had a great time watching the film. But it was a "guy" film and most of the women in the audience came away thinking less of their dates. Naturally I would never recommend that film to anyone but guys. Furthermore I would recommend they see it with other guys and not their wives or girlfriends.
How does a company leverage "friend's recommendations" to sell product or, in our case, increase ski team participants? With the ski team, you want the current kids to have a great experience and talk about it to their friends. I think that is already happening as shown by the number of team members that live close together. The real trick is getting outside the existing circle of influence. If all your friends are on the ski team, there really isn't anyone else to recommend.
I guess my only advice with viral marketing is to proceed with caution. Some strategies work while others just sound good on paper. As for me, I'm just trying to figure out how to get more people to read my BLOG.
I sat there quietly listening. I actually am in the process of getting a patent for some software I wrote that is used for viral marketing. I understand the lure of low-cost marketing methods and can see why organizations would want to embrace them. However I also understand the difference between theory and reality. It is one thing to talk about success cases but quite another to actually implement one.
The idea behind viral marketing is that people are more likely to purchase something based on a friend's recommendation than an ad seen on TV (unless it is after 9pm and you see a fast-food commercial . . . they make me hungry). For example, if a friend goes to see the latest action movie and comes back with a glowing recommendation about how exciting it was, I am more likely to go see the movie than if I read a review.
The problem is how to get people talking about the movie and recommending it to their friends. Unless someone asks me what I did over the weekend or if I have seen a specific movie, I am reluctant to share my thoughts about it. I am also careful about what movies I recommend to whom. I was once on a business trip with one of our salesmen. We arrived at our hotel and saw that there was a movie theater across the parking lot. We quickly checked in and ran to see if we could catch a late showing of a newly released movie. We made it and had a great time watching the film. But it was a "guy" film and most of the women in the audience came away thinking less of their dates. Naturally I would never recommend that film to anyone but guys. Furthermore I would recommend they see it with other guys and not their wives or girlfriends.
How does a company leverage "friend's recommendations" to sell product or, in our case, increase ski team participants? With the ski team, you want the current kids to have a great experience and talk about it to their friends. I think that is already happening as shown by the number of team members that live close together. The real trick is getting outside the existing circle of influence. If all your friends are on the ski team, there really isn't anyone else to recommend.
I guess my only advice with viral marketing is to proceed with caution. Some strategies work while others just sound good on paper. As for me, I'm just trying to figure out how to get more people to read my BLOG.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
First Snow
The mountains behind my house now have a fresh coat of paint. I guess you could say that Utah really is a two-season state: Summer and Winter. On September 29th, it was over 80 degrees at my house. Then a cold front moved in and we had snow in the mountains. Over the next couple of days it continued to snow and so I decided to see if there was enough to ski.
On Monday I took my youngest son with me up to Alta (pictured above). It is only ten miles away but 4,000 feet higher than my house. We drove up the narrow canyon and watched as rain turned to snow and then started to accumulate. When we got to the Alta Ski Resort parking lot, it was full of cars. It seems others had the same idea.
There was more than enough snow to ski and so we put on our boots and slung our skis over our shoulders. The lifts were not running and won't start for another month. That means if you want to ski, you have to do it the old fashioned way and hike up the hill. It took us about an hour to climb to our usual starting point. I pulled out my iPhone and took my son's picture to prove that there was snow at the beginning of October. Furthermore you can see that the snow is coming down pretty good.
Our run down only took a couple of minutes but it was a lot of fun. We stopped along the way and took a few more pictures. My son even insisted on taking a picture of me. Since I am always the one behind the camera, it is nice to have a picture or two.
So what does this have to do with computers and technology? Absolutely nothing. I thought about mentioning how my phone has a camera and so I find myself capturing events that would normally be missed. However that is a bit of a stretch. I could have talked about how it also plays music which made my hike seem to go quicker. However I took this chance to talk with my son as we walked up the steep mountain. That also made the hike go quickly. I guess all I can say is that sometimes you don't need technology to have a good day.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Government and the Internet
Yesterday I got a concerned e-mail from my computer-using Grandmother. She was taking part in a Tea Party/Town Hall group north of Seattle, Washington. They were all sitting around having a great conversation when someone made the comment, "What are we going to do when they cut off the Internet?" My wise Grandmother didn't think that was possible but wanted to ask me the question.
Technically it would be next to impossible to turn off the Internet. The United States Department of Defense paid for the research that created the Internet. They wanted a communication system that would continue to function even in the event of a nuclear war. That means that you can take out every major city in the country and the Internet would continue to function. It might not be as fast, but it would still work.
Many years ago the government gave up control of the Internet to private industry. It is now a big business and controlled by the telecommunications companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and others. In addition to being big business, the Internet is a huge source of tax revenue for the federal government.
So suppose that President Obama wanted tighter control over the American people and introduced a bill to kill the Internet. Not a single representative nor senator would vote to pass it. It would be political suicide (which is why the President would never try to introduce such a bill). We as a people have come to rely on the Internet for e-mail, sharing information, doing crossword puzzles, paying bills, and entertainment. There would be riots of biblical proportion.
Let's just assume that we all went to sleep for a year and during that time, someone was able to pass a law that eliminated the Internet. Let's also assume that the year we were asleep also allowed this individual the time necessary to dismantle the thousands of networks used to make up the Internet. What would happen when we all woke up? It would take an amazingly short time for us to recreate the Internet. It would start out as a group of small networks that continued to grow until we had the Internet as we know it today.
About the best the government can do is to start censoring the Internet like China. However we are smart people and for every site that becomes censored, five more just like it will appear out of nowhere. Just look at what is happening on College campuses where they try to block sites like YouTube and MySpace. The students quickly figure out how to circumvent the restrictions and continue online life as usual.
So the next time someone sends you an e-mail talking about how the government is going to "shut off" the Internet, you can rest assured that it probably won't happen in your lifetime unless it is replaced by something better.
Technically it would be next to impossible to turn off the Internet. The United States Department of Defense paid for the research that created the Internet. They wanted a communication system that would continue to function even in the event of a nuclear war. That means that you can take out every major city in the country and the Internet would continue to function. It might not be as fast, but it would still work.
Many years ago the government gave up control of the Internet to private industry. It is now a big business and controlled by the telecommunications companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and others. In addition to being big business, the Internet is a huge source of tax revenue for the federal government.
So suppose that President Obama wanted tighter control over the American people and introduced a bill to kill the Internet. Not a single representative nor senator would vote to pass it. It would be political suicide (which is why the President would never try to introduce such a bill). We as a people have come to rely on the Internet for e-mail, sharing information, doing crossword puzzles, paying bills, and entertainment. There would be riots of biblical proportion.
Let's just assume that we all went to sleep for a year and during that time, someone was able to pass a law that eliminated the Internet. Let's also assume that the year we were asleep also allowed this individual the time necessary to dismantle the thousands of networks used to make up the Internet. What would happen when we all woke up? It would take an amazingly short time for us to recreate the Internet. It would start out as a group of small networks that continued to grow until we had the Internet as we know it today.
About the best the government can do is to start censoring the Internet like China. However we are smart people and for every site that becomes censored, five more just like it will appear out of nowhere. Just look at what is happening on College campuses where they try to block sites like YouTube and MySpace. The students quickly figure out how to circumvent the restrictions and continue online life as usual.
So the next time someone sends you an e-mail talking about how the government is going to "shut off" the Internet, you can rest assured that it probably won't happen in your lifetime unless it is replaced by something better.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Paying Bills
Monday is always the day that I pay bills. I am generally pretty good about making sure all of them are paid on-time. One thing that helps is a filing box that my youngest son got me for Christmas one year. It has 31 numbered slots. The idea is that you file your bills on their monthly due date. If a bill is due on October 15th, it goes in the slot with the 15 label. Then when I go to pay bills, I pay everything due over the next two weeks.
When my bank started offering electronic bill paying, I didn't bother signing up. I had a great system that worked and wasn't interested in putting everything on the computer. One day when I was getting low on postage stamps, I decided to give my bank's online service a try. I entered the information for that week's payments and was amazed at how much quicker I was done. I didn't have to write a check nor did I have to lick any nasty envelopes. Furthermore, I saved myself a couple of bucks in postage. When it came time to pay bills the next week, I entered more payments into the online system and continued using the free service. I haven't stopped since.
I generally pay about five bills per week. Sometimes there are more and sometimes less, but five is a good average. It used to take me about an hour to pay the bills. Some of that is because I do it during the Monday night football game and spend a lot of time watching the game. When I moved to the electronic method, I cut that time in half. I didn't realize how long it was taking me to write checks and make appropriate entries in my monthly budget. That is all done on the computer and I type a lot faster than I write.
The biggest benefit I have realized by using the bank's electronic bill-pay service is the cost savings in stamps. I am a big fan of the US Postal Service. I think they are the subject of a lot of old jokes that just aren't true any more. Considering how little it costs to send a letter and generally how quickly it gets to its destination, the postal service does an amazing job. However I am now saving myself 20 to 25 stamps every month. That amounts to about $10 each month. It may not sound like much but it adds up over the years.
One final benefit is that I don't have to worry about the check actually arriving. I was once driving down the freeway and saw a mail truck off on the side of the road in flames. Accidents do happen and I felt sorry for all those people who really had sent checks in the mail only to have them turn to ash.
I was reluctant to start but now endorse electronic bill paying. That is one of those increases in efficiencies gained by the ubiquity of personal computers and the Internet. Now I can pay more attention to the game.
When my bank started offering electronic bill paying, I didn't bother signing up. I had a great system that worked and wasn't interested in putting everything on the computer. One day when I was getting low on postage stamps, I decided to give my bank's online service a try. I entered the information for that week's payments and was amazed at how much quicker I was done. I didn't have to write a check nor did I have to lick any nasty envelopes. Furthermore, I saved myself a couple of bucks in postage. When it came time to pay bills the next week, I entered more payments into the online system and continued using the free service. I haven't stopped since.
I generally pay about five bills per week. Sometimes there are more and sometimes less, but five is a good average. It used to take me about an hour to pay the bills. Some of that is because I do it during the Monday night football game and spend a lot of time watching the game. When I moved to the electronic method, I cut that time in half. I didn't realize how long it was taking me to write checks and make appropriate entries in my monthly budget. That is all done on the computer and I type a lot faster than I write.
The biggest benefit I have realized by using the bank's electronic bill-pay service is the cost savings in stamps. I am a big fan of the US Postal Service. I think they are the subject of a lot of old jokes that just aren't true any more. Considering how little it costs to send a letter and generally how quickly it gets to its destination, the postal service does an amazing job. However I am now saving myself 20 to 25 stamps every month. That amounts to about $10 each month. It may not sound like much but it adds up over the years.
One final benefit is that I don't have to worry about the check actually arriving. I was once driving down the freeway and saw a mail truck off on the side of the road in flames. Accidents do happen and I felt sorry for all those people who really had sent checks in the mail only to have them turn to ash.
I was reluctant to start but now endorse electronic bill paying. That is one of those increases in efficiencies gained by the ubiquity of personal computers and the Internet. Now I can pay more attention to the game.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Increased Efficiency?
Computers are supposed to make our lives easier. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. When I first started doing database consulting to help pay my way through college, I had one of my customers question why computers were even necessary. My customer was a glove manufacturer based in Tacoma, Washington. His company had been making gloves since 1917 and didn't need computers when they started. His question caused me to think if computers have really made our lives easier or not.
Unfortunately for my customer, things had changed significantly enough that there was no way you could go back to doing business without a computer. In 1917, union rules didn't exist that do today. These rules are the reason for 90% of his computing needs. Today a seamstress in the glove factory is paid a different amount for each type of stitch used to make the glove. That and several other rules mean that the glove manufacturer would be out of business without extensive computer bookkeeping.
When I first started questioning whether or not computers were helpful in my own life, I was going to college. My primary use of computers was as a word processor to help turn in homework. Having done one or two papers on a typewriter, I felt the computer was a huge benefit for me in getting my assignments done. I would have flunked out of school without spell-check.
Today I look at my own children and see how they use the computer. My oldest daughter is in college and she uses her laptop computer constantly. She even brings it to class every day for taking notes. My three other kids are constantly using the family computer for their homework as well.
Unfortunately there is a downside to all this increased productivity. There is now more time to relax. Instead of going outside and hanging out with friends, kids are sitting at home and spending time on Facebook or MySpace. When my oldest daughter was home during the summer, she spent so much time on Facebook, I had to turn off her computer's access to our home Internet connection. Recently we have had to limit Facebook time for our youngest daughter as well.
Once again I have to ask myself if the computer is really helping me and my family. I think that having a computer is now a necessity. If you don't have a computer that your kids can use to do schoolwork, they are at a huge disadvantage. However some of the efficiencies gained through having a computer are negated by some of our leisure activities.
Oh good, my oldest son just finished his game. Now it is my turn to slay dragons or race electronic images on the Playstation 3.
Unfortunately for my customer, things had changed significantly enough that there was no way you could go back to doing business without a computer. In 1917, union rules didn't exist that do today. These rules are the reason for 90% of his computing needs. Today a seamstress in the glove factory is paid a different amount for each type of stitch used to make the glove. That and several other rules mean that the glove manufacturer would be out of business without extensive computer bookkeeping.
When I first started questioning whether or not computers were helpful in my own life, I was going to college. My primary use of computers was as a word processor to help turn in homework. Having done one or two papers on a typewriter, I felt the computer was a huge benefit for me in getting my assignments done. I would have flunked out of school without spell-check.
Today I look at my own children and see how they use the computer. My oldest daughter is in college and she uses her laptop computer constantly. She even brings it to class every day for taking notes. My three other kids are constantly using the family computer for their homework as well.
Unfortunately there is a downside to all this increased productivity. There is now more time to relax. Instead of going outside and hanging out with friends, kids are sitting at home and spending time on Facebook or MySpace. When my oldest daughter was home during the summer, she spent so much time on Facebook, I had to turn off her computer's access to our home Internet connection. Recently we have had to limit Facebook time for our youngest daughter as well.
Once again I have to ask myself if the computer is really helping me and my family. I think that having a computer is now a necessity. If you don't have a computer that your kids can use to do schoolwork, they are at a huge disadvantage. However some of the efficiencies gained through having a computer are negated by some of our leisure activities.
Oh good, my oldest son just finished his game. Now it is my turn to slay dragons or race electronic images on the Playstation 3.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
A New Project
This week I started a new software project. I'm not sure it will make me much money but it is good to be coding again. It is a short project and so I am hoping to have it completed within a week.
The exciting thing about my new endeavor is that it involves doing something I have not yet done. Normally my software projects are made up of pieces of things I have already put into other programs. If it needs to save data, I have an example of code I used on my previous project. Do I need to validate any of that data? If so, then I have a piece of code I used two projects ago. Sometimes software development is just like putting together pieces of Legos. It can also be just as fun.
The new piece that I am working on is a relatively new feature found in web-based applications. This means that I have to go the original RFC and figure out how to implement the feature on my own. Now you may be asking yourself, "What the heck is an RFC?" RFC is an acronym that stands for "Request For Comments."
When the Internet was in its infancy, the technologists involved exercised a bit of humility and democracy. Instead of coming up with a list of "must do's" they decided they would use a community process to determine the best way to implement technological features. Someone working on a problem would throw out a "Request For Comments" with his or her solution to the problem. Others working on the Internet were then free to suggest alternative methods. If nobody had any meaningful comments, then the RFC was adopted as a defacto specification.
One thing about computers and technology is that they continue to evolve. Even someone such as myself, with almost a quarter of a century working with computers, needs to learn new things. Now if I can just figure out how to do this one little thing, my project will be close to finished.
The exciting thing about my new endeavor is that it involves doing something I have not yet done. Normally my software projects are made up of pieces of things I have already put into other programs. If it needs to save data, I have an example of code I used on my previous project. Do I need to validate any of that data? If so, then I have a piece of code I used two projects ago. Sometimes software development is just like putting together pieces of Legos. It can also be just as fun.
The new piece that I am working on is a relatively new feature found in web-based applications. This means that I have to go the original RFC and figure out how to implement the feature on my own. Now you may be asking yourself, "What the heck is an RFC?" RFC is an acronym that stands for "Request For Comments."
When the Internet was in its infancy, the technologists involved exercised a bit of humility and democracy. Instead of coming up with a list of "must do's" they decided they would use a community process to determine the best way to implement technological features. Someone working on a problem would throw out a "Request For Comments" with his or her solution to the problem. Others working on the Internet were then free to suggest alternative methods. If nobody had any meaningful comments, then the RFC was adopted as a defacto specification.
One thing about computers and technology is that they continue to evolve. Even someone such as myself, with almost a quarter of a century working with computers, needs to learn new things. Now if I can just figure out how to do this one little thing, my project will be close to finished.
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